Paddy Griffith’s Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun

Edited by John Curry

© John Curry and Paddy Griffith

First published by Ward Lock Ltd, London, 1980.

This edition published 2020

Copyright John Curry and Paddy Griffith 2020.

The rights of John Curry and Paddy Griffith to be identified as Authors of
this Work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of authors.
There are currently over seventy books edited, co-authored or authored by
John Curry as part of the History of Wargaming Project.

Donald Featherstone’s War Games

The Fred Jane Naval Wargame (1906) including the Royal Navy War Game
(1921)

Donald Featherstone’s Skirmish Wargaming

Verdy’s ‘Free Kriegsspiel’ including the Victorian Army’s 1896 War Game

Donald Featherstone’s Naval Wargames, Wargaming Sea Battles with

Model Ships

see www.wargaming.co for other publications.

Contents
Paddy Griffith’s Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun

Introduction

Foreword

1. Basic Ideas

2. The Skirmish Game

3. The Divisional Game

4. The Brigade Game

5. The Army Level Game

6. The Generalship Game

7. Map Kriegsspiel

8. Tactical Exercise Without Troops

Conclusion

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Appendix: Gamesheets

GAMESHEET FOR THE SKIRMISH GAME

GAMESHEET FOR THE DIVISIONAL GAME

GAMESHEET FOR THE BRIGADE GAME

 GAMESHEET FOR THE ARMY LEVEL GAME

GAMESHEET FOR THE GENERALSHIP GAME

GAMESHEET FOR THE FREE KRIEGSSPIEL AND THE TACTICAL

EXERCISE WITHOUT TROOPS

Further Reading
Acknowledgements to the first edition

This book could not have been written without the encouragement and
forbearance, over the years, of my wargaming friends. They have given me
not only many good games, but also many good ideas and pieces of advice.
I would especially like to thank Peter McManus for his help with map
kriegsspiels and TEWTS; John Davis for the decisive impetus he gave to
the army level game; Henrik Kiertzner for his enthusiastic skirmishing; and
Andy Callan for his sustained inspiration in the brigade and generalship
games. I am also grateful to Nigel de Lee, as well as to past and present
members of the Lancaster University Jomini Group, who have helped me
on many occasions. Finally, I would to thank Christopher Duffy for
demonstrating - on the ‘night of the Puffer’ – the correct approach to
publishing wargames.

The author would like to thank the following for supplying photographs for
this book: Model and Allied Publications and The Mansell Collection.

Paddy Griffith
Introduction
In the early days of ‘modern’ wargaming, Napoleonic games were
tremendously popular. They allowed the new, not necessarily young,
wargamer to fight the glorious actions they had heard about in their school
history lessons. Often starting with the Battle of Waterloo as their first
action, the general would deploy his hastily painted soldiers from Airfix’s
Napoleonic range. Airfix offered British and French infantry, as well as
[1]
cavalry and guns for both sides.

Napoleonic tactics were simple in principle, but were hard to master in

practice; for example infantry in a line maximized its firepower, but was
vulnerable to cavalry. Changing to a square kept the infantry safe from the
cavalry, but made them vulnerable to artillery and reduced their musketry
[2]
to ¼ of the unit’s strength . The games, just like the battles of history,
were all about combining the efforts of the infantry, cavalry and artillery
using ‘combined arms tactics’ to sweep the enemy away.
The key problem with these games was the ‘helicopter overview’ of the
action the players had of their largely divisional sized games. While
representing the battles of the Napoleonic Wars in some ways, they did not
recreate experience of the commanders of the time.
Paddy Griffith’s excellent book aimed to fill the gap and offer no less
than seven different sets of rules to simulate the experience of command at
different levels. Just as the early wargamers took the Airfix Napoleonic’s
and converted them for use in a wide range of periods, the ideas offered by
Paddy in these rules have equal potential to transform any wargamer’s
tabletop experience. I am very pleased for the opportunity to reprint this
classic work.
John Curry
Foreword
Early books on the hobby of wargaming published during the 1960’s and
1970’s were mostly written either by professional soldiers, such as
Brigadier Peter Young and Lieutenant-Colonel JP Lawford, or by men like
Donald Featherstone and Charles Wesencraft who had served in the Second
World War, and their rules for fighting historical battles owed a great deal to
HG Wells’ Little Wars. Little Wars had described a game portraying a battle
fought with the armies and weapons of the author’s own time [c.1912],
using toy soldiers not only for aesthetic effect, but as an essential
mechanism – based on their propensity to fall over when hit by projectiles
shot by toy guns – to determine the infliction of casualties.

The rules contained in the new generation of wargame books dispensed

with actually shooting at the miniature troops, in order to preserve their
paint from damage, using measuring sticks and dice throws to determine the
number of casualties caused by musketry or artillery fire. The basic
structure of these wargames, however, remained fundamentally that of Little
Wars: a tactical battle between two forces comprised of several regiments of
model soldiers [the word ‘toy’ now being considered inappropriate for a
serious, adult pastime!] on a tabletop, representing opposing armies – but
now historical, rather than contemporary - each commanded by one or more
players. Their authors, working within this framework, developed simple,
playable rules for battles with model soldiers, based upon practical
experience and trial and error on their wargame tables, together with robust
common sense. These wargames were primarily entertainments with an
historical context that was largely provided by the colourful uniforms and
flags of the model soldiers. Their ‘open’ structure, in which all the players
surveyed the same miniature battlefield from above, much as they might
look down upon a Monopoly board, and administered the rules themselves,
made no attempt to recreate the limited awareness of historical commanders
– the ‘fog of war’ – perhaps because the authors had experienced the real
thing, and much preferred – who would not? - sociable evenings around a
table covered with toy soldiers!
 This kind of face to face, ‘open’ wargame with a few hundred model
soldiers, organised into several regiments of infantry and cavalry, with a
few model guns, purporting to represent a large army, became typical of the
growing hobby. There was, however, a demand for greater realism, which
rules writers attempted to satisfy by creating long lists of factors to
represent the effectiveness of different weapons in close combat and at
various ranges, and the effects of casualties, formation, training, leadership
and even race or nationality on troops’ morale. Wargame rules rapidly
became more complex, replete with numerous charts and tables. Players
had to perform far more mathematical calculations than had been necessary
with the Young or Featherstone-style rules, yet the effect of adding or
subtracting so many factors frequently generated results remarkably similar
to those obtained by a single die roll in the early rules, and succeeded only
in slowing down play.

The fundamental unreality of all players being able to see all the troops
arrayed on the tabletop, however, remained unchanged – although some
rules included systems designed to forbid a player from issuing orders in
respect of things he could see on the tabletop that an historical general
would have been unable to observe because of obstacles or powder-smoke,
adding yet another level of complexity. Such rules purported to offer
realism and the limited awareness and intelligence of the commander’s
perspective, but succeeded only in producing even slower moving, tedious
wargames that would take far longer to reach a conclusion than the battles
they sought to portray and were anything but fun to play because their
authors felt unable to abandon the existing ‘open’, face to face structure of
the model soldier game. Wargames were becoming far more brain-taxing
and far less enjoyable to play.

Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun was Paddy Griffith’s reaction against

“the obsession with minor details and mental arithmetic” in such rules and
games. He sought to create games that were “both realistic and playable”,
and emphasised the “historical satisfaction” to be derived from the
“imaginative leap into the Napoleonic era” that a wargame can offer if you,
the player are “clear about just what level of realism you are after; through
exactly whose eyes you are trying to look at the battle.” The inclusion of the
word ‘Fun’ in the title referred both to the fact that Paddy’s rules were
relatively short and simple and to the pleasure to be had from recreating the
past by “playing at ‘let’s pretend’ with military history”.

Although he had no personal military experience – National Service

having been abolished – Paddy was a professional historian whose
speciality was military history, who was then a lecturer in War Studies at
the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and approached the hobby from a
more historical and analytical viewpoint than many previous rule-writers.
He proposed that wargamers should decide exactly whose experience of
battle – subaltern, brigadier, general or marshal – they wished to recreate in
a game, and adopt different game structures accordingly that would better
represent their chosen level of command and the ‘fog of war’. In these
pages, therefore, the reader will find a variety of wargames, ranging from
the fairly conventional Skirmish, Brigade, Divisional and Army level games
with model soldiers to map kriegsspiels and the Generalship game – my
personal favourite – with which to experiment, adapt and amend.

When it first appeared in 1980, Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun was

probably one of the last hardback books to be published on the subject of
wargaming, in many ways following the pattern of classic titles such as
Donald Featherstone’s War Games, Joseph Morschauser’s How to Play War
Games in Miniature, Terry Wise’s Introduction to Battle Gaming and
Charles Wesencraft’s Practical Wargaming.

Like its illustrious predecessors, Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun

contained several short sets of rules, each of which occupied only a few
pages. Like them, its relatively few photographs of miniature battles
showed simple, almost minimalist, scenes of tabletop combat that could
easily be achieved by its readers, rather than the diorama-standard scenery
and expertly, often professionally, painted model soldiers [both of which
were and still are, in my opinion, unattainable or unachievable by most
wargamers] that were beginning to feature prominently in commercially
published wargame magazines. And, like them, it is a book that can be read,
and reread, for inspiration and entertainment.
 Many introductory wargame books had contained rules for a variety of
periods, the usual trio being Ancient, Horse and Musket and World War II.
Books had also been published on naval and air wargames, but there had
already been wargames books that focussed on one particular historical
period. Individual volumes in Don Featherstone’s Wargames Through The
Ages series were devoted to different periods of military history, and
Volume 3, entitled 1792 to 1859, concentrated very much upon the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Charles Wesencraft had written With
Pike and Musket, largely focussed on the English Civil Wars. The former
contained many ideas that the reader could use to enhance tabletop battles,
but not a complete set of rules; the latter had one set of rules for fighting
battles of the Pike and Shot period and numerous scenarios. Both books
assumed that their readers would wargame their chosen periods by fighting
a battle on a tabletop with model soldiers in an open, face to face game.

Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun, however, was unusual in that it both

focussed on only one historical period and offered rules for a variety of
different games – some of which did not even employ any model soldiers at
all! - set in that period, reflecting the perspectives of officers from an
emperor or marshal commanding an army on campaign down to a subaltern
commanding a detachment of skirmishers on the picket line.

In this respect it has, I believe, remained unique in wargame literature.

Although Don Featherstone’s books contained suggestions for campaigns
and movement upon maps prior to setting up battles on the wargame table,
and some modern rulebooks, such as Peter Pig’s Regiment of Foote, Games
Workshop’s Warhammer English Civil War and Wargames Foundry’s 1644,
offer simple campaign systems to generate and link tabletop battles, while
the Polemos Napoleonic and American Civil War rules published by Baccus
offer alternatives for army and divisional commanders, none have presented
the reader with so many different perspectives and styles of game in one
slim volume.

Why then, did Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun not make more
impression upon wargamers, despite its focus on one of the most popular
periods of military history in the hobby, when it was first published?
 That focus on the Napoleonic Wars may actually have discouraged
devotees of wargames of other historical periods from opening the book, yet
many of the ideas and game structures are equally appropriate to other eras.
The rules for the Skirmish, Brigade and Divisional games would not require
much amendment to suit the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution or
the United States’ War with Mexico, for example. The Generalship game
could easily be adapted to portray the life of a general on campaign in other
historical settings within the Horse and Musket period. For the campaigns
of Marlborough and the Seven Years’ War the only alteration necessary
would seem to be the replacement of ‘Corps’ as the designation of unit
counters by suitable contemporary terms such as ‘Wing’. For post-
Napoleonic conflicts, such as the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, or the
American Civil War, rules for movement by river steamer and railroad, and
for communication by electric telegraph could be added. With some more
drastic alteration of the combat system to reflect the effects of machine guns
and heavy artillery firing high explosive shells, and provision for movement
by motor vehicles and railway, intelligence gathering by aerial
reconnaissance and communication by radio and field-telephone, the game
system appears admirably suited to game the ‘chateau-generals’ of the
Great War.

A slim, hardback book with concise rules may have seemed rather old-
fashioned to the casual glance of the new generation of wargamers of the
1980’s, many of whom had not been introduced to the hobby by reading the
works of Don Featherstone, Charles Grant senior, Brigadier Peter Young
and Charles Wesencraft, and served their apprenticeship by casting or
converting their own figures, making their own scenery and composing
their own rules. These new wargamers were consumers who expected
voluminous rules, replete with numerous charts and complex calculations in
their professed pursuit of historical ‘realism’ and ‘accuracy’. Length
seemed to be equated with quality. The use of the word ‘Fun’ in the title
may have subconsciously suggested that the various games therein were not
sufficiently ‘serious’ to be worthy of their attention, and Paddy’s rules for
the traditional Divisional game did, indeed, appear suspiciously short when
compared to other commercial sets of Napoleonic wargame rules on the
market at the time, and remain much more concise than many today.
 Some regular players of the traditional Divisional Napoleonic game,
content with their existing rules, may well have felt no need to step outside
their comfort zone to experiment with the alternative perspectives found
within the pages of Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun. As the founder of
Wargame Developments, a society whose origins lay in his, and others’,
dissatisfaction with ‘mainstream’ wargames heterodoxy – a concentration
upon the model soldiers [which he provocatively insisted on calling ‘toy
soldiers’] and the minutiae of their uniforms to the exclusion of serious
consideration of alternatives to the inherent unreality of the ‘open’, face to
face structure of the traditional game – Paddy was gaining something of a
reputation as a wargame maverick, whose opinions were to be treated with
caution.

Many of today’s wargame rules – those published by Games Workshop,

for example - are still devoted to a style of wargame that is, essentially, the
same ‘open’ structure described by Wells, Young and Featherstone,
although the detail of the rules may differ. Some wargamers are even
rediscovering the fun to be had playing Horse and Musket battles with the
‘old school’ rules of Young, Grant or Featherstone, whilst recognising that
they are just that – good fun without much pretension to great historical
reality. Yet the wargame hobby appears more receptive to diversity – for
which Paddy and Wargame Developments must be given much of the credit
– and less dominated by one particular style or genre of game than it was in
1980. There are now several popular commercial sets of rules for
Napoleonic Army level games, such as Grande Armee and Age of Eagles,
using a variety of mechanisms and scales, and as many more are available
from Internet sites, such as freewargamesrules.co.uk. Some wargamers are
using the original rules invented by von Reisswitz and adopted by the
Prussian Army for training officers in the 1820’s to play map kriegsspiels
very similar to those described by Paddy; others are experimenting with the
Matrix Game system developed by Chris Engle, in which there are very few
formal rules: instead, the players propose verbal arguments as to what will
happen, the success or failure of which is determined by die rolls, and the
Waterloo campaign has been fought using this system by email. Even the
long-established Divisional and Skirmish wargames have been revitalised
by innovative game systems and mechanisms.
 The significance of Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun is that it was the first
commercial attempt to show that wargames could be more than merely
entertaining games with toy soldiers but could also offer historical insights,
if only wargamers could tear themselves away from the visual spectacle of
massed ranks of miniature troops, look properly at the military history
books they read so avidly and explore alternative game designs. That
conflict between these two types of wargame remains strong in the hobby
today.

The time has surely come to summon Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun
from the reserves, where it has remained too long, to march boldly forward
to take its rightful place in the first rank of wargame literature. It gives me
great pleasure to introduce a new edition of this splendid, thought-
provoking book, which profoundly influenced my own wargaming and will,
I have no doubt, stimulate and inspire its readers to look more critically at
today’s Napoleonic wargames and, perhaps, to develop further games of
their own for this fascinating period of warfare.

Arthur Harman 2016

1. Basic Ideas
This is a book about Napoleonic wargames; games, which people can play
between themselves for amusement first and foremost, but also to deepen
their interest in the Napoleonic Wars. It will not require any previous
knowledge or experience from the reader, and will try to provide full
explanations as it goes along - a little about Napoleonic battles and much
about the wargames. It does, however, aim to be more than simply a manual
for beginners, since well over half of its pages are concerned with the
'higher art' of Napoleonic wargaming. If you are a beginner, therefore, you
should tarry long over the early sections, and then graduate slowly and
cautiously into the later parts. If you are an experienced Napoleonic
wargamer, on the other hand, you could skip quickly through the first few
chapters, and come rapidly to grips with the more advanced matter later on.
You may agree or disagree with the details of my ideas; but I sincerely hope
that at least their general structure will give you something to work on and
develop, according to your individual taste.

No one can be very dogmatic about wargame rules, because they are
always a highly personal thing. Every club or small group of wargamers
will understand any specific set of rules in a rather different way from
everyone else, and every player will add his own pet interpretations and
short cuts. This individual tinkering with the rules is, to my mind, one of
the great strengths of the hobby. Every wargamer can twist the other
fellow's ideas to suit his own particular approach, so that the result is a
personal statement of what Napoleonic warfare represents to him. There is
no higher authority to tell him that he is wrong apart from the Delphic,
ambiguous, and often unreliable statements of the history books. This
present collection of wargame rules is therefore intended to be a record of
my own personal thinking. It cannot be 'definitive'; and readers are cordially
invited to change round, or ignore, any of my suggestions which don't quite
suit their own views.

You will find here a selection of the Napoleonic wargames that I have
developed over the years, together with some of the general wargaming
ideas which lie behind them. I start with two fairly conventional games for
beginners, and then branch out to explore a variety of more advanced
games for the experienced player. I do not confine myself to presenting a
single system of play: instead, I aim to offer as many different approaches
as possible, so that the reader can decide for himself which ones he likes
best.
This wide diversity may sound surprising to many wargamers, because
there are usually only three types of Napoleonic game in general use. These
are:

Skirmish games, which portray very low level action indeed, where one
model soldier represents one real man.

Divisional games, where several hundred model soldiers represent a

force of around Divisional strength. This usually works out as one model
soldier to thirty-three real men.
Board games, without model soldiers at all, but with units represented by
cardboard markers moving on a gridded map. The level of action may vary
from a battalion to a group of armies.

Of these three categories I do not intend to discuss the third -board

wargaming - at all, since it already has its own extensive literature (see
especially N. Palmer's The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming,
[3]
London, 1977 ), and it is really a quite distinct activity from other types
of wargames. Normally, therefore, we would be left with a rather narrow
choice between Skirmish and Divisional games. In the present book,
however, I shall extend this choice to include several additional types of
Napoleonic game.
The Brigade game, half way between the Skirmish and Divisional games.
In this case each model soldier represents about ten men, instead of either
one or thirty-three. This allows entire battalions to be represented, but in
sufficient detail to provide some very low level tactical problems.
The Army Level game, in which only very high level units are
represented. This allows the full grandiose sweep of Napoleonic battle
tactics to be played, albeit without much attention to lower level tactics.
It may be that the sheer scale of the army level game makes the whole
thing seem rather too abstract and impersonal. In this case we can redress
the balance by playing the Generalship game. This is a distant relative of
board games, and does not use model soldiers. It is set at the level of grand
strategy, but seen from a very personal point of view. The player has to
imagine himself as an all-round leader on campaign; not simply a
specialized tactician or staff officer.
All of the above levels of play can be approached through a rather
different style of game: the Map Kriegsspiel. This is not, perhaps, a very
new idea; but it has recently been sadly neglected by wargamers.
A further alternative (which may also be applied to most levels of play)
is the Tactical Exercise Without Troops. This is a way of taking the
wargame out of doors.

Because of the wide variety of different games available, the player can
select exactly the right one to suit his particular interest at a given moment.
If he has just read a book about British riflemen in the outpost line during
the Peninsular War, for example, he will be able to re-create their exploits
with the skirmish game. If he has been reading a biography of Wellington
on campaign, on the other hand, then he will want to try the generalship
game. If battalion tactics, (for example, volley firing, forming square,
making bayonet charges, etc.) interest him, he has the brigade game. If
army battle tactics (for example conserving a masse de rupture, co-
ordinating flanking corps, choosing an order of march, etc.) attract him, the
army level game is tailor-made. By using a variety of different approaches
the player can highlight a variety of different aspects of the Napoleonic
Wars. He will not be stuck in the same old (Divisional) rut every time.
Realism and pretence
An important point to remember with all types of wargame is that they are
fundamentally different from formal games like chess or bridge. With the
latter, the fun of the game is derived from the purely abstract competition
between the two players. It is the ability to think logically, and almost
mathematically, which is most important. In a wargame, on the other hand,
the competitive element certainly has a part to play; but it is not really
predominant. It is, rather, the sense of re-creating the past which provides
the excitement. The wargamer is playing at 'let's pretend' with military
history. Some form of realism, or imaginative leap into the Napoleonic era
will be essential and anything which helps it along will be good for the
wargame.

There are three main areas in which it is practical to hope for realism in
wargames. These are:

Aesthetic We can use finely detailed model soldiers and scenery to make
a sort of animated miniature tableau of the scene. This in itself can
sometimes bring the event vividly to life, and four of the games in this
book are based upon it.

Tactical We can find out the vital statistics of regimental fighting during
the Napoleonic period, and make sure that the rules of our game are
tactically realistic. In other words we will make our model regiments
march, shoot and fight according to the same limitations and probabilities
as were really imposed upon Napoleonic regiments. To do this we will need
to know some accurate details of Napoleonic tactics, and then to use
various wargame techniques to fit them into a workable set of rules.
Afar cry from chess. In this wartime a very high level of aesthetic realism
has been achieved, in both the terrain features and the finely-detailed
model soldiers
 Command and control It is all very well knowing how Napoleonic
regiments operated; but this is really only half the story. In the more
advanced games in this book we will also try to develop rules for the other
half: the ways Napoleonic commanders operated. Regimental action was
certainly an important instrument by which commanders could win
victories, but it was by no means the only one. Commanders also had to
master a whole set of techniques for collecting intelligence, issuing orders,
and controlling the battle. If we can make a game which simulates these
things, and forces us to make the same types of decisions as Napoleonic
commanders would really have had to make, then we will have gone a long
way towards imagining ourselves in their shoes. We will no longer simply
be chess players sitting over our tables and moving pieces when and where
we wish. Instead, we will be commanders in battle who have to cope with
misleading information, reluctant subordinates, couriers who get lost, and a
host of other difficulties before we can get our pieces into motion at all.

The realism of our rules - the sense that we are really taking the part of a
Napoleonic commander- will be easier to achieve if we read novels,
biographies, and history books about the period. The more we know about
our subject, the more we will be able to look at it in the right perspective,
and imagine ourselves in the middle of it all. It is for this reason that I have
included a short book list for each game.

It is also extremely important to prevent our rules from becoming over-

complex, thus sacrificing playability to realism. Napoleonic commanders
did not have to be mathematical wizards to win their wars; nor did barrack-
room lawyers often rise to high command. We must therefore steer well
clear of pedantry, petty detail, and rule-mongering in our games and
concentrate firmly upon general command decision-making.

Many wargamers fail to achieve the right balance in all this, and either
become obsessed with minor details and mental arithmetic in the name of
realism, or go to the opposite extreme, and reject any claim to realism at
all, in the name of playability. Neither of these approaches is correct, since
it is perfectly possible to devise games which are both realistic and
playable. To do this, however, you must be clear about just what level of
realism you are after; through exactly whose eyes you are trying to look at
the battle.
The games in the present book have varying standards of realism and
playability, but they all try to be very clear about just what is being
simulated, and precisely whom the player is supposed to be. In this way
they attempt to combine the two elements of fun and historical satisfaction;
although at the end of the day the reader will of course only get pleasure
from them in proportion to the time and energy he himself puts in. I have at
least tried to keep the games relatively short, so that their play-mechanics
may be kept to a minimum: each game is designed to be completed within
two to four hours, by two to six people.
Table of units and formations normally used in the Napoleonic Wars: (note
that each nation had a different specific organization of its own; the details
given here are only a very rough guide).
Unit/formation Rank of Approx. Average number
commander strength and type of sub-
units

Army Sovereign or 2-12 x

Marshal 40-300,000
Army corps

Army corps Marshal or 10-50,000; 2-5 x Division

General
about 50 guns

Division General 2-12,000; 2-5 x Brigade or

'of Division’
6-24 guns x regiment

Brigade General 1-3,000 2-5 Regiment

'of brigade'

Regiment Colonel 1-3,000 1-5 x Battalion

Battalion Lt. col/ 200-1,200 4-10 x Company

major/
 commandant

Company Captain 50-150 2 x Section

2. The Skirmish Game
The first game we meet is classic in its simplicity, and therefore a very good
place for learners to start. It is the skirmish game, where each model soldier
represents one real man, so there are no complexities in the scales. Also,
owing to the small size of the action, we do not portray the rather technical
evolutions of battalions and regiments. Instead, we must content ourselves
with the relatively straightforward tactics of small groups. The level of
action is somewhere between the individual soldier and the section of forty
men or so.

The types of troops in Napoleonic skirmishes

The troops engaging in Napoleonic skirmishes could vary enormously in
type, and might be drawn from almost any branch of the service. Each army
had its own specialized formations, and it is impossible here to give a
comprehensive listing of them all. Nevertheless, as a help to the beginner I
shall mention some of them.

Line infantry

This was the normal regular infantry, often composed of conscripts who had
not been given a long military training, but who were under the eye of a
cadre of veteran N.C.O.s and officers. These troops were of patchy quality
but, on the whole, quite reasonable. They were armed with a muzzle-
loading flintlock musket and bayonet, up to sixty rounds of ammunition,
and perhaps a short sabre or machete. Battalions were composed of a
number of companies (the precise number varied in each army), each of
two sections. The sections were in turn composed of squads of eight to ten
men.

Companies might contain a total of eighty men or more, although after a

little time on campaign this figure would usually be very seriously reduced.
As part of the company total there would also be a number of officers and
N.C.O.s: for example, the British regulations called for three officers, three
sergeants, four corporals, and one drummer. The French had rather more,
and were very proud of the greater supervision and leadership which this
supposedly bestowed upon their armies.

Most companies were designated centre or fusilier companies, and

consisted of the ordinary rank and file. In each battalion, however, there
were also, usually, two flank or élite companies, composed of the better, or
longest serving soldiers. One of these flank companies would consist of
light infantry; the other of grenadiers. In theory the light infantry was
supposed to be sent forward to skirmish and screen the battalion's front,
while the grenadiers were supposed to spearhead attacks or form a reserve
rallying point. In practice, however, these rules seem to have been broken
quite as much as they were observed. Precisely because they were made up
of the best soldiers, both flank companies were often sent forward
indiscriminately on any hazardous duty, regardless of whether it was
technically a 'light' or a 'grenadier' task. In our skirmishes, therefore, we
might well expect to see rather a lot of the light infantry companies, but by
no means on every occasion.

