"Battles for Empire by James R. Arnold" Topic

Have just received my copy of Battles for Empire which is a series of 13 tabletop scenarios for the period 1807 and 1809. I have to say the mail order was very quick from the USA to Belgium.

The book itself is very good, well laid out and provides a good cross-section of mainly historical scenarios plus some "What if" . It is worth taking time to read the introduction as the system is clearly explained and in fact the scenarios could be used for any horse and musket period. Large and small scale situations are catered for but my first try out will be the attempted relief of Danzig in 1807.

I think this is the best scenario book I have seen and I sincerely hope that James Arnold will turn this into a series.

Broglie

if James Arnold is involved its bound too be decent!!

regards

Ged
gjm.figurines.co.uk/

GJM Figures

I agree completely and confess that that is the main reason I was attracted to the book in the first place.

Broglie

Who sells the Book?

Bill H.

TMP link

I received mine yesterday, and yes it iswell worth the price, and I can certainly recommend it.

I have a question for Jim Arnold; what ruleset do you use?

Thanks,

Randy Collins

I'm getting set to run the Teugen-Hausen scenario while reading Crisis on the Danube up to that point.

A very entertaining multimedia experience.

I give the scenario book high marks and look forward to more products in the future.

I LOVE the cavalry raid to free prisoners and would really enjoy seeing more small unit patrol actions, a subject that has always been fascinating.

Dear Randy,

I just stumbled across your question. Sorry for the late response. I play with my own rules, "Generalship Napoleonics", which derived from the variable length bound ideas promoted long ago by George Jeffries. My rules for the larger battles put the gamer in the cic role where he issues his day's orders and trusts his subordinates to execute them. These subordinates are numerically rated based on their historical performance. The next effect is to provide a fast-paced game devoid of tactical micro-management. Players who want to make perfect moves all the time hate this system. For others it is an appealing way to simulate Napoleonic combat. The rules are not currently for sale. Maybe if there is enough demand, but for now let's see how the scenario book sells.

yours,

James

James:
Are your "Generalship Napoleonics" at all related in design to your Generalship: The American Wars" you published so many years ago?

Best Regards,

Bill H.

Dear Bill,

No and yes! The original Generalship Napolenics predated Generalship: The American Wars. The latter's morale system with its four categories; elite, veteran, regular, militia, and the idea of "Critical Threats" -- conceived after reading Keegan's the "Face of Battle" all those years ago, with the idea of basing a morale assessment upon what the troops see and experience -- are not in the original version but are in the current version of "Generalship Napoleonics." Also, the new version employs the variable length bound approach. (again, the new version is not for sale at the moment; before publishing them I would have to be convinced that there is a market for a fairly radically different Napoleonic rule set since my rules really try to put the player in the position of a commander who cannot "micromanage" everything). The new version shares with the original the philosophy that the game should be fast-paced while presenting the player with realistic command decisions.

For now, I am curious to see how 'the market" receives the scenario book. Maybe if it proves popular I will have another go at selling the rules. At all events, thanks for your interest.

James

Hi James
How about a selling them as a pdf, no or at least very little outlay for you but a vast audeince to tap into.
William
ps I would also love to see the rules published in anyform.

Yes, James, ditto William K. I'd be interested in how you've incorporated VLB.

Bill

Gentlemen,

It's an intriguing idea. I am not sure about the technical side of copy right protection. What is to prevent someone simply buying one copy over the internet and then sending copies wherever? Presuming this is not a hurdle, I have often thought that coupling the release of a rule set with some kind of on-line help function would be the way to go. Help updates would have to be limited, maybe one a week at first or some such, because obviously they would otherwise grow out of control. But I could even envsion national or international "game nights". First person shooter games do this kind of thing, why not staid old Napoleonics!

Regarding VLB, George Jeffries games only worked smoothly when he was present to interpret. Because by design VLB opens the table to all the complexities of real Napoleonic warfare, that remains a challenge.

All best and now, sigh, back to work on the Moro Wars and the exploits of Captain Jack Pershing in 1902.

James

James wrote:
"What is to prevent someone simply buying one copy over the internet and then sending copies wherever?"

The same thing that would prevent someone from buying a published version and sending copies wherever: Not much other than a copyright.

I can understand your reluctance.

Yes, George's design did open the table to far too much, not all of it Napoleonic complexities… That being said, it still was a terrific effort.

Bill H.

What are some of the other scenarios in this book. This sounds very intriguing to me.

Hi James
That is the problem with pdfs, as you say what is stopping someone from copying a set and sending it to his friends. It seems that a number of companies are successful in doing this and it appears to me the price point is the real issue. It seems that 15$ is the highest you want, more than that, sales will be slow and you do run a higher risk of people copying and sending on to gaming buddies. However, under that then it is a compulsion buy and it is not a big issue for the consumer.

Since you know what the profit margin is on printed matter you can gear it to that, but the real benefit is of course no outlay of cash to print and store and ship the material. That is of course if you are printing and distributing, if you have someone else print and distribute you know that there is a very small profit margin for the author. Also if you do finance the project yourself you are then also in the distribution dilemma, you must discount to these guys so they can also make a profit.

