Battle of Marengo
This Napoleonic battle at Marengo uses our highly acclaimed Pub Battles system.
What Makes Pub Battles Different?
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Features |
Benefits |
| Quick Play Time
Setup and play to conclusion in a fraction of the time needed for most games. |
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| Simple Rules
1 page Quick Start rules! The regular rulebook is 88% shorter than most rules. |
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| Random Turn Order
Units move by Corps in random order. |
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| Components
Custom hardwood Kriegsspiel style blocks with real canvas maps. |
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You can get a deeper insight into how the system works here:
French Strategy Guide for Marengo
Errata
Setup Sheet & Page 5 Reinforcements French reinforcements arrive 1 turn later than scheduled. Rivaud should be turn 3. Desaix turn 5.
Page 7, How to Alter Turn Order Delete this rule: “You can attempt to alter AFTER the opponent has started to move. If you jump ahead, the opponent must undo his move.” Instead, you must resolve alter rolls before movement.
You can also learn more about how the system works by checking out Brandywine.
This sounds great! How can I get it?
Click below
Is Battle of Marengo available now or sill awaiting release?
It is ready now but the bulk of the boxes won’t arrive till late next week. We are shipping a handful of what we have now. =)
Question, fairly interested in grabbing a copy but read a review that stated that there were no penalties for retreating across a river? Wanted to see if that was still the case with this latest version, also a board game geek page would be super helpful. Thanks!
Where did you see this on a review? Can you tell me the source? It would be nice to clear this up with them also.
At Marengo, there is only 1 river and it isn’t fought over. The main impact of the river is to restrict axis of advance for the initial Austrian attack. In other Pub Battles however, fighting over rivers can come up.
Pieces cannot move over rivers. They are not crossible. In this way, they very much restrict and impact possible retreat routes. You can only retreat at bridges / fords. If your route to there gets cut, you are destroyed if you have nowhere to go. I’ve seen this happen at Antietam.
It is hard to compare different rule sets. They all go together. What works at 1 scale in 1 set of rules often will not work with something else. There are many different variables at play in a game system.
There are many rules we came up with during development that ‘sounded’ good. In theory they make sense. When we put them in the game and played it, they just don’t work. You have to cut them.
We try most of all to model the battles. What happened historically? Were they able to attack across the river? What happened when they failed? Did everybody die? How many times did they attack across the bridge and were forced back? How many times did it take to finally cross and push the enemy back? What were the average losses?
If the rules give us results that historically happened and the ‘feel’ right, then we go with that. Modeling and game play trump theory in our view.
At Little Bighorn, things are different. The Little Bighorn is not actually a ‘river’ in game terms. It wasn’t like the Potomac. It is an over sized stream. It was crossible at most points. Some places easier than others. You also need to take into account the unit scale. At Little Bighorn, we don’t have massed infantry in formation. If I remember correctly, the units are companies with about 40 troopers fighting dismounted in loose skirmish formation. If you are about to get overrun and killed, believe me, you will cross the Little Bighorn to retreat and escape. This fits the battle and the situation.
Is there a place where you show a component list for each game? They look great and I am trying to decide on purchase.
Thank you
You know, I was just thinking about this yesterday. I’m going list these on the products page now. 🙂
how many blocks?
how big is the map?
The map is huge! 24″ x 37″ A little too big by some accounts but we figured it was worth it for the historical and aesthetic value.
Combat blocks French: 15 Austrians: 19
There are a few other little blocks for HQs & Command Chits also.
Hello! I’m interested in purchasing this game. What does “available on backorder” mean?
Good question. It means we are temporarily out of supplies and that it won’t ship right away. You can go ahead and order. They usually will ship within a week.
We just got new blocks in today, so Marengo is now “In Stock”. 🙂
Hello.
The game just arrived today and the map is … really very nice.
I’ll learn the rules to play quickly
I have played Marengo now 4 times having just purchased it a few weeks ago. First, it is a beautiful game. The map and pieces are first class. Second, the mechanics and simple rules allow you to get in and enjoy the game. I have quite a few war games but the set up time and play time prevents me from playing them. Marengo on the other hand is quick to set up and play. The balance of the game is also fun with each battle being different and either side can win so it’s up to the command decisions. If your on the fence about this game, I highly recommend it.
Don Schmier
Here’s my first post on my FB page :
https://www.facebook.com/bjacquemart/posts/10204660223702227
On this FB page, you’ll find 5 posts about Marengo we played Friday :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/293727860811576/
Question regarding rivers and road movement. According to the road movement rules, units in road column move at 3X rate and ignore terrain. Can Austrians begin the game in road column, and use road movement to cross the river, without paying the 1/3 move penalty? This would seem to allow a much more rapid deployment across the river than was historically the case.
Yes, they can. This is how it works.
However, we have adjusted the road bonus down a bit so this should work out about right.
The new road rate is 2x.
