From: "John Nebauer" Subject: Re: War and Peace (long) War and Peace is a very entertaining game. Units are generic strength points which represent about 5000 men. Infantry need leaders to move, cavalry can move independently. Leaders are rated from 0 to 3, with Napoleon, Wellington 3's. There is also a naval leader, Nelson. Leaders can move up to 10sp of infantry, except Davout in the 1812 scenario who can move 15 (I think, or it may be 12). Basic system is political phase, followed by movement and combat. Combat takes place within the hex, and can be reinforced by adjacent stacks by either player, allowing the escalating Napoleonic battle to take place. Each type of unit has a typical morale, the French being the best, Russian cossacks the worst. Losses are taken by morale loss which also translates into sp losses. Once a force's morale is reduced to 0, it breaks. Supply is critical. Supply lines have to be created to friendly supply sources, which are traced through friendly sp's, which are dropped off from the main force and act like depots. Forces take attrition at the beginning of the turn, and the more in the hex, the greater the loss. Forces can also force march, with the possibility of additional losses. The game covers the main scenarios from 1805 - 1815, with a grand campaign game. It doesn't have the economic and political complexity of Empire in Arms, but, at least in the campaign game far more playable. IMO it's an excellent game, and one that I return to periodically. But I believe that it does have a number of flaws. The seige rules are quite poor - it's too easy to assault a fortress. You rarely get some of the long seiges that sometimes took place. In the Peninsula, you don't get a real picture of why Wellington found the fortresses of Badajoz and Almeida such a bother, because they can both be stormed relatively easily. More serious are the political rules. The work well for the scenarios, but breakdown with the campaign game. If you've got a player for each of the major powers, it's not such a problem. But if you've only got 2 players it's quite poor. All countries apart from France and Britain are controlled by a matrix. As you get allies, which the French player can get easily through conquering the German and Italian minor states, it can roll to bring Austria, Russia and Prussia onside. Once the French player is in this position, it's all over. Britain can be a nuisance, but isn't going to make a major impact on the game. There are variants in the General which correct this. I've got copies of these, if you want to get back to me at (I also have a copy of W&P for sale for $10 if you want it). It's certainly worth getting. It doesn't quite have the depth of EIA, but you can get though the whole campaign game in a longish day. It's also a relatively simple system. It plays much easier than I've probably indicated. I'd get it (even if you don't want to get my copy). :-) John Nebauer ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com