PDF is a great way to go, I would offer two version one a bw version easy and cheap to print the next with color and all the whistles and bells.

If you believe the rules are going to be a huge success then pdf is not the way to go, if you think that they will be a moderate good seller then a pdf is the way to go, your return on investment will be the highest.
William

I would like to pre order a copy of the rules no matter what format you put them in!!!!!

Dear "Alte Fritz":

Please visit napoleonbooks.com for details about the scenario book. Six are the 1807 Russian Campaign, six are the 1809 Campaign. Number 13 is a skirmish scenario, "Pour la Merite" based on the exploits of a Prussian Lieutenent Hellwig who won that coveted medal during a bold attack against a French convoy.

James

I saw this thread, ordered them, reieved a nice mail from Mr.Arnold immediately and a confirmation of the order from his wife the same day. The order, including his new book on Eylau, arrived in Hong Kong within a week and they cut me a deal on the postage that I didn't even ask for!
On top of this great service this turned out to be the best scenario book I have ever seen, it uses historical orders of battle,(even for two hypothetical scenarios if you see what I mean,)and has lots of explanation so it can be used with any set of rules for divisional scale actions.
Most impressed.
Peter

I have order to books from Napoleonbooks.Com by Mr Arnold; 'Crisis in the Snow' and 'Marengo and Hohenlinden', I enjoyed them both. Looking forward to his book release on the 1807 campaign.

cheers
Edward

I have also ordered from napoleonbooks.com/, "Crisis on the Danube". Order placed on August 5th, arrived in the UK, August 10th. Great service!
I have also read Crisis in the Snow and think it is the best book that I have read on the 1806/7 Winter campaign. I am looking forward to the next part.

Thanks

Scotty

I recently finished reading "Crisis in the Snow" and really enjoyed the readable prose, the analysis and the explanations provided by Jim Arnold. It really helped me to understand the Eylau campaign and the book was rather eye opening in terms of the battle's effect on Napoleon's vaunted Grande Armee.

I like his writing style enough to order "Crisis on the Danube" (both volumes) sight unseen as well as his wargame scenario book. I look forward to the release of his work on the Friedland campaign as well.

I have also just finished reading Crisis in the Snow and found it to be a very readable yet also erudite history of the campaign. This is one of the finest modern campaign histories that I have read; it is very highly recommended.

I've just ordered Battles for Empire now.

I have to agree with everyones comments on "Crisis in the Snows", fantatic book for wargaming inspiration on a relatively ignored period. Can't wait for the Friedland book.

Me Arnold, if you are looking at possible pdf'ing, perhaps talk to Rich at TooFatLardies as a chunk of his business model is set up that way.

Dear Mister "Bloggs"

Thank you for the excellent suggestion.

By the way, for you Crisis in the Snows fans: co-author Ralph is due here at any minute (having flown from Switzerland) to work on Napoleon's Triumph and maybe, if I can convince him and convince myself, another scenario booklet.

I throw this out as a question, but my notion is to provide scenarios from several different campaigns like Bonaparte 1796-1800, Friedland Campaign, and Peninsula battles. But I don't know. Maybe a buyer wants to have the topics concentrated within a narrower range. For myself, I have few problems adapting one scenario to another if I lack the historical troops. Perhaps you all feel otherwise?

All best,

James

James,

While I too have no problem adapting scenarios I really enjoyed the focus of your first book on the two campaigns it covered.

Keeping the focus on a particular region or army gives a nice sense of the changes that occurred as time went by.

A scatter shot approach is still enjoyable but misses this campaign aspect.

Bob

Napoleons Books:

I like to see scenario books on 1796 to 1800, but would you consider the 1799 Italian campaign also even though Nap was in Egypt? Friedland is my second choice. The Peninsula seems overdone to me. I am admittedly biased as I am painting soldiers for Italy now and find the scale of battles not too large.

I would love to see scenarios for:

1796 in Italy
1805 (other than Austerlitz)
1806-1807
1808 with Napy in Spain – it seems like the only Peninsular games anyone ever plays are English vs Marshals …
1809 that does not include Aspern-Essling or Wagram
1812 unsung battles of the invasion and for during the retreat
1814 the whole thing is generally overlooked and provides some great options

I would be especially pumped for 1814 myself. Everyone is there, everyone is tired and beaten, the Guard are always involved and the French are always outnumbered.

Cheers,

The Bandit

A book covering the whole 1809 campaign would be great, and not having Aspern-Essling and Wagram would be fine. Those two battles are very well covered elsewhere.

My second choice would be the 1796 – 1800 campaign, with or without Napoleon.

Regards, Bill

If i'm not mistaken was'nt there a set of Napoleonic rules several years back with the same title.

I used to play Napoleonics using a set of rules called Battles for Empire.

Captain Gideon

Indeed there was, I have them on my bookshelf. BoE was very much a reaction to the Empire series and has a *lot* in common with it.

Cheers,

The Bandit

I vote for 1814 as well.

cheers
Edward

I would like to see a scenario book for one of the Austrian campaigns. 1796,1800 or 1809.