Bonaparte at Marengo
Rules of Play
Table of Contents
1. Quick Start .............................................................................. 2
2. Game Equipment .................................................................... 2
3. Introduction to Play ................................................................ 2
4. Playing Pieces .......................................................................... 2
5. The Game Board ..................................................................... 2
6. Setting up the Game................................................................ 3
7. Sequence of Play...................................................................... 4
version: 2006.04.09 - text changes from the original printed rules are in red.
8. Movement ................................................................................ 4
9. Maneuver Attacks ................................................................... 6
10. Artillery Bombardment ........................................................ 6
11. Assaults ................................................................................... 7
12. Retreats .................................................................................. 9
13. Demoralization .................................................................... 10
14. Winning the Game .............................................................. 10
2 Bonaparte at Marengo
1. Quick Start
One way to learn the game is by reading the
rules straight through from cover to cover and
then playing it. This is not, however, the only
way. A different approach is to mix reading and
playing. The following is a suggested way to
mix them:
(1) Read sections 2 through 3. These intro-
duce the game.
(2) Read sections 4 and 5. These explain the
playing pieces and game board. The pieces are
simple, but the game board is not and it is help-
ful to look at it while reading about it.
(3) Set up the game by following the steps
in section 6.
(4) Play the first two turns for each side,
reading sections 7 and 8 – on the sequence of
play and movement – while doing so. Neither
side should attempt to attack on these two turns
(this is just for ease of learning: it is not a rule).
(5) Play the third and subsequent turns for
each side. From this point on, either side may
attack. On making a maneuver attack, read sec-
tion 9. On making a bombardment attack, read
section 10. On making an assault, read section
11. On making a retreat, read section 12.
(6) When the first losses are inflicted, read
sections 13 and 14 on morale and victory condi-
tions.
(7) Try to keep the game going until all the
rules have been read. After that players should
feel free to start over or continue the game,
whichever they prefer.
2. Game Equipment
The game equipment consists of:
• 80 wooden playing pieces. These repre-
sent the armies that fought at the battle
of Marengo. Color identifies them as
French or Austrian, and symbols on
them identify their type and strength.
• One 22" x 30" game board. The game
board is a map of the Marengo battle-
field, with various play aids along the
edges. Symbols on the map determine
how pieces may move and fight.
• Three markers for record-keeping.
• Two copies of the twelve-page rules
booklet.
3. Introduction to Play
Bonaparte at Marengo is a two player game.
One player controls the French pieces and the
other controls the Austrian pieces. In the game,
each player attempts to defeat the other by elim-
inating his pieces and controlling territory.
The game is played as a series of 16 rounds,
each representing an hour of the day of the bat-
tle: June 14, 1800. In each round, the two play-
ers take turns moving their pieces and attacking
those of their opponent.
sections 1-5 • quick start, game equipment, introduction to play, playing pieces, game board
At the start, the map is controlled by the
French player, but his forces are scattered; some
are on the map at start but others enter later. The
Austrian army is concentrated, but must enter
the map from an entry point on the west edge,
and attempt to destroy the French pieces and
drive east to take control of the map.
Because many of their pieces are in play at
the start, the French are stronger at the begin-
ning. However, the Austrian pieces will en-
ter rapidly, and by the middle of the game the
strength advantage will have shifted to them.
Towards the end of the game, the last French
reinforcements will arrive and may, depending
on relative losses, give them back the advantage
over the Austrians.
4. Playing Pieces
The playing pieces represent the French and
Austrian armies at the battle. They are wooden
blocks, 1½" x ¼" x ¼" in size. The pieces that
represent the French army are blue. The pieces
that represent the Austrian army are red. Some
example pieces are shown below:
One side of each piece has symbols to indi-
cate its type and strength. That side is called the
piece’s face.
There are three types of symbols:
for infantry pieces
for cavalry pieces
for artillery pieces
The number of symbols on a piece indicates
its strength: one symbol for each strength point.
Of the three example pieces above, the top piece
is a three-strength infantry piece, the middle
piece is a two-strength cavalry piece, and the
bottom piece is a one-strength artillery piece.
Usually, only the player who owns a piece
is entitled to see its face. This normal state is
called face-down. (Note: this is not necessarily
literally face down – players who sit on oppo-
site sides of the board will usually prefer to keep
their pieces’ faces towards themselves, which is
convenient and suffices to hide them from their
opponent.)
In some situations, the opposing player has a
right to see the face side, and in those situations
the face side is turned towards the ceiling. This
is called face-up.
At the start of his turn, a player is permit-
ted to do an out of sight “shuffle” of his pieces
which are together in the same place on the map;
this allows each player a way to restore secrecy
for any pieces that earlier had been face-up.
For the mutual convenience of both players
in keeping the faces of their pieces hidden, here
are some courtesy suggestions:
• If a player needs to leave his seat or
change his position so that he would be
able to see the faces of his opponent’s
pieces, he should give his opponent no-
tice beforehand so that his opponent can
hide the faces of his pieces by turning
them literally “face-down”.
• A player should refrain from handling
the pieces of his opponent.
• A player should not handle pieces from
different places at the same time. This is
to avoid the suspicion that pieces might
have been secretly swapped in the pro-
cess.
When a piece has to be reduced in strength
as a result of an attack, it is removed and another
piece of the same type – but a lower strength – is
put in its place. For this reason, in addition to
full-strength pieces, the game also includes low-
strength replacement pieces. As a convenience,
a few spare full-strength pieces are provided as
well. Because of this, don’t be alarmed if after
setting up the game, pieces are left over; there
are supposed to be pieces left over.
A full-strength infantry piece represents
about 1600 men and any battalion guns attached
to them. A full-strength cavalry piece represents
about 1000 troopers. A full-strength artillery
piece represents about 40 guns and their crews.
5. The Game Board
Most of the game board consists of a map
of the battlefield. Some space on the edges is
devoted to play aids.
The map portion of the game board is di-
vided into polygons to regulate movement and
combat. These polygons are called locales. The
faces of the polygons are called approaches.
