"Napoleon's Battles 4th ed fate" Topic

I recall a couple threads over a year ago regarding the Napoleon's Battles 4th edition kickstarter which did not reach the funding target. There was some chatter about a boardgamekickstarter in UK publishing the book anyway. Going to this site offers no clues as to the fate of the 4th edition of Napoleon's Battles. Does anyone have an update?

The last thing posted on the yahoo group on May 4th;

my apologies for the lack of news. You are right that I should give a little more feedback at the forum. The point is that I'm afraid to give false expectations, and I tend to wait too long before posting news. At the beginning of the year I thought the rules could be ready for Salute, but I was not sure and I fortunately didn't post. Now I hope they can be ready for the summer. I'm going to visit the Waterloo 2015 event, and I'm looking forward to attending the show with the rules in my hands, but it's still not confirmed that this deadline will be achieved.

The state of the new edition is the following: the rules and additional material is ready, but it seems the publisher was too busy during these months. Just after the Salute, we received news from them and they are currently working with the layout. In the following weeks we should have some definitive design (and maybe show some examples of it). The editor is also working to tight the budget, since we asked them to prepare a cheap edition, without expensive cardboards or markers.

Meanwhile, some friends and members of our playgroup have been testing scenarios with the new rules and the contents (and the language) has been reviewed once and again.

I have pretty much given up on it myself.

Thanks, it's a shame really as it's one of the hallmark rules sets of the Napoleonic period and all of wargaming, really a timeless set of rules.

A PDF version sounds like it would solve a lot of the problems. I haven't played the rules, are there issues that needed to be addressed by a new edition?

Try a copy of Blucher. A different experience, much cleaner design, but the same scale. I'm rebasing from NB now.

daler240D they are making some rule changes, they had outlined them in a few posts on the yahoo group, but no definitive post as far as all the revisions go. You might try joining the yahoo group and looking back through the posts, it is a fairly active group despite the rules problems.

So, I will preface this by saying I don't mean disrespect or to lecture, but:

1) You kow Bob Coggins passed away right?
2) Capitan games bought the rights to the ruleset and have issued their "Napoleon's Battles: Marechal Edition" which is essentially the 4th edition.

If I'm wrong in my understanding, someone correct me please.

DJ, yes but no the 4th edition is not out yet,

Tally Ho!

There's a 2nd Edition…?

Still happily playing 1st Edition with a few mods. :)

I am not aware of many issues with the NB rules, many people say they don't like various things but never offer any suggestions. I think the 4th ed might have some tweaks, etc. I'm just in it for a nice shiny new book to add to my Napoleon's Battles collection and hopefully get a few more scenarios.

Blucher, yes have it, a nice set of rules, but I don't have the right taste for these contemporary abstracted systems; new agey might be a good descriptor.

here's a 2nd Edition…?

Still happily playing 1st Edition with a few mods. :)

+1

here's a 2nd Edition…?

Still happily playing 1st Edition with a few mods. :)

I'm still playing 1st Edition with no mods!

"Blucher, yes have it, a nice set of rules, but I don't have the right taste for these contemporary abstracted systems; new agey might be a good descriptor."

LOL, precisely what people said about NB when it came out. Too abstract, where's shooting? etc.

I have always been perfectly happy with 1st edition. If people want to develop and publish further editions, that's great, but I echo what Jf, dfw, and BB have said.

People are playing Blucher locally and having fun, but as I look the rules over, I would like a bit more differentiation in unit types and leaders. NB provides that.

Yes, what Tuscaloosa said….

Also I play 1st edition, not much change really between any editions: just trying to get updated editions for "fluff" and more scenarios as the research they put into those scenarios is significant and worth owning.

I saw these rules are finally out and generating discussion good and bad on dedicated group sites.

Interesting that no one says anything here. I have the 1st edition, played a few times, and moved on. However, they seemed a decent set of rules and I would play them when offered.

Have most gamers truly moved on?

"Have most gamers truly moved on?"

…(sound of crickets chirping)

or they just aren't big with regular TMPers I think.

I've been moving back and forth between NB and Age of Eagles for some time. There's a lot to like about NB, and bags of period flavour. I've had the 1st edition for a long time, bought the 2nd but largely ignored it (too many typos) I never bought the 3rd edition, but I've placed my order for NBIV.

