I came to historical wargaming in my mid 20s and I flirted briefly with Napoleonics. It was so visually striking. There was something visceral that stirred inside me as I surveyed the colourful uniforms and flags waving in a non-existent breeze as officers mounted on horses gazed heroically into the middle distance. More than this, though, was the spectacle of the massed ranks – the very thing that had drawn me in. The few games I played were slow and stodgy though, and I quickly moved on.
Years later, in 2019, I purchased a box of Perry French infantry on a whim. I grabbed my phone and flicked my regular wargaming buddy a DM with a picture of the box with the caption, “... and so it begins”. Somehow my Warhammer days had never left me.
I saw Napoleonics as the pinnacle of a wargamer’s ‘career’. It
