Napoleonic Q’s And A’s

These questions and answers are taken from the POW magazine. With thanks for the permission of John Hollyoak the editor. If I get time I will try and present them in a better format.

Graham Beattie asks:

Q. Initiative points for non British trained infantry firing at close range, does this affect irregulars as well? The die roll for initiative is after normal firing. Is initiative based firing carried out in movement phase?

A. Graham was not the only one to query this aspect, Bob Connor of Tabletop Games and Martin Wilkinson both queried the same thing. The initiative points for non British trained infantry firing are additional initiative points required if the unit fired earlier in the bound and it counts for all troops including irregulars. No initiative points are required for a unit to fire. This is to represent the loss of control once a unit started mass firing, the British ignore this because they retained far greater control when firing.

Q. Do shaken troops only get minus 2 when testing to receive a charge? Is there any other disadvantage/morale effect for being shaken?

A. The only morale effect for shaken troops is when they are being charged. A shaken unit takes two column shifts to the left when firing; a formed unit in melee does not get its multiplier if shaken; also all shaken units in melee take one column shift to the left. Shaken troops cannot countercharge even if they pass a morale test for being charged. Finally a shaken unit may not move closer to an enemy unit until they have been rallied by an officer. The shaken status is a loss of formation or fighting efficiency not always a morale loss.

Q. "+2 artillery, each flank in contact with steady friends". Does this only give benefit to artillery at either +2 or +4 for one or two friends or do artillery get the benefit anyway and all troops in the middle of the line get a plus.

A. Because artillery units have a low basic strength we have given them a morale benefit of +2 per flank in contact with a steady friendly unit. This is to represent the steadying effect of supporting troops and to steady the morale without making the fire effect of artillery too great by increasing their basic strength. It does not apply to other troops.

Q. Scale - any further guidance to unit strengths over and above that written in the rules?

A. We have deliberately stayed away from figure and time scales as they impose a straight jacket upon a set of rules and lead to a less flexible approach. Instead we measure a unit’s relative fighting efficiency rather than the number of men it contains. In the rules one infantry unit represents approximately 3 battalions of foot which is one regiment in continental organisations or one brigade in British organisations. These units represent up to 3000 men if at full strength but may be as low as 1500 men in some under strength or veteran units. A cavalry unit represents two regiments of cavalry which is normally one brigade which could be between 600 to 1000 men. An artillery unit represents 2 or more batteries of approximately 12 to 24 guns.

Q. Any plans for an 18th Century version? I feel the system would work and Prussian tactics troops appear to be tailor made.

A. You are right that with a little modification the rules could be used for 18th Century warfare and we may in the future produce a set of 18th Century army lists with amendments to address any special requirements, but as with the Napoleonic Rules this will depend upon public reaction.

Q. Any plans for any other army lists e.g., India or orders of battle for specific re-fights?

A. We have had several requests for rules and modifications for the Indian subcontinent and the initial draft is included in this magazine. We chose not to include India in the main set because they would spoil the balance of the rules and the small size of the European forces means that unit representation would have to be reduced to battalion rather than regimental scale. We have produced laminated army lists for specific battles in the 19th Century and if there is a demand for the same in the Napoleonic period we will happily oblige.

Tony Cane asks:

Q. Can rifle armed infantry fire using smoothbore factors (i.e. if they are in close range)?

A. Rifles count in all aspects as Musket except they can skirmish fire up to 6". A rifle armed British unit represents a British brigade armed with musket with a rifle company attached to bolster the skirmishers.

Q. Is a French column with skirmishers deployed ever treated as a skirmish target?

A. In Napoleonic PoW the skirmishers attached to units are primarily to provide fire support for the troops advancing behind, and to protect the unit against opposing skirmishers. A column with skirmishers would never count as a skirmish target, but opposition skirmishing troops would take a 1 column shift to the left when firing at them.

Q. Why is there an * beside the Prussian system C in C in list 28 and others.

A. See page 28, 1st paragraph ‘Officers Initiative’. In some armies, due to a poor command structure, a C in C can only influence troops belonging to a subordinate if he joins them personally. This is marked with an * next to the C in C in the army list.

