A Fair Battlefield Napoleonic Boardgame

A Fair Battlefield is a free print and play boardgame set in a

pseudo-Napoleonic era. To win, you must push the opposing army back or outmaneuver it, so that your own army can advance and eventually carry The Flag into the other player’s territory. Meanwhile, the opponent can engage you in battles to stop your advancement and try to take control of The Flag.

In A Fair Battleground, skillful deployment and maneuvering is more important than raw impact, but typical winning tactical moves of the era like attacking the opposing armies from behind are forbidden. Asymmetry between players is given not by a different mix of forces or objectives, but rather by the interplay of two pairs of opposing roles (Advancing vs Contending and Attacker vs Defender) that the two players take and exchange during the game. These roles determine both what the players can do and when they can do it, as well as which of the different armies are more useful to each of them.

Battle resolution is basically luck-less, but a simple optional rule that adds a random factor is provided for players who prefer luck-based systems.

Brigade Commander Napoleonic Rules

Brigade Commander is a set of Napoleonic Rules. The author writes:

The inspiration and model for this rules set has come from two very fine existing published rules sets.

The first “De Bellis Antiquitatis“ is a simple yet wonderful quick-play focused mode that models warfare in the ancient world.

The second set “Chef de Battailon” is an exceedingly detailed set of Napoleonic rules with each commander controling a single battalion. In this set, the player is constantly faced by the nightmare of moving troops around terrain while under fire.

Both sets are excellent at what they do, but as the main designer of these rules I wanted the detail of “Chef” and the speed of “De Bellis”. Much play testing and tinkering has resulted in the set of rules you now hold.

Elan Deluxe Napoleonic Rules

Elan Deluxe is a set of free rules for playing Napoleonic wargames. Once published professionally, it now is available online. This is a very well done, and interesting set of rules. The nominal scale is 1-50, with units representing battalions and regiments.

Napnuts Peninsular Campaign Rules

The Napnuts site has a set of rules for conducting a Napoleonic Peninsular campaign. The Peninsular Campaign makes for a good campaign because of its relatively limited scope.

Napnuts Uniform Guide

The Singapore miniature wargaming group that calls itself the NapNuts offers a page of Napoleonic Uniform Guides.