-
IU\
THE BESf RULES AND LIsrs
" •
$ 18.95
.. -f"
ADV ANCED
RMATI
W HAT ARE THE
EARLY COMMENTS (WWII) Great Ru les • Love It Makes Complex
Things Si mple Easy To Understand • Fantastic Covers T he Easlern
Front Well Well Balanced • Covers So Much So Well Very Enjoyable •
Realistic • Playable T he Best Ru les For WWU The Campaign Is Very
8alanced With The Finish Being A Real Nail Bller Subtile Not
Obvious
DIXON 2SMM ACW (To 328)
FIRE AND FURY Eastern Battles Scenario Book
$19.95 Freight Free u.nrU7!J4196 AVAILABLE
WHAT ARE THE EARLY COMMENTS Expands the Flexibili ty &
Playablllty of an a lready playable game T he new lists allow you
to alter the capabllUles of an army without compro-mising Its
"Historical F lnger. Prlnt." An Excellent Game • Fun The added
nexlbllity gives good Generals more Historical Ways to Win - Bad
Comm anders Get More Rope with which to bang themselves Makes a
great game even betler More flexibility but sti li forces a would
be Alexander to p lan far ahead. Does what a campaign system
sllould - It gets troops to tile table quickly with a reason to
fight. Able to concentrate on how to fig ht not the r ules. Armatl
& Advanced Armatl a re simply the best buy In the market place.
Pike & Shot, Renaissance, Ancients & Med ieval players will
all be pleased.
Where the
IrQD CrQSSeS
. 7114/96
-" --~
Jdi ~ \':. -_ . .,
SHIPPING & HANDLING Fat QrdetS TOIn"ll: Poe Add:
$0,00 1
-
NEW FROM ESSEX & DIXON VOTED #1 IN 15 & 25 QUALITY
15 •• E. MEDIEVAL EASTERN & CfNTRAL EUROPEAN 1250 · 1600 15
lUI XMEDI MKl. Command XMED2 Fool Command :
-
NEED SOME INFORMATION? THESE ARE THE BEST AT WHAT THEY Do.
• ,.; ..
" ., I
UNIFORMS OF NAPOLEON'S
RUSSIAN
SASSAmAN ARMIES "h .. Ir .. "I~n ....... 1...,
,,"rl}' 3 ... , I mid· 7th "'''''''1'1"" ,\/1 ilu"d
Ni",.Ik>
ARMY US IIOI.UI'IE 3 Por __ I*_ ...
JOOO IC , .. MI_ • nil UiIUoI ----
, .... --.. .... ~ .... -.... 1.3 .. . ., .... , ... ,"' .... ""
r .......
Sam
ple
file
-
• e _ourter
ARTICLES
COMPARING THE LATEST NAPOLEONIC RULES
............................................... .. ...... .5 JIM
BIRDEYES playtes" Le Petit Empereur, Shako and Volley 6-
Bayonet.
THE BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN ..........................
................................................. 21 CHARLES D.
COLLINS presents a Fire 6- Fury ACW scenario.
THE HIGHLANDERS CLASH AT INVERURIE.
........................................... ... ............... 25
MARK MOCARSKI describes the background of the 1745 battle and
provides a scenario
FIRST BATTLE .......................... ..
............................................................................
.... ........ 29 MIKE REESE with a WWlI naval scenario.
RECON IN FORCE ................... ..................... .. ....
..... ...... .. ..... ..... .....
................................... . 43 ALLEN RAY GARBEE provides
another WWlI Command Decision scenario.
SIORMISHING IN WARGAMING
....................................................................................
.55 JIM ARNOLD discusses a method to better simulate skirmishing on
the table top.
THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR (1346-1453) ..... ...... .... ....... ...
........... ............ .... ...... .......... .56 DON
FEATHERSTONE describes a "Colorfid Period To Wargame"for new
garners.
MOVEMENT RULES FOR ANCIENT GAMES
................................ ...............................
.58 DANIEL JACKSON and a rules idea.
DEPARTMENTS
THE REVIEWING STAND Figures, Books, Rules and Accessories
....................... .... ........... 35
THE COURIER DISPATCH News of the hobby
............................ .... .... ..
