Empire IV comes packaged in a nicely colored box. It isn't exactly Imperial Green but it still looks imposing. Inside is a 157 page rule book, four double page colored quick charts and a page of counters. This time around the pages are numbered consecutively rather than by chapters with roman numerals. There is also a handy index of charts and tables on page 155 which is extremely useful. The rules are printed on fifty pound bond instead of the usual sixty pound and may cause some problems. The die counters are okay but also appear to be a little light. I believe all these things are being corrected in the second printing and would therefore anticipate no further problems. Empire IV sells for $22.95 at most retail outlets or may be purchased directly from Empire Games, Inc., P.O. Box 5462, Arlington, TX 76011. If you wish to call the phone numbers are (817) 261-3666 or (817) 274-9385. If you think Empire IV is a quick rewrite of Empire III with the amendments located in their proper place, you're wrong. Asa matter of fact, the hardest thing about writing this comparison of Empire III and Empire lV's deciding what to include. I can say that conceptionally the simulation is the same to the uses of III while at the same time I can also say that IV is new and the play is subtly different. The differences between III and IV are not as great as the differences between II and III. They are significant enough nonetheless, to keep one scurrying back and forth between the table and the rule book until you get the hang of it. Most people, when opening Empire for the first time, turn to page 134 and start checking out their prized Generals, cavalry, and infantry units. Well, you will be happy to note that the authors have done a pretty good job of rating even more people than in Empire III. I'm sure, however, that even with an expanded listing some of your favorites will be left out. For all you dashing French Cavalry commanders check out Murat's unusual rating. Do you feel lucky? If so, you can roll each hour for his professional skill level for battles taking place after 1811. The cavalry and infantry ratings are very extensive and have been expanded to include ratings by year and theater of war. Infantry also rates the small arms fire class which can be different from the morale class. The list is too exhaustive to delve into in any great detail. Suffice it to say a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy went into compiling this rating system and taken as a whole it is par excellence. Gee Scotty, are you sure the Swiss aren't crack troops in 1812? A bonus has been added for the activation of orders in the first hourly round of the battle. The normal percentage chance is doubled so even a Poor corps commander will automatically activate any maneuver element (ME) in his command and a Despicable leader will have a ninety percent chance. Additionally, a bonus for the army commander attached to the corps has been increased to include both Good and Mediocre rated Generals. A lot of the terminology from Empire Ill has been clarified but I still have trouble with the definition of a non-front line unit. The wording is unnecessarily confusing and the front line units which were to be shaded in the printing, were not. This makes for a very ambiguous definition. Perhaps in the second printing this problem could also be corrected. Tactical combat is where most of the heavy duty changes take place. Tactical initiative, which decides which side will go first, is determined with one die roll per side. Generally speaking, you look at engaged ME's and take into consideration their leadership attachments, type of orders issued for this hour and a random die roll. Non-aggressive orders like maneuver, break-off, redeploy or stand down count as negatives while the random die roll runs the gamut from minus three to a plus five. Brigade commanders and wounded Generals are not considered for any bonuses during initiative. Divisional, superior divisional, imperial ADC's, corps commanders and army commanders will add from a plus one to a plus six if attached to an ME or a unit within an ME. For instance, if one side had three infantry ME's and one cavalry brigade with an excellent corps commander attached it would receive a plus one for each divisional commander and a plus four for the corps commander. All corps commanders, or their equivalent, rated below Excellent receive at least a plus three. Once the initiative has been decided each ME that is engaged will make a modified die roll to determine how enthused or "active" it will be during the upcoming hour. The modifiers are the ME's current orders, leadership, national characteristics or circurnstances and a random die roll. The national characteristics are a lot more expanded than those used to determine initiative in Empire Ill. For instance, the Russians and British now get a plus three if they are on the defensive while various bonuses exist for French, Portuguese, Prussians and Northern Italians. Some minuses do exist, however, for Dutch- Belgians, Neapolitans and Spanish. The hourly turn has been greatly altered and instead of from two to five impulses each hour there are now three tactical phases. These tactical phases are further broken down into a move for each side. This would be like six impulses in each hour under Empire III. The hour is still the familiar move and countermove which has worked so well in the past. Coupling this with the ability of an ME to be "active" or "inactive" during different initiative phases poses some very interesting situations. For instance, side A may have an ME which is active in all three phases, however, the ME across from him on side B is only active for 2 phases. The player for side B would be active on the first phase and could shag back on the second phase thereby lulling player A into taking some risks during A's third phase. He might very well assume player B is no longer active. Imagine his surprise when player B lets loose in phase 3 which counts as his second phase of activity. The subtleties here are interesting to watch and increase the "fog of war" by adding an element of risk and