An example of a locale with three approach-
es is shown below:
4
The symbols used that define locales are as fol-
lows:
sections 5,6 • game board, setting up the game
is an approach. Approaches
can be either narrow (as wide
as one piece) or wide (as wide
as two pieces). Printed on each
approach are various symbols
showing the effects of terrain
on movement and attacks into
that approach.
is an infantry attack penalty. For each
of these in an approach, infantry at-
tacks against pieces defending the ap-
proach are reduced in strength by one.
is an cavalry attack penalty. For each
of these in an approach, cavalry attacks
against pieces defending the approach
are reduced in strength by one.
is an artillery attack penalty. For each
of these in an approach, artillery at-
tacks against pieces defending the ap-
proach are reduced in strength by one.
is an impassable approach. Pieces can-
not move in either direction across an
approach with this symbol.
is a cavalry-obstructing approach.
Cavalry is restricted in attack or de-
fense of an approach with this symbol.
4 is the capacity of the locale. This the
maximum number of pieces the locale
can hold (in this case, four).
The example locale above has three approaches
and a capacity limit of four pieces. The top ap-
proach has an infantry attack penalty of one, is
cavalry-obstructing, and has an artillery attack
penalty of one. The left approach is impassable.
The right approach has an infantry attack pen-
alty of one and a cavalry attack penalty of one.
In addition to the symbols representing ter-
rain effects, a few special symbols are present in
some locales. These are as follows:
indicates that French pieces are
in this locale at the start of the
game. The number of symbols
indicates the number of French
pieces that start in that locale
(see section 6 for details).
indicates that the locale is a
game objective. There are
three colors of stars: red, green,
and blue (see section 14 for de-
tails).
Locales define the positions of pieces. A
piece that is in play can be in one and only one
locale at any one time – a piece may not straddle
locales.
Within a locale, pieces can be either in the
middle of the locale, which is referred to as be-
ing in reserve, or they can be across one of the
approaches, which is referred to as blocking
that approach.
An example of how pieces can be positioned
in a locale is shown below:
6
(Pieces are face-up for illustration only.
In the example above, the infantry and the
cavalry pieces are blocking the top approach
into the locale, while the artillery piece is in re-
serve in the center. For clarity, pieces blocking
approaches should be oriented the same way as
the approach. Pieces in reserve may be oriented
any way the player owning the piece desires (the
orientation of reserve pieces is strictly a matter
of convenience – it has no effect on play).
Except on the edges of the map and around
areas of impassable terrain, approaches are al-
ways found in opposing pairs, as shown in the
example below:
Opposing pairs of approaches are the boundar-
ies between adjacent locales. It is only through
pairs of opposing approaches that pieces can
move or attack between locales. Locales on ei-
ther side of an approach pair are referred to ad-
jacent locales, and for each approach in the pair
the other approach is referred to as the opposite
approach. Similarly, the locale containing the
opposite approach is referred to as the opposite
locale. It is well worth noting in this context that
the combat penalties for approaches in opposing
pairs can be different from each other: in the ex-
ample above, cavalry attacking from the upper
approach to the lower would do so at a strength
penalty of one, but cavalry attacking from the
lower approach to the upper would not be under
any strength penalty.
Some locales are connected by roads. Roads
are depicted on the map as thin red or brown
lines. Red lines denote primary roads. Brown
lines denote secondary roads. Roads affect the
movement of pieces: pieces can be moved far-
ther in a turn if they are moving along a road.
Additionally, pieces moving along primary roads
are exempted from the command limit (see sec-
tion 8 for details). An example of a locale with a
road passing through it is shown below:
Bonaparte at Marengo
3
4
In the above example, pieces could enter or
leave the locale by road through either the left
or bottom approaches, but not by the right ap-
proach because the road does not cross that ap-
proach.
There are other markings on the map show-
ing hills, woods, marshes, rivers, streams, sunk-
en roads and towns. These are cosmetic and do
not affect play. (The effects of the depicted ter-
rain are incorporated into the sizes and shapes of
the locales and the terrain penalties on the locale
approaches).
On the edges of the game board are the fol-
lowing play aids:
• Time Track. This is for keeping track of
the current round.
• Morale Track. This aid is for keeping
track of morale – see the demoralization
rules (section 13) for details.
• French “At Start” Display. This shows
the French pieces that are deployed on
the map at the start of the game.
• Reinforcement Displays. These show
Austrian and French pieces that enter
the game as reinforcements, and show
where and when they enter. There are
four such displays: one Austrian and
three French.
Note: Players accustomed to traditional war
games may be surprised by the absence of dice,
combat results tables or terrain effects tables.
Combat is resolved by a comparison of strength,
and terrain effects are designed into the map it-
self.
6. Setting up the Game
To set up the game, players should do the
following:
(1) Put a marker on the 6:00 AM space on
the Time Track.
(2) On the Morale Track, put down two
markers for tracking the morale levels of the two
armies. The starting locations for those markers
are printed on the track itself.
(3) The players should get out the game
pieces and sort them into the following groups
(pieces should be face-up while this is done):
• A group for the pieces in the French “At
Start” Display.
4
Bonaparte at Marengo
• Four groups for the four Reinforcement
Entry Displays
• Replacement pieces for handling losses.
(4) The French pieces from the “At Start”
Display should be put in a box and gently shaken
by the Austrian player, who does not look into the
box. Then, for each locale that contains French
pieces at the start of the game, the French player
does a blind draw for the number of pieces that
are to start in that locale. The French player may
not look into the box as he draws pieces, but he
can look at them as he puts them down so that
he can orient them face-down.
(5) For Reinforcement Displays, the player
who owns the pieces in each display turns them
face-down. He may shuffle them in order to
conceal which pieces are which.
(6) In the historical battle, the Austrian at-
tack surprised the French. To reflect this, French
pieces on the map at start cannot move (see sec-
tion 8) until activated. A French piece can be
activated in either of the following ways:
• An adjacent locale is enemy-occupied at
the start of the French player’s turn.
• The French player selects it for activa-
tion. The French player may select one
piece at the start of his first turn. At the
start of each subsequent turn, he may
select two more pieces if: (1) a French
set-up locale was ever enemy-occupied
(whether it still is it or not), or (2) it is
11:00 AM or later.
Once activated, a French piece stays activated
from that point on. French reinforcements do
not need to be activated; they can move normal-
ly when they enter play. A piece can block or re-
treat from maneuver attacks (see sections 9 and
10) before being activated. The French player
should not shuffle activated and non-activated
pieces. A suggested way for the French player
to keep track of which pieces are inactive is to
keep the inactive pieces literally “face-down”.
7. Sequence of Play
The game is played as a series of 16
rounds.
A round is divided into two turns. In each
round, the first turn is the Austrian player’s turn,
and the second turn is the French player’s turn.
