Art of Command: Rules for Wargaming Large Scale Napoleonic Battles

The Liphook Historical Wargames Group was formed in 2000 to refight Napoleon’s major battles during their 200th anniversary year. During the last 16 years the group has successfully fought over 38 battles, which have included Wagram, Salamanca, Borodino, Leipzig and Waterloo, using its own, home-grown set of specially designed rules.

Art of Command evolved from the group’s desire to refight big, multiplayer battles. The set aim was to simulate the confusion and impact the chain of command has on such major engagements through the interaction of players representing the various commanders from brigade through divisions and corps to army level. The objective is to replicate the historical ebb and flow of battle at battalion, squadron and battery level, refight them over an accurately contoured, scaled model and complete them in a day.

The group initially tested existing, commercial rule sets but felt that these were designed for small table engagements lasting a couple of hours or larger games with brigades being the smallest units represented. It was concluded that we needed rules that would encompass command, communications and control functions. Rules that would enable us to coordinate and accommodate a large group of commanders refighting battles the size of Waterloo, but still represent battalions and squadrons on the wargame table. We believe Art of Command fulfills this need and the fact that the group successfully completed almost all the battles in a day is a testament to the robust nature of the rules and the thorough testing which has taken place.

We recommend Art of Command to those wargamers who wish to simulate a major Napoleonic, multiplayer battle in a day. We hope that you find their simplicity and resultant speed of play beneficial in recreating your own big battles and, above all, recreate the fun and excitement of a hobby that we all enjoy.

Scale: 1 fig (inf.-cav.) = 50/60 men 1 gun = 1 gun Ground Scale: 1/1000 for 25/28 mm (half for 15mm) each Game Period: 10-15 min real time

—description from the publisher