Simmons Games
$49.95

Reviewed by Michael Peck
The Military Book Review

War games have been around for nearly 2,000 years, ever since some Indian or Chinese prince decided it would be fun to move wooden warriors over a game board. But modern war games — whether paper or computer — trace their lineage to the German "kriegspiel" (war game) of the 19th century.

Kriegspiels were not recreational toys for hobbyists. They were serious professional tools to teach Prussian officers how to make war. They succeeded. The Germans didn't always win their wars, but they beat their opponents on the battlefield with distressing regularity.

"Bonaparte at Marengo" is a deliberate attempt to capture the look of the kriegspiel. It has no dice or fancy computer graphics. The pieces are thin wooden rectangles marked with squares, like squashed dominoes. The map ... oh, the glorious map. It looks like the photos of old maps you see in history books — the sort of pencil sketch that Napoleon must have studied as the Austrian army advanced at Marengo on that June morning in 1796.

Like chess, "Bonaparte at Marengo" is a simple but abstract game that is more about maneuver than combat. Victory goes to he who forces his opponent into an untenable position. Essentially, both the French and Austrian players have a limited number of pieces they can move on each turn, plus an unlimited number that can move along major roads (a clever feature that shows why armies have always tended to advance along roads and rail lines).

The map is divided into areas and each area has multiple approaches from different directions. Let's say a French infantry piece moves into an area occupied by an Austrian cavalry unit. The Austrians can either move to block the French piece, or choose to retreat. But if the Austrians moves to block the French cavalry and another French piece advances down an approach from a different direction, then the Austrians are out of luck.

At the same time, it normally takes two turns for a piece to deploy for assault. This tends to telegraph the attacker's move and gives the defender a chance to bring in reinforcements. The result is that players must plan their offense while carefully maintaining a reserve to block their opponent's attacks.

Combat is somewhat anticlimatic, with a simple, dice-free attritional system of trading casualties on a one-for-one basis. Unit strengths are hidden, creating fog of war, while cavalry and artillery have a few quirks. Otherwise, the game's emphasis is on strategy rather than tactics.

Marengo was one of Napoleon's early battles in Italy, and one in which he uncharacteristically let himself be caught off-balance by the usually lethargic Austrians. The French begin the battle spread out and outnumbered, with reinforcements gradually trickling in. The Austrians start strong but must move fast before French reinforcements arrive.

The game is tense and plays quickly. Some may find it a bit dry; there are no massive artillery cannonades or glorious cavalry charges against beleaguered infantry squares. But those who enjoy the lucid precision of chess will find "Bonaparte at Marengo" an enjoyable kriegspiel.