Battle of the Nations 1813

Battle of the Nations 1813 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview

Game board, 19 Armies, 52 Troop Markers, 6 "-1 markers", 40 Action Cards (Terrain Cards and Movement Cards), 25 Mission Cards, 19 Army Cards, 6 Scout Cards, Information Cards, 16 wooden figures, Time Indicator, rules in German and English.

The game also includes 4 terrain tiles, which will be used for an expansion at a later date.

Content: In detail

Spielplan (Game Board)

The game board shows the area of Leipzig in 1813 divided into 47 fields.

It is divided into four types of fields:

River
Hill
Forest
Plain

It also shows the time bar and the victory point bar.

The fields Probstheida (Monarch's Hill) and Markkleeberg are emphasized by an illustration due to their historical relevance, but in gameplay they are treated like all other fields.

Army Cards

The Army Cards describe the starting line-up of the Troop Markers (and in consequence possibly of the Armies) on the map. Usually 3 villages are named. Some cards also show 4 villages.

For each Army there is one Army Card (8 French Armies; 11 Allied Armies).

The following information can be found on the cards:

The Unit Type (infantry, artillery, cavalry)
The Army Strength
The number of available Troop Markers (circles for the French and squares for the Allied troops) [1]

Some cards cannot be played until the Time Indicator has reached the displayed date.

[1] In order to lay out an army card, there have to be enough troop markers to occupy all villages listed on the Army Card. However, if a card shows more villages than Troop Markers available, playing a Scout Card can exclude a village and thus reduce the number of needed Markers. Players receive Scout Cards by placing their armies.

Mission Cards

The Mission Cards indicate the villages that Napoléon has to occupy with his Armies.

There are 5 different types of Mission Cards (North, South, West, Center, East).

There are light, medium and heavy Mission Cards with different numbers of victory points (3 to 7 points). The further away the town is from the starting line-up of the French Armies, the more difficult it is to complete the mission and the more points Napoléon can earn.

The victory points for the French are displayed on the left, the Allied victory points on the right.

Time Indicator

The Time Indicator shows the current date and thus the remaining time until the end of the game. It is moved by playing Movement Cards or Time Cards, Placing Armies, and playing Scout Cards.

Action Cards

There are three different Action Cards:

Terrain Card The Terrain Card is used to remove own Troop Markers that are placed on the corresponding fields.

Movement Card With the Movement Card, players move one of their own Troop Markers of the indicated unit type onto an adjacent field. Some cards only allow you to move a specific unit. The clock in the upper right corner indicates that the Time Indicator must be moved one point forward.

Time Card The Time Card is used to move the Time Indicator one field further.

Scout Card With the Scout Card the players can remove one of their own Troop Markers (of their choice) from the board. In addition, these cards are used to bring Troop Markers from generals into play, of which less markers are available than are needed. The clock in the upper right corner indicates that the Time Indicator must be moved one point forward.

Information Cards

For each player there is an Information Card with the possible actions he/she can take during his/her turn. The other Information Card shows a map with the villages on Mission Cards and the victory points Napoléon can score. The terrain values are listed on the back of this card (only required in the advanced game).

The player's Information Card lists the actions available per turn:

5 actions per turn

Play an Army card: place Troop markers.
Play a Terrain card: Remove one marker, resp. place a General tile.
Play a Movement card: move one marker.
Play the card "Remove marker".
Play a wild card.
Play a Time card.
Draw an Action card.

Armies

The players place their Armies during the game. These Armies are represented by their respective leaders and generals (Napoléon, Ney, Bertrand, MacDonald, Schwarzenberg, Platow etc.).

There are 11 Allied and 8 French Armies, with the generals leading different units (infantry, artillery, cavalry) (see symbol).

The Armies "Napoléon" and "Schwarzenberg" lead all three army units. Once these armies are placed, the player decides which army unit they are.

The Armies also display the Army Strength. The backs of the Armies (pale color) show an Army Strength reduced by one point.

Troop Marker

For each army there are 3 Troop Markers (Napoléon, Ney, Schwarzenberg and Bernadotte each have only 2 markers). They are used to mark the possible locations of the corresponding Army on the board. On the back of the markers there is either a "-1" or the terrain value (≠ 0) for the corresponding unit (for expert rule).

-1 Chip

The "-1 Chips" are used to represent a reduced Army Strength of an Army.

Colored wooden figures

The blue and white soldiers are used to mark the locations of the Mission Cards on the board.
The blue and white cannons are used to mark the French Armies who are fighting together in different groups.
The victory point indicators (red and blue cannon) show the score of both players.
With the gray cannon Napoléon marks his final victory point score at the end of the game. After playing another game with swapped roles, the players can compare who scored more points playing the French and this player wins (alternative winning condition).

