SPI's latest small game, The Battle of Austerlitz, designed by David Ritchie, turns out to be an excellent game both for the novice and for the experienced player. The game simulates the climactic battle of Napoleon's 1805 campaign, in which 73,000 French troops with 139 guns decisively defeated the 90,000 troops and 278 guns of the Austrian Third Coalition and its Russian allies. The game focuses on the hours from 0600 to 1700 on December 2nd during which the major actions occured. The game uses a mixture of SPI's Napoleon at War operational level system and its Wellington's Victory tactical level system. The blending of the two systems yields a game that plays very well and gives the gamer a good feel for warfare in the Napoleonic period.

The game components are up the usual SPI standards. The map, which is 11 x 17", is fairly accurate historically in the location of the terrain features. The game comes with 100 counters of which 66 are units and 33 are strength counters. The unit counters are front printed with combat strength, morale rating, movement allowance, unit type symbol, corps designation, and the initial placement hex. The counters are backprinted to indicate disruption. Besides the usual infantry, cavalry, and artillery symbols depicted on the counters, dragoons are also depicted, as in the game dragoons function as cavalry for movement and as infantry for combat. The counters are blue for French, green for Russian, and white for Austrian. Strength counters are used to keep track of a unit's combat strength as it diminishes due to combat. The eight-page rulesbook is well written, easy to read, and set in a format which makes it easy for a novice to learn the details of the game and easy for an experienced gamer to get into the game quickly. The rulesbook actually contains only four pages of rules and a page of tables.

The Battle of Austerlitz uses a rallymovement-combat sequence of play, with which most gamers are familiar. The rules dealing with rallying of disrupted units are well done and take into account many of the same factors that affected Napoleonic troops. The rallying of a unit is affected by current strength, proximity of friends and foes, security of its position, and the present morale of the army. Movement is affected by terrain, such as woods, slopes, towns, roads, streams, and lakes, and by zones of control. In this game, the zones of control are not rigid. Undisrupted units exert a zone of control which takes one movement point to enter and two to leave. However, a unit leaving a zone of control must undergo a "disengagement check" to determine if it suffers losses due to its movement away from the enemy. Combat is mandatory only between undisrupted units. The combat results table uses an attacker/defender ratio. The table contains combat strength point loss, disruption, and rout results which affect both sides. Even at six to one, the attacker stands a fair chance of suffering loss or disruption. Units can take the option of retreat and disruption rather than combat strength point loss. Disruption leads to a reduction in movement, the loss of its ability to attack, a disadvantage in combat, and the possibility of causing other units to be disrupted.

These results accurately reflect the effects of disorganization on the the troops of the Napoleonic era. Routed units must retreat a number of hexes determined by a die roll and suffer a one combat strength point loss. Disrupted units which are routed suffer a mandatory three combat strength point loss. Units which pannot fulfill their retreat requirements must suffer a one combat strength point loss per hex not retreated. Like most Napoleon at War type games, zones of control block an enemy unit's ability to retreat, so the surrounding of an enemy unit with zones of control becomes one of the strategies of the game.

Morale plays a great part in the game. The units are rated from a three (the lowest) to a six (the highest). The morale ratings seem to have been based on a combination of unit ability and leadership as leaders are not individually accounted for in the game as separate counters. In each combat, each player designates one unit as the main combatant unit, which then lends its morale rating to the combat. The differential between the selected units will shift the odds either up or down. Each side also has a morale level for its army. When it is exceeded, the army becomes demoralized. Demoralization negates the ability to advance after combat, decreases the chances of rallying units, and allows the demoralized army to exit the map. Alas, a morale level track is not provided and each player must devise a method of keeping tabs on the present level of army morale. The rallying of disrupted units is done by rolling a die for each corps that has units that need rallying. This roll is modified by conditions affecting the unit to be rallied. A unit is rallied when the modified die rol I is equal to or lower than the morale rating of that unit.

Unit Individuality

Another unique feature of this game is that each unit type is treated individually and given characteristics that the particular troop type had historically. Artillery can bombard a non-adjacent unit. When bombarding, morale does not figure into the combat odds calculation and the bombarding artillery unit does not suffer any of the combat results. Cavalry units, but not dragoons, have the ability to charge and countercharge. Charging cavalry units have their combat strengths doubled and become disrupted at the end of the combat. The defender has the option to put into a charge mode any of his cavalry units which are involved in combat.