generalship previously not encountered. An awkwardness of Empire Ill was the adjudication of bombardment. Bombardment is now part of the tactical hour and is no longer "tacked" on at the end of the turn. A roll is made to determine the number of "bombardment rounds" which works similarly to the tactical activity explained above. There are, however, several very distinct differences. In bombardment you must receive a modified die roll which allows you to fire in all three tactical phases in order to bombard in the first tactical phase. If you are only able to fire two bombardment rounds they must be in the second and third tactically phases. One round will mean you must hold all your fire until the third tactical phase. You must not have moved, fired or been interpenetrated by friendly units during tactical combat this hour in order to be eligible to bombard. Likewise, to be an eligible target, a unit must not have been involved in a fire fight, an elan test, or close action combat. For all of you out there who use Skirmish Combat you can rest easy. It's still there. I have never found any use for this section and it is interesting to note that on this go around the authors excluded the quick chart which was included in Empire Ill. I find this section time consuming and unnecessary and recommend that it be dropped as it adds nothing to the simulation. A common complaint of Empire II was the inabiIity to change formation once engaged. The authors have now allowed formation changes to take place. There is a whole page (page 56 to be exact) devoted solely to this activity. All formations are made by taking deductions in the allowable distance moved. For example, to go from an attack column to a like for veteran class troops it would take four inches. If the troops were French that would leave you with one inch to move and then you could fire. If, however, your troops were conscript class or lower, of any nationality, you could only make the formation change and then they would be unable to fire. There are also movement penalties for changing your line of march. If you move a battalion of infantry and want to head ninety degrees away from the way you are facing you may do so by measuring from the outside of the unit and at the rate of march equal to one half your move. Infantry units of a morale class of conscript or lower move randomly from zero to nine inches depending on the die roll, without any modifiers. Regimental armies are a new addition to Wand included within this section is a comprehensive list of those armies which are subject to this rule. Generally, a regimental army is one in which orders were still issued to the regiment or brigade rather than at Corps level. Accordingly, those armies may usually only select up to one regiment at a time for action while Napoleonic Armies may continue to move up to a brigade simultaneously. In Empire III Russian battalions, and some other small battalions of one company frontages, were very fragile. If a few castings were lost their strength quickly dropped by twenty five percent and if one battalion of the regiment left, the other was not very effective. Empire IV now allows you to run units by the regiment, if you wish, and you can change back and forth each hour. This now means a Russian regiment of two, eight casting battalions has a strength of sixteen castings and does not reach twenty five percent losses until it loses four figures. A marked improvement! Of course, as in life, nothing is free. While in a regimental masse you may only change formation when you have the initiative and this move takes the entire tactical phase thereby ending it for that particular ME. You may not, under any circumstances, attempt to form square during a non-initiative phase while in regimental masse. The use of a closed column (a much improved and more viable formation in Empire IV) can overcome some of the "masse" deficiencies. You can even carry this "masse" formation to extremes by forming a brigade masse which is handled similarly to the regimental masse. At this point we come to what in Empire is labeled "DUB Cavalry" but for the rest of us could be labeled "dead meat". DUB cavalry stands for "decidedly undistinguished battlefield cavalry". Simply put if your cavalry has an ACE rating of twelve to fourteen they only have a fifty percent change to move, charge, counter-charge, or opportunity charge. If you have an ACE rating of eleven or lower you only have a twenty five percent chance of initiating the same activities. Additionally, battle cavalry vs. DUB cavalry gets a plus two on close combat while othe rcavalry gets a plus one. This is one of those rules that sounds terrible but upon taking everything into consideration works out just fine on the tabletop. Rarely if ever, did the cavalry labeled "DUB" by Empire perform very well on the field. The few instances that it did well will probably correspond with the few times it does well on the tabletop. While playing, DUB cavalry has forced the enemy to fatigue itself and has in fact stopped several charges with small arms fire. DUB's are worth painting and using, however, don't expect too much from them and you won't be disappointed. In Empire IV a maximum distance between units selected for action has been defined for both cavalry and infantry. This way you don't get someone taking a regiment of infantry which covers two feet of terrain and charging them together. This rule is like a lot of others in IV since it "tightens" up the little loopholes from Empire III. Grand batteries are a little more difficuit to move after they have unlimbered. They stay a grand battery until destroyed or dissolved, which is distinctly different form Empire 111. Artillery which is not a part of a grand battery also has similar problems in relocating. Don't get too alarmed with visions of your infantry zooming past any possible artillery support. You get a plus fifty percent the second time you try to move them from a previously failed attempt. Artillery was historically, and has been in Empire, very powerful. This rule, however, will slow them down a little which for foot artillery, has a good feel to it. In