Stripped down for parts: Battle Commander, Volume I: Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns, & Expansion I

 

Funny story; back in January of 2023 (the same month I started writing A Fast Game), Carl Paradis, designer of the No Retreat! series and more recently Absolute War! (GMT Games, 2021), posted a request on a Facebook wargaming group looking for play-testers for a new Napoleonic wargame he was working on. Thought about it for a couple of days, then put up my hand, contacting Mr Paradis through Messenger. I didn’t hear back straight away – he was on a skiing jaunt. We played tag for a few weeks (between ski excursions), but a family crisis was sapping more and more of my time, and communications petered out. Okay, maybe not that funny.

A couple of days ago, the product of Mr Paradis’s (and several dozen others involved in development advice and playtesting) hard work arrived. Battle Commander, Volume I – Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns (Sound of Drums, 2025), along with tits accompanying Battle Commander: Expansion I (Sound of Drums, 2025), is in the house, and if I’m honest, I think I’m glad I missed out on the playtest opportunity, because it means I get to experience game for the first time in its physical, tactile form. As I’ve said elsewhere on A Fast Game, Battle Commander was probably my most anticipated game of 2025.

Yes. I know it’s 2026, but Battle Commander was worth the wait. European publishers are… can I say, “bringing their best game,” in terms of overall production quality and components, and Sound of Drums is no exception. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a quick overview of everything that comes in the box, and its attendant Expansion pack.

The box, listing the six battles included in the package, but not giving much else away.

The trade dress is striking in its simplicity. The black background highlights the title and the Imperial Eagle, leaving no doubt regarding where this train is headed.

For everything I’ve read of Battle Commander leading up to actually receiving it, nothing prepared me for the magnitude of the box. This thing is huge;  12 ¾“ by  17 ½“, and 3” deep, to be precise. It’s even a little bigger than my Old School Tactical boxes (comparison shot below).

Let the box-size escalation battle begin!

The box itself is a little on the light side; it’s plenty sturdy enough for the protection of its content (this copy made it to Australia without a single chip or bruise); it’s just a tad lighter thickness than, say, the aforementioned OST boxes – probably not much more than half a millimetre. This may be intended as a feature, not a bug; using a roughly 2mm thickness card keeps the whole package lighter, which is important given the amount of wood and boards included in the game. The box also has enough space to accommodate the new components from Expansion I with no lid-lift.

The box back, hinting at such treasures within.

The box-back features a montage illustration of a game in play, overlaid with sample Leader and Event cards. The descriptive text sets the tone of the game and offers a brief explanation of the game’s features.

The Game Play Infographic advises that Battle Commander is intended for one to two players, that you can expect to complete a game in around 120 minutes, and (in case you missed all the other subtle clues scattered on the box-covers) the Period the game covers is “Napoleonic”. The Complexity is rated at five out of ten, with Solitaire Suitability coming in at seven out of ten.

The Rulebook. Not as imposing as it looks.

The Rulebook and Playbook are presented in A4 sizing (a tad taller and narrower than the Letter standard of American publications) and printed on a good weight of low-gloss paper. Running to 40 pages, the Rulebook presented in a two-column format, and is replete with helpful illustrations, which given the novelty of the game system would be deemed a necessity. This is an unboxing post, so I’m not going to go into rules and mechanics, but I will say Battle Commander has a really innovative approaches to activation and combat resolution. For more you’ll have to wait for my first time out AAR (with any luck, you won’t have to wait too long).

Rulebook - sample pages. The rules are eminently readable and very well illustrated;
a perfect game for visual learners. 

The actual rules of the game come to just twenty-eight pages (take out the illustrative explanations and examples and a couple of thematically appropriate lithographs, the text page-count comes out closer to twenty-three pages. The rest of the pages are given over to a two-page Table of Contents, two pages for solitaire play guidelines and rules and card clarifications, a four-page glossary, and a thorough Index on the back cover. Overall, the rules are clearly written and – as mentioned – handily-illustrated.

The Playbook.

The Battle Commander Playbook comes in at fifty-two pages. It offers a list of printed components manifest of the wooden game pieces and markers; along with the cover this accounts for the first three pages. The following twenty-six pages cover the base game’s six scenarios, along with two pages of Scenario Instructions, including advice on playing the Montebello scenario as an Introductory game with a slightly reduced rules scope (which is where I’ll likely start). The scenarios are presented in chronological order, and each one is laid out in the same format; a two-page spread covering Commanders and Morale. Reinforcements, a Friction of War Table and Special Events details unique to that scenario, exclusive Victory Conditions, and play tips; then a deployment map, and a scenario Order of Battle over the page (four pages in all to a scenario).

Each scenario is presented across two two-page spreads. The first spread presents all of
 the written details, such as special rules and victory conditions, an individual
Friction of War table(somebody's been reading their Clausewitz),
and a reinforcement and event timetable.

The second spread presents the scenario set-up on one page and an Order of Battle
on the other, illustrating the chains of command. Scenario presentation is
a strong point in Battle Commander.

