Sunday 20 December 2020

A nostalgic interlude...Empire Napoleonics!

Great to have these lads out again as they once again meet their old Russian foe!

 Lots of fun on the final gaming night of the year at the Napoleonic Wargaming Society. Stephen and I had been discussing for quite sometime rekindling our affection for the rules that gripped our club in the 1980’scand 90’s- Empire III.

That’s right - some Russian Hussars from the old Minifigs strip figures. I’m sure a lot
of you young lads don’t even know what a strip figure looked like.


We went for some old school terrain and board to match our old figure basing.



These are the old Minifigs a series 2 Napoleonics from Minifigs. I think they still look great.



We decided to have a smallish “let’s get to know each other again game” and it was great fun.  The original units which I think hadn’t seen a table and rolled a dice in anger in over 25 years all came out to play again. 


Though General D’Armee is send will remain my Napoleonic Wargaming rules of choice ( they are superb), Stephen and I have committed to a game very four to six weeks at the club as our own “doffing of the hat” to a great period of our clubs Wargaming history.


12 comments:

  1. Smashing! Just lovely... simple can be beautiful..

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    1. Isn’t that so true Steve. The old style castings and the old contoured hills worked perfectly together.

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  2. Marvellous Carlo...

    I remember the Minifigs 15mm Strip figures well... I was very fond of the ACW range... I have to admit I wouldn’t mind getting some of them again 😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you so much Aly and the strip figures were lovely. I still have the first army I ever painted, an Early Imperial Roman army designed for WRG 6th Edition Ancients. When I look back at my age 13 paint job it’s not too bad.

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  3. Boy, does this take me back! Still have loads of these figures, both painted in units and unpainted. A fun looking game in any case. Hope to see more in future blog posts here.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes (Michigan, USA)

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind comments Stokes and this absolutely took me back to simpler times of life, study, wargaming and all things in-between. If you ever want to do a swap or sale I’m in the market for the series 2 range which as I’m sure you recall, were the first generation of single cast figures in the yellow packets. Best wishes.

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  4. Lovely looking old school style game Carlo, thanks for the memories! Yes I got lots of those MiniFigs 15mm strips when they first came out in about 1973, trouble is when AB figures were available about 10-15 years later they all looked rather weedy by comparison. Christmas greetings to you and family and wargaming buddies. Chris http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thanks so much Chris and very Merry festive wishes to your entire clan. Please stay safe and get some gaming in as your battles are always a delight to look at.

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  5. Strip figures; aren't they the adults only ones?!!
    Great to see you and Stephen get these figures and rules out. I really like the old 25 mm figures in both scale (preferable to 28 mm, rapidly becoming 30 mm(?), for mine) and better proportioned than many of the more caricatured, even cartoon-like poses of modern figures (by my tastes).
    Empire was such a novel and influential set. You see echos of it in so many later rule sets. It is one of the many from which David Brown has lifted ideas to incorporate into General d'Armée. I think that you and I agree that Empire III was the epitome and they got at bit 'carried away' with unnecessary minutiae and unhelpful additions and tweaks from there? I have Revolution to Empire, which read well and seem like Empire III with sensible changes and additions. I'll see how they play in due course.
    I look forward to seeing you post more of these wonderful games!
    Regards, James

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    1. Hi Fish- you got me hot and excited there for a second!

      Yes Steve’s strip figure Russians go back to the very early days of Napoleonic’s for me at the club.
      The Empire III rules I agree, were the very best of the Emperors Press rules in my very humble opinion. My belief in that is the magnificent club games we would play with multi-corps games aside on the weekends when work, marriage and kids were other people’s problems for this University student!

      We are very much looking to regularly playing these rules again.

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  6. Love the looks of the game, Carlo! Played many like it, only a few of them with Empire III, which I can't say I have fond memories of. :-)

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    1. Hi Peter and Merry Christmas. Empire is one of those games where people either loved it or conversely shudder from memories of it. I’m obviously a former chap however it will be primarily because Wednesday night club game. GdA will still be the Napoleonic game of choice at home in 28mm.

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