Les Batailles dans l'Âge de l'Empereur Napoléon Ier

This website is dedicated to supporting fans of the Les Batailles dans l'Age de l'Empereur Napoléon Premier boardgame series of Napoleonic period tactical combat published by Clash of Arms Games.

La Bataille began its long life in the 1970's. Since then the system has gone through a number of rules updates to keep up with current wargame theory and increasing awareness of the intricacy of Napoleonic Period tactical combat. This website contains the most recent sets of Series Rules and Charts officially produced for this series of boardgames. The site also contains, for each of the games published to date, a set of Exclusive Rules and Charts and any extra counters required for use with the latest sets of rules.

We hope that you enjoy playing La Bataille as much as we do and find these rules and additions helpful to learning and playing this grand old system.

Some Words About the Site Content

La Bataille de la Moscowa™ was the debut of the Règlement des Marie-Louise rules which are a simplified and faster playing version of the full Règlement. I think people looking for an introduction to the system or who are looking for less complex rules for conventions or game nights will enjoy them. Les grognards will examine them and grumble, but that is to be expected from a grognard, no? Have no fear though, if someone wishes to step up from the Marie-Louise rules to Le Règlement they will find that most of the concepts are retained and they will not have to relearn large parts of the rules. That is Le Règlement builds on the Marie-Louise rules.

The Marie-Louise rules were posted after Moscowa was published (April 2011). The Marie-Louise rules posted here differ from those in Moscowa in that they include some special rules for the British and some other rules more applicable to other games in the series, but are substantially the same.

I expect that there will be another Règlement rules update in fall 2011. Thereafter updates will be TBD. There are some portions of the rules which need to be revised and I will get to them as I can. I expect the rules to continue to grow as a living set of rules.

Regarding the exclusive rules for the games I will get them up as fast as I can. There are several in the pipeline, but my time has been focused on getting Moscowa published. Initially, I will get all the rules up with only minor variants for the addition of leaders for use with the latest command rules and Artillery Ammunition Wagons (AAWs). After that more extensive variants and OOB updates with counters will be added for those who wish to print and cut their own counters. But the primary purpose of the exclusive rules updates remains allowing players to use the latest rules with the game as it is out of the box.

People often ask about the rules being professionally printed. I will explore a couple of options including having a number printed and made available for purchase and delivery by mail and providing a 2400 dpi version for those who wish to have their own copy professionally printed and bound. I suspect our overseas friends will prefer this to avoid the hefty shipping fees.

Terry Doherty