I recently purchased a PDF copy of the Blucher Napoleonic rules by Sam Mustafa. I felt that the Scharnhorst campaign system in the rules would be applicable to a variety of historical wargame periods. After reading various reviews of the rules, I also decided there was definitely potential to play them with my Napoleonic miniatures as already based.
Going to the Honour website & downloading the Blucher PDF was fairly simple. Once you pay with your credit card, you click on a button to download the rules. The download file is a compressed zip file, which you un-pack and gain access to the Blucher PDF. I placed all my Blucher files in it's own directory on my computer and transferred a copy of the PDF file to my tablet, which is more convenient for reading. The Honor website also has additional free download files for the game, including a nice QRS (called "Gneisenau," named for Blucher's talented chief of staff).
After reading through the rules, I find that the Blucher rules are compatible with my Napoleonic troops, which are based for Horse, Foot, & Guns (HFG), so I'm planning to try them out. Similarities between Blucher and HFG are:
- Scale - units in Blucher and HFG are brigades.
- Measurements - Both rules use "base widths," which is very convenient. As long as all your miniature bases are the same width, you are in business.
- Command Control - Both rules use a method of command control for moving units. HFG uses the "pips" method as pioneered in games like DBA, etc. Blucher uses what it calls "Momentum" (or MO), which is actually similar to "pips," except that the phasing player doesn't know how many MO they have to use in any given turn, since your opponent rolls for your MO and lets you know (revealing the die score) when you've run out as you are moving your troops.
- Army break-point - Both rules use a 33% loss threshold for an army breaking. However, in Blucher if you have a CinC who is a "Legend" (Napoleon is one example of a "legend" in the rules), your army break-point goes up to 50%.
There are items in the Blucher rules I will have to work around, since my miniatures are not exactly based on the recommended dimensions, and I don't have any unit cards (which are purchased separately). Here are a few of them:
- Play without cards - The Blucher rules use cards to hide the identity of units until they are spotted. When units are revealed/spotted, you flip the card over to the unit side, which has all the data needed to play for that unit and track unit losses. You can also replace the unit card with miniature troops, or place troops on top of the card. If replacing cards with only troops, the troops should be based on the same frontage as the cards. The Blucher cards, however, are not the same frontage as my figures (Blucher cards are 3 inches wide, my troops are on 60mm bases). I could place one of my troop stands on top of a Blucher card. Conversely, instead of purchasing/using the Blucher cards or going through the trouble of making my own, I am going to use a single-page unit reference sheet that I made in MS-Excel, which will contain all the unit information needed to play for all units of both armies. I can track losses on each unit by using either a roster, or marking the unit with a small D6.
- Hidden Units - I decided that there isn't much realism to be gained by using or making the cards for concealment. You know when playing the game that a card represents a real unit (there are no "dummy" units), you just aren't sure exactly what kind.
- Reserve Units - Blucher allows you to place units that haven't been spotted or moved yet into reserve. Reserve units can be activated at any point in the game and move up to 12 base widths. I feel we can just mark miniature units that are in reserve without using cards.
- Battlefield dimensions - The rules indicate that a playing surface for a standard game is about 6' x 4.' This size is using units/cards that have a 3" frontage. My units will have 80% of that frontage, so it should open up the battlefield on a 6' x 4' board. It means I should have no problem playing games on my dining room table, which is 5' x 3.5.'
The Blucher rules are supported rather well on the Honor Forums website, where you can ask questions about the rules, and read what others are saying. There is a great website by the Old Meldrum Wargames Group that has 19 historical Napoleonic battle scenarios for Blucher that they have developed. I can also use these scenarios for HFG. They also have an ACW variant for the Blucher rules and 2 scenarios.
I am looking forward to our first game of Blucher.
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