Overview
If you have ever seen one of the Prussian Armies 19th century Krieg Spiel maps used to train officers you will recognise elements of that in this game. For this is the battle of Austerlitz reproduced in a game that looks and feels rather like Kriegspeil albeit a lot easier to play. So this is a block wargame. But folk who don't like wargames - don't glaze over as this is worth a deeper look.

In the Box
You get a quite beautiful hard board of 44” by 36”. It includes dozens of red or blue wooden units and some very nice metal flags and signs for Corps commanders. The units all have strengths (1,2 or 3) and unit type in simple symbols on one side only so they can be hidden to the other player. Laid out with all the pieces on it it’s a treat to see.
The game board breaks the board up into locales – or polygons but fairly subtly with light grey boundaries. Each boundary – or “approach”- may have symbols which show that one of the three arms (cavalry, infantry or artillery) is disadvantaged attacking across it. Some symbols also show approaches that are impassable.

The game board also contains areas that show the initial Austrian and French units and strengths, a time track which also includes reinforcements, a command track for keeping a record of which commands have been moved and a morale track.

The game is setup with players deploying their wooden divisions into Corps on the board. The allies start the game.

Game Play
Play is actually quite simple. Generally you can only move a certain number of Corps. Each unit may move 1 locale unless it is on a road where 2 or even 3 locales can be crossed. Units can be on the approach or in reserve in the locale center. Attacks are simply resolved with the symbols on the game board affecting the result along with the till now hidden unit strength . There are lower denominations of unit strengths to use if losses occur. There are no dice in this game and no chance elements. It all comes down to how good was your deployment and movement was and how good you are at carefully reading the terrain. In many ways it reproduces the basics of Napoleonic strategy very well. For example using Artillery first in an attack can soften the way for a follow up infantry attack.

The game is played in one of two Scenarios - a long one that should last 3 hours and a shorter 2 hour one. There are optional rules for team play.

Opinion
What you have here is a huge board with nice components, elegantly simple game play that can be learned in a short time and then play is fast.

Some players of old 1970s and 80s board wargames with thousands of card counters and complex attack and defense charts might not like this game and label it as too simple but I think it does well at simulating the feel of grand strategy without getting bogged down in 80 page rule books. It also looks great.

Plays fast, feel right and is fun. What more do you want? I am off to learn French and march to the sound of the guns!