Empire III there was this little thing called "a free move to the base line". In actuality it was "teleportation" and most people made house rules to prevent moves of a mile in the blinking of an eye. Now you can get a free move to the base line, however, it is only at the rate of one half the tactical move. Thanks fellows? Beam me up "Scotty" should be reserved for Star Trek and not Napoleonics. In Empire II fire fights were a thing to be avoided and in Empire III they were dropped. Well, in Empire IV they're back and I like 'em. Fire fights are quick and dirty and a whole lot more realistic. Two lines blazing away at each other at under a hundred yards for hours at a time always seemed slightly unreal. Now there is an excellent chance that one side will "recoil" and if you're big and bad enough you might even force the loser to go "bad morale". This rule is excellent and fits many historical situations like a glove. Opportunity charges are handled more realistically now than previously. In III if you triggered an opportunity charge you usually lost your unit since it was virtually impossible for the charger not to make contact. Now you have to roll to see how far your opportunity charge is allowed to continue. Cavalry charges the number of inches rolled on two ten sided dice, added together. Infantry moves half the total of two ten sided dice, added together. While playing in a recent game, an example of how this new twist works took place. A British battalion, in square, chose to go into aline. Although they were perched on the top of a hill there was still a French battalion within four inches and the British subsequently triggered an opportunity charge by the formation change. The French battalion located just over two inches away, rolled a three on the dice and was allowed to move half that distance and then half again for the hill he was trying to scale. The next effect is he did not make contact but moved within two inches of the unit being charged. The British battalion opened fire from his new line formation and forced a firefight. The French battalion recoiled back down the hill and took no additional part in the battle. A new modifier has been added for morale checks. It is a small one liner that says "Unit testing has just suffered 25% or more casualties of its existing effectives from the immediate past enemy fire causing this morale test... + 20%". This modifier has had a significant impact on the speed of play. For example, say a battalion which started the battle with twelve castings currently has four casualties. This same battalion is hit with fire which inflicts two more casualties. Since two castings are twenty five percent of the eight effective castings causing the morale check, the unit will test at a base of plus fifty percent. It also receives a plus thirty percent for being at half strength. The chances of units hanging around until the last casting drops are extremely reduced as they will usually "bug out" long before that. Regimental Artillery: A Loser Just when we are ripping along with great things up crops a loser. It's regimental artillery. The handling of regimental artillery is one of abstraction and frankly, I liked the way it was handled in Empire III better. In III you just combined the regimental guns into batteries and used them like regular artillery except they could not be part of a grand battery. Now in lV the sections are to be attached directly to the battalion and they move, unlimber, and shoot and god knows what else, magically. If you use an historical French 1812 order of battle you may get a lot of two gun shots since quite a bit of the artillery was regimental. This means more time lining up a shot and extra die rolls. True, the only time you fire them separately (you add their fire factors to the battalion) is when the target is out of range of small arms fire. I think the extra die rolls are not worth the time and add little to the simulation. I'll go back to III on this one. Since we are on the subject of artillery, the classification of guns has been changed. There are now heavy (twelve pdrs), medium heavy (eight and nine pdrs), medium (six pdrs), and light (four pdrs or less) artillery pieces. Targets take hits a little bit differently with a line receiving fire at seventy five percent of normal while squares drop from two hundred percent to one hundred and fifty percent. Limbered artillery is no longer allowed to use the artillery chart but now receives fire as if it were cavalry. Second and third class heavies hit a little harder at close range than they used to but otherwise the fire power is pretty much the same. ME Determination and ME Morale ME determination and ME morale are possibly the two most significant differences between Empire III and IV. In Empire IV the authors have addressed the problem of speeding up play and ME's standing around for hours until every last battalion has been routed or destroyed. After reading these two sections quite a few times I remained unconvinced in the approach that they had used. My concerns were in small ME's, or low quality ME's which appeared to be particularly vulnerable. Low quality troops in small numbers appeared to be an anathema. In the ME determination phase you look at infantry ME's which have been engaged and have suffered at least twenty percent casualties. For instance, if an ME has eleven battalions and a battery then it has twelve tactical elements and a loss of three of these would represent losses of twenty five percent. Obviously, if you have an ME with only four battalions a loss of one battalion would represent the same twentyfive percent. Another criteria for ME Determination requires that some portion of the ME must be engaged in close action combat during the hour. There are a few modifiers to ME Determination such as a minus ten percent for every ten percent loss above the original twenty percent loss. Also you get a plus ten percent if you have any close combat where you were the victor as well as a bonus for attached leaders at the ME level. A veteran classed infantry ME with twenty percent losses which was eligible to check under ME Determination