"Napoleonic Campaign Game" Topic

Greetings folks. I was wondering if there is a computer or board game out there which could be used to simulate Napoleonic campaign manoeuvres between armies and which can then be taken to the tabletop to fight actual encounters.

I guess what I'm looking for are effective fog-of-war, objective, logistics and command mechanisms.

Just to give you some context, I have just read "Grouchy's Waterloo" by Andrew Field and I realised that playing a tabletop battle as part of a developing campaign would give it more depth, emotion and uniqueness.

Thanks for your replies!

You might like to look for some games from Kevin Zucker such as Napoleon at Bay. The 2x series is more strategic with the TLNB newer games being more operational than Strategic. That being said the expanded version of Napoleon's last Gamble is a possible for working through the whole campaign.

Effective FoW will always be tricky unless you have some form of umpire moderation.

The Emperor Returns from Clash if Arms comes up on auction sites from time to time for a more strategic game if the 1815 campaign.

We've used Avalon Hill's War and Peace as the campaign tool for refighting the Peninsular War.

1 Strength Point in the game converted to a Division / Brigade on the table

Guys, thank you. This looks like a good place to start.

Any ideas for computer type games where fow might be more achieveable?

I used Tomb for an Empire link for my re-fight of the Peninsular War: link

Empires in Arms link can be used too and that is a PC game

Wrt a board game, we've used "Empires in Arms" and it's an excellent vehicle for a campaign, leading to tabletop battles.

You could try Matrix Games's Campaigns on the Danube 1805 & 1809, an old game for PC. IIRC the author had tabletop (and/or separate computer game, like John Tiller's napoleonic games for HPS Sims) battle resolution in mind when designing the game.

link

Berthier will be a useful tool.

There is the Berthier Campaign Manager link

It is free software you can manage a campaign.

You can also use Bluchers campaign system and couple it with these maps link that were originally used to run a campaign a while ago.

Paul Leniston has been running his multi-corps Napoleonic campaigns for years, so you could have a look at these rules: link

Whirlwhind. Thanks for the mention.

The campaign was designed to provide wargames and does not provide any fog of war. But I find that if I write the orders for the French on one day, and the allies the next, my memory generates sufficient fog of war.

The rules are more a series of references rather than a fully written set of rules.

You can use any wargame rules with this campaign, but I have written a set designed for use with the campaign, but again not very comprehensive.

link

Finally there is a blog with a daily history of the whole campaign, orders of battle, campaign maps and battle reports.

link

The campaign is designed as a series of mini campaigns each about the size of Waterloo. You will find the orders of battle and campaign objective on the campaign blog.

The current campaign, 1813 Linaries Campaign, is on the TMP Campaign Message Board

I haven't tried a conversion, but John Tiller has several very good Napoleon PC campaign games.

Another vote for Zucker's games. I've used several of them with great success.

You are awesome guys. Thank you one and all. I definitely have work to do.

Most of these Zucker games are on Cyberboard and Vassal computer program assistant which alliws to play at a distancz. It saves a lot of of time.
You can create units, change them retc.
I know how to create in vyberboard and done modes for some games. Dummies can be created if not already in the downloadepable modiles, so you can havze a dose of FOW.

The rules can be had from OSG games site.
It is probably best to have a third party lightly involved to pass on some info, put in a bit of spice ( card events) esp if multiplayer so only those who should have the right intel until deemed disseminated.

All in all a good balance , esp if played with only two army commanders, between the full role play campaign and even simpler decision games.

I would also recommend Zuckers games. We have used the new series which are actually only battles but most of the battles have one scenario called March to battle, which starts a day or so before the battle. We have used those to great effect as mini campaigns. The best part is since we use 5mm Heroics and Ross figures I use a ground scale of 4cm to 100M this allows me to use a clear template with our table on it to overlay on the game map then transfer the terrain to the table. Most of the battles can fit on our tables. Each turn in the campaign is an hour but the mini game is 15m so every four turns on the table we go back to the table and do a movement turn. This means that troops marching to the guns might show up on the table.

This really creates a great small campaign with no need for an umpire as you just play the board game and then transfer any battles to the table and continue moving on the map.

The selections of battles is huge and all with the same system and ground scale.

The older games can be used in the same way.

Zuckers games are a great way to create campaigns without the tedious need for umpires and days of messages back and forth. Just play the board game with the rules as written then fight the battles on a table when opponents meet.

Great stuff.

William