Stripped Down for Parts: 1809: Talavera (Fix Bayonets! Volume II)

 

 

Note: I wanted to acknowledge that A Fast Game been very quiet for the last month or so. I’m working on a longer piece which I think will be worth the wait, but I realised I needed to take time away from that to catch upon some of the other things that have been on my mind in terms of wargaming, both incoming games and recent reading, which will push back the project work an extra week or two but I think will help make it better in the long run (as I was beginning not get a little white-line fever dealing with just that).

 

1809: Talavera (Tactical Workshop, 2026) is the second in designer Frederic Delstanches' Fix Bayonets! series, the first technically being the second edition of 1811: Albuera (Tactical Workshop, 2025). The third has already been announced - 1806: Auerstädt (Tactical Workshop, ~2027 – you can sign up to be notified of the Gamefound campaign launch here). The box art exhibits the same trade dress as the previous volume, with an extract of a painting by Richard Simkin (of whom I have written previously), The 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot clash with French infantry, Battle of Talavera, 1809 (c. 1900). The original painting is part of the permanent collection of the National Army Museum in Chelsea.

The box is of what we might think of as “standard size” (roughly 12” by 9”), about three inches in depth, and of solid construction. It needs to be to accommodate everything this game brings to the table.

Box-back.

The box back hints at what we’ll find inside, with a selection of unit counters and administrative markers reproduced to their actual size under map extract showing the town of Talavera, the scene of some of the hardest fighting during the battle. A few lines set the historical context of the battle – the combined British and Spanish forces under generals Wellesley and Cuesta respectively, holding the town of the Talavera and the adjacent hills for the night of the 27^th of July, and some verry hot fighting throughout the next day, finding on the 29^th that the French had retreated in the night, leaving hundreds of their wounded and a battery of cannon.

The play notes advise that the game can be played by one or two players (I think it wouldn’t be too difficult to play with three, dividing the Allied forces along national lines). There is no dedicated solo system for the game, but there aren’t any mechanics that should make it prohibitively difficult to play two-handed (in fact, I’d go so far to say this would be the best way to acclimate to the system coming to it cold). The game’s difficulty is described as Medium to Difficult, with which I would concur (I’d place the system at about a 7 out of 9 for crunch; maybe a 5.5 for the introductory scenarios).

The current Series Rulebook (version 2.7).

The rulebook has been slightly updated from 1811: Albuera – from version 2.4 in the earlier volume to version 2.7. Going over the two rounds of errata (available as PDF downloads here), most of the changes are clarifications to standing rules, with six additional rules introduced, four corrections to existing rules wording, and a dozen or so clarifications of standing instructions.

The rulebook itself is printed in full colour on a nice weight of low-gloss paper, formatted into a double-column in a ten- or eleven-point Garamond (both choices making for easier reading and comprehension) and usefully illustrated. Box-text is used liberally throughout; yellow background boxes highlight key takeaways regarding play (making it easier to home in on specific details at the table) while red text on a white background fills in various historical or design notes in reference to the preceding rule. The whole book is easily navigable, with a detailed Table of Contents (alas, no Index, but in it’s place is a helpful glossary of Definitions, beginning on page 51).             

Rulebook - sample spread.

The rules run to 49 pages; as I mentioned, that count includes a lot of illustrations and pictorial examples, and every effort has been made to make the rules easier to assimilate, but it can’t be denied, it’s a lot to absorb. The Fix Bayonets! system is not a difficult ruleset to understand, but it is a lot to master. If Talavera is your introduction to the system, there’s an introductory scenario that uses just infantry units. Unless you’ve cut your Napoleonic teeth on something like La Bataille, I recommend dipping your toe into the Fix Bayonets! system here (but we’ll come back to the scenarios shortly). I touched on some of the details of the series rules in my unboxing post of 1811: Albuera, so I won’t repeat myself here. Go read that as well, though I should warn you that Albuera is currently out of stock with the publisher..

The back cover offers a visual guide to interpreting the unit counters and markers used in the game Inside of the back cover is a summary of Leader Movement restrictions and a quick guide to handling the Leader cards. These would have been useful on a Player Aid Card of their own, but there’s already so much in the box, I understand not committing to this extra expense (and weight, however slight). I can see some photocopying of these pages in my future. A short bibliography (twenty citations) is also included, which I always find helpful. I’m pleased to note, nearly all of the books cited are in English and many are available at a reasonable price, if you’re looking to extend your Napoleonic library.

The Battle Booklet, offering special rules, scenerios, and fascinating historical glimpses.

The 1809: Talavera Battle Booklet is twenty-four pages in length and materially shares the same qualities as the rulebook. It offers a brief historical background piece, rules for unique terrain types (olive groves and city walls), a rundown of the opposing forces, and historical notes covering the Orders of Battle for the three armies, with particular attention paid to the divisional uniforms.

Battle Booklet - sample spread.

The Battle Booklet also offers five scenarios, running in scope from the aforementioned Night Attack, which plays out in a fourteen hex-length area, twelve rows deep, enough to get a feel for the manoeuvre and combat rules without having to master the artillery rules, to the whole Two Days of Battle. The first two scenarios, The Night Attack and The Morning Assault, play out on a single board; the game is a bit of a space hog, so these will let you get to know the nuances of the game before you commit to clearing the whole dinner table. The remaining three scenarios – A Bloody Afternoon, The Full Day (covering the scope of the action of the 28^th), and The Two Days of Battle – require the full, substantial board, which we will get to next.

