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Overview

Grande Tactique is a rules system for playing miniature wargames set in the Napoleonic era (1792-1815).  Please feel free to explore the Rules on this site using the menus above, along with the Diagrams and Resources. You can also download a .pdf of the rules for free.  Grande Tactique is released free to the public under a Creative Commons (BY) License.

 

In a nutshell:

 

  1. It's FAST-PLAY: Because its mechanics are quite simple compared to most Napoleonic-era rules, two players should be able to play an exciting, eventful battle in about two hours.
     

  2. It's CORPS-LEVEL: One or two infantry units together make a Brigade, four to five make a Division. The rules work best when each player handles one Corps.  Larger battles, with multiple corps, need either more players (each taking a corps) or more time (perhaps 4-5 hours for a large battle like Austerlitz).  An ordinary-sized dining room table will easily accomodate a corps-level battle, with lots of room left for maneuvre; a large battle like Austerlitz would need a ping-pong table.
     

  3. It's EXCITING: Becaues the rules simulate the management of a battle by a Corps or Army commander, with command decisions being effected by Divisional generals, actual confrontations at the regimental level are partly (though by no means wholly) out of your hands.  This means you have to react to, and plan for, developments at the battlefield level rather than micromanaging battalions; it also means that individual confrontations between regiments always have an element of suspense and drama.
     

  4. It's HISTORICAL: Battles are won and lost on momentum, on exploitation, on the efficient use of reserves, and on planning for contingencies. There is always the chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, as at Marengo or Eylau or Waterloo.
     

  5. It's COLLABORATIVE: Because of the element of random chance which generals have to manage, ultimately the outcome of a battle is unforeseeable, and even the best plans can falter or the worst troops can suddenly find their courage and save the day.  This encourages an atmosphere of collaboration between players, who become observers of a reimagined historical event more than attack dogs seeking to destroy an opponent.  As Wellington said, "Generals commanding armies have something better to do than to shoot at each other," and it is in this collaborative spirit that these rules are written and freely distributed to the public.

 

Those familiar with many different Napoleonic rules systems may find it helpful to have a quick summary of the mechanics:

 

  • No distance firing for infantry: Infantry must be in base-contact to fire. Artillery range is 7" for effective fire, 12" for long range.
     

  • No casualty-counting: Units are either eager (the default), shaken (from being fired on), or routed. 
     

  • Units are hard to destroy: Units are destroyed only by being surrounded when required to flee or by routing off-table.  This means there is a lot of rallying and a command only disintegrates when the general truly loses control over it.
     

  • Morale Checks happen at the start of every turn (shaken units try to regroup), when charging or being charged, or when shaken and on the losing end of a firefight.
     

  • DBM-style PIPs allow generals a limited number of moves / actions per turn, depending on a die-roll, their role in a Plan, and the quality of the general.
     

  • Simple Sequence of Play: Try to De-shake; Get & Use PIPs; Firing Phase; Charge Phase.
     

  • Limited formation-changes: Infantry can be in square, and artillery can be limbered or unlimbered.
     

  • Little distinction among troops: raw, ordinary, and veteran troops, but no distinction amongst various types of infantry (Light / Line / Rifle) or cavalry (save for minor bonuses for cuirassiers and lancers).
     

  • Simple terrain: hills block line-of-sight for artillery and provide a morale advantage; Built-Up Areas (BUAs), Hills, linear terrain features (walls, hedges, streams), and Redoubts provide a morale boost.
     

  • Basic relationships of arms respected: cavalry charges can be spectacular, but can go nowhere or get carried away; squares resist cavalry but are vulnerable to artillery; artillery is hard to charge from the front; cavalry is vulnerable to artillery; generals can aid units but thereby risk being carried away or killed.
     

  • What you see is what you get: There is no need for record-keeping (apart from reckoning how much time has passed, to allow reinforcements to arrive on time).  Everything is visible on the actual battlefield, with the use of markers to indicate Firing, Shaken, or Routing troops and Limbered or Silenced artillery.  There are no zones of control, the rules for contacting enemy in the flank or rear are very commonsensical, and artillery line-of-sight is generous rather than hair-splitting.

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