Michael Hopper Napoleonic Scenario Books

We interrupt your (ir)regularly scheduled Tyrolese rebels to bring you the first of several post about recent acquisitions. First among these are the excellent scenario books by Michael Hopper. I had read about these in the past on The Miniatures Page, but had never pursued them. As I was looking for some ideas about scenarios for my Tyroleans, I remembered them. A very pleasant series of emails were exchanged with Michael, and before I knew it, all 5 books were on there way to me, and delegated to my wife to be gifted to me at Christmas. (Thanks be to the Empress!)

Now, as many of you know, I myself have already authored a scenario book for 1809, intended especially for use with my favored Field of Battle rules. 

These scenarios are all generic, but especially suited to Shako, and other rules where  commands become shaken and demoralized. They will need significant adaptation for most other rules sets, I'd think.

So, what else is new in Napoleonic scenario books in that regard? Not a big deal, but not exactly an off the shelf product for most rule sets.

However, these books, which are a true labor of love on the part of Michael and his supporting players are meticulously detailed as far as the troops present and their day of battle strengths, as well as the maps and terrain.

With that detailed information in hand, the necessary adjustments are not too difficult for an experienced gamer to do/

If you look art the listing of the scenarios, they range from the huge and well known, to the small and quite obscure. 

Ordering all four (!) of the 1809 scenario books together saved on postage. Yep, that's my story and I am sticking to it!

There are enough scenarios here to play an 1809 game a month and continue for six years!

As a bonus, Michael threw in a copy of  his first, well known scenario book at a discounted price. We had played his Austerlitz scenario with Shako 2 with the HAHGS group way back circa 2007, and it worked very well indeed. 

I look forward to trying many of these out in the years to come. If you are looking for some inspirational and very useful Napoleonic scenario material, you can hardly go wrong with these. Cost is $32 - $34 Canadian per book. 

The 1809 books are available only direct through Michael. Just email him: log1cal.mh@gmail.com

My inquiries lead to at least a dozen great exchanges and discussions over the next week or two, as well as the books, which were mailed out the same day and received within just a few more days. 

Michael doesn't ask for payment until the books are received, and and you agree they are well worth the price. He provided me with a number of sample pdf scenarios to review before I ordered as well. I suggested to him that he consider releasing these as pdf files, which would save money and time on all ends, but for now he plans to stick with print format only. As I said earlier, these are a true labor of love, and making money from them is really not an important concern to Michael. 

Oh, and Michael has literally hundreds more scenarios from different years and theaters of the Napoleonic Wars in development, and will likely gladly chat with you about almost any of them! He is a gentleman and a scholar in the truest sense of those words.