C&C Cards

In Epic C&C Napoleonics some Command Cards which in the base game would affect the whole table now have to be played in one section. This seemed a bit unbalanced; for example it would be far more common to have four infantry units in a section (e.g. for Fire and Hold) than four artillery units (e.g. for Bombard). Even worse, it rather slows things down; playing the rules as written would mean often activating fewer units per turn in a large game than in a small game, which seems counter intuitive. I/we have therefore decided to tweak a few and to clarify the meaning of another:

Command Cards

• The following cards apply in all sections rather than just in one:
• Bayonet Charge
• Bombard 
• Cavalry Charge 
• Elan
• Fire and Hold
• Leadership
• La Grande Manoeuvre
• Rally
• For the avoidance of doubt the Give Them Cold Steel card still only applies in one section.

I did think of making some of these cards (e.g. Bayonet Charge, Bombard etc) playable in two adjacent sections, but in the end felt it added complexity for little value. All the cards listed have limits to the number of units that can be ordered - some on the card, some related to size of hand, some determined by dice thrown, and some by number of leaders - and so none are out of proportion to the rest of the game. Give Them Cold Steel has no such limit and could potentially apply to every unit, hence the restriction.

Tactician Cards

Call Forward Reserves: the wording on this card is ambiguous. To me the logic is that units are being summoned by a leader to join them. We shall therefore ignore the clause about open terrain. Units can be moved forwards to any hex adjacent to a leader or occupied by a lone leader. I will also allow any unit to be so ordered, not just those on the baseline; that restriction is presumably intended to make it a counter to Short Supply, but in practice would seem to punish attackers.

I have never been entirely happy with the Short Supply card, either when it was a Command Card, or now it's in the Tactician deck. For a while we played it as a sort of ranged fire equivalent to First Strike instead of as written. However, for the time being at least, it stays. In the next game to be played there will be a scenario specific restriction and we shall see how that works out.


OK, I'm off to sit in the sun and listen to the cricket. If I were a betting man my money would be on India.