It has always been a contradiction amongst Napoleonic wargamers that, while we read about the great commanders and their broad strokes of strategy and grand tactics, most of us confine our tabletop activities to a much lower level of action. Why this should be I'm not certain. perhaps it is an overwhelming predilection with battalion drill that compels us to order our little metallic men to deploy into column-of- divisions or form square. Consciously we recognize that Napoleon did not concern himself with these details, trusting his subordinates to do their work, but we gamers have chosen to examine the brigade-and-division-level tactics, and most sets of commercial rules place the wargamer in the position of Picton or Reille rather than Suvorov or old Boney. Some interesting games have been evolved in an effort to view the Napoleonic battle in terms other than those of the Divisional General. Wargames Developments have put forth some brilliant ideas to gain insight into the "big picture" by means of corps- and army-level miniatures games, by committee games dealing with staff problems and by ingenious roleplays. What I propose to deal with here is not an alternative to the "traditional" figure game, but rather a method of placing that game in the context of a larger engagement. About a year ago I planned a game for my local group's club night. The basic premise was that each player would take the part of a corps- or divisional-commander in a fictional encounter between French and Austrian forces in 1809. Each side was provided with a map of an area some ten miles square which featured, in descending order of accuracy, their own corps bivouacs, Army headquarters, neighbouring corps encampments and so on down to the location of the enemy, which was depicted in the vaguest possible terms. Players were informed that the umpire was the sole source of outside information, arbiter of decisions and performer of all kinds of extraneous dramatic performances. Then, declaring the time to be five in the morning on a particular day in summer, I announced to both French and Austrian players in their separate groups, that some sporadic musketry could be heard apparently some miles away from either corps bivouac. Playing the part of a blase veteran, neither corps commander showed any inclination to march towards the sound of the guns, rouse their units or even get out of their imaginary camp beds; this cynical approach was undoubtedly related to a fear that their honest umpire would disclose their forces to be "fatigued and hungry, minus two on all dice rolls" or some similar villainy if they were to react to the gunfire. However, at 5:45 a young officer of Chasseurs -- umpire as Olivier -- took aside the French 1st division commander, announcing that he had arrived from Davout's headquarters where that worthy was engaged in readying a counter attack on Austrian units in contact with his piquets for the last hour. The officer of chasseurs, a stuttering young fellow fresh from St.-Cyr asked to deliver his message to the corps commander. The "divisional general", a callow youth unused to this kind of game, had been told that le Marechal had a mistress in attendance (shades of Massena in Portugal) and could not be disturbed, he went to the commander of the 2nd Division. Umpire declared it was now 6:15 a.m. The commander of the 2nd Division, W.D. veteran Jim Roche leapt to his duty and -- very realistically -- dragged the courier in front of the Marshal. All great fun, of course, and just the kind of delay we think of when the rules say "Each 2 1/2 minute move equals an hour game time" or whatever. The Marshal quickly covered his embarrassment and ordered that all troops should be ready to march at a moment's notice. The umpire saw a problem looming ahead. Since the Austrians had moved more than an hour before the French, While other -- fictitious -- units on either side were also on the march, it was possible that our "real" Austrians might encounter French forces that existed only in the umpire's mind and on his map. Would he have to borrow an entire French Corps and command it himself while the Froggies commanded by our live players stood around three miles away? A reasonable solution presented itself. The umpire informed the Austrians that the formation to their right -- barbarous Slavonic troops and imaginary to boot -- appeared to be in a tight little combat with Oudinot's gentlemen, and that the mounted vedettes had observed another body of Frenchmen a mile or so to their front. The Austrian general, in conference with his officers, decided not to risk an attack upon Oudinot's right flank for fear of exposing their own left to these approaching enemies. Umpire breathed a sigh of relief, preferring not to have to deal with a battle between four corps, only two of which existed in miniature. The Austrians instead chose to take the best ground available and await the arrival of the French corps; reports from either flank indicated a stable situation, and further scouts were sent ahead. Some light troops were sent to harass Oudinot's flank -- an off-table activity -- while the rest of the corps was deployed upon the game board. I had told the Austrians that since they had an hour's grace, they had the privilege of laying out a terrain fairly advantageous to themselves so long as it conformed with what little detail was on the map. This they did, resisting any temptation to place cliffs and swamps along the opponent's deployment line. The French Corps commander received reports at 9 a.m. that the enemy was drawn up before his line of march about a mile ahead. These rather inadequate reports -- based on the Umpire's peering at the table from about twenty feet -- coupled with reports of cannon fire to the North-west, North-east and, ominously, to the South-east, led the Marshal to carry out his own reconnaissance. He was allowed into the room with the table laid out, and made observations from about fifteen feet away. Then he returned to his corps and made deployment plans. All this took time, of course, and it was about 10 a.m. that the first French troops were laid out on the table; the general action had been underway for some five hours, and both sides were receiving a variety of messages from various sources. This first five hours of game time had taken about an hour to play through; since almost no formal rules were in operation -- and those very few rules known only to the umpire -- players had the opportunity to deal with information given them using their own knowledge and common sense. At this point a "normal" miniatures game took place between the French and Austrian forces. All the players had some familiarity with the rules used, and were perfectly able to conduct a tactical action with no interference from myself. in the belief that most acceptable miniatures rules can be played without major disputes and produce reasonable results, the Umpire deliberately avoided his traditional function as arbiter of disagreements in favour of controlling all outside