Ganesha rules

[GordonY]

Just bought these, yesterday, had a quick read through, and they look the shiz.

http://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_7&products_id=164&osCsid=hf55a8e24lgpsue483f18f1lp2

and at about a fiver damn good value as well.

Black Powder, consider yourself a table levelling device. 

[Rubicon]

Gordon,

I agree - I bought these a while back and thought they were great value and looked quite good too - my problem is trying to persuade club members to try something other than AoE for Napoleonics...
BKCII is proving a tough enough "sell" to some!! 

[GordonY]

Happily with the "turn over" mechanism it also looks like a good solo set, you listening Nik?

[DancingPotPlant]

As a big fan of the SoBaH series I'm intrigued by the larger scale. How does it work compared to the skirmish game? Same use of 1-3 dice, then what?! Finally how well do you think it could be converted to pre-gun powder games?

Thanks
Tom

[nikharwood]

Happily with the "turn over" mechanism it also looks like a good solo set, you listening Nik?

Hmm...intriguing...tell me more...not that I need another ruleset, natch 

[GordonY]

Nik its similarish to WM, except that you roll for all your actions at once, Potplant yes it uses the same 3 dice mechanism, except its not really turn over. For Nik what you do is roll either 1,2 or 3 dice for actions for a unit (or group of units), needing the Quality number of that unit to get an action, so an average unit Q4 you get the number of actions that you rolled 4+ on the dice. The danger is that rolling 2 failures (less than 4) means that its the end of the turn for that brigade and you have to move onto the next one, so the really cautious player could just roll 1 dice at a time. How you do it solo is very simple, you always roll 4 dice, all different colours, once dice decides how many dice were actually rolled and the other 3 are read in colour order. So if for instance you rolled a 4 on your number dice then that means that only 2 of the other dice actually go rolled, so if your order of dice was red/white/black, you only check the red and white ones, simple really.

Stats for all units are the same as in SoBH a Qnumber and a Cnumber (Combat). As far as the combat goes, its opposed dice rolls, with getting beaten piling on Disruptions/Dissorders (one of those, cba going to look it up) with the unit taking to their heels once they have accumulated 4, other than that theres no casualty removal. But those Dis numbers can be reduced by pulling back the units and using actions to fix up the unit, Sergeant hauling guys back into place/dressing the line etc etc, the goodish bit is that you cant fix them up back to no Dissorder, they'll always have at least 1 after theyve seen a little combat.

Well worth throwing a fiver at Nik.

As far as using it for a pre-gunpowder game I believe that theres a Large Battle Ancients set immenant, so I'd probably wait for that.

[nikharwood]

Thanks Gordon - might have to see if I can find a spare fiver 

[Kris]

I have the regular SoBaH book and quite like the system ...I've also thought (on several occasions) about getting into Napoleonics but I didn't really know where to start, what scale/rules are popular, and so on.

So, with that in mind, would you recommend this game (in conjunction with 10mm mini's) for a Napoleonics newbie like myself?

Also do you mind if I ask how many minis (or bases) would be required for a standard game?

Thanks

[DancingPotPlant]

Although I've not played it yet the Napolionics game seems like mucht he same as SoBaH just in a different setting. The fights are usually skirmishes with each combatant as an individual. That said I'm sure there are some rules for bigger battles.

For me as someone whose also 'thought' about Napolionics I think it would be quite a good way to try out the period personally.

[GordonY]

How many figs?

The "standard" Divisions listed in the game run to summat like :

about 10 infantry battalions, at 12 figs per battalion
again about 5 or 6 cavalry regiments at how many you can fit on the base but practicaly thats about 6 donkey wallopers per regiment
and usually 3 batteries of artillery at 2 guns per battery

oh and 3 generals to command them all

so its a very low figure count before you can get them on the table knocking 7 bells of sh*t out of each other.

I'm using the recommended 15mm basing and measuring sticks so thats 30x15mm for infantry, 30x30mm for cavalry and 40x30 for artillery.

At those sort of numbers Kris, I would heartily recommend this for a Nappy Newbie, not a giant mountain to paint before you can get a scrap in so you wont get disheartened and scrap the project. You wont need a second mortgage to finance it either.

Potplant these are definitly NOT skirmish rules these are the LARGE BATTLE rules, but the original Drums and Shakos is a skirmish set which I intend to paint up a drawer full of old Flintloque figures to have some fun with sometime in the future.

[DancingPotPlant]

Potplant these are definitly NOT skirmish rules these are the LARGE BATTLE rules, but the original Drums and Shakos is a skirmish set which I intend to paint up a drawer full of old Flintloque figures to have some fun with sometime in the future.

Ah yes, sorry my confusion .

Yes Drums and Shakos is the Napolionics skirmish I was thinking about which aren't designed for LARGE BATTLES  .

COME ON GANESHA GET THE LARGE BATTLE RULES OUT FOR PRE-GUNPOWDER!!!   

[Kris]

...its a very low figure count before you can get them on the table knocking 7 bells of **** out of each other.

Thanks for the additional info ...looks like I'll probably be picking this up a little later in the year.

[Malbork]

Weak-willed as I am I've just bought and dowloaded the pdf version.  Will print it out and give it a read through this weekend, as the weather looks like it's going to be crap so gardening can safely be forgotten.

[GordonY]

Well to be honest it should take about an hour for a read, theres only 44 pages and a lot of those arent actually rules, looks like a nice simple set of rules for a period not exactly famed for simplicity. Also I just ordered enough stuff for an entire French division and that only came to £42 including the postage, so dipping your toes into Nappys is now affordable.