"Napoleon - Used as a Campaign at Cold Wars" Topic

Columbia Games wooden block game "Napoleon" is a classic, and quite honestly my favorite board game of all time (and my memory stretches as far back as Tactics II).

Few games have achieved a strategic play that is so elegant in its simplicity. The wooden blocks provide uncomplicated but effective fog of war and step reduction. The mechanics are straightforward group activation, with the French having a more unified command. This results in town to town movement, with road limits affected by crossing rivers, and can be learned in minutes. However the free deployment, wide open map, faster speed for cavalry and horse artillery, as well as forced marches can lead to sweeping maneuvers that can take years to master. No two games are alike. It is a great strategy game.

You can read the entire article here.

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Green Knight, I couldn't agree more, and would love to read your article, but all I seem to get is the same text as above?

It works now, funny I pasted the whole article into the link instead of – the link. Duh :)

Yes I played in a game at Historicon 14 where the battle was generated from this one, IIFC.
GM explained how things came about in our debrief ( must have been played earlier).
Unfortunately, our tactical battle rules still needed debugging and my battle plan was domed from the start. I had to obey the Emperor's orders!!!
(FOG in this tactical game was sorely needed for me to be more effective- oh well : -/)

MG

I like the game but find an experienced Allied player has the advantage.

I have often argued that Napoleon (in the silver box) is the finest board war-game ever written. Later editions had a different battle map that wasn't as elegant.

Buck Surdu

That is what the author mentioned to me as well. he did mention that they sort of reissued the old game recently with only a few changes. I can't speak to that personally.

Looks like a very good system. : )

Excellent article, thanks!