........................... 49 SAPPER'S REPORT Hexogonal Terrain
Feacures with Vicw( Schmidc. ............................. .59
DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD Lerrers to (or at) the Editor
......................................... 63 VOLLEY FIRE What you
li ke (or hate) about The Courier
.................................................. 64
COVER: Frencb are MiniFig and Dixo1l. British are MilliFigfrom
tbe collection o/Oro BmulSik. Photo by Orv Bnlldsik.
Sam
ple
file
-
MANAGING EDITOR: Richard L. Bryam
BUSINESS MANAGER: leo Cronin ART DlRECTOR: Joseph MiceH
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Tom DemlOnd CON11UBlJIlNG EDITORS
Jim Arnold; Ken Bunger; Robert Beatlie;Jim Birdse~:John Boehm;
&trry Fox; Terry Gore: Bill Greenwald;Jay Hadley; P~ul Koch;
Bob Marsh~lI; Greg Rice; Bill Rutherford; Dan
BACK ISSUES Current Issue(until next is.sue is out) is $6.50
USA; Back issues are 58.00 ea. USA; Caro.da & S. America add $2
ea., Foreign Airmail add $-I ea. B:lck Issues are available for 6
monlhs after publication only. Monies in US funds drawn on US banks
or Inlemalioro.l Postal Money Order.
No responsibililY is assumed for Sl:ltementS of f:lcl or opinion
made by the Jutoors. No responsibility is as.sumed for
un-~olicil.ed m:lnuscri~s , but all submissions are welcome, no
query neces~3ry. All ~ubmissions should comain a self-ad-dressed
STAMPED envelope larse e nough 10 return the submis-sion. Please
write for the ALTHOR'S GUIDELINES.
This Magazine and other publicat ions of The Courier Publ ishing
Company are sold with the underst:lndins that every rea50n3ble
allemp! is m:lde to deliver 1hem safely through the m:lils. The
Courier Publishing Company is not responsible for i!emslo51. in 1he
mail$. Replacemems will be provided at their usual COSt.
ADDRESS CHANGES 60days nOlice ofaddren ch:lnge is required. The
U S Pas! Office DOES NOT FORWI\RD 1"HIRD CLASS "'!AIL. You will be
charged for replacemenl issues missed due to untimely notice of
address ch3nge. If is.sue is returned you will be charged our cost
fo r retu rning ilIa the correct address.
ALL DOMESTIC DEALER I NQUJRIES, ADVERTISING COPY, .... NO
INQUIRIES, SUBSCRIPTIONS (except as mentioned above) AND ARTICLES
10 TIiE COURIER, PO Box 1878, Brock-Ion. MA 02 ·1 03.
NO. 70,Enlire Contents C 1996 by The Courier PublIshing Company,
lnc.
I have been 'surfing' the net, namely the HiStorical Miniatures
Web page at http://WWW.erint.coml bp/ hist.htmJ and have been
impressed by the d iscusions of rules , their accuracy, rea lism,
pb.yability, etc. Of course there is a lot of name calling and
acrimony
as well - I don't know why people, when be-hind a keyboard, seem
to loose all sense of propriety and type things that would probably
get them some loose teeth if said face to face -but if you Gm set
through that there is a lot of
Ideas bemg passed about. Our recent I ,"1m', showed tfiat only a
small percentage of readers of The Courier are on the NET tnd able
to participate in the exchange. So that all our readers can join in
discussions such as these , I
to ti)' a 'paper' net or discussion group . th!,!se pages.
The first subject will be 'bener simuJalion through innovative
rule ideas'. The detailed subject - to Stlrt things off- is how Cln
we bener simulate on the table top, without a sand table, the
undulations of ground that made so much difference in battles.
Often battles tu rned o n some unit being caught unawares by the
enemy hidden by a slight undulation of the ground, or l 'target '
was not really a target to artillery, say, because of the
undualtions of the ground between them. This is not very well
simulated on the L1.ble lOp and I would like to open thaI subject
for discussion. The solution mly be in the for m of rule
modifications (e.g. the longer the distance between target and
artillery, the greater the chance that l miss will occur-therefore
throw % dice even fo r ball) or the use of computer mapping
suystems , or some mechanical method. You are:t.ll free to offe r
other subjects for discussion. Keep the comments as short as
possible (I will edit only for length - and to prevent loose
teeth). We will run the discussion in a new column for as long as
there is interest.
