Gaming

Wargames

That's what it's all about, gaming...
This is my page devoted to detailing my gaming exploits. Gaming is what has drives me to do stuff like BS. The love of pushing miniatures around a tabletop.

For years and years I collected minis with no real gaming going on. Every time I tried to get an army together I'd paint three or four figures and run out of steam. Then I found DBA.
For me; the perpetual wargaming butterfly, DBA allowed me to actually play a game. OK, it took two years locked in a dark room with a Greek dictionary to decipher the cryptic runes that make up the game, but after that I was away!
I've graduated towards things that allow me to play a game quicker these days. DBA, has small armies, so I can paint and play quickly. I've painted an entire 15mm DBA army in an afternoon before...
I'm now fond of those games where the minis are fast to paint, effective on the table and I can get at least one game in on a two hour evening session.

Building 10mm Napoleonics forces

A special page on how to build and organise a 10mm army for Napoleonic gaming.

There will be sections on the major armies, showing the make up of the actual army and suggesting how you can replicate these armies on the tabletop in an efficient and effective manner.

Just click on the French picture on the right to go to the 'building a force' page.

Napoleonic gaming in 10mm - what rules?

I've been painting up figures and figures and figures in order to get a game going. LFS3 is out now and I have it, along with Black Powder and I really want to play a game.
Now this brings me on the topic at hand - gaming.
If you're on this site it is probably to buy or look at 10mm Napoleonics. OK, so you've got an itch to play big battles with little men, where do you start?

Ideally you want to start with something simple, a bit like DBA - where a base is a LOT of troops and you don't need many bases. I have a version of DBA for Napoleonics but I've not tried it yet - maybe I should...
I've been looking at the rulesets around and trying to come up with a Napoleonics ladder, where you can start small, play some games while you paint up figures and then move along a rung to a game with more bases.
In terms of the games I play now, I would expect to start with something like DBA - 12 bases a side, simple rules, complex geometry and some tricky stuff to create tactical challenges.
Then move on to something like warmaster, with units made up of three bases and around 40 bases and army.
Then on to something like Black powder and finally to the massed battles of LFS.
All that needs to be done with no rebasing.

I've been looking at the free wargames rules as well, to see if there is something there that catches my eye.
Napoleonics do seem to favour the historical scenario over the 'what if' or scratch match-up. Finding good scenarios that you can convert to any ruleset is not easy. Although orders of battle can be converted...

So that's my brief - follow me on my journey as I try to navigate the road from small to grand scale!
Keep painting!

10mm Napoleonic gaming - LFS3 - Oct 09

I'm eagerly awaiting LFS3 from TFL productions.
Apparently it's due very soon.
I've played LFS2 a couple of times now and it was a fairly simple system that suited the 10mm figures.
LFS2 seems to have been written for someone who already knows how to play the game, as there are some difficult concepts to grasp that seem to be taken for granted.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Richard Clarke can do to make these more accessible.
You've probably gathered that I am new to Napoleonics, having been playing ancients and WWII for quite a few years.
Napoleonics have a very different tactical feel to these periods with 18th century tactics refined down to the three part interaction of cavalry, infantry and artillery.
Each have ways to attack and repel each other, and it's learning these interactions that leads to success on the Napoleonic battlefield.
Another aspect that really becomes apparent when you play the bigger battles is keeping reserves. This can be critical to play and keeping up momentum. I've fallen foul of no reserves in both of my games.
I'm painting up as many Brits as I can in order to start some peninsular battles as soon as LFS3 is out. I'm booking in a regular night and will be reporting back on progress regularly!
Happy gaming - Si

La Haye Sainte - the refight

We played again, using mini LFS properly this time!
We actually had a good game, with the French pushing the Germans out of the Farmhouse. Then the Germans retaking it, then the French moving back in again. It changed hands three times in the game.
The French did pretty well in taking the farmhouse and advancing right up to the ridge. Unfortunately for me, they were shown a savage lesson of the need to form square. They were deployed in line when they were struck by two regiments of allied cavalry. The cavalry routed the first line and then followed up and routed the second line.
I was concentrating so much on pushing the British infantry off of the ridge that I just completely ignored the cavalry presence. I'll not do that again!
The game ended in a British victory as they still controlled the ridge.

A game!

I managed to get a game in at last.
We played the Quatre Bras scenario for mini LFS.
I played the French under Marshall Ney; a rather exasperating combination of Poor and Bold. So no PiPs and an insatiable desire to attack.
We misread the rules in a few places and the net result was the French stood about a lot and advanced very slowly towards the farmhouse. An unsupported attack by a single French column was repulsed while on the flank a rather rash charge by some KGL light cavalry was repulsed in rather brutal fashion by the French heavies.
Artillery popped and banged to minimal effect across from ridge to ridge and we rolled dice back and forth.
NOw we know that you roll TWO dice for pips in mini-LFS, and that you can move brigaded troops for one pip, we may see some more action in the refight.
Net result was the French did not capture the farm or the ridge and rather than being soundly thrashed, were sort of ignored.

Gaming Napoleonics with 10mm figures

I've played my first ever Napoleonic wargame in 10mm. I played a straight forward engagement between the British and French. We were just trying to get to grips with the mechanisms in Le Feu Sacre. We played for a couple of hours, got lots of things wrong and learnt a lot about the game.
We posted some queries up on the LFS group and got some answers pretty quickly. We're planning another game in a fortnight to see if it develops a bit more flow as we become familiar with what to do.

I got a little bit excited after the game and painted up some British artillery. It took me two nights to paint up seven artillery units, these have three crew per bas ein order to represent a six gun battery.

The artillery I already had was based on 40mm square bases, LFS has a base size all to its self and is designed for 15mm troops. I wanted to retain the feel of the game but didn't want to base up all my troops again. I converted the 15mm base sizes to 10mm based on a cavalry battalion being 80mm wide. LFS suggests 100mm wide for a cavalry battalion based on 12.5mm frontage per horse and rider. I have cavalry on 40mm wide bases, so ended up with a cavalry battalion of eight horsmen being 80 wide..
Using that as a reference I multiplied every LFS size by 0.8 and got these:
Continental battalion - 70mm
British battalion - 88mm
cavalry battalion - 80mm
6 gun battery - 28mm
8 gun battery - 40mm
Some weird numbers in there, the main thing is the Continental line is narrower than the British.

SO the table is being set up for another game in a fortnights time, we've got a couple of scenarios to ponder.