The South board, with Talavera and the Targus in the top left corner (the flags
at the bottom edge mark the French approaches).

The contested terrain of Talavera is represented over two map-boards that meet along a short edge, presenting a long front for the antagonists, roughly defined by the Portina brook that roughly bisects the length of the . The map runs north from the town of Talavera on the Rio Targus and extends north to the hills anchoring the British flank. The scale is roughly 120 meters (130 yards) to a hex, and elevation changes are approximately ten meters (30 feet).

The North board, depicting the area that saw most of the British action. The two smaller
scenarios are played on this half of the map.

The terrain is clear (no pun intended) and readable, generally not up for debate. The line-of-sight rules make sense in context of the map, though I’m sure the wilful will find something to argue about. I can’t say in good conscience that these are my favourite tactical Napoleonic maps – I think Sébastien Brunel’s exquisite work on Hexasim’s Eagles of France games still take that honour – but they are perfectly fit for purpose and by no means distracting, which is what you need from a game map.

Counter-sheet 1.

Counter-sheet 2.

Counter-sheet 3.

Counter-sheet 4.

Counter-sheet 5.

Counter-sheet 6.

The unit counters are one of the points where the Fix Bayonets! system really pops. The counters are large (about 3/4”) and beautifully presented, with accurate uniforms and readable digits in, in spite of the saturation of information incorporated into each unit. I mentioned the historical notes covering various divisions represented in the battle in the Battle Booklet. Each division’s distinct uniform is presented in the historical notes, and these are reflected I the unit counters. Each unit features its command affiliation (division) and Regiment/battalion, digits representing the unit’s steps, Fire and Skirmish (melee) values, a TEM score (and number broadly representing the unit’s Training, Experience and Morale going into the battle, a red number will indicate poor training), and the unit’s Movement Factor. Cavalry units are marked with the presence of a horse’s head to the left of the figure, and of course don’t feature Fire quotient. Artillery units have an above view of a cannon on their unlimbered side.

All the units and markers are pre-rounded and punch out pretty cleanly. The plethora of administrative markers suggest a business to the play that is misleading. most of the board-bound markers are mnemonic devices to remind the players of a given unit's current actions, which may need to be responded to or played out, and will not clutter the board beyond the turn. Disordered/Suppressed and in Square markers are cut smaller as to not obscure the unit below, and the elongated Charge and Column and Road Column markers have their game effect values printed on them. The design of every marker has been considered and streamlined into the best version of itself.

Player Aid Card - the outside panel.

The game comes with two duplicate Players Aid Cards. These are bi-fold (two-panel) 11” by 17” cards. On the outer wrap, you’ll find all the necessary martial charts and tables; Fire Combat Procedure and Modifiers, Melee CRT and modifiers, a Special Results Table, Leader Casualty table, and (even) a Spiked Guns Table. 

Player Aid Card - inside the fold.

Inside the fold offers a brief a Summary of Game Effects on units, Sequence of Play – and separate Assault Phase and Charge Segment Sequences – a table of TEM (Tactics, Experience and Morale) Modifiers, Stacking limits (by total Strength Points), a Fatigue Reduction Table, and a Weather & Time of Day Effects Table. God is in the details in the Fix Bayonets! system.

French Army Order of Battle.

Where the confluence of research and production shine brightest is the counters and, by extension, the Order of Battle Boards for the three armies. The OoBs present each army in their command breakdown, delineating the command structure and divisional groupings of the brigades, regiments and batteries.

Spanish Army Order of Battle.

British Army Order of Battle.

Most infantry and cavalry units have three or four steps before they become unviable as a fighting force, which means these units have multiple representative counters. The OoB sheets should be used for hosting the currently unuse counter for each multi-counter unit to negate the need for scrabbling through marker-piles mid-game. This will add to the game’s table footprint but will save a lot of headaches during play.

The Turn and Tracks card.

All the game-related functions are monitored on the charmingly named Turn and Tracks card. Rather than numbered turns, each scenario is tracked by time elapsed. This is tracked on the Game Turn Clock, a clock-face dial in the centre of the card with the outside round numbered somewhat like a real clock, and the inside circle divided into fifteen-minute intervals (the duration of a game turn). There are two clock-hand markers to register the passing of hours and minutes in the game. There are designated spaces for markers denoting morning or afternoon (AM/PM), Weather, and which side holds the initiative.

There are separate tracks for the overall cohesion of the three armies, and another to track fatigue of various formations. Spaces are delineated for the Special Events Draw Pile, the current Activation Stack and the Activated Order Pile, and Out of Play cards (to avoid confusion). Separate holding boxes are also provided for Routed French and Allied units, and for French units located at the Casa de Salinas (this represents an off-map position holding the French Reserve force and some of the Armée’s senior leaders at the beginning of some scenarios.

Card backs.

In Fix Bayonets! games, formations are ordered by their leaders, which are represented on small European-sized cards. I’m not going to get into the tall grass here, but each turn, the Activation Deck is built from the two side’s leader Activation Cards through a kind of bidding system, and these will dictate which leaders and formations get to activate in  that turn. I’ll go into this more deeply when I get to writing up an AAR of either Talavera or Albuera, but suffice to say, this is one of the hallmarks of the Fix Bayonets! system.

Sample Leader cards (top row) and Special Action Cards.

