I don’t like to review games without playing them. This is why, after purchasing it sometime in November last year, I haven’t written a review of Republic to Empire. After playing two games at Historicon I think I can give an honest assessment of the rules. For the record, I consider Barry Hilton and Clarence Harrison as “internet friends.” I was a fan of both of their gaming endeavors before receiving the rules. That being said, I don’t think it has affected my review. I will try to give details on the rules so that readers can make up their own minds.

The Book

Before you can understand the rules you must read the book. It’s the very first introduction to the game and it seems to have put some people off due to its sheer size. The book is a hefty 144 page, full colour, softcover. The key to its size is not the complexity of the rules, but the amount of colour photographs of wonderfully painted miniatures provided. Perhaps half of each page is pictures of miniatures, making the book roughly 72 pages of text. There is also a lot of explanations and examples given throughout the book reducing the number of pages of actual rules much less than the initial count would suggest.

I think the book is great. I like looking at pictures of games in action, it helps inspire me to keep painting for my own game. The book is well put together and layed out with excellent production quality. The book is priced to reflect this, but I appreciate the value of something that I can look at for reasons other than researching rules. Some people may disagree. At slightly over $50 CAD the book is not cheap and does not invite casual purchases. You either buy this book because you want to play the rules or you want something nice and wargamy to read. Either way, I think it is worth the money.

Rolling dice.

In addition to the rulebook a gatefold quick reference sheet (QRS) is provided. These six pages of charts replace the book during gameplay. This is great in theory, but it is a lot of charts and there is a learning curve when it comes to quickly finding the required chart. On the plus side, once this is mastered it really isn’t necessary to refer to the rulebook. The QRS is cumbersome and cannot compare to the simplicity of a single sheet QRS, but a single sheet simply couldn’t get the job done.

Command and Control

In the introduction to the rules, Mr Hilton gives command and control as one of his wargame hobby horses. When I first read the book I liked the detailed maneuver system but felt it was finicky and complicated. On my second reading I started to grasp the concept and was fully in support of the system. I felt that perhaps it played faster than it appeared. At Historicon this feeling was reinforced and amplified. After a short description of the rules all the players grasped the command system and started moving their figures. The only discussion became whether one order or the other was better for the current tactical situation. Moves were completed quickly and painlessly to the point where I wonder if the maneuver phase of Republic to Empire might be as fast as any wargame.

Essentially the movement system works like this: The main maneuver units are brigades. Players roll a dAv¹ for every brigade in their command. This is the amount of movement points the player has to work with during the turn. Working one brigade at time players decide if the brigade’s current orders are the one they want. If so, they pay to maintain them, make the movements allowed by the order with all the battalions of the brigade, then pay their remaining movement points to make any additional maneuvers they wish.

For example, on the Advance order the brigade may move their battalions however they wish as long as half the brigade moves at least a quarter of their movement towards the enemy. If the controlling player decides they then want to make additional movement with the brigade or individual units more movement points are spent. In practice this process flows naturally from deciding on a plan for the unit to executing it.

Fighting in Built Up Areas works smoothly and easily.

Brigadier quality can affect the number of movement points required to maintain or change a brigade’s orders. Higher command receive a set number of movement points depending on their quality which they can assign to brigades at the beginning of the turn. To which brigade and in which quantity are controlled by the command radius of that officer. Brigade and divisional integrity are maintained by requiring brigades to be within range of the divisional commander to change orders, and for battalions to pay additional movement points when they are out of their brigadier’s range.

During the game I soon found myself discussing the tactical need for maneuver, rather than the mechanical process. We were more concerned with deciding on the placement of our cavalry as a reserve, or how to move quickly across the bridge so we don’t create a traffic jam and be defeated before we even cross. To me, movement couldn’t be simpler without sacrificing the flavour of the period.

Formations are dealt with simply by using a form order and assuming that once the order is giving the battalion’s officers will take care of the rest. The usual suspects are in attendance, although Mr. Hilton does take some well-reasoned steps away from tradition with some of his formations. Why he does so is well explained in the book and worth reading with an open mind.

