NapoleonicMaster

II ©

A Warmaster Ancients Conversion for the Napoleonic Era

By M B Hildreth

Version
Current Version 2.4.0
Last updated 19th June 2007

Disclaimer
All references to the Warmaster Ancients rules are the copyright of Warhammer Historical Games.
Copyright © M B Hildreth.

Play Testers

Mike Carmichael, Andre Rudiger

Introduction

NapoleonicMaster II © is a Napoleonic era conversion of Warmaster Ancients (or WMA) rules by

Warhammer Historical Games. I enjoy WMA very much as it is a simple system that doesn’t get too
bogged down with detail and list after list of variables. I’ve always been keen on Napoleonic
wargaming and I decided that WMA with its small-scale units and excellent command and control
system would, with a little tweaking, lend itself perfectly to large-scale Napoleonic battles.
Of course battles in the Napoleonic era and the armies that fought them are quite different to Ancient
armies. This meant I had to go through the WMA rules and alter, delete, or add to parts of them so as
to more accurately portray warfare on the Napoleonic battlefield.
One of the biggest changes is in weapon ranges. Although more advanced than Ancient weapons, the
weapons used in this conversion have a shorter range. This is because muskets were not fantastically
accurate and troops using them would usually wait until they could see the ‘whites of the enemy’s
eyes’ to guarantee a hit and cause maximum damage. Musket duels would commence at just a couple
of hundred yards and continue until one side faltered and the other side fixed bayonets and charged to
finish them off or rout them. Tactical ranged shooting was left to the artillery.
The formations used by Napoleonic troops also played an important role and could make a real
difference in the outcome of some engagements. Therefore I decided to add a few extra rules to
encourage players to give them a little more thought.
Another ‘big’ difference is that Napoleonic armies would be far more disciplined, organised, and
regimented, with command and control being a little more hierarchical than most Ancient armies. This
is represented by some restriction on which characters can order which units, but there is still, room for
commanders to be able to ‘step on each others toes’ as they sometimes did.

On the whole I feel this conversion manages to give players a good feel for Napoleonic warfare without
departing too drastically from regular WMA or getting too complicated with too much extra detail.
This was by no means an attempt to re-write WMA, simply a few tweaks to a perfectly good set of
rules to enable battles to be played in an era when warfare, weapons, and tactics were quite different.
As I have avoided replicating the WMA rulebook a copy of it (or Warmaster) will be needed to make
use of these rules.

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Game Values
Unit sizes

 1 Unit of Infantry is equal to 1 Battalion (roughly 500-750 men)

 1 Unit of Cavalry is equal to 1 Regiment of cavalry (roughly 500-750 men)
 1 Unit of Artillery is equal to 1 Battery or Battalion (6-18 guns)
 2-6 Units form a Brigade (a more permanent formation than in WMA).
 Brigades must consist of Infantry only, Infantry and Foot Artillery, Cavalry only or Cavalry
and Horse Artillery.
 2-6 Brigades form a Division.
 2-6 Divisions form a Corps (also known as Armies, or Wings)

Basing

Troops Base Size

Infantry 40mm x 20mm

Cavalry 40mm x 20mm
Shock Cavalry 20mm x 40mm (optional)
Artillery 20mm x 40mm
Officers any

Army Organisation

Napoleonic armies were organised in a much stricter, Regimented way than Ancients armies with fairly
rigid command structures. To represent this armies should be organised using the following rules when
being created.

 Units must be allocated to a Brigade.

 Brigades must be allocated to a Division
 In larger games Divisions must be allocated to a Corps

2-6 Units form a Brigade

2-6 Brigades form a Division
2-3 Divisions form a Corps

 Each Brigade must have it’s own Brigade Commander

 Each Division must have it’s own Division Commander
 In larger games each Corps must have it’s own Corps Commander
 The army General or Commander in Chief will have the same statistics and cost the same
points as the highest ranking officer +1 leadership (up to a maximum of 10) and 100cm
command radius.

Brigades cannot mix Infantry and Cavalry. However Infantry Brigades may contain a Foot Artillery
Unit and Cavalry Brigades may contain a Horse Artillery Unit. Artillery can also form it’s own
Brigades (or Grand Batteries).

