NAPOLEONS CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURE AWargamers’ Guide to the Napoleonic Wars 1796~1815 eiPublished in response to popular demand as a result of Bruce Quarrie’s first book on Napoleonic wargaming (Airfix Magazine Guide 4), this ttle is planned as the first in a brand new series on refighting the campaigns of the great captains of history. Described by David Chandler in his Foreword as achieving ‘the difficult integration of theory and practice, of the actual event and the table-top simulation’, it begins by outlining the basic principles of wargaming and numerous hints on choosing, assembling and painting your ‘own army of model soldiers. A concise account ‘of Napoleon's actual campaigns, well illustrated by “3D” battle maps. is followed by sections on recruitment, wages and trainit including population resources and national revenue; the organisation of the main armies of the period, including not only France, Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia but also those of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine, Poland and Scandinavia, with notes on their fighting capabilities; lines of communication and supply, including the amounts of food and forage required for the maintenance of an army in the field, and their cost; leadership, with brief biographies of many of the major army commanders; grand strategy and battlefield tactics; the weapons of the period and their effectiveness; medical services, prisoners of war, attrition and desertion; siege warfare; and much more. Finally, there is a chapter on setting up an actual campaign, with playing suggestions for movement rates, maps, time scales and the role of the umpire; and a completely revised, expanded and updated set of the basic playing rules which have won widespread international acceptance from the author's previous book. Designed principally to make wargaming more interesting and realistic by relating the table-top encounter to its overall economic, political, social and strategic context, this is a book which no serious Napoleonic wargamer can afford to be without. Patrick Stephens Limited Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB3 8ELLEON'S CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURENAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGNS eee Bruce Quarrie Foreword by David G.Chandler Patrick Stephens, CambridgeText © Bruce Quarrie 1977 Maps © Vincent Driver 1977 Dedication For Bob, Bruce, Chris and Jeff Alll rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Patrick Stephens Limited First published — 1977 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Quarrie, Bruce ‘Napoleon's campaigns in miniature. 1. War games 2. Europe — History 1. Title 7931.9 U310 ISBN 0 85059 283 6 Text photoset in 10 on 11 pt Times Roman by Blackfriars Press Limited, Leicester. Printed in Great Britain on 80 gsm. Dalmore Semi-Smooth Wove and bound by ‘The Garden City Press Limited, Letchworth, for the publishers, Patrick Stephens Limited, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB3 8EL, England.Contents Foreword by David G. Chandler MA (Oxon), FRHistS, FRGS, Department of War Studies and International Affairs, RMA Sandhurst 7 Introduction Chapter 1 — Essential ingredients of the Napoleonic wargame Scales . . . frontages . . . simultaneous movement . . . orders 1B Chapter 2 — Choosing, painting and mounting figures Options . . . research . . . plastic or metal? . . . priming and undercoating . . . mass production . . . horses . . . choice of paint . . brushes . . . bases 19 Chapter 3 — Chronology of the Napoleonic Wars Italy 1796-7 . . . Egypt 1798-9 . . . Italy 1799-1800. . . Ulm and Austerlitz 1805 . . . Prussia 1806 . . . Poland 1807 . . . Spain and. Portugal 1807-9 . . . Austria 1809 . . . Spain and Portugal 1810-12. . . Russia 1812. . . Germany and Spain 1813 . . . abdication 1814. . . the Hundred Days 1815 26 Chapter 4 — Recruiting and paying for an army Economy . . . taxation. . . subsidies . . . population . . . resources . . . the British army ... bounties... militia. . . officers. . . scaling down . . . equipment costs . . . foreign exchange rates campaign = requisites . . . cost of small-arms . . . price of horses . . . training. . . rates of pay . . . cost of artillery pieces 87 Chapter 5 — Organisation Infantry, cree and artillery. . . France. . . Austria... Russia. . Prussia. . . Britain . Portugal . . . the Confederation of the Rhine . . . Poland . . Naples . . . Scandinavia 65 Chapter 6 — Lines of communication and supply Contractors . . . roads... vehicles . . . magazines . . . food requirements . . . weights . .. prices . . . clothing . . . prices ammunition . . . weights . . . prices . . . gunpowder . . . caissons . . . draught animals . . . fodder 94 Chapter 7 — Medical services and prisoners of war Diseases. .. wounds... . amputation . . Baron Larrey. . the ‘lying ambulance’ . . . organisation . . . hospitals . . . administration . . . in wargames .. . dead and wounded . . . convalescence . . . prisoners . guards . . . exchanges 102Chapter 8 — Attrition and desertion ‘Strategical consumption’ . . . numbers of desertions . . . reasons... . in wargames . . . stragglers Chapter 9 — Generals and generalship Leadership qualiti . biographies . . . Austria . . . Britain. . . France ... Prussia... Russia . . . commanders in wargames ratings Chapter 10 — Weapons and firepower Muskets . . . drill. . . range . . . accuracy . . . bayonets . . . artillery types... drill... rates of fire. . . the playing rules . . . determining casualties roundshot . . . canister. . . shell. . . shrapnel. . . tactics Chapter 11 — Strategy and tactics Aims influences . . . manoeuvre sur les derriéres . . . bataillon carré . . . strategy of the central position . . . planning . . . intelligence . . dispersion and concentration . . . infantry . . . line and column. . . cavalry types and usage .. . infantry squares . . . the ‘ideal’ battle Chapter 12 — Sieges Types of siege . “Fortification . . . Siege tactics . . . trenches . . mining . . . artillery . . . sallies . . . street fighting . . . in wargames . . . blockades . . . assaults . . . formal sieges . . . casualties Chapter 13 — Setting up a campaign The campaign diary . . . suitable maps. . . movement rates . . . weather . roads... cavalry screen. . . role of the umpire . . . messag from map to table. . . foraging. . . purchase of supplies . . . elevation of troop status Appendix 1 — Playing rules Scales . . . unit frontages . . . orders . . . visibility . . . rain, mist, wind and smoke . . . dead ground . . . national characteristics tables . . . movement . . . changes of formation . . . control . . . small-arms and artillery fire... ranges . .. deductions . . . special artillery rules . casualty charts . morale. . . definitions . . . mélées. . . additions and deductions . . . buildings Appendix 2 — Weather Appendix 3 — Calendars Appendix 4 — Field engineering Select bibliography au 114 140 147 157 163 168 188 189 190 191Foreword by David G. Chandler More books have probably been written on Napoleon and his times than on any other historical subject, and it comes as no surprise to discover that this dramatic period of European warfare has become the established favourite of many wargamers. Since 1945 this ever-burgeoning hobby has grown increas- ingly sophisticated, and to anyone nurtured in the practically prehistoric times when the only published guide was Little Wars by H. G. Wells, the develop- ment of the pastime — in both material and conceptual terms — has indeed been astounding. Kriegspiel is rapidly coming of age as a popular hobby. As a writer who has devoted some little time to researching into and writing about the Napoleonic Wars, I have never underestimated the value of war- gaming as an aid to serious study as well as a means of relaxation. | was initiated into modern wargaming by Brigadier Peter Young at a meeting in Southampton in 1962, where I first met Don Featherstone and Charles Grant whose names will need no introduction to wargamers. Like every player, | have had my less fortunate moments on the table-top battlefield, and the memory of losing two of my four French artillery batteries to successive dice-throws, in the very first round of a refight of the battle of Vimiero against Brigadier Young, still gives me cause for deep reflection on my bad days. This cataclysmic event gave rise at the time, I recall, to the expression of some noble but doubly infuriating sentiments on the intrinsic justice of the Anglo- Portuguese cause in 1808 by the Brigadier (a past-master at War-Gamesman- ship — a subject that still awaits a serious book), whilst for my own part I remember some less-worthy dark mutterings about making certain to bring my own dice to future confrontations — a wholly unnecessary precaution and groundless insinuation, of course, but then General Junot always was rather an impulsive character, and as a result never received his Marshal's baton from the Emperor. But from such experiences I learnt two golden rules of successful wargaming: always keep a reserve, and never underestimate your opponents — particularly former Brigadiers of Commandos. Of equal value to my serious studies have been visits to a fair number of the actual battlefields. Every Napoleonic wargamer worth his salt should make a pilgrimage to Waterloo, and there are now at least two societies and organisa- tions (the Military Historical Society and Captain Gordon Battlefield Tours) that run regular visits to the Peninsula and other campaign areas, some of which I have been privileged to be invited to lead. The study of military history does not need to be restricted to reading alone — nor wargaming to8 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature table-top re-enactments. Each is complementary to the other to a marked degree — and both can benefit greatly from a study of the historic ground on the spot This book by Bruce Quarrie strikes me as being particularly notable on two counts. First, it sets out to provide the Napoleonic wargamer with the minimum of relevant historical information (interspersed with suggestions for deeper reading by those so inclined) which is set out alongside some very interesting and thought-provoking ideas for game rules — and in the process it achieves the difficult integration of theory and practice, of the actual event and the table-top simulation to a considerable degree. Secondly, the author suggests ways in which the wargamer may extend his activities to take in the waging of whole campaigns as well as battles, involving strategy and logistics as well as tactics. It is therefore a pleasure to contribute this brief Foreword to a book that should give entertainment, instruction and food for thought to many devotees of Napoleonic war games.Introduction To paraphrase the introduction to another new book on the Napoleonic period written by a friend of mine*, ‘much has already been written about this subject, and it is the intention of this book merely to rehash and regurgitate that which has adequately been covered in previous publications’, For this 1 make no apologies since it forms the raison d’étre of the book's existence. Much has already been written about Napoleon, the Napoleonic Wars, tac- tics, weapons and uniforms. In fact, as far as the average wargamer is con- cerned, too much. Where do you start? Thus, the object of the present title has been to précis, for the benefit of all Napoleonic wargamers, the relevant information in a usable form. The idea is not new. Donald Featherstone started the ‘trend’ with his “wargames through the ages’ and ‘battle notes for wargamers’ series, and this has been taken a stage further in the other series for World War 2 enthisiasts, Tank Battles in Miniature, which Don and I have compiled between us. The basic idea is that the average wargamer is more interested in buying and painting figures and in playing wargames than in delving too deeply into the historical background of his period, especially since many of the books avail- able are not only expensive but also rather heavy going. Thus the cheaper uniform books sell well, because even the most impecunious wargamer needs some sort of reference from which to paint his figures; but the detailed histori- cal analyses remain on the bookshop shelves. This is not altogether true, of course. A large number of wargamers do develop a deep and lasting interest in their period and, if they can’t afford