Ranges

IT may seem as if the armies are unnaturally close to each other at the start of our refight.

A bird's-eye view of the battlefield

But under Bob Cordery's big-battle rules in The Portable Napoleonic Wargame, ranges are relatively short, reflecting the fact that a single base represents multiple battalions, squadrons or guns.

Infantry and limbered artillery can move one hex a turn, cavalry two hexes, and commanders, including commanders of corps, three hexes.

Presumably the speed of commanders reflects their superior mounts, and a lack of need to keep in formation, (infantry corps commanders are assumed to be mounted, even if this is not reflected in figures used on the tabletop).

Artillery has a firing range of four hexes, but all other combat takes place between units in adjacent hexes.

The French grand battery, sited four hexes from the Allied-occupied ridge