Good old Osprey! Between these  two books, they should give me a good feel for the 1809 campaign and the illustrations and photographs that are typical of Osprey publications, should help with some scenario building.

Someone at The Lead Adventure Forum posted a link to this amazing PDF resource.

The Austrian Imperial-Royal army 1805 to 1809, by Enrico Acerbi, is a 198 page book covering uniform plates, facings and orders-of-battle, together with information on reform and organisation etc.

http://www.centotredicesimo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ACERBI-The-Austrian-Imperial-Army-1805-09.pdf

Battle of Fismes is an introductory title to 'The Library of Napoleonic Battles' series.

I have just played through it and pposted some observational notes over on the Battlefields & warrior Blog, from the perspective of how useful the intro scenario is to a new player.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-battle-of-fismes-introduction-to.html

I don’t often watch lengthy YouTube videos from start to end, but I thought that this was particularly well done.

(link at the bottom of this post).

Martin and Robin from the 7th Son Channel present their ‘learning’ game of Soldiers of Napoleon by Warwick Kinrade. When I say learning, it is fact a well presented game with the duo already having a good grasp of the rules and by the end of video, you will have a good understanding of the mechanics and will certainly help with a buying decision.

It is really helped along by a splendid looking table that helps convince that a good game with 28mm can be played off the domestic table.

At my last two or three wargame shows, I have picked these up - put them down - picked them up - put them down, totally undecided whether to buy. This video has really helped me.

Some headline features are that;

The rules use paces for measurement and so are scale agnostic.

A hand of specialised cards are used to progress the turn. Each card has three features. You can play it on a brigade commander to give a number of units orders, the cards have random order values. You can play it for the Special Event, for example the card might give you a round of enhanced cannonade to use all of your guns and you can play it for function such as Rally. 

The system assumes that you are playing a small section of a bigger battle and so things are going on around you ‘off-table’ and some of those things may influence your game, so for example in their game, nearby British guns got a chance to target one of the on table French units. Success and failure on your ‘off board’ flanks might also influence your game.

In the video, each side has a small division of three brigades, which is the size of game I particularly favour.

The game is underpinned by Victory Points, which are earned throughout play from various situations, once a player scores enough VP’s to match the other side’s Morale Value, they win.

With a battle that potentially fills the table, the cards do help shake things up a bit to keep play flowing and interesting and so playing exactly the same game twice has the potential to play out differently each time.

I am not a huge fan of cards, especially those system that allow play of cards against the other person in a sort of ‘Gotcha’ style, with the card having no intelligent relevance to what is happening on the table. Here, the cards are tamer and have two functions sitting side by side.

One is to drive the command system and the other is to introduce special events to help the narrative, though it is interesting to note in one of the comments at the foot of the video, the poster says something along the lines of - you end up playing card play rather than playing a game of Napoleonics., an interesting observation that I don’t fully concur with, but they have a point.

The sticking point for me on cards is that it undermines solo play. It looks to still be playable solo judging by the cards that I saw drawn, but the hassle of managing two decks when gaming alone is something that I don’t mind passing on. Overall for me and my solo game, it is a solution to a problem that I don’t have, but for others, I can see it giving interesting games and bringing a strong narrative.

It would be the Austrians that interest me and their stats etc are in a second book and I must admit, I don’t like being pulled down the codex / supplement route. I will still carry on picking it up and putting it down at wargame shows though :-)

LINK

https://youtu.be/644FCug7TiM?si=awYZpDVXjnbSmOAI

This is the game map for the Ligny battle, part of the 'Last Battles of Napoleon' quad. This version was published in 2015 by Decision Games.

The shot shows a close-up of two important villages, the main one is Ligny (top right), but of interest to us is St. Amand (bottom left), simply because I am working on a figures scenario for this area of battle.

It will have three linked scenarios, each covering the same ground. The idea is that anyone just getting into the period can game a slimmed down version of the scenario and then as their collection grows the 2nd and 3rd part can be added - same battle, just an escalation of forces involved.

Two more titles enter the collection from the Library of Napoleonic Battles series. Napoleon's Last Gamble, which covers the three days of battle at Quatre Bras / Ligny/ Wavre and Waterloo and Napoleon's Wheel, which covers Danube engagements with the Austerlitz battle as the main event.

I am working with the Napoleon's Last Gamble game first, while I have the rules under my belt. Having recently played Wavre with the older Napoleon's Last Battles package and having over the last 12 months done Quatre Bras with three systems, NLB, JdG and Eagles of France, I know the Quatre Bras situation well enough to be able to then make a reasonable judgement of merit between the games.

