Can you tell us a bit more about it? What's interesting about it?
It's a game to play table top miniature battles set in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. What more can you want??I know, I know, there's 100's of rules that do the same thing out there. Here's why I've been playing it:
- It's played a lot in AU and NZ (the writers come from there) at clubs.
Rule #1 of wargaming - P
lay the game someone else locally plays to actually get a game of it.
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The rules and army lists are free in PDF, or you can buy it from Amazon.
- It's played at the brigade/division level. Each player controls 1 corps sized army, of 3-5 divisions with each unit being a brigade of 2-6 bases of troops. A typical game for 2 players will be done in less than 3 hours, which makes it fast and easy to play at a club.
- The 160 army lists cover
everyone that I see. What to play a US 1812 army from the Canadian front that's fighting a Hyderabad Army 1790-1805 army? Now you can, with one rulebook and one book of army lists. Creating an army from the excel spreadsheet provided is quick and easy. The army lists themselves just limit you to what you can choose, but the major powers all have variants for any strategy. This is the French Army lists (1st number is page number):
139 FRE92A French Armies on the Northern Front 1792-93
140 FRE93A French Armies on the Northern Front 1793-94
141 FRE93B French Army of the Pyrenees 1793-95
142 FRE93C French Republican Forces at Toulon 1793
143 FRE95A French Armies in Germany 1795-97
144 FRE96A French Army of Italy 1796-97
145 FRE98A French Army of the Orient 1798-1801
146 FRE99A French Army of Italy 1799
147 FRE99B French Army of the Danube 1799
148 FRE99C Franco-Batavian Army in the Netherlands 1799
149 FRE99D French Army of the Rhine 1799-1800
150 FRE00A French Army of Italy 1800
151 FRE05A French Infantry Corps d’Armée 1805-07
153 FRE05B French Cavalry Reserve 1805-07
154 FRE05C French Allied Contingents 1805-07
156 FRE05D French Army of Italy 1805
157 FRE08A Bernadotte’s Army of Denmark and Sweden 1808
159 FRE08B French Corps d’Observation and Army of Portugal 1808
161 FRE08C French Army in Spain 1808-12
163 FRE09A French Infantry Corps d’Armée 1809
164 FRE09B French Imperial Guard 1809
165 FRE09C French Reserve Cavalry Corps 1809
166 FRE09D Army of Italy 1809
167 FRE10A Suchet’s Army of Catalonia and Valencia 1810-14
168 FRE12A French Infantry Corps d’Armée 1812
169 FRE12B French Cavalry Reserve Corps 1812
170 FRE12C French Imperial Guard 1812
171 FRE12D French 9th Infantry Reserve Corps 1812
172 FRE12E French 11th Infantry Reserve Corps 1812
173 FRE12F French Army at Berezina 1812
174 FRE13A French Infantry Corps d’Armée Spring 1813
176 FRE13B French Cavalry Corps Spring 1813
177 FRE13C French Imperial Guard Spring 1813
178 FRE13D French Infantry Corps d’Armée Autumn 1813
180 FRE13E French Cavalry Corps Autumn 1813
181 FRE13F French Imperial Guard Autumn 1813
182 FRE13G Davout’s 13th Corps 1813
183 FRE13H French Army in Spain and Southern France 1813-14
184 FRE14A French Infantry Corps 1814
186 FRE14B French Cavalry Corps 1814
187 FRE15A French Infantry Corps, Armée du Nord 1815
188 FRE15B French Reserve Heavy Cavalry Corps, Armée du Nord 1815
189 FRE15C French Imperial Guard, Armée du Nord 1815
190 FRE15D French Armies of the Rhine and the Alps 1815
Granted the units themselves work out to be very close to each other - units have a type, size, elan and training level, but French Guard Infantry brigade works the same way as a Late War Prussian Guard brigade, but the army lists themselves all are subtly different, and you can make dozens of different armies with each single list, but still have the flavor of the era and country. A early war British army will be different from one in the Peninsular and one again at Waterloo.
- It's also very easy to make a historical army list for a real battle, based on the ease of getting OOB's from the internet for most battles and each player would control 2-5 divisions per battle, easily doable in a day.
- Playing with someone who knows the rules, turns are quick and meaningful. Units can double (or force march triple) move early on, but slow down once within cannon and skirmish range, so you don't spend 2/3's of the game marching across the table first. Dice rolls per unit are low (generally 1-5d6 per brigade) hitting on 4+ or 5+ without many modifiers to keep track of.
Though having the QRS is still needed for recalling what moves cost command points to do, the pursuit rules need to be checked every time as it's one of the only flowchart to follow, and modifiers for melee combat with cavalry are a bit too much to remember off the top of my head.
- Terrain placement and choosing your initial strategy are both part of the strategy of setting up. You can pay more points for a better general who is better at position the terrain to their advantage and blocking the enemy general's approaches, but only to some extent. But good general's can cost as much as a division of troops by themselves.
- The battles flow like Napoleonic battles- you might be surprised by the enemy generals out flanking movement, maybe his attack will get bogged down attacking a strongpoint town, but eventually the lines will close, there will be close order fire in line, a cavalry charge or two, and the side with better morale (and luck!) rolls and able to converse a reserve for the decisive point of the battle, will probably win. But it can be a damm close thing sometimes. Other-times I lose and feel like some enemy General engaging Napoleon for the first time as my entire army disintegrates around me.
- Scale doesn't matter if both sides are the same base size, the rules are written for 15mm but work for 5/15/28mm. This is not a skirmish game - brigades fight as brigades and there's only a few formations to choose from (March, line and square). Armies tend to around 30-70 unit bases, so an entire corps fits in one toolbox at 15mm scale.
Did I mention The rules and army lists are free in PDF so you can check it out yourself if you want.