Militia or Landwehr

Many countries used second line troops in the field to make up numbers.
They tended to be badly trained and led, possibly under- or over-age, and
despised by other troops. In action, nevertheless, they often performed
surprisingly well. Their organization was similar to that of the line
battalions.
Irregulars

Irregulars were often used when nothing better was available. These troops
would have extremely sketchy organization, and probably very poor
equipment. In formal battles their units would be hopelessly fragile; but
they performed better in smaller skirmishes or guerrilla raids, where
enthusiasm and individual cunning counted for more than formal drill. We
may thus have an amusing time designing irregular bands for our games,
and arming them with such diverse weapons as nail guns, blunderbusses,
billhooks, and stilettoes.
Guards
Any type of unit - infantry, cavalry, artillery, and even military police or
marines - could be designated as Guards, i.e. the personal troops of the
sovereign. In battle they would usually be kept back as the last reserve, 'so
as not to spoil them'. They enjoyed enormous privileges, and according to
contemporary wisdom they were supposed to be unbeatable, except perhaps
by the enemy's Guards. In the light of Second World War experience,
however, this assumption may perhaps be questioned. Relatively fresh
units, provided they have done well in their first battles, often tend to fight
better than veteran troops who have been through the crucible too often.

Light infantry regiments

Most nations designated certain whole regiments as light infantry. In most

cases, particularly in the French army, this tag was absolutely meaningless.
The light infantry regiments were identical to the line, apart from the
difference in nomenclature and uniforms. Both line and light regiments
would be used indiscriminately for skirmishing. In some other armies,
however, light infantry really did perform a specialist role, as highly trained
skirmishers and sharpshooters. This was particularly true of units armed
with the rifle, e.g. the British rifle regiments, or the Tyrolean Jaeger. These
troops not only possessed superior weapons to most of their counterparts,
but they also enjoyed the rare distinction of knowing how to use them.

Some Napoleonic troop types: from left British hussar, British rifleman,
Cossack, French Guard infantry, French dragoon, Russian line infantry.
Heavy cavalry

The battle cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars included armoured (cuirassiers,

carabiniers, etc.) and unarmoured types (heavy dragoons, horse grenadiers,
etc.). Medium cavalry (dragoons, lancers, etc.) was also normally used in
this role, so for convenience, I shall call all these types heavy cavalry, with
the single exception of the lancers. All the heavy cavalry tended to consist
of 'big men on big horses', and was trained specifically for massed shock
action. They did skirmish from time to time, especially the dragoons, but
normally they preferred to leave that sort of thing to the light cavalry.

All cavalry was armed with a sword (usually curved for the light cavalry,
straight for the heavy) and a small musket or carbine. Heavier types often
had pistols as well, while dragoons would carry bayonets in case they were
ordered to fight on foot. The basic organization was the regiment, which
consisted of a number of squadrons, each of two platoons, of two sections
each. The squadron might have a total of 120 men, although on campaign
this figure would dwindle even faster than in the infantry. Good horse care
was essential to keep up the fighting strength of the cavalry, and it took up
much of their time.
Light cavalry

There were several different types of light cavalry (light dragoons, hussars,
chasseurs, cheveau-legers, etc.) to which for the purposes of this book we
shall add the (technically medium) lancers. The primary role of all these
troops was scouting, liaison and outpost work; although in practice they
tended to be used as battle cavalry more often than they should have been.
They rode small horses, and felt especially comfortable when they were
skirmishing.
Irregular cavalry

In a few armies there was an unsophisticated toleration of irregular cavalry,

and in Egypt the Mameluke army actually contained nothing else. As far as
Europe was concerned, the Cossacks formed the most famous and the most
feared irregular cavalry force, although other examples could be cited from
Spain or Prussia. This type of soldier is of especial interest to us here, since
skirmishing was his only means of livelihood. As with irregular infantry, he
might be armed with some very original weapons, ranging from the very
[4]
long Cossack lances to the short bows of the Bashkirs .

Artillery

Artillery would rarely take part in skirmish actions, although raiding

cavalry might carry the occasional light piece with it; or guerrillas might
lay ambushes for artillery convoys on the march. To complete our list of
troop types, however, it is worth saying a few words about what was, after
all, probably the most powerful weapon of the Napoleonic Wars.

Strictly speaking, all guns on mobile carriages (as opposed to coastal,

naval, fortress or siege artillery) should be termed field artillery. For the
purposes of this book, however, we will use the phrase only for the most
common type; the medium pieces (6, 8 or 9 pounders, and medium
howitzers) which formed the backbone of the Divisional batteries. This will
distinguish them from both horse and heavy artillery.
Horse artillery was composed of the lightest guns, 3 or 4 pounders (at
least in theory; in practice they tended to become much heavier as the wars
went on). All the horse guns had reinforced teams, and all their gunners
were mounted. This gave great mobility to the batteries, so they were
usually attached to cavalry formations. The exceptionally large number of
horses, however, could create serious problems while the guns were in
action: they were an encumbrance, as well as a good target for the enemy.

Heavy artillery, by contrast, consisted of the corps and army reserves;

heavy howitzers, 12 and 18 pounder guns and even heavier guns in some
armies, especially the Russian. Heavy artillery would typically be used to
hold key points on the battlefield, for battering or counter-battery work, or
to support a final mass attack.

Howitzers were short-barrelled, high-angle pieces which could fire

explosive shells at long range, a grape-shot or canister at short range (the
latter consisted of a number of small balls which spread out from the
muzzle to give a huge shotgun effect). Guns, on the other hand, used direct
fire with solid shot at either long or short range, or grape and canister at
short range. The normal organization was in batteries of two howitzers plus
four or six guns; with about a hundred gunners and drivers per battery, and
a couple of dozen limbers, caissons, and other vehicles.

The Napoleonic skirmish

It was not very common in the Napoleonic Wars for small groups of men to
run into each other in isolation. Because battles were generally fought in
densely massed formations it was more usual for squads and sections to be
packed together in the firing line along with the rest of their battalions or
squadrons. If they came into contact with the enemy, it would normally be
as part of a battalion or brigade battle, not in a skirmish of their own.

Small groups did sometimes meet, however, as in the following

circumstances:

Scouting

One of the few ways in which generals could get information was to send
out scouts; either small parties of light cavalry, or specialized staff officers
(possibly with an escort). If one of these scouting groups ran into a similar
enemy group or a static outpost, there might well be a skirmish. Thus a staff
officer might try to reach a village post office to read the mail (a favourite
means of gathering information), or to find a local guide. If he ran into a
small enemy force, he might try to fight his way through.

Outpost action

Forces on campaign established security lines around their perimeters to

warn them of enemy approaches, and to prevent infiltration. These lines
could be manned by either infantry or cavalry, and would be formed of four
elements: two concentric rings of quite large posts, called piquets, and
grand guards respectively; and then a line of, small posts (with perhaps a
dozen men in each) which acted as centres for fans of videttes (each of a
couple of men). This arrangement can provide endless variations for
skirmish wargames, as infiltrators try to pass through, outflank, or
otherwise surprise the videttes and small posts.

Foraging

Armies constantly had to send out small parties to collect food supplies
from outlying farms and villages (either with or without payment). These
foraging parties would usually take wagons with them and would be rather
heavily laden. They would often need an escort, to protect them from
enemy raiders or to persuade recalcitrant farmers.

Battles in difficult terrain

During battles in very close country, such as mountains, thick woods or

heavily built-up areas, quite small segments of an army's skirmishing screen
might easily become engrossed in separate little actions of their own and
forget that they were part of a wider whole. In woods every thicket might
need to be cleared; and in towns every room or staircase might be fortified,
as they were at Saragossa (1809).

Guerrilla action

There were at least a few examples of guerrilla action in almost every

Napoleonic campaign; either by small groups of soldiers, as in Prussia
(1807), or by bands of armed civilians, as was especially true in Spain
(1808-1813). Ambushes on couriers, supply convoys, or even small static
posts, could lead to desperate skirmishes with no holds barred.
Alternatively, an occupying army might launch expeditions to destroy
known guerrilla camps in mountainous or heavily wooded areas.

What you will need to play the skirmish game

Now that we have glimpsed the types of troops, and the sort of actions they
might fight, we can turn to the business of making it all into a game. The
following items will be required.

A table top

This should measure at least 1m x 1.20m (3' x 4'), and preferably more. A
bed can be used at a pinch, although it may suffer from being a little too
soft. The floor is also a possibility, but in this case players must take great
care not to step on the models. As a general rule we can say that the better
and more expensive the models, the less a floor game is advisable.

A means of representing relief

This can be based on one of four principles.

The classic military method is to use a sand table. This is very good for
showing relief, but is laborious and messy to set up. It requires specialized
equipment, and is not recommended.

You could make a cloth model. This consists of a cloth or thin linoleum
sheet stretched over the table top, with relief shown by books, boxes, or
blankets placed under the cloth. The visual effect can be very good, as
hills swell naturally and continuously, and the cloth may have a
realistically rough texture. It is often rather difficult, however, to persuade
model soldiers to stand up on the hills, so you will need to be very careful.

If your table has a painted top, it may be possible to chalk a map directly
onto it without damaging its surface. If this is the case the terrain can be
shown very easily and quickly, and does not require any complex
paraphenalia for hills. Some wargamers, however, object to chalked maps
as unsightly and messy, despite their great convenience. The most popular
technique (but also the most stylized) is to use a table top with contours
shown by flat cut-out layers of hill. Chipboard, expanded polystyrene tiles,
thick cardboard and so on, can all be used to make the layers; and if they
are carefully painted and detailed they can make very impressive scenic
features. They have the great advantage that model soldiers can always
stand up on each layer; but the fact remains that with this system you are
left with a rather limited choice of relief. Unless you make a really large
number of different hills, you will find that the same one keeps cropping up
again and again in every battle. Another, less serious objection is that all
your hills will have an artificially stepped appearance, so that it will require
a certain amount of imagination to envisage the precise degree of slope.

A means of representing scenic features

Once you have established the relief of your battlefield, you will need to
show woods, houses, roads and rivers upon it. Model railway shops stock a
number of useful items for this, or you can make them yourself. Buildings
can be cut out from card or built up from plaster or modelling clay. Woods
[5]
can be made from dyed loofah , which is expensive but effective, or
plastic sponge, which is nastier but cheaper. Rocks can be brought in
straight from the garden; roads and rivers can be shown by suitably
coloured tapes, or made from cork chippings, sawdust and so on. The
precise methods used will depend upon the ingenuity and modelling skill of
the individual, although particular care should always be taken to keep the
scenery in scale with the model figures being used.

A model village, in this case being used in a Divisional game. Notice that
each building, hedge and wall stands separately on its own small base. This
allows a new configuration of scenic features be made for each game.
Two forces of model soldiers

These may be in either 25 mm or 54 mm scale (i.e. a man about 2 m (6 ft)

tall would be modelled by a figure either 25 mm or 54 mm tall). These are
both popular commercial scales, although supposedly 25 mm figures may in
practice turn out nearer 30 mm or 20 mm. For the sake of convenience,
however, we will call all these sizes 25 mm. If the skirmish is to include a
couple of dozen figures per side, then 25 mm will be the best scale; but if
there is to be only a handful, then 54 mm may be preferred. The larger the
scale the greater the detail on each model; but the greater, also, will be the
cost of each model. The smaller scale also has the advantage that a given
table top will represent a larger area of countryside, so we can use more
ambitious flank manoeuvres, or more widely extended screens of men.

The models may be of metal or plastic if bought commercially, or of

some rather more exotic material if the wargamer makes them himself. Cut-
out paper soldiers have a long and respected past, while even prune stones
have been used in some extreme cases. A fundamental problem with model
soldiers is that the good metal ones are relatively more expensive. Plastic
ones come cheaper, in large boxes, with perhaps 50-60 figures in each. With
plastic, however, it is often difficult to find the precise type of Napoleonic
figure that you are looking for; and even if you do, the paint has an
annoying habit of peeling off muskets, plumes, etc. However, there are
some hard plastic figures available. These combine the advantage of
cheapness without the ‘peeling paint from the bayonet’ problem. A
wargamer with limited means would therefore be well advised to start with
basic plastic armies, and gradually add specialist models in metal as his
interest grows.

The two opposing forces should be planned to represent a realistic

mixture of troop types for the sort of skirmish which is desired; and each
man should, if possible, have a reference number painted unobtrusively on
the upper side of his base. This will allow rapid identification in the course
of the game and will facilitate the writing of orders.

Record sheets

Every player should have a record sheet on which he can write moves for
each of his model soldiers. The sheet of paper should have the soldiers'
names and/or reference numbers down the margin and their appropriate
skill rating, with several lines between each for writing in abbreviated
instructions for each move. There should also be some spare paper for
writing any orders the soldiers themselves may issue.

Nuggets and rulers

When the decisions of chance or fate are called for in the game, we use a
twenty-sided decimal dice to find the result. These may be called deci-dice
for short; but I prefer the nickname nuggets, and shall use that throughout
the following pages. These dice are available at many model or games
shops and are especially handy for wargames. This is because they produce
a score between 0 and 9, i.e. a choice of ten different scores. This makes it
easy to generate percentages: if a 0 comes up, it stands for a percentage
between 0% and 9%; 1 stands for a percentage between 10% and 19%; and
so on up to 99%.

A ruler or tape measure marked in millimetres and inches is required for

measuring ranges and moves. Retractable steel tape measures are probably
the most convenient for this.
Playing the game
The learner should start with a small squad of perhaps half a dozen men
under a corporal, and only attempt full section-size games when he has got
the hang of the system of play. However many troops are used, there must
first of all be agreement as to the exact type of skirmish to be played. The
numbers and troop types must be decided; which of them represent the
squad commanders; which have their muskets already loaded at the start of
play; and especially, what objective each side is aiming to secure. Ideally
there should be an umpire to settle all this (although he is not vital), and he
may choose to reveal to each side only their own half of the picture, leaving
enemy strength and position as a surprise.
Example of a record sheet for the skirmish game, showing the first seven
moves of a game. Bert has been wounded once on move 3, and so has Jake.
Jake has been wounded again, mortally, on move 5. The rest have given fire
support, but Adam had a misfire on move 2.

At this stage we ought to know the ground scales being used. With 54
mm models, one inch represents one metre. With 25 mm models, one inch
represents two metres. Each model soldier represents one real man; and
each model building or scenic feature represents one real one. The game
progresses in a series of turns or bounds, each of which represents ten
seconds of game time, even though it may actually lake any length of real
time to play through. In each turn the sequence of events is as follows:

(i) Players write down what each man is to do that turn.

(ii) Both sides simultaneously move their men, according to instructions. If

the move includes any morale tests or the writing of any orders, that is done
at this stage.

(iii) The result of any firing is calculated, including any firing in close
combat.
(iv) The outcome of any close combats is calculated.

(v) Both sides agree that the turn is complete, and the next may begin.

Orders

At the start of the game, and whenever else command figures are supposed
to issue orders (see movement rules, below), the player must make a written
note of exactly what his figure has said to the other men. Whatever it is,
their moves must thereafter conform to the orders. Only close combat, a
wound or a new order may override an order once it has been issued.

Skill and wounds

Each man will be given a skill rating between 'A' (for a very expert fighter,
a veteran, etc.) and 'D' (for a novice or untrained irregular). This rating will
affect the combat efficiency of that man throughout the game, and will be
reduced if he is wounded. For every minor wound his rating will be
reduced by one grade. For a serious wound it will be reduced by three (i.e.
an 'A' fighter would go down to 'D' if he suffered a serious wound, and a 'D'
man would go down to 'G', etc.). After two serious wounds the man
automatically dies.

Whenever any wound is sustained, the man falls over at once, and must
test for morale. For a minor wound he spends the next whole turn standing
up again, but for a serious wound he must remain on the ground,
unconscious, for as many turns as are shown by one nugget roll. After that
number of turns has elapsed he may stand up again in the subsequent turn.
For example. Corporal Untel, skill rating 'B' (a moderately experienced
soldier), suffers a serious wound after being hit by a crafty enemy rifleman.
He immediately drops to a skill rating of 'E' and falls to the ground. He
tests for morale by throwing a nugget (see below). Because he throws a 6
he remains in good heart, just. Had he thrown 5, he would have become
'scared' - and who would blame him? He must next find out how long he
will remain unconscious on the ground. He throws a new nugget, and for a
score of 4, finds he cannot start to stand up or move until after the fourth
move from then. If the crafty rifleman happens to march up and bayonet
him within the first four moves, there will be an automatic hit, and a new
wound. If nothing of this sort intervenes, the corporal may stand up on the
fifth move after he was originally wounded.
Movement

In each turn each man on foot may perform one of the following actions,
and no more than one. These actions will be interrupted immediately if the
man is wounded, engaged in close combat or fails a morale test during the
turn (see combat and morale rules, below).
Walk

on level ground 12 m

on rough ground 10 m

in woods 6 m

Run

on level ground 18 m

on rough ground 14 m

in woods 8 m

All men who run have a nugget thrown for them. They trip and fall if it
comes up 0 or 1. All men running are also automatically 'puffed' for one
further turn for every turn they have run.

Turn about more than 900; the first 900 is free.

Lie down, kneel down, or stand up, including standing up after tripping
or being wounded.
Open or close a door.

Start to climb a hedge, fence, wall, etc., or to jump a small stream.

 Finish crossing an obstacle, as above: i.e. the complete operation takes a
total of two turns.
Issue an order verbally, or make a signal with drum, whistle, etc. The
man issuing the order must be doing nothing else on that turn. The player
must also make a written note of what was said in the order.
Aim and fire one shot with a musket, rifle, carbine, pistol, blunderbuss,
etc. Loading is a separate process from aiming and firing and takes a total
of three or, with a rifle, five turns. No shot may be fired unless the weapon
has previously been loaded fully and in the correct sequence (see below).
Even if this is so, all firing men must also have a nugget thrown for them. If
it shows 0 or 1, there is a misfire.
Place cartridge in muzzle of weapon; the first part of loading.

Ram home cartridge; the second part of loading. If a bayonet is fixed,

then the man must throw a nugget. For a 0 he suffers a minor wound to his
forearm.

Prime and cock weapon; the third and final part of loading, except with
the rifle, when it is the fifth and final part.
Get out ramming mallet for a rifle; the third part of loading a rifle.

Use mallet for ramming, with a rifle; the fourth part of loading a rifle.

Diagnose a misfire: if the weapon has misfired, there must always be a

turn for diagnosis before taking further action with that weapon.
Correct a misfire: once a misfired weapon has been diagnosed, the fault
must be corrected before the weapon may be fired. This process normally
takes one turn, but a nugget must be rolled. If it comes up 0, 1, 2 or 3, then
a second turn must be used, including a further nugget roll, which may
prolong it still further.

Fix or un-fix a bayonet on rifle, musket or carbine.

Draw sword or any other weapon, e.g. a pistol, or replace it in

scabbard/holster. This does not apply to cavalry carbines which are on
handy slings.

Conduct one round of fencing with bayonet, sword, dagger, bare hands,
etc. If two opposed players come within fencing range (2 m) all foot figures
immediately stop whatever they are doing, and fight with whatever
weapons are available. Thus in the first turn they may combine movement
with either firing or a full round of fencing; but in later turns they must
either move or fight.

Each cavalry figure may perform one of the following in each turn:

Start to mount or dismount.

Complete mounting or dismounting, the process taking two turns in all.

When a cavalry figure is dismounted, he acts as if he were an infantryman.
 The different loading sequences for the skirmish game

Hold up to five horses; he may be either mounted or dismounted for this.

If a horse-holder has to perform any other act, the horses will all bolt, and
can be stopped only for a nugget roll of 8 or 9 for each horse, each turn.

Walk (mounted) On level ground 14 m

On rough ground 12 m

In woods 6m
Trot On level ground 20 m

On rough ground 16 m

Gallop On level ground 28 m

On rough ground 22 m

But rider falls off for 0 on one nugget

throw

Jump a low Rider falls off for 0, 1, 2, 3 on one nugget

obstacle

Loading and firing weapons mounted is exactly the same as when on foot,
although the horse must be stationary for all parts of the process.
Turn the horse through more than 90°; the first 90° is free.

Drawing swords or pistols, and fencing when mounted is conducted as

for men on foot, except that the horse may continue to move while the man
is fighting. If the horse is moving on a close combat turn it will not stop
until the following turn (assuming the player wants it to stop). Cavalry
duels will therefore rarely be prolonged affairs since horses will usually
charge past each other in opposite directions. They will not often stand lo
fight on the spot. Horses may not be forced to charge over a man on foot:
they will instinctively try to go round.

Orders may be issued when mounted if the man is not doing anything
else at the same time. The horse may be either moving or stationary.

Morale

All figures within 10 m of an enemy (whether it is that enemy, or the figure

itself which is actually moving) must immediately have a morale test to see
if they become 'scared'. All soldiers who are wounded must also test for
morale at once. To test morale, roll one nugget for each figure. That figure
is considered 'scared' if the following scores, or less, appear: for skill rating
'A'-1; 'B'-2; 'C'-3; 'D'-4; 'E'-5; 'F'-6; 'G'-7.
 Note that one grade is deducted from the skill rating if the soldier is
'puffed' or has suffered a minor wound; one is added if he is behind cover;
and three are deducted if he has sustained a serious wound. Infantry
attacked by cavalry must deduct two from their skill rating in the morale
throw.

When soldiers are 'scared' they may not advance towards the enemy (i.e.
they may not initiate close combat), and must stop where they are, at once.
They may, however, defend themselves in combat, fire, or move in other
directions on subsequent turns. They may not rally during the course of the
game, since it represents too short a time.

Firing

When a weapon is fired, first make sure it has been loaded properly,
according to the sequence already explained. Then roll a nugget for misfires
(in rain there will always be a misfire). Next, find the range from the target,
which may be long, effective, or close. Close range for all weapons is 2 m,
i.e. the range of close combat. Other ranges are as follows (in metres):

Range/ Weapon

Musket Rifle Blunderbuss Carbine Pistol

Long range 200 400 40 100 40

Effective 50 100 10 24 10
range

Now find if there has been a hit, according to the table on the next page. A
hit is scored if a new nugget roll equals or exceeds the score shown; for
example, a puffed musketeer at ‘B’ status, firing at a static man in the open,
would need a 7, 8 or 9 on the nugget to hit at effective range, but a 9 alone
at long range.
For all firing at close combat range, a hit is scored for a 5 or more (see
combat rules, below).

Blunderbusses, at close and effective range, will always automatically hit

every other man, however many are presented. If there is only one man, he
will be hit. If two, one will be hit; if three, two will be hit, and so on.
Firing Skill Target Man
Man

Long Range Effective Range

Static Moving In Static Moving In

in in open cover in in open cover
open or open or
prone prone

Composed A/B 7 8 9 5 6 7

C/D 8 9 - 6 7 8

E/F 9 - - 7 8 9

G - - - 8 9 -

‘Puffed’, A/B 9 9 - 7 8 9
mounted
or ‘scared’ C/D 9 - - 8 9 -

E/F - - - 9 - -

G - - - - - -

Any two A/B 9 - - 8 9 -

of:
‘puffed’ C/D 9 - - 9 - -
mounted
or ‘scared’ E/F/G - - - - - -

Hits: hits may be scored by any firearm (see above), or in close

combat with an arme blanche (see close combat rules, below). For every
hit scored, throw one nugget for the effect on the target figure:
Nugget score

0-1 target stone cold dead

 2-5 target suffers serious wound
6-9 target suffers minor wound
Close combat

Close combat will start when one or both sides move into close combat
range (i.e. 2 m) of an enemy. During this turn, as the attacker (or attackers,
if both sides advance simultaneously) moves into range, there will be both
movement and close combat. In subsequent turns, however, there will be
one or the other, but not both.
First find the result of any firing at close range, i.e. any participants in the
close combat who want to fight by fire in this turn. Note that these
participants may not also fight with other weapons in the same turn. Any
fire within 2 m will score a hit for a 5 or more on one nugget, apart from
blunderbuss fire, which automatically hits every other man within range.
Then settle the hand to hand combats, i.e. the remaining participants in
the close combat, after the firing troops have fired. The procedure is as
follows:
Ascertain the skill rating for all non-firing men (after wounds), and adjust
it according to the tactical circumstances:
Deduct one skill grade if the man is prone, facing away from combat,
mounted, scared, or if the enemy is on higher ground, armoured or using a
longer weapon: Cossack lances are the longest, then ordinary lances,
billhooks, swords, bayonets, daggers and bare hands, in that order.

Deduct two skill grades for a man on foot against a mounted man
walking.
Deduct three grades against a mounted man trotting or galloping.

Each man in the fight will now have a total score, representing his
personal ability to strike at the enemy. We now find whether his blow has
been effective, by rolling a nugget for him. He inflicts one hit on the enemy
if his score equals or exceeds the following: skill 'A' - 4; 'B' - 5; 'C' - 6; 'D' -
7; 'E' - 8; 'F' - 9; 'G' - no chance. If the target figure is unconscious, a hit will
be automatic, and no dice need be rolled.
 Now find the damage inflicted by each hit, exactly as for hits from fire
(see above). The combat may continue for as many turns as there are
combatants within striking range of each other. Repeat the above process
once for every man each turn.
It will be found that there are two alternatives in the skirmish game.
Players may want to rush in madly against the enemy, suffer his fire, and
stake all upon a desperate close combat. On the other hand, they may
choose to approach cautiously, using cover and engaging the enemy in a
fire fight. Depending on the circumstances, either approach may be
preferable: the precise choice will depend upon the balance of forces, the
terrain and - naturally - upon the skill of the player.

A cuirassier attacks a Gordon Highlander in a skirmish game

3. The Divisional Game
Our next game is a great deal more technical than the skirmish, and is in
fact the most complex in this book. It is the Divisional level wargame,
where the player represents a Divisional commander with control over a
number of brigades. He might have between 2,000 and 12,000 infantry
under his command, which at a ratio of one model soldier to thirty-three
men, works out at between 60 and 360 model soldiers. There might also be
from one to four batteries of artillery; a cavalry regiment or two; and the
necessary engineer, medical, veterinary, military police, and headquarters
support. In a cavalry Division there might be between one and four
thousand cavalry, with a horse battery or two, as well as the various
headquarters elements.

Despite its relatively high level of complexity, or perhaps because of it,

the Division is the most popular subject for Napoleonic wargaming, and
there are already many sets of rules for playing it. The models are normally
25 mm or 15 mm scale, which will allow a Divisional battle to fit
conveniently on the average dining-room table. In some cases the game
may also grow to quite huge proportions, since it requires only 1,000 model
figures to make up a big army corps of 33,000 men; and with a few army
corps you have an army. The biggest game of this type I have heard about
involved no less than 6,000 model figures (representing 200,000 men) on
each side, deployed over the floor of a community centre. Battles on this
scale are very much the exception, however: major events to be planned
many weeks in advance, and involving dozens of players. For normal use it
is the Divisional battle which seems to have swept the board, since at this
scale the game can be played informally in a single evening.

