Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I am very new to the club (still in my training game) but I do have a few questions about the Rules used at the club. I guess my main question is: 'what is the percentage of Club members who use R & H?.......Who uses the House Rules of the 3 hex rule? and who pefers a more "gamey" experience and does whatever he and his opponent agree upon?
For example, How do we feel about routed skirmishers heading back to their lines and running into Commander units of the opposite side? do we attack? or continue back to our parent unit? I personally like the more R & H and the 3 hex rule for skirmishers, etiquette tells me we don't jump onto an oppurtunity and kill a commander in that instance, it's not historical.
Personally, I love the historically and realistic aspect as long as it doesn't get too technical and boring. Skirmishers should stay within 3 hexes of their parent unit and should not be attacking after getting un"routed" behind enemy lines; especially when attacking the foes commanders. This is not WWII or Vietnam. Etiquette was followed in the early 19th century. Thoughts? Cheers!


Fred

These rules are all negotiable prior to the start of any game. If you prefer historical play, don't play an opponent who doesn't abide by those rules or style. Its easy for everyone. For example, I won't challenge Paco again unless he agrees to surrender after the 10th turn.

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FM Sir 'Muddy' Jones, KG
2nd Life Guards, 1st Squadron, Household Cavalry
1st Duke of Uxbridge & Anglesey K.G.

'For example, I won't challenge Paco again unless he agrees to surrender after the 10th turn.'

That's very good Muddy


I will send you turn 12 soon nearly done.

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Marechal Knox

Prince d'Austerlitz et Comte d'Argentan
Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

"What is history but a fable agreed upon"

Sir Muddy is a man of both honor and humor!

The front end negotiations are crucial to your enjoyment of any game. You can actually lose the battle in that stage before the first shot is ever fired. The best policy is to clearly state the rules and expectations in the beginning. Most officers will honorably play in conformance with the front end agreement. If they do otherwise, simply cross them off your list and move on to the next opponent. I personally prefer to play with as few house rules as possible, as each one can be a potential source of contention. Everyone is different, but it can usually be worked out in the prelude to your game by establishing good communication with your opponent. For me at least, getting to know my opponent, and hopefully making a new friend in the club, is equally as important as playing the game itself. The bottom line is to have fun. Speaking of which, I have been very remiss in my humorous posts as of late. Hmmmm, I wonder if I could think up something new?

First. Routed skirmishers cannot overrun an enemy leader.

It's a difficult call in many cases to decide what's historical and what is gamey. For instance, a skirmisher in a village behind enemy lines sees a French leader so goes out, grabs him, then gets back into cover. Nothing against that in the house rules. Or a skirmisher grabs a leader and a formed unit is bought up 2 hexes or whatever in support. Nothing wrong there either. Both may be considered unhistorical.....where exactly does the captured leader go after the suicide raid? A 1-man cavalry unit charging and eliminated limbered artillery - nothing wrong with that in the rules - but likely?

Since most rules can be easily bent or misinterpreted or plain forgotten in larger games I prefer a more anything goes approach. Yes, some tactics are plain gamey. Do unto others as they say....but make sure you do it to them first. It's the nature of the engine in many respects with the instant transmission and execution of orders being a prime example.

Always agree the optional rules with an opponent. The optional rules make a huge difference to gameplay and to how a player plays the game.

After playing some games you'll gradually find opponents you hate and others you like. Comes with experience.

I prefer to play the games with as much historical realism as possible therefore I like to use the Masters of Europe (MOE) rules as a baseline, adding in some house rules governing night movement and combat restrictions. I like to use either an embedded melee phase or NME optional rule checked on.The MOE rules are psoted on the site main page.

Personally I require Paco to surrender by turn 5, but Muddy is a better player than me.

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Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

I always use the small R&H House Rules set where I try "to neutralize" some of the most unrealistic and unhistorical moments of the gaming, and always offer it to my opponents before to start game.
If he prefers i.e. "the sporty style", we just play no. But they try to play mostly. And then I control the process strictly. Not everybody endure it... But the aesthetic content is guaranteed independently of you get victory or defeat.

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General-Feldmarshal Prince Vladimir N. Repnin
Imperial Russian Corps Commander
Prince Braine-Le Comte & The Adjutant-General of His Imperial Majesty
Chevalier Guards Regiment

Hah, I would ask Paco to not accept my surrender until turn 20!

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Field Marshal Mark Nelms

I do not use rules in my game if I can avoid it.
I used to play by a set of historical rules but stopped to use them after a game against a gentleman who opened my eyes. He showed me that it's not the rules that make the game but who you are playing with. Rules always have loophole.

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
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"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

[quote="davidguegan"]I do not use rules in my game if I can avoid it.
I used to play by a set of historical rules but stopped to use them after a game against a gentleman who opened my eyes. He showed me that it's not the rules that make the game but who you are playing with. Rules always have loophole.[/quote]

Sometimes you can get bogged down in the rules, but some are fine to have.

I think most players abide with the previously set up rules. Most of the time, I do not even notice small infringements.

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Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

I agree that it all depends on who you play with and how much you are willing to put up with. Otherwise you end up trying to control too much of the game.

And the dying question is: who leaves their leaders alone in a hex when the enemy is around? I certain try not to do that.

In the ACW series cavalry has quite a bit more MPs than infantry so it is a real issue. But I did use two cavalry regiments to take out three leaders who were not with units. My opponent needed to keep back a unit for protection and failed to do so. Most armies had a guard that watched over the HQ for just that kind of thing. Call it Provost Guard or whatever players need to protect their leaders.

And yes, routed units cannot take enemy leaders.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

One particularly heroic chap I should say!

We expect nothing less from our Austrian Currasairs... Now a 1 man Prussian cavalry unit should not be allowed to overrun anything except the sausage cart....

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Actually he was a cossack - and he took out some 60 guns plus some top French brass....the history books don't say what happened to Ney, but the cossack spent the rest of the battle drunk and disordered in the woods.

No doubt a Cossack trained by Generaal Moss when he was the illustrious leader of the Russian Militia.

Now, I can see one of our fine Hanoverian cavalrymen overrunning a beer wagon.......with a vengence!