to buy all the books they would like, besiege their local library with demands for selected titles. Unfortunately, there are rather a lot of them and, until you've read a particular volume, you don’t know whether it’s going to be helpful or not. Many books masquerade under impressive-sounding titles which, when examined, prove to be very misleading. Now I won’t say I’ve read them all, but the research for this book has involved either reading or referring to around 80 titles at the last count, as well as copious notes made from original documents in the reading room of the National Army Museum, and correspondence with other students of the period. Fortunately, being an editor with a firm of publishers, my whole job consists of reading! + Armies of 1812 Volume I: The French Army, including regiments in French service, and the Confederation of the Rhine, by Otto von Pivka (Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1977).10 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature When you buy this book, then, what are you getting for your money? Answer: a guide to the recruitment, training, organisation, weapons, tactics and strategies of Napoleonic armies and their leaders; together with back- ground information on Europe at the turn of the 19th Century; a chronology of the Napoleonic Wars from the time Napoleon assumed command of the Army of Italy in 1796 until his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815; sections on related topics such as medical care, prisoners of war and sieges, with extracts from contemporary accounts wherever possible to give you the ‘feel’ of the period; some ideas for rules for Napoleonic wargame campaigning; and a completely revised and expanded set of basic playing rules. The chronology includes ‘aerial view’ maps of some ot the major Napoleonic battles, together with commentaries and Orders of Battle so that you can transfer them straight on to the wargames table; and there are also a number of-figure drawings illustrating different Napoleonic troop types, as well as tactical diagrams. The playing rules will be relatively familiar to anyone who has already purchased my previous book on this period, Airfix Magazine Guide 4: Napoleonic Wargaming (Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1974) but, in response to the many letters I have received from all over the world, they have been revised to take care of anomalies and inconsistencies, particularly in the sections devoted to mélées and skirmishers, and they include a greatly expanded sec- tion of national characteristics tables. The second major aim of this book has been to try to stimulate an interest in Napoleonic campaigning as opposed to simply fighting ‘one-off battles. Battles are fought for a reason, but the straightforward game — unless it is a recreation of a historical battle with the forces correctly scaled down in an effort to see what might have happened ‘if — is unsatisfactory because it is not related to anything which has gone before or which will come after. In a campaign you have to try to manoeuvre your forces into a position favourable to yourself, which means that games at unequal odds often occur, just as in history. It also means that, if you see victory slipping away from you, you must endeavour to break off the action and retire your forces off the table in good order so that they can fight again another day, perhaps under more favourable circumstances. This adds tremendous spice to any battle and encourages a correct use of Napoleonic strategy and tactics. Of course, there is some paperwork involved if you're doing it properly. A campaign starts with each player being assigned a country to rule. He may or may not have subsidiary players looking after various details, but the one essential is an umpire to co-ordinate the movements of the various players. This is not as dull as it sounds. The umpire is the only one who knows the overall picture, and he can have tremendous fun ‘playing god’ by misinter- preting orders, spreading misleading propaganda, allowing messengers to be captured and generally creating a realistic ‘fog of war’. But it is imperative that the umpire lays down a set formula so that each player is forced to present his orders in a simple form, or the task of co-ordination can become a chore. The easiest way of ensuring this is to tell the players that, unless their orders are presented in the correct form, they will be susceptible to alteration without notice! Once each player has been assigned a country, he then has to begin raising an army. For this, he has a national budget, a certain proportion of which can be expended on the military, and it is then up to him to decide how to allocateIntroduction u it. However, the forces acquired should be in historical proportion, and the umpire must have power of veto over someone who tries to construct a historically inaccurate army — unless, that is, you decide on an entirely fictitious scenario, in which case ‘anything goes’. Once the armies are recruited, trained and equipped, manoeuvring can begin. You don’t need a reason for declaring war in this period, unlike some others: it’s simply every- body against France. For this reason, I suggest that command of the French army be given to the most experienced wargamer in your group, otherwise he doesn’t really stand a chance in the long run. Each commander writes out the movement orders for each unit under his control for a week’s manoeuvring, and should include their position at the end of each day’s march, the positions of all cavalry patrols, each unit's supply situation and strength (which will vary with attrition and battle casual- ties on the one hand, and the arrival of reinforcements on the other). The umpire co-ordinates all these factors and informs players when their scouts have spotted enemy movement, whereupon the two forces will draw together, each trying to manoeuvre the other on to ground favourable to himself. When they meet, the terrain depicted on the campaign map is scaled on to the wargames table, the troops positioned, and battle begins in the usual way. The big difference, however, between this and a normal ‘punch-up’ is that one player may be much weaker than the other, but have