The Pratzen: Austerlitz 1805

The battle was fought between the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte and a larger allied army composed of Austrian and Russian forces. The battle is considered to be one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The engagement result brought the War of the Third Coalition to an end and about the Treaty of Pressburg. The battle is widely thought of as a tactical masterpiece on par with Cannae.

The game is designed by industry veteran and author of The Art of Wargaming, Peter P. Perla. The game system of The Pratzen: Austerlitz 1805 began some three decades ago as an idea to update the classic SPI tactical game Grenadier, published in 1971. Pratzen evolved into a merger of the Grenadier scale with some different combat mechanics based on the original von Reisswitz Kriegsspiel rules of 1824, adopted as a training tool in the Prussian army after the Napoleonic Wars. The scale was shifted from half-battalions to companies and divisions as the basic infantry maneuver piece, and much additional streamlining and simplification ensued.