The Napoleonic Divisional battle

In most Napoleonic battles Divisions fought as parts of armies and army

corps, rather than entirely on their own. It is true that there were a few cases
of truly Divisional battles being fought in isolation - e.g. at Maida in
southern Italy (1806) - but for the most part single Divisions tended to
come into action only in vanguard combats, when at least one of the two
sides could bring up significant reinforcements during the course of the
battle.

When both sides had reinforcements at hand, the initial clash would
often be the signal for all other forces in the area to 'march to the sound of
the guns'. The battle would thus steadily grow in size, and be taken out of
the hands of the original Divisional commander. The decisive battle of
Auerstadt (1806), for example, began in this way. Gudin's Division of
Davout's corps arrived in front of the enemy, started fighting, and was then
gradually reinforced by the remaining Divisions of the corps. In a sense, we
could say that Gudin's Divisional battle lasted only as long as he remained
the senior commander present, since his Division soon became submerged
in a much bigger fight. If we were to make Auerstadt into a Divisional
wargame, therefore, we should presumably have to stop the game as soon
as Gudin was reinforced.

On many other occasions only one of the two sides was in a position to
reinforce its original Division. As time went on, this side would
remorselessly bring in more and more fresh formations, while its enemy
was being equally remorselessly worn down. However well or badly it
fought, the weaker side would eventually be forced to retire to a new
position in the rear, and then possibly to another and another after that. The
best that its commander could hope for was to impose as much delay upon
the enemy as possible. Both Bagration at Schögrabern (1805) and
Delaborde at Rolica (1808) fought extremely well; but both were doomed
from the start to being forced back by superior numbers.

It was typical of Divisional battles that one side was hopelessly

outnumbered by the other, and we should try to reflect this in our choice of
wargame scenarios. The issue was not, which side would hold the
battlefield at the end of the day, but which commander could put up the
better show with the forces available to him.
The smaller force might have time to strengthen its resistance with field
fortifications, as several of the French Divisions did in the Pyrenees in
1813. This would impose a more careful approach on the attacker, leading
to a more formal style of battle. On the other hand, the defender sometimes
saw that his only possible hope of survival was a fighting retreat at full
speed. Pacthod's 4,000 infantry at Fère-Champenoise (1814), for example,
fought for hours on end to shake off an overwhelming cavalry pursuit, and
some of them succeeded. If one had enough playing space available, this
would surely make a fascinating wargame.
During the battle itself, both sides would normally deploy behind a
screen of infantry and cavalry skirmishers. These would probe and worry
the enemy defences, seek out the flanks and report information back to the
commander. Under their cover the Division's main body would be drawn
up.

Division formations; each symbol represents a battalion

Napoleonic Divisions normally deployed on two or three lines of

battalions, with either a separate brigade in each line, or some parts of each
brigade. Opinions varied on the best method; but it had often been found
from experience that a single line of battalions was a very weak formation,
and required some sort of reserve. Putting one brigade behind another was
damaging to morale, since the men of the front line brigade would be
unfamiliar with their supporting line, and would feel uneasy. Also
supporting the front line would be the massed artillery of the Division,
sited at the most commanding spot, and perhaps some cavalry positioned to
the rear.

Infantry at the point of contact, or rather non-contact. This picture shows

very clearly that a bayonet charge gained its effect from neither firepower
nor actual hand-to-hand fighting, but rather from ‘the moral steadiness…
over disorder which stupefies itself with noise’.

The formations used by each battalion would vary enormously, and each
battalion was an entity complete in itself, with only a moderate interest in
what was happening on its flanks. In theory the battalion line three deep
tended to be favoured for the defensive, while the battalion column of
divisions was preferred for the attack. To both of these rules, unfortunately,
there were innumerable exceptions, and it would take a whole book to
explain them all in detail. It is a curious fact, by the way, that no book
devoted entirely to Napoleonic infantry tactics has been published since
[6]
1902 . Perhaps all that need concern us here is that, firstly, since it was
particularly vital to cover a battalion's flanks against cavalry attacks, a solid
column or square was often used for defence whenever cavalry seemed to be
threatening; although this was an especially weak formation against infantry
or artillery.
Secondly, many experiments were made in the use of columns heavier
than a single battalion; but this almost always led to failure. The additional
numbers in regimental or brigade columns added nothing to the impetus of
the attack, but served only to make a more unwieldy formation and a better
target.
Typical formation of a cavalry regiment
After more or less softening-up by artillery and skirmish fire, the
attacking forces would send a first wave of battalions to assault the enemy.
Everything then depended upon how these troops reacted when they came
within musket range. If they pressed on with determination, the defenders
would probably shoot badly and start to melt away. If the defenders stood
firm, on the other hand, then the attackers might well grind to a halt and
try to use musketry fire instead of their forward impetus. One side or the
other would lose its confidence before anyone actually came into hand-to-
hand combat, and it is a well-documented fact that there was very little
true bayonet fighting during the Napoleonic Wars. The expression 'bayonet
attack' is rather misleading: it tended to stand for 'a menacing forward
movement without much firing', rather than a genuine expectation of
actually skewering anyone.
If the first assault cleared away the enemy, well and good: the cavalry
could pursue. If the first attack faltered, on the other hand, there would
probably be a long and indecisive fire fight between the units directly
concerned. The victory would go to whichever side could feed in fresh
troops to break the deadlock. Thus at Talavera (1809) the first French
wave was repulsed by the British, but the British were then in turn thrown
into confusion by the arrival of the second French line. At Albuera (1811)
the French first wave again faltered; but this time it was British
reinforcements who arrived first, to repulse the French. A very great deal
depended upon who had the freshest reserves at hand, and how well they
could be fed into the decisive combat.
Cavalry action tended to follow the same lines as infantry fighting,
although faster movement and less emphasis on musketry led to more
frequent clashes with cold steel. Whether or not there were such clashes, it
was once again the timely arrival of formed reserves which proved
decisive almost invariably. Keeping some 'sabres in hand' was the only
sure way of winning the cavalry fight, so most cavalry regiments would
attack with one or two of their squadrons held back from the front line.
Against infantry, on the other hand, horsemen found that their mounts
were reluctant to charge home into formed units. Most would shy away at
the last moment, and it was only against unformed or broken infantry that
they posed a serious threat.

As for the artillery, it would usually be massed, firing happily away at

the largest targets which were presented, and remaining better under
control than almost any other section. In the attack its usefulness would
often end soon after the assault had been launched, since the attacking
troops would mask the target from the guns. Horse artillery was
sometimes used to accompany assaults, but this left it very vulnerable to
the defensive fire. In the defensive, artillery could lay down a devastating
curtain of fire at both long and short range, provided the gunners had not
been scared away by the enemy's advance.

What you will need to play the Divisional game

A table top, a means of representing relief, and scenic features will be
needed, exactly as for the skirmish game.
Two model Divisions
These should be in 25 mm or 15 mm scale. As with the skirmish game, the
smaller the scale, the larger the battle which can be fitted into a given area;
but less individual detail will show on each figure. For a Divisional game it
is best not to mix nationalities too much, since most nations were usually
able to field quite large independent formations. The British, however, are
a striking exception to this, since their formations in the Peninsula
regularly included Portuguese troops, along with some Spanish and
Germans. In the Waterloo campaign there were Dutch-Belgians, instead.
The wargamer should try to maintain reasonably realistic proportions
between the different types of troops, and should especially resist the
temptation to include isolated battalions of Guards within line brigades.
Guards usually operated in massed formations of their own, and would
seldom be used in penny packets alongside the much scruffier line or
militia units.
When we work on the basis of one model to thirty-three men, we find
that battalions can be between ten and thirty models each. If desired, a
different strength may be used for each battalion, although for convenience
it is useful to have a standard battalion strength of twenty. Cavalry
regiments work out at about four squadrons, each of three figures; while
artillery is shown by one model cannon plus four model gunners per
battery, representing six or eight pieces, and just over a hundred gunners
and drivers.
Figure bases and formations
Once we have collected our models, it is best to mount them on bases, to
make them easier to manoeuvre in large numbers. The bases can be of stiff
card, plastic card, or even tin sheeting. The soldiers should be stuck on with
a strong epoxy adhesive, and then the bases painted to represent green
grass or brown earth. An unobtrusive number should be painted on the
upper side of each base, for ease of identification.

Infantry should be divided into groups of five models, i.e. 165 men.
According to the particular national organization of that army, each of these
groups will represent either one company or two, but for the sake of
simplicity we will hereafter assume two companies, i.e. a division. The
models for each division are stuck onto a base in a single line. The base
should be as near to 50 mm long as is possible, and as thin as the base of
the figures will allow. This represents the division in line three deep, with
officers and N.C.O.s acting as a fourth line in the rear. British infantry
bases should be longer, say 70 mm, to represent the British formation two
deep, with officers and N.C.O.s forming a third line.
There is a slight problem posed by the different sizes of 25 mm and 15
mm figures. In theory we should use smaller bases for 15 mm models, but
for convenience it is better to use the same size bases for both; allowing the
15 mm troops plenty of elbow room, but slightly squashing the 25 mm
soldiers. As the figure scale is bigger than the ground scale, this does not
really matter (see discussion of scales).

In the course of the battle, the four division bases in each battalion may
be arranged in certain combinations to represent the various formations
which are possible in battalion drill:

Battalion line is represented by all the divisions in the battalion being laid
side by side. It is a good formation for fire, but not for movement. If
another friendly unit stands within 50 m behind the line, they will be
considered to have become entangled together, and 'bunched'.

Column of attack is represented by either two divisions abreast, two deep,

or a one-division front, four deep. This formation is handy for movement,
but vulnerable to fire. It also becomes 'disorganized' if it 'bunches' too close
to another column on its flank, less than 50 m away. The same is true of
units which follow a column at less than 50 m distance; they will be
considered entangled and 'bunched' with it.

Column of route is the only possible formation for road movement or

crossing bridges. The four divisions of the battalion are laid end to end so
that they appear to be going sideways along the road. No more than one
figure abreast will be allowed on roads or bridges.

To form square, the four division bases are arranged in a hollow square.

If a battalion sends forward one division (normally the flank companies) to

skirmish, that division may be retained under control as long as it advances
no more than 400 m ahead of the main body. If it goes further afield it will
be lost to the main body, will become 'disorganized', and may not rejoin
unless it throws a rallying dice score of 9. More than a single division may
be advanced, if desired, under the same rules. An interval of at least one
base-length (50 m) should be left between each skirmishing division to
represent the wide dispersion of the skirmishers. Any troops may skirmish,
and in any numbers. Whole Divisions skirmishing were not unknown in the
Napoleonic Wars; the only distinction was that poor troops skirmished
badly, while good troops skirmished well.

Each cavalry regiment is divided into a number of squadrons, each of

three models, totalling ninety-nine men. Each squadron has a base about 50
mm long, and as thin as the bottom of the figures will allow. The figures, as
with the infantry, are arranged in a single line; although in this case it
represents a squadron in double line, the normal fighting formation.

Each regiment should act as a whole in most circumstances, and should

not detach individual squadrons. The only exception to this is when
squadrons are detached for skirmishing or scouting. For massed action in
battle they would return to their regiments.

Battalion Formations

A decision must be made for each regiment whether it wants one, two,
three or four squadrons in the front line (or more, if they are available).
Whichever it choose, these will receive the first shock of battle, while the
remainder act as a reserve in the second line.
For movement on roads cavalry adopt the column of route; i.e. each
squadron turns sideways on, to follow the road one abreast.
Each model gun is paced on a base 50 mm wide and as thin as the model
will allow. Four model gunners are ranged around the gun on the base. This
represents a battery in line, facing the direction in which the model gun is
pointing. It may be either unlimbered, when the gun is pointing at the
target, or unlimbered, when the gun trail is pointing along the line of
movement. Players should always specify clearly which is being used at
any particular time. Batteries may move along roads, when limbered,
without any further contraction of frontage.
 Couriers are represented by single models of staff officers or
cavalrymen. Commanders and their headquarters are represented by two-
man groups on a single base, apart from the Divisional commander, who
has a four-man base. It is essential that every player must know exactly
which figures represent him in the game, so that the location of his HQ may
always be known.
Each model wagon, plus one or two drivers, is placed upon as small a
base possible. This represents a company of thirty wagons.
Stationery

As in the skirmish game, a set of nuggets will be needed, and a ruler

marked in millimeters and inches. Pencil and paper will also be required,
both for writing orders and for recording the changing status of some units.
Some wargamers are reluctant to allow paperwork into their Divisional
games at all, because they confuse paperwork with complexity. It is quite
true that games may become too complex if the paperwork gets out of hand;
but it is also true that a reasonable level of written records can greatly
simplify the mechanisms of play. We will accept the use of written records
if they are kept to a minimum.

Playing the Game

A scenario is devised whereby the two opposing Divisions have some

realistic reason to join combat on the model battlefield. The battlefield is
then laid out, including all model soldiers who start the game in open
positions, not concealed from the enemy. Troops starting in covered
positions are not laid out, but their positions are noted on paper.

A good way for experienced players to lay on a battle scenario is to

organize a map campaign (see the chapter on free kriegsspiel). This does
not have to be a big or elaborate set-up, and some very good battles can
result from only an hour or two's manoeuvring on a map, provided that
everything is kept simple. Normally, however, the Divisional game is best
suited to a contrived, one-off scenario, especially designed for that
particular occasion. The scenario may be taken from a true historical
combat or, more usually, it may be invented by the wargamer as a possible
or typical confrontation, which might have happened. If it is invented in
this way, however, beware of making it too even. There is nothing less
realistic than combats exactly equally balanced between exactly equal
forces, on exactly equal terrain for both sides, with exactly equal orders and
aims. That situation never arose in real life.

Scenarios may start with both sides already in close combat, or they may
require both forces to march onto the battlefield little by little, preceded by
scouts and advanced guards. In the former case heavy fighting will develop
from the very start of the game, and the action will be fast and furious. In
the latter case the game will be longer, and will build up more gradually. To
a large extent, therefore, this choice depends upon how much time is
available for the game.
As far as possible, at the start players should be kept in ignorance of the
enemy's strength and aims. Each player will then have to use his
intelligence, in both senses of that word, to find out what his opponent is up
to.

This scene illustrates the various groupings of figures on bases for the
Divisional game. On the road there is a limbered gun team on the march,
then a battalion in line or column of route (four bases each of five men),
then a wagon on a base. In the middle rank is a battalion in square, then a
battalion in close column of divisions, then a battery in the firing position
(four men and a gun on a base), with a courier and a two-man staff base
behind, and then a cavalry regiment of three squadron bases, each of three
men (note the formation is two-up). In the front line is a battalion of
deployed skirmishers.

Orders

When each Divisional commander has been given as much (or as little)
knowledge of the scenario as he needs at the start of the game, he writes
general orders for all his subordinate commanders. Nothing may be done
by these subordinates in the course of the game unless it can be shown to
be consistent with the original orders, or with subsequent orders arriving
from the Divisional commander, e.g. by courier.
Scales

There are four types of scales which are essential if we are to understand
the relationship between time and distance in this game. These are the
ground scale, the figure scale, the vertical scale and the time scale.
The ground scale is used for all ranges, movement rates, unit frontages
and other horizontal measurements. To fit a reasonably-sized action on to
the average table, it is convenient to say that 1 mm on the model represents
1 m on the real ground. Thus a cannon with a range of 1,000 m would be
allowed to shoot up to 1,000 mm (about 3 ft 3 in) in this game.

The figure scale follows from this, because the units we have arranged on
division and squadron bases will now have their frontages represented by
the frontages of the bases. If the base has a 50 mm frontage, that represents
a unit 50 m long. This was in fact about the frontage of a division in the
Napoleonic Wars; so we can say that each five figures must represent a
division (165 men), i.e. each figure represents thirty-three men. Using the
same methods we find that each model gun represents a battery, and each
model wagon represents a company of wagons. The only exception is for
couriers, who act as individuals. In their case we stretch the scales a little,
and say that each model courier represents one real one.

We find that each model house 60 mm x 60 mm will represent a group of

buildings (perhaps a hamlet or large farm) with an area of 60 m x 60 m. A
group of model buildings may represent a whole small town. So far so
good. The only trouble comes with the vertical scale, since we now find
that the model soldiers and buildings are towering over the battlefield like
so many Colossi and Empire State Buildings.

The vertical scale of the models is apparently 15 mm or 25 mm; i.e. a

man about 2 m (6 ft) high is represented by 15 or 25 mm. This works out as
7½ mm or 12½ mm equalling 1 m, which is of course very different from
the ground scale being used. Unfortunately there is nothing much we can
do about this discrepancy. It is just a penalty we have to pay if we are to use
detailed models for this sort of game, so if we ever have to measure vertical
distances we must keep it in mind. When units want to see over the heads
of others, for example, we should calculate their height according to the
ground scale; not according to the vertical scale. So, a man will
theoretically stand only 2 mm high in the model, rather than the 15 or 25
mm which he actually stands. Buildings will theoretically be 10 mm high
rather than 75 or 125 mm, and so on. Only in the case of terrain relief itself
will we take the contours of the model battlefield as accurate to the ground
scale. If a hill is 20 mm high on the model, therefore, it represents a height
of 20 m.
As for the time scale, one turn in the game represents two minutes in the
battle, even though it may take any length of real time to play.
Status, losses, and basic morale

These things form the guts of the rules, and must be followed carefully if
the rest is to make sense. Each unit is initially allocated a basic morale, a
state of training, and a certain number of effective men. To represent all
these things together, for simplicity, we allocate a single 'status' grade to
each unit at the start of the game.
Guard or élite units are grade 'A' status. If they have to detach a sub-unit -
a division detached from a battalion, or a squadron detached from a cavalry
regiment - that sub-unit will be status 'D', but the status of the parent unit
will remain unchanged. Such detachments should normally be avoided,
except for specific skirmishing tasks. Line troops are 'B' status, their sub-
units are 'D'; militia units are 'C’, their sub-units are 'E'; irregulars start at
'D', their sub-units are 'E'.

As the battle progresses, units may lose status due to fatigue, failing
various morale tests, or because they lose casualties to enemy fire. Every
loss of one status grade represents the loss of about ninety infantry
casualties to all causes; forty-five cavalry casualties; or one gun and its
crew from a battery. These men are not all necessarily killed or wounded,
however, since a very large proportion of them may have fled from their
unit, physically unharmed. Napoleonic battlefields were notorious for the
crowds of stragglers lurking in the rear, well away from the fighting line.
 In these rules, units may lose a number of tenths of a status grade, as a
result of certain forms of enemy action, e.g. artillery or skirmish fire. In this
case the loss is recorded, but it becomes important only when losses of ten
tenths have been accumulated by a given unit. For example, a 'B' grade unit
which loses 0.7 of a grade will still fight as 'B' grade. If it then loses 0.3 of a
grade, it will fight at 'C grade.

The status levels represent the following attitudes:

Status

'A' Completely confident unit.

'B' Slightly apprehensive unit.

'C' The unit is somewhat worried and/or damaged.

'D' The unit is badly alarmed and/or hurt but still in the fight.

'E' The unit is now rated as permanently 'shaken' (see morale rules,
below). It may not advance towards the enemy, although it may perform
other manoeuvres. If it is within range of the enemy, it will fire wildly until
it is moved out of range.

'F' The unit is 'broken' and must retreat as fast as possible to a safe place,
in a 'disorganized' skirmish formation.

'G' The unit has had the stuffing knocked out of it completely. Only a
small nucleus of brave men remains with the colours, of no tactical
significance. The model unit is removed from the table.

Note that no unit is removed from the table unless it falls to status 'G'.
There will thus be no visible means of telling the status of an enemy's unit,
apart from the way it behaves. This is only realistic, since in battle it is
always difficult to tell the enemy's precise status.
 To keep track of your own losses, a written record is kept. If there is an
umpire this task is given to him, and he might not always choose to release
the information about status, even to friendly commanders. Lined paper is
used for this record keeping, with a list of all units down the left-hand
margin. Inside the margin is the unit status at the start of the game. As units
suffer losses the new status is recorded along the line, and the old one
crossed out. When a unit becomes temporarily 'shaken' due to a morale test,
the letter 'S' is added at the end of the line, and crossed out if the unit is
successfully rallied.

It does not take much practice to keep these records quickly and
efficiently. They give an instant summary of the state of the Division, and
at the end of the battle they can be used to add up the casualties suffered.

Example of a record sheet for the Divisional game.

The 200th infantry battalion has lost 0.5 of a status grade, then a further
0.7, bringing it from 'B' status to 'C - 0.2.
The 201 light infantry has lost one status grade and then another, later. At
some stage it was 'shaken', but it has now rallied.

The 202 guard infantry battalion has lost 1.2 grades, and is still shaken;
whereas the 203rd battalion has had no luck whatsoever.

The remaining units have suffered light losses, but have not yet lost any
full status grades.
Temporary morale changes

The status of each unit gives an accurate reading for basic morale and
losses. There are certain circumstances, however, when the basic score is
temporarily changed due to a passing influence. In these cases the unit may
become temporarily 'disorganized' or temporarily 'shaken'.

Any unit which is in the process of changing formation, lying prone,

'bunching', crossing an obstacle or skirmishing too far from its parent unit,
will count as temporarily 'disorganized' until it stops that activity. This
means that the troops will still obey orders, but as a result of the particular
operation they are performing, they will lack their full steadiness. If the
enemy attacks while they are 'disorganized', they will fight as if they are
'shaken' and may throw a dice for a quick rally. If they are not attacked they
will be reorganized automatically as soon as their particular operation is
complete.

Units which count as 'shaken' are those which are not fully organized for
combat. They may not advance towards the enemy, although they may still
carry out other manoeuvres. If they are within range of the enemy they will
automatically fire at him until they are moved out of range (for the effect of
this sort of fire, see below).

A unit will always be 'shaken' if its status has fallen to 'E' or below. In
this case it is 'shaken' permanently, and may not be rallied. A unit with a
higher basic status may also become 'shaken', however; but only
temporarily, as it may later be rallied. Units become temporarily 'shaken' in
this way either as a result of combat, or after a morale test.

Any unit which loses a close combat is automatically 'shaken', whether or

not it also loses status. As long as it stays above 'E' status, rallying may be
attempted.

Morale tests are taken in the following circumstances:

· When the unit is within musket range (200 m) of an enemy unit or sub-
unit.
· A friendly unit or sub-unit attempts to pass through the unit; this does
not include the unit's own skirmishers returning to re-form with the unit.
· A friendly 'broken' unit, i.e. at status 'F', moves past the unit.

· Enemy infantry achieve a rear attack on the unit, or enemy cavalry

achieve a flank or rear attack. In neither case will a morale test be
required if the defending unit had previously faced a sub-unit towards
 the attack, e.g. cavalry cannot claim a flank or rear attack against a
square.
· The Division commander is killed or wounded within 200 m of the
unit.

· Cavalry which have just won a close combat must test morale, as they
may become over-excited and liable to pursue the enemy recklessly.
The morale test itself consists of rolling one nugget. The unit will lose
the morale test, and become 'shaken', for the following scores, or less:
Unit’s Nugget
Status score

'A' 1

'B' 2

'C' 3

'D' 4

Rallying When a unit is temporarily 'shaken' or 'disorganized', for

whatever reason, it must fight as if it were at status 'E', unless it can achieve
a quick rally. In this case a nugget is thrown before the result of combat is
calculated. If the score is 9, the unit rallies quickly, and fights at its true
basic status level.

'Shaken' units are normally rallied more slowly than this. One nugget is
rolled for each temporarily 'shaken' unit on each turn. Any unit which
scores a 9 may be rallied, starting at the beginning of the next turn.
Linked to morale are the initiatives which unit commanders may wish to
take in a crisis, contrary to any previous orders. These initiatives may occur
during close combats, when the units have been caught in the wrong
formation or with the wrong orders, e.g. infantry may not be in square
against cavalry, or may have orders to stand still when it really wants to
counter-attack, etc. In these cases the player must wait until half-way
through the turn before he may change the unit's orders at all. Then he may
claim the 'combat initiative' to perform the new act. The initiative will be
allowed only if the following score is equalled or exceeded in one nugget
roll:

Unit’s Nugget score

Status

'A' 5

'B' 6

'C' 7

'D' 8

If these scores are not achieved, the unit must follow the original orders.
If the scores are achieved, the unit may start to carry out the new initiative
during the second half of its turn.
Sequence of actions in each turn

(i) All players decide what they intend to do during the turn. If the
opposition is especially cantankerous it will be necessary to use markers or
make a written note, but this is not so with sensible players.
(ii) All players simultaneously move all units they had decided to move.
Every unit may be moved in each turn, unless it is to fire on that turn, or is
unavoidably detained by the morale rules.

Because movement is simultaneous, players are on their honour to carry

out the moves they had originally planned, and not to change them. This
often causes some problems with ungentlemanly players who try to take
advantage of what they see the other side is up to. Several methods may be
used to limit this form of cheating, however, and in extreme cases recorded
moves may be adopted. The use of an umpire is a much less cumbersome
solution, and so is a rule that every player must start by moving the pieces
on his right, and then work across to his left. In this way each player will
always move half his pieces before the enemy's opposite number, and half
afterwards, thus maintaining a rough balance. Another useful rule is that
once a player has moved a piece, he must not change his mind and move it
in some other way.

(iii) Both sides announce which units are firing, and at what targets. All
firing units are assessed on the basis of their status at the start of the turn, so
that any damage inflicted upon them during that turn affects their firepower
only on the following turn. Artillery fire, however, should as far as possible
be assessed before musketry.

(iv) Both sides take any morale tests which are due, and settle any close
combats, including crisis initiative moves.

(v) Both sides attempt to rally any temporarily 'shaken' units.

(vi) Players then, and only then, take receipt of any orders arriving during
the turn, and write any new orders to be dispatched by courier during the
next turn.

(vii) When all this has been finished, someone with a loud voice (or the
umpire if there is one) shouts that the turn has finished and the next one is
starting. Players will keep a written record of which turn is in progress.

