Commands & Colors: Napoleonics
A game for 2 players designed by <PERSON>
"There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." <PERSON>
Introduction
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Roger's Reviews. I've been playing board games since I was a wee lad and wargames for over thirty years. I've long been a fan of <PERSON> engaging and easy to absorb commands and colors system. Of the games that use the same or at least very similar core mechanics I've also played Battle Cry, Memoir '44 and Battlelore.
Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (C&C:N) is a tactical battlefield game pitting two players against one another in a Napoleonic setting. As with other games in this series, hand management is key to your success. Good tactics and the occasional lucky die roll don't hurt either!
Components
Commands & Colors: Napoleonics comes in the 3" deep GMT box and it is simply packed with components.The box weighs a little over 4.5lbs in no small part due to the large number of wooden blocks that come with the game.
Blocks blocks blocks!
Complementing the nice wooden blocks is a beautiful green mounted map board with the name of the game in the centre of the map. I'm used to seeing the name of the game on a wargame map, but it is a little unusual to see it so centrally placed here. It immediately made me think of various indoor sport leagues having the team's logo in the centre of the playing area. No need to fret though, it doesn't detract at all from playing the game, and it'll often be covered by terrain tiles anyways.
The battle arena!
Speaking of terrain tiles, the base game comes with 56 double sided terrain tiles showing everything from forests to rivers to be used in the fifteen scenarios that come in the playbook. There is also a deck of 70 cards with the various commands you'll be able to use in your quest for victory, 8 dice, rules, the aforementioned scenario playbook, various player aids and many many sheets of stickers. I admit up front that having terrain tiles rather than separate scenario maps both allows for the very nice mounted map board and ability to create your own scenarios (if you're so inclined) as well as reducing costs for artwork and separate maps. However, I find having to sort and place terrain tiles on the map somewhat of a nuisance; this is one of those uncommon instances where I would actually have preferred individual paper scenario maps like in the Combat Commander series.
The box is packed full of Napoleonic gaming goodness!
Here's a key difference between the other games in the Borg family and the Commands & Colors (C&C) series (either Ancients or Napoleonics). 92
Whereas Battle Cry et al have plastic miniatures to represent the units, the two C&C series use wooden blocks which require a sticker on both sides (as they'll be upright and visible to both players). The resultant armies are lovely to look at, in many ways easier to sort and store than miniatures, but be prepared my friends to spend literally hours getting your armies all set up. The dice are likewise blank and you have to put stickers on the six faces. There is a guide in the rule book on how to distribute these stickers for those who want specific guidance.
A note about the blocks and stickers: be prepared to devote several hours of painstaking effort to get all your blocks finished on both sides. It took me around four hours to get it all done.
Sorting blocks by color.
The first stickers are applied!
The French army begins its rassemblement.
Progress!
The French army is complete!
Of course, it's not strictly necessary to do all your blocks. You could use one block of each type and sufficient blank blocks to fill the units strength. You could also lay them flat which would only require stickers on one side. So, if you're keen to get playing sooner rather than later, you can use this handy shortcut. Just don't expect that you won't have to eventually get all your blocks finished.
On the right, two alternatives to putting stickers on everything.
The dice need to have stickers applied too.
A note of caution. that once you get all those stickers on their blocks and the terrain tiles punched out you'll have a Tetris-like challenge getting everything back into the box. Many people resort to external storage solutions for the C&C sets. For instance, my friend <PERSON> stores his complete C&C Ancients series in a large Plano tackle box, with all the various armies sorted by type in their own compartments. The organizational effort is well worth it and will pay off time and again for setting up a game.
Everything in ziploc baggies. It all fits though! 84