The doubling of combat strength simulates the added effect of cavalry thundering down on an opponent, while the disruption fits historically with the disorganization of cavalry units after a charge. The rule that allows defending cavalry units to charge gives the game more of a Napoleonic feel, since then it was common practice for cavalry to countercharge any enemy advancing toward them. Dragoon units are treated as a mixture of cavalry and infantry. This simulates the moving up of dragoons on horse followed by their ability to dismount and fight on foot. This individual treatment of unit type coupled with combat strength point loss rather than wholesale unit loss adds much of the tactical flavor to this operational level game.

The game has only one scenario. The Allied army is deployed historically and is given no option for initial placement. About half of the French are deployed historically with set hexes for initial deployment. Half of the French army is considered a strategic reserve and given the right of free deployment, limited only to the area north of the French Reserve Deployment line marked on the map. This is accounted for by the fact that the French deployed initially on low, fog covered ground, which masked their position from the Allies, while the Allies deployed on the Pratzen Plateau, which revealed their positions to the French. The position of the French reserve is written down by the French player and placed on the board after the Allies have taken their first turn movement phase. A portion of the French army (about seven percent) is set aside as reinforcements which appear between turns two through five at a point on the west edge chosen by the French player. The turn of appearance is determined by the roll of a die.

The victory conditions are well conceived and seem to correspond to Napoleonic objectives. Victory is given to the player who accumulates the most victory points. The level of victory is determined by the size of the difference between the two players' victory points. Victory points are given for enemy combat strength points eliminated, for combat strength points of undisrupted cavalry and dragoons on the map or exited, and for positions held, and points are subtracted for being demoralized. One of the goals of a Napoleonic battles was to destroy as much of the enemy's troops as possible, as well as to demoralize the enemy army. Another was to cut the enemy's lines of communications and supply. In

The Battle of Austerlitz, this coincides to the hexes for which victory points are given for occupying. During the Napoleonic wars, the degree of victory was often decided by the side that had enough undisrupted cavalry either to pursue the defeated foe, or to coverthe retreatof a withdrawing friend.

SPI's The Battle of Austerlitz has several other rules which add more Napoleonic flavor to the game. A unit which starts at least three hexes from enemy units and stays that distance away, can assume march order, which gives the unit an additional three movement points. This simulates the strategic movement of units on the field not engaged with the enemy. The game also has a fog rule which negates cavalry's ability to charge, artillery's ability to bombard, and decreases a unit's ability to rally. Fog rules are in effect during the first two turnsof thegame. Thegame has only one optional rule covering corps integrity which should be used to help the game's balance and adds more to the Napoleonic feel of the game. Historically, units of different corps had a harder time coordinating attacks than units of the same corps.

Challenging

The Battle of Austerlitz proves to be a challenging and entertaining game. At first glance, it seems that the Allies should make short work of the French. The Allies have thirty units totalling 261 combat strength points as opposed to Napoleon's thirty-six units totalling 177 strength points.

Seeing this, the Allied player has a tendency in the first few times he plays the game, to attack immediately and frontally. He finds that the great odds figured on large strength units attacking smaller units are reduced to equal odds or worse by the difference in morale.

Many Allied combat strength points have bitten the dust before the Allied player can adjust himself to the tactical flavor of morale modified combat. Quite often, after the initial disasters of attacking and losing to small strength but higher morale French units, the Allied player ends up playing conservatively and then being burned again when the more numerous French counters pounce on his waiting troops.

Another thing that makes the game challenging is the combat results table. At three to one or better odds, the attacker has one chance in three of becoming disrupted and becoming very vulnerable to counterattack during the enemy's combat phase. At equal or two to one odds, the attack has a one in six chance of being routed and several chances of having no effect on the opponent. The combat results table is also constructed such that soaking off attacks can have very disastrous effects on the attacker. The rule governing the displacement of units by retreating units can also add to the effects of the CRT. Displaced units become disrupted and disrupted units which are displaced lose one point of combat strength for each hex displaced.

A close examination of the counters gives several clues to the necessary strategies for use in the game. The thirty-six French units which total 177 combat strength points average a morale rating of five while the Allies' thirty units with a total of 261 combat strength points have a morale rating of only four. This gives the French an odds shift of one in their favor. The French have seventeen infantry units with an average of seven combat strength points and five morale compared to fourteen Allied infantry units with an average of eleven combat strength points and a four morale rating. This alone would put the Allies at a great disadvantage.

The ten French artillery units average three combat strength Points and a morale of five compared to eight Allied artillery units with a morale of four. The only area in which the Allied army matches the French head to head is in cavalry. Both sides' cavalry average five in morale with the ten French cavalry and dragoon units averaging 2.8 combat strength points to the Allies' eight units of 5.2 combat strength points. The French have only nine units with a morale of four while the Allies have twentyone units of morale of three or four.

