Enlighten me. Why is the SYW superior to Napoleonics?

[steve_holmes_11]

It's quite simple....gentlemen and tricorns!

Wargaming in a tricorn is not a problem, but wargaming in a silly hat (shako) is (the stupid thing keeps overbalancing when you bend across the table to move the toys)!

When it comes to hats in Battle, the helmet is the sensible choice (various types of Turban a close second where beliefs and morale dictate, or a fur hat in Brass monkey conditions)..

Silly hats are best restricted to the parade ground.
Between the Italian Wars and 1916 we see a golden age for the military Milliner.

What are the respective challenges of sculpting a tricorne, or a shako?

[fsn]

[Chad]

Agreed they are Grenz but the first picture was not.

[fsn]

Apologies. I just saw the colours and added the pic. 

[Dr Dave]

I've gamed both aplenty - and surely that's the key - which offers the best games. So who had the best poetry, art and music is a bit of a red herring. A nice bit of Mozart written around the time of the game setting will not make the game more interesting. Similarly using the 1812 Overture to say Napoleonics is better doesn't hold water. The 1812 was first performed in 1882 (I knew O level music would come in handy) - so that's more of a colonial era piece written about an event 80 years prior!

For me though it's Napoleonics I'm afraid. More interesting tactically and cavalry is able to have a far greater impact (for some reason) that it did 50 years earlier. SYW has always developed into a very linear bash and it becomes simply who has the nerve to break the impasse. And don't forget the maritime aspect. Much more going on in the Napoleonic age.

From the tricone era I'd ague that the AWI has the most to offer - more manageable and much more colourful than normal tricorne.

Just my 2p.

[Leman]

Err....the French and Russians were allies in the SYW.

[Dr Dave]

you're right - but it's a game I've seen played - my bad 

[FierceKitty]

AWI doesn't appeal to me for three main reasons: no cuirassiers; no hussars; and the Americans are the good guys.

[Dr Dave]

AWI doesn't appeal to me for three main reasons: no cuirassiers; no hussars; and the Americans are the good guys.

Being in rebellion against a divinely appointed monarch hardly makes them the good guys! Plus some of the British units are simply lovely. But I take your point about the cavalry.

[FierceKitty]

I have Stuart blood. If one of them had still been on the English throne, I'd have thought differently, no doubt. But a collection of bargain-basement German royalty divinely appointed? Thank God I'm an atheist.

[paulr]

AWI doesn't appeal to me for three main reasons: no cuirassiers; no hussars; and the Americans are the good guys.

I agree with points 1 and 3 but as to point 2 there were the Hussars of Lauzun's Legion





And I find AWI appealing enough to have painted almost 2,500 figures for it

[FierceKitty]

Thanks. I've learned something this day.

[paulr]

Lauzun's Legion is an interesting unit, one of the early examples of a French Foreign Legion being mainly German

Discipline was not what it could have been with deserters swapping between the Legion and Hessian units in British service
One quote that stands out is a report of looting by the Legion with even the Grenadiers joining in, looting was expected of the Hussars

[FierceKitty]

Clearly tricornes were necessary to maintain that fine 18th century moderation and gentlemanliness.

[fsn]

Well that's some fine thread derailling, Gentlemen - talking about that grubby rebellion.   

If I might sum up the conversation, the SYW is smaller, less complex and just as colourful as Napoleonics. The period of Napoleonic has many facets, from (if one stretches it) the Revolutionary masses to the SYW-like Prussians of 1806 to the rise of German nationalism and the Landwehr of 1813. These facets have their own identity, making it possibly three periods in one (Revolution (1792-1803), Napoleon Triumphant (1804-1812) and Napoleon at Bay (1812-1815)). There is a greater variety of tactics, and some new weapons (e.g. rockets, Shrapnel, rifles in great number) that appeared during the period.

Does that make Napoleonics superior? No. Does it make SYW superior? No. Does the fact that the SYW hats either have too many corners or look like a row of popes make it inferior? No.

It all comes to preference.

I prefer Napoleonics. If I want solid masses of troops in bent hats moving slowly with too much cavalry to paint, I will go to the WSS.