POUllCAL COMMENT I was much taken to task by a few individuals
last year for
offering my support to particular candidates in the HMGS
election which takes place at Historicon . Some went so far as to
accuse The Courier of being the reason thll they d id not get
elected. I guess I should be humbled at being thus compared to TIME
Magazine or to a Large National Newspaper. I offer my opinio n as
to who is would be good for HMGS -East. Why the interest? TIle
Courier Staff was instrumental in founding HMGS and its progress in
promulgating and supporting the hobby is of special interest - see
the HMGS East newsletter, Feb. 1996. The members running for
election at His-toricon '% are listed in an article in The Courier
Dispatcb, page 50.
RULES COMPARJSON
This issue has an article comparing three of the new sets of
Napoleonic rules to be published in the b st year or so. Next issue
we will do the same for 3 sets of WWII rules. When Pat Condray
wrote "Three roads to Paris" comparing Franco-Prussian rules by
playing \he same scenario with each set, it raised a lot of
discussion and some COntroversy. Most praised this technique for
bri nging a better under-standing of how the rules work and which
might best fillhe readers interest. So we plan to continue running
such articles .
4
Sam
ple
file
-
COMPARING THE LATEST NAPOLEONIC RULES
PLAY-TESTING LE PElT!' EMPEREUR, SHAKO, VOLLEY & BAYONET
•
_. • •
~"
" "-
-. . ~ ' ... , "- • ........ " -
Prussian staRmuUs over Weir next move. Figures are 25mm Alini
Figs and HltJcI/ffe painted by Ort) BUllas/it. Pboto by Oro
Banas/It
~e of me more diffirult tasks that an editor can assign a
b-reporter is a multiple review comparing apples and
oranges. But Dick has never shied away from making diffirui!
assignments.
In the laSt fifteen years there has been an a continuous effort
to produce a universal sel of Napoleonics rules from Fred
Vicl.rne}'cr's Column Line and Square to SCOI.ty Boden's EmpIre
systems (0 the rurrenl sets of rules there seems lO be a minimum of
one new major set a year, and oflate, several. It may be due to the
variety ofustes of Napoleonic wargamers than to the qualil)' orlhe
rules that has caused the plethora of systems on the market It has
been fruslrnting for those who wanl a p:uticular approach to the
simulation or a particular scale or basing or just:l universally
accepted set of rules.
In this article I will look at threesetsofrulesand how they play
out me same scenario. All three sets are at the operntionallevel,
which means (to me anyway) mat a number of the features of
Napoleonic wa rfare have been abstracted to increase the
playabiliry of the system. Rather than debate me virtues of one
scale o r mounting system over another I would like to use the
rules as written andsee if the mechanics affect the outcome of our
banle in difTerem ways or if they all provide a satisfying gaming
experience for the players.
The three rules sets in question are Volley and Bayonet, Shako,
and Le Petit Empereur, all three have a quick play variation
5
and follow the trend of recent years in ancient gaming
simplification. Of the three, Sbflko has [WO levels of pby whil\!
the o thers have one basic set. Vo/lel,al/d Bf/J"Olletcovers a
widt: range of periods and Shako has a seven Years War variant.
In order to comp.1te these rules sets we have detemlined to play
each with the same scenario. The ,scenario has the degree of
balance we wanted and involves the most well-known of all the
napoleOnic batLies while at the same time being a "whal-ir ganlC;'.
It also places the British off the uble and pits the French
:tg:tinst the Prussians with some British/ Allied spectators I hope
th:t! } 'OU have :t chance to play this one on your own with your
favollte rules set.
WATERLOO REVISTrED Situadon: It is now 1400 hours on 18june
1815: N:tpoleon
is locked in combat with Wellington 's Allied Army of the
Lowlands. The battlefield has partially dried from the previow.
night's rain but roads leading into the main batlle are mudd}': ex·
acerbated by heavy wheeled lr.lffic.
TIle attack by the French I Corps ( O'Elron ) h:!.s not been
successfu l, to include Oruettes ' division:!.l assault o n
Papelotte ; but French rorces are reorganizing ror a more powerful
and better coordinaled ass..1ull on the Allied cente r :lnd righ\.
Al apprOximately 1330, the brilliant Bonaparte has noted wilh
trepidation the cav:llry movement on the fringe of the Bois
Sam
ple
file