I have just put the Quatre Bras scenario on the table. It has a limited order of battle, so should play relatively quickly.

Of interest with this system is that each side gets a number of potential 'alternative' reinforcements that may or may not arrive during play (a random determination).

For the French, this includes d'Erlon's Corps, which famously marched and counter-marched between the Quatre Bras and Ligny battlefields without arriving at either. Their arrival may likely have changed the outcome of one or other of those battles and I suppose it is always a game design quandry what to do with d'Erlon. Most games seem to keep him remote from the field.

If d'Erlon does activate, there is a 50 - 50 chance he will be available to Ney at Quatre Bras ....... but also a 50 - 50 that he will march instead towards the Ligny battlefield - nice.

I like that here, the player gets the emotional feel of playing Ney with a hope / belief / expectation that d'Erlon will arrive ..... but where the hell is he!

The playing area is large enough that d'Erlon's I Corps set's up on the map, which I think will add to French player's expectation / frustration as to his arrival, since he is tantalisingly visible.

Overall an attractive package.

Last night we played the Quatre Bras scenario from the Napoleon’s Last Gamble package (OSG). 

Historical Background - The French (Ney) task is to pin Wellington’s Anglo-Allied army in place while Napoleon with the rest of the French army attacks the Prussians over to the right at Ligny (dealt with in another scenario).

This scenario - Victory points are based around the control of Gémioncourt and Quatre Bras, plus of course damage inflicted to the other army.

There is another scenario in the package that plays both the Quatre Bras and Ligny scenarios at the same time and in that scenario, the lateral road that connects the two battlefields also yields victory points.

The photo here shows the initial set-up. Off picture, further down the map (at Gosselies) sits d’ Erlon’s 1st Corp, which famously marched and counter-marched between both battlefields, arriving at neither, but his arrival at either would likely have been decisive ….. will he turn up today!

In our scenario, there is a chance that he will arrive to support Ney (position 1 on the map) …. but also a chance that he will march off towards Ligny! (Position 2)

The turns are hourly. The eight turn scenario starts at 2 PM and ends at 9 PM, which is a night turn. Map scale is 525 yards (50 acres) to the hex. The weather starts as ‘Heat’.

AAR - The French early advance is successful and they take Gémioncourt, only to be immediately pushed back out by Kempt at 4 PM.

It starts to rain, which reduces visibility, preventing the artillery from using ranged fire (bombardment).

Kempt’s advance into Gémioncourt was unsupported and he is soon ousted, leaving Quatre Bras exposed and which in turn is captured by Soye.

At 6 PM the weather worsens and thunder storms rage, making artillery slower to manoeuvre and infantry becoming less effective in combat (halved).

Pack re-takes Quatre Bras from the French, who immediately counter-attack and push Pack back out. By this time, the Anglo-Allies had been taking the worst of the casualties and Wellington was considering calling a General Retreat, when Cooke’s Guards suddenly appeared from Bossu Woods and flung themselves at Quatre Bras, in one final glorious Hoorah, capturing it, literally on the last combat die roll of the game!

Darkness descended and the two forces disengaged. Wellington had indeed spent the day pinned in place, as the French had intended, though that last minute capture of the cross roads caused a swing of 10 Victory Points from French favour to Wellington, reducing the French Victory from a potential Strategic Victory to a ‘French Marginal’ victory.

As for d’ Erlon, he did not reach either battlefield, but for me as the Anglo-Allied player, it would have been great fun to see him activated and for the French to think he was moving up to support them, only for him to veer off to the right and advance towards Wagnelee (Ligny battlefield) …. I’m sure that would have demoralised my opponent :-) Note - I was managing the activation of d’ Erlon, so that his behaviour, based on die rolls, was kept secret from the French player, until intention was visibly obvious, giving Ney an emotional connection to the hopeful arrival of d’ Erlon that he actually had during the real battle.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable game, with both sides fully involved and key locations changing hands several times.

I quite like doing anniversary battles, so I will explore the individual battles in this box and then in mid June, in time for the 210th Anniversary of Waterloo, the full campaign can go onto the table, which combines the battlefields of Quatre Bras, Ligny, Wavre and Waterloo into big scenario.

Mike and myself did that with the original Napoleon’s Last Battles game, on one long hot summers day in the 80’s …… so it is certainly time for a re-visit.