Multiple movements, called Exploitation Moves, at the battalion and brigade level are possible. They require large amounts of movement points but can turn the tide of battle if used correctly. In theory, soldiers can cover a lot of ground in the space of a typical wargame turn. In practice battlefield friction slowed down units that needed to maintain formation on terrain that rarely resembled the drill yard. Enemy fire and manuever, out-of-date orders from distracted commanders all conspired to slow down the speed at which formed men could travel. Exploitation Moves are used in Republic to Empire to represent those rare moments when skill, luck and circumstance aligned to allow grand, sweeping maneuvers.

All of this variety and detail exist in a system which allows a fast and transparent execution. At no point during the two games I played did the game mechanically bog down, for any reason in any phase. Turns flew by and the steps towards battle felt like a graceful waltz rather than the slow, boring slog they so frequently are.

Shooting and Combat Resolution

Shooting and combat are resolved using combat groups of four models. Each combat group generates one die, creating a base which is latter modified by various factors. The lists of factors seem massive at first glance but calm consideration reveals a secret. The charts are split between different unit types. Artillery and Infantry each have their own chart. Some modifiers are shared, some unique, and some effect artillery more than infantry or vice versa. By splitting the charts the QRF looks superficially more complex but is made simple in practice.

Shooting is very straight forward. After determining how many dice a battalion rolls every four or higher is a success. This translate directly into casualties on the target unit. Only when a unit has passed the 25% casualty mark do they start testing as a result of infantry fire, and only at 50% are stands removed.

While my initiation into Napoleonics was performed by one Bernard Cornwell I know that a rollicking melee was not as common as Richard Sharpe would have me believe. Republic to Empire deals with this apparently inglorious reality by making the lead up to battle interesting. If the French charge the British line, will they charge home in the face of the enemy’s volley or pull up short? How effective will that volley be, and will the British hold when they find that it didn’t stop the French? This drama is modeled by the rules with a number of command checks that require less time than it would seem. Since a 4+ is always a success and the modifiers don’t change the whole back and forth of seeing who will flinch first is quick and easy.

I’ve read some reviews that focus on the order system because it appears to be most complex. In reality, I think how combat is decided should be as important a consideration. I’ve played games where combats quickly became messes that slowed the game to a crawl and became so odious that players dreaded the phase. Republic to Empire keeps combat moving smoothly while still providing an interesting result.

Morale

Breaking the opponent’s morale is the key to winning at Republic to Empire. A broken army generates less movement points and become increasingly unwieldy. Units test resolve when certain conditions are met, such as receiving casualties from artillery or fighting close combats. As expected, close combat causes the most morale checks. The checks are fast and straight forward. Four or better after modifiers is a pass, anything less is a degree of failure. Units waver, retreat and route.

On Scales and Realism

Barry Hilton takes a bold and potentially unpopular stand when it comes to ground, figure and time scales. His rules on built up areas takes into consideration that troops didn’t fight over three houses representing a village, or a single farm with the scale footprint of a small town. His formations try to maintain historical and accurate dimensions while accepting the limitations of figure basing and the predilections of gamers. I think we all know that a single ranked unit would be more realistic in terms of depth to width, but we prefer the look of two ranks.

Exploitation Moves allowed this player to deploy his horse artillery on this hill.

One thing to note about the rules is that there are no basing conventions. By counting figures instead of bases one could use figures mounted singly on 20x20mm bases against an army with 8 figures on a 60x60mm base. The small difference in frontage shouldn’t make too much of a difference to the game.

The rules are designed for large units in large armies on large tables because this is how Mr. Hilton likes to play. Playtesting was done with smaller forces on smaller tables and the game was found quite suitable. By modifying the rules slightly to accommodate smaller forces it’s possible to play interesting games with a couple of brigades per side. 28mm is the scale featured in the rules, though smaller scales would work fine by either increasing the number of figures in a combat group, or scaling the measurements to suit. There’s something very attractive about playing the game in 10mm using nearly 1:1 figure ratios.