The Austrian player’s turn consists of the
following steps:
(1) The Austrian player resolves artillery
bombardments declared in his previ-
ous turn. See section 10.
(2) The Austrian player conducts infantry
and cavalry assaults. See section 11.
(3) The Austrian player conducts move-
ment. See section 8.
(4) The Austrian player declares any artil-
lery bombardments he wants to con-
duct in his next turn. See section 10.
sections 6-8 • setting up the game, sequence of play, movement
The French player’s turn is structured the
same as the Austrian turn, except with the roles
of the two players reversed.
At the end of every round, the marker on the
Time Track is advanced one space. This contin-
ues until the last round, after which victory is
determined, as per section 14.
8. Movement
In a player’s turn, he may move his pieces
that are on the map and may bring onto the map
any eligible reinforcement pieces. Once on,
pieces may not move off the map again.
In general, each piece can either move with-
in a locale (from reserve to blocking or from
blocking to reserve), or to an adjacent locale.
The only way a piece can move to a non-adja-
cent locale in a single turn is by road.
Pieces are moved in groups. A group consists
of one or more pieces that start in the same place
and end in the same place and are moved at the
same time. Pieces are considered to be in the
same place if they are in the same locale, and ei-
ther in reserve together or blocking the same ap-
proach together. Note: a piece moving by road is
always in a group by itself – even if other pieces
are moving by road to and from the same place,
they still must be moved separately.
A player is limited to moving no more than
three groups and/or conducting three assaults
(see section 11) per turn. This limit is called the
command limit. This is a combined limit for
both – i.e. a player does not have one limit for
groups moved and a second limit for assaults.
Pieces blocking enemy maneuver attacks
(see section 9), conducting artillery attacks (see
section 10), and retreating (see section 12) do
not count against the command limit. Also ex-
cepted are pieces moving by road on primary
roads – any number of pieces may move on pri-
mary roads in a turn.
A player may move his groups in any order
he pleases.
A piece may only be moved once in a turn.
Once it has been moved, it may not be moved
again that turn.
A player may not move pieces into a locale
if that would cause the number of pieces he has
in that locale (not counting any enemy pieces) to
exceed the locale’s capacity limit.
The capacity limit is for the entire locale.
There are no sub-limits for reserve or blocking.
Any or all of the pieces in a particular locale can
be in reserve or blocking a particular approach.
A piece may not move to block an approach
unless the locale opposite that approach is en-
emy-occupied. Should the enemy pieces later
leave the opposite locale, the blocking pieces
must move into reserve - they cannot remain
and continue to block the approach. Such block-
ing pieces may move into reserve in the same
locale without it counting against the command
limit, but if they move into the opposite locale,
the move does count against the command limit.
If the enemy pieces left in the enemy turn, the
blocking pieces must leave in the next friendly
turn; if the enemy pieces left in the friendly turn,
then the blocking pieces must leave in that same
friendly turn (NOTE: if the blocking pieces had
already moved in that turn, they still must move
out, but they must move back into reserve in the
same locale; they cannot proceed into the op-
posite locale).
Pieces are prohibited from moving across
impassable approaches.
Pieces cannot move across an approach that
is blocked by enemy pieces. An enemy-blocked
approach can only be crossed by assault (see
section 11).
Pieces may attempt to move into an enemy
occupied locale, provided that the approach they
are crossing is not enemy-blocked (none of the
enemy pieces in the locale are blocking the ap-
proach the moving pieces are crossing). Such a
move is called a maneuver attack – see section
9 for details.
The legal movement options for a piece de-
pend on which of the following cases apply:
• The piece starts the turn in reserve (and
is not moving by road).
• The piece starts the turn blocking an ap-
proach.
• The piece is moving by road.
• The piece is cavalry.
• The piece is entering the map as a rein-
forcement.
The rest of the rules in this section will ex-
amine each of these cases in turn.
A piece in reserve at the start of the turn
(and which is not moving by road) has the fol-
lowing movement choices:
• It may move to reserve in an adjacent
locale.
• It may move to block an approach of the
locale it occupies.
The following example demonstrates these
choices:
4
Pieces are face-up for illustration only.
In the example shown above, the infantry
piece may move to block the approach to the top
sections 8 • movement
locale but may not move into it because the ap-
proach is enemy-blocked. It may move into re-
serve in the locale to right – but may not block
the approach to it because the locale is not en-
emy-occupied. It may not block or cross the ap-
proach to the left because it is impassable.
A piece blocking an approach at the start of
a turn has the following movement choices:
• It may move into reserve in the locale it
occupies.
• It may move into the locale opposite the
approach it occupies.
The following example demonstrates these
choices:
16
12
6
Pieces are face-up for illustration only.
In the example shown above, the top infantry
piece may move into reserve to the left, but may
not move into the opposite locale to the right
because the approach is enemy-blocked. The
bottom infantry piece can either move into re-
serve at the top-left, or it can move into reserve
in the opposite locale to the bottom-right (note:
the bottom infantry piece cannot stay where it is,
but may move to the top-left without that move
counting against the command limit).
A piece moving by road can move along the
road for up to three locales in a single turn, fol-
lowing the road from locale to locale. In order
to use road movement, however, it must start
its turn in reserve in a locale containing a road.
Additionally, approaches and locales through
which a piece moves by road must meet both of
the following requirements:
• They must be connected by an unbroken
road.
• They must not be occupied by enemy
pieces.
At the end of a road move, a piece is in reserve.
Roads have a limited capacity. Only three
pieces may cross any one approach by any one
road in a single turn. Of these, only one can be
on its first move of the turn, only one can be
on its second move of the turn, and only one
can be on its third move of the turn. The moves
must be made in order (i.e. a piece using its first
move cannot cross after a piece using its second
or third, and a piece using its second move can-
not cross after a piece using its third) and must
be in the same direction. In order to accommo-
date this limit, a piece is permitted to wait on
one of its three moves while another piece uses
the road.
There are approaches crossed by more than
one road. In such cases, each road has its own
capacity for that approach, independent of the
other.
The example below illustrates road move-
ment:
9
Pieces are face-up for illustration only.
In the example shown above, the cavalry
piece is the first to move and moves the full
three locales. The infantry piece moves second,
but can only move two locales because it has
to give up its first move waiting for the cavalry.