Q. Do light infantry ignore movement penalties in built up areas? The back cover says yes, the rules on page 30 do not include built up areas.

A. Oops! Sorry this is our error when setting up the quick reference sheet. If in doubt the main rules are always correct.

Q. One area I am not sure is right, is that of defenders in built up areas. There are many accounts of towns repeatedly changing hands as assault was followed by counter assault. There are no fire penalties for being in built up areas which must affect deployment if cover is being used. Also rallying while in a town was difficult, it seems this could only be accomplished after being pushed out of the town. I am tempted to try a modification of one shift left for line firing from towns and either two points for, or no, recover from disorder in towns. Would this seem a sensible modification to try?

A. Other than fighting in small villages (individual buildings in PoW terms), most commanders tended to avoid fighting in built up areas and wooded areas as these made control of the troops more difficult. This is the reason we have defined more terrain as dense in the PoW Nap Rules and why this disallows any group movement. Also buildings that have been prepared for defence should be more difficult to attack as these tended to hold out for some time. Other than this your suggested modifications could be used and should give the result you require.

D Parker asks:

Q. Does the C in C have to be given orders or just the subordinate officers?

A. Please see the article in Magazine Issue 5.

Q. Does an officer with a unit also count the +1 for being within 4 inches?

A. An officer is either with a unit (+2) or within 4 inches (+1), these are not cumulative.

Q. Does a steady morale result override a previous shaken result?

A. No. An officer must use initiative points to rally a unit. (Note the exception when rolling a 1).

Q. Is an officer required to join a unit to rally it?

A. An officer does not have to join a unit to rally it, but he must have the initiative available i.e., 1 initiative point per 8 inches between the officer and the unit he wishes to rally.

Q. Do both sides fire during a bound?

A. No, only one side fires each bound.

From Steve Robertshaw:

I very much enjoyed playing your recently published Rules for the Napoleonic period. For the past 25 years I have used the vast majority of rule sets available starting with Don Featherstone and then progressing through Leicester/Newbury, The Airfix set, WRG, Sound of the Guns, The Battle Honours Computerised Set and too many other sets too poor to mention. All these rules suffered from far too many tedious calculations or a staggering reliance on simplicity and downright luck. Also none of them succeeded in reproducing the complicated command and control aspects of the Napoleonic Wars which were so important. You appear to have found the right balance. I have only one criticism to make - it is far too easy for formed troops to charge steady deployed troops in the open. Melees in such circumstances occurred about as often as cavalry broke squares. It was the fear of the bayonet rather than its actual use that caused men to turn and run. I would suggest that the morale deduction is far more severe than the current -2.

A. Some players have commented like you that melees take place when troops would have broken prior to contact. In PoW melee does not only represent the physical hand to hand combat but the period when two opposing forces were in close proximity to each other when the morale effect of the enemy was the largest factor. Because under the rules formed troops may not fire, we needed some way of representing the confrontation that took place when units closed in.

Mr Murchie writes with the following (bad!) news:

Q. I have noticed a few errors in the army lists in so much as the base strength does not correspond correctly to the maximum strength. The errors are as follows:

Army 12 British Intervention 1792-1802, C-in-C allocated troops, First Line Brigade, base strength 6, max. strength 18.

Army 24 French Peninsular 1812-14, 1st Division, Second Line Regiment, base strength 4, max. strength 16. 3rd Division, both Line Regiments, base strength 4, max. strength 16.

Army 26 Ottoman Turk 1800-12, C-in-C allocated troops, Sultan’s Guard, base strength 8, max. strength 16.

Army 37 Westphalian 1809-12, Cavalry Division, Both French Heavy Cavalry, base strength 6, max. strength 14.

A. It seems that no matter how many times we proof read the lists something seems to sneak through. In all these cases the maximum strengths are correct, the base strength should be 10 lower for the infantry and 6 lower for the cavalry.

The following are various emails received by Richard Denning. Apologies to anyone who has been missed out but Richard has had to re-install Windows so he may have lost some of the earlier queries and replies.

