Well, the fun never stops does it? Yet more loot from Scott's site and this is one he even said we could have! Good ol' "Trailape" has given Phillip Jones' new Napoleonic rules the once over and reviewed them for his Web audience and the 8/12 Holswortby Wargaming mob.. And no jaundiced eye is Mr. Ts' - in real life a trained professional, an artilletyman (naturally) and veteran gamerso read on... I started playing wargames at the age of about 13. Napoleonics was the period that I was most interested in due mainly to the colour and "glory" of the period. Cannonades and Cuirassier charges; infantry squares and the Old Guard advancing on the waiting British lines. All terribly exciting I thought - BRAVO! The first set of rules I used were the old WRG Horse and Musket set. These rules worked well enough as far as I was concerned but lacked something. They just didn't seem to capture the "feel" of the period. Every other set of rules from that point on seemed either too complicated or overly simple. The other problem 1 felt was the lack of detail at Unit level. Where were the pioneers to help batter in the gates of the enemy fortifications; why couldn't I spike my guns to prevent their capture? Why didn't I have battalion guns to advance by drag-ropes with the infantry? As a result I slipped away from the colourful Napoleonic period and found a great set of rules called Spear and Shield and later, DBM, which were to bring about my entry to the Ancient and Medieval period. Then came "ELAN", an exciting and new set of Napoleonic Tactical Rules penned by Australian, Phillip A Jones. The first thing I noticed about these new Australiandesigned rules were their similarity to the old tried and true WRG Horse & Musket rules, but with some major improvements. First of all there is a "Grand Tactical" Phase to allow for Grand or Mass Batteries to be formed to conduct area fire and preparatory bombardments. During this phase off- table reserves can be brought into play and flank marches are conducted and Initiative is also determined. Initiative is worked out by combining dice scores with "command" bonuses gained from the quality of your Brigade Generals. These Generals can be either Inept, Capable, or Exceptional. Your chances of one or the other are dependent on the Nationality of your army. Don't hold your breath hoping to get an exceptional General if you command Spanish, Swedes or Westphalian troops; it just ain't going to happen! Add to these improvements a command and control mechanism that compels units to stay within command radius of their Generals of Brigade, and Brigades within Radius of Divisional Commanders, (or suffer the consequences), and you have a vastly superior set of rules. My favourite enhancement however would have to be the "Grand Tactical Movement", which enables units not within 650mm (for 25mm Miniatures), to move up to three times their normal movement. This concept is very similar to DBM\DBR's "March Moves". Another great innovation with ELAN is the ability to field Engineers. When you pay the appropriate points for an Engineer officer you get the Engineer, six pioneers and a pontoon bridge/wagon. You can now construct/breach field works, throw a pontoon bridge across the Danube under fire, and prepare Wagram to resist the French assaults. Now those beautiful AB Miniatures pioneers won't just sit back at the table baseline with the musicians and look good; they can now lead the way into the teeth of that enemy held village! Among the other improvements made by these rules include the ability to form "Battalion Mass", a formation only available to Austrian and Russian Infantry. Also Veteran French infantry (or any other infantry where an historical precedent exists) can form "Grande Bandes" where up to half the unit can deploy as skirmishers. Many Napoleonic rules ignore these sort of formations. Other rules within ELAN cover such things as weather, terrain and various oddities such as rockets and elephants, Irregulars such as Cossacks and Freikorps, cavalry and deployment. The rules also come with a set of detachable quick-reference sheets in the back that make reference to the rules a breeze and at $AUS19.50 (postage included), they are right on the money. In summary, these rules are a breath of fresh air to the world of Napoleonic wargames, and are equally at home as a set of competition rules or simply as a set used for that once a fortnight get together with Dal and Mick at the Club house. If I were to have a criticism it would be that there is no listing for Austrian "Cavalry Artillery" which really doesn't fit into the class of Horse or Foot Artillery, but rather somewhere in between. But this is only as small point. [In fairness toPhillip. 'twas my omission as I did quite a few bits of the Army Lists in the original Elan and in particular, the Austrians. For this I shall be tied to the gun wheel and severely lashed - the fault WILL be rectified when the Elan Army Lists are publisbed sometime next year. - Ed] I guess the greatest compliment I can make about ELANis that I have been brought back to Napoleonic Wargaming after a 15 year absence thanks to these rules. My Final verdict: 4.5 out of 5. Highly recommended. Roll High! This and other reviews can be found on Scott's terrific "Wargames With Trailape"Website at: www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/3927/ (Don't forget to sign the guest book - & tell 'im that Kriegspieler sent you!) Copies of ELAN are available from the author: Phillip A. Jones 30 Gunn Street, Yarralumla ACT 2600 Email: Elan1805@hotmail.com Phone: 0414 78 86 81 Back to Table of Contents -- Kriegspieler #7 To Kriegspieler List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Kriegspieler Publications. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com