Written 1-2-98.
2. What is NPOW
Napoleonic Principles of War are a set of wargames rules written by Tom Penn . They are designed to enable
players to fight out Corps level games and above. The rules emphasize Officers inititaive and an armies
flexibility rather than concentrating on more trivial low level detail such as where exactly your 4th battalions light company is deployed. As such they
suit players who want to fight out the battles by concentrating on divisions or Corps and might not be suitable for players who revel in small unit actions where
the total army is a brigade or less.
3. What is the Unit scale in NPOW
The rules are aimed primarily at 15mm figs - but other scales are accomodated
for. The following section applies to 15mm figs.
An Infantry unit represents a regiment or brigade of 1000-2000 men .
An infantry unit is represnted by 12 figures arranged as 3 bases of 4 figures . Bases are 1.5 cm by 3cm.
Cavalry Units are either Regiments or brigades of 500-1000 men.
A cavalry unit is represented by 9 figures arranged as 3 bases of 3 figures. Bases are 3 by 3 cm.
Artillery units represent a couple of batteries of 12-20 guns.
An artillery unit is represnted by 1 gun plus crew on a 3 by 4cm base.
Officers are individually based on 3 by 4 cm bases.
Ground scale is 1 inch = 100 yards.
4. What other equipment do you need
Apart from nice terrain etc- you need a ruler marked in inches. You need
dice (d4, d6, d10, d20 and average dice). Units may become shaken by events in battle
and this is indicated by shaken markers. These are usually casualty figures or else tiddly winks will do.
To enable hidden movement , group movement bases are used. These are 7.5 by 15cm pieces of card.
Army lists are provided in the notes.
5. How do you set up a game?
A game can either be a scenario designed by th players or more commonly a competitive
game.
The later is played on a 6 by 4 foot table. The terrain is generated by tables
in the rules and is different for Central Europe, Eastern Europe or Spain. The terrain tables
produce hills, woods, open and closed cultivation , streams and built up area.
The players roll a dice to determine who has the initiative - who will move first. The other
"defending player" sets the terrain and the other chooses his side of the table. Players then roll to find out
where their lines of communication enters the table- and this is marked by a road linking up the two armies
lines of communication.
Players then draw a map of the table and mark on it objectives. They can mark
objectives (hills,fords and built up areas) they want to take and how many points they will
allocate to them. The total points available is 50 of which a maximum of 25 can be
allocated to an objective on their side of the table and up to 50 on an objective
on the other side of the table.
On the map they also mark the line of attack of their divisions
and the final position of them. Divsions are given orders .These can be
ATTACK , ENGAGE , HOLD or RETREAT. These orders and the lines of advance and final positions
are very important and have a strong effect on what units must attempt to do - and
what they are not allowed to do.
Finally the player places movement bases on the table to represent where his
divsions are. He also has 0,1 or 2 dummy bases which he also places . His opponent
has no idea at this stage what each base represents - and this creates a fog of war
situation. The player with the initiative prepares to take his move.
6. What is the basic outline of a game turn?
Each player takes turns alternately . The turn has 4 phases.
Phase 1. Observation . Roll for each officer to try and spot the units on a movement base. This is affected by distance and the type of terrain the base is in. If the base is spotted it is removed and replaced by the units in that division . Dummy bases are at this point removed from the table. After Observation units test any of there units that have been charged by the enemy in the other players last turn. The unit might PASS, SHAKE, RETIRE or ROUT. If a unit runs it attacker might carry on to contact other units behind it- they also test.
Phase 2. Firing. The player now fires his fire arms and artillery. If any casualties are taken on his opponent's units they now test their morale. Finally any of the other players units which charged into contact on his last turn must test to charge home. If they shake, retire or rout they do not contact the players units and no melee occurs.
Phase 3. Melee. Hand to Hand fighting now occurs after which the looser tests his morale . Whatever the condition of his units the result is one case worse. Retire becomes Rout etc. The winner then tests - but all of his units results are one case better then the result. Winning units can pursue fleeing foes . This can lead to new melee if the fleeing units run through their friends and the pursuers run into the new unit.