Troop Formations

Column Formation - A units stands are placed one behind the other when in column.
Units in column formation may move at full pace.
Units attacking in column add +1 to their dice rolls in close
combat. This is in addition to any bonuses for supporting stands.

Line Formation - A unit in line formation must maximize its frontage.

Units in line formation may move at up to half pace.

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 Units in line formation may ignore the highest dice rolled for drive
back caused by artillery fire.

Square Formation Stands are places so as to form a square or column with the stands
facing outwards.
The unit only has one die of shooting per face.
Units in square are not driven back by shooting but automatically
become confused instead. If drive back is more that the unit’s
normal full pace move then it is destroyed.
Units in square count as fortified against enemy cavalry
Units in square never count support from friendly stands.
Although infantry units can form square on initiative they may also
be ordered to do so.

 An infantry unit may attempt to form square instead of electing to stand and shoot at charging
enemy cavalry. To successfully form square before the cavalry contacts the unit a 4+ must be
rolled on 1D6. The player may add +1 to this dice roll for guard and veteran troops but must
subtract –1 to the result for militia and conscript troops. The player may also add a further +1
to the roll if the enemy cavalry is about to contact the unit due to an Advance move.
 A unit is destroyed if it is driven back more than it’s full pace move in any formation
including square.
 If a unit in square formation looses a stand as a casualty in close combat it must immediately
re-form into line formation as it has been broken. If a further round of combat is fought due to
a pursuing enemy then all benefits of being in square are lost.
 Only Open Order Troops can move through woods.

Artillery

 Artillery is driven back normally by shooting.

 Light artillery may shoot up to 40cm
 Medium artillery may shoot up to 60cm
 Heavy artillery may shoot up to 80cm
 Artillery may not fire on a turn that it moves. The exception to this is that artillery may be
ordered to make a ‘prolong’ move of up to 5cm and still shoot.
 Artillery is at +1 to all shooting dice when targeting infantry in square.
 Units in Line Formation may move through friendly Artillery Units. This is an exception to
the usual rule that forbids stands from moving through other units. Stands can never be
positioned on top of other stands once they have moved. Stands that move through Artillery
Units must be capable of moving completely through them otherwise they cannot do so.

Light Artillery

 Cavalry taking a hit from light artillery ignores any saving throw it would normally have.
 A single Light Artillery stand has not one but two shots and therefore rolls two dice against its
target.
 Light Artillery can shoot at units charging it.
 A Light Artillery stand can shoot into a zone 45 degrees to it’s front edge.
 A Light Artillery unit may not move and fire in the same turn. Unless making a ‘prolong’
move.

Medium Artillery

 Cavalry taking a hit from medium artillery ignores any saving throw it would normally have.
 Medium Artillery can shoot into a zone 45 degrees to its front edge
 A shot from Medium Artillery can strike up to three touching stands within the missiles line of
flight. These can be stands from the same or different units. The only consideration it that
the stands are touching so that the shot passes over an unbroken area of bases. The missile
automatically follows the shortest route from the front edge of the artillery stand and the
closest part of the target
 When shooting at units charging it Medium Artillery shoots as Light Artillery.
 A Medium Artillery unit may not move and fire in the same turn. Unless making a prolong
move.

Heavy Artillery

Treat in all respects as Medium Artillery but with an 80cm range.

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Infantry
 Infantry which uses skirmishers may shoot at up to 20cm range until it looses it’s first stand as
a casualty. The unit’s range is then reduced to 15cm for the rest of the battle. This represents
skirmishers being forced back into line to fill the gaps and re-enforce the Battalion.

Cavalry
Shock cavalry may be mounted facing the short base edge or may be given an additional +1 to it’s dice
rolls in close combat on the turn it charges. Only one of these options can be chosen but different units
may choose different options. It will be obvious from the basing method as to which option is being
used.

Cavalry doctrine during the period dictated that cavalry did not receive a charge at the halt. Cavalry
would counter-charge enemy cavalry if it was approaching within it’s charge arc. Therefore if a unit of
cavalry is charged from within it’s own charge arc both units count as charging and receive bonuses as
appropriate. Note that the unit that is counter-charging is not actually moved, only the charging enemy
unit.