Hi there.I have recently otained a copy of Marengo and cant wait to get playing. Can you confirm are there any additional rules for light infantry with your napoleonic games as i note the Austrians have grenzer and jager blocks. I was wondering if there was a terrain bonus etc.
Great question!
You know we talked about this extensively with the Playtest group. We developed rules and tested them for things like this. Our research showed that for Marengo at least, the Austrian Light Infantry formations didn’t fight as light infantry. The all formed up and fought in mass. As such, we figured Jagers and Light Infantry should treated as elite, except their performance in this battle didn’t seem to deserve that designation.
Our other conclusions:
-Skirmishers are best accounted for at this scale with the FoE rules. We carefully plotted out skirmisher deployment distance for each line and how far out effective musket fire would project from here. Guess what all this adds up to? Almost exactly 1/3 Foot move. 🙂
-Light Infantry and Jagers are elite troops.
-They usually fought in dispersed formation: similar to Skirmishers but they are different than Skirmishers.
-As mentioned above, at Marengo, the Austrian Lt Inf didn’t fight dispersed like this.
-Light Infantry / Jagers are best represented at this scale with a full sized block that is elite but only has a 1 step value based on their numbers and dispersement. So they only roll 1 die in combat and are eliminated with 1 hit (except they are elite so they ignore the first hit).
-We’ve tested these rules at Brandywine. They work really well. In fact, by doing this, it makes the OB more accurate and the battle more interesting. We’ll probably release this with a 2nd edition or update later.
-We’re not sure what to call them… They aren’t skirmishers and we didn’t want them to get confused with that. Light inf in mass would just be an elite block. So you’d have to call them “lt inf that is dispersed”? The closest term we came up with was ‘detachments’ but that can be confused with bigger formations like Divisions being detached to other Corps, etc. Have any ideas?
-These rules fit battles like Brandywine very well. Troops were fewer and more dispersed at Brandywine. I suspect rules like this would work well for other smaller engagements like this. So something like Maxwell’s unit or Ferguson’s Rangers would be a Light Infantry, 1 step block with elite status. These small units were mostly combined into larger blocks.
-Even so, I still wouldn’t add these to the bigger battles. It doesn’t fit the scale very well. They would gum up the system and mostly get in the way causing unrealistic delays. They are best represented at a lower scale: like our Brandywine Kriegsspiel set. We have some Beta rules that allow you to play a Pub Battle on the same map with these smaller scale units. Each little block is 1/2″ long and represents 450 -just like in Kriegsspiel. At this scale, a Jager or Light infantry unit would be just 1 little block of 450 men. They could breakdown and spread out into 4 times their size with skirmish formation: with elite status.
-One place these could be helpful is at Waterloo, defending the Chateaus. Then you could put little 450 man blocks in there. You could be more accurate at that scale. We do have plans to make a detailed KS set of Waterloo pieces. There will be tons of them!!! It’s going to take awhile. -nearly 1,000 I’m guessing. That many pieces alone will slow the game down to normal wargame status. Still, it would be interesting to see and fun to play out like that if you have the time and space. 🙂
-We started off Waterloo with 3 British little 1 step units in each of the Chateaus. They kind of worked but at this scale they also caused trouble because they shouldn’t be that long, and how long blocks fight and line up with little 1/2″ blocks? You’re trying to run 2 scales at once then. Confusing. In the end, we decided they weren’t worth the extra complexity and confusion. The game works well as is for the scale. If want that detail, you’re best off going to Kriegsspiel scale.
Thanks for such a detailed reply. I will rate them accordingly. Try them as normal first then maybe with the elite and one step option. I agree at this level too much detail would bog the game down. Would you treat them as spent in buildings in this situation?
On a side note i hope your plans for Austerlitz are still in progress that would be a great battle at this scale as would Borodino! Thx again for a great game
Well, there has been some debate on that lately. I would say yes, in general this makes sense. So a 1 step Light Infantry block could deploy in buildings and not become spent. They are meant to fight like that.
We’ve been discussing the difference between American towns in the Civil War and European towns in Napoleonics. American towns were mostly wood structures with open roads. Limited cover. They mostly didn’t fight there as it disrupted formations. I’m thinking many European towns were stone and brick structures with a stone wall running around the perimeter. We’ve been calling these: Chateaus in Waterloo. This means you don’t become spent and you can’t be flanked. A much better defense.
Yes, Austerlitz is well under way! We’ve been talking about Leipzig. It might actually be playable at this scale. It would still be huge. Borodino would be excellent too. It’s on the list. 🙂
Hey James!
We’re trying to get the victory and player motivation lined up right for Austerlitz. That seems like the trickiest thing. How does this sound?
The French can either play with the historical forces (strong) OR they can use what the Allies thought they had (weak). This is unknown and hidden to the Allies. There is Fog which cuts down visibility and you have to use the Reserve Cards.
Victory Conditions:
French are Strong
To win, the French must defeat the Allies. If they can’t by the end of the day, the Allies win.
French are Weak
To win, the Allies must defeat the French by the end of the day. If they can’t the French win.
