Napoleon's Last Battles

Napoleon's Last Battles is a board wargame first published by Simulations Publications in 1976.

Description

Napoleon's Last Battles consists of games of Ligny, Quatre Bras, La Belle Alliance (the "actual" Battle of Waterloo) and Wavre. The Wavre scenario is not so much a pitched battle as a race as Grouchy's French and the Prussians each attempt to exit off the west edge to join in the Battle of Waterloo.

Counters are brigades or regiments, with separate counters for corps commanders (division commanders for Wellington's Army) and senior generals (Napoleon, Ney and Grouchy for the French, Wellington and the Prince of Orange for the Allies, Bluecher for the Prussians) - a player only has full control over those units within easy galloping range of the chain of command.

Units are infantry, cavalry (light cavalry units are weaker but faster) and artillery (including a few mobile but weak horse artillery units). Artillery have a range of two hexes, but their line of sight is blocked by ridges, enabling the player to recreate Wellington's skilful use of terrain at Waterloo. Simple optional rules reward combined arms tactics by awarding a bonus in combat if an attacker uses units from all three arms, but also create the possibility that cavalry may, on an unlucky die roll, make unwanted and ill-advised advances of their own, like the Scots Greys at Waterloo.

A unit unable to retreat in combat is destroyed - such units may be reassembled by the relevant corps commander and return to the game at reduced strength (flipped to the reverse side, with a white stripe across the counter). Some Prussian units begin the game at reduced strength as they deemed already to have fought at Charleroi. A reduced strength unit may not be reconstituted a second time if destroyed again.

Provided a few edges are snipped off, the maps can be placed adjacent to one another to play the whole 16-18 June period. Victory points are obtained for destroying enemy forces and, for the French, exiting forces off the north edge of the map to Brussels.

Publication history

Napoleon's Last Battles was first published by Simulations Publications in 1976, and was designed by Kevin Zucker and J.A. Nelson. The game was reprinted in the 1990s with an extra scenario for the French Charleroi crossing.

Reception

Chris "Gerry" Klug comments: "Napoleon's Last Battles is one of the best pencil-and-paper military simulations ever because it's a gloriously wonderful blend of solid, no-frills design, intelligent packaging, and a synergistic combination of the two that delivers a game that is (perhaps unintentionally) more than intended and results in a very happy consumer."^[1]

References