The Command Phase

Initiative

In addition to the rules in the WMA rule book Infantry Units may form Square on Initiative if enemy
cavalry is visible within 20cm. Infantry in Square counts as Fortified against attacking cavalry.

Command Penalties

The following command penalties apply in addition to those in WA.

Officer ordering a Brigade which is not a part of -2

his Command
Officer ordering a Unit which is not a part of his -1
Command

Issuing orders to Units

 Units must be allocated to a Brigade before the battle. A single order may be issued to all the
Units within that Brigade so long as they are in the Command range of the Officer issuing the
order
 If a Brigade is given an order and any unit within it is out of command range of the ordering
officer then that Unit(s) may not be moved with the rest of the Brigade
 If Units within a Brigade are not touching when they are given a Brigade order they must
move into contact with each other if possible during their move
 Units moving as a Brigade complete their entire move as a Brigade unless charging
 An Officer attempting to order a unit which was driven back by enemy artillery in the
previous turn will suffer a –1 to command that unit.

Movement

Distance

Types Full Pace Half Pace

Infantry 20cm 10cm
Cavalry & Horse Artillery 30cm 15cm
Foot Artillery 20cm 10cm
Officers 60cm 60cm

 Charging Units and evading Units move at up to full pace

 Light Infantry can always move at full pace regardless of formation and terrain
 Units in column move at full pace
 Units in column who spend their entire movement on road may move up to an extra 10cm
 Units beginning their move in Line, move at up to half pace
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  Infantry Units in Square may not move.

The Shooting phase

Range

 Musket armed troops may shoot at enemy up to 15cm away

 Units with Skirmishers still in effect may shoot at enemy up to 20cm away
 Light Artillery Batteries may shoot at targets up to 40cm away
 Medium Artillery Batteries may shoot at targets up to 60cm away
 Heavy Artillery Batteries may shoot at targets up to 80cm away

Attacks

 All infantry units are assumed to have a Shooting Attack value of 1.

 Heavy Artillery counts fortified targets as defended, and defended targets as being in the open

Drive Back

 Rockets roll 1 extra dice for Drive Back when targeting cavalry

Shooting at Chargers

 If a charging Unit looses 1 or more stands during the Shooting phase it may not complete its
charge and must remain halted

Commanders

Command & Control

 The Commander in Chief will usually take direct control of a Corps

 All other Corps must be allocated 1 Corps Commander
 If a Corps Commander is killed he will be replaced by a subordinate with +0 Attacks and a -1
Command value
 All Divisions must be allocated 1 Division Commander
 If a Division Commander is killed he will be replaced by a subordinate with +0 Attacks and a
-1 Command value
 All Brigades must be allocated 1 Brigade Commander
 If a Brigade Commander is killed he will be replaced by a subordinate with +0 Attacks and a –
1 Command value
 Penalties for casualties in a Brigade when issuing a Brigade Order are not cumulative. The
penalty for the whole Brigade is the same as that of the unit within it that has suffered the
most casualties. If for example two units within a Brigade being issued a Brigade order had
each suffered one casualty each and a third unit had suffered two casualties then the greatest
penalty would apply to any attempts to issue a Brigade Order. In this case –2.

Orders

 The Commander in Chief can give orders to any Brigade or Unit in the army if within 100cm
 Corps Commanders can give orders to any Brigades or Units within 80cm, but suffer a
Command penalty for giving orders to Brigades or Units that are not a part of their Corps
 Division Commanders can give orders to any Brigade or Unit within 60cm. Division
Commanders suffer a Command penalty for giving orders to Brigades or Units which are not a
part of their Division
 Brigade Commanders can give orders to their Brigade or any Unit within it if within 20cm.
Brigade Commanders trying to order Units or Brigades other than their own suffer a penalty to
their Command Value.

Changing Command and Control

It may happen that a player may want to switch command of a unit from one Brigade or Division to
another. Maybe a Brigade or Division needs extra troops, cavalry support or artillery, which needs to
come from another command. To achieve this the unit or units to be transferred need to be within the
command radius of both their current commander and the commander who is to take control of it. Both
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commanders then make a command roll and if both are successful the unit is successfully transferred.
For the remainder of the game or until the command is changed again the unit is treated in all respects
as if it is one of it’s new commander’s units and part of the new Brigade or Division. If either
commander fails his command roll the transfer does not take place and neither may give any more
orders that command phase as normal. The Commander in Chief may be used to make the roll instead
of one of the commanders involved if he is within command radius. However if the Commander in
Chief fails this roll the command phase is ended as normal.