In Conclusion

It took playing Republic to Empire to really understand just how elegantly it achieves Barry Hilton’s vision of a Napoleonic game which features realistic challenges to maneuver and command and control. After my first pass through the rules I considered Republic to Empire to be the game for detailed and intricate simulations and Black Powder to be for fun games of toy soldiers. Having played the game I discovered that Republic to Empire doesn’t have to be a brain burner. It can be a fun afternoon of pushing around figures.

Republic to Empire is available directly from The League of Augsburg or their US distributor, Eureka Miniatures USA. It takes some digging to find the rules on the Eureka website. I purchased the rules myself and no financial or other consideration was provided for this review.

Tyler

1) dAv is an average die. In replaces the 1 with a 3, and the 6 with a 4. They are available online or at conventions, and can be simulated with a d6 as described above. One might try creating their own set by marking a normal d6 with an indelible-ink marker. Back,

As promised, here is my description of the game I played on my first day at Historicon. The game was Republic to Empire, presented by the writer Barry Hilton and graphic designer and artist Clarence Harrison. Barry Hilton is part of the League of Augsburg, a Scottish club that is frequently mentioned in hobby magazines as providing exception participation games at conventions. Clarence Harrison is a Virginian who began working with Barry on their previous ruleset, Beneath the Lily Banners, providing graphics design, art and rules feedback.

Unfortunately I do not have the memory to provide an accurate after-action report. With such a large group you tend to miss much of what your allies do since you’re all moving figures at the same time. I will do my best to give a feeling of the game. These pictures are from the 8pm game on Friday. It was my first time playing Republic to Empire, but I’d read the rules a couple of times.

Padre Jarrison and his faithful donkey, Jilton.

During the game this monk wandered about the battlefield, followed by his faithful donkey. Small touches such as this lent a nice atmosphere to the game.

French deployment

Clarence Harrison painted all the figures and built the table for the event. The game looked great. Here the French are in their starting positions on the Targus. This is two brigades of two battalions, with the second battalion starting off the table.

Some Americans hold this small village and must be pushed out.

All the terrain, with the exception of the Games Workshop hills, were scratch-built by Clarence Harrison. You can see a step-by-step on Clarence’s blog and website.

Across the Targus, the Spanish hold the monastery.

For this game the Spanish began in the monastery waiting for Crauford’s Light Division to arrive. The scenario was based on a historical event slightly modified to create a better game. Essentially the British are retreating from overwhelming French forces and must hold this river crossing to prevent the French from overtaking them. Historical Marshal Ney saw that the crossing was held in strength and withdrew without a fight. In this scenario it is imagined that the French arrived early enough to try to force a crossing.

Another shot of the monestery. In the background is some KGL.

It was a lot easier to take pictures before the game. I was bouncing my flash off the, thankfully low enough, ceiling and it made my camera heavy and unwieldy. I was forced to put it down whenever I was moving troops.

Padre Jarrison with faithful donkey, Jilton.

Clarence’s bridge was beautiful with excellent weathering and detail. It was also constructed to be removable. Remember, in Spanish Js are pronounced like Hs.

Almost the entire table.

The moderate telephoto of my 50mm lens shortened the perspective in this picture. The table is 6×8, and could easily work as two 6×4 tables. I wasn’t the only one taking pictures, though having tried to get some pictures without flash I felt bad for those that tried. It’s really hard to take pictures of games. Luckily the ceiling was the lowest of the entire convention, though still easily 10ft high. If I could, I would have loved to have both my flashes on stands in opposite corners of the table. I would have been able to use a smaller aperture and thus get better depth of field. I took around 80 pictures, which I’ve edited down to 14. This is excluding the pictures I took and immediately discarded.

Waiting for the start of the game.

Despite the large table the game moved fast, creating action quickly without the tedium of many turns spent only on movement. Everyone was able to get to grips with the order system which adds detail without overwhelming players in complexity. Generating movement points, maintaining orders and performing single unit orders and exploitations was much easier than I expected, even after reading the book twice. On first read it seems densely complex. On second reading you realize that it is really a case of “easier done than said.” Actually playing the game showed it to be even simpler and smoother than I was expecting.

