After the break to share the rulebook, to announce ‘’Un altro passo nella neve‘’, the game-book by Manuele Giuliano that will be available at PLAY, and especially to start folding maps and assembling game boxes (!), let’s return to the presentation of Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, to talk about the command system.

We have already seen how next to the battlefield map is the Battle board specific to that battlefield, which contains all the information and special rules for it.

The lower part of this Battle board contains the so-called Order Spaces, which players will use during the game to command their units. Each Order Space corresponds to a type of unit or formation (e.g. ‘Infantry Columns’, ‘Artillery’, …), or a ‘cross’ type of order (e.g. ‘Leader Action’, ‘Maneuver’, …).

Players take turns placing one of their Order tokens (whose number is given by the Command value specified on the Battle board) on an Order Space not yet used by the active player. In doing so, they will choose the type of unit or type of action they intend to perform during the turn: ‘Infantry Columns’ to move or assault with columns, ‘Maneuver’ to move quickly with any type of unit but without attacking, etc.

Since you cannot choose a previously chosen Order Space, the timing with which you choose the various actions is very important, as is being aware of which orders remain available to your opponent! Bringing your cavalry in front of artillery that has not yet been activated can be extremely dangerous!

After choosing an Order Space, the player on turn will have a number of Activation markers (again, equal to the Command value) to use to activate – one after the other – their units on the battlefield. Choosing which units to activate and in what order can be crucial!

If a player has no more Order tokens available on his turn, or does not wish to place any for whatever reason, they can perform a Rally instead. This action will retrieve Order tokens and also re-deploy units that have become disordered or broken during battle, but at a cost. In addition to the lost command turn, the player will in fact concede victory points to their opponent!

All these elements combined (choice of each Order space, selection of units, timing with which to rally) make the command system of Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars – which remains extremely clean and straight-forward at base – a system full of decisive choices, where a single mistake could cost you the battle!

Next week, the last chapter of the presentation in which I will briefly discuss the combat system. Then I will move on to the hot phase of packaging and preparing to present and play the game at PLAY in early April!