The artillery piece moves third, but can only
move one locale because it has to give up its
first move waiting for the cavalry and its second
move waiting for the infantry. The pieces cannot
move by road through any of the approaches on
the right or bottom of the example because the
road does not cross them.
A cavalry piece that ends its move in reserve
may continue its move and block an approach
in that locale, provided that the locale opposite
that approach is enemy-occupied. This is called
continuation.
A cavalry piece that starts its move block-
ing an approach may not move back into reserve
in the same locale and then use continuation to
block a different approach in that same locale.
A cavalry piece may use continuation after a
road move, but only to an approach that is con-
nected by road to the road on which the piece
moved. There is no command limit cost if the
entire move (including continuation) is by pri-
mary road. Note: a cavalry piece that starts its
turn in reserve on a primary road is permitted to
“move” in place and then use continuation along
the primary road (at no command limit cost) to
block an approach in that same locale.
Bonaparte at Marengo
5
Continuation is at the end of a move – after
a piece has used continuation, it may not move
any further that turn.
Cavalry may split off from a group to per-
form continuation, but it becomes a new group
and incurs an additional command limit cost
when it does so.
A cavalry piece using continuation must be
turned up to demonstrate that the piece is cav-
alry. It can be turned face-down afterwards.
The example below shows the continuation
ability of cavalry:
6
4
Pieces are face-up for illustration only.
In the example shown above, the gray ar-
row indicates the move that any type of piece
(infantry, cavalry, or artillery) could make. The
two black arrows show the continuation choices
available to cavalry. Note that the cavalry could
not block the approach on the left, because the
locale opposite that approach is not enemy-oc-
cupied.
A piece entering the map as a reinforce-
ment does so using road movement (exception:
see the paragraph below). The first piece to enter
from a given entry point in a turn is on its first
move and can move three locales, the second is
on its second move and can move two locales,
and the third pieces is on its third move and can
move one locale. A piece is not permitted to
enter play if the entry locale is at its capacity
limit or enemy-occupied; it must wait until the
condition no longer applies. If there are more
pieces than can enter in one turn, the remainder
can enter in subsequent turns.
In the historical battle, the Austrians threw
a pontoon bridge across the Bormida River. To
reflect this, in addition to being able to bring
pieces on by road, they can bring one additional
piece in per turn using non-road movement. As
with normal reinforcements, this piece may not
be brought in if the entry locale is at its capacity
limit or enemy-occupied. A piece crossing the
pontoon bridge counts as a separate group for
the command limit.
6 Bonaparte at Marengo
Order of entry for reinforcements is up to the
player controlling the pieces.
Reinforcement entry is optional. Because a
player is able to bring reinforcements into play
in a given turn does not mean that he has to: he
can wait until a later turn if he chooses.
9. Maneuver Attacks
A maneuver attack is a move by friendly
pieces into an enemy-occupied locale. Maneuver
attacks occur during movement and are part of
movement.
A maneuver attack can only be made across
an approach that is not blocked by enemy piec-
es.
A group making a maneuver attack into cav-
alry-obstructing terrain must include at least one
infantry piece. When making an attack into such
terrain, a player must turn one of the attacking
pieces face-up to show that it is infantry. The
piece may be turned face-down again at the end
of the move.
A cavalry piece may make maneuver attacks
while moving by road. Infantry and artillery
pieces may not. A cavalry piece doing so must
be turned face up to show that it is cavalry. It
can be turned face-down again at the end of the
attack. A cavalry piece moving along a primary
road may make a maneuver attack without los-
ing its exemption from the command limit.
A maneuver attack does not automatically
succeed. There are two possible outcomes:
(1) Blocked. The enemy player may choose
to block the attack if the following conditions
apply:
• The attacking pieces started their turn in
reserve. If the attacking pieces started
their turn blocking the approach, the
attack cannot be blocked.
• The enemy player has one or more piec-
es in reserve in the locale.
If the enemy player chooses to block the attack,
then he must move one or more of his pieces
from reserve in the locale to block the approach.
The attacking player then chooses to either
leave his pieces in place (this would still count
against the command limit), advance to block
the opposite approach (a cavalry piece moving
by road does not lose its command limit exemp-
tion by doing this), or split the group and have
some advance and some remain in place (split-
ting the group requires an additional command).
This ends the attacking pieces’ movement for
the turn.
(2) Successful. If the enemy player was not
able or willing to block the move, the enemy
pieces must retreat (see section 12). The friend-
ly pieces then move into reserve in the locale. If
the friendly pieces are cavalry pieces moving by
road, they may continue their move according to
sections 9,10 • maneuver attacks, artillery bombardment
the rules of road movement – including making
additional maneuver attacks as they proceed.
Below are two examples of maneuver at-
tacks. The first example shows a blocked result
and the second shows a successful result:
6
4
Pieces face-up are for illustration only.
In the (blocked) example shown above, the
light gray arrow shows the infantry piece con-
ducting a maneuver attack into the locale occu-
pied by the enemy cavalry piece. The dark gray
arrow shows the enemy cavalry piece blocking
the approach. The black arrows show the choic-
es the infantry piece has after being blocked: to
stay in reserve where it is or block the approach
opposite the one blocked by the enemy.
6 celled at the time the bombardment is to be re-
4
Pieces face-up are for illustration only.
In the (successful) example shown above, the
black arrow shows the infantry piece conduct-
ing a maneuver attack into the locale occupied
by the enemy cavalry piece. The gray arrow
shows the enemy cavalry piece retreating from
the locale. Because the enemy piece retreated,
the maneuver attack succeeds and the infantry
piece moves into the locale.
10. Artillery Bombardment
A bombardment is when an artillery piece
fires at enemy pieces (each side has only one
artillery piece, so the problem of attacks by
multiple artillery pieces doesn’t arise). The ar-
tillery piece is the attacking piece and the enemy
pieces targeted by the bombardment are the de-
fending pieces.
Only an artillery piece may conduct a bom-
bardment. Infantry and cavalry pieces may not
conduct bombardments.
A bombardment takes two turns to conduct. A
bombardment is declared (and the piece turned
face-up) at the end of a player’s turn, but is not
resolved until the following turn. Additionally,
an artillery piece may not declare a bombard-
ment in the same turn in which it fired (the effect
is that artillery can only fire every other turn).