Movement

Units move the following number of metres during each turn:

Type of unit Open Rough Obstacles i.e.

ground ground
temporarily

disorganized
units

Formed 130 90 60
infantry in
line

Formed 170 110 40

infantry in
column

Formed 30 10 —
infantry in
square

Skirmishers 200 140 80

or irregulars

Field arty or 100 40 —

wagons

Horse arty 250 200 50

or heavy
cavalry

Light 300 250 100

cavalry or
staff group

Couriers 350 300 200

Concealed moves: any move which is ordered in a part of the battlefield

that should be invisible to the enemy, e.g. behind a hill, or in a village or
wood, will not be laid out on the table top. The figures concerned will be
kept off the table, until the enemy has some troops in a position to see them.
While troops are moving (or standing) concealed in this way, their positions
must be reported to the umpire (if there is one) or written on a piece of
paper. Any troops which fire from a concealed position must immediately be
placed on the table top, since the smoke of their firing would automatically
betray their positions.
Roads: all units add 10 m to movement rates on roads, but must be
formed in single file or column of route.
Slopes: count as rough ground, whether moving up or down.

Heavy ploughland: counts as rough ground.

Open woods: count as rough ground.

 Thick woods: count as obstacles. Troops automatically form into
skirmish order if they enter either type of wood. Regular formations are
impossible in this type of terrain.

Marshes: count as obstacles.

Rivulets: any unit trying to cross in that turn must move at rough ground
rate throughout the turn.

Streams: count as obstacles throughout the turn.

Small rivers: may be crossed by infantry and cavalry units in four turns,
but are totally impassable to guns or vehicles, without a bridge or ford.
Big rivers: totally impassable to all except couriers, who may swim
across in four turns, but are drowned if they throw 0 on a nugget.
Bridges and fords: all units cross these, provided they are formed in
column of route.
Villages: all movement through villages counts as movement in rough
ground, whether or not there are roads through the village. If troops wish to
enter or leave houses, it takes a whole turn in each case. Small houses will
accommodate the equivalent of half a battalion; large houses take a whole
battalion. Precise capacities for each building should be agreed before the
start of the game.
Low hedges, walls, ditches, etc., count as obstacles to infantry, but are
totally impassable to cavalry and artillery, unless engineers have opened a
breach.
High walls are impassable to all units.
Mounting and dismounting: cavalry take a whole turn to mount or
dismount.
Limbering and unlimbering: artillery units take a whole turn to limber or
unlimber their guns, during which the guns may not be fired. In this game
we do not use model limbers, so players must make specific
announcements as to whether their guns are limbered or not.
 Manhandling and traversing artillery: artillery may be moved by hand,
without first limbering up, at the rate of 30 m per turn. Alternatively it may
be traversed through an angle of 45° in half turn, to face a new target. Any
battery firing upon a target must face within 45° of it.

Infantry lying down: it takes one whole turn to make an infantry unit lie
down, and another whole turn to make it stand up. During both of these
moves the unit is temporarily 'disorganized'.

Changing formation: units which are to change formation move each of

their sub-units to their new positions in the normal way, taking the time it
would normally take to move troops that distance. No troops in the unit
may perform any other act, e.g. firing, while any of the unit's members are
still in the process of changing formation. The whole unit is also
temporarily 'disorganized' throughout the operation.

Firing: units, including cavalry, may either fire in a turn, or move. The
only exceptions to this are:

Artillery which is traversed or manhandled for half a turn may then fire
for the remaining half turn, but only at half its normal effectiveness.

Units which have elected to fire in a turn, but which receive an enemy
attack during that turn, do not fire in the normal way. Instead, the effect of
their fire is included within the same calculation as the effect of the close
combat itself.

Rifle-armed units fire only once every two turns. Between each shot they
must take one stationary reloading turn. Pedants may argue that Napoleonic
troops could fire much faster than we allow in our rules. It was true that this
was possible with very well drilled troops, in peacetime, and without
counting the delays imposed by command and control problems. In battle,
however, with average troops, the rate of fire must have been much nearer
what we suggest here.

Couriers: every time a courier is sent with a message, he receives it at the

end of one turn, but does not start his actual movement until the following
turn. A nugget is then thrown. If the score is 1 or 2, he moves at half rate
for the whole of that mission (each courier has only one nugget rolled for
him per mission). If the nugget score is 0 he is killed, injured, or hopelessly
lost on the way, and never delivers his message. If a courier does arrive, his
message is delivered only at the end of that turn.

Engineering: a division of engineers takes five turns to make a passage

through a hedgerow, ditch, wall, etc. Ordinary infantry take ten turns. A
division of engineers may plant a demolition charge (for a bridge, wall, etc.)
in ten turns, and may then blow it when they wish. If a 0 or 1 is thrown on a
nugget the charge fails to explode, and the work must be done again.

Artillery fire

Artillery batteries have the following maximum ranges, provided that they
can see the target:

Horse artillery- 750 m

Field artillery- 1000 m
Heavy artillery - 1250 m
All artillery is assumed to be firing grape or canister when the enemy
comes within 200 m, although morale tests may then force the guns to
cease firing. When the enemy comes within 50 m during a turn, the gun's
fire effect will not be calculated in the normal way, but as part of the
combat rules (see below).

Every time a battery fires, read off the status lost (in tenths of a grade) by
the target from the table below, and note the change on the target unit's
record sheet. The scores shown in brackets are the effect when canister is
used. For example, a 'B' grade field battery firing at 'C' grade cavalry would
reduce it to 'C' minus 0.3 at long range, or 'C' grade minus 0.6 at canister
range.
 Loss of status to units under fire by one battery for one turn

FIRING UNIT TARGET TYPE AND FORMATION

Bty type and status Cavalry Inf. line Skirmishers

Deployed Prone inf.
Inf. Column/ arty Troops in
square cover

Limbered Arty

Field arty 'A'/' B' 0.3 (0.6) 0.2 (0.4) 0.1 (0.2)

'C'/'D' 0.2 (0.4) 0.1 (0.2) - (0.1)

'E'/'F' 0.1 (0.2) - (0.1) - (0.1)

Horse arty 'A'/'B' 0.2 (0.4) 0.1 (0.2) - (0.1)

'C'/'D' 0.1 (0.2) - (0.1) - (0.1)

'E'/'F' - (0.1) - (0.1) - (---)

Heavy arty 'A'/'B' 0.5 (1.0) 0.3 (0.6) 0.2 (0.4)

'C'/'D' 0.3 (0.6) 0.2 (0.4) 0.1 (0.2)

'E'/'F' 0.2 (0.4) 0.1 (0.2) 0.1 (0.1)

Variations to artillery fire effects

Where a blank is shown in the above table, throw a nugget. The target
will lose 0.1 from its status if the score is 7, 8, or 9.

When buildings are under fire from artillery, throw a nugget for each
battery firing. If a 9 comes up, the building has started to burn, and must be
evacuated at once by all its occupants. This represents the fact that each
battery contains a number of howitzers capable of firing explosive shell.
 Enfilades Infantry in line or deployed artillery count as infantry in
column or limbered artillery if the firing unit can enfilade them, i.e. if it is
firing at 900 to their line, so that its shot can rake their whole length.

Troops in cover or prone count as 'in line' if artillery can enfilade them
properly. In reality, not even good cover was totally effective against this
type of fire, and enfilading became a principle weapon in fortress warfare.

Hard cover In certain cases (e.g. troops behind very solid masonry) cover
will be especially resistant to artillery, so that the effects of fire will be
halved. Players must agree before the game which parts of the battlefield
count as hard cover. Note that most buildings in the Napoleonic period
count as soft cover, since they were usually quite flimsily built, of wood,
wattle and daub and so on. Buildings also gave off nasty flying splinters
under artillery fire, which increased the casualties among those inside or
near them, thus partially counter-balancing their use as 'cover'.

Artillery which has been manhandled or traversed for half a turn may
then fire for half a turn, but at half normal effectiveness.

Staff officers or individuals: whenever they are in danger, cither from

artillery fire or if they are entangled in a close combat, a nugget is thrown:
they are killed for a score of 0; wounded for a score of 1 or 2.

Musketry

Musketry ranges are as follows (in metres):

Type Maximum range Effective range

Normal muskets 200 50

Rifles 400 100

Cavalry carbines 100 10

All divisions which are in view of the enemy within these ranges may
fire, provided that they have not already moved on that turn. Note that only
the front rank of models may fire: models further to the rear may not fire
over the heads of others, because one line of models represents a triple line
of soldiers, and fire could not be delivered by more than two or three deep.
Units which receive an enemy attack during a turn may not fire in the
normal way, their fire is taken as part of the general calculation for the close
combat (see below).

One nugget is thrown for every division (or cavalry squadron) which
fires. If a score equal to or higher than that shown in the table below is
thrown, the target loses half a status grade; for example, four divisions of
formed troops at status 'C' firing at formed troops in the open at long range
roll scores of 0, 6, 8, and 9. This means that the enemy lose half a status
grade, for the 9. If the same fire had been at short range, the enemy would
have lost one and a half status grades, half a grade each for the 6, 8 and 9.
Dice rolls needed to inflict half a grade status loss on the enemy

Firing Unit Target

Formation Status Formed troops in Skirmishers, gunners,

open or formed troops in
cover

Long Short Long Short

range range range range

Formed 'A'/' B' 9 5 - 7

'C'/'D' 9 6 - 8

'E'/'F' - 8 - 9

Skirmishing 'A'/' B' 8 4 9 6

'C'/'D' 9 5 - 7

'E'/'F' - 8 - 9

Formed or skirmishing, - 8 - 9
any status except
disorganised
Close combat

When opposing units come within 200 m of each other, both must test
morale (see above). If an attacker survives this and continues to advance to
within 50 m of an enemy unit, there will be a close combat. This does not
normally mean that there is true hand-to-hand fighting, except between two
cavalry units or in street fighting. It usually means that when they come
within that range of each other the two sides will study the form very
closely indeed, and one of them will be outfaced.

Skirmishers are automatically pushed back to rejoin their parent unit,

without loss, if they are attacked by a formed body. Skirmishers beyond 400
m from their parent unit, however, will not be able to rejoin it unless they
roll 9 on a rallying dice.
Exceptions to this are when the attacker is himself 'shaken', when he
would not have been able to make an attack in the first place, or in woods,
when the attacker will himself be automatically in skirmish order. When
attacked by other skirmishers, as in woods, skirmishers do not retreat, but
stand their ground. The combat then continues as a fire fight until one side
or the other decides to retire. Notice that in thick woods both sides will also
automatically be 'disorganized', so they will fire at lesser effectiveness.

Equally, skirmishers may advance to within 50 m of a formed unit, but

must instantly rejoin their parent unit if that formed body makes the
slightest offensive movement. Skirmishers may not press home an attack on
anyone: their action is entirely by fire.

When formed units are in close combat with a formed enemy, apart from
cavalry against cavalry (see below), both sides halt when their first ranks
are within 50 m of each other. Combat is resolved as follows:

Both players agree which units are in each combat, and in what
formations. At this point players may make attempts at quick rallies for any
unit which is temporarily 'shaken' or 'disorganized', including any attacking
units in column which have 'bunched' too close to their neighbours in the
approach march. Failure to rally 'bunched' units will disqualify them from
being counted in the combat, although they must share in its result; i.e. if
they do not rally, their combat points will not be added to the total score of
that side, but if that side loses the combat, they will also be deemed to have
lost. If the defender claims any crisis initiative moves, they must also be
settled now.

Units which are following too close behind either attacker or defender
(i.e. units which have 'bunched' to less than 50 m behind front line units)
must be counted in the result of combat, but will not be counted in the
combat scores; they will simply be sucked along in the combat without
being able to influence it.
A small Austrian force, deployed in line, has been attacked by a mass of
French infantry, in several lines of battalion columns. The Austrian cavalry
on the left flank has charged the infantry and forced two battalions to form
square, thus upsetting the attack. This has disrupted the cavalry's first
echelon. On the French left a battalion in a column of double divisions is
coming under fire from the deployed Austrian line. The Austrian battery is
firing into the juicy target presented by the French square. The French
skirmishers, meanwhile, are retiring in the face of the cavalry threat.
advancing around the square which remains.

Apart from these exceptions, all units which naturally fall into the same
action, all the battalions attacking the same line, etc., are included in the
one combat. Players must agree where the boundaries fall between each
separate combat.

Both sides then add up the total point values of all their units which are
allowed to count in the combat, according to the table on the next page
(any units still temporarily 'disorganized' or 'shaken' will count as 'E'
grade):

The central square has succumbed to the artillery fire and the cavalry has
been reinforced. The Austrian cavalry's first line is still in disorder, mixed
with fleeing French infantry. On the French left, their lead battalion has
been checked by the Austrian infantry, but on their extreme right flank a
fresh battalion column is still advancing around the square which remains.

Status
Unit Type

'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F'

Artillery battery 4 3 2 1 0 0

Battalion 5 4 3 2 1 0

Heavy cavalry 6 5 4 3 2 1
regiment

Light cavalry 5 4 3 2 1 0
regiment

Both sides now make the following additions or subtractions for each unit's
score:

ADD ONE to combat score for:

All units making an attack or counter-attack.

Any one unit closely accompanied by the Division commander, who
will be entangled in the fight.
All defending units on ground higher than the attacker.
All defending units behind normal cover.

The cavalry now meets the French second line, and finds that it comes
under fire from a new square hastily formed by the French battalion to their
right, as well as a column of double divisions to their front, and the original
square to their left. A desultory firefight continues between the Austrian
infantry and the shaken French battalion whose original attack failed.
Unless they can commit more troops to the battle, the Austrians will now
find that the tide of battle is turning against them, as their cavalry has been
defeated, and they are heavily outnumbered in the infantry battle.

All lancer units fighting against infantry or artillery, for their longer
weapons.
All armoured cavalry units.
 All units larger than normal, e.g. five-division battalions, five-squadron
cavalry regiments.

ADD TWO to combat score for:

· All defending units behind hard cover.

DEDUCT ONE from combat score for:

· All units which have been in any close combat on the immediately
preceding turn.

· All infantry not in line to receive an infantry attack.

· All cavalry units attacking, from any side, against infantry in column.
· All cavalry units attacking frontally against infantry in line.
· All units smaller than normal, e.g. three-division battalion, three-
squadron cavalry regiment.
DEDUCT TWO from combat score for:

· All cavalry units on foot.

DEDUCT THREE from combat score for:

· All cavalry units attacking infantry in square.

· Any unit in column of route, including units trying to storm across

bridges.

After all this, both sides will have an overall total for their units in the
combat.
Both sides throw one nugget to find the variations in score due to chance:
Nugget Result
score

0 combat score
unchanged
 1 add 25% to combat
score

2 add 50%

3-6 add 100%

7 add 150%

8 add 200%

9 add 400%

The side with the higher final total is the winner of that close combat. If
the result is a draw, the defender wins.
The losing side must withdraw all units engaged in the close combat one
full move at once (free movement), and all these units are automatically
temporarily 'shaken'. In addition, a nugget is rolled for each of these units,
to see what status they have lost. This result should, ideally, be kept
concealed from the enemy.

For nugget score of

0 or 1 unit loses 2 status grades

2 or 3 unit loses 1.5 status grades

4 or 5 unit loses 1 status grade

6 or 7 unit loses 0.5 status grade

8 or 9 unit loses nothing

One grade is deducted from the nugget score if there is no unit of the
same brigade in support behind that unit. Two points are deducted if there
are no supporting units at all behind the unit.
The winning side advances 50 m at once (free movement) and stops on
the enemy's former position, without suffering any loss. If the winner's
force included any cavalry units, they must throw a nugget to test morale.
If they lose the morale throw they recklessly pursue the enemy, and must
throw for losses, as he does. They will remain confused with the enemy
unit during his immediate retreating move after combat, and may
disengage on the following turn.
In the case of cavalry combat against other cavalry, the same formula is
used as before, except that the assessment of results is broken down into
two phases, to represent the succession of clashes as first the front line is
engaged, and then the second. In the first phase all regiments which are
within range of the enemy commit their front line squadrons, and these
become involved in a battle.
Regardless of type, status or tactical position, the side which has
committed numerically more squadrons in the front line now automatically
advances 50 m to the enemy starting position. The enemy must now test
morale, and if he loses the test he also loses the combat as a whole. If he
passes this test, on the other hand, he will be fighting at an advantage,
having lured the opposing front line on to his own fresh reserves. In this
case the combat is settled in the normal way, but with both sides deducting
one point from their final combat scores for every squadron they had placed
in their original front line.

Example of a cavalry combat

To give an example of this process, the Royal Wallamaloo Yeomanry,

light cavalry, status 'C’, attack with three squadrons in their first line against
the Cuirassiers de Cornichon, armoured heavy cavalry, status 'B', who have
only one squadron in the front line. In the first phase the yeomanry
automatically push back the enemy 50 m, and he throws for morale. He
throws a 3, which is just enough to continue the fight into the second phase.

Both sides must now add up their combat scores in the normal way. The
yeomanry have a basic score of 3, to which they add one for making the
attack, but deduct three for their original front line strength, giving a total of
1. The cuirassiers, on the other hand, have a basic score of 5, to which they
add one for their armour, but deduct one for their original front line strength
so the total is still 5. These scores are now adjusted according to a chance
dice: the yeomanry throw 7, which adds 150 % to their score; 1 + 1.5 giving
a final total of 2.5. The cuirassiers throw 2 which only adds 50%; 5+ 2.5
giving a final total of 7.5. This, however, still gives them a very convincing
margin of victory, and the yeomanry must withdraw, 'shaken'. The
cuirassiers still have to test for morale again, to see whether they pursue
recklessly. A lucky roll of 9 shows that they are totally in hand, so it
remains only to see what the yeomanry have lost. The nugget they roll for
losses shows 5, so their status is reduced from 'C' to 'D'.

A contemporary print of the epic encounter between the Royal Wallamaloo

Yeomanry and the Cuirassiers de Cornichon. Notice that both sides have
trained their horses to march in step!
4. The Brigade Game
The perceptive reader may by now have realized that there is a certain gap
between the skirmish game and the Divisional game. The skirmish game
deals entirely with details and individuals, while the Divisional game deals
only with large masses, regiments and battalions. Nowhere do we really get
a full sense of exactly what happens inside a battalion. It is to fill this gap
that we now turn to the brigade game.

The Napoleonic brigade battle

Napoleonic brigades could vary enormously in composition. In
Wellington's army they consisted of four or five battalions and a rifle
company or two; while in the Prussian army they were almost
indistinguishable from what other people called Divisions. In our games,
therefore, we may use a handful of battalions, with perhaps a battery of
artillery and a squadron or two of cavalry. This can be varied at will, to suit
the particular needs of each specific game.

It was even less common for isolated brigades to meet the enemy than it
was for isolated Divisions. Brigades would be much more likely to fight as
part of a Divisional, corps, or army battle, although in some cases the
connecting links might admittedly wear somewhat thin. Wellington's Light
Division in the Peninsular War, for example, frequently spread its brigades
over a very wide area, and demanded a high level of self-sufficiency from
them. In the main, however, it was far more normal for brigades to fight
with plenty of support nearby. If they were overwhelmed they could be
replaced in the front line by fresh troops, and the battle could continue.
Brigades would thus usually fight with a higher headquarters fairly close at
hand.

The brigade commander's task was in some ways rather similar to the
Division commander's, since both often operated with several lines of
battalions which had to be fed in successively at the right moments and in
the right places. Unlike the Division commander, however, the brigade
commander would have to exercise a great deal of personal control and
supervision of his men. He would have to command drill movements, and
watch over the morale of his units. He would no longer be a rather remote
figure, but would be well known to his troops. In order to design our
brigade game properly, therefore, we must give the commander this added
responsibility for what goes on at low level.

What you will need to play the brigade game

You will need a playing surface and scenery as described for the two
previous games, and stationery.
Two model brigades

Brigades should be made up of 15 mm or 25 mm figures, exactly as for the

Divisional game, and mounted on the same size of bases. The only
difference will be that in this case one model soldier represents ten real men
instead of thirty-three, and the ground scale will be 5 mm representing 2 m,
instead of 5 mm representing 5 m.
These scales mean that each base of five model infantry figures
represents a section, which is half a company, instead of a division of two
companies, as in the Divisional game. One base of three cavalry figures
represents a section, which is half a platoon or a quarter of a squadron,
instead of a whole squadron. Each model cannon represents a section of
two model guns, two limbers and their associated teams, instead of a whole
battery. Each model caisson represents four real caissons or other battery
vehicles.
To put this another way, a battalion is now represented by about twelve
bases instead of four, assuming that it has six companies; a squadron of
cavalry is represented by four bases instead of one; and an artillery battery
is represented by three or four cannon plus three or four caissons, instead of
simply by one cannon on its own. Every battalion, squadron and battery
must have a mounted figure to represent its commander; and the brigade as
a whole should have a model staff group to represent its headquarters.

Playing the brigade game

A scenario is devised on very much the same lines as for the Divisional
game, but bearing in mind that with the scales used for the brigade game,
each square inch of the model battlefield will represent considerably less
real ground. Thus the units will have much less elbow room on the table top
than in the Divisional game, unless a bigger playing area, such as a floor, is
used.

Organization of wargame units for the brigade game

Orders

One of the most distinctive features of the brigade game is the importance
attached to the transmission of orders. Very little may be done by units
unless they have very specific orders: for example, 'advance over that wall
and capture the farm'; 'form square'; 'open fire', and so on. It is therefore
essential that all the stages in the transmission of orders are followed by the
player. The skill in this game consists in anticipating what orders will be
required, perhaps two or three turns ahead, so they can be transmitted in
good time. The player who masters this skill better than his opponent will
usually be the winner.

At the start of each turn the player, who is represented on the table by a
specific figure, may write up to two orders. He then works out how many
turns it will take for these to be received by units. For example, it may take
a courier one turn to take the message from the player's figure to the
recipient battalion commander; and the battalion commander takes a turn to
pass the message down to his individual sections of soldiers, according to
the rules for movement. In this case the order would take two turns to
transmit, plus half a turn to issue, making a total of two and a half turns.
When the player writes the order he must also make a note of the time at
which it will start to be obeyed.

Only very minor actions are allowed outside the written orders, mostly
common sense interpretations of them. If there is any dispute, the unit
concerned will be allowed to act against orders only for a nugget roll of 7, 8
or 9.
Example of transmission of orders in the brigade game

Scales

We have already stated that the figure scale is one model to ten men, and
that the ground scale is 5 mm to 2 m. The rules for the vertical scale use
similar calculations to the Divisional game, while the timescale in the
brigade game is: one turn or bound equals half a minute. This means that
three times as much action may take place per bound as in the skirmish
game; but only a quarter as much as in the Divisional game.

Status and losses

As in the Divisional game, it is very important to master the system used

for status, losses, and morale. Each unit is given a consolidated status
grade; but in this case there will be a separate status for each individual
section, whether of horse, foot or gun, instead of for each whole battalion,
battery or squadron. Thus each section will start the game at a status of 'A'
for regular, élite, or flank companies; 'B' for regular centre companies, or
reserve flankers; 'C' reserve centre companies; or 'D' for irregulars, etc.
Each status grade lost during the game represents the loss of about five
men, to all causes; every three grades lost by an artillery section will see
one cannon written off.

Sections which fall to 'E' status are automatically and irretrievably

'shaken', while those which fall to 'G' status are removed from the table.
Morale

Each section may sometimes be temporarily 'shaken' or 'disorganized',

before it falls to 'E' status. Because morale is assessed separately for each
section within the battalion, however, this means that some parts of a
battalion may be 'disorganized' or 'shaken', while the rest of the battalion is
perfectly unaffected. It is this, along with the cumbersome procedure for
passing orders, which gives the brigade game its special character. It is rare
for any single battalion ever to be completely unaffected, so commanders
must spend a great deal of time and energy trying to keep their lines steady,
exactly as in real life.

A disorganized section is perfectly under control, and may fire accurately,

and so on, but it is not in a good position for close combat. Whenever a
section passes through rough ground or obstacles, or whenever it
skirmishes, runs or changes formation, it becomes 'disorganized' and loses
its accurate alignment. This is also true (unlike in the Divisional game)
whenever a section fires its weapons. It always requires one whole turn,
stationary, to retrieve a section's alignment; what the drill sergeant calls
'taking your dressing'. Skirmishers and gunners are always counted as
'disorganized'.
Sections become temporarily 'shaken' when they fail a morale test. This
means that they automatically stop whatever they are doing, and open fire
wildly at any enemy in sight, however far away he may be. To stop a
shaken section from firing requires a rallying dice, and even that will not in
itself allow the unit to regain its 'dressing'. Even if there is no enemy in
sight a 'shaken' section will not be allowed to make any advance, although
it may still be ordered to perform other drill movements. Once again, the
section will remain 'shaken' until it has been rallied by a favourable
rallying dice.

Although the terrain at Austerlitz does not look like this, the picture
gives an excellent idea of the extended lines used in Napoleonic battles. In
the centre, just behind Napoleon's head, we see one battalion deployed in
line, with its mounted officer and N.C.O.s in the fourth rank. Further afield
we see a regiment of four cavalry squadrons attacking to the left, and an
artillery battery of five guns deployed on the right, with caissons parked
behind. Note also the characteristic scattering of stragglers around the
battlefield - the men who failed to keep their alignments.
Morale tests are taken in the following circumstances:

· The section sees the enemy for the first time.

· The section comes within 200 m of the enemy or the enemy approaches
within 200 m of the section.

· Whenever there is a change of orders while the enemy is within 200 m;

this is for formed infantry only and does not apply to cavalry, artillery,
or skirmishing infantry. It includes the order to open fire, since there
were few actions which so disturbed troops on the Napoleonic
battlefield as having to use close order fire.

· A friendly section tries to pass through the section.

· The battalion commander is killed or wounded within voice range, 30

m.

· The adjacent section is 'shaken' from the previous turn, and has not
been rallied on this turn. This allows unease to spread down a line of
troops, unless it is checked early.

· In combat (see combat rules, below).

The morale test itself consists of rolling one nugget. The section fails the
test and becomes shaken if the following scores, or less, appear:
Section Nugget
status score

'A' 1

'B' 2

'C' 3

'D' 4

Some possible combinations of morale within a battalion

 Rallying a shaken section is achieved by rolling a 9 on a nugget. One
attempt at rallying may be made each turn.

Sequence of actions in each turn

(i) All players make written notes of all orders which they are supposed
to issue on that turn (up to two per turn), and a note of the turn on
which the order will start to be obeyed.

(ii) Both sides simultaneously move. If this includes any morale tests,
they are taken at this stage.

(iii) The result of any firing is calculated.

(iv) The result of all close combats is assessed; and any attempts to rally
units.

(v) Both sides agree that the turn is over and the next may begin.