So the Allies have to attack, to probe and acertain French strength. If they just sit there and the French are weak, they lose. If they find the French are strong, they have to pull back quickly, carefully and hunker down to survive. If they push too hard and the French clobber them with a well timed strike, they lose.
I like this idea. The key to this battle was the early morning fog and putting this level of friction into the game would keep both players on edge and always having to adapt their plans. Again using the various commands to give some flex on either scouting/reaction based on their historical performance would compliment this excellent idea. I would love to see this playtested from both perspectives to see the outcomss. Happy to help if you want to chat any other ideas through etc.
Furthermore, cavalry would be balanced in this theatre. Austrian cavalry was regarded as some of the best in europe at this time along with the excellent russian artillery and infantry. Maybe also building in a free set up scenario option would give a very balanced and different game whilst giving new and experienced player a other option with the map and forces at play?
Hello,
I recently bought a copy of this beautiful board game, and was reading g through the scenario booklet. I noticed that it said that french infantry can form square, but I didn’t find any modifiers or conditions to follow it up. What happens when the infantry firm square?
Best regards,
Mark
Thank you!
The beauty of this system is that it’s deceptively simple. Many things are packed into it and accounted for without separate rules. So there is no special rule to ‘form square’.
The ‘rules’ for square are the Cavalry Modifiers. Attacking Fresh infantry, they suffer a -1 because they are in good order and able to form square. Attacking Spent infantry, they get a +1 because the infantry is too disrupted to form square.
So you can use artillery to bombard and ‘break up the squares’ by flipping them to spent. Then charge and run them down with cavalry. -Or maybe they are able to rally first before the Cavalry can strike: meaning they were able to re-group and form square again as the cavalry approached.
This is all built into one, elegant, streamlined system. It’s very easy to make a complex game with tons of rules. Very difficult to make a simple game that is also a good model.
Thank you so much for this clarification! The moment I saw this game online, I fell in love. I love how easy the rules are, while still keeping and presenting the hard decisions and situations a real battle can give. I can’t wait to get the Waterloo scenario!
Thanks,
Mark
Victoire à Marengo !
French Victory !
9 losses for the austrians / 2 for the french.
Murat was send to delay / fight with opportunities Ott command, north.
Lannes delay and threatened the south part of Mélas.
Victor delays and retreats until the central ridges. Bonaparte send Artillery and guard at the center.
Victor and Bonaparte fight to keep the heights when Murat destroys Ott and then, rallyes and charges Mélas’s left command.
Lannes, after the first fight with Jägers, retreats because he / and his opponent have lost half of their men.
Mélas took time to organize his 3 commands and cavalry then assaulted Victor and Bonaparte. Artillery fire done, the fight for the heights began : The Furia Francese was the strongest.
Mélas tried again but was beaten again. The slopes turned red through the black powder fog. Austrian’s cavalry bravely charges guard and artillery and… was beaten down.
Desaix flanked Mélas’s right for the last act and it was the end. The darkness extend his bloody shadow around Marengo in order to cover Mélas retreat. Even the austrian Elite forces were driven back.
All French units were disorganized but stood proudly, exhausted on the ridges they defend. Bonaparte, his face covered by black powder, tired, red eyes, looked at the flying austrians and smile to his generals around him : Lannes, the saber broken, Murat, naked head, Victor, wounded. A day of victory !
One thing I really love about Pub Battles is that hearing reports of games sounds like reports of real battles!
Very cool.
Marengo is fascinating with the new 3.0 rules, especially with the impact of logistics. The French player won’t be able to rally spent forces unless he pushes one of his supply trains well forward. Unpacking a train near the river, however, runs the risk of it being overrun by the Austrians, leading to an immediate Austrian victory.
The Austrian player, for his part, will be reluctant to push a supply train east of the river, as it can almost always be overrun by a combination of French Cavalry charges and an advance by the Consular Guard. Leaving the trains safely in the rear, however, means that the Austrian Army will be progressively weaker as it advances beyond it’s logistical support, and is unable to rally spent units.
Also dangerous to both sides is the risk of retreating forces stampeding frienfly units to their rear. This is especially problematic for the Austrians, packed together in deep columns as they pour over the limited number of river crossings.
The changes in 3.0 make Marengo a much more interesting game, without sacrificing the simple game mechanics and rapid play that pub battles is known for.
Yes, exactly! There are a number of different ways to play it, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. The closer to the action you unpack, the stronger you can be and greater chance you have for victory. It also means you become fixed into position and more vulnerable if your line breaks. Very tricky….
There are a number of good ways to play it. It depends on what you are trying to do and what the enemy does.
RE: The changes in 3.0 make Marengo a much more interesting game, without sacrificing the simple game mechanics and rapid play that pub battles is known for.
Yes! Well put. I really like the strategic depth. It was a fun battle game to play before. That element is still there but now there is a whole different level of strategic / logistical planning. I love the way this has turned out!