reinforcements on the way which may, for example, suddenly appear on the enemy's flank or rear. So you can readily see the importance of adequate reconnaissance and the maintenance of your lines of supply; it wouldn't be funny, for example, if a roving enemy cavalry brigade captured your supply train — would it? Eventually one player or the other decides the day is lost and begins to withdraw — if he can. This is when his opponent should aim to deliver the coup de grace and turn a withdrawal into a rout. And here again the fact that you are campaigning makes for a more realistic battle. If you're anything like me, the average game you see or participate in begins with a rush to position the artillery, followed by massed cavalry mélées all over the board while the infantry sit around in square and wait for the outcome. Eventually one side or the other wins the cavalry encounter, which means that the battle is over to all intents and purposes because his opponent's infantry cannot manoeuvre against his cavalry. This is totally unrealistic. All right, most Napoleonic battles involved a cavalry mélée at some point, and on occasion it was deci- sive. But the main battle was normally between the infantry units, the heavy cavalry being preserved to deliver the coup de grace and the light for pursuit once the enemy was on the run. If you are campaigning, you'll find that you'll have to adopt this course or pretty soon you won't have any cavalry left at all, and then you'll be right up the creek Sooner or later, somebody’s field army will be defeated, and the enemy will occupy his capital. At that point the losing player drops out of the campaign and will have to pay compensation to his enemy, or perhaps even provide a contingent to fight against his former allies. And so it goes on, as long as you like. You could start in 1796 and try to fight the whole of the Napoleonic Wars; or you could settle for one particular period — 1805-7 is a particu- larly interesting one. And all the time you're fighting, you've got to keep your troops in supply, look after your sick and wounded, establish prisoner of war camps, protect12 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature your arsenals from enemy capture, garrison your depéts and, in fact, take care of all the major aspects of a real horse-and-musket campaign — in minia- ture. If you haven't got any regular opponents, it is possible to fight a solo campaign, but it is not really satisfactory because you always know what the other side is going to do! The best idea is to join a club or society and get a group campaign going. There are now dozens of wargames clubs in most large towns and, if you don’t know the address of your local one, MAP Ltd of PO Box 35, Bridge Street, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, publish a directory of milit- ary modelling and wargaming societies which is available from them for a small charge. And now, let's begin. Bruce Quarrie Cambridge, June 1977 Acknowledgements Toa large extent, any book like this is a team effort, and a number of people have contributed greatly to making it as detailed as it is. Apart from my obvious and grateful indebtedness to the authors of the published works listed in the bibliography, special mention must be made of the following: David Chandler, for reading the finished manuscript and providing such a generous foreword: Mike Cox, for his detailed help on orders of battle; Bryan Fosten and Otto von Pivka for many helpful suggestions and information; Vince Driver for his superb maps and diagrams; Frank and John Hinchliffe, Peter Gilder and Norman Swales for much incidental help as well as their permis- sion to reproduce several of the latter's drawings from the Hinchliffe Hand- book; numerous wargamers, particularly Steve Benfield, Steve Tulk, David Lanchester and P. J. Roxborough; the staff of the reading room at the National Army Museum; Major R. G- Bartelot of the Royal Artillery Institu- Bob Swan, for the tactical diagrams; and last, but as usual no? least, and Verity.Chapter 1 Essential ingredients of the Napoleonic wargame When I wrote my Airfix Magazine Guide on Napoleonic Wargaming, I hon- estly thought that I had covered the basic knowledge required. The letters I have subsequently received considerably disillusioned me, and it has taken almost two years to work out why. The answer is that, when one is an enthusiast for a subject, be it wargaming, football, poker or golf, some aspects of the hobby are so automatic that one simply does not think of them. I'll try to cover all these this time. Wargaming, whatever historical period is chosen, is basically the re- enactment of certain aspects of the warfare of that period, using model sol- diers, counters on a map or whatever symbolic representation most takes your fancy. In the type of Napoleonic wargame I am describing here, you need both maps and counters, for the movement of large numbers of soldiers over large distances; and model soldiers, for the simulation of actual battles. Both depend on one common factor: a scale. A Napoleonic army could consist of half a million men, and a single battle could take place over as much as a ten-mile front. It could also last two or three days. The three primary requirements, because nobody can expect to paint half a million model soldiers, or find an empty ten-mile battleground, is thus to reduce these factors to manageable proportions. To fix them in your mind before I explain what they mean, our man-to-figure scale is 33 to one; our ground scale is one millimetre to one yard; and our time scale is 24 minutes to one hour. Taking these in order, what the 33:1 man-to-figure scale means is that one model wargames soldier represents 33 real men. Why? Well, first of all, since it is obvious that you can’t expect (or even hope) to paint sufficient model soldiers to build up a complete army on a one-to-one basis (a single infantry battalion would require 700-plus models), the actual numbers have to be scaled down to a figure with which you can cope. 33:1 is somewhat arbitrary. Different historical periods require different reduction ratios, and some war- gamers have differing ideas on what these should be. John Tunstill, former editor of the now