There's are some fudging and design-for-effect aspects that some people don't like, particularly those used to working at more granular scales, but in other ways it's very detailed.

Here's a good review by Paul Synnott

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Paul Synnott

My copy on NBIV arrived today, and here are some observations after an initial look through it and even a bit of reading here and there.

Look and Feel: Book has a nice solid feel to it (unlike NB2), and is printed on good quality paper that seems to be mimicking the look of vellum. It will open flat (very important, and also has a really nice new book smell (also very important). Some minuses, though, but not huge ones; the print in some tables is a bit small and could use a bit more contrast; hills are represented on scenario maps by a splodge of dark brown where I think some shading to represent contours would have been better, as in the NB1 maps. This would probably fit in better with the period feel the designers are obviously going for. Also related to period feel is the labeling of maps with a script-style font. This works well enough for place names, but not for troop deployment areas, which I think should use clearer characters. Also, due to the dark-hill-splodges, many of the French deployment area labels on the Waterloo map are quite hard to read (blue characters on a brown background). All IMO, of course, and nothing showstopping.

The layout of the rules is logical and although I miss the multiple-booklet-with-cards approach of NB1, it's probably better to have everything in the one place, and means no more looking for the one unit information card you need that seems to have gone into hiding… A reference card would have been nice, but it wouldn't take long to knock one out in Excel. Those from earlier versions of NB will probably work too. It's a pity that no data was provided for generals but hopefully that will be rectified soon with a download.

Unit sizes: New minimums: 8 figures for cavalry and…yes, the same for infantry! Nice. This will allow for more historically accurate orders of battle, especially when combined with the abilities feature.

Abilities: As mentioned already by Javi, this feature means that a unit can use better (or worse) movement/response/fire/combat modifiers than specified in the unit information card for that type. This could take into account things like a better or worse-than average brigade commander, additional or no divisional artillery, additional or fewer light troops, brigades containing better or lower quality sub-units, etc. A unit may have only one ability (I think "attribute", might be a better term) and there are restrictions based on things like fire range and response number. Although not given as examples by the authors, those players who dislike the classification of dragoons as LC or the lack of differentiation between lancers and other light cavalry types might find this feature to be of great interest.

In the Waterloo scenario, for example, the second brigade of each Old Guard division has the "Combined with Militia or Low-Quality Troops" ability, and an additional -1 modifier applies to any combat or response rolls they make. One of Foy's brigades, on the other hand, gets a +1 when firing because of the FrLT component within an FrLN brigade. On the Allied side, one DbLN brigade is penalised (-1 for combat/response) for its militia component, while a DbMI brigade gets a +1 for combat/response) because of its DbLN component. NBIV units will have more personality than their NBI/II/III versions.

There are more changes in NBIV than I've mentioned above, but those are the ones that stand out for me after a quick looking over of the new rules. This set may not be a rewrite, but it must surely contain the most radical changes of any edition to date. Scenario designers are going to be busy, because the revised minimums for unit sizes combined with the potential offered by the "abilities" feature means there's a reason to revisit every scenario.

I did suffer a twinge of buyer's remorse after I'd placed the order, thinking that maybe I should have just stuck with NBI which has served me well, but now that I have the new rules I think it was money well spent.

Verdict: Highly recommended.

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Just thought I would share.

Frank

Here's a good review by Paul Synnott

That's me!!!

It was only a first impressions, not a review because I haven't played with the new rules yet – or finished reading the changes.

But yes, what I've seen so far I'm happy with.

One thing I really like about the new v4 is the edit to firing into BUA's.

Having to double a defender's die roll to cause a casualty means that you can't just lay back and pound troops in a town/village and expect to do much damage…

You now have to send infantry in to do the job, much like in history.

I also like the way the fighting is handled in BUA's.

A lot of people are whining about the interpenetration rule being excessive and I believe I will go with the suggestion of forcing one of the units to roll for disorder.

Units deployed with enough gap between them to deploy into line. Anyone who has spent time marching in formation knows that it is not a big deal to shift formation while you're marching…

But overall VERY glad to see these rules back in production!

The original AH version (I have 3 copies along with the red and blue scenario books) came in a bookcase which means they had all that storage space to cram lots of charts and booklets into.

A hardcover book with MANY wonderful color photos limits the amount of material… I personally think they did a great job of getting the important part out there.

They can always add supplements…

I applaud them for a great effort!

Frank