has a thirteen percent chance to rout, a twelve percent chance to retreat, a thirteen percent chance to go shaken and a sixty-two percent chance of carrying on. Believe me, no amount of reading will give you the total picture on this one. You have to play it several times before you become accustomed to it. I personally went from a very negative feeling to the complete opposite. One of the deciding factors that I have not mentioned yet is that all ME's are averaged "up" in morale. For instance, a French line division of eleven battalions (two crack and nine veterans) plus a battery of artillery would test as if they are crack. You average the morale multiple by multiplying the ACE times the number of battalions. In this example the average ACE is greater than ten. Since this exceeds the ACE for veterans you must round up to the next ACE which happens to be crack with an ACE of twelve. Note, however, that the artillery is not used in computing the average morale when it is part of an ME other than a grand battery. This whole section worked very well and I feel it is a very necessary and integral part of Empire IV. This phase does not take a lot of time to adjudicate and the net results are a much quicker and efficient simulation. After ME determination has been completed then the section on ME Morale kicks into play. There is also a special chart for this which is different from ME Determination. An ME that is more than two morale grades higher than an ME which routs as a result of ME Determination or ME Morale does not have to take the ME Morale check. Other ME's must check if they are within ten inches of the routing ME. Additionally, each ME with is interpenetrated by an ME which retreated during ME Determination, must also check. This section is somewhat reminiscent of Empire II. Instead of taking morale checks for battalions who "saw" other battalions rout, you use the same basic format but this time you check with ME's instead of battalions. Also, all ME's are eligible to check in this phase unlike ME Determination which is limited solely to infantry ME's. The net effect of ME Determination and ME Morale is to use up ME's and speed up the simulation. Believe me, you will no longer take on a Saturday game as if you were competing in a marathon. As a matter of fact you might warit to drag your feet a little or someone will remind you that there is still plenty of time left in the day for you to mow the lawn! Seriously, corps level actions should not take more than a few hours to fight and multiple corps battles can be played in an afternoon once the rules become familiar to the players. Leader casualties are pretty much the same except now You have a chance, albeit a small one, of having a General captured who is attached directly to a unit which suffers a smashing defeat. I like this one. Although the chances are not great I have already seen this happen. The engineering of redoubts have been made harder by forcing you to make them far away from the enemy or during the night. This is ideal for campaigning and much more realistic. The old days of throwing up heavy field works with gun embrasures in a few hours are gone. Good riddance! Weather has been greatly expanded by giving its effects on visibility, movement, small arms fire, artillery fire, close action combat and forming square when it is not your initiative. This again works exceedingly well in campaigns or recreating an historical battle. Most people do not use weather in normal "pick up" games but they should as it makes for some very fascinating situations. Terrain and its effects on the field of battle have been expanded in a very novel way. Counters are included with the equipment and may optionally be placed face down anywhere on the battlefield, even in built up areas. As an example, you might have troops entering a ploughed field and you turn over a counter that says "F5". This means that the ground is soft since it was just plowed and movement is halved while all artillery fire outside five inches is also halved. The situation of not knowing the condition of the area you wish to cross until it has been scouted or you actually cross it is excellent and can make life interesting. I guess scouting might be a more efficient use for DUB cavalry than testing someone's battle cavalry in close combat! The optional rules listed are once again fairly intriguing, as they were in Empire Ill. There are a few deletions from Ill and a few excellent additions. Baron Larrey now helps French leaders if he happens to be with the Army. Austrian General officers of divisional command rank or higher do not automatically attach to the unit or at regimental level but must make a die roll to do so. If successful he must continue to "make his die roll" each hour to stay attached. Any elite brigade commanders or charismatic corps, wing or army commanders are able to attach automatically. Howitzers have a dead zone and you may use it for all batteries with howitzers or just batteries made up entirely of howitzers. In Empire III, Russians could optionally shoot small arms fire as one grade lower than indicated. Now in Empire IV the option is the rule. I can live with it since we used the optional rule anyway. As a matter of fact, all the optional rules should probably be used with the possible exception of the howitzers' dead zone. If the battery is composed entirely of howitzers then it should most definitely be used. Well, I guess it's "bottom line" time. As I previously mentioned there were some things that I was not sure of during my many readings of Empire IV. I tried to keep an open mind on these areas until they could be play tested under normal conditions. My greatest concerns melted away after several battles and my skepticism was quickly replaced with enthusiasm. All in all I feel Empire IV is undeniably the best set of Napoleonic Rules on the market. They truly capture the essence of Napoleonic warfare and are a must for every serious gamer of the period. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. IX No. 1 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 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