unfortunately extinct magazine Miniature Warfare, origi- nally popularised this ratio, and it is one which turns out to suit the Napoleonic period remarkably well. The average Napoleonic infantry battal- ion comprised approximately 800 men; a cavalry squadron some 140-odd. The infantry battalion itself consisted of an average of either four or six companies of men. Using the 33:1 reduction ratio gives four to six model figures to a4 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature company, 24 to a battalion, and four figures to a cavalry squadron. There are some anomalies, but by and large this ratio, or scale, works so well that it has found widespread acceptance. Some wargamers — for we are an individual bunch, and rarely agree on anything, especially playing rules — prefer 20:1 or 50:1 (giving 16 or 40 figures to a battalion). But generally, if you stick to 33:1 the chances are that you'll be able to find a local opponent without too much trouble, while if you choose one of the others you might have difficulties. Now, assuming for the time being that you are accepting 33:1 as your basic man-to-figure ratio, what precisely does it mean? First, it means that the historical organisation and strength of any unit you wish to build up must be scaled down by this factor. Sometimes it doesn’t work exactly, and you then have the choice of ‘rounding’ up or down to get a whole number. The ten- dency is to round up, but this is unrealistic because most combat units were more often under than over strength. However, rounding up may be the only solution in order to arrive at a manageable number of model soldiers, and it is by no means a crime. In the later chapter on organisation I have included guidelines on the wargames composition of units for all the major nationalities involved in the Napoleonic Wars, and I hope these will be of assistance. Secondly, the man-to-figure ratio means that, when a figure is shot at on the wargames table, it is not immediately removed as ‘dead’. If each figure rep- resents 33 real men, 33 have to be killed before the figure is taken away. Thus, in the playing rules, all the casualty rates are in men, not figures; and each player keeps a tally, on a sheet of paper, of the number of men (not figures) killed in each unit under his command. Model figures are not removed from play until 33 or more men have been incapacitated. Thirdly, the fact that a figure represents 33 real men determines the fron- tage he should occupy. And this is related to ground scale, so we'll come back to it in a moment. Ground scale is simply an exercise in map making. A map is a ‘picture’ of a piece of land to a particular scale. In an atlas the scale may be something like 1:1,000,000, for example. What this means is that any given measurement on the map equals a million times that measurement on the ground; or, one inch on the map equals a million inches of ground (just under 16 miles). Now, few — if any — people can find a ten-mile battlefield on which to conduct their wargames, so the battle area itself obviously needs scaling down like a map into manageable proportions. It would be tempting to use the same reduction ratio of 33:1, but impractical because a scale mile would still be over 50 yards, and nobody can get a 50-yard table into a wargames room! In practice, just as there are various men:figure scales, so different war- gamers have, over the years, adopted varying ground scales. A certain amount of ambiguity — which I am not about to dispel! — also exists in the translation of metric and Imperial measures. The most common ground scales are probably ten yards to the inch; 50 yards to the inch; a hundred yards to the inch; and one millimetre to one yard. Each has its advantages and disadvan- tages, but my own preference, for a variety of reasons, is the latter; and, rather than confuse readers (who may already be using the playing rules from my previous book) by changing over to the more logical millimetre: metre scale, I have decided to stick with it here. In practice the difference between a yard and a metre is so slight that it doesn’t noticeably affect things, so if you prefer to think of it as a metre to a metre instead of a yard it quite literallyEssential ingredients of the Napoleonic wargame 15 won't matter a jot. Given our ground scale of one millimetre to a yard (metre), then, it is clear that our wargames table is the equivalent of a three-dimensional map in this scale: a centimetre is the equivalent of ten yards, ten centimetres a hundred, and so on. A river 50 yards wide thus becomes a river 50 mm wide on the table. But why is this scale so convenient? Answer: because it is the smallest easily measurable scale which gives a realistic representation of an average Napoleonic battlefield within the confines of the average wargames table. The ‘average’ table is some eight feet long by five feet wide (2438 mm x 1524 mm) which represents a ‘real’ area roughly 114 miles long by %4 mile wide. Of course, there are no restrictions on the size of table you can use other than the space and facilities open to you. I’ve had many an enjoyable game on tables as large as 18 by ten feet (but I must admit it gets a bit difficult to reach into the centre of any table more than six feet wide, unless you've got rubber arms!). Similarly, I’ve enjoyed skirmishes on ordinary dining room tables three or four feet long by a mere 2 to three feet wide. So don’t let your available playing area bother you. If you must spread out, you can always use the floor (except that figures invariably seem to get trodden upon!). The ground scale conditions a lot more than just the area depicted by your wargames table, however. It also dictates unit frontages, movement rates and weapon ranges. The phrase ‘unit frontage’ refers to the actual physical amount of space a military unit — infantry battalion, cavalry squadron or gun battery — occupies on the ground. In Napoleonic wargaming this is quite critical because, with the exception of skirmishers, soldiers manoeuvred in tight, shoulder-to-shoulder formations, and precise frontages were laid down to the nearest inch in the drill manuals of the period. We'll encounter skir- mishers later. ‘The standard infantry formation