Command

Commanders may issue up to two verbal orders in a turn, i.e. either two
couriers may be briefed and sent out from the player's position, or two
direct commands may be issued to a battalion, battery, or squadron
commander, provided that his figure is within voice range, 30 m.
 A written order takes two turns to write and dispatch. If there is anything
complicated, e.g. which involves a sketch map or a complex sequence of
actions, it must be written down, unless the recipient is within voice range.
After they have received verbal or written messages, couriers move at 120
m per turn, but must throw a nugget: if 0 or 1 is thrown, they move at
quarter speed.

When orders are received by subordinates, e.g. battalion commanders

receiving a courier from the brigade commander, they may be passed on
down the hierarchy at the rate of one level every half turn. Thus it will take
a battalion commander half a turn to brief his company commanders
provided they are within vocal range, and they will require a further half
turn to brief their companies. Signals may be used for relays beyond vocal
range, provided that they have been arranged before the game. They take as
long as verbal orders to relay.

Infantry

Once an infantry section has received orders from its company commander
it may start to act. During each turn it may:

· Walk 50 m on good going, in good order; or 30 m on bad going, in

'disorder'; or 10 m backwards or sideways, in 'disorder'.
· Charge or run 70 m, in 'disorder'.

· Cross obstacles, low walls, hedges, fences, etc., in 'disorder'.

· Lie clown, stand up, fix or unfix bayonets, etc., all in 'disorder'.

· Load and fire any weapon but a rifle; a rifle takes two turns to load and
fire. Loading and firing must be done stationary, in 'disorder'.

Once troops are ordered to deliver fire in close formation, they must take
a morale test. If they become 'shaken' as a result, they must be rallied before
they may cease fire (see morale rules, above).
· Change formation Each section moves at normal speed, once specific
orders have been received to change formation, in 'disorder' for the
duration of the change.

· Take dressing Any 'disordered' unit which is not 'shaken' may be

returned to full alignment in one turn, provided it is stationary and not
doing anything else. If it is 'shaken' it must be rallied before it may take
its dressing.

The basic formation for the brigade game, of a battalion in square. Note
that in the square formation, the battery vehicles take refuge inside the
hollow square, along with the battalion staff, flags, drums and so on.

Cavalry

Once the cavalry has received orders from its squadron commander, it may
act as follows in each turn (distances in metres):
 Walk Trot Gallop

Good 70 (in good 90 (in good Heavy cavalry

going order) order) -100 (in
disorder) Light
Cavalry -
120 (in
disorder)

Rough 50 (in good 70 (in disorder) 80 (in

going order) disorder)

Note that a standing section must always walk one turn before it may
trot, and a walking section must trot one turn before it may gallop. Equally,
a galloping section must trot one turn before walking, and a trotting section
must walk one turn before stopping. If stopped by a morale test, trotting or
galloping cavalry do not stop at once, but turn away and slow down later.

Taking jumps, one turn in 'disorder' plus roll one nugget. Lose one
status grade for 4, 3, 2 or 1. Lose two grades for 0.
Mounting or dismounting, takes one turn, in 'disorder'.
Changing formation, as for infantry.

Artillery

Artillery moves as follows (in metres) each turn, provided orders have been
received:

Horse artillery Field artillery

Good going, 70 50
limbered

Bad going, 50 30
limbered

Manhandled 20 10

Limbering, unlimbering, or opening caissons take one turn each.

Preparing to fire, after unlimbering, takes one further turn for medium
guns, two turns for both heavy and horse guns (the extra horses get in the
way).

Loading and firing one shot takes one turn, except for very heavy guns,
when it takes two turns.

Traversing artillery through more than 45° takes half a turn. Note that
artillery may not cross obstacles, and that if they are attacked, gunners will
always count as being in 'disorder'. This 'disorder' does not reduce their
ability to move or fire, unless they are also 'shaken'.

Firing

Ranges are as follows:

Weapon Maximum Range Effective Range

Horse arty 750 200

Field arty 1000 200

Heavy arty 1250 200

Musket 200 50

Rifle 400 100

Carbine 100 24

Find the range to the target, the status and morale of the firing unit,
and the profile of the target. A nugget is then rolled for each section
firing, and the score is adjusted for certain variables:

· All artillery always adds two to its dice score.

· If the firing unit has not fired before in this game, add two.
· If the firing unit is mounted, deduct two.
· Artillery firing in enfilade throws two dice per section, not one
dice.
· Infantry weapons may not fire in rain, but artillery may.
Now compare the final score with the table below. If the score
equals or exceeds the score shown, there is one hit on the target, i.e.
one section loses one status grade.

Target's Profile
Firing Unit’s
Status

Inf. Column/ Inf. single line Skirmishers

square
Unlimbered Inf. in cover
Cavalry arty

Limbered arty

Long Range

'C'/'D' 8 9 10

'Shaken' or 9 10 11

status 'E' 10 11 12

Effective range

'A'/'B' 6 7 8

'C'/'D' 7 8 9

'Shaken' or 8 9 10
status 'E'

Close combat

As the distance between two opposed forces decreases, there will be morale
tests when any fresh units first see the enemy. Then, when the distance has
closed to 200 m, both sides take a morale test whether or not they have been
in action before. If the attacker can still keep enough of his force in hand, or
rally them, he may continue to advance. When he comes within 50 m of the
enemy, the close combat sequence is used.

Both sides agree on how many sections are involved in each combat. No
combat should normally have more than one battalion, battery or squadron
per side.
 Now find how many sections in each combat are enthusiastic to continue
the fight. Throw a nugget for each section in the combat, and make the
relevant adjustments for the tactical circumstances:

· Cavalry which find the flank of an infantry or artillery force add 3 to

their score.

· Defending infantry and artillery which are behind cover or uphill from
an attack add 1 to their score.

· Attacking troops coming downhill or taking the enemy in a flank add 1.

· Any unit within voice range of the brigade commander adds 1.

After finding the total for each section, compare it with the scores shown
below. Any score which equals or exceeds the score shown represents a
section which is still interested in the fight.

Status

Unit 'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E'

Full formed/ in hand 5 6 7 8 9

'Disorganised'/'shaken' 8 8 9 9 10

Now add up the total number of interested sections on each side, and
make a note of which they are. The side with the higher number is the
winner of the combat.

If the attacker wins, he occupies the enemy position, but is ‘disorganized’

until he can take his dressing. All his sections which failed the enthusiasm
test in combat must now test for morale in the normal way. Any section
which fails this test becomes shaken and lose one status grade. The defeated
defenders must also retie one move, ‘disorganized’ and must test morale for
all his sections. Again, all sections which fail this test become ‘shaken’, and
lose one status grade.
 If the defender wins, he holds his ground, but is ‘disorganized’ until he
takes his dressing. Those sections which had failed the enthusiasm test must
now test for morale in the normal way; any which fail become ‘shaken’,
and lose one status grade. As for the defeated attacker, he must stop 50 m
short, ‘disorganized’, and must test morale for all sections. Any which fail
become ‘shaken’ and lose one status grade.

If there are any cavalry sections among the winning side, they must all
automatically test morale. If they fail, they become ‘shaken’, lose one status
point and pursue the enemy recklessly.
5. The Army Level Game
We cannot discuss games with model soldiers without also mentioning the
highest level of them all: that of the army or corps. At this level we portray
an entire Napoleonic battle in one game, and are no longer forced to play
only a part of a battle in which the result will ultimately turn on external
circumstances and the decisions made by some higher headquarters. When
we play the army level game we are at last taking the role of the higher
headquarters itself; we can be Wellington at Waterloo, the Archduke
Charles at Aspern-Essling or Napoleon at Austerlitz.

There are two ways of setting up a game at army level. Either you can
spend two or three days playing a series of Divisional games
simultaneously in a large hall or even, in theory, a huge multiplicity of
brigade games spread over a month or two, or you can accept simpler rules
and play a single, unified game within a few hours. This second alternative
means that in many details the rules will inevitably be much less realistic
than those for the games we have discussed so far; but in the central fact of
portraying high command they will actually be more realistic. If the player
has to take the same sort of decisions as Wellington or Napoleon, within
about the same space of time, it will obviously make a better simulation
than if he has to make a lot more decisions, at a lower level, spread over a
longer time.

The Napoleonic army battle

The majority of Napoleonic battles involved either an army corps on each
side, or a whole army. This is really just another way of reiterating my
earlier statements that very few battles consisted of isolated Divisions on
their own. The somewhat static and formal Peninsular battles were fought
with several Divisions on each side, while in central Europe there tended to
be several army corps, manoeuvring over a frontage of many miles. The
action would often start when an advanced Division bumped into the
enemy. The corps commander might then concentrate all his forces upon
that point, and a corps action would be fought. If the rest of the army was
relatively widely dispersed, then the affair might not develop any further
than that, since reinforcing corps would be unable to arrive before a
decision had been reached. This was the case, for example, at the battles of
Golymin (1806), Kuhm (1813) and Vauchamps (1814).

If the main armies were concentrated, on the other hand, the corps battle
would soon be reinforced and taken over by army headquarters. This would
be the signal for a general army action to develop, which might take
between eight hours and three days to complete. No two were the same, of
course, but it is worth mentioning some of the general characteristics which
have been considered typical in the past.

At the start of the battle the first units to arrive would usually engage the
enemy frontally and try to pin him. Reinforcements would be fed into the
line as they arrived, in an attempt to stabilize the position and maintain
pressure on the enemy. The army commander might arrive at this stage, and
make a reconnaissance of the ground and the possibilities. A great deal of
what happened subsequently would depend upon his appreciation of what
was going on.

The skill of the commander would be applied to drawing the enemy's

reserves into the action while husbanding his own, for once a reserve unit
was committed, it was very difficult to extricate it and use it on another line
of action. It was also important to identify the enemy's line of
communication, and try to threaten that. Army corps which had not yet
arrived on the battlefield might therefore be sent hectic orders to swing
wide, and try to arrive on the enemy's flank or rear. Once again, this would
keep up the pressure on the enemy's reserves, and it was often this sort of
concentration on the battlefield which held the whole key to success.

As the battle developed, the successful commander might gradually

collect a masse de rupture in reserve. He would eventually throw this
forward in a huge frontal attack, supported by massive artillery fire, at the
moment when he judged the enemy to be sufficiently worn down. If
everything went well this mass would break through, and its cavalry would
fan out in pursuit of the beaten enemy.
 Things could go wrong at any stage in this process, however. The enemy
might luckily defeat some of the early attacks, and thus be able to keep up
more pressure than vice versa (e.g. at Eylau, 1807, when Augereau's corps
was defeated early on). Again, a corps detailed to swing round the enemy's
flank or rear might well arrive late or in the wrong place (e.g. Ney's corps at
Bautzen, 1813). The final central attack might totally fail to break through
(e.g. Waterloo, 1815); or might achieve only partial success (e.g. Wagram,
1809). Most likely of all, perhaps, the victorious army might be too
exhausted to exploit its success in a pursuit (e.g. Borodino, 1812). In the end
result, the plan would probably have to be changed several times, and would
not look nearly as neat and tidy in practice as it had on paper.
The stages in the development of an army's battle (according to H. Camon,
1910)

What you will need to play the army level game

If you are fighting on a table top, you will need terrain and scenery as
already described, but on a much smaller scale. 15 mm might just be
acceptable for minor actions; but 5 mm is really the scale to aim for. If you
are lucky enough to have access to a large hall, on the other hand, you can
use 15 mm and 25 mm figures quite happily; but you will need a huge
number of figures as well as a lot of players. You will once again need
stationery, as for the previous games.
Two model armies
These should be divided into army corps and Divisions, and then into
brigades and battalions. For table top use each battalion should be
represented by a single small base about 10 mm long, with only a few
figures on it. The 5 mm blocks which were produced a few years ago are
ideal for this; but something quite effective can also be made up from
suitably painted matchsticks.
Artillery batteries are represented by a single model gun; and cavalry
regiments are represented by a single block of cavalry figures, also about 10
mm long. The wargamer can also make up staff groups for Divisional
commanders and above; wagon units, pontoon bridges, and other
impedimenta. We will be operating at such a high level that all these things
may at last come into the game.

If you are using 25 mm armies in a large hall, the organization is as for the
Divisional game.
Markers for simultaneous movement
Each player should have a stock of cardboard markers in his army's colour,
to indicate his intentions for each unit on each turn. There should be a large
number of battalion (or battery, or cavalry regiment) markers, plus a set of
larger ones for each brigade. They should indicate 'rapid movement',
including the intention to charge home if possible (a straight arrow);
'cautious movement', avoiding combat if possible (a zigzag arrow); the
desire to 'stand firm', firing if appropriate (a blank); or 'digging in' (a spade
symbol).
Playing the game
A scenario must be devised. It is best to play games of this scale as part of
map campaigns (see chapter seven); but failing that, the game should be
started with two Divisions (or even corps, if it is a big game) already in
combat. We assume that this is the moment when the army commander
reaches the scene and makes his appreciation. His remaining units should
be spread out in a fan behind the point of contact: some already laid out on
the playing surface, and some off the table, each a stated number of hours'
march away.

A major problem with this game is visibility, for these operations were so
huge that no one man would ever have been able to overlook the whole
battle as our wargamers are now doing. The use of an umpire may alleviate
this a little, and conceal certain units until they would really be visible to
the enemy. In general, however, we will have to accept an unrealistically
high level of visibility in this game.

Orders

At the start of the game the army commander writes general orders for each
of his corps commanders. If there are players for the corps commanders,
they must also write orders for each of their Divisions. All action must
respect these general orders unless they are overruled by force majeure or a
new order.

Scales

As with the Divisional game, there are four scales.

The ground scale is 1 mm to 10 m, if 5 mm models are used; or 1 mm to

1 m if 25 mm or 15 mm models are used.

The figure scale is: one 5 mm block or base of figures (about 10 mm

long) represents one battalion, battery, or cavalry regiment; or, if a 15/25
mm scale is used, the figure scale is as in the Divisional game.
The vertical scale is the same as for the Divisional game.

The time scale introduces the great innovation of this game: each turn
represents a quarter of an hour's fighting. This means that we must totally
abandon any attempt to portray low level tactical actions, such as the precise
moment at which a battalion forms square, when it fires and so on, and we
have to accept a highly generalized result for all combats.
 A quarter of an hour was roughly the time it took for infantry to advance
from covered-positions into a close combat. It was also, again very roughly,
the sort of time during which units might expect to be in the very thick of
the fighting.
Status, losses, and morale

Each unit starts the game with a basic status between 'A' and 'D', exactly as
in the Divisional game. As it suffers losses its status may fall through 'E'
(automatically 'shaken', may not attack) to 'G' (totally spent, removed from
the game). The exact state of losses must be recorded by each player, or by
an umpire.

Units become temporarily 'shaken' whenever they become 'bunched', or

lose a combat (see combat rules, below), or when they fail a morale test.
This fact is then indicated on their record sheet. Morale tests are taken
whenever:
Any unit sets eyes on the enemy for the first time in the game.
A friendly unit attempts to pass through the unit.
The enemy can claim a rear attack on the unit.
Cavalry win a combat, and may try to pursue wildly (see combat
rules).

The morale test itself consists of rolling one nugget. The unit becomes
'shaken' for the following score or less:

For Status 'A' Nugget score 1

'B' 2

'D' 3

'D' 4

Rallying: whenever a unit becomes temporarily 'shaken', a nugget is

rolled for it on the next turn, and every subsequent turn. The unit will rally
if the nugget shows 8 or 9.
Sequence of actions in each turn
 (i) Players simultaneously place a movement marker face down by every
unit, to indicate what move is intended on that turn. In the front line it may
be necessary to use separate markers for every single battalion, but if this
can be avoided it is far more convenient to use only one marker for each
brigade. This will also - realistically - encourage players to think of their
brigades as relatively indivisible formations.

(ii) Players now turn their markers face up and move their units as
planned. Because the markers are there for all to see, there can be no
disputes over simultaneous movement. Whenever two opposing forces
come within 200 m of each other they must stop at once. This constitutes a
close combat for the rest of that turn.
(iii) All firing is assessed.

(iv) Morale tests and close combats are assessed.

(v) Attempts are made to rally all temporarily shaken units.

(vi) Players take receipt of any written orders, and agree to move on to a
new turn.

Movement

Units move the following distances (in metres) each turn, until they are
stopped by an obstacle or the presence of an enemy within 200 m, when a
close combat starts.

Type of unit Open Woods Deductions for

ground minor
obstacles

Infantry 700 300 -200

Manhandling arty 150 50 -100

Field arty or wagons 500 - -450

Horse arty 1200 - -1100

 Heavy cavalry 1200 300 -500

Light cavalry and 1500 300 -500

staff

Couriers move at staff rate, but do not arrive if 0 is thrown on one

nugget.

Roads add 150 m movement to all units using them.

Rivers must be graded as 'minor obstacles', 'major obstacles' (which take

one turn to ford, except for guns and vehicles), or big rivers, which can be
crossed only by couriers, who are drowned if a new nugget roll shows 0.

Limbering/unlimbering artillery takes one third of a turn.

Mounting/dismounting cavalry takes one third of a turn.

Changing formation takes no additional time. Units are always assumed

to fight in the most appropriate tactical formation.

Engineering Villages may be strengthened in two turns by a battalion, or

well fortified in six turns. In the open, fieldworks for a battalion are
constructed in eight turns.

Engineers set a demolition charge in two turns, and may blow it when
they wish, provided a nugget roll comes up anything but 0 or 1.

A pontoon bridge is set over a minor obstacle in two turns; over a major
obstacle in twice the number of turns shown on one nugget; and over a big
river in four times the number of turns shown on one nugget. Dismantling
pontoon bridges takes half their building time. Note that a nugget must be
thrown for all pontoon bridges once every eight hours. If it shows 0, the
bridge is broken by natural causes.

Fire
Fire may he applied whenever a stationary unit can see a target in range, but
is not engaged in close combat on that turn: i.e. artillery fire is normally
counted against targets between 200 m and extreme range, but not at ranges
shorter than 200 m, since that fire is already counted into the close combat
calculations. In some cases infantry may also have targets presented at less
than 200 m against which no close combat is possible, for example, over a
river, or in woods. Normally, however, only rifle-armed infantry will get an
opportunity to use fire separately from the close combat.

Ranges (in metres)

Field bty Horse bty Heavy bty Rifle Musket

Max 1000 750 1250 400 200

range

Effect of fire For each battalion, battery or cavalry regiment giving fire,
read off the result on the target from the table below. This will represent the
status lost by the target unit after one turn's fire:

Firing Units status Range (in metres)

Fire against troops in the open

'A'/'B' 1.0 0.8 1.2 0.5 0.2

'C'/'D' 0.7 0.5 0.9 0.3 0.1

'Shaken', or 'E' 0.5 0.3 0.7 0.2 -

Fire against troops in cover

'A'/'B' 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.1

'C'/'D' 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.2 -

'Shaken' or 'E' 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.1 -

Artillery fire against buildings: throw a nugget. The buildings will catch
fire, and must be evacuated, for a 7, 8 or 9.
 Enfilades Double the effect of artillery on targets hit in enfilade.

Skirmishers The action of a battalion's skirmish screen is not assessed

separately from the action of the battalion itself. In woods, however, and
whenever else units are told to skirmish en masse, the entire unit is assumed
to be split up into small skirmishing groups. It must then fight entirely by its
fire.

Close combat

Whenever two opposing forces come within 200 m of each other, they must
both immediately stop their movement and become fixed. If there are
intervals of less than 50 m between each unit in the line they will also
automatically become 'bunched', and fight as if 'shaken'.
If the combat takes place in woods, both sides must automatically be in
skirmish order, and fight by fire alone. In most other terrain, however, any
skirmishing unit fixed by the attack of a formed unit will be at a great
disadvantage.

Find the total combat score of each side by adding the points of every unit
in the same combat. There may sometimes be as many as a brigade in each.

For a unit at 'A' count 5 points

status

'B' 4

'C’ 3

'D' 2

Skirmishing, 1
shaken, or 'E'

Next make additions and subtractions, as follows:

ADD ONE to combat score for:

Unit making an attack.

Defending unit in cover.
Unit on higher ground than the enemy.
Any one unit accompanied by the Division commander.
Lancers against infantry or artillery.
Heavy cavalry.
ADD TWO to combat score for:

Defending unit in hard cover.

Cavalry unit if accompanied by infantry, against infantry.
DEDUCT ONE from combat score for:

Unit which fought a close combat in the previous turn.

Unit caught in the act of digging in.
Unit without rear support from the same brigade.
DEDUCT TWO from combat score for:

Cavalry on foot.
Cavalry attacking infantry.
Any unit caught on the march or in a defile (e.g. storming a bridge).

Unit without any rear support.

Both sides see what variation to their total score must be made for the
action of chance:
Nugget score Result

0 combat score unchanged

1 add 25%
 2 add 50%

3-6 add 100%

7 add 150%

8 add 200%

9 add 400%

The side with the higher final total score is the winner of the close
combat. The defender gets the better of any draws.

The losing side must withdraw all units from the combat one full move,
during the next turn's movement. All these units are automatically
temporarily 'shaken', and lose one status grade. The winner suffers no loss,
except that cavalry must test morale. If they fail the test, they pursue
recklessly and become 'shaken', losing one status grade.
6. The Generalship Game
The four games we have looked at so far use model soldiers to play out
battles and skirmishes. This is fine as far as it goes, but it suffers from at
least three important weaknesses.

We cannot always achieve as much tactical and command realism as we

would like, because we always have to accommodate the model soldiers
into the game. They sometimes distract us from achieving higher levels of
realism.

The players can see too much of what is going on. Real Napoleonic
generals would not have enjoyed such an open view of their battles, and
would certainly not have been able to intervene with low level details, such
as battalion formations, as often as we do with our games using models.

All these games are purely tactical, but high Napoleonic generalship was
really about many other things as well as tactics; e.g. strategy, logistics,
intelligence gathering, issuing and supervising orders, building morale and
so on.

All this poses a problem: how can we create a game which gives a fuller
representation of Napoleonic generalship? To do this we must step back
from the table top and the model soldiers, and return to first principles.

Napoleonic generalship

The Napoleonic army commander on campaign was faced with the basic
problem of laying on a favourable battle, or set of battles. The actual tactics
of the battle itself were of very secondary importance beside this major
strategic aim.

In order to lay on a favourable battle, the various army corps had to be set
in motion along the right roads, and with the right timings. They also had to
unroll a line of communication behind them as they advanced, consisting of
a string of posts and depots, with one day's march between each. These
depots would then have to be injected with rations, clothing, ammunition,
reinforcements, and a host of other articles which were necessary to keep
the army at high efficiency. No army could live off the land totally; and
even the most veteran troops had to keep some sort of contact with the
umbilical cord of their line of communication.

The depots on the line of communication would need to be supervised

and kept in good working order, e.g. by personal visits; and care would
have to be taken not to overload their capacity. In peacetime this could all
be relatively plain sailing; but in wartime there were enormous difficulties,
since it was impossible to plan anything very far in advance. The army had
to manoeuvre according to what the enemy was up to, so much of the line
of communication had to be improvised at very short notice indeed.

In order to decide where the enemy was and what he was doing, the
commander-in-chief had to set up his own intelligence service for each
campaign: there was no permanent one as we understand it today. He would
also be in correspondence with his government and his own family at home,
and with any allied governments involved in the campaign. He would have
to encourage the troops by inspections, bulletins, and speeches; and he
would have to organize his own personal affairs so that he was always in
the right place, with enough food and sleep to keep going. Finally, if he did
succeed in bringing the enemy to battle, he would have to make sure of a
tactical victory.
All this obviously imposed a terrific strain upon a commander, and to do
everything properly he really needed to be everywhere at once. As a
generalization, we can therefore say that the good commander needed two
main qualities. He needed the judgment and military knowledge to use his
time to the best advantage, and to put high priorities on those things which
were really important. And he needed the energy and personal force of
character to get things done, once he had decided what things needed to be
done.

If we are to make a wargame of all this, we must obviously find some

way of representing both of these qualities in the system of play. In fact
there are two main methods for doing this: one is the somewhat formal
generalship game discussed in this chapter; the other is the 'free' and
informal map kriegsspiel described in the next chapter.
In the generalship game each player represents a commander-in-chief,
and each turn represents twenty-four hours. During the turn each player
must indicate on a game board precisely what his commander-in-chief will
be doing during that day: resting, travelling, writing orders, haranguing his
troops, and so on. The time is therefore broken down into its component
parts in rather the same way as for the sequence of loading and firing, or
obstacle crossing in the skirmish game. The successful player will be the
one who has been able to allocate his time most profitably, and who has
achieved a better mastery over the types of action open to him.
In order to make room for this rather detailed portrayal of what goes on
in the higher command, we are forced to cut down still further on the lower
level details. In the generalship game we therefore portray the theatre of
war and the army only in very schematic form. Players will no longer be
able to manipulate individual battalions, as they did in the army level game,
but will have to consider a whole army corps as the playing unit. This,
however, is a very small price to pay for the much enlarged realism of the
generalship itself.
What you will need to play the generalship game
An umpire (or preferably two) is vital for this game. There should also be
as many players as there are commanders-in-chief in the campaign. In the
Waterloo campaign three would be needed: Napoleon, Wellington and
Blucher. The umpires should have a desk for their map, and the players
should also have one each, out of sight of each other but accessible to the
umpires. Players might sit back to back in the same room, or they might be
in separate rooms.

Each team, and the umpires, should have a copy of a specially prepared
schematic map of the theatre of war. This may be based upon a real
historical map (as published in many military histories), or it may be
entirely imaginary. Whichever it is, it should show all the main roads in the
theatre, plus one town (neither more nor less) for every day's march along
each road. Each day's march may be between 5 and 9 leagues (20-36 km;
12½ -20½ miles), so every town shown on the map must be somewhere
within this distance from the next ones. In other words a force marching
out of any town by any road will always be able to finish its day's march in
another town. The towns may be of any size, but for game purposes they
are classified as either fortresses or open supply points. Each army will
also have one town, usually a fortress, nominated as its base. The maps
need not be to any particular scale, as all they have to do is show roads,
towns and fortresses.

Example of a game board and action counters; there should be as many

copies of each counter as will be needed in any move.

Each map should have a set of cardboard counters representing the

subordinate formations of each commander. Every corps, infantry, cavalry
or reserve, should have a separate counter; and there should also be one
counter each for the commander and his personal staff, the little
headquarters, and the grand headquarters. These units would in reality
consist of approximately ten, five hundred, and five thousand people
respectively, if we include the attached escort troops. The counters for every
unit are moved on the map during play to indicate the positions of units.
Any number may be stacked on any town.
 Each team, but not the umpires, must also have a specially prepared game
board. This consists of a sheet of cardboard, usually 60 cm2 (2 ft2), around
the perimeter of which are marked forty-eight divisions, representing the
half-hours in a twenty-four hour day. In the centre of the board are placed
stacks of cardboard action counters, representing the various types of action
which might be made by a commander during the day. Each counter should
be cut to size so that it can fill the appropriate number of time divisions on
the board; i.e. a counter for a half-hour action would be the size of one
division; for a one-hour action it would fill two divisions (for the precise list
of actions see the rules below). During play the counters are distributed
round the game board in each twenty-four hour turn, so that every division
is filled by one counter. This shows how that commander intends to use his
time.