An artillery piece may move in the same turn
in which it declares a bombardment, but it may
not move in the same turn in which the bom-
bardment is resolved. Exception: if an artillery
piece is forced to move after a bombardment be-
cause it is blocking an approach with no enemy
pieces in the opposite locale, it must move back
into reserve in the same locale.
An artillery piece may not assault in the
same turn in which a bombardment by it is de-
clared or resolved.
In his turn, a player is not obligated to de-
clare a bombardment; bombardment is always
optional.
A piece may only conduct one bombardment
in a turn. Once it has fired, it may not fire again
that turn.
In order for an artillery piece to conduct a
bombardment, it must be blocking an approach:
it may not be in reserve. The targeted enemy
pieces must be in the locale opposite that ap-
proach.
A bombardment declaration may be can-
solved, either because there is no longer a target
or at the discretion of the bombarding player. If
a bombardment is cancelled, no losses are in-
flicted, the artillery is turned face-down again,
and the artillery is free to move that turn.
After a bombardment is resolved, any target-
ed pieces turned face-up during the attack are
turned face-down again. The bombarding artil-
lery remains face-up until the end of the turn.
A bombardment is resolved as follows:
(1) The target is selected. If the approach op-
posite the attacking artillery is blocked by en-
emy pieces, those pieces are the target. If the
approach is not blocked, but there are enemy
pieces in reserve in that locale, the reserve piec-
es are the target. If there are no pieces blocking
the opposite approach and there are no pieces in
reserve in the locale, the attacking player may
pick the pieces in any of the other approaches in
that locale as the target.
(2) The strength of the bombardment is cal-
culated. This is the strength of the firing artillery
piece. If the target is in the approach opposite
the attacking artillery, and there is an artil-
lery attack penalty for that approach, then the
strength of the attack is reduced by the size of
that penalty. If the target is in reserve or in some
approach other than the opposite approach, no
terrain penalty is assessed.
(3) The losses are applied. From among
the target pieces, the defending player chooses
which piece will take the losses from the attack.
For each point of strength in the attack, one
point of strength is lost. If the strength of the
attack is equal to or greater than the strength of
section 10,11 • artillery bombardment, assaults
the targeted piece, it is eliminated. The piece the
defending player chooses must be turned face-
up so that the losses are visible.
Shown below is a step-by-step example of a
bombardment. For steps involving calculations,
the numeric values for the example are in pa-
rentheses:
The bombardment is declared: the artil-
lery piece is moved in to block the approach,
the bombardment is declared, and the artillery
piece is turned face-up. Note: the target piece is
drawn a little behind the approach it occupies
so that the terrain penalty symbols for that ap-
proach can be seen.
Waiting until the next turn: the artillery is
left face-up throughout the enemy player’s turn.
The attack will be resolved during the attacking
player’s next turn.
The target is selected. There is an enemy
piece in the approach opposite the artillery
piece, so the enemy pieces in that approach are
selected as the target.
strength = 1
The strength of the bombardment is calcu-
lated. The strength of the attacking artillery
piece (1) is reduced by the terrain penalty of the
approach occupied by the defending pieces (0),
yielding the attack strength (1). (1 - 0 = 1).
Losses are applied. The bombardment had
a strength of 1, so the defender must lose 1
strength point. The defending player turns the
defending piece face-up – a two-strength infan-
try piece – and inflicts a one strength point loss
by replacing it with one of the replacement one-
strength infantry pieces.
End of the bombardment. The artillery piece
and the target infantry are returned to the nor-
mal face-down position – the defending piece
right away, the attacking piece at the end of the
turn. The artillery will be eligible to declare a
new bombardment at the end of its next turn.
11. Assaults
An assault is when one or more pieces at-
tempt to advance together across an approach
that is blocked by enemy pieces. The pieces at-
tempting the advance are the attacking pieces
and the enemy pieces blocking the approach are
the defending pieces.
In his turn, a player may make as few or as
many assaults as he likes, up to his command
limit.
Assaults are resolved one at a time; the re-
sults of one assault are applied before the next
can be started.
Only one assault can be made across a given
approach per turn, but multiple pieces can par-
ticipate in it. An assault costs one against the
command limit, regardless of the number of
pieces participating.
A group of pieces attacking in an assault must
include at least one piece that can be used as a
leading piece (see step 1 of the assault resolu-
tion sequence below for an explanation). Other
pieces can participate in the attack even if they
are not leading it.
In order for pieces to participate in an assault
together, they must be blocking an approach
together – they may not be blocking different
approaches and they may not be in reserve. The
target for an assault is always the locale oppo-
site the approach the attacking pieces occupy.
A piece may not conduct an assault and move
in the same turn. If a piece conducts an assault,
it may not move until the next turn.
If a locale is taken by an assault, no other
friendly pieces may move into that locale that
turn other than those that participated in that
assault.
If the attacking pieces are defeated in an
assault, no friendly pieces may move across
the approach that was assaulted that turn, even
if the defending pieces blocking the approach
were eliminated by the assault. Friendly pieces
Bonaparte at Marengo
7
may assault or move into the locale across other
approaches.
If a locale is taken by an assault, any cavalry
among the assaulting pieces may use continu-
ation and block any approach in that locale if
the locale opposite it is enemy-occupied. If
this causes the group to split, each split creates
a new group and counts as a move against the
command limit.
When a player declares that an assault is to
be made from an approach, not all the pieces
blocking that approach have to participate – the
player may choose to leave some behind. In
making an assault, the attacking player must
indicate which pieces are attacking and which
are not (suggestion: one way to indicate which
pieces are attacking is to push them forward a
little so that there is a gap between the pieces
that are attacking and those staying behind).
An assault can result in losses for the at-
tacking or defending pieces, as a result of artil-
lery defense, the assault resolution, or cavalry
pursuit. As will be described later, some pieces
from each side will have been named as lead-
ing the attack or defense. Any losses must first
be applied to these leading pieces, and then, if
all the leading pieces are eliminated and more
losses are required, to the non-leading pieces.
Between multiple leading pieces, the enemy
player (the one inflicting the loss) gets to decide
how to distribute the losses. Between multiple
non-leading pieces, the friendly player (the one
suffering the loss) gets to decide how to distrib-
ute them. If the required loss is greater than the
strength of the pieces participating in the attack,
the extra losses are ignored – losses in an assault
are never applied to pieces not participating in
the attack, even if they are in the same locale as
the attacking or defending pieces.
After an assault is over, any pieces turned
face-up during the attack are turned face-down
again.