during the Napoleonic Wars was the bat- talion drawn up in a single line three ranks deep. The British commanders Moore and Wellesley (Wellington) favoured a less dense formation only tw ranks deep, which had the significant advantage of allowing all the muskets in aunit to fire at once, instead of only two-thirds (since only the front two ranks could fire, one kneeling and the other standing). The British drill book of the period stated that each infantryman should occupy a frontage of 22 inches, but about two feet would appear a more realistic average. Thus, if we take the 33 ‘men’ in each model figure as representing three ranks of 11 men in a conti- nental unit, or two ranks of 16/2 men in a British battalion, the frontages should be 8 and 11 mm per figure respectively. Cavalry and artillery pieces also had specific frontages, which are covered in the playing rules. Now we come to a very tricky issue — figure scale. Until recently, the usual wargames figure was manufactured in what is known as *20 mm’ or ‘25 mm’ scale. There is a lot of argument as to precisely what these scales mean, and different manufacturers’ products reflect this uncertainty. The principal difference of interpretation depends on whether the scale relates to the ‘man’ or the figure: in other words, should a 25 mm figure measure 25 mm in height from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head; or 25 mm from the soles of his boots to the crown of his hat. Obviously, a manufacturer working on the former premise is going to produce models which are larger, overall, than one working to the latter assumption. And either way, a 20 mm figure is going to be smaller than a 25 mm. A list of manufacturers and the scales they appar-16 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature ently work to is provided in the next chapter. However, the problems don’t stop with 20 and 25 mm scales. In recent years there has been a tremendous vogue for smaller figures in 5, 12 and 15 mm scales. There is little to choose between 12 and 15, but the gaps between 5 mm at the bottom end, 12/15 in the middle, and 20/25 mm at the top are too significant to ignore. 5 mm figures are absolutely tiny, and are usually cast in blocks of men two or three ranks deep, although individual figures can be purchased. Very little detail is normally incorporated, making them ideal for the wargamer who wants to simplify his painting problems as much as possible; but, assembled en masse, they do look most effective indeed; and, of course, you can build up avery large army at extremely low cost. However, they don’t appear to have caughton to the same extentas the otherscales, sounless youare prepared to buy and paint two opposing armies, you are unlikely to find a regular opponent. 20/25 mm has been the standard and most popular scale for many years. ‘The figures are sufficiently large to incorporate a great deal of detail, depen ing on make (and I'm not mentioning any favourites!) and are readily av: able ina huge variety of nationalities, types and poses. If you opt for this scale, your units will be smaller, will take longer to paint properly, and will cost more; but you will be assured of finding opponents wherever you go. Besides, they look nice! 12/15 mm is a compromise scale which has great possibilities and which seems to be catching on at a rapid rate. Figures in this scale have the advan- tage of being cheap and easy to paint, while at the same time incorporating a considerable proportion of the detail existing on 20/25 mm models. As yet their following is smaller than that for the latter scale, but it is growing; and if IT didn’t have so much time and money invested in my own 25 mm army, I think this is the scale I would opt for. Returning to our unit frontages, 15 mm has one tremendous advantage over 25 mm: it is possible to get the figures into the correct frontages. An average 25 mm figure is physically so large that it'is impossible to cram them together at 8 mm intervals, although 10 or 11 is possible. On the other hand, it is very easy to space 15 mm figures 8 mm apart. Indeed, they look almost too spaced out and, funnily enough, the only figures which look exactly right when mounted on bases with the correct intervals are the plastic Airfix ones, which are in fact to a scale slightly less than 20 mm! So, you pays your money and you takes your choice. My own 25 mm figures are spaced with 10 mm frontages (three-deep) or 14 mm (two-deep) which are the correct proportions in relation to each other even though slightly extended in strict relation to the ground scale. Why is this ground scale, and these unit frontages, so important? Simply, a unit frontage determines how many muskets may be brought to bear, or how many men are physically present in a mélée (hand-to-hand fight). The latter is particularly critical when fighting French against English, because it means you can bring four French figures into play against three British; but against this must be levelled the equally important fact that the British unit can bring all its muskets to bear whereas the French can only utilise two-thirds. ‘The ground scale also determines how far model guns can fire and figures move. There was little difference between the capabilities of either infantry muskets or cannon in the various armies. These are discussed in more detail in the appropriate chapter, but basically a musket had an effective range ofEssential ingredients of the Napoleonic wargame 17 100 yards, and a cannon of up to 1,000 yards — which become, quite simply, 100 mm or 1,000 mm on the table top. Movement rates are considerably more variable, because virtually every nation had its own drill book with its different paces and speeds. But if, for example, we take the French pace of 25.6 inches, and a normal march rate of 76 paces a minute, a unit will cover $4 yards in that minute (54 mm on the table). (The British pace was 30 inches and the ordinary rate 75 to the minute, totalling 62% yards per minute, which should have given them an advantage; in practice, records show that the French almost invariably moved more quickly, but this may be accounted for partially by the fact that they spent less time perfecting their formations and dressing