elements. This means that 1) Umpiring is enjoyable, and 2) events occurring are not limited by written formulas and regulations. The battle raged indecisively (isn't that often the way?) while the Umpire wrote messages to one commander or another, without allowing them to share the information unless their own figures were together on the table. The Austrian right held back in response to poor reports from its neighboring formation offtable, while a French cavalry general sent several squadrons off the table to the South-east in support of McDonald's rather distant cries for help; this caused chagrin to the French corps command who had received no news from that quarter, and wry satisfaction to the umpire, who knew that McDonald's corps was in flight before the request for aid had arrived. Since the time scale in the rules did not properly account for time lost to delay -- and this is always the case with "segmented time" -- I occasionally told the players what time it now was, and recorded "time sent" on all dispatches. By noon the Austrians were beating off the French quite happily, but were loathe to counter-attack owing to bad reports from the west. By 12:30 the Hapsburg Imperial forces began to draw back, and by 1 p.m. were making an orderly withdrawal. The French had lost most of their horsemen in the wild goose chase to support McDonald -- the squadrons were quietly observing his corps running away without intervening -- and were in no position to pursue aggressively. Not that this mattered. At 11 a.m. Napoleon had launched a massive counter attack to support Davout's hard pressed units, and committed the Guard as the Austrian centre broke. The repercussions of this central collapse had taken an hour to reach our sector of the battle, and so our valiant Austrian players, having gained a tactical "winning draw", were forced to conform to the overall defeat of their army. The players involved agreed that by placing the miniature battle in the context of a "grande battaille" they enjoyed an appreciation of the limited information available to field commanders at the major Napoleonic battles. The roleplay aspect, which could be developed much more highly by use of several umpires and by giving players specific historical personalities, worked very, effectively. This kind of role-play, in which players depict characters with specific duties within a hierarchy is easily brought into many kinds of wargames and can enhance our "suspension of disbelief" very considerably. Any connection with orthodox Role-Play games is very tenuous; this is simpler, more realistic and features no goblins whatsoever. The actions of the "fictitious" formations were governed by common sense, a very basic combat system and a teeny bit of gerrymandering by the umpire; in this way the whole battle can be seen as a huge solo-game played by myself, with one small part of it blown up to involve a group of other wargamers. Corps-sized units were moved on the map at around 2-3 miles for each hour's move, varying according to whatever delays seemed reasonable; cavalry formations were allowed to move faster. The combat system was based on possible results of an hour's combat between large tactical units; routs were possible, but unlikely during the first few hours, and most combats resulted in no immediate advantage to either side. Each corps was given a strength value depending on size and character from about 7 (small formation of fairly poor quality) to 15 (vast numbers of elite fellows). The Austrians received a similar message by courier from the commander of their advance guard relating that a hot little action was brewing between his forces and Davout's rearguard. Behaving in an extremely considered German fashion, the General ordered the men to stand to arms after having breakfast; no details of this repast are available. A flurry of despatches from CHQ and from neighbouring formations led to a decision to move southwards, take an appropriate place in the line, and await developments. By 7 a.m. the army was on the move, a very rational, Eighteenth century air prevading the Hapsburg commanders. Revolutionary fervour -- or, more accurately, chaos -- was in the air over in the French camp. Messengers had been sent to Imperial headquarters for instructions, and more had returned; using the legendary "Courier fails to arrive for a throw of One", umpire had determined that not one but three aides-de-camp had gone mysteriously astray. So as time ticked away and soldiers stood grumbling about the delay in marching and having nothing to eat. The Corps commander and his subordinates became more and more agitated. At 8:15 arrived the word. "Why have you not followed my orders and engaged the enemy? Advance with all haste towards the Austrian positions!" To this was added a commander's rating of 1-5 and a standard 1-6 die roll. The results for each corps vs. corps encounter were compared thus: difference of 1-3; no result, combat continues difference of 4-5; lower falls back in good order difference of 6-7; lower falls back in disorder difference of 8 or more: lower breaks and immediately runs one mile. The actual dice scores were important, as these determined 1) The intensity of combat; two sixes meant sheer mayhem, two ones meant minimal contact and so on, and 11) the casualties incurred; a formation rolling a'4' took4 points off its opponent's basic score for the next round. Cavalry units had low basic scores, but were allowed to double their totals against disordered troops, triple them against troops already routing. Artillery was 'factored in' to corps totals, though separate rules for grand batteries could be brought in. The whole effect was fairly abstract, like a boarclgame with very few pieces. Whilst I cannot imagine Avalon Hill ever publishing "Jena - The Ten Minute Boardgame; components include 12 press out counters", this very concise approach to the whole battle seemed to work very coherently. In general, the players and the Umpire/Designer pronounced themselves very pleased with the results of the evening. Ina fairly short playing time a major action had developed and resolved itself. The wargamers had immersed themselves successfully in their roles and, free from the constraints of handling vast reams of rules, had tackled plausible difficulties of command in a reasoned manner. I felt that a well-researched historical scenario would have been even more rewarding, perhaps placing the players in the position of, say, Graham's Corps opposing the Army of Portugal at Victoria with the main battle being run by the umpire. This kind of exercise is very easy to arrange if you have a suitably flexible group of players, and reflects some areas of military activity often neglected by wargamers. I'm certain the general structure could be adapted for any historical period with a little thought. I still have no idea now MacDonald explained his defeat to the Emperor. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VI No. 1 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com