CONSOLIDATED CAMPAIGN RULES

THE TIME IS: 1400 hours., 30 November 1805

Napoleon arrived from headquarters to meet with his key Marshals on the Pratzen Plateau. The Pratzen commanded a wide view of the whole region, and he was determined to fight here. Standing on the summit near a feature called the "Stari Vinohrady" and gazing eastward, Napoleon and his marshals beheld an amazing sight: the entire enemy army, some 72,000 strong, emerging from the village of Austerlitz and marching straight toward the heights on which they stood.

Pulling back his cavalry, Napoleon allowed the enemy to occupy the entire heights. This was, after all, just what the Austrian Chief of Staff had predicted. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Napoleon had intelligence of the enemy plan to attack his center or his right, and cut-off his communications with the great depot of Vienna. The Emperor had no intention of interfering with this plan. "If they dare to descend from the heights to take me in my flank, they will surely be beaten without hope of recovery."

Napoleon's deliberately-weakened right flank was a tempting target for the southern columns under General Buxhöwden. From the onset of their attack, commencing at 7 A.M. on 2 December, the outmanned French defenders were on the ropes. However, a road-weary division under Marshal Davout arrived from Vienna in time to check the enemy in a terrible struggle at Sokolnitz.

Just before 8 A.M., the fog lifted from the battlefield, exposing the enemy flank march well underway. Napoleon was standing upon the Zuran Hill, looking at the light of dawn. "Yonder shines the Sun of Austerlitz - a sign that today shall be a day of Victory."

As the Russians poured off the heights to reinforce the south, Napoleon unleashed Soult's IV Corps into their vacated center. The enemy column under Marshal Kolowrat attempted to plug the gap, and the battle entered its critical phase. But determined Russian and Austrian counterattacks failed to drive Soult from the heights.

The Coalition left wing was driven back upon the lakes and decimated, but the Russian right under the firey Prince Bagration held, allowing the Tsar's battered Guard to withdraw to safety. Napoleon's cavalry commander, Marshal Murat, launched a vigorous pursuit picking up many stragglers. The Russians lost about 20,000 men and the Austrians 5,900, along with 180 guns; the French lost 8,000 men.

Read a review by Frederic Bey from Vae Victis magazine!

GAME SYSTEM: Napoleon at Bay/Operational Series 1X

PLAYERS: Two (or two teams).

SCENARIOS: The Maneuver of Hollabrünn; The Austro-Russian Advance; The Battle of Austerlitz; Campaign Game starting on 15 November or 27 November.

COMPONENTS: One 22 x 34" map and 280 two-sided units; 48 pages of rules including campaign analysis, designer notes and more; 7 player aid cards, including organization displays, unit and leader manifests, and turn record track.

GAME DESIGN: Kevin Zucker.

Click here for Rules

CONSOLIDATED CAMPAIGN RULES
PLAYER AIDS FOR THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON SERIES

Dick Vohlers has consolidated the rules for the NAB-series Campaign games into one series booklet, along with exclusive booklets for each game in the series (except Struggle of Nations). With this new main booklet, players no longer have to look at the Standard booklet, then the Battle rules, and then the Campaign rules.

In addition, those rules and tables that are truly “Exclusive” are either shown as exceptions in the main rules, or collated into new, separate, Exclusive Rules booklets for each game. Thus, those booklets contain mostly setup information, victory conditions, and lengthy rules that apply only to the given game (such as fortnights). Those Exclusive Rules that are incorporated into the main rules are distinguished by colored text so that players can scan for a given game easily. Generally, the color of the text used for each game is based on the color of the game’s box: for example, rose for TETE and green for SUA.

These rules also incorporate all known errata, and make some modifications to rules of some games so that more recent system changes can be used with them. These Consolidated Rules are updated from the version published here in 2003.

For newbies, the Standard/Campaign split is still the best way to learn the rules. However, the veterans of the system may find these new consolidated rules more to their liking.

Caveat: We hope this approach will make it easier to play the games. However, these Consolidated Rules are not “official” and we will not answer questions about their use. We will of course answer game questions regarding the official rules published with the games, as amended in published Q&A.

The following files are available, all in PDF format:

The Consolidated Rules

The Consolidated Rules Sequence of Play

The Common Tables

 Exclusive Rules and Tables for each of the following games:

Copyright © 2007 Operational Studies Group