ranks.) Now, 50 or 60 yards (mm) would be a very short move ona table 1,500 mm wide, and a wargame would thus take hours to complete (they sometimes do anyway, but the situation can be alleviated). For this reason the normal wargames move, or ‘bound’, as it is sometimes called, represents a time period of greater than one minute. In my previous book I settled on 244 minutes. This, of course, is a compromise. But just as too short a time period would slow up a game, too long a period — say five minutes — would enable the faster-moving units (such as light cavalry) to sweep right across the table, and you would find yourself continually needing to break moves up into fractions in order to see what point a unit had reached halfway through its move. So 244 minutes (which also equals one hour on the campaign map, as explained later) let it be. While still on the subject of tabletop scales, which differ from campaign map scales, the final subject which needs a brief word is vertical scale. If our ground scale equals one millimetre to a yard, then a 25 mm figure would be that many yards high! A battle of giants indeed. Similarly, houses would all be skyscrapers, while trees that tall simply couldn't grow in our gravity. So we need yet another scale, which becomes important when we start considering whether troops on a particular hill can see over a wood or village. Now, obviously, all houses are not the same height, any more than are trees or hills. But, if you draw up a scale and then have to measure the height of each and every obstacle, then work out the angles from the observer's viewpoint to see where his vision is broken, you'd not only need a pocket calculator with trigonometrical functions but also a gréat deal of patience. It could be done and, if you wish to, it’s entirely your affair. But I prefer something a lot simpler. What one does is simply assign a completely arbitrary but standard *height™ to each and every type of obstacle likely to be encountered on the wargames table; and a similarly arbitrary distance for the amount of ‘dead’ or invisible ground behind each obstacle, depending on the height of the observer. In my previous book I standardised on 40 feet as the height of every house and tree, as well as the height of every ‘contour’ of hill. Several people have pointed out that this is unrealistic because houses, even today, are lower on average than trees; while to get a simulation of a 300-foot hill would require some seven or eight ceiling tile levels placed on top of each other. (Polystyrene ceiling tiles, cut into irregular shapes, painted in various shades of green and brown, and laid on top of each other, are the standard method for representing hills on wargames battlefields.) Thus, as you will see in the rules, everything has its own standardised ‘height’ — from six feet for an infantryman to 50 feet18 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature for a contour of ground. One final, very important, point before we move on to choosing, painting and mounting your model soldiers: all movement is simultaneous. A lot of people apparently experience some difficulty with this concept, and I’ve received large numbers of letters asking ‘which side moves first?’; or, ‘if I move one unit a full move, does that mean all the other units have to stand still? To you it may be elementary; to others it isn’ Simultaneous movement means that, at the beginning of each game move, both players may move all, some or none of their units all, some or none of their full movement allowance; and both players move together: you do not take things in turns. This means that you have to write out orders for your units before you begin moving them, otherwise you arrive at a situation where both players simply sit waiting to see what their opponent is up to before committing themselves to any action at all! However, order writing need not be laborious. The normal way of tackling it is to write out general orders for the whole battle, including initial troop dispositions, before placing any fig- ures on the table at all. These general orders should specify which units are to attack which objectives; which units, including artillery batteries, are to sup- port their attack; which units are to act defensively; and which are to remain as a mobile reserve. When the table is finally set up and you see your oppo- nent’s dispositions, you may well want to alter some of yours! But, apart from local tactical decisions, which one would expect the junior commander on the spot to take, all units must attempt to fulfil their initial orders until these are countermanded. And the way you countermand orders is by sending a mes- senger galloping from your commander-in-chief to each affected unit. This way, just as in real life, a column which is committed to an assault will not suddenly decide to form line and go on the defensive because it doesn’t like the look of the enemy positions; but must continue to try to press the assault until halted by its divisional or corps commander. Nor does common sense enter into the picture. You may well think, having placed a unit of precious cavalry directly opposite an enemy gun battery, that any normal commander would try to move them back out of range. So he would — today. But Napoleonic commanders were court-martialled for less. It was considered a proud distinction to stand and ignore enemy fire, regardless of casualties, until actually ordered to move. So you must leave those cavalry there until a messenger from your C-in-C shifts them. A lot will depend on individual commanders, and later in this book I have given a ‘potted’ assessment of a selection of the major field commanders, together with playing factors for each reflecting their aggressiveness, initiative and similar considerations. Some generals will stubbornly maintain a hopeless position where others would run — or charge! By now you should have a general idea of how a Napoleonic battlefield works as a wargame, and it is about time that we moved on to the next subject — assembling an armyChapter 2 Choosing, painting and mounting figures Painting wargame figures is very much an individual art, and its various elements depend principally on how smart you want your troops