The cards look quite nice. Where possible, an actual portrait of the officer in question has been used in the representation; otherwise, a uniform character similar to those used on the counters has been incorporated. Every card also features the Leader’s name at the top against their command’s colour stripe, their numerical Command Rating just below this on the left, and an image of the leader’s corresponding counter. Senior leaders may command multiple formations; this is reflected in a note at the base of their card.

Along with the Leader decks a small deck of Special Events is also provided. The Special Event cards allow the holding player a small advantage in a given situation. Most are for general use, while a couple have different benefits depending on the side playing the card. After they are played, the cards are discarded.

There is one unique card in the Talavera game. Many will be familiar with Bernard Cornwall’s Sharpe novels or the television movie series that sprang from them. The climax of Sharp’s Eagle is set during the battle of Talavera, the eponymous Sharpe manages to capture a French Eagle, to clear a debt of honour (in reality, the 95^th Rifles – despite their best efforts, having marched over forty miles inside of twenty-four hours – just missed the action, arriving on the morning of the 29^th). To commemorate this favoured fictional event, a special Special Event card has been included. The Sharpe’s Eagle card may be held by the Allied player to play during a defensive melee action, just once, to potentially turn the tide of an otherwise disastrous result. This is a small thing, but it is very much indicative of both the design philosophy and the spirit of the game.

Box and dice (and cards as shipped).

Finally, two dice – d10s, one red, one blue – are included with the game. These are very nice; a good weight that seem to roll quite well. I’m sure they will prove to be fickle at the table, facing an opponent, but that is in the future.

As mentioned, the box is of solid construction with a firm closure but not so much that the lid is difficult to remove. My copy suffered some ever so slight dishing of the top, but no corners were harmed, and with the extremely reasonable surface shipping charge, I cannot complain.

Blog Note: a recent arrival

  

I’ve been a little quiet on A Fast Game of late due to a combination of circumstances; my wife’s aunt and uncle are over from England at the moment, visiting, and I’ve been working on a longer piece that’s soaking up most of my remaining free time. But I wanted to go on record with a thank you to BonSai Games’ Yasushi Nakaguro for a copy of the latest issue of that publisher’s latest house magazine, Bansai 30. Each copy of Bansai comes with a complete game (complete as in rulebook, map (or maps), charts and tables, and very nice counters – no dice, of course), and issue 30 is no exception, with Andrea Brusati’s Operazione C3 (Aleph Game Studio, 2024), first featured in Italian wargame magazine, Parabellum (first published by Acies Edizioni and Europa Simulazioni, and since 2022 by Aleph Game Studio). Now I just need to find an English-language copy of the rules and charts.

Along with the game and a host of articles and reviews (all in Japanese, of course), the interview with Brian Train (translated by Mr Nakaguro) as featured in A Fast Game back in April of this year. I’m honoured and quite chuffed that somebody thinks anything that makes it to A Fast Game is worth introducing to a wider audience, and this marks the second time something from the blog has made it into Bansai (you can read about the other time here).

I’d also like to offer an apology for the drop in posting frequency of late. I am making efforts to turn this around, though this will probably be restricted to unboxings and the odd blog note for another few weeks at least. Please bear with me, and check in often.

 

 

Stripped Down for Parts: La Bataille de Hanau (Vive l’Empereur series)

 

 

The last fortnight or so has been a perfect storm of arrivals. Seven games arriving this quarter, and two more in transit, and we’re not half-way through August. But right now, I want to focus on one of these, because it’s something I’ve been anticipating grabbing for a while, and when the opportunity arose, I couldn’t not get it.

Legion Wargames had a sale recently, with a number of excellent titles being offered for significant discounts. I would have liked to take the opportunity to fill a couple of perceived gaps in my collection – Dien Bien Phu: the Final Gamble (Legion Wargames, 2016) and Nemesis: Burma, 1944 (Legion Wargames, 2018), among others – but alas, the budget would only stretch to a single game this time, so it had to be La Bataille de Hanau (Legion Wargames, 2021), the tenth and most recent addition to Didier Rouy’s Vive l’Empereur! series.*

Like a lot of the Legion games I already own, La Bataille de Hanau comes in a light but well-constructed box. Light is good, because it meant the postage cost to Australia was only US$20.00, which matched the (discounted) cost of the game. In all, game and freight set me back a shade over A$60.00, which is about half of what I'd expect to be paying at a FLGS, assuming I could even find a copy. One happy customer.

The cover features a painting, Charge of the Grenadiers-à-Cheval of the Imperial Guard, battle of Hanau,1813 by Richard Knötel, a German artist best known for his Uniformenkunde, an exhaustive visual study of European military uniforms over three centuries to 1914, but who was also an accomplished painter of military scenes.

Box back

The box back presents most of the map, along with a brief historical consideration of the situation presented and a visual guide to how the unit and leader counters function in game.  The Vive l’Empereur! series presents a smaller formation focus than many Napoleonic systems, with the Regiment being the essential building block of the game. Each strength point represents around 300 men, and the map-scale is 250 meters to a hex (so roughly 6 ½ hexes make up a mile). Turns represent 30 minutes, and we are warned that the game can take between two and eight hours to play through to completion.

The play guide suggests the game's complexity is about Medium, and sets the Solitaire Suitability at Medium-High. I think I'd agree with both of these appraisals. While I think the Vive l'Empereur! rules make for a better two-player experience, I can't see anybody experiencing particular difficulties double-handing the game, especially with the reduced scope of the Hanau situation.

The Rulebook. Napoleon salutes you, brave soldier.

