Historical miniatures wargaming has fads and fashions, like any other wellestablished hobby. Certain periods generate more interest and burn more brightly than others. This results in a plethora of rules sets and new figure lines appearing, and for a few years everybody plays this period. For the past five years or so, World War Two has been the rage. But I'm sniffing something in the wind, and I'm willing to make a prediction. The next big thing will be Napoleonics. (Again.)
The last heyday of Napoleonic wargaming ended about a decade ago. During the period from 1988-92 there was a host of big-budget Napoleonic game releases: Napoleon's Battles, Battles for Empire, Legacy of Glory, and two versions of Empire (III and IV). There were many other smaller-issue releases, too. The ranges of figures, especially in 15mm, exploded in the late 19805, with new lines by Essex, Old Glory (that was their debut), Battlehonors, and others. It was a Napoleonic boom-time.
Since then the period has stagnated. People have drifted away, the proportion of Napoleonics games at conventions declined relative to other periods, and relatively fewer new rules and figure lines appeared. The only Napoleonics sets to sell more than 5,000 copies in the mid-1990s were Shako and Empire v, both appearing in 1995. You could perhaps also count Volley and Bayonet and Piquet, though neither are exclusively Napoleonic, being multi-period sets.
Then, around 2001-02, at the height of the World War Two craze, the dice began to turn again and Napoleonics are poised for a comeback.
Granted, Napoleonics never really goes away. It remains simultaneously one of the top five most-loved and most-hated periods. But there can be no denying that the late nineties saw no major developments in the period, either in terms of new concepts or new figures.
The Emperor Strikes Back
What follows is a quick summary of the major new Napoleonic releases in the last two years, and those that have been announced for release in the near future, in (as best I can tell) chronological order.
General de Brigade (2001)
Returning to the 1:20 scale with a true-tactical game, this book has been very well received. It is a British set that is still somewhat difficult to obtain in the US, and thus less popular on this side of the pond. The 1:20 scale was one of the Ur-scales of Napoleonic gaming but had fallen almost completely out of use since the 1980s, and G.d.B. has revived it. It's a lot of fun to push around those big battalions again.
Napoleonic Principles of War 2"d Edition (2002)
P.o.W. is a multi-period approach using a core concept, but this is a stand-alone game in its own right. It contains a number of clever and innovative ingredients, including a comprehensive "pre-battle" game, in which players deploy only their bases, not revealing figures and units until their light cavalry scouts have "found" them.
Grand Piquet 2"d Edition (2002)
Jim Mauro's first edition of this concept was, to be charitable, "clunky" at best. This revision clears up a number of things and gives much more sense of an army commander actually directing large bodies, rather than just units acting whenever a card comes up. There are other modifications to the basic Piquet core system, such as the use of the D12 for initiative, rather than the D20, and more flexibility allowed when drawing certain action cards.
Grande Armee (2003)
I'm afraid I'm a little too biased to offer a "review" of my own game, and I've described it pretty thoroughly in MWAN before, anyway, so I'll just quote the "official" description on the website: "Grande Armee is a grand-tactical game that emphasizes the difficulties of command and control, and the fickle nature of a general's control over his forces. The game has no fixed time scale, no figure scale, no written orders, no morale checks, variable movement and terrain effects, and a host of other "chaotic" problems for the commander to deal with."
Revolution and Empire (2003)
This is being billed as the return of Empire (6th edition), but it's also a co-design with Matt Delamater, of Legacy of Glory fame back in the early 90s. I haven't played it, but I understand that it revises some of the Empire concepts, including new fatigue rules, different "impulses" in the turn system, and a host of new resources, particularly for the War of 1812.
Napoleon's Battles 2nd Edition (unreleased)
This was announced by Coggins and Taylor at Cold Wars 2003, where they fielded questions and promised it would be ready for Historicon 2003, which of course it wasn't. I attended their presentation and gathered that they were speaking more of a compilation than a re-design. The game's fundamental systems are all to be left intact, but the various optional rules that appeared over the years in supplements will now be integrated. Coggins spoke of a hard-bound book, rather than the old NB boxed set.