Jim Mollan:

Q. It states in the rules " The aggressor starts the turn in phase four and ends in phase three". Does this mean that as the aggressor, you complete your initiative and movement. Then go through phases 1,2,3. Or Complete phase four, then your opponent completes phases 1,2,3 and 4, handing back to you to go through phases 1,2,3,4.

A. At the start of the game the players roll to see who will be the attacker and who is the defender. The attacker begins the game. The defender deploys at 9" in. The attacker only does one thing in his first move - that is initiative and movement - i.e. he rolls his initiative dice one by one and moves his bases one by one. The defender then does a complete move starting with phase 1. Then both players play their turns alternatively starting at phase 1. The game must end on the attacker’s move in phase 3 - i.e. he does not get to move in his final phase.

M Romans:

Q. Regarding infantry in square - does the 1/2 strength multiplier apply to infantry in square facing infantry only. If not, and the following situation occurs, isn't the square almost inevitably going to be broken ? Say a square is charged by cavalry and it fails its morale test, say to shaken, so the charge goes home if the cavalry pass (have I got that right?). The infantry then fight at 1/2 strength modifier for being in square and a left column shift for being shaken. Conversely, the cavalry receive no modifier and thus stand a pretty good chance of outscoring the infantry in

terms of casualties, with the result that the square is broken. I would imagine that this would lead to more squares being cracked than could be justified historically. Have you had any problems with this, or should we just apply the 1/2 strength multiplier when facing infantry only?

A. 1/2 strength applies to all situations when a square fights melee. It is not a good formation for fighting melee. Its strength lies in preventing cavalry attacking flanks and hopefully dissuading cavalry from charging home. Once cavalry have charged home then the square would not do well. Consider: Infantry are on average 12 strength, +1 for officer , +4 for being in square gives a morale of 17. Thus you have only a 15% chance of shaking. The cavalry then must also pass morale - usually cavalry are 10 strength (perhaps 12) +1 for officer gives 11. Thus almost half of the time the cavalry will not charge home against a shaken square. So roughly 8% of the time will the cavalry actually get in . In this situation the cavalry will only count as multiplied by 1. Then the infantry having lost (probably) 1 fig check morale on 11 +1 for officer, + 4 for being in square = 16. So 80% of the time they would pass (which becomes shake as they lost the melee). They have only 10% chance of retiring shaken and 10% of routing.

Q. Skirmish screens - Most rule sets allow skirmish screens to diminish the effect of firepower on the formations behind them. Would we be best advised to represent this by a left column shift for obscured target or a smaller strength multiplier for the unit firing?

A. At battalion level this might be OK but at larger scale we use we are not convinced that skirmishers really protected units much. However, skirmishers do reduce the effect of other skirmishers.

Q. Terrain - I don't have the rules in front of me so, I'm not entirely sure about this, but how far can units see into woods - just those at the edges or a inch or two inside ?

A. Woods count as high terrain so either both troops must be in the wood - then use high terrain column or one most be on edge. Even 1/2" in makes them invisible. This is based on the principle that foliage is thicker at the edge of a wood.

Q. Command distances - 8" seem fine for regimental scale. With battalions, there are going to be a lot more units on the table for each divisional commander. Would a 12" command radius be more appropriate ?

A. Depends if you plan to have an entire Corps at 3 divisions times 3 brigades times 2 regiments times 2 battalions = 12 units under one officer. I suggest you have brigade officer thus only 4-6 units - which is what we use. In this case stick to 8".- remember you can order outside 8" - just costs more.

From Bothir:

Q. Attack orders - the rules state that you must move at max. speed. We have been playing it that your first pip must be used to advance and any other remaining pips may be used for formation changes etc. all the command’s units except one unit which has been held in reserve or art. dropped off to shoot must advance a full move.

A. Well you are allowed to make formation changes before movement providing the command is obeying the spirit of the orders. Thus you could not say deploy in to square an infantry division on attack orders just because they can see cavalry over to the side a couple of moves away.

Q. Continued melees - does the supporting unit test morale separately at the conclusion of the melee or does it act as the unit in front of it if the melee is won must it pursue.

