Too busy to post

The surviving Ordinarfahne of the von Niesemeuschel regiment

Most of October seems to have slipped by since the last time I posted anything new. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy and it certainly doesn’t mean that the rest of the world has been idle either.

Barry and Clarence, as you may have noticed from a recent comment here on BfK, are now on the very cusp of publishing the Republic to Empire rules. Apparently the proofs are back from the printers, the presses are rolling and pre-orders will be available within a week.

Also, I seem to be in a modicum of demand. Rosemary of Rosemary and Co. has been in contact with me and we’ve had a very civilized correspondence. I’ve heard from several other painters that Rosemary makes excellent brushes at VFM prices so it was a pleasure to hear from her directly. I now have several review samples of her Kolinsky sable brushes that I’m going to try out over the coming weeks and review here.

So just what have I been up to? Well, mostly, I’ve been digging into the arcane mysteries of 1813 Saxon line infantry flags. You may recall that, in my review of the GMB 1811 Saxon flags, I mentioned that the history of what happened to these flags in the 1812 campaign and how the lost ones were replaced in 1813 was very complex. Well, it certainly was! But I think that a joint effort by Grahame Black, Peter F, me and a couple of our correspondents (thanks to Andrew Brentnall and von Winterfeldt) means that we’ve almost got to the bottom of it. And I know (again from another comment here at BfK) that Grahame has almost got the 1813 sets ready for release. So expect to see those reviewed here in the near future too. At that point, I might also share the results of our research and add it to the Saxon Army Resources page. But in the meantime, as a taster, the photo at the top of this post is of one of the flags that survives to this day.

New Republic to Empire preview

Republic to Empire

I’m back from my holidays and delighted to find that Barry and Clarence have released a 12-page 10Mb PDF preview of the Republic to Empire rules. Current expectation is that the finished version will be available in the Autumn.

This is just a quick interim post to bring you the news – I haven’t even read the PDF yet. I’ll add more here once I’ve had a chance to digest it!

More Republic to Empire clues

Just a quick post to say that Barry’s made a second teaser PDF available for free download. This one covers the thorny topic of scales: time, ground (horizontal) and vertical as well as figure ratios. Of course, the natural corollory of talking about scales is to talk about basing sizes and weapons ranges. And Barry doesn’t shirk from giving his fully thought out musings on these topics. There’s also some brief guidance on using the rules for figure scales other than 28mm.

I haven’t had time to do any more than skim through this document tonight but hopefully I’ll be able to read it in more detail and fully digest over the next few days. If I manage that, I’ll post a few more thoughtful observations here.

First clues about Republic to Empire

Barry Hilton and his co-conspiritors (who include the likes of Clarence Harrison and David Imrie) have been cooking up and playtesting a new Napoleonic ruleset for some considerable time. Various hints, discussions and photographs have appeared on Barry’s League of Augsburg site over recent months but now something we can actually get our teeth into has emerged.

Barry’s just released an extract from these Republic to Empire rules as a freely downloadable PDF file. It question covers the topic of “Creating your army” and provides an insight into unit types, sizes, grading and basing for the rules.

If you’re a stickler for detailed historical accuracy, then you’ll see some compromises and generalizatons but I suspect that these are pragmatic in the cause of creating an enjoyable and playable ruleset. We’ll only be able to judge that when the complete set is unveiled. The extract is divided into the following sub-sections:

• Historical organization of Napoleonic units: this provides a brief overview of infantry, cavalry and artillery with info about unit types and size. The emphasis is very much on battlefield reality rather than theoretical regulation strengths.
• Unit sizes in the game: without explicitly mentioning it, this section makes it clear that the nominal figure ratio of Republic to Empire is 1:20 and the tactical units are battalions, squadrons and batteries. There’s a lot of flexibility to unit sizes to reflect the reality of under-strength units. I particularly like the discussion of extremely under-strength units (say, battalions of 250 men) and their brittle nature if used as individual units. The rules provide the option of converging two weak battalions together as a regiment to operate as a single tactical unit. The pros and cons of this option are neatly summarized and, as an 1813/14 gamer, I like how this reflects the reality of the situation and how commanders faced with it made just these sorts of choices.
• Unit quality: the rules allow for four quality designations – Guards, Veteran, Drilled and Recruits and are strict about limiting the highest quality to only the very best. Some of you may be disappointed that your own favourites don’t make guard quality here. In addition, there’s an additional Elite rating that can be applied to the Veteran, Drilled and Recruits quality designations that offers a morale bonus but no other performance advantage. It’s designed to reflect when a unit has a high degree of self-confidence.
• Army sizes in the game: Gives an indication of the size of opposing forces that the rules are designed to cope with. It should come as no surprise that divisional actions come at the lower end while much larger encounters are possible and I know Barry and his friends have playtested the rules on scenarios for full-scale battles like Ligny.
• Basing your models: this section explains that the rules are designed to cope with a range of existing basing conventions but recommend 15mm per figure frontages for infantry and 20mm frontages for cavalry (for 28mm miniatures). Again, pragmatism reigns and slightly larger frontages are OK too. Detailed suggestions are covered for basing (formed) infantry, skirmishers, cavalry, artillery and field/general officers. The final version of the rules will include illustrative photographs of basing.

There is one potentially controversial area in which Barry has deviated from conventional wisdom. His basing scheme for artillery calls for more than just the guns of a battery to be taken into account for unit depth. In an attempt to reflect the reality of the train of each battery, the Republic to Empire rules designate an area behind each battery as a no-go area for other units. Now some may find this clutters up their tables but I think the idea has promise.

Overall, my initial impression is favourable, bordering on enthusiastic but I shall have to wait to see more of the game mechanics before reaching a conclusion. What this extract shows is that Republic to Empire is a big battalions ruleset after my own heart and that I’ll be able to use figures I base for General de Brigade for it too. The question that can’t be answered at this stage is what will Republic to Empire offer over General de Brigade?