This difference in morale is what balances a game in which one side has fifty per cent more combat factors. Quite often the Allies in an attack will find themselves with a minus two odds shift during a combat. Putting these together, the Allied player finds that the usual method of attack used in most Napoleon at War type games do not work here. One other rule which worsens the Allied position is that the unit selected to lend its morale rating to the combat must suffer at least half of any strength point losses indicated by the combat result.

The rules of the game force both players to adopt Napoleonic methods to win the game. The Allied player needs to use massed artillery to improve his position. The Allied player has twice the artillery strength of the French, and since morale ratings are not taken into account when artillery is bombarding, the Allied player must use this to his advantage. If the Allied player would couple massed artillery bombarding high morale French units with combined infantry-cavalry attacks on the lower morale French units, substantial sections of the French line can be broken.

Massed artillery stands a good chance, when used properly, of disrupting enemy units, if not worse. Since disrupted units suffer a minus one shift on the CRT, this is a good method of equalizing the odds. To counter the Allies' superiority in artillery, the French need to screen the area attacked by the Allied artillery with low morale or small units, while he concentrates on conducting combined infantrycavalry-artillery attacks away from the Allied artillery. Quite often, this allows the French to cut off sections of the Allies to be eliminated piecemeal, or to turn an Allied flank.

One of the best strategies that the Allied player can use is to withdraw the units on the western third of the board toward the Pratzen Plateau anchoring his flank just east of Reichmansdorf. The Allied player should concentrate his attacks either in the area between Puntowitz and Girschowitz or between Girschowitz and the Santon.

The first area allows the Allied player to split the French while the second offers a good chance for the Allies to capture hex 1919, which is worth 30 victory points. In adopting this strategy, it prevents the Allied player from being split by the difficult terrain west of the Kobelnitz Pond, and denies the French benefit of the terrain in this area, as happened historically. Also, this strategy gives the Allied player the benefit of interior lines, which he needs, as many of his units have fewer movement points than their French counterparts. This plan allows the Allied cavalry and a few small infantry units to hold the left flank while the main concentration of artillery and infantry focus on taking the few hexes on the right flank necessary to occupy hex 1919 and Possibly turn the French flank.

If the Allied player adopts the historical plan of attack, the French should attempt to split the Allies in the area between Kobelnitz and Puntowitz and then to destroy them piecemeal. If the Allies attempt to concentrate on the area around hex 1919, the French should withdraw behind the Goldbach stream on the left, while concentrating their attacks on the Pratzen Plateau, attempting especially to split the Allies in the area of the town of Pratzen. This push is necessary to prevent the splitting of the French by the terrain south of Puntowitz.

This method of attack, especially if successful, threatens the Allies' rear and the victory point hexes initially held by the Allies. This should take the pressure off the left flank as well as giving the French a position in which they can use their greater movement rates to concentrate attacks on several key points in the Allied line. There are several other good strategies that will surface once the gamer has mastered the game system and gets into the game.

As well conceived as The Battle of Austerlitz is, there are several other possible optional rules that the gamer can add to the game which would add additional Napoleonic flavor without greatly altering the play balance. One rule is that bombarding artillery should be excepted from the Corps integrity rule. This would allow for the massing of artillery into grand batteries under specialized artillery officers.

A second optional rule would be a plus one odds shift for an attacker who uses a combined arms attack, i.e., an attack in which at least one each infantry, artillery and cavalry unit participates. This benefit comes about because combined arms combat was more effective than non-combined arms attacks.

Another option is to allow the doubling of charging cavalry to occur only when charging non-infantry units or when the cavalry charging an infantry unit also has friendly infantry and/or artillery also participating in the attack. In other words, if only cavalry is attacking orcounterattacking an infantry unit, it does not gain the doubling effect of charging. In addition, if cavalry combats an infantry unit alone, it is automatically disrupted at the end of combat. This simulates the ability of infantry to form square in the face of advancing and charging cavalry, and the disruption of cavalry after contacting an infantry square.

One other optional rule which can be adapted is to allow the dragoon units to charge just as a normal cavalry unit. When a player chooses the charge option for his dragoons, the unit must use the cavalry line on the combat effects on the Terrain Effects Chart. This simulates the fact that Napoleonic dragoons more often function as medium cavalry rather than mounted infantry.

The Battle of Austerlitz turns out to be a very good game. The components are well done. The map is done so that terrain can be distinguished easily. The rule book is well written and free of any major problems. The game system comes off very well in providing a tactical feel to an operational level game. Once the system is mastered and the Allied player gets past his initial defeats, the game becomes well balanced with either side having equal chance to gain different levels of victory. At a price of $5.95, this game is well worth the money.