A Package

There was a package waiting for me when I got home from work. I knew it was exciting because someone had tried to take a peek at what was inside.

And inside? This.

This book follows on from The Portable Wargame and Developing The Portable Wargame, but covers (as you might have guessed from the title) that wargamers' favourite - Napoleonics. Packed into the 160 pages, which I confess I've only skimmed at the moment, are four sets of rules, three of which are accompanied by a full battle report showing them in use. There are also extra rules to be added to any of the sets covering more details commander and unit quality, as well as activation systems, and finally some indications on how to extend the rules beyond 1815 to as far as 1865 (where really the late 19th century set from The Portable Wargame picks up).

The book starts with a revised version of Joseph Morschauser's rules from the early 1960s, upon which The Portable Wargame is based. The other three sets of rules cover Brigade (each unit is a regiment) Division (units are essentially half-brigades) and Corps (each unit is a division) actions. The core mechanisms for each set are the same, but they book is very much about how the basic Portable Wargame can be modified to cover each scale of action. Three battle reports illustrate the three sets.

Napoleonics is not really my thing, but the brigade set will be OK for the South American Wars of Liberation. It will also cover The Mexican Adventure with a few modifications. The other sets look adaptable to the American Civil War; my variant is pitched rather nebulously at brigade or division scale, but it will be interesting to apply some of the ideas from this book to them.