A. All units involved in a melee must test and obey test results. So yes a supporting unit may have to pursue.

From Chris Rees:

Q. When mounted troops are in contact with foot in square the rules (and play sheet) say that cavalry do not get the melee multiplier - Does this mean that their melee strength is zero (i.e. a multiplier of zero) or what?

A. The play sheet says ‘multiply the units strength by the following factors’: You then read down the factors to see if that factor applies to your unit. Since none of the first 4 factors apply to cavalry charging squares then "Others" must - i.e. 1. Thus you multiply the cavalry units strength - say 10 by 1 =10. Remember that in order for the square to have been contacted by horse it must be shaken first as horse will not contact a steady square therefore the infantry will be on not only a 0.5 factor but will have a left column shift.

Q. The rules refer sometimes to staff officer, officers, divisional officers etc. Are these all the same except for the C-in-C? or is there some classification beyond the system (Prussian, French, etc.) and quality (good, poor) etc.?

A. Staff officers may in certain armies (French mainly) be used as an artillery officer i.e. can have a grand battery under them, or may use their initiative to bolster other officers. Otherwise all officers are the same whether they command a division or brigade.

Q. During firing a player may fire a group of units against a target group. What are the criteria for forming either type of group (for forming movement groups its very clear). What happens if a target group has some of its units so that different modifiers apply from the rest? I realise that the obvious answer here is that a target groups unit must all have the same modifiers applied to them and that anything that could fire at a unit of the target group could be part of the firing group, but the rules seem very open to player 'interpretation'.

A. You work out the strengths at the range concerned for each unit, add these together - this could be 2 infantry firing a volley plus a gun say and round up to nearest 5. You then apply all the effects PER TARGET UNIT and then all the effects PER FIRING UNIT. The firing group and the target groups can be made up of mixed units Just apply all 1L and 2L modifiers and then all 1R to get the final column. Roll the dice and spread casualties evenly. See also the query from Simon Clarke in the 19th century

queries.

Q. In a multiple unit melee do you just total the casualties each unit causes for each side and compare those totals. With then all of one side's unit 'losing' (and hence taking the moral test first with a result of one lower than actually achieved) and then all the other side's units 'winning'?

A. YES! All losers test first and take 1 result worse than rolled . All winners test last and take 1 result better.

Q. When a unit is charged from the flank or rear and passes its morale test it can turn to face the chargers, but the figures are not moved. As the unit does not turn does this mean that the firing arc remains unchanged (i.e. the charging unit will not be able to be fired upon) but the unit subsequently ignores any 'flank or rear' modifiers and multipliers? If so can the unit fire on other troops in their arc and range or would the target priorities prevent them (unless there was a unit charging friends)?

A. If the unit being charged passed its morale test it can do various actions as listed in the section on morale in the rules. Two of these options are fire OR turn to face . As it can do only one it follows that if it is turning to face it will not fire. The firing arc though remains as it was before.

Q. When a unit is contacted and routs or retires shaken due to failing its morale test (in phase 1) does the charging unit pursue (i.e. would the charged unit count a 'melee opponent') or remain stationary at the point of contact?

A. NO the charging unit carries on forward 2 inches (there is a diagram in the rules showing this) and will therefore not contact the routing unit which would probably run back 4 ,6 10 or 12 inches depending on type. Only if the 2" move brings the charging unit into contact with a new enemy could melee occur.

Q. When a unit routs or retires it moves 'directly away from the cause of the morale test'. If a unit has been fired upon, or contacted, in the flank how is the unit’s width determined for its line of flight (i.e. if contacted on the flank is the 'width' the units depth, and if not how is the real unit width placed in relation to the position of the actual unit - obviously parallel to the firing or charging unit, but where along that parallel line?) (this is badly expressed but I hope you understand the question!)

A. Very good question. The rules do not say. My feeling is if a unit is contacted in a flank the line of flight must be between lines drawn from the back and front of the unit sideways. i.e. if formed (column) this will be 4.5 cm. The line of flight will be along this width. Often you need a little common sense application of the rules here.