The Vive l’Empereur series rules are printed in full colour on a medium-weight, low-gloss paper stock, and runs to forty pages. Of these, the front and back covers are illustrated with extracts from the left (front) and right (back) of the painting, Napoleon saluting the 12th Cuirassier regiment, by Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891).

Rulebook - sample spread.

The rules have been honed over the nine previous publications, and the current configuration presented here is version 3.3 (June 2020). The booklet is set out in a readable is divided into Standard and Advanced rules. The Standard Rules run to roughly 23 pages (a column on the first page offers a clear Table of Contents, and the rules are sensibly set out and quite navigable). The designer recommends mastering the Standard rules before embarking on incorporating the any or all of the Advanced rules. The Advanced rules are designed to introduce more “realism” into the action, with rules for the stratification of command and control, strategic deployment, and the introduction of time limits (with penalties for tardiness).

The four-page Special Rules brochure.

The Special Rules included for Hanau are more of a brochure, a mere four pages long; in reality, just two and a half pages pertaining to game play. Two scenarios are on offer; the initial action on October 30^th, and Wrede’s follow-up attack on the 31^st. The special rules amount to barely a page and a half, to there is very little extra load to bring to the essential game rules. Rules-wise, Hanau should run as a fairly clean game, though if history is anything to go by, the play will undoubtedly become heated.

The map of Hanau and its environs.

The game map is a standard 22" by 34"  in size, printed on a a descent weight of gloss paper, and is truly a thing of beauty. This is a feature of all the Legion-released Vive l’Empereur games, which are all rendered by one of my favourite game artists, Charlie Kibler. The colour-palette is subdued, cast in autumnal tones appropriate for an October battle. Features are clear without being obtrusive, and the overall appearance highlights the units in play. But the detail I really love it that every feature is presented in a perspective view oriented toward the bottom of the map-sheet. Each tree, bridge and building appears to possess height. While the roads, rivers and creeks appear flat, this is relieved by the aligning trees dotted along the banks and roadsides. It’s conceit that fits well with the subject and the era.

Hanau comes with just a single counter sheet (165 counters in all). The units are split slightly in favour of the French (fifty units to forty Austrian units). Historically the battle of Hanau didn’t end well for Wrede the Austrians. Given the Austrians are on the defensive, this should be a fairly even match for two players at roughly the same level.

The counters are all elongated, 1” by 1/2”. So far as I’m aware, the Vive l’Empereur! games were the first to present their unit counters in Line on one side and in March Column on the other, with artillery batteries either limbered for movement or unlimbered for business (of course, this is getting a broader showing with Mark Herman’s Civil War Heritage series). The remainder of the counters represent Leaders, various administrative aids and mnemonic reminders of the status of affected units in play.

Unit Explainer and Terrain Key card.

Terrain Effects Chart.

The game comes with a selection of Player’s Aid Cards, each single sided. The first is a Key card; the top portion has a visual explainer of how to read the unit and Leader counters, the larger lower portion presents an enlarged Terrain Key demonstrating (and showing off) the various terrain features of the map. This is separate to the Terrain Effects Chart (the second chart), a matrix listing the varying terrain types by name and indicating their effects or limitations on in-game actions of units.

Aide de jeu pour le combat

There are two copies of the Combat Resolution PAC included in the game. These present the Fire and Melee Tables as well as a Formation Table. The Fire and Melee Tables are fairly self-explanatory; a Fire attack is based on a single die roll with modifiers (as applicable), against the Fire strength of the attacking unit. The success a Melee attack relies again on a modified die roll indexed to the ratio of Attacker to Defender melee points. Combat is potentially brutal, but, as in most things, fortune favours the well-prepared.

The Formation Table is a one-stop shop covering the basics of movement, manoeuvre, and combat for each kind of unit fielded in the game. Everything presented here will probably become second nature after a handful of games with the system, but it’s nice to see it easy to hand for newbies.

The crucial Formation Tables for tracking losses on each side's units, and a Turn Track at
the bottom. I think this card is dry-erasable, but I'd be inclined to either make copies
to use or to put the card in a stiff plastic slick and write on that instead. 

The last Player Aid Card is the most crucial, for this offers both the tracking of cohesion loss of the units, and the Turn Track for keeping track of how long you have before loss of light brings the bellicosity to a close. I like how points loss is tracked off map; Steve Ruwe offered this as an option in his game, The Late Unpleasantness: Two Campaigns to Take Richmond (Compass Games, 2019). Here it also serves as a handy reminder of which units fall under whose command. The only difficulty that might arise comes from having both armies on a single tracking sheet, but this may be a bonus for teaching new players the system; either the mentor can keep score for both, or guide the initiate in the practice. 

Box, dice and baggies.. And the ubiquitous blue paper sheet.

Finally, the game comes with two dice, one lobster red, one uniform bleu, and a couple of zip-loc bags with which to separate the warring formations. Also, Legion always – or nearly always – packs their games with a sheet of blue typewriter paper in the bottom of the box. I don’t know why. I suspect it may be to prevent wear from the map rubbing against the bottom of the box when in transit, but I can’t say with any certainty. If anyone does know, please leave a comment.

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Writing up this unboxing has reminded me that I never got around to posting an unboxing of my other Vive l'Empereur! volume, Quatre Batailles en Espagne (Legion Wargames, 2015). I'm pretty sure I still have all the component photographs filed somewhere from when the game first arrived, so I may have to do an exposition of that volume as well. 