The Playbook also includes a fifteen-page Example of Play, again copiously illustrated, three pages of Players’ Notes, three columns each of Historical and Designer’s Notes, and a column each of Credits (devoted to people involved and games that provided inspiration) and teasers of forthcoming products in the series. The credits read like a Who’s Who of Quebecois gaming aristocracy, and the next two volumes – covering the Egyptian Campaign and the War of the Fourth Coalition – offer a tantalising glimpse into what is intended to be a six-volume series.

Battle of Lonato map.

Battle of Castiglione map.

Battle of Arcole map (correct aspect).

The first thing you see when you open the box are the maps. There are six in all, one for each of the included scenarios, mounted on three 17" by 22" double-sided boards, each single-hinged like a Milton Bradley game. The boards are really quite nice to look at and should be a joy to play on. The maps are rendered in the style of ordinance maps of the period, with a little colouring for, well, colour. Towns and forts are presented as they would be on said maps, as are changes in elevation (pen-scratches to evoke rising slopes), rivers, main roads and trails (the latter distinguished by broken defining lines, to the main roads’ solid and distinct markings). The whole effect is transporting and evocative.

Battle of Rivoli map (correct aspect).

Battle of Montebello map.

Battle of Marengo map.

Movement is regulated by a patchwork of abutting squares, called Areas. This loose gridwork makes for a kind of intercessory form between a hex-grid (akin to Avalanche and an area-movement tangle. Movement is Area to Area, and which other Areas a formation can move to from its current location is surprisingly intuitive, though the rules and Players’ Aid sheet have the back of anyone needing to defend themselves form some blackguard opponent trying to undertake some ungentlemanly action. 

Detail from the Castiglione map. Roads and trails pass from one Area to the next,
while watercourses meander between them.

The Area proportions of the maps are comparable to the hexes on a Command and Colors series game standard map, possibly even closer to Star Wars: Battle of Hoth (Days of Wonder, 2025). Every map has a turn track and Morale Track built in, running a long a single edge. 

Neutral Event card (left) and a French Leader Event card (as evidenced by the blue
background and Tricolore accent in the top corner). Event cards are drawn to
establish combat results (the matrix at the bottom of each card).

The Event deck verso (left)and a Coalition Commander. Commander cards are double-
sided, with a different commander on the reverse. The symbology around the portrait
 (clockwise, starting top-left) indicates that Lauer has a Skill level of One (single bar),
begins the game with five Order cubes and five Attack tokens, and has a Command
Range of Two (a radius of two Areas from his position). The shaded bars below the
portrait are the Commander's Positive (light shading) and Negative (darker
shading) Abilities. Oh dear. 

The game comes with two sealed decks of cards. Two types of cards appear in Battle Commander; Leader cards and Event cards. Each scenario will dictate each side’s leader, and each leader has his own set of Abilities which may have a positive or negative effect on play. The Event cards come in three flavours; French, Austrian (both event-specific to that side) and neutral (usable for their Event by either side). Battle Commander is a card-assisted game, so the Event cards are the players’ currency, and can be spent for attacks or used during a reinforcement phase to purchase Order cubes.

The French (top) and Coalition Army Management Mats. These are double layered, so
your Commander card shouldn't go slipping off the board with every errant breeze. 

Each side in Battle Commander gets an Army Management Mat. These are heavy, double-layer card place-mats, about the size of a birthday card, with recesses for the player’s Commander Card (the designated leader card for the current scenario), Reserve Orders, Attack Tokens and various event markers. It also offers various mnemonic cues for game functions and limits. These function as the players’ operation centres, with information coming in and orders going out. They are an elegant answer to the question of how to manage the player-logistics of the battle; I’m looking forward to trying them out.

The appropriately-designated Player Aid Sheet (External side). From the left, the first two
panels are concerned with combat procedures and results, the third panel covers the
Cube Draw procedure and the guidelines for solitaire play.

Inside the Player Aid Sheet are a guide to Terrain Effects on movement and combat (left),
an overview of the Rules of Combat and explanation of Commander Abilities (centre),
and a miscellany of other important, though less commonly required rules (right).

The Player Aid Sheets for Battle Commander are tri-panel, double-sided sheet printed on the same paper stock as the booklets. The Game comes with two copies (the manifest in the Playbook declares the game comes with two copies, mine arrived with just one; I will follow this up with Sound of Drums). 

I'm actually considering photocopying and laminating the most commonly used panels at least, maybe all six panels. This is more a reflection on my play preferences than any criticism of the product, but I'd be curious to hear what readers think on this matter.

EDIT: I had commented on the missing Player Aid Sheet. After I posted this SDfP, I checked the Gamefound page and saw Carl Paradis himself had got back to me. Here is his reply, verbatim:

Yes indeed. there was a production mishap in China, it was identified, but it was not fixed, for unknown reasons to me. Sorry about that! All in all: The publisher knows about this, and the play aids will be reprinted, on card-stock, as originally intended, two copies per game, and sent to customers. They'll post info about this ASAP. There is a delay as it's still the Chinese New Year holiday and the good people there are not responding right now.

