Memoirs of a Napoleonic gamer - part 1

This is the first part of what may well be a 30 part series  :)   ... only joking.  And some of this might get a bit jumbled as I try to remember what was when.    

Anyone remember these rules from the dawn of Napoleonic gaming.  

It was the time of 1:20 figure scale, 20 or 25mm figures in big battalions of 24 to 36 figures. Battles consisted of 2 or 3 battalion, 2 squadrons and a battery on each side.  If you couldn't afford metal figures you could do wonders with the Airfix.     

These are the WRG rules.     

And the rules by Charles Grant, based on his 18c rules published as The War Game. I remember the Napoeonic version being featured in Military modelling, with a chapter being published each month.  Lordy! ... that was a long drawn out year till I could read the entire set start to finish.  But eventually it was published in book.  Essentially it's the same set of rules with 54 figures battalions.  I could never put together enough figures for such big units and the book became inspirational (and aspirational) eye-candy.      

 

Sadly, I sold my copy of The War Game several years ago, but I kept the Napoleonic version.  (I also used to have the blue plastic Spencer Smith 18th miniatures, but sadly they were also sold. I now wish I had kept them).   

Then I got my hands on Bruce Quarrie's book.  Figure scale was 1:33, so units began to become slightly more manageable, but the rules themselves were too much for me.  

  
More to come on figures and rules ...