Can someone make an A&A style Napoleonic game?

So, I think I’ve figured it out. Now, this may or may not be in the style of A&A, depending on how you look at it, some things are very much A&A and some things are not…

The games I will be combining for my personal variant of the Napoleonic age are: Napoleon in Europe (map and battle board), Age of Napoleon (almost the whole game, minus map and some parts), Viktory II (units and battle rules).

Now, it basically works like this: the map that will be used is the one from NiE, simply because I like it (it’s beautiful) and it’s big with many territories (reminds me of A&A). I wanted the nice map combined with the nice units from Viktory II. From here on out, it’s more or less Age of Napoleon we’re playing, but with lots of plastic pieces.

Age of Napoleon is a far better game than Nie, so this variant will be very similar to AoN. In most ways it works like AoN, and it’s probably more informative to list the things that are different, than those that are the same. So here goes:

-The Battle rules are the ones from Viktory II, more or less, with some elements from AoN and NiE mixed in. Battles are decided using the Viktory II rules (mostly), which I find tense, fast and fun, played out on the battle board from NiE, with the addition of Corps counters from AoN. More on battles later.

-While there are still a number of Corps moving around the board doing battle, they are now comprised of both the Corps counters from AoN and the plastic pieces from Viktory II. Losses will not be counted by the Corps, but by the Division or Brigade, i.e. whenever there is a loss from battle or attrition, you remove a number of plastic pieces from that Corps.
A Corps consists of a counter from AoN, for example Napoleon, and eight plastic pieces; four infantry, two cavalry and two artillery. This combination of counter and pieces show both the quality and leadership value of the Corps, and also it’s current status. A Corps that sustained heavy casualties during a battle may be down to, say, two infantry and one artillery. Those casualties can of course be replenished, and the Corps brought back to full strength.

-War at Sea. This feature does not exist in AoN, wich I think is a shame. NiE on the other hand, is made with naval warfare in mind, and the map works very well for this. And since the Frigate units from Viktory II are so beautiful (as are all of the units), and come in the right colours, it was a simple choice to put this in.

-The Ottoman Empire is an active nation in this variant. In AoN they are not. The map from NiE was made to include the Ottomans, and I personally want them in the game. Since there are enough colours in the Viktory II set to include them, I will.

There are probably some other things that are different as well, but it’s mostly small tweaks here and there to make it work. Apart from this, it’s basically AoN. You use cards for diplomacy and other stuff, some cards are used in battle. You raise Corps and move them much like in AoN, and they will suffer attrition in the same way. The diplomatic rules, with Coalition members, Insurgents, Neutrals, French allies and French dominions, are the same.

The nation specific counters and the plastic pieces correspond amazingly well colourwise. French counters in AoN are blue, there are blue pieces in the VII set, and so on. So, red pieces for Britain, black for Prussia, yellow for Spain, white for Austria and green for Russia. The Ottomans have no counters, but will be using the gray pieces. As for the orange pieces, you can put some of them in the Orange Corps ;)

I will explain more on battles soon… but right now I need som coffee.  :-)

CRAZY!  I did almost the same thing and did a play test with the rules last year.

@FieldMarshalGames:

CRAZY!  I did almost the same thing and did a play test with the rules last year.

:-)

Man, that looks beautiful. I see you used the AoN map, which is probably not a bad idea either. How did it work out, and what rules did you use?

The Map was from Age of Napoleon
The Chips were from Axis & Allies
The Generals were from Age of Empires
The units were from Victory II
And I used the GOLDEN CAVALRY unit from RISK Special Edition as the Napoleon unit.

PM me with your e-mail address and I can send you a PDF copy of the playtest rules

Here is a preview of a few pages…

French Set-up chart from Playtest booklet.

@Raeder:

@FieldMarshalGames:

CRAZY!  I did almost the same thing and did a play test with the rules last year.

:-)

Man, that looks beautiful. I see you used the AoN map, which is probably not a bad idea either. **How did it work ou**t, and what rules did you use?

It worked out pretty well.  The rules could use a few tweaks and the map could definatley use some work (too many territories in some areas, not enough in others) but overall it was nice (and easy to catch on to the rules)

The Battle system works great…  But Ver 2 needs a custom map.

Viktory II rocks! Great minis!

If you’re looking for something with more A&A-like mechanics and you’re willing to allow it to be more “ahistorical,” it’s pretty easy to do with either Viktory II or Risk or NIE pieces.  Here’s my basic approach, which I’ve done on an NIE board (with NIE pieces with students in a games club), a Risk board (literally dozens of times with all sorts of groups) and a Castle Risk board (about half a dozen times with different groups):

Attack  Defense  Move  Cost
Infantry      2              3        1        3
Cavalry        4              2        2        5
Artillery      3              5        1        9

If you play Napoleon In Europe using the basic level rules (provided in the manual) its pretty much an axis and allies like risk game. Theres simple rules for movement, combat and building. Each unit is different from one another.

Of course NIE is extremely difficult to get a hold of these days but Eagle games does sell most of the components on their website: http://www.eaglegames.net/SearchResults.asp

Holden how is your next map project coming along?