Commands & Colors: Napoleonics

The Commands & Colors games are relatively simple, two-player wargames. As you'd expect, the players have units (wooden blocks) to manoeuvre on the battlefield (the board, laid with tiles to show terrain). However, at the heart of the game are the players' hands of cards. These provide the players with tactical options while also constraining them – you may have an attacking opportunity on the left flank, but without the right cards, it's wasted.

This may sound artificial, but it is a brilliant way of simulating the way commands go astray, commanders make mistakes and units head in the wrong direction (think Charge of the Light Brigade). Instead of having a God-like oversight of the battlefield, players are reduced to mere mortals, fumbling to get the right forces in the right place at the right time.

The key to victory in Commands & Colors: Napoleonics is, of course, combining infantry, cavalry and artillery effectively – the challenge facing Generals of the period. The game provides national military units, the rules to make the game work and 15 scenarios that re-create battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The base game focuses on the Peninsular War when Wellington's British troops and their Portuguese allies took on the French army. The expansions (see below) add other nations' armies and new scenarios covering other parts of the Napoleonic Wars, while the CDG Solo System provides a clever way of playing solitaire.

I really like the way the game captures the flavour of warfare in this period, while remaining accessible to casual players and playing in a sensible length of time. Great stuff! I now have the 5th printing, which GMT say will be the last in the game's current format.

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes: £80.00 (£66.67 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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An illustration of deployed Commands & Colors: Napoleonics playing pieces from the rules

 
Expansion 1: The Spanish Army (4th printing)

This continues the Peninsular War theme of the base game with units of the Spanish army. The eighteen scenarios include battles that precede the arrival of British forces as well as plenty that involve the British and Portuguese.

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes (requires base game): £65.00 (£54.17 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Expansion 2: The Russian Army (4th printing)

Moving into the centre of Europe, this expansion provides units of the Russian army. The twenty scenarios cover both the Russian involvement in early battles against Napoleon's France (1806-7) and battles of Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia (including the climactic Battle of Borodino).

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes (requires base game): £65.00 (£54.17 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Expansion 3: The Austrian Army (4th printing)

The Austrian Empire covered a huge swathe of Europe, embracing many nationalities... until Napoleon arrived! This expansion provides units that take in the whole variety of the Austrian army. The twenty scenarios cover battles between Austria and France from 1805 and 1809, including three covering the Austrians' final defeat at the battle of Wagram.

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes (requires base game): £65.00 (£54.17  tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Expansion 4: The Prussian Army (3rd printimg)

After being crushed by Napoleon's France in 1806, Prussia built a formidable modern army and returned to the fray in 1813. The scenarios in this expansion cover battles between the French and Prussians from 1806 and 1815, including Waterloo, of course, and the battles leading up to it. The pieces add all the Prussian forces to the game.

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes (requires base game): £65.00 (£54.17 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Expansion 5: Generals, Marshals, Tacticians (2nd printing)

The key addition of this expansion is a set of Tactician cards. These add tactical elements to the battles, depending on the Generals involved, and are played alongside the Command cards. To make this easier, the expansion also includes a revised set of Command cards along with details of applying the cards to the existing scenarios. There are, of course, plenty of new scenarios included as well.

For 2 players, aged 12+, playing time 90 minutes (requires base game): £60.00 (£50.00 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Expansion 6: Epic

The main component of this expansion is two new, double-sided boards. These can be set up to provide a wider, deeper battlefield (the "Epic" set-up), with more room to manoeuvre behind the lines, or as a long battlefield ("La Grande Battaille") for teams of players on both sides (up to three Corps commanders with a commander-in-chief). As well as scenarios for both of these formats, the expansion adds some standard scenarios (from the battle of Austerlitz) and provides extra terrain tiles and markers as well as a second set of dice. Note that you will need the other expansions (as well as the base game) to play specific scenarios.

For 2-8 players, aged 12+, playing time several hours (requires base game and other expansions): £65.00 (£54.17 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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CDG Solo System #2

The solo system for card-driven games was originally designed by 'Stuka Joe'. Ken Kuhn has developed this further and produced specific implementations for half a dozen of GMT's games. In particular the second pack includes Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (and/or Commands & Colors: Medieval). It allows a single person to play both sides in a scenario without having full knowledge of each side's options until it's that side's turn. It's a really clever way of ensuring a solitaire player can't second-guess themself.

For 1 player, aged 12+, playing time several hours (requires base game): £18.00 (£15.00 tax-free outside the UK)
 

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Commands & Colors: Napoleonics and the expansions were designed by Richard Borg (the solo system by Stuka Joe and Ken Kuhn) and published by GMT Games.

Other Commands & Colors games available from Games from Pevans are: Commands & Colors: Ancients (Ancient Rome), Commands & Colors: Medieval (Byzantine empire) Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles (15th-17th century Japan) and Memoir '44 (World War Two).

Find out more:
    Commands & Colors: Napoleonics on BoardGameGeek
    Pevans's review of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics
    CDG Solo System #2 on BoardGameGeek

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