I'm keen to get to playing Vive l’Empereur!, but I have been waiting for Hanau to have a more manageable starting point for introducing others to the game. I really think it offers that; not necessarily a short game, but one with less unwieldy forces and command structures, in a more constrained area.

 

* I had cause to correspond with M. Rouy recently, and he mentioned that Volume 11 in the series, La Bataille de Wargram (Legion Games, ~2026), should be released either this year or early in the next, which gives us all something else to look forward to.

 

Stripped Down for Parts: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – The Grand Battles Expansion

   

 

 

Note: I started writing this post about a week before the GMT Monthly Newsetter for July came out and was struggling to get it done in time to get a link in the Content Creators’ section. Given the C&C news that was announced at the head of the newsletter, I’m very glad I missed the deadline, but as a result, I’ve had to rewrite more than a little of what I already had down. Some of it still bore true, and I just wanted to say out front that I think the new direction of the various C&C product lines will be good for GMT and for the fans, both new and old.

Commands & Colors: Napoleonics, Grand Battles Expansion. Four inches deep,
and chock full of Napoleonic gaming goodness.

I first placed my order for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – The Grand Battles Expansion (GMT Games, 2026) in June 2019 (I went back to my P500 order page and checked). It was probably a day or so after the game was placed on the P500 list, and I think my order was up around the hundred and thirty-something mark. After seven years, Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010) fans’ collective patience and perseverance has been rewarded with the delivery of the final product. Designer Richard Borg apologised for the delay before the introduction in the Grand Battles Rulebook, citing the COVID lockdowns and the resultant crash in international shipping as the reason, but pointed out there was an upside to the delay; it allowed for a longer development time, which in turn allowed GNT and Mr Borg’s brigade of play-testers and developers to release an even better product.

There are a couple of reasons I wanted to get this set. Firstly, I have a completist bent; if I like a game in a series, the games in that series become like catnip. Or maybe Pokemon. I’m trying to work on that – I simply don’t have the room for every game in every series I like. But I’ll always make an exception for Commands & Colors, whatever flavour. Which brings me to the next reason.

I really enjoy Commands & Colors. I’ve played it a lot, mostly Napoleonics, and mostly with my brother-in-law (the reasons for which I’ve talked about previously, here and here). It’s a dynamic, fast-playing game (usually), that sits right in the wheelhouse of A Fast Game. After an estimated seven hundred or so games C&C Napoleonics (roughly forty-five games a year, over the last sixteen years), I feel somewhat qualified to address this new addition to the family.

Normally, I wouldn’t write up an unboxing of a supplement or expansion; these just add to the existing game rather than make it into a different beast. I wanted to take a closer look at The Grand Battles, though, simply because there is SOOOO MUCH in the box, and while the game remains essentially the same, this expansion opens it up not only in scale, but also scope.

But first, a note about the parameters of this expansion. The Grand Battles is designed to be the apotheosis of the series, the capstone to all the components that has come before it. But to get the full use from this expansion, you will really need to own (or have access to) not only the core box, but the four National Army expansions, the General, Marshals and Tacticians expansion (GMT Games, 2015), and the EPIC Napoleonics expansion (GMT Games, 2016); each expansion brought along extra units to fill out one or more of the existing armies, especially the French. The good news is GMT have declared their commitment to maintaining their support for all the C&C lines, and the hereto out-of-print expansions will each receive their spots on the reprint schedule over the coming months.*

Because this is a really big expansion, and because everyone reading this will likely have at least a passing familiarity with the game already, I’m not going to talk about the Grand Battles expansion like I would a new game. This will be something of a descriptive itinerary; I’ll go through the manifest printed on the back of the box, more or less in order – doubling  up on a couple of things where it makes sense to do so – and discuss each parts place and merits.

 

1 Rule Booklet

Grand Battles booklet.

The rules booklet mostly covers new territory, which makes sense; if you’re new to C&C: Napoleonics, you’ll be starting with the core box, which has a separate Rulebook and Scenario Book. The National Army expansions and the Generals, Marshals and Tacticians set each combined these into a single booklet, with about eight or ten pages of additional rules, and the scenarios in the same format at the core game. This changed with the EPIC Napoleonics set, with the larger scenarios being printed individual, elongated cards, two scenarios to a card. The Grand Battles set maintains this format for the scenarios, but we’ll get to these in a bit.

Each additional rulebook introduces a mixture of new units, new situation-specific rules, sometimes some new terrain, as well as explaining any new counters. The Grand Battles rulebook follows this pattern. It runs to twenty pages (including the full-page front and back covers) and is printed on the same weight and quality of matt paper as all of the other as all the other rulebooks in the series, presented in full colour and profusely illustrated.

Grand Battles booklet (sample page).

A page is given over to the Introduction both (briefly) to the series and (more extensively) to the present expansion. It also presents an apology from designer Richard Borg for the delay in the latest expansion getting out the door and to an adoring and patient public (and a brief explanation of what improvements t the end product the delay allowed). Four pages are devoted to the contents of the new expansion, briefly covering the differences between the original, EPIC and Grand Battle boards (a pair of the last of which features in his set, but more on them later), additional units, including some new ones, additional Terrain Tiles, Victory Banners and other markers. The next page of the rulebook covers the three newly introduced units – Austrian Militia Cavalry, Russian Heavy Cuirassier Cavalry, and British Highland Infantry – and their respective strengths and capabilities in the game.

