what's napoleon's battles?
I am in Napoleonic Wargaming from 1980's. From then until now I have
buyed, tried or used many different rule-sets: Grant's rules (The
Napoleonic Wargame), Quarrie's rules (Guide to Napoleonic
Wargaming), Empire II, III and IV, Brigade!
(a computerized set from Eagle Software), Napoleon's Battles,
Volley and Bayonet, Grande Armee, Age of Eagles and many others (I
am a compulsve rule-sets buyer!).
When Intenet arrived to my home (1996) I hear of a Napoleonic rule-set
named Napoleon's Battles of Avalon-Hill and designed by Craig Taylor
and Robert Coggins. I was then making a
transition from Empire style games (very detailed and veeery slooooow)
towards brigade-sized ones, by the simple expedient of usig my Empire-mounted
miniatures at lesser (for both men and terrain) scales. However, a
first and avid lecture of Napoleon's Battles lead to the fully re-mounting
of all my miniatures to accomodate they to the new scales and thus, I
entered in this new age in which all the major actions of the
Napoleonic era (well, almost all) could be played in my table game.
In the last ten years I have solo-played many battles with Napoleon's
Battles, modifying the rules when necessary in punctual situations. I
have used until now (december 2015) the 3rd Edition with all the optional rules, but I
was always
interested in new mechanisms introduced in other sets such as Age of
Eagles or Grande Armee, in order to incorporate them to my gaming.
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Craig Taylor and Bob Coggins (january 2009) |
In the last two years there were some new movements in the NB field. Bob Coggins
sell the authoring and copyright of the rules to
Javier Gámez, a Spanish wargamer
from the Balearic Islands. Bob authorized and guided Javi in the new modifications, until his
death in July 2014. At last, and after many, many incidences (there is an interesting history
behind NB-IV to be accounted by the protagonists)
Napoleon's Battles Marechal
Edition, a.k.a. NB-IV, was launched in August 2015. The new edition was received
with mixed feelings, because of
two main
changes introduced by Javi (and authorized by the late Bob Coggins), namely (i) the
penalization for the passage of lines and (ii) the increased difficulty to rout only with small and artillery fire
an enemy unit deployed in a B.U.A. (Built Up Area. These changes, as well as other minor ones described in the
NB-IV web site, seem very reasonable and I expect will be adopted by the users of the rules.
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In this 'Napoleon's Battles' section of this web you can find
house-rules, modifications for solo gaming and a series of Scenarios
I have solo-played in these years, including Scenario pdf.file and a
graphical account with pictures. For the making of the Scenarios I
have used the amazing "Nunez Tables" found in the
CSGA NB page.
The next step is to integrate Napoleon's Battles with some Campaign
mechanism allowing to play the battles in a logical sequence. My
first attempt is the refight of the Campaign of Leipzig (Autumn
1813). The project imply the painting of new miniatures and the use
of the boardgames 'Four Lost Battles' and 'Napoleon at the
Crossroads' from
Operational Studies Group. You can watch the state of the
Project at 'The Leipzig Project'
or in my
PROJECT LEPIZIG BLOG.