Napoleon at Waterloo

Content

Rules

A PDF of the rules is available through the Help menu. Please note that it may take a little while for your PDF viewer to launch

Game or variant

Before getting to the game interface, you will be prompted to select a board. There are two possibilities:

Small
This is the default board for the Basic game and its variants. Reinforcements will arrive a turn later when playing the Advanced game with this board. This board is recommended if you want to play the Basic game or one of its variants.
Large
This is the default board for the Advanced game. This board has one more hex column to the west, 3 to the east, and 5 more hex columns to the south. This means that reinforcements will arrive a turn earlier when playing the Basic game and its variants. This is the recommended map if you want to play the Advanced game.

At the start of a new game, you will be presented with a window to select which game or variant you want to play. You will not be able to change this later in the game.

The possible games and variants are:

Basic
The basic game. This is a relatively simple game with division (xx) sized units. This is an excellent introductory game for wargame beginners.
Grouchy
This is a variant of the Basic game. In this variant, some randomness and fog-of-war is introduced by having random reinforcement schedules. That is, in this variant, Field Marshall Grouchy may come to the aid of Napoleon, and the Field Marshall Blücher may reinforce the British faction.
Esdaile
This variant of the Basic game is based on an article by Professor Emeritus Charles J. Esdaile in Journal of Advanced Military Studies, Vol.12, issue 2, pages 11 to 14. This variant introduces some realism into the game while maintaining the simplicity of the game. The variant is slightly biased towards an Allied victory.
Advanced
This game is a more complex game with brigade (x) sized units. Artillery is handled in separate phases, and there are more units on the map. Factions can choose tactics in combats (though the module will automatically select the optimal tactic for you). This is best played on the Large map.

All units are placed in their setup locations.

When the game is progressed to the first turn French movement phase, then game pieces that are not in used are removed and the game or variant is locked.

I you play by email, then one of you should select the game or variant, save the game before moving to the French movement phase, and send it off to the other side for validation. Only then should you progress to the next phase.

Turn and phase tracker

Use the Turn tracker interface in the menubar. A number of automatic actions are implemented in this module, which heavily depend on the use of that interface.

You can go to the next phase by pressing the + button, or by pressing Alt-T. This is the only possible way of moving the turn marker.

Note: The die-roll pop-up windows may steal focus from the main window, which means that key-board short-cuts, such as Alt-T are not registered. Simply click the main window to bring that back into focus, and keyboard short cuts will be registered again.

Reinforcements

Reinforcement units arrive at the indicated turn on the edge of the board. The factions must move them on to the board themselves (remember to account for spend MFs).

The Grouchy variant uses a random reinforcement schedule for both factions. This is automatically handled by the module. The module will place a face-down reinforcement chit on each factions OOB. The owning faction may click it to reveal the schedule, but the other faction cannot click it, nor see its value when switch to the that player.

 Battle declaration and resolution

Battles should be declared in a factions movement phase.

The module can automatically calculate odds and resolve combats via the use of battle markers. To place a battle marker, select the attacking and defending units and press the battle marker button () or Ctrl-X. This will place markers on the invovled units that identifiy the battle uniquely.

If the user preference Calculate Odds on battle declaration is enabled (default), then the module will also calculate the odds (inluding bonuses and penalties for terrain), and place an odds marker (e.g., ) on one of the involved units.

The module takes into account terrain of the defender, etc.. In the Advanced game, the opt.imal tactic for each faction is automatically chosen. Important: ranged bombardment does not have the DRM automatically calculated. It is up to the users to adjust the results accordingly by looking up the DRM modified result in the CRT.

Odds can be reduced by right clicking the odds marker and selecting Reduce (or by Ctrl-L). Multiple reductions are possible by repeated use of that command.

If the user preference Resolve battle results automatically is enabled (default), then in the factions Combat phase, you can right click the odds marker and select Resolve (or Ctrl-Y or button) to resolve the combat. The module will roll the dice and do the appropriate calculations, and a replace the odds marker with a result marker (e.g. , for example).

The module will not apply the result to the invovled units. This must be done, according to the rules, by the factions. If a unit is eliminated as a consequence of the combat, then the short cut Ctrl-E or eliminate button can be used. The unit is then moved to the factions dead unit pool.

To clear a battle declaration, select one of the involved units or battle markers, and select Clear (or press Ctrl-C) from the context menu. All battles can be cleared by the button in the menubar.

Victory points and conditions

The module automatically keeps track of victory conditions.

Do not use the dead pool for units that left the map voluntarily. Those will not count towards a factions VPs. Instead, exited French units should be placed in the dedicated box on the board.

When a unit is eliminated, the current victory conditions are checked automatically. If a sudden death condition has been reached, then a pop-up window will announce the winner. Note, in the Advanced game there are not sudden-death conditions.

On turn "11", a pop-up will show the final results, if no sudden-death condition was reached.

Tutorial

The tutorial of this module plays out a few turns of the Basic Game.

To step through the tutorial, press Page-down. On some steps you may need to press the key twice.

About this game

This VASSAL module was created from LATEX sources of a Print'n'Play version of the Napoleon at Waterloo game. That (a PDF) can be found at

https://gitlab.com/wargames_tex/dom_tex

where this module, and the sources, can also be found. The PDF can also be found as the rules of this game, available in the Help menu.

Change log

1.0
Initial release of module

Credits

Game design
James F. Dunnigan
Grouchy variant
Albert A. Nof
Esdaile variant
Charles J. Esdaile
Graphic design & rules:
Redmond A. Simonsen
Editorial & graphic production
Rosalind Fructman, Ted Koller, Mike Moore, Manfred F. Milkuhn, & Rob Ryer

Copyright and license

This work is 🄯 2024 Christian Holm Christensen, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

or send a letter to

Creative Commons
PO Box 1866
Mountain View
CA 94042
USA