Innocent peasants or guerrillas?

Some nice surprises were planned by our Game Master, Barry Hilton. He did an excellent job of presenting the rules. He struck the perfect balance between explaining enough of the rules to get everyone going, and not giving us so much information that we retain nothing of what we’ve been told. He was an excellent Game Master and deserving of the award he won for it.

The British rush to secure the bridge.

From this position the horse artillery was able to rush onto the small hill, unlimber and begin firing on the French across the river in the first turn. This is an example of the exploitation move which allows for the occasional grande maneuver. Although the French weren’t exactly happy, it felt appropriate.

I’ll deploy my artillery here.

As you can see, there were some very juicy targets for the horse artillery. Fortunately for the French their were in column of companies moving perpendicular to the line of fire. This prevented them from being considered dense targets.

The battery opens fire

Republic to Empire is a bucket of dice game that doesn’t really require buckets of dice. From a base number modifiers and multiplies are applied to determine how many dice are rolled, with 4+ required to hit. All modifiers are included in the GM’s screen, which comes with the game. On first glance it appears dense, but allows players to run the game without referring to their books. In reality it took a little less time to determine the number of dice to be rolled than it does in games such as Warhammer 40K.

The French assault the village.

Having bypassed the village defenders the French send in a force to secure their rear. After some sharp fighting it looked like the Americans were successful in holding the village. Unfortunately, although they repelled the French, they felt their position wouldn’t withstand another assault and retreated while the French were re-organizing.

The Fighting in Built Up Areas section of the rules appears to be an additional complication, but the abstraction Mr. Hilton employs makes the process of fighting over BUAs painless and straightforward. The round of combat took as long as a normal fight.

There was more to the game, but we end here for a couple of reasons. These are the pictures I consider acceptable, my flash batteries died, and my command finally made it onto the table. I’ll try to post some pictures from the second and third games I played. The second game was the same scenario with a slightly modified deployment and terrain layout and the third was a Battle of the Boyne scenario on the same table. That game was fought using the beta version of the second edition of Beneath the Lily Banners.

It’s not often that rules become more streamlined when they are made more realistic, but I feel that this is the case with Republic to Empire. I liked the detail in the ruleset when I read it. I agreed with Mr. Hilton’s goals to attempt a level of realism that is often missing in many games. The rules benefit from a strong vision of Napoleonic warfare coupled with an experience hand at playing games.

I would take any reviewer’s opinion with a grain of salt if they haven’t actually played the game a few times. Since Republic to Empire works with any basing standard, there just isn’t a good reason for not trying the rules. I was guilty of not playing the rules and liking it, but I don’t have any Napoleonic collection to use. Now that I’ve played it twice my appreciation of the rules has multiplied. Where before I wasn’t pushing the game on my club I’m now actively arranging a demonstration using other member’s collections.

Tyler

I am having trouble beginning this review for one simple reason: I did not like these miniatures. However, I don’t want to absolutely slam them because I don’t think they’re as horrible as my initial impression. It would be best to start, I think, with just the facts.

For review purposes I received a free package of Wargames Factory Zulus. I’ve mentioned the packaging in an early review, but just to cover the main points I am impressed with the engineering that went into the sprues and packaging. If you are browsing a store you can see exactly what you get in the package, and when you assemble the figures you’re left with a slip of cardboard, a little plastic wrap and a bunch of plastic sprue.

The package contains 30 warriors suitable for building the common types of Zulu warriors. The majority will be armed with clubs, short spears and shields as one might expect. A few can be armed with muskets as was the case during the Zulu wars. The retail price is $19.95.

My reviewing plan was to assemble a miniature from each set and paint it. Looking at sprues doesn’t tell the whole story, nor do you really understand a miniature until you paint it. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time painting, so I blocked in colours then liberally washed with a black-brown mix.