Q. If a unit is on engage or attack orders and an enemy unit is on its line of advance but behind the first unit can the first unit move backwards to engage the enemy within the scope of the orders?

A. A unit on attack or engage will be given a line of advance usually to a defined objective or area of deployment marked on a map. Thus we usually define a demarked zone the division is attempting to attack and take. If the enemy unit is within this zone it is reasonable to turn in any direction, charge fire etc. to get the enemy away from the zone. BUT if the enemy is behind you and not on an objective or area of ground you are attempting to defend you cannot turn around and head back to engage without an order change. This is the reason for allowing supporting troops.

Q. A unit is charged, passes its moral test and decides to counter charge. During the melee does the counter charging unit count as charging for melee multipliers and effect (it only mentions charging and pursuing).

A. Yes, countercharging counts the same as charging.

Q. If a unit is attempting to reinforce an existing melee does it, or its target, need to take moral tests for being contacted or charging home? Similarly as it only adds its strength is the multiplier that of the friendly front line unit its is reinforcing? What happens if it is not backing up another unit but making direct contact with the enemy (such as hitting the rear of an enemy unit in an existing melee - would the enemy unit count as contacted in flank, but what would the new unit count as?)

A. If the enemy unit is contacted by your unit whilst the enemy unit is engaged with another of your units then the enemy unit must still take a morale test and may indeed count as contacted in flank or rear. In this situation your new unit will get charging bonus and also possible multipliers if a column or cavalry, but must test to charge home. However if you merely add your unit into the rear of one of your units 'reinforcing a melee' the enemy do not check morale and you do not need to test to charge home. The new unit merely adds it strength i.e. 8 or 11 or 14 (whatever) it gets no multipliers or charging bonus. The unit of yours already in melee gets its bonus and multipliers as normal.

From Tim Thompson:

Q. Your British Peninsular Divisions are really double divisions (the standard historical division would be 2 British brigades and 2 Portuguese regiments). Is this because you think the historical force would be too manoeuvrable under the rules or did you have an idea of the number of commands that you wanted for the lists, or some other reason?

A. It is basically because the army would be too manoeuvrable.

Q. The scale is one gun represents several batteries. I would guess from your lists that if there is a single battery it is only given 2 strength points. Is this correct for my forces at Salamanca which will usually have just one battery per division?

A. This is correct but you can use the battalion gun to represent this.

Q. Your Portuguese regiments all have musket armed skirmishers. The standard Portuguese brigade was 2 regiments of line and 1 battalion of Cacadores. One of the companies of the Cacadores (the Atiradores or sharpshooters) was armed with rifles. As the British line usually only had one company of rifles attached but you classify them as BSr surely one of the 2 Portuguese regiments should also have rifle armed skirmishers?

Or do you feel you already given the Allies a generous proportion of rifles?

A. I agree if you are being strictly historical this should apply but the proportion of rifles feels right.

Q. Spanish army list - nothing post 1808? I appreciate that they lost nearly all their battles they did carry on fighting. I don’t know what drill they used but they seem to have used linear tactics (but they were on the defensive). I strongly recommend ‘The Spanish Ulcer’ by David Gates which includes a number of orbats.

A. Trying to include a later Spanish army probably delayed the publishing of the rules by about 2 weeks. In the end we simply could not find a large enough force to use as the basis for a list. Thanks for the tip, we will try to include a list in a future magazine.

Finally from Martin Wilkinson:

Q. What happens if a cavalry unit charges more than one unit and one of the units becomes ineligible by forming square?

A. You would just fight a melee against any remaining eligible targets and ignore the square.

From Julian Lopez; I used Napoleonic PoW at Rollcall and I must admit that I am now hooked! Four competition games without a single argument says a lot for the rules. Since I was the spare player I only had time to read the rules the night before the competition so I only spotted a few bugs on the journey home.

Q. P30 (g) Flank attack, line 2-3 ‘or if the flank is protected by a friendly unit within 2 inches which is capable of moving to the point of contact.’ The problem here is that a group of 2 units of formed foot are within 2 inches of each other’s flank and capable of moving to the point of contact!

A. You are right. The unit protecting the flank should be within 2" of the flank without interpenetrating the unit it is protecting.