Preparation

The game board is spread out on the table. The player who was last in Leipzig receives the Allied Army (red) [Schwarzenberg], the other player the French army (blue) [Napoléon].
Each player takes his armies with the corresponding Troop Markers. The Troop Markers are sorted and placed onto the corresponding armies.
The players receive their Army Cards, which they place face-up in front of them.
The Mission Cards are shuffled according to their districts (North, South, East, West, Center). Napoléon receives one card from each district. He takes a second card from two districts. For each of these two districts, the player may choose one Mission Card (this gives the player the opportunity to choose locations that are close to each other or further apart). The left over Mission Cards and the two cards not selected are removed from the game.
The Action Cards (Terrain Cards, Movement Cards, Time Cards) are shuffled and 4 of them are distributed to the players who take them in their hand.
The remaining Action Cards form the hidden draw pile. 4 cards are laid out face up for draw.
The Scout Cards and the "-1 Chips" are placed face up next to the board.
The victory point indicators are put below the first field of the victory point bar, all other wooden figures are held ready to hand next to the board (needed for scoring).
The Time Indicator points at the pocket watch on the time bar (directly in front of the date "14.10.").
Napoléon is starting player.

Game Play - Beginner's Game

Each turn, the active player performs 5 actions in any order and frequency [2].

I.e. he can also perform the same action five times in a row (e.g. draw 5 Action Cards) or one action twice and another three times (e.g. lay out two Army Cards and three times play one Movement Card).

The possible actions are:

Lay out one Army Card (and place Troop Markers)
Play a Terrain Card (place an Army if necessary)
Play a Movement Card
Play a Scout Card
Play a Wild Card
Play a Time Card
Draw an Action Card

Once the active player has completed all 5 actions, the second player begins his turn.

1. Lay out an Army Card

The player selects one of his Army Cards and places a Troop Marker of the corresponding general onto the game board for each village named on the Army Card, regardless of whether there are already one or more Troop Markers of other generals on these fields.
If there is already an Army on a field, no Troop Marker is placed on this field.
Condition for playing the Army Card:
1. On each village listed on the Army Card must be put one Troop Marker.
2. In addition, the Time Indicator must have passed the date one shown on the card.
3. If there are not enough Troop Markers (e.g. Napoléon has only 2 Troop Markers, but there are 4 locations on the card), a Scout Card has to be played for each missing Troop Marker. [3] The player can then freely select the villages to be occupied by markers from the offered ones (Note: If one of the four villages mentioned is already occupied by an Army, this field is omitted and only one Scout Card is required).
The player places the played Army Card face down in front of him (it cannot be used again).

Example: Schwarzenberg lays out the Army Card Langeron. One Troop Marker each is placed on the villages Breitenfeld, Plösen and Klein-Wiederitzsch. He places the played Army Card face down in front of him.

[2] In the first turn the players must have played an army card before they can play action 2, 3, 4. [3] Scout cards are given to players for placing Armies.

2. Play a Terrain Card

With a Terrain Card the number of own Troop Markers on the board can be reduced.

The player removes one own Troop Marker from the terrain corresponding to the card played.
Never remove all markers from an Army. One Troop Marker per army must remain on the board.
If there is only one Troop Marker of an Army left on the game board, the corresponding Army is placed (also see Place Armies, p. 10).
The played card goes to the discard pile.

Example: Schwarzenberg plays a Terrain Card "plain". The player removes a Troop Marker that lies on a plain field. Since two Troop Markers lie on plain fields (on 1 and 2), he must choose one Troop Marker.

3. Play a Movement Card

With a Movement Card, players can move one of their Troop Markers by one field.

Please note that only units (artillery, infantry, cavalry) that are shown on the Movement Card may be moved.
Only Troop Markers but no Armies may be moved.
Conditions: Troop Markers are always moved by one field. They may not be moved to fields, that
1. already contain an Army.
2. already contain a marker of the same Army. However, Troop Markers of other Armies (own, enemy) may be on this field.
Exception: By playing two Movement Cards you may jump over one of your own Armies.
For each Movement Card played, the Time Indicator moves one point forward.
The played card goes to the discard pile.

Example: Schwarzenberg plays the Movement Card "cavalry/infantry". He now moves one of his two Troop Markers "Langeron" to an adjacent field (2, 3, 4). It is not possible to move it to field 1, because there is already a "Langeron" marker there. It is also not allowed to move the marker from the game board.

4. Play a Scout Card

Using these cards, the player can lay out the Army Card of an Army of which he does not have enough markers (Napoléon, Ney, Schwarzenberg, Bernadotte) (see Lay out an Army Card, p.7).
The player can also use a Scout Card to remove one of his own Troop Markers from the game board.
Played Scout Cards are returned to the other Scout Cards on the table.
For each Scout Card played, the Time Indicator moves one point forward.
A Scout Card is dealt to a player whenever he places an own Army.

