The Dining Table Napoleon

Matthew Green’s Hobby Blog

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  • Rules published!

    I have now posted a pdf version of my rules, which can be found on the Rules page of this website.

    This is not a finished article. They are a modified version of the rules we used to play Vitoria last November, and as such are a perfectly decent and playable set of rules. One base is a brigade; one inch (25mm) represents 200 paces (150m), which we stretched to 267 paces/200m for Vitoria. One game period is about 30 minutes. Unit strength points are based on both numbers and quality, a bit like Grande Armée. My recommended base size is 50mm by 30mm, but you can use 50mm squares at a pinch .

    I invite readers to download these rules and give them a go and let me know how they get on int he comments.

    But I’m not happy with these rules, as they don’t fully fulfil the brief. Vitoria was a bit of a slog even with four players. No more of a slog than most rules (e.g. Grande Armée) would have been, but not on the spot. There are a few other things I don’t like as well – the role of artillery did not feel quite as I wanted, though the modifications should help.

    So I’m contemplating a pretty major rewrite. The most radical change would be a move to a one-hour period, like Volley & Bayonet, as well as following those rules on strength points. This has pretty serious design implications, so it won’t be quick. I may produce more updated versions of my 30-minute period rules in the meantime.

    Getting the rules to this stage has been a bit of a triumph, though. It has taken many versions to get to something decently playable, from the original evolution from Fast Play Grande Armée house rules. I owe a large debt to George Street, who helped me through the later iterations.

  • Vitoria article on the way!

    I have submitted the draft of an article to Miniature Wargames which seems destined for publication. The editor has not rejected it yet anyway – which he did to my effort a year ago. If this article does get published it will effectively mark the public launch of the Dining Table Napoleon project.

    The article is an account of the Vitoria game we staged last November, set in parallel with an account of the actual battle, and accompanied by pictures of the game. It will point readers in the direction of resources published on this site.

    My effort a year ago (which followed what the previous editor of MW seemed to want) was a much more serious effort: one article on the historical battle, and one on how to set up a historical scenario. But no actual game – and that is what readers were more interested in. It took a major effort to get that game going – but it does give the project a much better basis to bring to the public. I didn’t have a working set of rules a year ago – and was resorting to the use of Grande Armee.

    Still the original articles were quite good – and I will publish revised versions here.

    Meanwhile I need to finish those resources: the rules, detailed orders of battle and scenario notes.