My first attempt at assemble ended in frustration. I felt like assembling a warrior carrying a firearm and chose the arms firing a Martini-Henry. I notice the pack description on the Wargames Factory indicates that it is meant to seem awkward. So awkward, in fact, that I couldn’t attach it in a firing position without the stock pushing the head off the model. I gave up and chose an arm holding a firearm.

Painting was done quickly, but I still got a good idea of the details on the model. The facial details are a little too fine to take washing well. However, facial proportions look good unlike the strangely distorted Artizan, Crusader and Bolt Action Miniatures figures I’ve been painting lately. Body proportion and pose looks good.

The biggest complaint is the arm holding the weapon. I’ve looked at the sprue and both examples appear to be holding the rifle or musket as if it were a combat shotgun or assault rifle. It just looks off. Fortunately there are enough spears and clubs to avoid these strange grips. Still, a little disappointing to have all the firearms be unusable.

Once my frustration had sufficiently passed I can say that I would buy these miniatures if I were doing a Zulu Wars project. The lack of usable firearms would be a constant annoyance, but the price works well with the number of miniatures you’d typically require for this sort of game.

Tyler

Happy New Year. My new years resolution is to stop taking on quick little projects that I erroneously think won’t interfere with my current projects. I actually haven’t taken on that many, yet, but those I have took more time than I thought. These reviews for Wargames Factory have been more of a distraction than a real time waster. I didn’t spend a long time on assembly and painting. However every time I sat down to paint, or thought about painting it nagged at the back of my brain.

Thankfully the first miniature is assembled and painted. I can review it and put it aside for a while. Meanwhile I will assemble and paint the next two miniatures, Zulu Warrior and Ancient German at the same time. The real time suck was the Warlord Games Big Wullie. I was trying to get him finished in time for a forum painting competition. Unfortunately I’ve missed my deadline so the time spent was a waste. He’ll remain unfinished until I’m ready to return to him. In a way I’m relieved, I really want to get back to my WWII Canadians.

A painted example of Wargames Factory’s Vikings

So, on to the actual review. When I first received the box of review samples from Wargames Factory I was very impressed. When you put your money down and get a hefty block of plastic back in return it feels good. The packaging is an example of how product should be packaged. Each sprue is a standard size with integral pegs that allow the sprues to be stacked without damaging the miniatures. This is then wrapped in a tough, clear plastic. A cardboard insert provides the colour advertising shoppers will see on the shelf. It wraps around the block of sprue and gives the normal information one would expect. The end result is a colourful attractive package that doesn’t result in a lot of waste and allows you to see the contents easily.

The Vikings came on three sprue, one weapon sprue and two body sprues. The two body sprues are split between four armoured or unarmoured viking bodies. There are also two sets of six right and left arms, for a total of 12 pairs for four bodies.

The weapon sprue has eight shields, 12 heads, two pairs of watched arms in a double-handed-grip pose, two bows and quivers, three naked swords, four sheathed swords, a horn, four spears, one long spear, two small axes and two large axes. This is a good selection of weapons. I think only skirmish gamers with specific equipment needs would find fault with the selection. If you just need eight viking archers you will be somewhat dissapointed, although the full set of 24 will presumably have three weapons sprues.

There are a good selections of options and I had no trouble choosing bits when assembling a test figure. Painting was as usual, although in this case I experimented with a dip-like wash. Overall, the detail and anatomy was good, though the mail shirt was soft in detail and execution. The weapons are all to scale although potentially a little flimsy during use. The axe I chose looks like it may be a little thin for actual battle.

If I was looking to build an army of vikings I would look to Wargames Factory. Large units of these models would be affordable, but best of all show a variety and animation that only a well designed plastic set can offer. I cannot speak to accuracy, Viking Age isn’t my period, but the simple dress seems correct. Wargames Factory does include a horned helmet with the set as a nod to Hollywood’s version of vikings, but there are enough correct heads that someone looking for historical accuracy can not use it, or cut the horns off.

In case it isn’t clear, I was sent free samples of these miniatures by Wargames Factory for review purposes.

Next review will be Wargames Factory’s Zulu Warriors. I’m looking forward to putting one together.

Tyler