5. Play a Wild Card

Two identical Movement Cards are a Wild Card and can be used for any Movement Card (however, the Time Indicator moves only one point forward).
Two identical Terrain Cards are also a Wild Card and can be used for any Terrain Card.
The played cards go to the discard pile.

6. Play a Time Card

If a player plays a Time Card, the Time Indicator is moved forward by one point (direction to 19.10.).
The played card leaves the game.

7. Draw an Action Card

The player takes one new Action Card from the face-up or face-down draw pile.
The open Action Cards are replenished at the end of a player's turn.
If the draw pile is used up, the player shuffles the Action Cards discard pile (face down) and uses these cards as the new draw pile.
Players also have the option to perform the action "Draw Action Card" five times in one turn, but may not hold more than 8 cards (Action Cards and Scout Cards) at the end of their turn. Surplus cards must be discarded.

Further rules

Only one Army may be placed on each field.
The Troop Markers of the generals Napoleon and Schwarzenberg can be of any unit type (infantry, artillery, cavalry). The moment these Armies are placed, the players must choose a unit for them.

Further information to the actions

Place armies

If there is only one Troop Marker on the board left of an army, the Troop Marker is exchanged by the corresponding Army. All markers on this field are removed from the board.
The active player must now check whether as a result there is again only one marker left of another Army. If this is the case, this marker must also be replaced by the corresponding Army, and so on.
It can happen that an Army of the other player has to be placed as well.
All removed markers are placed upside down next to the game board.
The player receives one victory point for each own Army placed. The points are counted on the victory point bar (on the game board).
For each own Army placed, the player receives a Scout Card, which takes in his hand.
If all Scout Cards are in the players' possession, no Scout Card can be taken.
If an Army of the other player has been placed, no player receives a Scout Card or a victory point.
For each own army placed, the Time Indicator moves one point forward.
If an Army of the other player has been placed, the Time Indicator does not move forward.

Time bar and scoring

For each Movement Card, Time Card and Scout Card played, or for each own Army placed, the Time Indicator on the time bar moves one point forward. The "Fight Date" (16.10. and 18.10.) is a point as well.
Each time the Time Indicator passes a date (15.10., 16.10., 17.10., 18.10., 19.10.), Napoléon must reveal a Mission Card and mark the field with his wooden figure (white/blue soldier). (Note: When passing the date "14.10." no card is revealed.)
On October 16th and 18th a fight takes place between the French Armies and the Allied Armies.

Fight (16.10. and 18.10.)

If, till the end of a turn, the Time Indicator has reached the date 16.10. or 18.10. or has passed it (for the first time), the fight is conducted.
All Armies that are in direct contact with enemy Armies are involved in the battles. (i.e. the Armies stand next to each other).
The number of enemy Armies determines how many points of Army Strength the player has to subtract in total (one point per enemy Army, regardless of how many edges the Army has enemy contact on).
If an opposing Army has contact to several Armies at the same time, the player may choose which of his Armies takes the damage (see example 4).
If the Army strength is less than one point, the Army is removed from the game board and taken out of play. This field is free again and can be filled with other Troop Markers.
After the fight, it's the other player's turn.

Fight examples

Example 1: Two opposing armies stand next to each other and no other armies are placed on the adjacent squares. Both troops (Poniatowski and Yorck) lose one point each.

Example 2: An army faces two opposing armies. The allied Army (Yorck) loses two battle points. The two French Armies (Poniatowski and Bertrand) lose one point in total. The player of the French can decide which of the two Armies he wants to reduce by 1.

Example 3: Armies without enemy contact do not participate in combat. The Army of Yorck faces only one Army (Poniatowski). Yorck and Poniatowski each lose one point. Bertrand's Army is not involved in the fight because it has no contact with an enemy Army.

Example 4: Each Army attacks only once. The attacker may (possibly) choose, which of his Armies suffers damage. In this example, the Allies lose a total of 2 points (due to 2 adjacent French Armies): Since only Yorck's army is adjacent to Bertrand, the damage caused by Bertrand (1 point) goes directly to Yorck. The Army of Murat faces the Armies of Yorck, Schwarzenberg and Friedrich. The Allied player may therefore choose which of his 3 Armies receives the damage caused by Murat (1 point). The French lose a total of 3 points (because of 3 adjacent allied Armies): The damage of Yorck (1 point) can either go to Bertrand or Murat (the player of the French can choose), the damage of Schwarzenberg and Friedrich (a total of 2 points) goes directly to Murat, because only he is in contact with them.