An assault is resolved as follows:
(1) Attacking leading pieces are declared.
From the pieces making the assault, the at-
tacking player must declare which are to be
the leading pieces in the attack and turn them
face-up. Only infantry or cavalry pieces with
a strength of two or more may be declared as
the leading pieces. Additionally, each leading
piece’s strength must be greater than the terrain
penalty for the attacked approach. The leading
pieces in the attack must be either all-infantry
or all-cavalry – they cannot be a mix of the two.
The minimum number of leading pieces is one.
The maximum number is one if the attacked
approach is narrow, two if wide. Note: cavalry
cannot lead an assault into cavalry-obstructed
terrain.
(2) Artillery defense is declared. If the de-
fending pieces include any artillery pieces that
did not declare or resolve a bombardment attack
in their previous turn, the defending player may
8 Bonaparte at Marengo
opt to have those pieces conduct an artillery
defense. To do so, the defending player selects
those pieces and turns them face-up.
(3) Artillery defense is resolved. If an artil-
lery defense was declared, it is resolved. For
each strength point of artillery, one strength
point of loss is suffered by the attacking pieces.
(4) Defending leading pieces are declared.
From the pieces defending the approach, the
defending player must declare which are to be
the leading pieces of the defense and turn them
face-up. The leading pieces in the defense must
be either all-infantry or all-cavalry – they cannot
be a mix of the two and they cannot be artillery.
The minimum number of leading pieces is zero.
The maximum number is one if the attacked
approach is narrow, two if wide. Note: cavalry
cannot lead the defense of a cavalry-obstructing
approach.
(5) The strength of the assault is calculated.
This is done by adding together the strengths of
all of the attacker’s leading pieces in the assault
(after applying any artillery defense losses) and
then subtracting the terrain penalty for the ap-
proach the attacking pieces are trying to take
(the infantry penalty is applied if the leading at-
tacking pieces were infantry; the cavalry penal-
ty is applied if the leading attacking pieces were
cavalry). The adjusted strength can be a nega-
tive number as a result of losses to an artillery
defense. If all the leading attacking pieces were
eliminated by artillery defense, then the strength
of the attack is zero minus the terrain penalty for
the approach.
(6) The result of the assault is calculated.
The strengths of the pieces leading the defense
are subtracted from the strength of the assault. If
there are no leading pieces for the defense, then
nothing is subtracted from the strength of the as-
sault. The difference is the assault result. If the
result is greater than zero, the attacking pieces
win; if the result is less than or equal to zero, the
defending pieces win.
(7) Losses from the assault are applied. The
winning side loses one strength point. The los-
ing side loses one strength point and one more
for each point the result was above or below
zero. Note: it is possible for all of the defend-
ing pieces to be eliminated and for the defense
to still win.
(8) Cavalry pursuit is declared. If the win-
ning player has cavalry pieces participating in
the assault, but which were not leading it, and
the losing player did not have cavalry as his
leading pieces, the winning player may choose
to declare a cavalry pursuit. If he does so, he
must declare which cavalry pieces will lead the
pursuit and turn them face-up. If the pursuit is
declared, the minimum number of pieces is one
(or else there can be no pursuit). The maximum
number is one if the attacked approach is nar-
row, two if wide. Note: a cavalry pursuit may
not be declared if the approach occupied by the
section 11 • assaults
defenders or the approach occupied by the at-
tackers is cavalry-obstructing. Cavalry pursuit
does not count against the command limit.
(9) Cavalry pursuit strength is calculated. If
a cavalry pursuit was declared, the strength is
calculated. This is done by adding the strengths
of the pursuing cavalry pieces together, and sub-
tracting from that the terrain penalty of the ap-
proach occupied by the attacker (if the defender
is pursuing) or the defender (if the attacker is
pursuing). The terrain penalty is for the ap-
proach occupied by the pieces being pursued. Attacking leading pieces are declared. The
(10) Cavalry pursuit losses are applied. If a attacking player selects a three-strength infan-
cavalry pursuit was declared, losses are applied. try piece to lead the attack and turns that piece
The pursuing cavalry takes a loss of one strength face-up.
point (this comes from the cavalry pieces carry-
ing out the pursuit, not the pieces leading the
assault). The enemy pieces take a loss equal to
the cavalry pursuit strength.
(11) The winning pieces own the locale. If
the assault was won by the defender, then the
surviving attacking pieces withdraw into reserve
in the locale from which they were attacking
and the defending pieces remain in place. If the
assault was won by the attacker, then all of the
defending player’s pieces in the locale (not just
Artillery defense is declared: the defending
those defending the approach) must retreat (sec-
player announces that he will conduct an artil-
tion 12) and the attacking pieces advance into
lery defense and turns the artillery piece face-
reserve in the locale they assaulted, after which
up.
any attacking cavalry may use continuation.
Shown below is a step-by-step example of
an assault. For steps involving calculations, the
numeric values for the example are in parenthe-
ses:
Artillery defense is resolved. The strength of
the defending artillery piece (1) is the number
of strength points the attacking pieces must lose.
The assault is declared: the two pieces at
The loss is taken from the piece leading the at-
the top are declared as conducting an assault
tack. The attacking three-strength infantry piece
against the three enemy pieces below. Note: the
is replaced with a two-strength infantry piece.
pieces are drawn a little behind the approaches
they occupy so that the terrain penalties for the
approaches can be seen.
Defending leading pieces are declared. The
defending player selects a two-strength infantry
pieces to lead the defense and turns that piece
face-up.
sections 11,12 • assaults, retreats
strength =
1
The strength of the assault is calculated. The
strengths of the leading attacking pieces are
added together (2) and the penalty for the ap-
proach blocked by the defense (1) is subtracted
yielding the assault strength (1). (2 - 1 = 1).
result = -1
The result of the assault is calculated. From
the assault strength (1), the strength of the lead-
ing pieces of the defense (2) is subtracted, yield-
ing the result (-1). (1 - 2 = -1). Because the re-
sult is less than or equal to zero, the defending
pieces defeat the attacking pieces.
Losses from the assault are applied. The de-
fending pieces won, so they lose 1. The attacking
pieces lost, so they lose 1 plus 1 for each point
the result was above or below zero (1) for a total
loss of 2 (1 + 1 = 2). The defending pieces’ loss
is applied by replacing the two-strength lead-
ing infantry piece with a one-strength infantry
piece. The attacking pieces’ loss is applied by
eliminating their two-strength leading infantry
piece.