to appear. Do you want each man to be a real individual with every button, facial detail and bit of piping or lace painted in; or a semi-symbolic ‘chess piece’ on which the main areas of colour are blocked in but fine detail left to the imagination of the beholder? The latter is a sensible choice if you want to build up a fairly large army quickly, and when the troops are assembled en masse they cer- tainly look impressive enough, even though they wouldn’t take any prizes in painting competitions. Another factor is whether you regard painting figures as a chore or a delight. If the former, then once again you will want to get the painting over as quickly as possible so as to get your troops into action. If the latter, then you are going to want to spend loving time over each individual. I have one friend who has spent the last ten years building up large armies of Vikings, Saxons and Normans, all beautifully painted to a very high standard; but who, to the best of my knowledge, has only fought one bartle with them in all that time! If you are already a wargamer, the chances are you will have resolved this question to your own satisfaction, but if you are just beginning then it is well worth devoting some thought t The first consideration is your choice of army. Most people, in my experience, having decided to ‘have a go’, rush out and buy a dozen French Imperial Guardsmen, a few Polish Guard Lancers and a Guard Horse Artillery piece, paint them as quickly as possible, then dash down to their local club only to find that nobody wants the Old Guard in ‘a game because practically everybody at the club already owns masses of guardsmen! So choice of army is the first priority. ‘Among Napoleonic wargamers, there are probably more owners of French troops than anything else, so you will stand a better chance of finding a regular opponent if you choose an alternative nationality. British and Russian armies are probably the next most popular, with Prussians, Austrians, Spanish, etc, lagging well down the list. So it is well worth considering acquir- ing one of these armies. Alternatively, there are the dozens of minor German and Italian states to bear in mind. Most of these troops are very colourful and, where specific figures do not exist, they can easily be ‘converted’ — usually just by means of a different colour scheme — from existing figures of different nationalities. Eugéne’s Italian troops are an ideal example, since they were dressed in ordinary French uniforms but with dark green substituted for dark20 Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature blue. Similarly, white-coated Saxons and Westphalians wore uniforms which, in this scale, cannot be differentiated in cut from the French. Bavarian and Wiirttemberg figures, Hanoverians, Nassauers, Brunswickers and others are all available from the major manufacturers, and make colourful and ‘different’ armies. Another attraction of choosing one of these ‘minor’ states is the fact that, in time, you can easily expect to acquire their entire army in miniature, which would take a lifetime if you chose French. My own main army, as many readers will probably already know, is Westphalian, and will eventually com- prise eight battalions of line infantry; four of light; three guard infantry battal- ions (one grenadier, two light); regiments of guard cuirassiers, lancers and hussars; and two regiments each of line cuirassiers, chevaux-légérs and hus- sars, with accompanying artillery. Total 15 infantry battalions (360 figures) and nine cavalry regiments (108 figures). My trouble is that I keep getting side-tracked by some of the colourful troops which appear, for example, in Osprey’s ‘Men-at-arms’ series of books, and have recently started busily painting some Polish and Cleve-Berg infantry and lancers too! A principal requisite in painting up any army is self-discipline. Of course you want guards units. But stop and think for a moment. If you are just beginning, the quality of your figure painting is going to improve as you gain experience. So if you buy guards units first, in a fairly short while they will begin to look positively shabby in comparison with your newer line infantry units, which is not at all the effect you want. By the same token, most people prefer painting cavalry to infantry figures. But cavalry only accounted for about a third, if that, of the total strength of any Napoleonic army. So my advice, in all seriousness, is to start with a line infantry battalion. Paint this and see how you go. Then you can get yourself a couple of squadrons of cavalry to go with it. Paint a second line battalion, and add an artillery battery. Paint a third, and get some more cavalry. If you discipline yourself like this, and force yourself to paint at least one line battalion for every other unit you acquire, you will end up with a reasonably balanced army for which you should easily be able to find an opponent. Having decided what army you want to begin with, the next requirement is uniform research. And for this you need books. For many years, one of the ‘standard’ references for Napoleonic wargamers has been the two-volume Arms and Uniforms of the First Empire, by Belgian historians Lilliane and Fred Funcken, which is available in French published by Casterman and in English from Ward Lock. Volume one contains French line, British, Prus- sian, Austrian and Spanish troops; volume two French guard and minor French allies, Swedes and Russians; so you don’t necessarily need to get both. If you're still not sure what army you really want, though, a good idea is to order both these books through your local public library, and spend some time reading them and looking at the colour illustrations before taking the plunge. Although inaccurate in many smaller details, these books provide ample information for most wargamers, although I wouldn't trust myself to paint a 54 mm figure without seeking alternative references first. There are two cheap sources of first-class uniform information in the paperback books published by Almark and Osprey, which range in price from about £1.50 to £2.50. Typical titles in the former series include Napoleonic Artillery, French Napoleonic Lancer Regiments and a really first-rate book