Miniature Wargame — Napoleonic Rules by Tod Kershner
Line of sight/line of fire: to be a legal target for artillery or infantry fire the target unit must be within the unobstructed range of the firer. To fire through a gap in friendly lines there must be a gap of at least the frontage of the firing base for artillery. For infantry to fire through a gap with at least one base there must be a gap of at least the frontage of the firing base. In this case only the base(s) that have such a gap can fire (thus a four-base infantry unit may only be able to fire 1-3 bases through gaps. Line of sight is blocked by intervening objects like friendly troops, hills, building and such – use common sense. When firing from a higher elevation than the target unit the firer may fire over intervening friendly troops if they are closer to the target than they are to the firer. Vice versa when firing from a low elevation to a high elevation. Once again use common sense.
Official AON errata : August 22, 2010
Road movement: when a unit starts a turn in road column on a road its movement is 1.5 of its regular column move as long as it begins, ends and remains on the road for its entire movement.
Organic skirmishers as targets of non-skirmisher infantry fire: When organic skirmishers are within range of an enemy unit, with their own parent battalion farther than 6” from a target battalion, that does not have skirmishers, the enemy unit, may fire at the skirmishers but must take the –2 on his shot for “vs. skirmishers”. I now realize that the line on the firing chart that says “-2 vs skirmishers (except organic)” is poorly worded and was an attempt to say that artillery firing at an infantry unit does not have to take the –2 for vs. skirmishers if the target has a skirmish screen. This does not apply when an infantry unit shoots at organic skirmishers.
OPEN ORDER UNITS/TROOPS
Most nationalities have Light battalions:
France (and allies) – Legere + selected line units;
– Britain (Portuguese etc) – Light Battalions, Rifles etc;
Austria – Jagers and most Grenzers;
– Prussia – Jaegers and late war Fusiliers;
– Russia – some Jaegers .
All the above will be addressed in the Army Lists.
While French and British lights can start the game in Close Order (C/O) and subsequently change to Open Order (O/O), other Nations’ Lights must remain in the same order (Close or Open) in which they started.
REPRESENTATION ON THE TABLE
(Note-Light Battalions deployed with supports and reserves and usually their frontage in O/O wasn’t much larger than the same in C/O)
Light battalions should be represented by “opening up” their four bases with an interval of 1″ between them.
MOVEMENT
Units in O/O can move up to 10″ IN ANY DIRECTION as long as the relative position of their bases is preserved.
They do not cause Disorder factors (Ds) while interpenetrating or being interpenetrated by another unit as long as one of the two is stationary.
COMBAT
Fire Combat – each base will fire in the Skirmish Fire sub phase before any C/O infantry with the maximum equivalent of 4 Skirmish figures , depending on the effective number of figures remaining in the base itself. They will hit in most cases (see Army Lists) against troops in the open on a roll of 1 to 3 (see also the Fire table for effect against troops under cover, other skirmishers, gunners etc).
IN ANY CASE, natural rolls of 1 will always cause a hit.
The first Hit will inflict a D on the target, half of the remaining ones (rounded down) will be actual casualties.
Melee – O/O troops are not allowed to melee in the open, even against other skirmishers. If charged by C/O infantry will immediately Fall Back a full move on a roll of 2 to 6, and Rout on a roll of 1 by cavalry, will be Routed on a roll of 3 to 6 and eliminated on a roll of 1 to 3. Both charging infantry and cavalry will end their move occupying the O/O troops position and gain 1 D.
Single bases (i.e. 1/4 battalions) could fire at different targets.
Their arc of fire will be as per normal infantry fire.
In closed terrain (Light and Dense Woods, Orchards, Villages etc) O/O troops melee like C/O ones without suffering negative modifiers for Disorder etc.
MORALE
O/O units in the open will check morale only for casualties and friendly units routing nearby.
While in closed terrain they’ll check as other units in C/O.
Additional rules
Cossacks
Morale =1, Shooting=N/a, Melee=2, Formation=N/A, Pursuit=1
Cossacks are light cavalry with lance.
Formation: the Cossacks have only one formation – two base frontage and two base depth. Their bases should be spaced apart ½ inch to show that they are always unformed.
Fighting formed units: Cossack can charge formed or unformed enemy units if they pass their morale checks. Cossacks, when charged by formed troops, BEFORE checking morale can choose whether to evade which they then do without checking morale. If they evade they will roll 2 dice and add their regular movement (18”) to determine how far they run. IF they decide to stay AND pass morale, they can countercharge and fight as unformed vs. formed, otherwise they ROUT if they do not pass morale.. When in melee they will, as per the standard rules, only fight with their front two bases and, when fighting a formed enemy unit, their opponent will get double dice for formed vs. unformed.
The above only applies to the non-guard Cossacks. Guard Cossacks are morale=4, Shooting=NA, Formation=NA, Pursuit=4. Guard Cossacks can operate either in open or closed order.
Pursuit (clarification): This is an addition to the pursuit rules on page 16-17.
If contact between the pursuer and the routing unit on the first turn of pursuit the following turn the router will rout again (cannot rally if pursued) and then the pursuing unit will make another pursuit check and if it fails will make another charge move toward the back of his routing foe. If the pursuing unit does not regain control when the router goes off board the pursuer will also go off board and be out of your life forever (or, at least, for the remainder of the current game).
Optional leader hits: Whenever a leader is attached to a unit that charges it will take a leader hit check after all fire, regular and/or opportunity, at the charger is finished. This leader hit check is done before the charging unit makes his “charge home” roll. If the leader is killed the charger will still attempt to “charge home” but will suffer a –1 modifier on his check.
Howitzer fire: howitzers can fire as regular artillery but also can fire indirect (i.e. the trajectory was high and the shell found its target from above). Howitzers can fire at open top redoubts without suffering the shooting penalties (like –4 for fortifications) inherent in fortifications. Instead the howitzer fire will suffer only –1 for firing indirectly. Howitzer fire may not be used to hit a target it cannot see.
Lances. Lance armed units will get a +1 modifier on their first turn of melee in the game and never after that. Lancers do not get the lance bonus against opponents wearing a breast-plate (cuirassiers and carabineers). Optionally, Russian hussars may be lance armed.
Simmons Boys 