Phase 4. Initiative and movement. In many ways the core of the rules . Each officer
rolls a dice to determine how many initiative points they can spend. A poor officer rolls
a d4. An average officer rolls a d6 and a Good Officer rolls an AVERAGE dice. The Good
officer is more reliable and so gets the average dice. Although an average officer can roll
a 6 - they often roll 1s and 2s. The average dice yields more reliable results and so
that is why these dice are used. This can intitally seem silly but in practice it works.
Officers use these points to move units , charge into melee, rally shaken troops ,
change formation and limber/unlimber guns. C in C can also use these to change orders
of his officers.
7. How do the rules represent unit stength and type
A units fighting strength is a number between 1 and a maximum of 18 .
Militia / poor troops will often have values around 8-10. Regulars
are about 12-14 and veterans/ guards 16. This
strength is defined in the army lists . Alternatively players
can opt to roll for unit strengths which can produce lower and higher strengths.
Unit strengths are used in morale test, firing and melee. When a unit
takes losses this is taken off their remaining strengths.
Infantry can be irregular or regular. They can also be lights. More steady troops (British , Russians and French Guard) are STEADFAST which is reflected by higher unit stregths.
Cavalry is graded into irregular, light, heavy and cuirassiers. The higher the
class the better the fighting ability. Lancers are light cavalry but have
special rules to reflect their impact and also their weaknesses.
8. How does a unit test morale
.
A unit will have to test morale if it is charged , if it takes casualties through fire,
after melee and if it wishes to charge into contact with the enemy.
You roll a d20. You compare this to the units strength. This is modified
by various factors e.g. contacted in flank , terrain , nearness of the officer etc.
If the roll is less than or equal to the final strength the unit passes and may continue
to act. If is more than the value the unit is SHAKEN which affects its firing and melee.
If it is more than double the number the unit RETIRES SHAKEN a full move. Finally if it is more than treble
the number the units ROUTS and is removed from play. A 1 on the roll always takes off
existing shaken markers , a 20 is always 1 case worse than the result.
9. What are the mechanics involved in firing
Small arms are divided into Muskets , Irregular Muskets, Rifles/Jezails and Obsolete Weapons.
The later catagory includes pistols, carbines spears etc which at the scale these rules are
aimed at do little damage.
Artillery is Light, Medium and Heavy . It is further divided into Horse , Foot and Irregular - this
affects movement and initiative rather than firing.
By cross referencing the weapon type and range you get a multiplier which ranges from 0.5 , 1 , 2 to 3.
The highest multiplier is close range artillery. Regular Muskets are more effective than Irregular. OW have
a multiplier of 0.5 .
You take the unit strength (see 7 above) and multiply by the multiplier . The end result (rounded up to
the nearest 5) is looked up on a chart . You roll a d6 and the number of casualties is given on the chart.
The result may be modified by target and firer factors.
In practice players soon find they can find the result within moments. It is a quick and easy
but realistic mechanism.
10. What are the proceedures involved in Melee
In many ways this is similar to melee. All unit types have a melee multiplier
which ranges from 0.5 (for shaken units or artillery or units being hit in the flank) to 3 for charging
lancers. Again units strengths are multiplied by the multiplier. The end result ( which may be the sum
of several different units) may be adjusted by factors (such as terrain)is applied to the chart , a d6 rolled and the casualties
inflicted looked up. If one side takes more losses than the other it has lost. The looser tests
his morale . Whatever the condition of his units the result is one case worse. Retire
becomes Rout etc. The winner then tests - but all of his units results are one case better
then the result. Winning units can pursue fleeing foes . This can lead to new melee
if the fleeing units run through their friends and the pursuers run into the new unit.
11. How is victory and defeat defined.
After the game has ended players work out how much of their army is left. This
is expressed as a % of the initial strength of the army (which is given on the army lists).
To this number is added objective points if players hold an objective they had allocated ponits to
at the game start and there are no enemy units on it. If the enemy hold your objectives you subtract
those points. In addition is an enemy unit is astride your line of communications you
loose 25 additional points. The total are compared . The player with the higher total
wins. There is a table in competition notes written for NPOW which gives a scale from 1 to 10.
This is a way of grading the degree of victory and can be used in a competition or a league.
12. Where can I buy PoW
PoW and NPoW are available directly from the publisher/author at:
Tom Penn
Talavera House
138 Godiva Rd
Leominster
Herefordshire
HR6 8TA