Like many other wargamers I enjoy the Principles of War rules for the 19^th Century. I am by preference a Napoleonic wargamer however and have for some time been searching for a set of rules that would play quickly and easily and would re-create the flavour and brand of battle peculiar to the years 1792-1815. I was not alone in wondering if POW might be adapted for a Napoleonic wargame and Tom Penn had been asked to produce some amendments to this end. Thus began in the spring of 1996 a project to create and playtest these amendments and to write balanced army lists for playing with them. These rules are approaching their final form and we have been asked to use them to run a period competition at Warfare in Reading next year. I will here give a summary of how the rules differ from POW.

Firstly I can say that the core principles have been retained. Anyone who has played POW will find they could sit down and play NPOW quite easily . The morale test system is retained . Spotting uses the same chart. The fire mechanism and method of conducting melee is unchanged . Finally the initiative system so crucial to providing the decision making dilemmas and reflecting the flexibility of command is retained. Of course there have been changes made in the details to reflect the different units and tactics.

A significant concept is the of officers training. Officers are classified as Irregular, Prussian or French system . Irregular and Prussian system officers can only use March columns or Deployed bases where as the French system officers have the ability to use formed bases as well and mixed order formations. Prussian and irregular foot have to spend 2 initiative pts changing movement base type whereas the French System can change formation of bases for just 1 point. The early French armies have a considerable advantage over the opposition but later on in the wars most of the French enemies are French system trained reflecting them accepting and implementing French tactics. The exception to this are the British (aren't they always) who saw no reason to adopt French tactics as they frequently beat them.

The infantry units them selves are classified Prussian tactics, French tactics , British tactics and irregulars. Prussian tactics foot (most early armies) use linear tactics and so suffer if formed unless fighting horse. French tactics foot (early French and most later armies) introduced the attack column and so benefit from its use plus morale bonuses for being on attack orders . British system foot (and Portuguese and KGL)are unique in using linear tactics rather than columns but gain the advantage of being able to hide behind crests and fire over the crest with skirmishing fire and battalion guns. Irregular foot cannot form column. Other attributes infantry may have is the possession of skirmishing foot which while not represented on the table do shield the units from enemy skirmish fire and provide some longer range musketry. Infantry may also have battalion guns (again not represented on the table)which can bolster fire power of weaker regiments).In the case of the British to reflect the use of smaller packets or artillery the commander may elect to equip all his troops with Battalion guns rather than have a separate battery on the table.

Cavalry units are classified as expected from Irregular ,Light, Lancer, Heavy to Cuirassiers. Modifications to the morale rules mean that cavalry testing to charge or counter charge a lower class of cavalry get bonuses. The result is that landwehr lancers for example may well stand on the spot as the Grenadiers a Cheval thunder down on them. But the reverse is extremely unlikely. British cavalry always treat the opponents as being of inferior class reflecting their tendency to "go for it".

Artillery may be Irregular , Foot or Horse (which reflects mobility) and light, medium or heavy (which reflects range). In the optional rules Howitzers and rockets are detailed.

The fire mechanism is as in POW but what will surprise most 19^th century players is the limited ranges. Muskets can only volley fire out to 2" . Muskets skirmish fire can reach 4" and rifles and jezails 6". Artillery fire is limited to 16, 24 or 32 for light , medium or heavy. However limited the ranges the fire can still be devastating at times . An important morale modifier is that infantry charging a steady line suffer penalties in the morale test to charge home. Thus the importance of artillery barrage to shake the morale of defenders becomes evident.

The melee mechanism will be familiar to Pow players. One important amendment is that higher class cavalry get bonuses for charging lower class. The poor old landwehr lancers are in for a shock!

A final word about army lists . I have created many of these with much assistance from other members of the October Wargames Association. The underlying principle was to recreate larger battles. Thus all the lists are of Corps size or equivalent. The basic infantry unit is a regiment (or British Brigade) . Cavalry units are regiments or brigades. Some Napoleonic wargamers may prefer playing games at brigade or divisional level. This is a matter of preference and can be accommodated by simply treating the infantry unit as a battalion. One clear advantage of the scale we have chosen is that large scale battles become affordable as players can "bring along a Corps" quite easily. There are 37 army lists from 1792 to 1815. These include 7 different French lists and 6 different British/allied armies.

So where are the rules? They were published in the last week or so. The wargames magazines should have them listed in the ads soon. Also you can enquire of Tom.

Copies of these rules , the Play Sheet, the original 19^th century Rules and Army lists can be also got from :

Tom Penn
Talavera House
138 Godiva Rd
Leominster
Herefordshire
HR6 8TA