Napoleonic Wargaming

Book Review

by Don Featherstone

NAPOLEONIC WARGAMING by Bruce Quarrie. (8 1/2" x 5 1/2""; 64 pages; 32 photos and 21 line drawings. Patrick Stephens Ltd - £ 1.20p).

This is No. 4 in the Airfix Magazine Guide book series and is written by Bruce Quarrie, Editor of that magazine. A nice and knowledgeable fellow, Bruce is not only a good writer but a practising wargamer and this book indicates that he has not been labouring in vain! The book discusses such basic wargames aspects as time, space and scale; organising a Napoleonic Army; real-life Napoleonic strategy and tactics and its table-top simulation. There is a complete set of playing rules based on those used successfully over a long period by the North London Napoleonic Wargames Group. By Nations, the book outlines the organisations of various Napoleonic armies and possesses the original idea of presenting a leadership attack/defence factor table where all the best known commanders of the period are rated.

There are tables of various types of soldiers of all nations, giving factors of fire, melee, morale, control and movement under varying conditions and the faculties, tactics of the various arms are discussed and explained. Besides discussing the organisation of a campaign, the book concludes by listing model soldier manufacturers and has a bibliography. A good buy at this price in this day and age.

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© Copyright 1974 by Donald Featherstone.
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