To refight Leipzig, or any other large Napoleonic battle is usually beyond the reach of most individual wargamers. The large numbers of troops involved and the size of the battlefields often mean that these battle can only be fought as club projects or similar. This requires a lot of planning, organisation and time; and for most people these items are often in short supply - not to mention the numbers of figures required, and the terrain. This article aims to show how Leipzig, or any other Napoleonic battle can be refought with very little outlay of time and money.

The Rules

The first requirement is for a suitable set of rules. When deciding upon a set of rules to use for fighting large battles, several criterion need to be observed. Firstly, the time and ground scales must be sufficiently large to enable you to finish the battle in a reasonable length of time, and not require a 400' square playing area! i.e. you can't hope to fight a 3 day battle using a set of rules that has 5 minute turns and a ground scale of 1"=10 yds - at least not in our lifetime.

Secondly, tactical combat/firing and manoeuvre has to be resolved quickly - if you have 5 Corps engaged you don't want to mess around firing individual battalion volleys! Remember that the results of combat/firing need only the same level of detail as you - the Corps or Army Commander - would actually perceive. You don't really need to know how many men Brigade X has lost; all you need to know is whether they are still capable of fighting or how close they are to running away!

Thirdly, the rules must give the 'feel' of being a Napoleonic Army Commander. By this I mean that you should be allowed to make similar sorts of decisions and plans that your real life counter- part would make - based on a similar level of information. As I said above you really don't require (and probably shouldn't have) detailed information on what is happening at a tactical level. You need to be able to see, for example, that the I Corps attack is succeeding and gaining ground, or that the III Corps defence is crumbling and needs reinforcing from your Army reserve etc.

Grand Tactical wargames rules should 'lock-out' the, players at a certain level of command. Military practise suggests that a commander should command the troops a level below him, and control those two levels below i.e a Corps commander should command (give orders to) his divisions, and then be aware of what his Brigades are doing. Below this level the game mechanics should take over - and assume that your lower level commanders can handle such things as unit formations, skirmishing, locating divisional artillery etc. The chaotic and confusing lower command levels, small unit tactics and combat are best handled by abstraction into the game mechanisms.

Your job as a Corps/Army commander should be to determine your initial plan and deployment, unit mixes and direction of attacks etc to give your forces the best possible chance of success - and then to direct and control the flow of units to plug gaps or exploit weaknesses -- in other words GRAND TACTICS!!

Having tried most other Napoleonic rules at some stage or another, none really seemed to fill these requirements exactly, until we discovered 'Napoleon's Battles' by Avalon Hill. These rules seemed to admirably fill all of the above criteria.

Although written in typical board game 'legalese'' they are, in practise, very easy to use - and also very complete. The ground scale is 1 cm = 100 yds, one turn equals 30 minutes and the figure scales are 1:120 for infantry and 1:80 for cavalry. The basic unit is a brigade/regiment (i.c several battalions), with divisional artillery batteries being factored in to the brigades firing and combat effectiveness so the only artillery on the table are Corps and Reserv( batteries (represented by 1 model= 1 battery).

Tactical combat/firing is resolved on a brigade v brigade basis, with a simple die-roll, modified of course by circumstance and troop quality, without any need to consult any charts or tables. This system therefore enable the players to resolve a large number of tactical engage ments very quickly.

Finally, the command and control rules prevent the players from having any say in what happens below brigade level - this is factored into the rules - thereby freeing you to actually play a Corps or Army Commander properl,y and concentrate on manoeuvring you divisions and brigades to best effect.

The Figures

Having decided on a suitable set of rules - and learnt to use them in a series of smaller engagements - the next requirement was the large number of troops required I refight the largest of Napoleon's battles. Figures of a variety, scale or description were out - since none of us could afford the cash to buy huge quantities, or most importantly, the time to paint and base them properly!) this stage some swift lateral thinking, modern technology and board gaming came to the rescue.

Using some Desk-Top Publishing software on a computer, and a Laser Printer, I drew out bases for brigades to the correct size. Of course you do not need a: of this equipment as it can all easily be drawn by hand. For each brigade I drew one base to represent Line Formation another for Column and a third for Squares and so on to each of these I then drew symbols to represent t individual battalions or squadrons etc.

The diagrams show some examples. These 'counters' were drawn for ea brigade from the order of battle, and individually label with the formations ID. The counters were then group into 'pages' and printed out. The resulting sheets was then 'spray-mounted' onto thick card. Each counter was coloured green using watercolours, and then each battalion/squadron symbol coloured in its national colour. The result is actually an extremely attractive set of colourful counters representing all of the armies at Leipzig.

Scenery

Our next requirement was something to represent the terrain - and of a similar standard and look as the counters. Following the board game theme we decided on a map approach. Thick green card was purchased and made up into sections to complete the 6'x 6' area required for Leipzig. This was covered in clear plastic and the map drawn on by hand using OHP pens in suitable colours. If a little time and effort is taken, a very attractive map can be drawn - with the advantage that contours, shapes of woods etc can be exactly represented instead of the normal compromises that most terrain 'systems' force you into making.

Only minor modifications to the rules were needed to make use of this system - and then you are ready to deploy your troops and commence battle!

Since figures cannot be removed to represent casualties a record needs to kept. Again, using the DT? set-up we produced some small status sheets for each Corps casualties over the course of a turn were shown with small plastic markers on the troop counters and then transferred to the status sheets at the end of each turn. These are kept concealed from the opposition - thus giving the added realism of Napoleon not being able to judge the strength of the 6th Prussian Brigade by glancing over the battlefield!. Counters or markers were also required to show such things as routing, disordered, out of command etc.

So there you are, with the expenditure of very little money, and some time, you have the battle of Leipzig set-up and ready to go. The final effect looks every bit as colourful and attractive as a conventional miniatures game - with the advantage of being much faster to play, and more manageable in size! Our refight took 2 days of playing to reach a conclusion, with just two people commanding - and resulted in a fairly decisive defeat for Napoleon and the French!

This system can easily be used to fight any Napoleonic battles with ease - and can be adapted to other periods without much difficulty. We have successfully fought large ancient battles in this manner, using WRG's 7th Edition Rules (sorry, but I quite like them!).

Miniature purists (or even large purists?) may object to the lack of pretty toy soldiers and modelled terrain - my only reply being that I would much rather be able to actually set-up and fight these battles by the means available to my time and pocket, than sit around dreaming about how I like to do it in an ideal world!