Ending the Battle

Rules for ending the battle are the same as those found in the WA Rulebook. Note however officers do
not count towards the break limit of the army. Indeed they should be replaced by subordinates when
they become casualties.

Optional Rules

Playing on a Grander Scale

These rules are written to cater for battles involving a couple of Divisions or so totalling around 12-20
units or Battalions. However if you want to play larger scale actions involving perhaps even several
Corps then this is easily possible with a few minor changes.

 The Battalion as a formation is removed, along with Brigade Officers.

 1 unit is equal to one Brigade or Regiment (roughly 1,750 to 2,250 Infantry or 875 to 1,125
cavalry)
 Movement distances and range are halved to represent the smaller ground scale.

All other rules remain the same. Formations remain the same. It can be assumed that a Brigade in
Square or Column actually consists of several such formations formed at Battalion level within that
Brigade’s area of influence with the same effect. A Brigade in Line would likely consist of several
Battalions in overlapping, consecutive or echeloned lines, again with much the same overall effect.
As Brigades varied a lot in size, another option would to model the units by taking their historical
strength and representing it with a proportionate number of stands. This is easily done if you use 1
stand to represent 500 infantry or 250 cavalry. This should result in very small or weak Brigades
consisting of as few as 2 stands and larger stronger Brigades consisting of 6 or more stands.
Historically some Brigades consisted of a mix of troop types such as the 1 st Brigade of the 3rd
Netherlands Infantry Division at Waterloo. This Brigade was made up of Belgian Light, Dutch Line
and Dutch Militia. My advice in this would be to go with the majority, which in this case would have
been the Dutch Militia. If a Brigade was made up of equal amounts of troops such as the 2nd KGL
Brigade at Waterloo which was half Light and half Line, I would choose one type and pay the points
accordingly. I would suggest in the latter case going with the Light option as the Brigade spent most of
the battle defending La Haie Sainte, a roll more suited to Light Infantry.
Brigade Artillery could be represented by adding an extra dice to the unit’s shooting, perhaps adding a
single Light Artillery stand to the unit as a reminder (this would only be there as a reminder and would
be ignored for all other purposes).

Buildings

 Built up areas or complexes of buildings should be divided up into areas 6cm x 6cm.
 Each 6cm x 6cm area may house 1 defending Unit.
 Individual buildings or complexes smaller than 6cm x 6cm are too small to be of any tactical
importance and cannot be defended
 Each defending Unit can shoot one stand’s worth of it’s shooting out of each face of the area
 Units defending buildings have no facing and are never attacked in the flank or rear
 When a building is hit, calculate damage as for shooting
 When the specified number of hits are reached in a single turn, the buildings are destroyed.
Roll 1D6 for each occupying stand. A roll of 6+ results in the stand being destroyed
 Destroyed areas of buildings can still be used and troops within them count as Defended

Type Defence Hits Save

Wooden Buildings Defended 2 -
Brick Buildings Fortified 4 -
Stone Buildings Fortified 6 6+
Hasty Field Works Defended 4 -
Well Constructed Field Works Fortified 6 -

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Weather Conditions

 Roll two dice to determine season

Score Season
7 or less Summer
8 or 9 Spring
10 or 11 Autumn
12 winter

 Roll two dice to determine weather

 Add 1 for Spring
 Add 2 for Autumn
 Add 4 for Winter

Score Weather
8 or less Normal
9, 10, or 11 Poor
12 + Extreme

 Players may test again for weather at the beginning of each game turn

Weather effects

Weather Movement Visibility Command Examples

Normal Unaffected Unaffected Unaffected A nice sunny day
Poor -5cm* 30cm Deduct 1 per Rain, snow, scorching heat,
15cm mist
Extreme halved 10cm Deduct 1 per Storm, blizzard, sandstorm,
10cm monsoon, fog
*Note that artillery making a ‘prolong’ move may still move 2.5cm

