A blog about all of the stuff I write on the backs of envelopes and never get round to finishing.......yet!
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Napoleonic hex grid rules get a run out!
AAR published
People playing the hex grid game!
I was really pleased to receive a comment today on my earlier post about the Neil Thomas hex grid rules variant. Mike Lewis and his chums have had a go at v2 and quite like them, which pleases me no end. You can see the AAR here. I'm really interested to see what feedback a few plays will generate.
I played a second set of games of the Hex rules with a new opponent on Monday at the Guildford Wargames Club.
The first game we tried out letting lines occupy 2 hexes(and managed to miss a couple of rules to do with command). The game was fairly close but in the end the British wore the french down and their advantage in cavalry told.
In the second game, my opponent played the French again and we restricted lines to one hex (and remembered the other rules). Russ's cavalry charged my rifles in about the 3rd turn and the rifles blew most of them away (which surprised Russ as they had done virtually nothing in the first game!). After that, the cavalry were eliminated quickly and the British cavalry superiority told again in a close victory for the British side.
We played on a 12 x 12 hex layout and used the standard 8 unit army lists from Neil Thomas's rules.
Russ enjoyed the games and thought they worked well for a quick and simple game with some interesting decisions.
The only addition we mad to the rules is to allow a second unit in a frontal hex to support another units attack and add one dice a base. This seemed to work well and wasn't overpowering as a British line managed to throw back an attack by a Bavarian Column with Guard support.
I didn't find the rules too complex - about the right level I think.
Thanks for the feedback. Its good news that the rules as they stand don't need much tweaking. I'm interested that you used a 12 by 12 grid with eight units a side. I'll have to try that myself. Thanks for the advice on multiple combats. I'm working on a WSS version of the One Hour Rules and have also concluded that I don't need to limit the number of attackers.
Sorry Jay - this is ages past the date of your post - I've been looking at a number of alternative Napoleonic games to play in addition to C&CN. Your hex version of Neil's game is on my list - I have the book in Kindle form (I think I may buy it in paper version as well, since flipping back and forwards on a Kindle just raises my blood pressure). I've spent a while checking over Bluecher (I'll definitely come back to this later, but it is a Grand Tactical game and not exactly what i was looking for), Lasalle (I've shelved that one, again, though it looks a nice game on the face of it, it is disappointingly fiddly), the old hexagonal game published by the NapoleoN Miniatures people (some nice bits, but a lot of very weird stuff about deployment, terrain set-up etc) and your Hex game is next up.
It looks very sound, though I will be wanting to use it with a bigger board and more units, so I will have to introduce a 50% rule or similar. I've taken a nice fresh printed copy, and will retire to the Upstairs Quiet Room with an armagnac to have a gentle read. I've just finished a game of Carcassonne with my son, so a restful read would be good.
Anyway - thought I'd offer my best regards, my thanks for your efforts, and mention that I'm very interested.
Hi Tony, Very nice to hear from you. I enjoyed your recent post about Lasalle, I agree with everything you said about it. I always thought that the simple Grande Armee rules would be great if they had been finished!
I'm also very pleased that you are going to give the Neil Thomas Hex Grid rules a spin. I was very happy with them based on all the paper counter pushing I did when writing them up. Let me know how you get on. It may help incentivise me to get grip on my projects which are currently all over the shop!
ReplyDeleteI played a second set of games of the Hex rules with a new opponent on Monday at the Guildford Wargames Club.
The first game we tried out letting lines occupy 2 hexes(and managed to miss a couple of rules to do with command). The game was fairly close but in the end the British wore the french down and their advantage in cavalry told.
In the second game, my opponent played the French again and we restricted lines to one hex (and remembered the other rules). Russ's cavalry charged my rifles in about the 3rd turn and the rifles blew most of them away (which surprised Russ as they had done virtually nothing in the first game!). After that, the cavalry were eliminated quickly and the British cavalry superiority told again in a close victory for the British side.
We played on a 12 x 12 hex layout and used the standard 8 unit army lists from Neil Thomas's rules.
Russ enjoyed the games and thought they worked well for a quick and simple game with some interesting decisions.
The only addition we mad to the rules is to allow a second unit in a frontal hex to support another units attack and add one dice a base. This seemed to work well and wasn't overpowering as a British line managed to throw back an attack by a Bavarian Column with Guard support.
I didn't find the rules too complex - about the right level I think.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. Its good news that the rules as they stand don't need much tweaking. I'm interested that you used a 12 by 12 grid with eight units a side. I'll have to try that myself. Thanks for the advice on multiple combats. I'm working on a WSS version of the One Hour Rules and have also concluded that I don't need to limit the number of attackers.
All the best
Jay
Sorry Jay - this is ages past the date of your post - I've been looking at a number of alternative Napoleonic games to play in addition to C&CN. Your hex version of Neil's game is on my list - I have the book in Kindle form (I think I may buy it in paper version as well, since flipping back and forwards on a Kindle just raises my blood pressure). I've spent a while checking over Bluecher (I'll definitely come back to this later, but it is a Grand Tactical game and not exactly what i was looking for), Lasalle (I've shelved that one, again, though it looks a nice game on the face of it, it is disappointingly fiddly), the old hexagonal game published by the NapoleoN Miniatures people (some nice bits, but a lot of very weird stuff about deployment, terrain set-up etc) and your Hex game is next up.
ReplyDeleteIt looks very sound, though I will be wanting to use it with a bigger board and more units, so I will have to introduce a 50% rule or similar. I've taken a nice fresh printed copy, and will retire to the Upstairs Quiet Room with an armagnac to have a gentle read. I've just finished a game of Carcassonne with my son, so a restful read would be good.
Anyway - thought I'd offer my best regards, my thanks for your efforts, and mention that I'm very interested.
Cheers - Tony
Hi Tony, Very nice to hear from you. I enjoyed your recent post about Lasalle, I agree with everything you said about it. I always thought that the simple Grande Armee rules would be great if they had been finished!
ReplyDeleteI'm also very pleased that you are going to give the Neil Thomas Hex Grid rules a spin. I was very happy with them based on all the paper counter pushing I did when writing them up. Let me know how you get on. It may help incentivise me to get grip on my projects which are currently all over the shop!
Regards
Jay