Six pages are devoted to the rules for EPIC battles, including guidelines for playing with two, four, six, or eight players. Five pages cover the guidelines and new rules for Grand Battle scenarios, and the final page (inside back cover) presents a chronological list of the twenty EPIC and Grand Battle scenarios presented in the set.

 

1 The Grand Battles Mounted Map Board

Grand Battle Maps (the two halves, when unfolded, butt-up together along the centre edge
to create a double-sized play-space).

Strictly, this is two mounted boards that meet in the middle. The standard Commands & Colors board is thirteen hexes across and nine hexes deep. The standard Commands & Colors board is thirteen hexes across and seven hexes deep. This is the standard across the whole extended family board, including Battle Cry (Avalon Hill, 1999) and Memoir ’44 (Days of Wonder, 2004) Star Wars: Battle for Hoth (Days of Wonder, 2025) breaks with this format, going with a ten hex wide and seven-deep gameboard for even faster play).

The EPIC board introduced a larger play area, presenting a pair of mounted boards that butt up together in the centre, allowing for a play area now twenty hexes across and nine rows deep. The Grand Battles boards are of a similar configuration, also running nine rows in depth, but spreading out to an enormous twenty-six hexes across. We had a taste of this in the EPIC expansion, with a set of cardstock Grand Battles maps to accommodate the two GB scenarios presented in that set, Austerlitz and Vimiero (you can read my AARs of these two scenarios by clicking on the links provided).

There’s not much to report here, except that the boards offer a vast expanse of playable area. People who own the EPIC expansion may already have had a taste of the Grand Battle experience on the included heavy cad board-sections (similar to the included preprinted Borodino/Waterloo boards included this package, which we will get to soon enough – be patient).

Along with the ten Grand Battle scenarios offered in this set (yes, we’ll get to these in due course as well), you’ll have a dozen battles to reenact on these sturdy new boards. I haven’t photographed them laid out because it would be a particularly tedious endeavour to fit them into a single shot, and it would be nothing you haven’t seen before. But to put it in context here’s a comparison. As previously mentioned, your standard C&C board is thirteen hexes by seven hexes deep. The EPIC scenario boards added to both dimensions, stretching the width out to twenty hexes, from extreme left flank to extreme right, and added two rows of depth to the play area. The Grand Battles boards are essentially two regular boards placed together for a total width, like in the scenarios presented for the Commands & Colors: Ancients (GMT Games, 2006) Expansion #5 – Epic Ancients II (GMT Games, 2009 – a reprint is available for preorder on the P500 list), except for the extra two rows of depth.

Pro tip: The Grand Battles boards are nice in presentation, solid in construction, and match up well together. Like most mounted GMT boards, you’ll need to lay them out and place something weighty on the rising folds to help flatten them out before you try to use them. I lay one board atop the other, then place another game box in the centre of the rising folds (the point where the four panels of that half of the map meet). Another GMT game rated at four or five pounds is usually sufficient for each side and should be clean enough not to leave marks on your new maps. I recommend game boxes because they are flat-bottomed; despite your best efforts, random heavy objects may leave a divot in your fancy new board.

 

4 Double-sided Grand Battle Scenario cards; 2 identical Grand Battle Extended Scenario Historical Background and Battle Note cards

Grand Battle Scenario Cards (including the Extended Grand Battle Scenario Card, top).

As mentioned previously, the scenario card concept for C&C Napoleonics was introduced in the EPIC expansion. Trying to reproduce the set-up map on a single letter-sized page would lead to a sharp incline in squinting-related eye injuries; better to broaden the printable area. The EPIC cards are an offset bifold #” by 11“. The new Grand Battle scenarios are numbered 3 through 10, keeping to the numbering schema of the two Grand Battle scenarios from the EPIC expansion. The Grand Battles featured are (in chronological order):

Eggmuhl (Day 2), 22 April 1809

Raab, 14 June 1809

Talavera, 28 July 1809

Bussaco , 27 September 1810

Salamanca, 22 July 1812

Mockern, 16 October 1813

Orthez, 27 February 1814

Toulouse (Heights of Calvinet), 10 April 1814

These eight scenarios are played out on the forementioned Grand Battle mounted map boards. Also included are two scenarios that will not fit on even the Grand Battles boards. The Borodino, 7 September 1812, and Waterloo, 18 June 1815 are played on the card-stock maps we’ll be looking at next. The manifest lists two duplicate cards being copies of the scenario card for the Borodino and Waterloo scenarios. I seem to have only received one in my set. For me, this not a deal-breaker. One is sufficient for my needs, but if you’re short a copy, I would recommend contacting the GMT Office Folks – they are good sorts and very helpful.

The Extended Scenario Historical Background and Battle Note card doesn’t feature a complete map for either Borodino or Waterloo as these aren’t necessary – the terrain and starting troop positions are already featured on the preprinted map. That space is instead given over to extensive (in C&C terms) notes about each battle, and all the specials scenario rules that come with a Grand Battle-sized game.

 

1 Double-sided Grand Battle Extended pre-printed map (for two battles)

 

Borodino Extended Battle Map (French Left).

When I first read of the battles of Borodino and Waterloo being included on pre-printed maps (of the qualities presented in the light Grand Battles map included in the EPIC expansion, I thought it was mere a bit of a gimmick, something to help newbies dive into two of the most famous battles of the Napoleonic era, halving the set-up time before starting play (a noble ambition in itself, but not . What I didn’t understand is that you wouldn’t be able to play either of these battles on the standard Grand Battles board; as big as that map is, these battles are even bigger; twenty-eight hexes in breadth instead of the regular twenty-six for the standard Grad Battles scenarios.