Example of a game board and action counters; there should be as many

copies of each counter as will be needed in any move.

In addition to maps and game boards, players and umpires should all
have plenty of spare paper and summaries of the rules. Umpires should also
have a checklist of factors which will need attention, and one nugget.

Playing the game

The umpires must set a problem, either from imagination, or from the
history of Napoleonic campaigns. This will require a schematic map to be
drawn of the theatre of war, an order of battle, i.e. a list of the army corps,
but nothing lower than that, and a starting date for the action. If we take the
Jena campaign (1806) as an example, we might find that the French base is
the fortress of Mainz; the Prussians' is Berlin; and that both sides have five
line corps, one reserve corps, and one cavalry corps. The start of the game
is set at 1 October, when the French are echeloned between Mainz and
Bamberg; the Prussians between Berlin and Erfurt.

The umpires must next decide the status score of each corps. For
simplicity we will say that every line corps starts with 25 points; every
reserve (or Guard) corps with 40; and every cavalry corps with 10. The
commander's personal staff, the little HQ and the grand HQ have no status
allocated to them.

The commanders-in-chief must also have allocated to them the number

of hours' rest they will ideally need every day. For the young Napoleon, for
example, we may allocate a requirement of nine hours out of every twenty-
four; while for the Prussian Duke of Brunswick, at seventy-one years of
age, we will set the figure at twelve hours.

Finally, the umpires must state which towns are fortresses, which are
open supply points, and what supply each contains. Fortresses normally
contain enough supplies for one corps to live on indefinitely, plus fourteen
corps days of additional supply, i.e. they may supply a second corps for
fourteen days, or seven extra corps for two days. Normal supply points can
provide for one corps indefinitely, plus seven extra corps days. Large towns
and exceptionally rich areas, however, may be rated much higher. In this
case Berlin, Mainz, Leipzig, and Erfurt should be given a rating of twenty
corps days each, in addition to supplying one corps indefinitely. The supply
for the first corps may not be split between others, i.e. a town which has
exhausted all its additional supply may not re-allocate its one corps' ration
indefinitely, in the form of an indefinite number of rations on one day.

Sequence of actions in each turn

To begin, players lay out their unit counters in the starting positions on
their maps, and commence action according to the following sequence for
each turn, which represents twenty-four hours, starting at midnight:
(i) Umpires give players any intelligence of the enemy so far received.
(ii) Each player arranges a selection of action counters around the
perimeter of his game hoard to fill up all of the forty-eight half-hour
divisions. This shows exactly how each half-hour is to be spent by the
commander.
(iii) Players may now use a separate piece of paper to make additional
notes about certain action counters which they may have used.
If any orders are to be sent to mobile units, the content of the orders is
noted, together with the times the messages would arrive. Remember that
the three types of HQ count as mobile units in this context.
If any intelligence is to be gathered, the specific towns to be investigated
must be listed.
If any inspections are to be conducted, the specific unit or supply point
concerned must be listed.
(iv) Umpires collect all this information from the players, and work out
the movements of both sides on the master map. If any opposing forces
have actually come into close combat with one another, as opposed to
cavalry screen contact which does not imply combat itself, the timing of
the combat is noted. The distance between the combat and the commander-
in-chief is also noted, and a courier is deemed to have made a combat
report to the commander-in-chief as soon as he could have covered that
distance, e.g. if a combat starts at Erfurt at 1200 hours, and Napoleon is at
Gotha, one march away, then the report will arrive after the time needed for
the courier to travel one march, which is four hours. In this case Napoleon
would be told of the combat at 1600 hours.
(v) If there has been a combat report, players now have the option of
rearranging all their action counters for the rest of the day, after the arrival
of the report; in this case Napoleon might want to drop what he had
intended to do after 1600 hours, and move quickly to the battlefield instead.
 (vi) Umpires now take full note of all orders finally issued by players, and
assess the results of that turn. This includes:
· The results of combats are found, and movements adjusted
accordinglv.
· Adjustments to the status of units are noted, from whatever cause.

· Adjustments to the supply rating of all towns are noted, plus any
servicing of the line of communication which has been left outstanding.

· Any rest or letters home which have been left outstanding are noted.

(vii) Umpires now report back to each player any of the above results
which would be known to them as at midnight.

Intelligence reports also now arrive from all screen contacts (cavalry
scouting one march ahead of every corps) and from any intelligence
investigations which have been ordered.

(viii) Players bring their maps up to date, clear their game boards, and
start preparing their actions for the next turn.

Actions open to commanders in each turn

Players may choose combinations of the following actions for their

commanders to make in each turn, to a total of twenty-four hours' worth.
Action counters will then be laid out in the relevant divisions of the game
board to represent each type of action.

Writing orders for mobile units

An order for one subunit takes a total of half an hour to write and dispatch,
thus a movement order for all nine units would take four and a half hours to
complete. A short cut may, however, be made by ordering movements
several days ahead for the same unit, i.e. only one message would need to
be written for that unit during all of those days.
 The player must work out the sequence in which he wants the orders to
be written, and the times it would take for each to arrive at its destination.
Thus during a session of writing which started at midnight, five letters
might be composed at half-hourly intervals. The first, ready at 0030 hours,
might be for a unit one march away. It would take the courier four hours to
cover the march, so the letter would arrive at 0430 hours. The second letter,
ready at 0100 might be for a corps three marches away, which would take
the courier fourteen hours to reach. This letter would therefore arrive only
at 1500 hours.

Writing letters to service the line of communication

As the army advances, it must establish a line of communication, i.e. a

continuous line of towns which can be traced from the army's base to all its
units. The line must then be maintained administratively, as well as
protected from enemy attack. The base itself will always require one letter
per day, and every multiple of four towns in the line will also require one
letter. Thus if the line consisted of the base plus nine towns, that would
require four letters per day (odd numbers are always rounded up). These
letters, as for movement orders, will always require half an hour each to
write, i.e. a total of two hours in this case.

Establishing a town as part of the line takes no extra time, as soon as a

friendly corps or HQ has passed through; but changing the line, establishing
a new base, or constituting a new HQ if any HQ has been overrun by the
enemy will require four written orders and take two hours of the general's
time. Note especially that all correspondence for the line of communication
must be conducted in the presence of the little HQ.

If the commander fails to service his line of communication fully in the

course of any day, or if the enemy breaks through it, there will be serious
effects upon the army's status.

Intelligence

Every hour a player allocates to intelligence gathering during the day

entitles him to a spy's report on one town anywhere on the map at the end of
that day. The report will give an accurate list of all units passing that town
during the day, but not their current status. Note that all correspondence
connected with intelligence must be conducted when the general is co-
located with the little HQ.

Writing home

Writing all the assorted letters home for the commander's family,
government and allied governments will take one hour per day, or two
hours in two days, in the presence of the little HQ. If it is delayed more than
two days, however, commanders will be forced to spend the first four hours
of the third day making up for lost lime.

Any correspondence destined for other players, such as a call for the
enemy to surrender, or a suggested plan for an allied field commander, will
take a whole hour per letter. This applies even when two allied players are
supposed to be at the same place on the map, they must still communicate
in writing, since the two players will not be allowed to chat to each other
directly.

Note that all letter writing, for whatever purpose, must be conducted
when the commander is stationary: writing will not be allowed during
travelling time.

Rest

Rest may be taken at a halt, or up to half of it may be taken during

movement in a coach (as opposed to movement by post-chaise or on
horseback).

If the commander fails to take enough rest during the day, the excess is
carried over into the next day's requirement. A general who consistently
goes short of rest will therefore build up a backlog of inertia. When the
backlog reaches twenty-four hours it must all be taken at once.

Note that extra rest will be required after horse riding, or if a rest period
is cut short unexpectedly by a battle or battle report.
Movement around the theatre of war

The commander may move by horseback without reliefs, unless an order to

prepare posts has been sent to the little HQ the day before; by post-chaise;
or by coach. Sustained travel is possible only in a coach or on horseback
with posted reliefs; but any type of horseback movement requires extra rest.
Note that the commander should not abandon his little HQ for long, as he
will require it for servicing the line of communication, for intelligence, and
for writing home.

The grand HQ on the other hand, need never be visited by the

commander. It must always be within four marches of the reserve (or guard)
corps, otherwise that corps will lose status, because, for example, the
reserve artillery lacks administrative support.
Wellington conducting a hasty inspection to inspire his troops before battle.
Note that although this could be performed on horseback, the sheer number
of troops to be inspected would make it a rather lengthy process.

Inspection of troops and supply points

When a commander inspects a unit he can raise morale and ensure that
orders are being carried out. In the case of a town in the line of
communication, inspections can spur the local commissaries to collect more
supplies from the surrounding country. We distinguish two types of
inspection: hasty, lasting half an hour, and adding one status point to a
corps, or one corps day extra supply to a town; and formal, lasting four
hours for the inspector, but immobilizing the inspected unit for the entire
day. This raises the corps' status by four points, or adds four corps days of
extra supplies to a town.

No corps or town will be allowed more than one hasty and one formal
inspection per week, to prevent the stockpiling of unrealistically huge status
or supply scores.

Speeches before combat

If the commander-in-chief can arrive at a battlefield before the battle

actually starts, he may harangue each corps in turn. Each harangue will
raise that corps by two status points, and will take half an hour. Only one
speech of this type may be made to each corps each week.

Personal reconnaissance

Once again, this depends upon the commander reaching the field of battle
before battle is actually joined. Reconnaissance may be done on foot, taking
four hours and adding three status points to every corps in the battle; on
horseback, taking two hours and adding two points; or in a post-chaise,
which takes two hours and adds one point to each unit.

Whenever a commander conducts a personal reconnaissance, a nugget is

rolled. He is killed if it comes up 0, or wounded for a 1 or 2.
Battle

When two opposing forces run into each other during a move, the sequence
for combat is followed (see below) and a battle may result. If the start of the
battle is delayed for any reason, the commander-in-chief may have an
opportunity to conduct a personal reconnaissance, or to harangue his units.
When a battle does finally start, if a commander-in-chief is present he must
choose his own position in each of the three phases of combat. In each
phase he may opt to fight in the front line, giving personal direction, but
risking being hit; or he may be safely behind the action, enjoying a more
balanced view of the whole. In the former case a new nugget is rolled in
each phase of combat to see if he is hit; 0 he is killed, 1 or 2, and he is
wounded. He also adds two status points to each of three corps, but is
debarred from writing strategic orders to units outside the battle area.

If the general opts to stay behind the lines during the battle, he is in no
personal danger, does not add any additional status to his units, but may
continue all types of letter writing in the normal way, at the same time as
commanding the battle (which will not take him any extra time).

If the commander-in-chief is totally absent from the battle, or if he is hit

during it, the battle is fought under the absent general rule (see below). If
the commander is hit, all units in the battle lose a status point, and a hand-
over to his second-in-command takes place. The hand-over takes one whole
phase of the battle to complete.

Movements by corps in each turn

Units take the following number of hours to move from one town to the
next along a road, i.e. to make one march. Forced marches are additional to
the normal marches taken during that day.

Type of unit Normal Forced march Comments

march

Cavalry 6 6: one every Lose 1 status point

corps day if desired for every forced
 march

Reserve or 8 or dig in 8: twice a Lose 1 point for

line infantry week each march or
corps maximum forced march.

Grand HQ 8 - -

Little HQ 4 4: once a day -

Courier 4 5: as often as e.g. the courier

desired covers the first
march in 4 hours
and each march
after that in 5
hours. May move
cross country if
desired.

General and 3 3: once per Requires one extra

personal staff day maximum hour's rest per
Horseback march/forced
without march.
reliefs:

Horseback 3 3: as often as As above

with reliefs desired
pre-posted:

Coach 4 4: as often as May sleep en

desired route.

Post-chaise 3 - -

If horses are used, the commander may leave the roads and move cross
country.

Combat

When a force comes within one march of an enemy force, it automatically

receives news, at once, from its own cavalry scouts. It is therefore
impossible for a unit to approach nearer than one march to an enemy
without being reported.

If the two forces then decide to continue towards each other, and run into
each other on the same spot, the combat sequence is started.

For convenience the combat sequence is assumed to happen at the nearest

town. No measuring of distances along roads is necessary. As soon as the
combat sequence starts, couriers are also assumed to be sent immediately to
the two commanders-in-chief.

Both sides then state whether they wish to attack, stand, or withdraw, as
well as which corps, if any, they are keeping in reserve, out of the initial
contact.

If one side attacks while the other either stands or attacks, there will be an
immediate battle. If one withdraws while the other attacks, then there will
be a two-hour pause for manoeuvre followed by a new statement by each
side whether it wishes to attack, stand or withdraw. Provided that the
original attacker still opts to attack, then there will automatically be a battle,
i.e. the withdrawing force may be able to delay the combat, but cannot
avoid it for more than two hours.

If neither side attacks, there will be no immediate battle. One side may
wish to take advantage of this to withdraw, or both sides may stand
watching each other, and perhaps also digging in. Either side may change
the orders and attack or withdraw before battle starts.

The commander-in-chief may already be present; he may arrive during

the battle; or in the lull beforehand. If he finds time before the battle, he
may make a personal reconnaissance, or harangue the troops.

No fighting may take place at night. If night falls (usually between 2000
hours and 0400 hours, although in winter it may be 1600 to 0800 hours)
during a battle, the battle will be interrupted at the end of that phase, and
one side or the other may disengage if desired. Generals may always make
their reconnaissances or speeches at night.
 The battle is divided into three phases, each of which lasts as many hours
as there are corps on the weaker side at the start of that phase.
Reinforcements may not be fed into a battle in the middle of a phase, but
always at the start of the next phase, if they are available.

At the start of each phase the commander-in-chief, if present, must

declare whether he will fight in the front line, or behind the battle.
Whichever he decides, he must then also declare whether his troops are
attacking, standing or withdrawing during that phase, and whether or not he
is committing any reserve units to the battle in that phase. If the general is
absent, or has been hit, a nugget is thrown. The decision for that phase will
not be executed for a 0 or 1 (the absent general rule).

After the decisions have been taken for each phase, the total status of all
committed units is found, excluding any troops who have arrived at the
scene of battle, but who are being held in reserve. All status will now be
brought up to date, including the result of any personal reconnaissances,
commanders fighting in the front line and so on.

Any unit which is standing behind completed field works may add a
quarter of its score again. If a unit is fighting beside a friendly fortress, it
adds half its score again. Distinguish this type of battle from an attack on
the fortress itself, which counts as a siege (see below). If one side has a
cavalry corps when the enemy has none, the cavalry corps doubles its score,
provided that there is also friendly infantry on the battlefield.

When both sides have found their total scores, after adjustment, one
nugget is thrown for each side. For 0-5, that side's score remains
unchanged. For 6-8 that side multiplies its score by 150%. For a 9, the score
is doubled. The higher final score wins that phase and loses one tenth of all
status scores originally committed to the action. The loser loses one fifth of
all status scores originally committed to the action. If a withdrawing force
wins a phase, it may disengage. Otherwise it must continue to fight, unless
it has a cavalry corps while the enemy has none, or can retire directly into
an adjacent fortress.
 An example of the combat sequence

After the result of the phase has been found, the next phase is played. This
continues until the battle ends after three phases, at nightfall, or when one
side or the other successfully disengages.

Sieges

When a fortress is attacked, a field force may be present. In this case-there

may be a normal battle, or the field force may opt to take shelter inside the
fortress. It may retire in this way whenever it wishes, and may fails, the
defending troops lose the number of points shown on one nugget roll, but
may instantly repair the fortress so that any new besieger will have to start
from scratch. If the siege succeeds, on the other hand, all defenders are
captured remain in the fortress for as long as the supply lasts out; one corps
could remain indefinitely, but a second one would normally have supplies
for only fourteen days.

If a fortress is attacked when there are no field units present, or after field
units have retired into the fortress, the attacker may either pass through the
town unhindered, or he may blockade or besiege the place, in which case
supply becomes critical. One attacking corps will automatically find enough
supply to continue indefinitely; but additional units will be forced to
disperse to surrounding towns to find supply. The garrison of the fortress
must also establish how many rations are available. This is the number of
days shown by one nugget roll multiplied by ten, e.g. a roll of 6 would
mean the garrison could hold out for sixty days. If there is a blockade, the
blockading force surrounds the fortress until the fortress runs out of supply.
The garrison, however, may attempt a sally at any time, which is fought as a
normal battle.

If the attacking force makes a siege, they advance in three stages:

The approaches This phase lasts the number of days shown on one
nugget multiplied by 5, but if a 0 is rolled, the siege must be called off.

Breaching This lasts the number of days shown on one nugget multiplied
by three, but once again, a roll of 0 means the siege must be called off.

Storming This takes one day, and succeeds for a roll of 5 or less on one
nugget. If it fails, it may be renewed next day.

Every single point shown in each of these three nugget rolls by the
attacker represents one status point lost from his total score. If the siege
fails, the defending troops lose the number of points shown on one nugget
roll, but may instantly repair the fortress so that any new besieger will have
to start from scratch. If the siege succeeds, on the other hand, all defenders
are captured.
An example of a siege sequence

Alterations to status

Units lose status, as already indicated, after each phase of a combat or

siege, or after every forced march they make. Infantry line and reserve
corps also lose one point for every normal march made. All units in a battle
lose one point immediately if the commander is hit. Any unit which arrives
at the end of the day at a town which cannot supply them will also lose one
point, and any unit unable to trace a continuous line of communication to
the base will lose a further point for every day this continues. The same is
true for all units if the commander has failed to service the line of
communication adequately in that day. The reserve corps loses one point for
every day grand HQ is more than four marches away; but all units lose
three points if grand HQ is overrun by the enemy. One point is lost by all
units if little HQ is overrun.

Units gain status, as already described, if the commander fights in the front
line, makes a personal reconnaissance, harangues the unit, or inspects it.
Units also add one status point to their score up to, but not beyond, their
original starting scores for every day they remain in the same place,
provided they do not run out of supplies.
7. Map Kriegsspiel
The generalship game is almost a boardgame, and relies upon a lengthy set
of formal rules. It undoubtedly forces the player to concentrate very hard
upon what a Napoleonic general would have been doing with his time; but
due to its complexity it may not be to everyone's taste. As a counter-
balance, therefore, we now turn to a game which has almost no rules at all.
This is the free kriegsspiel, played on maps.

Origins and advantages of kriegsspiel

Early recreational wargames were rather abstract and unrealistic affairs,
usually based upon some variant of chess. During the nineteenth century,
however, wargames tended to develop a more realistic format, largely as a
result of the renewed military interest caused by the Napoleonic Wars
themselves. Thinking officers were then starting to experiment with various
ways of representing battles in miniature; and in Prussia this developed to a
very advanced stage indeed. The military kriegsspiel gradually became a
recognized means of officer training, and later even evolved into an aid for
strategic planning.

The nineteenth-century Prussian game started life with a rigid structure

and copious formal rules. The two sides were each placed in a separate
room with a model of the terrain or a map. The umpires moved from one
room to another collecting orders from the players, and then retired to a
third room to consult the rules and find the results of combat. A great deal
of their time was consumed in leafing through voluminous sets of rules,
consulting tables and giving rulings on fine legal points. By about 1870,
however, this rigid system was starting to be thought rather clumsy and
time-consuming. Quite apart from the many defects and loopholes in the
rules themselves, it reduced the umpires, who were often very senior
officers, to the role of mere clerks and office boys. Clearly, such a state of
affairs was intolerable.
 It was General von Verdy du Vernois who finally broke with this system,
and abolished the rule book altogether. His approach to the wargame was
the free kriegsspiel, in which the umpire had a totally free hand to decide the
result of moves and combats. He did not do this according to any set of
written rules, but just on his own military knowledge and experience. He
would collect the players' moves in exactly the same way as before; but he
would then simply give a considered professional opinion on the outcome.
This speeded up the game a very great deal, and ensured that there was
always a well thought-out reason for everything that happened. This was a
great help in the debrief after the game, and it allowed players to learn by
their mistakes very quickly.

The free kriegsspiel using maps can offer many advantages for modern
wargamers provided that the umpire has a reasonable background in
wargaming, and a bit of common sense. If this condition is met, the game
immediately becomes faster and less pedantic than if it had been tied down
to a set of rules. The umpire can always think of more factors to incorporate
in his decisions than could ever be true in a formal or rigid game. He can
therefore spread a greater atmosphere of realism about the game.

What you will need for a map kriegsspiel

The umpire must be someone who knows as much about the Napoleonic
Wars as the other players, so that he will be able to keep a little ahead of
their criticisms. In fact this superior knowledge need not amount to a very
great deal, and even relative beginners will be surprised at how easy it is
to umpire a game of this sort. They should not be put off by the fear that
umpiring needs some formidably experienced military brain, like that of
General von Verdy du Vernois himself: it doesn't. Almost anyone can do
it, with a little practice. Apart from anything else, the umpire always has
the advantage that he is the only one who can see the complete picture of
what is going on.
It is best to have three rooms, one for each team, and one for the
umpire; but at a pinch the umpire can do without his, and simply keep
moving from one side to the other, making notes behind the backs of the
players. This also economizes on maps, as the umpire will not need one.
For very elaborate games, on the other hand, any number of rooms may
be used, and the author has participated in some games using six different
playing teams, as well as a sizeable team of umpires.
The maps themselves may pose a problem, since they can become rather
expensive if bought in bulk. You should therefore choose the particular
game you are going to play rather carefully, with this in mind. Clearly it
depends a great deal on your financial circumstances; but it is perhaps
worth reflecting that a set of three Ordnance Survey maps will cost rather
less than the average boxed boardgame. At any event, if all else fails you
can always make your own sketch maps of the area to be fought over, with
traced copies for all the players. For sieges and some tactical actions,
indeed, this method will be the only one possible.

You may wish to mark movements on the map with a set of pins, but it is
usually easier, and better for the map, to use a talc overlay and a set of
chinagraph pencils. In this way movements can be shown graphically,
explanations pencilled in, and the whole thing will be easier to understand.

Players and umpires will require rulers, plus carbons and spare paper for
writing reports and notes. The umpire will also require one nugget.
Playing the game
The umpire will select a scenario which fits onto the available maps. One
hardy perennial (which uses the British 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey series) is
a hypothetical landing by a French corps in some part of the British Isles.
The French are allowed to land en masse, whereas the British troops start
the game widely scattered. Political aspects may also be incorporated into
this game, with Jacobite sympathizers and other adventurers fighting their
own guerrilla wars in the back hills.
If you use continental road maps it is perfectly possible to re-fight all the
classic operations of Napoleon. Admittedly the maps will be quite small
scale (1:500,000 or thereabouts); but then so were the maps Napoleon
himself had to use. If one is operating with a number of army corps the
large scale details of the terrain will not be important, in any case.
 Another alternative is to fight a siege. For this you can cither photocopy
the plan of a real fortress, and use that for your map; or you can draw your
own fortress plan from scratch. One player is the defender, and must move
his batteries about inside the fortress, perhaps digging mines under the
attackers' trenches, and occasionally making brief sallies. The other player
will have to dig trenches up to the fortress, so he can establish breaching
batteries and eventually storm the breach. A free kriegsspiel is particularly
suitable for playing siege operations, since the tedious repetition of many
siege operations can be rushed through by the umpire to fit the available
time. They do not have to be played through in minute and boring detail, as
they would in a game with rigid formal rules.
Order of battle

When the umpire has selected his map and set a problem for both sides, he
must give all players a full list of their forces, and keep a carbon copy for
his own reference. Note that the umpire will give information to players
only about their own forces, with very few clues about the enemy's. Players
will then be fed snippets of intelligence about the enemy according to the
types of reconnaissance they ask for. They will have to build a picture of
what the enemy is doing for themselves from this information.
The umpire finally states the date, time and weather at the start of
the game.
Sequence of turns
The game progresses in a series of turns, in each of which the following
sequence is observed:

(i) Players write orders and pass them to the umpire.

(ii) The umpire compares the orders from each side and decides what
sightings and contacts have been made, and at what times.

(iii) The umpire may then wish to ask players for supplementary
information; e.g. if there has been a contact between two opposing
formations, the umpire may need to know whether players want to
withdraw, or to stand and fight.

(iv) The umpire then decides the result of combats, and the reports to be
given to players from combats and other sightings.

(v) The umpire reports all this information to players, who start writing
orders for their next turn.

Each turn will usually represent twenty-four hours of the campaign, as in

the generalship game. This allows a convenient cycle of actions to be
completed, and is realistic in the sense that Napoleonic commanders did
tend to write their orders at the same time each night. If a particularly large
order of battle is being used, however, such as a large number of army
corps, then a two- or three-day cycle may be preferred. If only small units
are being used, on the other hand, it may be better to use a three hour or a
six hour cycle.
With a little bit of experience umpires may be able to break away from a
regular cycle of turns altogether and start to tailor each turn to the tactical
needs of the moment. Thus if not much is happening in the game, for
example, during the lengthy digging phases of a siege, several days may be
covered in a single turn; whereas if the action is fast and furious, say, at the
moment when a breach is stormed, only an hour or two will be covered.
The umpire must decide roughly how much time would have elapsed in real
life before the players would have had to make each important decision.
The turn will then be extended or contracted so that it represents that
amount of time. Each turn, in other words, should include one moment of
decision for each of the players.
Movements
The umpire, as in all aspects of this game, has the last word on how far or
fast units have moved. For the guidance of players, however, a rough sheet
of planning figures ought to be provided, something like this:

Kilometres moved during the average day

 Type of troops Km moved Comments

Infantry 21

Arty & 21 Must stick to roads,

vehicles delayed by bad
weather.

Heavy cavalry 25

Light cavalry 28

HQ group 31 May move any time

of day or night

Couriers 6.5 km per hour for first 4 hours=

26 km, then go 4 km per hour after
that, indefinitely.

The umpire should also keep certain brief notes for his own guidance,
e.g. the couriers may fail to arrive if a nugget comes up 0; or the ratings of
rivers and bridges may be decided in advance, so that players who send out
scouts to look at such matters may be given a clear answer, and so on. The
degree to which notes of this sort are made will depend a great deal upon
the individual umpire. In many cases rulings can be made ad hoc, as and
when they are required.