Q. P31 (k) Charging, paragraph 2, line 4-5 ‘in order to initiate a melee a unit must be able to contact the enemy with at least 3cm of the front edge of its base.’ This means that a unit cannot initiate a melee with deployed infantry in the flank as they don’t have sufficient depth!

A. The unit must have the movement allowance to reach the enemy unit with at least 3cm of its frontage, this is to prevent charges where only the corner of the charging unit can make contact, not to prevent contacting a narrow formation.

Q. As far as I can see Prussian system foot can be formed and use the x2 multiplier if they charge in this formation. Is this correct?

A. Yes but they count a morale deduction of -2 when using this formation.

Q. Can a C-in-C group move several batteries (the rules only mention staff officers)?

A. Group movement of artillery is allowed only to staff officers who have the artillery under their direct control.

Q. C-in-C and staff officers can direct fire of batteries under their command. Does this mean:

a) batteries of the entire army (at least for the C-in-C).

b) batteries in his own division.

c) batteries in his own division only if these are the only units in the division.

A. The C-in-C can directly command any battery’s fire but only if he is with the unit. A staff officer can only affect the fire of those batteries assigned to his command.

Q. My only problem with the rules is how units can whizz around even if very close to the enemy. I feel there should be some form of restrictions once you get within a certain distance of the enemy (say 2" for infantry and 4" for cavalry). Once within units should only be able to move directly forwards, backwards or towards the enemy unit which is within the 2"/4" zone.

A. We have included the idea of an enemy zone of control in the separation of tactical and strategic movement, i.e. no unit may move more than once when within tactical range of the enemy. We have deliberately kept the rules as simple as possible in order to keep the players’ focus on the army rather than each individual unit. The officer’s initiative (or lack of it!) should take this sort of thing into account. Other rules have ‘zones of control’ and they seem to cause no end of problems.

From Jeff Davies:

Q. In morale do units with their officer get +2 and +1 for him being within 4"?

A. No, these are exclusive. An officer is either with a unit or within 4".

Q. When firing at charging cavalry is it one column shift right for mounted and one left for charging, one effectively cancelling the other?

A. Yes. As mounted troops move fast during a charge then this offsets the fact that they are a larger target.

Q. Are armies only allowed staff officers if the lists permit or can you buy them if you want to?

A. When designing the army lists we gave armies a staff officer where we felt it was historically appropriate (usually armies that had adopted the French system). Obviously you could agree with your opponent to spend extra points in a friendly game.

Q. Units 1, 2 and 3 are formed infantry that have just contacted unit A (deployed infantry). Do you add up all the strength ratings together or do you fight three individual melees? Incidentally how many pips do units 1,2 and 3 need to move into contact assuming they started from 4" away?

A. This should be fought as one melee adding all the strength ratings. When firing unit A will get 3 right column shifts for formed targets. It would require 3 pips to move 1-3 into contact (see Steve Partidge’s questions).

Q. Am I right in thinking that units 1 and 2 cannot fight unit B because not enough of their frontage is in contact?

A. This would be fought as one melee, units 1 and 2 versus A, B and C. Units 1 and 2 can fight B because they have contacted enemy with 3cm of their frontage.

Q. How many bounds are there in a turn, one or two?

A. In one turn each player will have one bound.

Q. When you talk about continued melees you say ‘a unit reinforcing another unit in this way may only add its strength to the melee calculations and will ignore any multipliers and column shifts’. If they add their rating to the unit in front surely the column shifts will affect it?

A. A unit which reinforces a melee by contacting the enemy unit will count all its factors as normal. If the unit is unable to contact the enemy because of other units in the way they may choose to reinforce by supporting the rear of a friendly unit already in contact with the enemy. (They may also choose this option rather than charge directly as they do not need to take a reaction test to charge home). In this case the unit in contact calculates the melee factors as normal but the supporting unit may only add its strength and may not count any factors for being formed, charging etc.. In a way you are right in that the factors for the first unit will affect the strength of the second. However, these shifts would have applied anyway so the only difference to the melee is the strength of the reinforcing unit.