Borodino Extended Battle Map (French Right).

It’s a real time-saver to have pre-printed battle maps, and I’m looking forward to trying them out. To me, though, they seem a little gimmicky. In truth there would probably be a big enough market to put on P500 a one-off printing of the remaining eight Grand Battles scenarios (four sets of maps) pre-printed in the same way.

We’re all time-poor, and if you can save half an hour or more not having to set out the terrain tiles for a big match, that would be a win. I just feel like, if you’re all about the convenience, play the game on Vassal. Part of the joy for me is the setting up of a game, but I may be in the minority on this.

Pro-tip: You might need to put your preprinted maps under plexiglass to stop unwanted puckering of the board seams. If plexiglass sheets are a luxury you haven’t yet availed yourself of, a lot of puckering can be banished with a slow, careful, and consistent (all the way along) back-fold against the crease (i.e., in the opposite direction) of 100° - a little further than perpendicular, no more. Lay the map flat on a table. Fold each panel against the crease to 90° (straight up, vertically, then just a little bit further. While you’re holding the upright panel there, just run the edge of your thumb along the outside fold of the seam, applying just a little pressure. Not too much or you may compromise the strength of the hinge. Then flip the whole map over and do the same thing to the other folds. Be gentle but firm. By the second or third play, the maps should be pretty flat without the need for plexi. Also, I use a couple of shallow bull-clips at the corners where the two maps meet, just to help keep them from drifting on the table.

5 Double-sided EPIC Scenario cards

EPIC Scenario Cards (these are double sided).

Along with the new Grand Battles scenarios, another ten EPIC scenarios are included in the game. The Grand Battles were never mean to be a replacement for the EPIC set, and I for one am looking forward to diving into these a least as much as the Grand Battles. The EPIC-scale battles included in this set are:

Eylau, 8 February 1807

Heilsberg, 10 June 1807

Friedland, 14 June 1807

Medellin, 28 March 1809

Dresden, (Day 1), 26 August 1813

Dresden, (Day 2), 27 August 1813

Toulouse, 10 April 1814

Ligny 16, June 1815

Quatre Bras, 16 June 1815

Wavre, 19 June 1815

Like the Grand Battle scenario cards, everything you need to know about a given EPIC scenario is on one side of one side of a card. To play these scenarios, you’ll need the pair of mounted boards from the EPIC expansion and the Tactician cards from the Generals, Marshals and Tacticians expansion (as well as the national army expansions).

Sample EPIC Scenario Card (Heilsberg, 19 June 1807).

As much as I enjoy the breadth and scope of a Grand Battle, I think the sweet spot for me is the EPIC scale battle; it introduces tactical challenges similar to the Grand scale, but doesn’t overstay its welcome. It can feel like a slog sometimes to get to twenty banners to achieve a victory, but thirteen or so always seems much more achievable in an evening’s play. As with all things, mileage may vary.

 

12 Double-sided individual National Unit Reference cards

British Army Reference Card.

French Army Reference Cards.

Spanish Army Reference Cards.

Russian Army Reference Cards.

Austrian Army Reference Cards.

Prussian Army Reference Cards.

A huge bonus with the Grand Battle set is the inclusion of a complete set of national Unit reference Cards (two for each) in a consistent format of an easy to navigate two-sided 11” by 8½“ card. Relevant information for all Infantry and Foot Artillery units are presented on the front, Cavalry and Horse Artillery on the reverse. These essentially present the information in the style of the original bi-fold national unit cards (rather than the landscape-formatted units reference cards seen in the Russian Army expansion†).

 

2 Terrain Effects summary cards

Comprehensive Terrain Effects Charts.

Also provided are two copies of an exhaustive Terrain Effects Chart. These will, I think replace all others in our personal use, and they incorporate every kind of terrain or structure encountered across all scenarios (though it’s worth keeping in mind that various scenarios will mention peculiarities of terrain in their own context, such as rivers fordable for their full extent). While I am loathe to throw anything away, even when it’s superseded, I’ll probably be retiring all my other TECs and jut keeping these ones in the top of the box.

 

1 Terrain Tile Punchboard / 1 Counter & Marker Punchboard

I’m addressing these two bits together as they are kind of co-joined, and to address a problem that others may have or will face, or it may just be a me problem. Before I started writing this piece, I went through the box and photographed each component or set of components. When I was editing the pics for uploading to the post, I noticed the Terrain Tile sheet said Sheet 2 of 2. And I panicked. I checked through the photos I had taken – no second sheet of Terrain Tiles. I pulled everything out of the box and went through it again – no Terrain Tile sheet No.1.  I was putting everything back in the box – a chore in itself – when I noticed the counter-sheet as labelled 1 of 2. At least I didn’t get to the stage of writing a polite demand to the GMT Office Folks asking of my other Terrain sheet.

One problem with being an early adopter of all the C&C Napoleonics expansions was the inconsistency in cardstocks for the counters and Terrain Tiles. These vary quite a bit between the early and later expansions. If you came to the game late and only bought second or later printings, this probably won’t be an issue for you. It’s not a big thing, big it sets off my OCD a little. I’m happy to report the cardstock used for both the Terrain Tiles and the counters are of a nice weight brown-core cardstock. Like the additional units/blocks included in this set, the Terrain Tiles, Victory Banners and other markers are here to augment everything that has come before. Every expansion has brought additional components to the set, so  I reiterate, to get the most out of the game you really everything that’s come before it.

