Grand Battles Napoleon

Grand Battles Napoleon is a set of rules for recreating Napoleonic battles with model soldiers. Players can play GBN using any scale from 6mm all the way up to 28mm miniatures and there are guidelines for gaming in the various scales. Units represent infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, artillery batteries and skirmish battalions and screens. 

Players take on the role of army or corps commanders. Each player usually commanding around four to five divisions, with each division composed of between two to seven units. Thus the average size of a game is a corps + assets depending on which nation you are using. 

The game is driven by two important, and to my mind exciting mechanisms, command initiative and response. Both these mechanisms make the game completely interactive at all times. Inspired by the other game we publish – Koenig Krieg, the initiative system has been adopted for Grand Battles Napoleon. In a time where games designers are seeking new ways to make the game interactive, we here at Siege Works Studios have been doing this quite successfully in our 18^th century game since 2009.

Grand Battles Napoleon is definitely not a you-go-I-go game. It is very important that players understand the function of initiative in this set of rules as it governs most of the actions that occur during a turn. Actions are not sequential, neither are they simultaneous. Instead commanders test initiative several times during the turn. The player who wins the initiative test may activate one of his divisions or force his opponent to activate one of their divisions instead. Both players roll for initiative round after round until all units on both sides have had a chance to act. In this way each player is kept “in the game” at all times, with each general tied to their initiative, command ability and the important decision to strike now or force their opponent to act instead!

The second exciting mechanism is response. Response is divided between command response and unit response. Commanders need to perform response tests if they wish to perform sweeping grand tactical orders, maintain command control should they find themselves outside command range of their corps, wing or army general or to steady the troops from becoming demoralised as casualties in the division mount.

Unit response allows your troops to act out of turn and react to movement within their zone of control or when being charged. So that even within the other player’s activation the non acting player is never really out of the game.  

Alongside the Parade Handbooks (army list books), to be released over the next few months, these rules give you everything you need to run set-piece battles from the heights of Valmy, pyramids of Egypt, river systems of Seringapatam to the plains and villages of Aspern-Essling and chateaus of Waterloo.  You will be will be able to re-fight historical battles, or if time is pressing, you and a few mates can settle in on a Friday night and play any one of 10 points based missions from Grand Battles Napoleon and Legion d’honneur supplement. Legion d'Honneur are our free campaing and Big Bash rules, suitable for running tournaments, big multi-day games and linked campaigns. You can downlaod a copy from our website  here or facebook page here  . Our website and offical Grand Battles page has laods of free stuff and support for players.

Units act via operations. The types and amount of operations a unit may perform are defined by the type of unit, is it cavalry, infantry, skirmishers, the units national character, i.e. does the infantry prefer fighting in lines or column, and the quality of the troops, are they guards or militia?

So in the immortal words of Marshal Gebhard von Blucher, "Raise the flag high my brave lads. Forwards to victory!"