Friday, November 1, 2013

Napoleon in Europe Project

For a while I have had a vision of being able to play Napoleon in Europe with a larger board and painted 15mm figures.  When battles occur on the strategic board, I want to be able to fight them out with 28mm armies on the tabletop.  Phase One is now complete:  I have all the figures for every major and minor power in the Napoleonic Wars based individually in 15mm and the large board.

 The board is approximately 5 feet x 4 feet, and sits on a table in my office.

The figures are all AB Miniatures, which are incredible.  All paint and basing work by Ron Redworth...also incredible.  Vive L' Emperor!

 French troops invade Northern Italy.

 Spanish Troops.

Austrians.

 Prussians.

British.

British.

 Russian.

Russian.

 Russian.

 Ottoman Command.

 Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland).

 Bavarian.

 Saxony.

I also have troops for Baden, Westphalia, Italy, Portugal.

The next step is to complete the 28mm armies.  So far I have complete armies for France, French Allies, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia.  The Austrians are being painted now.  Once I get the Austrians, I'm going to start playtesting the rules.  Hopefully in December.  This will allow me to re-fight the entire Napoleonic Wars Campaign at a strategic level and also fight the resulting battles at the tactical level (with each unit representing a division or so).
Can't wait!  :)
 

16 comments:

  1. Interesting concept!
    We 've played the game as a boardgame several years ago.

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  2. Very cool!

    I just spent last Saturday playing NiE with some friends and it would have been awesome to have your setup. How did you make the board? I'd love to try to do something similar, but I can't find any images of the original board that would be high enough resolution to look good printed out.

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    1. My graphic designer did it for me from the original files. I can provide his contact info if you'd like. I believe the finished piece was about $400. I had it printed and backed in foam core and it measure

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    2. That'd be great! Do you happen to have the image file that you used as well? I might want to make a few modifications to the map. I tried contacting Eagle Games directly, since the file on BGG (http://boardgamegeek.com/image/564582/napoleon-in-europe?size=original) seems to be missing, but apparently they don't even have a copy anymore.

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  3. Measures about 4' x 5', so you may need to have it split for shipping.

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  4. Email me at gdrover65@gmail.com and I'll send you the graphic designers info.

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  5. I have produced a version of NiE where all players start with equal forces and endeavour to become "Master of Europe" (my version title). I didn't like the original rules but I LOVED the components. I purchased several blocks of plastic figures from Eagle to provide enough figures for all players. Army Corps cards are provided so that each player can field several armies laid out on the cards but represented on the board by a single flag bearer. When battles are fought on the tactical display, the armies are transferred at the rate of 3 infantry figures for each division and 2 cavalry regiments for each brigade and there are tactical choices available for the commanders (the better a commander, the more tactical options he has). This means a smaller army could defeat a larger one but it would be difficult.

    The provinces on the board have values and these contribute to the production round where more troops can be trained.

    I've play-tested it solo (once!) and it performed satisfactorily but will need revision. If anyone out there is interested (and has enough plastic figures) I'd be willing to let them have a copy of my rules to try.

    My next step, after seeing Glenn's wonderful scale-up is to use my thousands of painted 6 mm troops to replace the plastic 15mm ones supplied with the game. This should enable me to carry on using the original board!

    Contact me on mike@great-leez.co.uk.

    Mike Oliver

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  6. Hi Mike,
    Your version sounds great. I like many things about Napoleon in Europe, but I wish that I had focused on one set of rules rather then three and fine tuned them. The game has a lot to recommend it and some very good design ideas, but it needed more play-testing and another round or two of tweaking. Oh well. Live and learn. My new ruleset should be better. ;-)

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  7. Hi Glenn:

    Presumably, you have heard of the "Charge the Guns" rules by Alan Richbourg which have been around for some time (around 2004) and are a real "tour de force". I have never played a game to them (a bit too complex for me) but he left reports on a blog for two or three games. The blog was on an old geocities site but that facility is now defunct. You can still find links to these rules on http://boardgamegeek.com/files/thing/3518 with all the play aids related to the rules.

    I am currently working with a group in the UK looking to re-publish defunct games, particularly with miniatures as part of the mix, and wondered if you or any of the subscribers here could point me in the direction of the copyright owners of NiE so I can contact them to discuss a project.

    Cheers,
    Mike


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    1. Glenn:

      I have just found the time to visit your profile and discovered that you were part of Eagle Games (oh the embarrassment!) If any of the things I mentioned earlier touched a nerve, I am truly sorry. NiE is a tour-de-force with such beautiful components but I just couldn't get on with the rules. I think it was the idea of one player taking the role of L'Empereur and fighting all the others that didn't appeal. I am determined to get some friends around a table to play a competitive session of Master of Europe and refine it to the point where we can use it as the means to generate miniatures games for the table top.

      If you are interested in discussing a future for Napoleon in Europe, I could give you an introduction to a new UK operation called BoardGameStarter Ltd (a UK version of Kickstarter) and see if there might be some way of breathing life back into a superb concept.

      Cheers,
      Mike

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  8. Hi Mike,
    No worries. Yes, I was the founder of Eagle Games and designed Napoleon in Europe. As I mentioned above, I wish that I had focused on one rule set, as that would have given me the opportunity to clarify and fine-tune them. Still, no excuses. They were a good starting point, but contained some flaws. Charge-the-Guns' rules fixes were pretty unanimously admired.
    I'm not currently thinking of following up on new rules for NiE, except for my own consumption as the path I've chosen would be prohibitively expensive for commercial sale.
    Cheers,
    Glenn

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    1. It wasn't the rules as such that I couldn't get on with, it was having one player play the French and everyone else gang up against him! I really wanted to play a game where all players were trying to win, starting from the same basic point with only their location on the map and their abilities to aid or hinder them. Which is what Master of Europe does. CtG looked a bit too "comprehensive" for me - it took too long to read the rules, let alone remember them.

      I did enjoy some of the other EG games but I don't know if you were involved in their design. I was sorry when EG folded - the production values were a breath of fresh air.

      I'm interested to know what you do with NiE (for your own amusement) if you don't mind keeping me posted. I thought about, eventually, using painted figures on my NiE board but it means re-basing my 15 mm wargames armies and I don't think I can face that. Painting whole new sets of armies is something my eyesight will no longer allow so I guess I'll have to soldier on with coloured plastic!

      Cheers,

      Mike

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  9. Mike - the 1820 scenario was set up as an everyone for themselves game.
    I designed all of the games that Eagle published except for Bootleggers and the New York mobsters game.

    Keep an eye on the blog. I'll post the new Napoleon in Europe rules later this Summer as well as an ongoing recounting of a game played out.

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    1. The EG game I remember liking best after NiE was Imperialism - our club played it several times and it was on the strength of those sessions that I bought NiE.

      I think I had vaguely realised about the 1820 Scenario when I first started playing NiE but, by then, had stars in my eyes over my own vision for the game, so I didn't give it a try. Perhaps I'll give it a run through to see what I missed.

      I bought large numbers of extra figures (required for Master of Europe) and some nice miniatures for the naval squadrons plus I introduced a concept of consuls and ambassadors for a political aspect to the game; I only wish I had a bit more time to give it a proper play-test.

      I shall be very interested to see the new rules and to read the play-through.

      Cheers,

      Mike

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