Saturday 1 February 2020

Napoleonique and Der Kreigspielers

I have a copy of the 1992 version of these classic Napoleonique rules since the mid 90s.  I pulled my copy of the shelves this afternoon for a browse.


The original rules were published in 1971 and were available from Der Kreigspielers. They cost $3.  The rules were written by Jim Getz and are seen by many as a turning point in game design. I meet Jim at Historicon in 2002 and spent a couple hours listening to him giving a talk on game design. 

There are a few pictures in the rules which look to be mostly Der Kreigspieler figures.  Der Kreigspieler were owned by Duke Seifried and were, let's face it, copies of Marcus Hinton figures. They did however add a few figures to the range. The 'Duke' and Jim were lifelong friends.


Massed French Infantry advancing. The artillery at the back look to be Mini Figs


French Engineers consult a map to make sure that they are at the right farm before they knock down the door.

I have 4 units of Der Kreigspeliers  Prussians in my painting pile. Amongst them is a unit of Von Lutzowers.


Der Kreigspieler figures came in blister unit packs of 24 figures. I am not sure when blister packs first started becoming popular in the UK but it must have been well into the 90s. 

DK figures are smaller than HH as they are copies of figures rather than originals. They do however mix well on the tabletop. 

The Hinton Hunt moulds are understood to be owned by someone in Canada and are going to be well worn. I wonder what happened to the DK ones ?






6 comments:

Benjamin of Wight said...

I can distinctive remember blister packs in the Leeds Virgin Store in 1986, I believe they were 15mm Heritage Napoleonic.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Interesting. I never actually have seen any of these figures in the flesh, but I recall seeing ads for them in The Courier magazine back in the early and mid 80s, say 1982-85.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Wellington Man said...

I had no idea about this rules set, Mark, so many, many thanks for this top-class intelligence.

You're absolutely right about DKs, of course. Painting them always makes me feel a bit guilty (as an accessary to piracy!) even though production ceased decades ago. Some the Duke's conversions were really good though, especially his French light infantry. At last, proper carabiniers.....

All the best
WM

Mark Dudley said...

Were Heritage Napoleonettes made in the US ?

Mark Dudley said...

I am not sure when DK stopped producingvtgese figures

Mark Dudley said...

As all your DK figures are previously owned and DK are no longer in production you are perhaps guilty of piracy by associations.

Today's piracy can be found with certain pre painted figures from China on Ebay.