 

1 Cardstock Courier Rack assembly

The Courier Rack is used to display the Tacticians Cards available during a game. The 50-card Tactician Card deck was introduced (along with the expended 90-card Orders deck in the Generals, Marshals & Tacticians expansion. Each scenario offered each side a number of at-start Tacticians cards, and more could be acquired from those on display on the Courier Rack through the play of certain Order cards. A chart was also included to allow retrofitting the Tacticians cards to all of the previously presented scenarios. The idea is, when certain cards are played, the player may pick up a Tactician card from the selection of five on display, These cards allow a slight advantage in a very specific situation. The given situation may not arise during the game, but when it does, it  can be a beautiful thing, setting aside your opponent’s plans or augmenting your own, though they rarely prove to be game-winners on their own.

The original version of the Courier rack came with the Generals, Marshals and Tacticians set (along with the Tacticians card deck). It is a single sheet of card, scored along fold lines (a diagram and instructions on how to properly fold the Courier Rack are included in the Expansion #5 rulebook). I’ve messed around with various options for getting the folded card stand to remain folded and standing, using elastic bands, tape, even Blu-tac. The best way I’ve found to get it to work is to edge the front against one end of the board and the back leaning against the game box. Others have taken the more sensible approach of foregoing the Courier Rack for a card holder borrowed from another game. That also works, I’m told.

 

8 Silk-screened Battle Dice

I think the screen-printed dice for C&C Napoleonics were offered in the most recent reprint of the core game. 400 extra sets were offered on pre-order, but given the cost of shipping at the time I couldn’t justify the cost to get a set. These dice are very nice. Leaving out the issue of stickering up the blank cubes that came with the first printing, the near constant play with my brother-in-law’s copy of the game meant we needed to buy a core-box sticker set (yes, you can buy the stickers separately, but in complete sets only – talk to the GMT Office Folks for details), to re-sticker the dice after they had become illegible from wear. These are an improvement. I haven’t tried them in a game situation yet, but I don’t anticipate these being any luckier than the existing dice, so there’s that.

 

5 sticker sheets / 248 Unit Blocks

Lots of blocks. This is what greets you when you first open the box.

Sticker sheets 1 & 2.

Sticker sheets 3, 4 & 5.

I’m addressing these together because they are really a single component, or I guess, a single set of components when they are married into usable pieces. If you’re opening this box, there’s every likelihood you’ve stickered up a set or two of Commands & Colors blocks before. Nothing new here. Well, that’s not quite true. In the Prussian Army reprint, the blocks will apparently be moving from their hereto gunmetal grey to something closer to a dark beige, roughly half-way between the original Spanish Army block colour and the chocolate brown of the Portuguese blocks from the core set. It makes more sense to match the Prussian this set to the new colour scheme than the superseded one. I Personally, I have obsessively kept all of my spare blocks (although some have been used in building playtest sets of other games), and I have enough grey blocks to outfit one of the two Cavalry units and the four-block Light Infantry set.

Which brings us to the other issue with the blocks. The stickers provided for this unit were accidentally printed representing a Prussian Line formation rather than Light troops. The absence of the single Prussian Light unit will adversely affect only one scenario from the present set (EPIC Ligny), and a “patch” has been supplied on the GMT product page, a downloadable pdf image of the required stickers that you can print on to paper or adhesive, that you can stick on to the existing blocks. An easier option might be to just mark a Prussian Line unit with a blank counter or a tiny Post-It and agree between the players that that unit will function as a Prussian Light unit for the duration of the game.

 

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I said at the start that I generally don’t write expository pieces on expansions. The obvious exception to this was, another C&C family product, Commands & Colors: Medieval – Expansion #1 Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles I (GMT Games, 2024), for which I wrote both an unboxing and a review. In the review, I tried to express how much breadth and depth the expansion brough the Commands & Colors: Medieval (GMT Games, 2019) by comparing the base game to the films The Godfather and its first expansion to The Godfather, Part II. I’ve spent way too much time mulling over this while I’ve been writing this post, but the closest relatable comparison I can come up with for my likely audience is this; thin of the base game as one of those mid-series space battles they’d rarely show in Star Trek: the Next Generation, with featuring a couple of Federation ships and three or four Birds of Prey – impressive for its time; both exciting and a lot of fun. The experience of playing the Grand Battles scenarios is like the huge fleet-on-fleet actions from the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine. It’s essentially the same game you already know and love, but there is so much more going on. I’m not trying to be flippant (if I was, I’d compare it to two super-sized Happy Meals). With the extra board real estate comes more game depth; more Front to have to attack or defend, more opportunities to exploit, but also more holes in your own lines you need to watch. Both EPIC and Grand Battles increase the number and the texture of the decision points that the Commands & Colors system so brilliantly presents in every single game. 

 

* There were also in the July newsletter hints at a new Commands & Colors game coming sometime in the not-too-far-off future. I have a suspicion regarding what this may refer to, but I don’t want to jinx it, so I’m not saying. We’ll just have to see what comes down the pike. Whatever it is, I’m pretty certain I’ll be ordering a copy.

† When asked about why this style of unit reference PAC was discontinued, Mr Borg mentioned that in situ playtesting at conventions showed new players were depending on these cards – checking them in every instance of movement and combat – rather than internalising the basic rules for themselves.