Napoleon's Last Battles

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Cover of original SPI edition, 1976

Napoleon's Last Battles is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications in 1976 that simulates the last four battles fought by Napoleon.

Description[]

Napoleon's Last Battles is a "quadrigame" — a box with four different battles played using the same rules.[1] This game covers the last four battles of Napoleon's final campaign of 1814:

  • Ligny: The French and Prussians clash.
  • Quatre Bras: The Anglo-Allies under Wellington holding a strategic road intersection are attacked Marshal Ney's French forces.
  • Wavre: French and Prussians at Wavre are needed at the Battle of Waterloo, so both must attempt to exit the board while preventing the other from doing so.
  • La Belle Alliance (the Battle of Waterloo)

All four scenarios and their maps can be joined together to form a large campaign game covering all four battles from beginning to end. The rules are based on the system developed for Napoleon at Waterloo published by SPI in 1971.[1] Each turn represents 1 hours of game time; All four scenarios together take 37 turns to complete.

Components[]

The game comes with:[1]

  • 8-page rulebook of rules common to all four battles
  • 4-page rulebook with rules specific to each battle
  • 400 die-cut counters (100 for each game)
  • four 22" x 17" paper hex grid maps scaled at 480 m (525 yd) per hex (one map for each battles, or can be joined together to form one large 43" x 33" campaign map)

Publication history[]

In 1975, SPI published the "quadrigame" Blue and Gray, packaging four different battles and one set of rules into the same box. The concept proved popular. Napoleon's Last Battles, another quadrigame, was published the following year. It was designed by Kevin Zucker and , with cartography and graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen.

After TSR took over SPI in 1982, they attempted to get a quick return on their money by publishing several SPI games that had been close to publication such as Battle Over Britain, and they re-published several popular SPI titles such as Napoleon's Last Battles.

In the 1990s, Decision Games acquired the rights to the game and republished it with revised and streamlined rules.

Reception[]

In Issue 53 of Moves, Ian Chadwick reviewed all four of the scenarios and the overall campaign game. He called Quatre Bras "short and sweet"; Ligny somewhat constrained by map size; Wavre "short, fast, and furious"; La Belle Alliance "a good, tight game, one with plenty of excitement"; and the campaign game "long and slow [but] it's a good game for both sides." Overall his impression was that "This is one of those rare games were everything seems to work well; the folios are excellent, the campaign game — while not perfect — is good, the rules clean and easily understood, and the components superb." He concluded by giving the game an "A" for playability, an "B+" for historical accuracy, and an "A" for component quality, saying, "A delight and a must in the collection of Napoleonic and tactical buffs."[1]

In Issue 11 of Phoenix (Jan-Feb 1978), Ian Daglish called both the map and the counters "vastly improved" over previous SPI Napoleonic products. And despite having a large number of counters to maneuver, Daglish found the game "still flows very nicely." He concluded with a strong recommendation, saying, "Napoleon's Last Battles is a set of four highly enjoyable games. It is also one of the best simulations of the whole Waterloo campaign that you will come across."[2]

A year later, in Issue 17 of Phoenix (Jan-Feb 1979), Jeff Parker compared Napoleon's Last Battles and 1815: The Waterloo Campaign by Games Designers Workshop, two wargames published in 1976, and held both of them up as better Napoleonic wargames than previous products, saying, "Any collector of good boardgames who is also a student of Napoleonic warfare would have these two games. A moulding of the best ideas from each will give a game which goes far towards ameliorating many of the criticisms which can be levelled at the earliest Napoleonic games."[3]

Napoleon's Last Battles was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Chris "Gerry" Klug commented "Napoleon's Last Battles is one of the best pencil-and-paper military simulations ever because it's a gloriously wonderful blend of solid, no-frills design, intelligent packaging, and a synergistic combination of the two that delivers a game that is (perhaps unintentionally) more than intended and results in a very happy consumer."[4]

Other reviews[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Chadwick, Ian (October–November 1980). "C'est La Guerre: a Survey of Napoleonic Games, Part II". Moves. No. 53. pp. 7–8.
  2. ^ Daglish, Ian (January–February 1978). "Napoleon's Last Battles Reviewed". Phoenix. No. 11. p. 15.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  3. ^ Parker, Jeff (January–February 1979). "Thoughts on the Napoleonic wargame". Phoenix. No. 17. pp. 5–7.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  4. ^ Klug, Chris "Gerry" (2007). "Napoleon's Last Battles". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 213–216. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  5. ^ "Les dernières batailles de Napoléon | Article | RPGGeek".
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