If the game is to be a siege, a similar table of moves and timings may be

kept for the actions appropriate to siege warfare:

DIGGING POSSIBLE DURING AN AVERAGE DAY

In twenty-four hours each working party may:

Dig about 70 m of sap

Build one third of a battery
Build half of an infantry redoubt
Dig 5 m of mine gallery
Arm a battery, i.e. put in cannons
 Arm a mine, i.e. put in a charge of powder

Once again, the umpire will use these figures as a rough guide, and alter
them according to the various changing circumstances; in bad weather or
under heavy enemy counter-fire, digging would be slowed down.

Combat

The system for finding the results of combat in a free kriegsspiel is

classically simple. First of all the umpire looks at the position of each side:
how many and what type of troops are involved; how their morale is
bearing up; and what orders they have been given. He next considers the
ground on which the action will be fought, and any special tactical
problems which either side might encounter; whether there are any
obstacles in the way of an attacker; whether a flank attack might be
possible, and so on.

When the umpire has all relevant information at his disposal, he ought to
be able to give an informed opinion on the probabilities of the result. He
will not simply say something like 'The French infantry has successfully
stormed the hill', but will quote possibilities, such as: 'The French have a
50% chance of storming the hill successfully; a 30% chance of capturing
half of it, while disputing the rest; and a 20% chance of being totally
repulsed. High scores favour the French'. It is important that the umpire is
as specific as possible with these figures, as this forces him to consider all
the factors involved in the combat and to think through the full implications
of his decision. He must also be clear whether a high dice roll will be good
or bad for the attacker, i.e. whether the top 50% (a die roll of 5-9) or the
bottom 50%, (a roll of 0-4) will mean the hill has been carried. In this case
he has stated that the high score will be good for the attacker.

Outline of a possible kriegsspiel siege

Finally, after odds have been quoted the umpire rolls a nugget, to
represent chance. This will give a percentage, from which the final result of
the combat may be read off. Thus in our example a nugget score of 1 would
be under 20%, so the attack would be repulsed. A score of 8 would be
within the top 50%, so the attack would succeed, and so on. The system
works by the umpire giving his opinion on the probabilities, and then
rolling a nugget to find which of the possible results actually came up.

Let's take another example, from siege warfare. The fortress may be
firing at a particular trench with four cannons for twenty-four hours. The
umpire will see what size of guns are firing, and what the diggers are up to.
He will then assess the terrain, and find whether enfilade fire is possible. He
may then give his opinion that there is a 10% chance of digging being
halted by the fire with 100 casualties; a 40% chance of digging being
slowed down to half-rate with 60 casualties; and a 50% chance of it going
at three-quarter rate with 40 casualties. He announces that high scores will
favour the fortress, and rolls a nugget. If it comes up 3 he knows that it falls
within the bottom 50%, so digging goes at three quarter rate, with 40
casualties. Had the score been 9 it would have been in the top 10%, so
digging would have been halted for that day. Remember that in all this the
umpire has to be certain of what each nugget score will mean, before it is
thrown.

These are all the rules required for free kriegsspiel. It is a remarkably
straightforward game; but it can produce some of the best results of all. It
allows speedy resolution of combat; yet at the same time screens the players
from any unrealistically panoramic views of the battlefield. All it needs is
someone who will not be overawed by the responsibilities of umpiring.
8. Tactical Exercise Without Troops
In our seventh and last Napoleonic wargame, we approach the problem of
realism from a radically different direction. Instead of stressing tactical
manoeuvres (as in the games with model soldiers) or the organizational
activities of high commanders (as in the generalship game), we now
concentrate upon the battlefield itself, the ground over which generalship
must be exercised.

Origins and advantages of the tactical exercise without troops

In the Napoleonic period it was recognized that a successful commander

needed what was known as coup d'oeil . This meant that he had to be able
to assess the military possibilities of ground, both quickly and accurately.
He had to relate abstract map manoeuvres to a real piece of terrain, and
choose his positions accordingly. This skill was fundamental to everything
that happened in battle, and the commander with the better coup d'oeil
would usually enjoy a marked advantage over his opponent.

Because of this, Napoleonic officers were often encouraged to study the art
of field sketching, and even surveying. Staff officers would also be expected
to make full topographical reports on the terrain through which they had
passed. These reports often attained a higher quality than the printed maps
available at the time, and generals were frequently forced to rely upon them
while making their strategic decisions.

During the nineteenth century this straightforward and purely topographical

training was supplemented by the addition of truly tactical problems.
Officers were taken out to a piece of real ground and tested in their ability
to plan troop deployments upon it. At first this type of exercise was called a
staff ride; but as time went on it was renamed a tactical exercise without
troops (TEWT) and it has now been a standard part of officer training for
over a century. Its attraction is that it uses real terrain rather than simply a
map, so it can give a much clearer idea of exactly what tactical possibilities
are open. A 25% slope, for example, may not be very revealing as an
abstract concept but when you actually have to climb up one its full
meaning may suddenly become very obvious. To take another example, it
may appear possible, from the map, to establish a battery at a particular
position to give supporting flank fire for another part of your line. On the
actual ground, however, there may be unexpected problems such as scrub
obscuring the view, or boggy ground on which guns cannot be deployed. In
these cases the battery commander may have to think again very seriously
about his tactics.

In recreational wargames it is very easy to forget the realities of terrain and

depend entirely upon the map, although that is actually no more than a form
of shorthand note. In many wargames the map is even deliberately
simplified to assist the mechanics of play. This habit may well bring several
advantages to the game; but it certainly also reduces the wargamer's need
for a genuine coup d'oeil. If we want to be realistic in our representation of
Napoleonic command, however, we must give coup d'oeil a much more
important place of honour in our games.

We have two approaches to choose from. The first is simply to get to

know the countryside, try to look at it from a staff officer's point of view,
and then incorporate our findings into normal indoor wargames. This means
that we should examine the military possibilities of the landscape whenever
we go on country rambles and think about such things as fields of fire, or
the firmness of the ground for cross country movement. We should try to
estimate how long it would take a battalion to cross each river, or how
difficult it would be to pass artillery through each wood. Last, but by no
means least, it was always important for Napoleonic staff officers to know
the resources of the country; how much wood and water were available for
bivouacking, and how much food and forage. We should therefore practise
estimating the subsistence available in each area we pass.

Linked to this approach, we may sometimes be able to visit genuine

Napoleonic sites, and try to relate the lie of the land to the tactical
problems. This, unfortunately, means that we must travel to the continent to
find true battlefields; although in Britain there are admittedly a few
fortresses of about the right vintage. By inspecting them we can at least
learn a bit about the ideas of Napoleonic gunners and engineers.
 Our second way of working coup d'oeil into wargames is to make an
adaptation of the TEWT. We can convert the one-sided military version,
where the student plays only against the umpire or instructor, into a two-
sided, competitive wargame.

What you will need for a tactical exercise without troops

The most essential thing for this type of game is that all participants must
be sympathetic to the aim of developing coup d'oeil, and will not be too
easily discouraged if early attempts do not work very well. It is useless to
drag people into the countryside if they don't understand, or don't like, the
reasoning behind the TEWT. This game, in other words, is not for
beginners. It requires more co-operation and mutual agreement than almost
any other wargame, and has the least room for cheating and gamesmanship.
Despite its deceptive simplicity, it requires a great deal of careful thought.
If there is an umpire, he must be particularly imaginative and attentive to
detail.

The number of players in a TEWT may vary from two to half a dozen or
so. The use of an umpire is optional, although it becomes more advisable
with more than two or three players.
TEWT wargames may be either pre-planned or spontaneous; but the
more people are involved, the more necessary it becomes to make a careful
plan in advance of the actual game. Pre-planning offers many advantages
for the game mechanics; and players will start with a good idea of what it is
all about. The spontaneous TEWT, on the other hand, will tend to fall flat
more often, but it is also less formal, and can sometimes produce the most
memorable and natural games of all.
For a pre-planned TEWT the umpire, or the two opposing commanders,
must first decide on an area of countryside for the game. They must
reconnoitre it for access and visibility, and fix the size and aims of the two
opposing armies. The type of combat to be presented must be envisaged,
and so must the particular problems of the ground, and the possible
complications which may arise. Only after this sort of detailed preparation
has been done can one start to bet that the TEWT will be a success.
 The spontaneous TEWT usually arises when two wargamers happen to
be walking together in the countryside, or when they are at a loose end near
a piece of countryside which they know to be suitable for wargames. One
of them will probably say something like, 'What would you do if I had a
battalion and two field guns in that farm, and you had a regiment of infantry
to get me out?', or 'I will deploy my Division along the reverse slope of that
ridge: what are you going to do about it, if you have only another Division
and a brigade of cavalry?' Another variant, which fits particularly well into
a long walk, is to assume that one side is marching a convoy along the road
you are using, while the other side is constantly trying to ambush or harass
them with a few guerrillas or irregulars, with perhaps some regular riflemen
in support. This type of game can go on for miles and miles, as the
marching unit plugs on despite its casualties, inflicting more or less damage
to its assailants.

You must find a suitable piece of countryside for a TEWT. The first
requirement is that it should be reasonably Napoleonic in appearance, with
only a few buildings, preferably of the period in design. A sprinkling of
thatched cottages is fine; but a modern council estate would be stretching
the imagination rather too far. Equally it should be remembered that very
mountainous areas rarely became Napoleonic battlefields; a range of low
hills would be much better.

It helps if your terrain can be overlooked from some good vantage point,
since this saves a great deal of walking. Alternatively, you can also avoid
walking by using an area with plenty of roads, provided that you have
transport. Cars are awkward for this purpose, because they will often have
to be parked in narrow country lanes. Bicycles are ideal.
Your piece of countryside must have public rights of way across it, if you
intend to inspect it from close quarters. It can be infuriating on a TEWT if a
crucial part of the battlefield turns out to be private land, and therefore
inaccessible.

The size of your area may vary a great deal, and a lot will depend upon
the sort of country that is available. A larger area will be needed if it is
open country; whereas a lot less will be needed if the horizons are close. In
general terms, however, no more than a few square kilometres should be
used, and preferably only one or two. Players are supposed to study the
ground in detail, so only a small area should be required.
Another factor in selecting the size of your area will be the number of
imaginary troops you intend to deploy. The TEWT is best for use with
relatively small forces, and a Division should be about the maximum
allowed to each side. At the other end of the scale, however, any type of
small unit skirmishing is ideally suited for treatment in a TEWT.
All participants should be equipped with a reporter's notebook, or a clip-
board and paper. These will allow notes to be made, even in a high wind.
Rain will admittedly pose a slight problem, but a TEWT won't be much fun
if it's raining, anyway.
Maps may be used on a TEWT, although it is perhaps more realistic to
get by without them, as so many Napoleonic officers were forced to do. If
there is an umpire, he will need a map more than other players, so an
exception should usually be made in his case.
If you are going to conduct a TEWT which covers a lot of ground and
takes a long time, you may want a packed lunch at half-time.
Remember, too, that when you are walking in the open air, you should
always observe the country code.
Finally, someone must carry a nugget and a small box to roll it in. Open-
air dicing can pose some unexpected problems unless an enclosed flat
surface is available.

Playing a TEWT

A TEWT is really another form of free kriegsspiel: it has no formal rules,

and depends entirely upon the common sense and imagination of the
players. For guidance, however, something like the following procedure
should be used:

Either the umpire or the two leading players should first decide on the
scenario, and write a list of the forces on each side, together with their
aims. Starting positions and time of day should also be stated, along with
any special conditions; e.g. 'that river is in flood', or 'ignore the railway
line'.
All the players will now move to the actual ground, and each team will
hold a planning conference. At the end of this they should know precisely
where to deploy each of their units, and what general plan they want to
follow.
Both sides now agree a good place to stand, from which they can
overlook the scene of the opening moves. If there is an umpire they should
submit their initial moves to him. If there is no umpire, then they tell the
other side what movements would first be visible from where they think
that side has observers posted. Both sides should therefore accept a little
unreality by revealing to the enemy where their advanced scouting screen
is posted.
A major difficulty with TEWTs is that there are no markers to show
exactly where units have moved, or what formations they have adopted.
Players have to make do with just the terrain, and little else apart from their
imaginations and memories. Players should therefore make sure that they
know exactly what formation each of their units is in, and what each is
doing. Written notes will be a very useful aid for this.

As each side notes its moves and announces what the enemy would be
able to see, care must be taken to keep everyone informed of everything
they would be able to see in reality. If the umpire knows that a particular
unit has advanced over a hill, for example, he must announce this to every
enemy player who has troops watching that crest line. If there is no umpire,
players must simply be honest about this sort of thing, and tell their
opponents what would be visible.
Another problem is that it is necessary to make rough estimates for all
distances and timings. There is no point in laying down a rigid movement
rate, since it will be impossible to measure the distance from one point to
another exactly. Players will therefore have to make honest guesses at these
things, and ask each other for second opinions. If there is an umpire, he
will of course be able to give a more definitive judgment.
 A flexible timescale should be used, as far as possible. This means that
each turn will represent the time from one important point of decision to the
next, rather than any fixed interval of time. Thus the first turn might consist
of a brigade of French infantry marching out of a wood and deploying in a
field, while the enemy regiment bombards it with artillery. When
deployment is complete, a natural stopping place will occur, since the
French will then have to decide what to do next and give new orders. The
results of the first turn should therefore be assessed at this point.

During the second turn the French might opt to advance across the field
and over a hedge. Once again, the crossing of the hedge would make a
convenient decision point; so the results of the second turn will be assessed
then. In this way the game will progress, with some turns representing a
fairly lengthy interval, and others representing a very short one. Once
again, it will always be important to keep everyone informed of exactly
what is going on.

When there is firing or close combat, the same system is used as in the
free kriegsspiel. The umpire examines all aspects of the position and quotes
odds. The nugget is then rolled, and the final result read off. If there is no
umpire, it will be left to the two players concerned to agree on odds
between themselves. If no agreement can be reached, then they should each
roll a nugget, and the one with the higher score will carry his point.

This type of wargame is obviously very open to cheating and

gamesmanship, so it is particularly important to play it with mature and
experienced wargamers who will not exploit loopholes. Given the necessary
degree of co-operation and understanding, however, it can make a
wonderfully different and fascinating exercise. It allows the wargamer to
visualize his Napoleonic tactics as they would look on a piece of real
ground so he is at last able to escape from the artificial constraints of an
indoor game.
Conclusion
The patient reader who has successfully mastered all seven of these games
ought by now to have realized that there are indeed more than just one or
two approaches to Napoleonic wargaming. There is a different style to suit
every mood and every level of action. Provided that the player sets out with
a clear idea of precisely what he wants to represent, he should be able to
hunt around and come up with a game which pretty closely fills the bill for
that occasion.

One final word is called for, about the spirit in which wargames should be
played. They are not mathematical exercises in which the players sit silently
confronting each other, with their brains ticking over like miniature
computers. Instead, they are social events; rather similar to dinner parties.
The guest list should be given a little thought in advance, so that all the
players will fit into that particular game and enjoy it. The bill of fare should
also be designed to suit them; and care should be taken to ensure that no
one is left out in the cold. Even the most perfect set of rules (if such a
miracle could ever be devised) is useless if it is used on the wrong occasion
or with the wrong trimmings; so it is worth while tailoring each game to its
social setting. If this is done thoughtfully and well, the result should be an
amusing, interesting, and successful evening's entertainment for all
concerned.
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
Arty artillery.

Bde brigade; a force of several regiments or

battalions

Bn battalion; a force of several divisions or

companies
Bty battery; usually six or eight pieces of
artillery, with caissons and limbers.
Caisson a four-wheeled chest for carrying reserve
ammunition or other stores.

Deci-dice (or decimal dice) twenty-sided dice,

numbered from 0 to 9 so that they give
percentage scores. In this book they are
called nuggets.
Division sub-unit of a corps, composed of several
brigades. Always given a capital letter,
to distinguish it from:
division sub-unit of a battalion, usually composed
of two companies. We will not use
capital letters in this case, to avoid
confusion.

Dressing the alignment of troops, in close-order

drill. Units 'take their dressing' when
they stop to check and correct their
positions in the line.

Gamesmanship a disease of wargamers who try to

exploit the rules at the expense of
historical realism and common decency.

Limber small two-wheeled wagon used for

towing cannons and carrying a
limited supply of ready-use
 ammunition. When guns are hitched
onto a limber it is called 'limbering
up'.
Line of the road by which a force receives
communication supplies and reinforcements from its
base, and sends back casualties and
prisoners.

Logistics the science of supplying and quartering

troops.

Nugget a decimal dice (see above).

Rifle a muzzle loaded flintlock weapon with a

twisting groove in the barrel to add spin,
and therefore greater range, to the bullet.
The common musket, by contrast, had a
smooth bore.

Scenario a horrible piece of jargon which has

unfortunately made itself indispensable
in wargame books. It means 'the
hypothetical starting position in the
game, including the assumptions from
which the players will work'.

TEWT Tactical exercise without troops (see

chapter eight).
Appendix: Gamesheets
Gamesheet for the Skirmish Game
Scales 54 mm: 1"= 1 m; 25 mm: 1" = 2m; 1 turn = 10 seconds

Sequence (iv) Close combats

(v) Start next turn
(i) Write orders

(ii) Moves + morale tests

(iii) Firing

Moves in a turn - foot

Walk: level 12 m Firearms except rifles:

rough 10 m Put in a round

woods 6m Ram home (0 = bayonet

gash)

Run: level 18 m Prime & cock

rough 14 m Rifles:

woods 8m Put in round

0/1 to trip up Ram home (0 = bayonet

gash)

puffed 1 turn Get out mallet

per turn Turn more than
90°

Turn more than 900 Use mallet

Lie/kneel/stand Prime & cock

Open/close door Diagnose misfire

 Start/complete obstacle Correct misfire (except for
crossing 0-3)

Issue an order Fix/unfix bayonet or draw

weapon

Aim + fire (0/1 = misfire)

Moves in a turn — mounted

Start/complete mounting/dismounting

Hold horses (stop bolts for 8/9 per turn)

level rough woods

Walk 14 12 6

Trot 20 16 6

Gallop 28 22 (0 = fall)

Jumps: fall for 0-3 Turn

Turn horse more than 90°

Wounds Minor: deduct 1, fall over, test morale

Serious: deduct 3, fall x nuggets score, test morale

2 x serious: die

Morale tests Within 10 m of enemy or Wound

sustained

Roll nugget, fail test if score equal or less than 1 skill rate
A

2 B

3 C

ADD one to skill for cover 4 D

DEDUCT ONE for puffed/minor 5 E
wound

DEDUCT TWO for inf. attacked by 6 F

cav.

DEDUCT THREE for serious 7 G

wound

Firing (i) Check loading (iv) Check number of

sequence hits
(i]

(ii) Roll for (v) Effect of hits

misfires

(iii) Find range

Ranges Long Effective

Musket 200 50

Rifle 400 100

Blunderbuss 40 10

Carbine 100 24

Pistol 40 10

Firing hits Roll to Long range Effective Range

equal or exceed:

Target: Target:

Firer Sta. Mov. Cov. Sta. Mov. Cov.

Composed:
 A/B 7 8 9 5 6 7

C/D 8 9 - 6 7 8

E/F 9 - - 7 8 9

G - - - 8 9 -

Puffed/mounted/scared:

A/B 9 9 - 7 8 9

C/D 9 - - 8 9 -

E/F - - - 9 - -

G - - - - - -

Two of above
conditions

A/B 9 - - 8 9 -

C/D 9 - - 9 - -

E/F/G - - - - - -

All shots at close range hit for a 5

Effect of hits (from fire or combat) 0-1: dead

2-5: serious wound

6-9: minor wound

Combat skill DEDUCT ONE Prone, facing away, mounted, puffed,

scared, enemy higher

enemy armoured or with longer

weapon.

DEDUCT TWO: Foot v. mounted walking

DEDUCT THREE: Foot v. mounted trotting/galloping

Combat hits Roll to equal/exceed: 4 skill A

5 B

6 C

7 D

8 E

9 F

No chance G
Gamesheet for the Divisional Game
Scales 1 mm= 1 m; 1 turn = 2 min; 1 figure = 33 men; 1 model gun=1bty

Sequence (i) Decide moves (v) Rally shaken

units

(ii) Move (vi) Orders

(iii) Firing (vii) Start next

turn

(iv) Morale tests, combats,

initiatives

Moves in a turn

Enter/leave house

Mount/dismount

Limber/unlimber

Lie down/stand

Fire (rifle = 2 turns)

or as follows: Open Rough Obstacles

Inf. line 130 90 60

Inf. column 170 110 40

Square/gun by hand 30 10 —

Skirmishers 200 140 80

Guns/vehicles 100 40 —

Horse arty/hvy cav 250 200 50

Lt cav./staff 300 250 100

 Couriers 350 300 200

(1/2= ½ rate; 0 = never arrive)

Roads add 10 m

Rough = slopes Obstacles = thick wood

hedge/wall etc
Ploughland

open stream
wood

rivulet Small river = 4 turns (not

vehicles)

Big river = couriers only,

village
drown for 0

Bunching - units within 50 m of each other (rear/side)

Skirmishing - rally with 9 beyond 400 m of main body

Disorganized - prone, bunching, changing formation,

crossing obstacles, skirmishing over 400
m
Morale Within 200 m of enemy
tests

Unit tries to pass through

"F" unit moves past;

Cav. flank/rear attack; inf. rear attack

Div. commander hit within 200 m

Cavalry which wins a combat may bolt

Roll nugget: fail test for score equal or less than

 -

1 status A

2 B

3 C

Rally: roll 9 each turn/ 4 D

combat
Initiatives in 2nd half of combat
turn: roll to equal or exceed
5 A

6 B

7 C

8 D

Range Max Effective

Horse Arty 750 200

Field Arty 1000 200

Heavy Arty 1250 200

Musket 200 50

Rifle 400 100

Carbine 100 10

Artillery fire Target Column Line Cover

Firing by Field A/B 0.3/0.6 0.2/0.4 0.1/0.2

C/D 0.2/0.4 0.1/0.2 -/0.1

E/F 0.1/0.2 -/0.1 -/0.1

Horse A/B 0.2/0.4 0.1/0.2 -/0.1

 C/D 0.1/0.2 -/0.1 -/0.1

E/F -/0.1 -/0.1 -/-

Heavy A/B 0.5/1.0 0.3/0.6 0.2/0.4

C/D 0.3/0.6 0.2/0.4 0.1/0.2

E/F 0.2/0.4 0.1/0.2 0.1/0.1

(Blanks = deduct 0.1 for roll 7/8/9)

Buildings – fire for 9

Enfilade – tgt upgraded one place

Hard cover – half effect

Guns manhandled ½ turn – fire ½ effect

Individuals – killed for 0, wounded ½

Musketry 0.5 status lost if nugget equals/ exceeds

Target

Firer Formed/ open In cover etc.

Long Short Long Short

Formed A/B 9 5 - 7

C/D 9 6 - 8

E/F - 8 - 9

Skirmishing A/B 8 4 9 6

C/D 9 5 - 7

E/F - 8 - 9

Shaken/ - 8 - 9
 disorganised

Close combat sequence

(i) Skirmishers fall (vi) Add deduct factors

back v. formed unit

(ii) Others halt at 50m (vii) Dice for chance

effect

(iii) Quick rallies (viii) Find winner and

losses

(iv) Crisis initiatives (ix) Does cavalry pursue?

(v) Add basic unit

scores
Basic combat scores

A B C D E F

Battery 4 3 2 1 0 0

Battalion 5 4 3 2 1 0

Heavy 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cavalry

Light cavalry 5 4 3 2 1 0

Adjustment to combat score

ADD ONE Attacker. Div. commander

Higher ground: Cover

Lancers v inf. and arty

Armoured cav.: Big unit

ADD TWO Hard cover

DEDUCT ONE Units which fought last

turn

Defenders not in line (inf.)

Cav. v. inf. column

Cav. frontal attack on line

Small unit

DEDUCT TWO Cav. On foot

DEDUCT THREE Cav. v. square: Unit in col.

of route
Effect of chance

Nugget O - No 7 - Add 150 %

change

1 - add 25% 8 - add 200%

2 - add 50% 9 - add 400%

3-6 - add Defender gets best of

100% draws

Loser

Withdraw 1 move, 4-5: Lose 1 point

shaken

0-1: Lose 2 points 6-7: Lose 0.5 points

2-3: Lose 1.5 points 8-9: Lose nothing

(less 1 from nugget if different bde in support: less 2 if

no support)

Winner advance 50 m no loss; cav. test morale

Cavalry v. cavalry

(i) Stronger front line pushes back

(ii) 1st line loser tests morale

(iii) All add score as normal, but deduct 1 per front

line squadron
Gamesheet for the Brigade Game
Scales 5 mm = 2m; 1 turn = 30 seconds; 1 figure = 10 men;

1 model gun = 2 guns

Sequence (i) Write orders (and turn executed) (iv) Close combat

(ii) Moves and morale tests (v) Start next turn

(iii) Firing

Orders Player-figure issues 2 per turn (verbal)

or 1 (written) in 2 turns

Couriers move 120 m; 0/1 = move quarter speed

Bn commanders pass down one order per ½ turn

Company commanders pass down one order per ½ turn

Voice range = 30 m

Signals must be pre-arranged: ½ turn per relay

Initiatives outside orders: for 7/8/9 only

Movement in a turn

Infantry Walk- 50 good going

30 rough (disorganised)

10 back/side (disorganised)

Run- 70 (Disorganized)

Cross obstacle (disorganized)

Lie/stand/fix/unfix bayonet(disorg.)
 Load & fire musket/carbine (disorg.)