 Loss of visibility will effect artillery

 Loss of visibility down to 10cm will affect charging as Units need to be able to see the enemy
to charge them

Multiple Day Battles

 Fighting stops for the day at the end of the last turn of daylight
 Fighting on subsequent days begins at sunrise
 Both players may make one full move with each Unit during the night
 Troops moving during the night may not move closer to the enemy unless there is a friendly
unit between it and the enemy (toward its own front lines but not beyond them)
 Divisions may be re-allocated to different Corps during the night
 Brigades may be re-allocated to different Divisions during the night
 Units may be re-allocated to different Brigades during the night
 Game turns are assumed to take 2 hours

Season First Turn Last Turn

Winter 6am 6pm
Spring/Autumn 5am 7pm
Summer 4am 8pm

A dice is rolled at the start of the second and subsequent days and the number rolled is added to the
time of daylight shown on the table above. If the weather is Poor add 1 to the roll, if the weather is
extreme add 2 to the roll. The result is when the first turn takes place

Regaining Casualties – Multiple Day Battles

 At the end of the day both sides recover half of all stands lost during that day (rounding down)
 Casualties from previous days may not be recovered
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  A Unit must have at least one stand remaining to re-gain casualties

Regaining Casualties – Campaigns

 Casualties are recovered once a battle has ended

 If the battle was a Draw then both sided recover two thirds (round up) of the stands destroyed

 If one side voluntarily withdraws it may recover half of the stands destroyed, the other side
recovers half of all infantry and cavalry stands destroyed and all artillery stands

 If one side if forced to withdraw it may recover one third (rounding up) of its infantry and
cavalry stands and none of its artillery stands. The other side will recover two thirds (round
up) of its infantry and cavalry stands and all its artillery stands
It is assumed that a Unit of infantry or cavalry represents 500-750 men, but for a Unit to be considered
destroyed it only needs to suffer about 2/3 casualties. The rest of the Brigade becomes ineffective for
the rest of the day due to shock, fatigue, and disorder.
In multiple day battles the Unit can function again after a night of rest and reorganization, so appears
the next day with its remaining personnel.
If the battle ends after the first day (as most did) it will instead recover up to two stands of its strength
because some of the casualties suffered were actually just stragglers who left the ranks and a number of
lightly wounded men who return to the ranks within two or three days
An army choosing to withdraw (assumed to be more orderly with a rearguard) however, often will lose
stragglers and lightly wounded during the retreat, and an army forced to withdraw (assumed to be more
of a rout) will lose even more men to pursuit as demoralized units surrender en masse. As a result
casualty recovery is lower for those armies.

Engineers

 Engineers can construct a pontoon bridge in 2 game turns

 Engineers can destroy a bridge in 1 player turn
 Engineers can construct hasty field works 10cm long in 1 game turn
 Engineers can destroy any un-defended field works in 1 player turn
 Engineers can improve building defences (6cm x 6cm area) in 1 game turn. This adds +1 to
the building’s normal save or gives it a 6+ if it does not normally have one
 Engineers can destroy un-defended buildings (6cm x 6cm area) in 1 player turn

Treat engineer units as a single stand cavalry unit with 0 Attacks, 2 Hits, and 0 Save

Army Lists (see separate documents)

Army lists include an additional column indicating which year or years a particular Unit type may be
fielded or special rule is in effect.
Points values in italics are suggested values for players who want to maintain a balanced game.
These should be ignored by players who prefer a more historically accurate game and may result in
poor quality officers or better quality troops being fielded at no cost to points values depending on the
year in question.
Some armies did not use the Corps as a formation until later in the period. If fielding such an army
then the highest ranking officer will be the Division Commander with the General or Commander in
Chief using the Division Commander statistics (with the usual +1 leadership and 100cm command
radius).

The Austrian Army 1792 - 1815

The Bavarian Army 1805 - 1814
The British Army 1793 - 1815
The French Army 1792 - 1815
The Portuguese Army 1808 - 1814
The Prussian Army 1809 - 1815
The Russian Army 1805 - 1815
The Spanish Army 1808 - 1814
The Swedish Army 1805 - 1815

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