Cavalry pursuit is declared. The defending
side won, and included cavalry that was not
leading the defense, so the defending player can
and does declare a cavalry pursuit. The pur-
suit is by a two-strength cavalry piece, which is
turned face-up.
result = 1
Cavalry pursuit result is calculated. The
strength of the cavalry (2) is reduced by the ter-
rain penalty in the approach occupied by the at-
tacker (1) yielding the pursuit result (1). (2 - 1 =
1).
Cavalry pursuit losses are applied. The pur-
suit had a strength of 1, so the attacking pieces
lose 1 strength point, which is applied by reveal-
ing and then replacing a two-strength infantry
piece with a one-strength infantry piece. The
pursuing cavalry loses 1 as well (pursuing cav-
alry always loses 1) which is applied by replac-
ing a two-strength pursuing cavalry piece with
a one-strength cavalry piece.
Bonaparte at Marengo
9
The winning side owns the locale. The de-
fending pieces win and hold their position
blocking the approach. The surviving attacking
pieces withdraw into reserve in the locale from
which they attacked. The assault is over and all
pieces involved in the assault are turned face-
down again.
12. Retreats
A retreat occurs when pieces are forced out
of the locale they occupy as a result of an enemy
maneuver attack or assault. A retreat can result
in losses to the retreating pieces.
When a player’s pieces in a locale must
retreat, all of that player’s pieces in the locale
must retreat: none can remain behind.
The withdrawal of attacking pieces after an
assault is not technically considered a retreat
and is not covered by the rules in this section.
The attacking pieces are not being forced to re-
treat to a different locale but rather are remain-
ing in the locale from which they started.
Retreating pieces are turned face-up at the
start of the retreat, and turned face-down again
at the end.
An artillery piece that is forced to retreat is
eliminated.
For infantry pieces forced to retreat from re-
serve, a one strength point loss is assessed. If
there is more than one infantry piece in the re-
serve, the retreating player chooses which piece
will suffer the loss.
Cavalry pieces forced to retreat from reserve
do not suffer any loss.
For each approach from which infantry
or cavalry pieces are forced to retreat, a one
strength point loss is assessed. (Exception: if
the retreating pieces were participants in the
assault that caused the retreat, they do not take
additional losses above and beyond what they
suffered in the assault.) If there is more than
one piece blocking the approach, the retreating
player chooses which piece will suffer the loss;
it can be either infantry or cavalry.
The retreating player gets to choose the ad-
jacent locale into which his pieces retreat, with
the following restrictions:
10 Bonaparte at Marengo
• The retreat may not be into the locale
from which the enemy pieces came that
caused the retreat.
• The retreat may not be across an impass-
able approach.
• The retreat may not be into an enemy-
occupied locale.
• The retreat may not be into a locale that
would cause the total number of the
player’s pieces there to exceed its capac-
ity.
If there are multiple retreating pieces and
multiple locales into which they may retreat, the
pieces may retreat into different locales.
Retreating pieces are put in reserve in the lo-
cale into which they retreat.
If there are no locales into which the retreat-
ing pieces are permitted to retreat, the retreating
pieces are eliminated.
Retreats do not count against the command
limit.
An example of a retreat is shown below:
4
The infantry piece at top was defeated in
an assault by the enemy pieces opposite it and
forced to retreat. Because of the defeat, the oth-
er infantry and cavalry piece in the locale had
to retreat as well. The infantry piece at the left
was blocking an approach and therefore had to
suffer a loss of one in the retreat, eliminating
it. The piece in reserve was cavalry and there-
fore retreated without loss. The retreating pieces
cannot retreat to the top because that is where
the enemy is coming from, and cannot retreat
to the left because the locale to the left is en-
emy-occupied, and cannot retreat to the bottom
because the approach is impassable, so the only
available retreat direction is taken: to the right.
The retreating pieces are turned face-up at the
start of the retreat and face-down at the end.
13. Demoralization
Demoralization is a state of reduced effec-
tiveness for an army. It is the result of excessive
losses.
Printed on the game board is a morale track
on which markers are placed at the start of the
game. Every time an army loses a strength point,
its marker is moved down (towards zero) by
sections 12-14 • retreats, demoralization, winning the game
one. If the marker ever reaches zero, the army
becomes demoralized.
If one army is demoralized in a round and
the other army is not demoralized in the same
round, the non-demoralized army gets an in-
crease of five morale points at the start of the
next round.
If an army becomes demoralized, all of its
pieces have their effectiveness in combat re-
duced. They can no longer conduct assaults
and they are under a one-strength point penalty
(per piece) in calculating their assault defense
strength. Artillery bombardment strength, ar-
tillery defense strength, and cavalry pursuit
strength are not affected.
If an army becomes demoralized during an
assault in which it is the attacker, that assault
is completed before the ban on demoralized
armies conducting assaults is applied. If the de-
moralization occurred during defensive artillery
fire, the demoralized attacking pieces are under
a one-strength point penalty (per piece) in cal-
culating their assault strength in that assault.
14. Winning the Game
If at the end of the game, one player’s army
is demoralized and the other player’s army is
not, then the player whose army is not demor-
alized wins. NOTE: the rules give the players
the ability to simulate the pursuit of a demoral-
ized army (which is how the battle ended his-
torically), but from a purely competitive point
of view, there is seldom any point in continuing
play should one side become demoralized while
the other does not.
If neither or both armies are demoralized
at the end of the game, then territorial control
is used as a tie-breaker. To that end, there are
eight locales at the east end of the map marked
with stars that serve as territorial objectives. The
stars are in three different colors (red, blue, and
green). The Austrian player wins if at the end of
the game he has pieces occupying at least two
of the eight locales from at least two of the three
colors. The French player wins if at the end of
the game the Austrian player has not achieved
his territorial objectives: i.e. his pieces do not
occupy any of the territorial objective locales,
or all the locales they occupy are of the same
color (all red, all blue, or all green). Again, ter-
ritorial control determines victory only if both
or neither army is demoralized.
•
Contact information:
web: http://www.simmonsgames.com
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The genesis of Bonaparte at Marengo is in
battle maps drawn in the nineteenth century. The
most distinctive aspect of their appearance is the
way the armies were rendered, as strikingly geo-
metrical long straight lines, one army in red the
other in blue. This appearance is what I came to
call “The Look”.