The loss of Army Strength can be indicated by flipping the Army to the back (on the back the Army Strength is one point less).
If an Army loses more than one point or the Army has already been turned once and the Army Strength is not yet at 0, an additional "-1 chip" per lost point is placed on the Army. For this you can use the separate "-1 chips" or the backs of the Troop Markers of the corresponding Army (one marker has the "-1" on the back).

Example 5: Yorck loses two points of Army Strength. The Army is flipped to the back (minus 1 point) and a "-1 chip" is placed on it (minus 1 point).

End of the game

The game is over when the Time Indicator has passed the date "19.10." on the time bar and the active player has finished his turn.

Scoring - Compare Army Strength

All of Napoléon's Armies placed on fields indicated on Mission Cards were marked with a wooden figure (soldier) during the game. It is recommended to use the white and blue soldiers for fields that are close to each other (if necessary, swap colored figures).
All of Napoleon's Armies which are adjacent and as well have "enemy contact" are marked a wooden cannon of the same color. It is decisive, however, that the opposing Army has contact with the Army on the mission field.
If a French Army is positioned between two other French Armies, each on a different mission field, the player may possibly have to decide which of the two adjacent Armies to support.

Example 1: The Army Poniatowski is placed on the field of a Mission Card. A blue soldier was therefore placed on this field (soldiers are placed on mission fields). The Army is supported by Ney. A blue cannon is placed on this Army. Although MacDonald's Army has enemy contact, this enemy Army (Bennigsen) is not in "contact" with Poniatowski's Army and is therefore not relevant for the scoring. Poniatowski and Ney have 6 points in total. The allies have 3 points.

Example 2: The Armies Bertrand and Poniatowski were placed on fields of mission cards (marked by the blue and white soldiers). The Army Bertrand faces the Army Schwarzenberg. To the Army of Poniatowski is added the army of MacDonald and the Army of Ney. Since Ney has no contact with the Army Schwarzenberg, he cannot be added to the Army Bertrand. The Army Bennigsen has no contact with an enemy Army on a mission field and is therefore not relevant for the scoring.

Napoléon now totals the Army Strengths of his marked Armies and compares these combat values separately for each mission with the combat values of Schwarzenbergs.
Schwarzenberg proceeds similarly to Napoléon. I.e. he adds the Army Strengths of his Armies, which are in contact with Napoléon's Armies on mission fields.
If, per mission, the combat value of the French Army is equal to or higher than the combat value of the Allied Army, the mission is considered fulfilled.

Beispiel 3 [printed label as it appears in this English edition]: In this example, Napoléon can add the Army Marmont either to Ney or to Bertrand. If he chooses the Army Ney, he wins both missions because he has 8 points against Schwarzenberg (7 points) and 2 points against Bennigsen (1 point) and Friedrich (1 point) – Napoléon also wins a mission if there is a tie.

Conditions to win the game

Napoléon receives the victory points in the upper left corner of the fulfilled Mission Card, which he counts with the blue cannon on the victory point bar.
For each mission in which Schwarzenberg has a higher combat value, Schwarzenberg receives the victory points shown in the upper right corner of the Mission Card. This also applies if there is no French Army at all on the mission field (e.g. because it was already beaten before).
Napoléon wins the game if he has more points than Schwarzenberg.

Alternative conditions to win

The players play the game for a second time and now swap roles (the player of the Allied now gets the French and vice versa). After the second game they compare the points they got with the French. The grey cannon shows Napoleon's victory points from the first game. The player who scored more points for Napoléon wins. If there is a tie, there is no winner.

Tips & Advice

The French

Napoléon shouldn't place his generals too soon. Otherwise he can no longer react to the actions of Schwarzenberg. Especially when Armies are defeated and thus removed from the board.
The selection of the Mission Cards should be well considered. If the villages are close to each other, the player can decide at short notice which Armies will support each other.
In most cases, three out of five missions are enough to win.

Game Play - Advanced Game

Once the players have internalized the rules of the beginner game, they can play the advanced game. The advanced game has the same rules, but the terrain value is added:

Type of terrain

Depending on the type of terrain (forest, river landscape, hill, plain) on which an Army is located, the Army strength of the unit changes (cavalry, infantry, artillery). The back of the second info card shows the terrain values.

Terrain	Artillery	Infantry	Cavalry
Plain	0	0	+1
River	0	+1	-1
Forest	-2	0	0
Hill	+2	-1	0

Place an army

When an Army is placed, the corresponding Troop Marker (flipped to the "terrain value side" and chosen according to the terrain type) is placed on the army.

Scoring

At the end of the game (19.10.) the Terrain Value of the individual Army is taken into account. Thus the Army Strength (and as a result the combat value) can increase or decrease under certain circumstances.