Games in Print

The first of the four battles occurred on the 17th and 18th of February: Mormant took place 3 days after the Battle of Vauchamps, covered in "La Patrie en Danger." The last two battles were fought in late-March: Arcis followed 8 days after Reims, from "Napoleon Retreats." With all three games you can contemplate a 12-battle Grand Campaign.

April 1796

With his commission order fresh from Paris, Bonaparte established his HQ at Nice and took command of a front-line force of 35,168 men of the Army of Italy, ordering them across the mountains and heading for a fight at Montenotte. After Beaulieu's 26,697 men of the Army of Italy escaped from harm's way and sprinted for Acqui, the Piedmontese Army became Bonaparte's next target. 

26-27 August 1813:  

One million soldiers of the belligerent armies moved into position for the final struggle. For Napoleon, nothing went as planned, and every day saw a deduction of 1,000 men from his fighting strength.

Upon his great victory at Dresden Napoleon saw his chances of victory slip away in four battles lost over a fortnight, as the Allies avoided the Emperor in person while concentrating on his subordinates

May 1796: Bonaparte arrived at Piacenza with 35,168 men of the Army of Italy, crossing to the north bank of the Po and heading for Lodi, shouldering aside Austrian flank guards. Lodi was abandoned by the Austrians only after Beaulieu’s 26,697-man army escaped from harms way and was sprinting for Cremona. In a highly-idealized propaganda moment (see cover), Bonaparte took his sword in one hand and the grenadiers’ flag in the other, attempting to lead them against the Austrian guns dominating the bridge and causeway. “A near run thing.”

Second Edition!

- Thoroughly revised rulebooks
- Upgraded counters
- Revised and corrected set up information
- Reprint map covers European Russia from Tilsit to Moscow at a scale of 1:1,000,000
- Turns average 5 days each. Corps and Army-Level Leaders deploy on-map, while Corps-level combats units track their fluctuating strength

A series of defeats provoked Napoleon to lead 200,000 men into the Peninsula. The British attacked near Burgos but were soon forced into a long retreat punctuated by the battles of Sahagún, Benavente and Cacabelos, ending in an evacuation from Coruña in January, 1809. Moore was mortally wounded while directing the defence of the town in the Battle of Coruña. After only two months in Spain, Napoleon handed command over to Marshal Soult and returned to France, to prepare for renewed hostilities against Austria.

Napoleon’s sudden appearance on the Danube was a shock to Austrian General Mack, who was dazzled into inactivity. In the “wheel” maneuver of October, Gunzburg, Elchingen and Ulm are all covered on one full-size map. Napoleon managed to seal off the Austrian army's escape routes to the south and east, while Mack was fed erroneous news that revolution had broken out in France. The French captured Ulm, taking 42,000 troops at a cost of fewer than 10,000. In just 30 days they would race down the Danube and occupy Vienna.

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After dispatching Blücher’s Army of Silesia at Vauchamps, Napoleon diverted temporarily toward the Seine at Montereau, for an inconclusive brush with Schwarzenberg’s Army of Bohemia. His inveterate foe Blücher apparently had learned no lessons and threatened to move again on Paris. By March 3rd Napoleon was returning northward along the bank of the Ourcq River. The fall of Soissons, cheaply surrendered by General Moreau, saw the quarry escape over the Aisne River to link-up with 43,000 reinforcements near Laon, raising his strength to over 100,000. While the Emperor concentrated between Fismes and Berry au Bac, Blücher continued to retreat on Laon. Reaching Craonne, the Emperor decided to advance along the chemin des dames to test Blücher’s position on the plateau, and clear the flank of his advance on Laon.

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Here is your opportunity to try The Library of Napoleonic Battles at a great price. Currently the introductory game is the Battle of Fismes

Napoleon advanced into Saxony with a fresh army of 130,000 men, conscripted and trained from scratch in just four months. The green cannon fodder lost 25,000 of their number at the Battle of Lützen on May 2nd, and 15,000 more fell out along the march from weakness, malnutrition, and disease. With additional reinforcements the army surged again to 160,000, intercepting the Coalition armies at Bautzen. French youth left on the Saxon field 12,000 men, and even more march attrition. The Russians and Prussians were losing just as many, and had not as many to lose. But Napoleon's mere 6,500 cavalry were wholly inadequate to impel his pursuits with the needed punch to damage the enemy. In hopes of building up his strength in cavalry and the other arms, Napoleon accepted a six-week truce. Late Summer negotiations, when they finally came, were not seriously engaged.

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The Year 1809 began with Napoleon’s departure from the Iberian Peninsula, to face the Austrian threat on the Danube. He left his brother, Joseph, in nominal command of his armies in Spain, as puppet king in Madrid. Fighting flared on several fronts simultaneously, and the French occupation had some successes, notably at the siege of Saragossa, concluded by Marshal Lannes just before his departure to join the Emperor.

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Napoleon's Last Gamble contains five battles from the Waterloo Campaign, which Napoleon began by seizing the central position between the Prussian and British Armies. On June 15th the Grande Armee was unleashed across the Sambre River. Allied screening forces sent out the warning to headquarters. The Allies executed a forward concentration behind the cover of their screens. As the 16th dawned, troops of both sides still converged on the battlefields.

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Napoleon Against Russia contains five battles from the critical phase of the Campaign, when the Russian Army finally gave Napoleon the decisive battles he so greatly desired. His first maneuver starts out well - with the French poised to slip into Smolensk behind the Russians. However, the opportunity to bring an end to the campaign will remain unfulfilled. After that, Moscow became the default destination of the Grande Armée. As Napoleon stated, "The wine has been poured and must now be drunk."

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La Patrie en Danger contains five battles from the opening phase of the Campaign in France. Napoleon has just arrived at the front. At their first encounter the French surprised Blucher's Prussians and Russians during a snowstorm. The Battle of Brienne was a short-lived success, however, for just two days later the Prussians triumphed at La Rothiere and wrote-off the enemy as a spent force, advancing hell-for-leather across the Marne and onto the highway to Paris. Ten days later Napoleon seized his opportunity when Marshal Vorwarts allowed his advancing columns to get dispersed and defeated in detail, in rapid succession in three short sharp combats.

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Napoleon at Leipzig is a comprehensive game with a proven track record of excellent re-playability, among the most popular Napoleonic wargames of all time with 20,000 copies in print across the first 4 editions. Now it has a bigger playing area and more manpower for both sides, all working within a smooth and efficient engine of 19th-century warfare.

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