Conventional wargames, with square pieces
of cardboard on hexagonal grids, never capture
The Look – they have plenty of geometry but it
is not the geometry of linear warfare but the ge-
ometry of hexagons, dominated by the direction
of the grain of the hex grid.
Ironically, early wargames, the nineteenth
century German Kriegspiel, physically were
quite close to The Look: they used rectangular
wooden blocks on a gridless map. The Look is
not something that wargames never had, but
something they had and lost. If I was to suc-
ceed, it would be by at least a partial return to
these roots.
Of course, it can be asked why a fuss is being
made about The Look anyway – isn’t what mat-
ters how much fun the game is to play, or how
accurate it is historically?
I think, however, that these things are bound
together. How much fun a game is, how ac-
curate it is, and how it looks are all grounded
in the game as time machine. The best games
transport the player from the time and place in
which he lives into the time and place the game
represents, and people respond so strongly to vi-
sual cues that if you give them the right ones the
job is half done, and if you give them the wrong
ones you may never succeed no matter what else
you do right.
So, the quest for The Look led to the idea of
using the rectangular blocks of the Kriegspiel.
However, the gridless representation of the
battlefield, which the Kriegspiel shared with
modern miniatures, carried with it grave prob-
lems – in such systems, typically there are huge
differences between almost identical distances
like 15/16 of an inch and 17/16 of an inch, re-
sulting in a fussiness that is very dislocating to
the sense of period – no Napoleonic commander
ever worried about whether the enemy was 99
yards away or 101 yards away.
But if the map wasn’t to be gridless and
wasn’t to be a hex grid, what would it be? The
only alternative systems I knew of were point-
to-point systems and area systems (actually
the two are different graphical representations
of functionally the same thing). Area systems
have been used for many years, but while they
have been used with great success in large-scale
games, the few games using them for small-
scale battles were not as successful and tended
to have even less of a linear 19th century period
feel than hex-based games.
Searching for an alternative I came upon
the idea of a point-to-point variant: instead of
the pieces being positioned on the points, they
Design Notes
would be positioned on the connections around
the points. When I began to work with this idea
graphically, it quickly became apparent that the
area representation worked much better than the
point representation, and with that realization,
the game’s physical design was locked in: The
map would consist of polygons with rectangular
block pieces that would deploy on the faces. At
that point, all that was needed were some game
mechanics to go with the physical design.
Years ago I had done some work in
Napoleonic game design, mostly with variants
of Frank Davis’s brilliant Wellington’s Victory
game system. What Davis had done really well
was capture the differences between the arms
(infantry vs. cavalry vs. artillery) from which
the game drew its period flavor.
I did not, however, want to rehash what
Davis had done. This was partly because I had
no idea how to integrate elements of his system
into the physical design I was committed to,
and partly because his system was fantastically
complicated and I wanted a simple game.
Simplicity was a goal because I felt that if
you wanted to design a complex game, a com-
puter game was the right medium, not a board
game. In a computer game, the programmer
could put the complexity under the hood where
the player would never have to deal with it; all
of the benefits for the player and none of the
costs.
What a board game could offer that a com-
puter game could not was in part aesthetic (The
Look being much more easily accomplished on
30 by 20 inch, 300 dots-per-inch paper than on
a 16 by 12 inch, 90 pixels-per-inch display) and
in part social: Computer games are best played
alone, while board games are best played with
friends.
From long experience, I knew that complex-
ity and length were huge barriers to social gam-
ing. I was looking for a game that would fit in
with having a friend over for an evening, and
nobody wants to spend the whole evening read-
ing rules and setting up the game.
The first consequence of the quest for sim-
plicity was that the number of pieces would
have to be kept small. It is very hard to have
a game that can be played in a reasonable time
if it has a large number of pieces, even if the
mechanics are simple, so the game system was
scaled to keep that number small.
A related idea was to keep all the math in the
game simple – single digit numbers only and no
long division. For this reason, I selected a dif-
ferential combat resolution system, and the unit
strengths were expressed simply – one, two or
three. Another mathematical simplification was
in movement – the ground scale and time scale
were set so that pieces would move only one
area per turn. Terrain effects on movement are
expressed not by “movement points” but by the
sizes of the areas – the more difficult the terrain,
the smaller the areas.
Another advantage that fell out of the use
of areas was that they were large enough that
the effects of terrain on combat could be drawn
directly onto the map, instead of having to be
represented indirectly through a terrain effects
table. Similarly, the differential system and sim-
plified math made it possible to do away with
combat results tables as well. Tables are an an-
noyance; it is often difficult to find space for
them in the design of the game board without
making the board bigger and players find them
an annoyance when on separate sheets. Both for
the physical design of the game as well as ease
of play, I was quite happy to be able to do with-
out them.
The design of the rules for bombardments
and assaults were done not long after the map
design was completed. They reflect two things:
the ability of the three-dimensional playing piec-
es to easily represent limited intelligence (with
two-sided pieces, having pieces “face-down”
is a maddening exercise in memorization), and
my desire for the strong distinctions between
the arms that had characterized Wellington’s
Victory. The multi-step system incorporates
both, with the fortuitous effect that the inclusion
of intelligence provided the uncertainty that in
most wargames must be provided by dice. Thus,
by happy chance (so to speak) dumb luck was
almost completely designed out of the game.
Movement, on the other hand, proved a
much more difficult problem. Napoleonic infan-
try and artillery didn’t fight on the move, and
retreating infantry and artillery were extremely
vulnerable to being run down by enemy cavalry.
Additionally, co-ordinating a moving fight over
a large area was far beyond the capabilities of
the period’s courier-based command system. To
portray these problems, I tried many rules varia-
tions: in some, the armies wheeled around like
modern tank armies, and in others pursuit was so
difficult that the French army could win simply
by walking backwards slowly. The final version
is built on the rules for maneuver attacks and
command limits, which work to force retreating
infantry and artillery to the primary roads, while
leaving cavalry some ability to conduct more
fluid battles of maneuver.
In looking at the design as a whole, the thing
I find most interesting is how the original pursuit
of The Look resulted in a game that rejected the
great majority of the conventions of wargame
design, without that result having ever been
intended. Throughout the design, the choice of
new physical and graphical components changed
the matrix of what was possible and impossible,
easy and difficult, resulting in a game that is cer-
tainly different from other wargames, and which
I hope will be as enjoyable and interesting to
play as it has been to design.