Polemos Napoleonic (Marechal de L'Empire/General de Division)

The Polemos project sets out to create a series of rules sharing a basic structure, yet that are carefully tailored for specific historical periods. You do not wish to fight an American Civil War battle and be forced to use concepts designed for the English Civil War, and we don't want to produce bland mechanics devoid of any period flavor or distinction. Polemos rulebooks now include The Great Northern War, English Civil War, and War of Spanish Succession, in addition to the new Napoleonic rules.

If ever there is an historical period that can lay claim to be THE classic subject for wargamers, then surely it must be those early years of the nineteenth century when Europe was gripped by the power of Napoleon Bonaparte, self-crowned Emperor of France and her conquered territories. A sublime hero to some, a tyrannical despot to others, Napoleon is a man who can still inspire great passions and emotions amongst his supporters and detractors alike.

The Emperor of France demonstrated his mastery of warfare in a period where the infantry were armed with smooth bore muzzle-loading muskets and the mounted arm could indulge in dashing charges with cold steel in hand. The armies were vast and the scale of the battles epic.

There was a great deal of variety in the size of Napoleonic battles. the French army that fought at Wagram was ten times the size of that which fought at Vimiero. It is a lot to ask of any single;e set of rules to cope with such diversity.

Polemos Napoleonic Wars is therefore produced as two sets of rules in one book. The first set, General De Division will allow the wargamer to fight battles with armies of up to corps size. The second set, Marechel de L'Empire will allow the wargamer to refight the BIG battles of the period, so he can emulate Bonaparte at Borodino, Wellington at Waterloo or Blucher at Leipzig.

The same wargames figures may be used in both sets of rules, as the basing system is universal; only the nominal scale will differ.

Polemos:Napoleonic Wars is aimed at enabling the wargamer to fight large scale actions; actual battles, rather than small scale skirmishes. Systems for firing, melee and morale are straightforward and easy to learn, but allow your troops to emulate the tactics used by their historical counterparts.

Basing and Representation

The basic unit of maneuver in Polemos Napoleonic is the Base - a group of wargames figures mounted permanently on a single base of a given size. The actual position of the figures on the base is not important, nor is it important that the base sizes given below are adhered to. So long as both armies use the same basing system, the rules should not be affected. The 'official' base size is

In General De Division

A base of infantry represents an infantry battalion - about 4-800 men.

A base of cavalry represents a regiment or two to three squadrons.

An artillery base represents a company or battery of 6 – 8 guns.

In Part Two – Marechal de l’Empire, square bases are used. These can be formed by using two General de Brigade bases, butted up one behind the other.

Generals are placed on bases 30mm square. The higher the status of the general, the more aides, hangers-on, lackeys, etc he can have on his base.

Messengers may be depicted by a single mounted figure on a small base

All distances in Polemos games are expressed in Base Widths (BW) and Base Depths (BD) in order to allow the use of differing base sizes. A BD is half a BW.

This system means that any size can be used for bases, so no re-basing is required so long as both sides are consistent. We believe that a 60mm x 30mm base gives the best results in terms of both practical use and visual impact. All Baccus 6mm Polemos army and booster packs are organized on this basis.