Soldiers of Napoleon
By Warwick Kinrade (Atorious Games, 2022) £30 for book and cards
D6, card activation
It is with great expectation that I commence a review of this recent entry into the Napoleonic wargame rules vast stable. Having been involved in this period for a good part of 25 years now, I have always been on the lookout for a ruleset that can deliver a divisional-sized game that is fun to play, will be engaging for all players, and can provide a result in 3-4 hours. Having tried several different rulesets over the years, nothing has quite hit the mark; as a result, I have ended up selling two large collections and moving on to other wargaming periods.
My previous Napoleonic collections were all-consuming, as once you are bitten by the ‘Nap’ bug it’s hard to find enough hobby time to do anything else. The size of the collections also lent themselves to corps-level games, so I attempted to use sets such as General de Brigade, Shako, and even from , to name but a few. Consequently, it was with some trepidation that I decided to revisit Napoleonic wargaming at the start of the COVID pandemic. From the onset, I certainly didn’t want a collection to get out of hand this time; therefore, I opted for a more sensible approach at large skirmish level, based around the collection. Of course it didn’t remain at skirmish level for very long, and I now have a divisional-sized collection for both the French and the Russians (so much for well-laid plans).