Coalition (left) and French Infantry units.

As I understand it, the stencilled unit pieces were always intended to be made of wood, while the various markers for tracking Morale and VPs, indicating that an Infantry unit had formed square or that a Cavalry squadron was charging, and so on, were going to be cardboard counters, but an early stretch goal in the Gamefound crowdsourcing campaign saw all of the components improved to wood as well. I was originally ambivalent about this – I don’t mind mixing media in board components – but having seen the end result, I’m very glad the campaign did so well. Everything in the way of both units and markers just looks and feels right.

Cavalry units (top) and the special Initiative Marker included for crowdfunding backers.

One thing I already love about Battle Commander is the thought that has gone into the unit representations. Infantry units are sticks or bars with crossed muskets, Cavalry are square tiles representing squadrons, and Artillery batteries are denoted by their canon stencils and the rhomboid shape of their tiles, suggestive of sturdy redoubts or hastily constructed fieldworks. Tor my money, the physical presence that wooden pieces lends to a game add immeasurably to the experience of play.

Artillery units and Garrison markers (top), and a mix of markers, including Victory Flags
 (earned by taking possession of key locations during play), Morale markers (the snare
drums) and the Eagle-adorned Turn marker.

As I said, I don’t want to get too deeply into the rules, but I wanted to note the way the unit status work. At full fighting strength (Steady), an Infantry unit’s stencil faces up. With the first cohesion hit the unit is reduced to Shaken, the stick is rotated to the stencil facing the owning player. With another hit, the unit is Disrupted, and the stick turned to the stencil facing down. Cavalry units only have two statuses, Steady (face up) and Disrupted (face down). Simple and immediately readable without the need for status markers. Shaken/Disrupted markers are also included for those who prefer a clearer visual indicator.

Clockwise from top-left: Grand Charge markers (the long bars with the centre peak),
Attack (red) and Special Attack (grey) Tokens; Disrupted/Shaken markers; Order /
Activation Cubes; and Column (the longer bars) and Formed Square (black cubes
with white outlines). I've probably missed a couple in the mix.

Battle Commander also uses a novel cube draw activation mechanism, an evolutionary step up from the system we’ve seen in Academy Games’ Birth of America series. Instead of individual factions’ turn order, the coloured cubes drawn from an opaque receptacle supplied by the players (a coffee mug, ramekin or bag) represent orders. Some (the Blue and White cubes) favour one side or the other – that faction gets to perform an Order, then their opponent may commit a Reaction Order – while other cubes trigger specific types of Orders or Actions (e.g., a Yellow cube draw allows Reinforcement and Rally Order, a Black cube draw ends the turn). But I’m straying into the thickets here, so I’ll stop myself here and save it for the AAR.

Bringing order to confusion. Or at least a semblance of order.

A fitted card box insert does its best to keep everything organised, but edge-up storage is going to inevitably see some shifting of baggies and cards. There is no way all those components are fitting into a GMT counter tray (trust me, I tried), but I’m sure it won’t be long before Cube4Me comes up with a solid solution to this. Part of the reason is a feature rather than a bug; the box is designed to accommodate the fourth board and other components from the Expansion I set. This is probably why the Expansion just comes in an envelope. I’m not too OCD about keeping the original surrounds, so this suits me. The Upcoming list in the main Playbook mentions a second Expansion for Volume I, which will include six more battles (five maps, so maybe three double-sided boards). I’d hope this comes in its own storage.

BC Vol. I Expansion I.

I also received the first Expansion pack for Battle Commander Vol. I at the same time. This pack adds six more scenarios – three using the extra map-board provided with the Expansion, and three using the Rivoli map from the base set.

Inside the Envelope. English-readers, take heart. The Expansion comes with two play-
books, in French and English. Presumably it was cheaper to produce this way than
individual Expansion sets for each language. Sound of Drums is also releasing
Battle Commander - through their partners - in German and Spanish versions.

The thirty-two-page Playbook accompanying the Expansion is printed on the same quality paper as the other booklets from Volume I and presented in the same fashion. It covers the aforementioned scenarios in the same thorough detail at the main set’s Playbook and offers some additional Designer’s Notes.

Battle of Caldiero map.

Battle of Mondovi map.

The board accompanying the Expansion offers two fields of battle; Caldiero (the Playbook includes scenarios for the First and Second Battles of Caldiero, 1796 and 1805 respectively), and Mondovi. I confess to complete ignorance of all three battles, and if anyone can recommend a good book specifically on the Italian campaigns I would be in their debt.

The twenty-card deck included in the Expansion, also comes in French (left). 

The Expansion also includes an additional twenty cards; five new Commander cards and fifteen more Events and Leaders cards to supplement the existing deck. The cards are of the same superior quality as those from the core set.

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So, there you have all of the parts that make up Battle Commander, Volume I and its accompanying first Expansion. There is a lot of play here, and in the short term I will be clearing the decks to spend what time I have available on playtesting (more on that in a future post) and trying out this really gorgeous Napoleonic tableau.