napoleon at the crossroads
the highways to leipzig

This boardgame (from now NAC) designed by Kevin Zucker of Operational Studies Group (OSG), was released in 2006 and is the perfect companion for Four Lost Battles (FLB).
NAC uses some of the OSG's proven mechanisms for great-scale campaigns. The scale is 6 km (3.75 mi.) per hex / 3 days per turn / 3,000 men per Strenght Point. According to OSG:
'NAC is a modification of the Napoleon at Bay system... at a higher and more strategic scale, focused on overall strategy'
The game involves hidden movement, attrition, administration and more. Because of its strategical scope, the combat units in NAC represent Brigades, Divisions and Corps of 1,500 to 36,000 men.

All nationalities are present and clealy differentiated. The leaders are from Corps commanders upwards and are the only counters present in the game map (exception made of vedettes, unemployed leaders, garrison and dummies). The emphasis is on the strategical side but obvioulsy there is a system to simulate battles... (people buy boardgames for it!
OSG launched in 2007 OSG the booklet 'The Companion to NAC and FLB' with a lot of information about the campaign and the design of NAC and FLB games. The last issues of OSG's "Wargame Design" journal also contain material related to both boardgames.

The characteristics of NAC makes it very adequate to use it as a frame into which the battles could be accomodated and played using miniatures, Napoleon's Battles (a 2x1.6 square meters table-top contains a full hex) and the FLB mechanics for solo-play.

napoleon at the crossroads and the
leipzig project

The 1813 campaign in Germany is one of my favourites. After the disaster of Russia, the breach between the tactical abilities of the French Army and its enemies practically disppeared, whereas the Emperor's genius was not the same than before. All those facts lead to more equilibrate battles.
In tha past I have played some of the battles (see the PREVIOUS NB SCENARIOS' at right) with variable results generally following the real world ones. Now (April 21, 2006) I want to replay, practically from scratch, the 1813 autumn campaign starting with the 'Four Lost Battles': Gross-Beeren, Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz. I will use  the previously designed Scenarios as a starting basis, modifying the OOB's when necessary and adding the fog of war using chance cards ā la FLB.
In the long run, a mechanism to simulate the full autumn Campaign of Leipzig must be provided, and NAC could be used for it.
The long awaited 'The Habit of Victory' (HOV) adding Cards for attrition, movement, fog of war.... will be a welcome addition

This is my 'Leipzig Project'....