Horse, Foot, and Guns (sort-of released...)
It was inevitable that the early-nineties DBA craze would manifest itself in the horseand-musket period, too, and the website for this game has copyright dates that stretch all the way back to 1991. Phil Barker has all but completed this game, which is available for free on his website. Of course, it is written in that special language known as Barkerese. Here's a sample: "Except for march movement out of contact, which is assumed to be continuous and to have been during the previous enemy bound as well as your current bound, move distances are not a function of time available and theoretical speeds, but are based on typical moves in real battles. "
Shako II (unreleased)
Arty playtests in near top-secret conditions, down in that dungeon on 11th Avenue, so it's always hard to say what is coming next and when. A Shako II and Tactica II have both been rumored for several years now. Chris Leach announced the imminence of Shako II in an article in Frontline in 2002, but he gave few details other than the basic principle that the game would be "simplified."
Volley and Bayonet 2nd Edition (unreleased)
This is surely the longest gestation period in the history of wargaming. V&B2 has been announced as "coming soon" since 1999. In 2000 the announcements changed to the effect that Frank Chadwick had sold the project to the Foundry (UK), who would be releasing the new game in a series of installments (Napoleonics being first), starting in 2001. At the moment, "Volley, Bayonet, and Glory" is available as a playtest set on their Yahoo! chat-site and the official V&B website still sports an announcement that the second edition "publication date is likely to be during 2000."
Le Petit Campagne [sic] (soon-to-be-released)
This is the campaign system for La PetitArmee [sic], the 10mm game that comes with its own boxed set of painted figures (very similar to the RISK figures.) My familiarity with the campaign system is only from reading the interesting description in MWAN124. And I've never played the basic game, although I did watch a demonstration at a convention last year, and it seemed straightforward and easy to grasp. I have to admit that I'm prejudiced against a company that seems so determined to misspell its products. The correct spellings are: La Petite Armee, and La Petite Campagne. (The nouns "army" and "campaign" both require feminine articles and adjectives.) Then again, I suppose poor spelling never hurt the sales of Krispy Kreme donuts, either...
Fire and Fury Napoleonic (available online)
Bill Gray's Napoleonic adaptation of the popular F&F game (available for free and called "Age of Eagles" since 2000), has acquired quite a following. Bill is thinking seriously of publishing it and selling it in the near future. The adaptation works very well, and the game is clear and easy to follow.
Warhammer Napoleonic Battles (Coming soon)
Ah, it had to happen... From the guys who brought you Space Orks and little plastic hobbits that cost four dollars each... Yes, even mighty Games Workshop wants a piece of the Napoleonic action! The pre-production notes suggest that this will be another lavish color production, requiring more lavish color productions in the form of modules for the different armies and periods, and thus a good pile of dough. It should be noted that there has been a Warhammer Napoleonic variant floating around on the web for some time now (at least three years by my count), but I can't tell if this is an offshoot of that project or not.
The Age of Bonaparte (unreleased)
Ever since he released From Va/my to Waterloo, Bill Keyser has spoken of doing a "trilogy" of Napoleonic games at different scales. A.o.B. is his grand-tactical effort, and has been in playtest for at least four years, with various editions demonstrated at HMGS conventions. I haven't played it, although Bill gave me a quick presentation of basic concepts and the booklet of charts and tables. Like Va/my, this is aimed for those who delight in high levels of detail. The projected release time has slipped backward, but the finish line does appear to be in sight.
There you have, by my count, thirteen major Napoleonic-era games either recently released or soon-to-be-released. The figure-makers also appear to be gearing up, with new lines in virtually every scale and nationality, and an entirely new scale (10mm) appearing in the last three years. So for those of us who love the little Corsican in the big hat, I predict fat times ahead. Vive l'Empereur!
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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