The Eternal Napoleonic Enthusiast

Loads of Command and Colours block and card driven goodness - just as well I am currently, to use the theatrical expression, ‘resting’ as there are an awful lot of blocks to be labelled!

Back in the early days of my wargaming career my main passion was the Napoleonic Wars. This coincided with the release of the film Waterloo and of course, the Airfix 20mm range. I suspect that many a wargamer of a certain vintage could tell a similar tale! The years have rolled by and historical periods have come and gone in and out of fashion during my wargaming journey but the Napoleonic Wars was always there or thereabouts, waiting patiently for the command, “Now’s your time, Crook!” (Or something similar….).

Now that I am staring down the barrel of premature and enforced retirement following my recent redundancy, my planned bout of ‘front loading’, aka laying in gaming supplies for the additional spare time I will have (even allowing for the ‘to do’ list of domestic chores!), has proven to be one of my better decisions. The material you see in this post is a direct result of this.

Whilst no wargamer will ever admit to having everything they need I am happy to say that I am probably closer to this ideal than I have been for many a long year! I think that main reason for this is that I have made a number of decisions that have shaped my collection in a more orderly fashion based upon, dare I say it, that which I am most interested in as opposed to those occasional bouts of whimsy - ‘ooooh shiny! - in the face of something new and tempting.

1815 from the strategic angle and of course a naval game - I also have a copy of Wooden Ships and Iron Men lurking around, together with S Craig Taylor’s splendid grid based ‘Ship ‘O the Line’

The Napoleonic Wars has just about everything I need from a historical period gaming wise on both land and sea. Everything from skirmishes with a handful of figures up to army level battles with the added bonus of a healthy and rewarding naval side. There is no shortage of printed material as well as a healthy selection of fiction based on the period. Chuck in the occasional foray on the big and little screen and you have it all.

Since moving away from the Isle of Sheppey in 1977 as a dyed in the wool Napoleonic gamer I have tried just about everything else from the time of the Pharaohs to ‘Cold War gone hot’ type games and so Napoleonics kind of fell by the wayside a little as I explored many new and shiny things. Some of the latter have stayed with me - especially naval and aerial - but always there was that gnawing away at a corner of my soul, a reminder of glorious days gone by as armies of painted plastic 20mm Airfix figures went into battle, marching to the tune of Bruce Quarrie’s rules to do battle amongst the Merit trees and walls, repurposed Airfix Waterloo Farmhouses and pan scourer hedgerows. 

I have no plans to paint any Napoleonic figures anytime soon. I have everything I need for tabletop battles via Command and Colours (I have the whole lot) and my block armies for anything higher level. I am undecided about skirmish level games but who knows? Maybe the brushes might come out at some point but certainly not in the immediate future. In fact, the only thing that is likely to be painted anytime soon for the Napoleonic wars is most likely to be ships.

Now I had planned to explore age of sail gaming using scratchbuilt models in the same way as I did for the ACW. This idea is still hanging around but for now I am looking at something rather more ambitious - simply because I should have the time to do so.

What does this all mean?

I had always promised myself that I would go back to the Napoleonic Wars in a meaningful way - my brief foray into the Del Prado collection was a pointer in this direction - but the biggest obstacle was always the land side and painting a collection to use. With the benefit of experience, coupled with the block armies, Command and Colours, the Portable Napoleonic wargame and my planned excursion into naval using models I can at last give the period the attention it deserves.