Take dressing

Cavalry Walk Trot Gallop

Flat 70 90 100 (hvy) 120 (lt)

Rough 50 70 80

Must accelerate/decelerate walk-trot-gallop with

one turn for each speed

Jump (disorganized): 1-4 less 1 point 0 less 2

points

Mount/dismount
 Artillery Horse Field

Flat, limbered 70 50

rough, 50 30
limbered

Manhandled 20 10

Limber/unlimber/open caisson

Prepare to fire field guns (2 turns hvy/horse)

Load +fire (except v. hvy - 2 turns)

Traverse more than 900 = ½ turn

Morale tests First sight of enemy

Any enemy comes within 200 m

Any change of orders for inf. (includes fire)

Unit tries to pass through the section

Bn commander hit within voice range

Neighboring section fails to rally within 1 turn

In combat

Roll nugget: fail for score of or less than: 1 Status A

2 B

3 C

4 D

Rally roll 9
Disorganized units must regain dressing:

Rough ground/obstacles Changing formation

Skirmishing Firing (must also test morale)

Running/galloping All gunners

Ranges Max. Effective

Horse arty 750 200

Field arty 1000 200

Heavy arty 1250 200

Musket 200 50

Rifle 400 100

Carbine 100 24
Effect of fire Arty + 2 on 1st volley

1st volley + 2

Mounted unit -2

Art enfilade: throw 2 dice

Roll nugget to equal/exceed Column Line Cover

Long range A/B 8 9 10

C/D 9 10 11

Shaken/ E 10 11 12

Effective: A/B 6 7 8

C/D 7 8 9

Shaken/ E 8 9 10

Close combat sequence

(i) Agree on units involved

(ii) Roll nugget for interested units

(iii) Find winner and losses

Adjusted nugget roll for sections still interested in the fight

Equal/ exceed

A B C D E

Formed/in hand 5 6 7 8 9

Disorg./shaken 8 8 9 9 10
Adjustments in combat nugget roll

ADD THREE: Cavalry find flank inf./ arty

ADD ONE: Defender uphill/ in cover

Attacker uphill/ finds flank

Bde commander in voice range

Winner Disorganised until takes dressing

All reluctant sections test morale

(all sections which fail lose 1, shaken)

Loser Disorganised: all test morale

(all which fail lose 1 point, shaken)

Gamesheet for the Army Level Game
Scales 15/25 mm: 1 mm = 1 m, one figure = 33

5 mm: 1 mm = 10 m, 1 block = 1 bn/ bty/ cavalry regiment

1 turn = 15 minutes

Sequence (i) Movement markets placed by (iv) Morale tests & close
combat
units

(ii) Move as previously indicated (v) Rally shaken units

(iii) Firing (vi) Orders, and start next

turn

Movement in a turn

Open Woods Deduct for

obstacles

Infantry 700 300 -200

Arty (hand) 150 50 -100

Guns/ vehicles 500 - -450

Horse arty 1200 - -1100

Heavy Cav. 1200 300 -500

Lt cav/ staff 1500 300 -500

Couriers never arrive for 0

Roads- add 150 m

Major rivers – 4 turns, inf/cav.

Big rivers- couriers only, drown for 0

Limbering/ unlimbering – 1/3rd turn

Mounting/ dismounting – 1/3rd turn

Morale tests (i) First sight of an (iii)Enemy makes rear
enemy attack

(ii) Unit tries to pass (iv) Victorious cavalry

through may pursue

Roll one nugget, fail test

if score equal/ less than
1 status A

2 B

3 C

Rally; roll 8/9 each turn 4 D

Ranges Field bty - 1000 Rifle - 400

Horse bty - 750 Musket - 200

Heavy bty - 1250

Effect of fire per turn: read off status lost by target

Firer Target Fd bty Horse Heavy Rifle Musket

bty bty
in open

A/B 1.0 0.8 1.2 0.5 0.2

C/D 0.7 0.5 0.9 0.3 0.1

Shaken/E 0.5 0.3 0.7 0.2 -

A/B Cover 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.1

C/D 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.2 -

Shaken/E 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.1 -

Buildings - fired for 7/8/9

Enfilades - double arty score

Close combat All within 200 m of
enemy (in woods = skirmishing only)

(i) Find total score of each side (iii) Find chance variation

(ii) Add/deduct factors (iv) Find winner & losses

Basic combat scores A-5

B-4

C-3

D-2

Skirmish/shaken/E - 1

Combat factors

ADD ONE: Attacker

Defender in cover

Higher ground

Unit with Div. commander

Lancers v. inf/arty

Heavy cav.

ADD TWO: Defender in hard cover

Cav. + inf. v. inf.

DEDUCT ONE: Unit fought last turn

 Caught digging in

Unit without same bde support

DEDUCT TWO: Cav. on foot

Cav. attacking inf.

Unit in column of route

Unit without any rear support

Combat chance factor 0 - score 7 - add 150%
unchanged

1 -add 8 - add 200%

25%

2 - add 50% 9 - add 400%

3-6 - add 100%

Winner: cav. test morale

Loser: withdraw, 'shaken',

lose 1 point each

Gamesheet for the Generalship Game
Scales: Each turn represents 24 hours. The smallest unit is a
corps;

the map is divided into 'day’s marches'

Types of unit and status

Inf. corps 25 Supply of towns:

Res. corps 40 Fortress: 1 corps+ 14 days

Cav. corps 10 Open town: 1 corps + 7 days

Grand HQ - Siege: 10 x nugget score x days

Little HQ -

C.-in-C.'s staff -

Possible actions in each turn

Write orders: ½ hour

specify receipt time

Service L. of C. (at LHQ): ½ hour for base

+ ½ hour per town

Re-establishing L. of C/HQ: 2 hours

Intelligence (at LHQ): 1 hour per town

Writing home (at LHQ): 1 hour per day

or 2 per 2 days:

otherwise 4 at start of 3rd day

Letters to other players: 1 hour each

Rest ( ½ may be in coach): as C.-in-C.'s requirement

Must take all together if 24 hours'

rest is outstanding.

Movement: Horse, no posts - 3 + 3

Horse with posts - 3 x indefinite

(1 extra hour rest per march by

horse)

Post-chaise - 3

Coach - 4 x indefinite

Inspection: Hasty ½ hour, 1 status point

Formal 4 hours, 4 points

Speech: ½ hour per corps (1 point)

Personal recce Foot: 4 hours, 3 points

Horse: 2 hours, 2 points

Post-chase: 2 hours, 1 point

Battle, in front line: Killed for 0, wounded for ½

add 2x3 points, may not write

letters etc.
Sequence (i) Umpires give intelligence available

(ii) Players arrange action counters on gameboard

(iii) Players make notes on orders given

(iv) Umpires check for combats

(v) Players rearrange gameboard after any combat reports

(vi) Umpires assess full result:

Results of combat, effect on moves

All adjustments to status

All adjustments to supply & L. of C.

All expenditure of rest & letters home

(vii) Midnight reports of screen contacts and intelligence gathering

(viii) Clear gameboards & start next turn

Movement rates

Cav: 6+6 (less 1 per forced march)

Res/inf.: 8 + 8 twice a week (less 1 point for any march)

GHQ: 8 (must be 4 marches from res.)

LHQ: 4+4

Courier: 4 + 5 x indefinitely

(courier + C.-in-C. horse = cross country)

Combat sequence

(i) Screen reports

(ii) Combat courier report sent

(iii) Both decide posture + reserves

(iv) Is battle immediate, postponed or with 2 hour

(withdrawal) delay?

(v) If delayed- C.-in-C.’s morale boosting

(vi) 3 phases = hours * smaller no. of corps

(vii) Find status in each phase:

Fieldwork add 25%

Fortress adds 50%

Unopposed cav. double score

(viii) Nugget roll for chance:

0-5 – no change

6-8 – add 50%

9 – add 100%

(ix) Phase loser – less 20% status

Battle winner – less 10%

(x) Battle ends with 3rd phase, night, or

successful withdrawal
Siege sequence

(i) Besieger assesses supply: 1 corps

indefinitely

(ii) Garrison dices for supply: nugget x 10

days

(iii) Approaches: nugget x 5 days, 0 = abortive

(iv) Breaching: nugget x 3 days, 0 = abortive

(v) Storming: one day - success for 0-5

(vi) Attacker loses total of all above dice rolls

Besieged : lose points x 1 nugget (if win)

totally captured (if lose)
Alteration to status

DEDUCT: Each phase of siege or combat

Inf., each march or forced march

Cav., each forced march

Commander hit in battle

Failure of supply that day

Reserve corps too far from GHQ

HQs overrun by enemy

ADD 1 C.-in-C. in front line

POINT:

makes recce,

makes speech,

inspects unit

Every day stationary

Gamesheet for the Free Kriegsspiel and the Tactical Exercise
Without Troops
Scales Variable (both time and distance).

Kriegsspiel - start with 1 turn = 24 hours

Sequence (i) Players write orders

(ii) Umpire checks for contacts

(iii) Players submit supplementary contact orders

(iv) Combats are settled and reported

(v) Prepare for next turn

Suggested movement rates (strategic)

km per day

Infantry 21

Guns/vehicle 21 - on roads only

Heavy cavalry 25

Light cavalry 28

HQ group 31

Couriers 6.5 x4, then 4 km.p.h. indefinitely

Suggested digging rates (siege)

In 24 hrs - 70 m sap

1/ battery
3

½ inf. redoubt

5 m of mine
 arm battery/mine

Combat sequence

(i) Umpire checks balance of force, terrain etc.

(ii) Umpire gives probabilities for various possible

results

(iii) Nugget roll reveals which applies

Factors for a TEWT

(i) Access to terrain

(ii) Visibility over terrain

(iii) Planned size of forces

(iv) Suitability of terrain features

(v) Foresee possible moves

(vi) Transport

(vii) Notebooks

(viii) Nugget and box

(ix) Maps

(x) Country code

(xi) Intercom between all participants

Further Reading
This list has been revised and updated in 2008. Since 1980 both the scale
and scope of Napoleonic studies have hugely expanded, making for wider
and deeper discussion accompanied by a dramatically greater accessibility
to original texts. During the past 25 years, for the first time, there have been
more genuine experts active in this field than there had been in the previous
high point of Napoleonic studies that was wiped out by the Great War in
1914. Their effectiveness has been greatly multiplied by the internet
revolution, which has enormously accelerated their inter-communication
with each other.

Something similar can also be said of the production of wargame rules,

especially for games with miniatures. The present author is sadly unfamiliar
with the vast number of rule sets that have appeared in recent years, so he
can offer only a very few pointers (Although he is very grateful to Arthur
Harman, David Commerford, Martin James and many others, for their
quite invaluable help in updating these listings).

General on Wargames

D.F. Featherstone, War Games (London 1962: new edition printed as part of
the History of Wargaming Project:); also War Games through the Ages, Vol
3 1792-1859 (Stanley Paul, London 1975 ); and War Game Campaigns
(Stanley Paul, London 1979), which includes a Peninsular skirmish game
as well as campaigns involving corps and armies.

H. Pearson, Achtung Schweinehund! - a Boy's Own story of imaginary

combat (Little Brown, London 2007)

G. Gush, and A. Finch, A Guide to Wargaming (London, New York 1980)

P. Hofschroer, Wellington's Smallest Victory (Faber, London 2004) [A

startling inner history of Siborne's wonderful miniature dioramas of
Waterloo]
N. Palmer, Comprehensive Guide to Board War Gaming (McGraw-Hill,
1979): This is a vast subject that properly lies outside the scope of the
present volume, although very many Napoleonic boardgames are available.

J. Tunstill, Discovering Wargaming (Aylesbury 1969)

B. Quarrie, Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature (Cambridge 1977)

A. Wilson, War Gaming (previously The Bomb and the Computer; London
1970) [of particular relevance to Kriegsspiels]

See also a mass of relevant articles in the (very) many past and present
wargame journals that have appeared since the 1960s, e.g. Wargamer's
Newsletter, The Nugget, The Courier, Miniature Warfare, Wargames
Illustrated, Miniature Wargames, Practical Wargamer, Battlegames and
Wargames Strategy and Soldiers.

For references to sets of rules for miniatures, Bill Armintrout's The

Miniatures Page (or 'TMP', founded 1994) offers wide-ranging details and
discussions related to this subject: http://theminiaturespage.com/ Also see
Pete Jones’ site www.freewargamesrules.co.uk which hosts links to many
free sets of Napoleonic wargame rules of all types, from skirmish to army-
level. Among other things, such sites demonstrate that there is a vast
number of such rules, although a large majority of them tend to be set at the
'Divisional' level. Only a very few of the more prominent may be
mentioned in this bibliography, and in any case the present author has
personally read hardly any of them, although a notable exception is Charles
Stuart Grant and Stuart Asquith, Wellington in India - A Wargamer's Guide
(CSG publications, 1995), which is based in part on the 'Divisional' system
described in the present book. Equally the author had considerable dealings
with the late George Jeffrey (author of The Napoleonic Wargame [Almark,
London 1974]), whose Variable Length Bound (VLB) concept produced
many ripples among game designers in the early 1980s, although alas his
own rules could never be properly codified, despite the best efforts of Ned
Zuparko in California and Peter Dennis (of 'Hard Cover') in UK. There is
nevertheless apparently still an active VLB yahoo discussion group.
General on Napoleonic Military History

Debates & Overviews

A modern and well-informed discussion group is The Napoleon Series at

http://www.napoleon-series.org This carries on where Jean Lochet's
excellent Empires, Eagles & Lions journals eventually left off.

R.B. Bruce, I. Dickie & K. Kiley, Fighting Tactics of the Napoleonic Age
1792-1815: Equipment, Combat Skills and Tactics, Thomas Dunne Books,
2008

D.G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (London 1967)

T.A. Dodge, Napoleon 4 vols (New York 1904)

C.J. Esdaile, The Peninsular War: a New History (Allen Lane / Penguin,
London 2002)

V.J. Esposito & J.R. Elting, A Military History & Atlas of the Napoleonic
Wars (London 1964)

J.R. Elting, Swords around a throne (Da Capo Press, 1997)

C. Oman, History of the Peninsular War 7 vols (Oxford 1902-30)

J.C. Quennevat, Atlas de la Grande Armée (Paris 1967)

G.E. Rothenberg, The Art of War in the Age of Napoleon (London 1977)

Napoleonic Memoirs

Much of the best evidence that we have for low-level tactics comes from
the personal impressions of eyewitnesses, especially their diaries and
autobiographical memoirs. A huge number of these are now widely
available, notably such classics as the Recollections of Rifleman Harris, ed.
Curling (London 1929, & many new editions); Mercer's Journal (London
1927), and French equivalents such as Thiébault, Coignet and Brun - a
considerable number of which have now been translated into English. In
recent times a very splendid and useful effort has gone into reprinting this
literature by such specialist publishers as Greenhill and (confusingly)
Greenwood; Leonaur; Spellmount; Trotman, and a host of others.

My own works on Napoleonic history

Since 1980 I have produced a number of works of relevance to the present

volume. In the Napoleonic section of Forward Into Battle (Antony Bird,
1981 and greatly expanded Crowood edition 1990) I looked at British &
French tactics and firepower at brigade level. In Wellington - Commander
(Bird, 1985) I edited essays by seven authors which considered, among
other things, generalship and battle-handling. The art of war of
revolutionary France, 1789-1802 (Greenhill, 1998) has several chapters on
generalship and staffwork; and in 1999 I edited Modern Studies of the War
in Spain and Portugal, 1808-14 (Greenhill), which contained essays by 10
authors, including Arthur Harman on light infantry; James Arnold and
Brent Nosworthy on brigade tactics; Philip Haythornthwaite on both
Wellington's army and on siegecraft, and myself on 'operational art'. It also
includes a comprehensive listing of the British Peninsular War memoirs as
they had been published up to that date. In 2006 my The Vauban
Fortifications of France (Osprey Fortress series #42) looked again at the
fortresses; and in 2007 French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815
(Osprey Élite series #159) tried to summarise that much-discussed subject
in a short format.

The Skirmish Game

Troop types

H.C.B. Rogers, Napoleon's Army (London 1974)

The Osprey Men at Arms series (London) [for uniforms]

Guides to small group tactics

The most basic 'building blocks' of tactics were contained in 'the school of
the soldier' and the 'school of the platoon', which were the starting points of
most Napoleonic drill manuals. These manuals are much more widely
accessible today than they were in 1980, and The Napoleon Series (q.v.) is a
good port of entry if you want to find them. Relevant books include:

de Brack, Outposts of Light Cavalry (London 1876)

J.F.C. Fuller, Sir John Moore's System of Training (London 1924). This
subject has been discussed more recently in D. Gates, The British Light
Infantry Arm c. 1790-1815 (B.T.Batsford, 1987).

P. Haythornthwaite, British Rifleman 1797-1815 (Osprey Warrior series,

2002), and British Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815 (Osprey Élite
series, 2008)

N. de Lee, French Lancers (Almark, London 1976)

G. Nafziger, Imperial bayonets (Greenhill, London 1996) [a good recent

summary of the drill manuals of the major nations]

J. Pimlott, British Light Cavalry (Almark, London 1977)

These subjects should not, however, be left without mention of the

burgeoning modern subject of 'combat psychology' at a personal level. This
has quite recently received massive attention from specialist writers. In the
spirit of Ardant du Picq, S.L.A. Marshall began the trend with his
controversial Men Against Fire (New York 1947), which was a report on his
personal observations of low level infantry fighting in the Pacific during
WW2. Many other authors followed, until in 2006 David Rowland
published The Stress of Battle: quantifying human performance in combat
(TSO, London), which updated the subject with the benefit of all the
scientific and mathematical analysis that Marshall had lacked. As it
happened, the appearance of this book coincided with a more literary,
German, treatment of similar subjects that harked back to the 18th century:
Stefan Felleckner, Combat - a neglected area of military history: An
investigation into eye-witness reports from the Seven Years' War and the
First World War (Pro BUSINESS GmbH, Berlin 2006).

Rules for Miniatures at the 'Skirmish' level:

Robin Empey, Green Jackets & Voltigeurs, (rules and scenarios for
Peninsular War skirmishes, 2006) from the author:
battlefi[email protected]

Donald Featherstone’s Skirmish Wargaming, (new edition printed as part of

the History of Wargaming Project 2008)

Flintlock and Ramrod, 1700-1850 Publication details?)

Sharp Practice - from the Two Fat Lardies 2008

www.toofatlardies.co.uk

Howard Whitehouse, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (1999)

The Divisional and Brigade Games

A few historical studies

Ardant du Picq, Battle Studies (New edn. Harrisburg Pa. 1958)

M. Ayrton & J. Taylor, The Sharpest Fight; the 95th Rifles at Tarbes, 1814
(Forbitou, London 2008)

Griepenkerl, Maj Gen, Letters on Applied Tactics (7th Ed, London 1912)

B.P. Hughes, Firepower (London 1974)

R. Muir, Tactics and the experience of battle in the age of Napoleon (Yale,
London 1988), and Salamanca 1812 (Yale, London 2001)

B. Nosworthy, Battle tactics of Napoleon and his enemies (Constable edn,

London 1995. Also published by Da Capo in USA as ‘With Musket, Cannon
and Sword’)

Verdy du Vernois, Gen von, A Tactical Study based on the Battle of

Custozza (London, 1894)
Rules for Miniatures at the 'Brigade' and 'Divisional' levels

A few of the games (in chronological order) are: Fred Vietmeyer, Column,
Line, Square (Fort Wayne, Indiana 1966 – now available free from
www.deepfriedhappymice.com); Duke Seifried, Glen Davies & Jim Getz,
Napoleonique Encore (Napoleonique/Encore Publications 1971; revised
1992); Scotty Bowden & Jim Getz, Empire (1st published 1975 and now in
its 5th Edition: Empire Games Inc, Arlington, Texas USA); Charles Grant,
Napoleonic Wargaming (Model and Allied Publications, Hemel Hempstead,
1975); Trevor Halsall, Fast Play Rules for Napoleonic and Crimean
Wargames, Newbury Rules, Berkshire); Ned Zuparko, Vive L'Empereur!
Grand Tactical Miniatures Rules for Napoleonic Warfare (Chaosium Inc.,
Box 6302, Albany, CA 94706 USA 1981); David Brown, Général de
Brigade (Partizan Press,1995); Howard Whitehouse, Old Trousers (The
Courier, 1995, now under revision. Contact the author at
[email protected] ) [Peninsular War]; Brent Oman, Piquet -
Master Rules and Les Grognards 1792-15, 2nd edition supplement (Piquet
Inc., 8995 S. Edgewood Lane, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130) and Field of
Battle 1700-1900 AD (2006); Arty Conliffe, Chris Leach & Dave Waxtel,
Shako II: Rules and Army Lists for Napoleonic Wargaming (new edition
2008); Chris Grice, General de Division [bound in one with Maréchal de
l’Empire] in the Polemos series of rules (Baccus6mm, Sheffield; with 2nd
edition due October 2008).

The Army Level Game

A few historical studies

M. Adkin, The Waterloo Companion (Aurum, 2001)

J.R. Arnold on the 1809 campaign: Crisis on the Danube (Paragon, 1990)
and Napoleon Conquers Austria (Greenwood, 1995). On the 1800
campaign: Marengo & Hohenlinden (Arnold, 1999); also, with R.R.
Reinertsen, Crisis in the Snows: Russia Confronts Napoleon: The Eylau
Campaign 1806-1807 (Arnold, 2007).

H. Camon, La Bataille Napoleonienne (Paris 1910)

C.J. Duffy, Borodino (Sphere, 1972), and Austerlitz 1805 (London 1977)

P. Hofschroer , Leipzig 1813: the Battle of the Nations (Osprey Campaigns

series, 1993); and 1815 The Waterloo Campaign (2 vols, Greenhill 1998-9)

H. Parker, Three Napoleonic Battles (London 1944)

J. Weller, Wellington at Waterloo (London 1967)

Rules for Miniatures at the 'Grand Tactical' or 'Army' levels

Don Lowry & Pete Rice, Grand Army (Panzerfaust Publications, California,
1975 – now available free on the internet from www.tabletoptalk.com);
Sam A. Mustafa, Grande Armée (Quantum Printing, 460 W. 34th Street,
New York, NY 10001, 2002) [See also Fast Play Grande Armée, available
for free from the author’s website www.sammustafa.com/grandearmee.html
and the fastplayga yahoo discussion group; also La Grande Guerre, an even
simpler set, with the division as the basic unit, available from the LGG
yahoo discussion group.

Grand Piquet: Grand Tactical Warfare in the Age of Napoleon (2nd edition,
Piquet Inc., 8995 S. Edgewood Lane, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130 USA, no
date); Le Feu Sacre: Rules for Corps-level Napoleonic Wargames (Two Fat
Lardies 2003), www.twofatlardies.co.uk ; S. Craig Taylor Jr. & Robert L.
Coggins, Napoleon's Battles: Miniatures Rules for Warfare in The Age of
Napoleon (2nd Edition by Five Forks Inc, 2004: 3rd edition shortly to be
published by Lost Battalion Games, lostbattalion.com 2008); David B.
Reynolds, The Marshal’s Baton; Fast Playing Grand-Tactical Napoleonic
Rules (published by the author, Ypsilanti MI 48198, 2005); Brian Cameron
& Bernard Ganley, The Eagle’s Last Flight; Eagles & Empires I: The
Waterloo Campaign of 1815 (Real Time Wargames / Realistic Modelling
Services, Dover, UK 2006); Frank Chadwick & Greg Novak, Volley and
Bayonet II: Road to Glory (2008); Chris Grice, Maréchal de l’Empire
(bound in one with Genéral de Division, in the Polemos series of rules
published by Baccus6mm, Sheffield, 2nd edition due October 2008); Bill
Gray, The Age of Eagles: The Napoleonic Wars in Miniature based on 'Fire
And Fury' (Pennsylvania, 2008)

The Generalship Game: a few studies of staffwork

R. Glover, Peninsular Preparation - the reform of the British Army 1795-

1809 (Cambridge 1963)

J.B. Vachée, Napoleon at Work (London 1914)

S.G.P. Ward, Wellington's Headquarters (Oxford 1957)

G.T. Warner, How Wars Were Won (London 1915)

Free Kriegsspiel

Wargames

Bill Leeson has been the great champion of the Kriegsspiel format in recent
times. His works, which include rules translations, scenarios, maps and
background material, are currently being reprinted with improved graphics:
http://www.toofatlardies.co.uk/Kriegsspiel.html

See also regular discussions in Kriegsspiel news:

http://www.kriegsspiel.org.uk/

J. Curry, ed., Verdy’s Free Kriegsspiel including the Victorian Army’s 1896
War Game (printed as part of the History of Wargaming Project

A related style of game is the 'megagame' in which scores of players spend

a day or two playing out battles at several levels of command. See
Megagame Makers: http://www.megagame-makers.org.uk/

Siegecraft

The lead organisation for general discussions is the Fortress Study Group:
http://www.fsgfort.com/

Books include:

C.J. Duffy, Fire and Stone, the Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860
(London 1975)

E. Viollet le Due, Annals of a Fortress (London 1875, and modern reprints)

- Also see the Osprey 'Fortress' series in general.

Imaginary French landings in Britain (as a possible inspiration for

either Kriegsspiels or TEWTs)

I.F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984 (Oxford 1966)

E. Desbrière, Projets Tentatives de Debarquement aux Iles Britanniques
(Paris 1900)

R. Glover, Britain at Bay (London 1973) [British defences against

invasion]

A fictitious but nearly non-fiction (and very tactically-aware) account of

the French invasion of Ireland in 1798 is Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the
French (New York 1979). I am especially grateful to Joe Park for giving me
a copy.

Fiction

It is very regrettable that there is no significant mass of historical novels on

Napoleonic land warfare that can stand beside the great treasures that we
have for naval transactions, notably the works of Patrick O'Brien.
Admittedly C.S. Forester wrote not only the 'Hornblower' series but also
Death to the French (New edn, London 1952) about 'Rifleman Dodd' in the
Peninsula. Conan Doyle's 'Brigadier Gerard' is a classic and R.F.
Delderfield, Too Few for Drums (London 1964), and Seven Men of Gascony
(London 1973) are also recommended, as is Allan Mallinson's A Close Run
Thing (New edn., Bantam, London 2000). Alas the uninformed bodice-
ripping 'Sergeant Sharpe' series is definitely not.

In recent times there has been a fascinating surge of (technically fictional

but highly informed) 'counter-factual', 'hypothetical' or 'alternate' histories
that range over every conceivable subject, including Napoleonic land
warfare. Relevant examples include Jonathan North, ed, The Napoleon
Options; alternate decisions of the Napoleonic wars (Greenhill, London
2000) and David Fitz-Enz, Redcoats' Revenge, an alternate history of the
war of 1812 (Potomac Books, Washington DC 2008).

Paddy Griffith
[1]
Starting in 1969 with the Highland infantry, Airfix released a large range of
Napoleonic figures. In 1973 they issued probably the most fought over piece of
scenery in the history of wargaming, the La Haye Sainte Farm House. Airfix’s delay
in issuing the Napoleonic range led to almost a decade of frustration of waiting for the
early ‘modern’ wargamers. These wargamers resorted to converting other figures,
such as the American Civil War range for their purposes. Paddy Griffith even wrote to
Airfix several times complaining of their tardiness.

[2]
As presumably only a ¼ of the unit in square is then facing the enemy.

[3]
Also see Peter Perla’s The Art of Wargaming, Annapolis, Maryland, 1990. JC.

[4]
A people between Europe and Asia who fought the French in the invasion of 1812.
JC.

[5]
A type of sponge. JC

[6]
However, see the bibliography for an update since this book was first printed in
1980. JC.