Creating the Virtual Tabletop

Let's take a look about how to Napoleon's Battles looks when played in the John Tiller Napoleonic Battles* editor...

(*Henceforth abbreviated as JTNBs, with Napoleon's Battles abbreviated as NBIV. The original Napoleon's Battles by Avalon Hill will be referred to as AHNB.)

Infantry

Each NBIV base is represented by an infantry battalion in JTNBs.

Infantry brigade in line

Infantry brigade in column

Infantry brigade in column (odd number of bases)

Infantry brigade in square

An advantage of using JTNB is that each base can individually be in line, column or square formation, solving one of the old criticisms of NBI-IV; that brigades behave like battalions. Bob Coggins, the original designer of AHNB, said that this was just a handy way to indicate the brigade's optimisation for movement or combat, and that a counter could equally be used to indicate the brigade's deployment.

This means that an infantry brigade of four bases can have one row of four bases in line, or two rows of two bases and still be in line. Conversely, our two rows of bases can be in column or we can have a single row of four bases and be in column. It is also possible to form square in single or double-echelon too, so that if changing a brigade with an artillery battery attached to one flank, the battery doesn't have to teleport magically in order to stay attached.

Alternative column, line and square formations

It's not all rosy, however: a single JTNBs battalion occupies a hex 100m wide, whereas a NBIV infantry base is only .75", or 75m wide. The 100m-wide hex works perfectly for British infantry bases since they can be (optionally) 1" wide (for 2-rank infantry). One solution to this would be to only represent 75% of the bases in each 3-rank brigade, rounding as needed, but this strikes me as unnecessarily messy, and not worth the effort it would take, so 2-rank and 3-rank infantry bases are 100m wide which, coincidentally, is in proportion the base sizes used in Col. Bill Gray's "Age of Eagles" which also uses the brigade as the manoeuvre unit (Age of Eagles can also be played using JTNBs games, by the way).

As Bob Coggins himself said "It's a game, not a moon shot." Wise words.

Here's how our infantry brigade looks in the JTNBs .oob file:

Infantry brigade in the .oob file. The numbers after the "G" are pointers to the unit's 2D unit image and 3D map graphic respectively.

The "L 2 4 142" Line is actually an entry for a general. NBIV brigade generals aren't represented on the table, being considered to be somewhere in the brigade footprint, doing their thing. I like to add one anyway, because it helps me to more quickly spot which base is the Cadre Base, where I update  information about the brigade's status. The quality entry is unnecessary but I hate to leave a feature unused. Quality values in JTNBs are from F to A+++ and are represented in the .oob file by a value of 1-9. NBIV troop qualities (which is more a reflection of their staying power than their training/initiative) range from E up to A, so the "5" above indicates that BrLN (British Line infantry troops) are of "B" quality in NBIV game terms, and this will show as a "B" in the in-game unit information display, thus:

Infantry brigade information "label"

Cavalry

The approach for cavalry is much the same except that a JTNB cavalry regiment represents half a base, NBIV cavalry bases being 2" deep, so a three-base cavalry unit in NBIV requires six cavalry regiments in JTNBs.

Cavalry brigade in line

Not only that, but I double up again with two JTNBs regiments in each hex because the cavalry fills up the hex more, making for a better visual. This really depends in the unit graphics being used, though (see A Note About Graphics Mods).

Cavalry brigade in column

The NBIV cavalry column formation is straightforward enough, but with an odd number of bases this doesn't translate so well into JTNBs:

(a) just doesn't look right, so for odd-numbered bases (which will always gave an even number of half-bases), I use the approach in (b). This means that a cavalry column is redefined as a cavalry brigade of  three or more bases with only a two-base frontage. A two-base brigade on a two-base frontage is in considered in line and a brigade with single-base frontage is, of course, in march column.

Cavalry brigade label

12-figure (3-base) cavalry brigade in the .oob file. If doubling-up on bases for visual effect, you simply use one JTNB base per NBIV figure.

Artillery

Like infantry, artillery presents a bit of a frontage problem when translating NBIV to JTNBs with an NBIV battery having a frontage of 1.5". The JTNBs game engine has one battery per hex, extendable to two hexes if there are over a certain number of guns present. I opted to have each battery consist of two gun "models", or two hexes per battery. Instead of using the NBIV  two-gun model battery option for batteries of 10-12 guns, I just add a third, which gives us artillery that looks like this:

Unlimbered artillery

Limbered artillery (a) and artillery in march column (b)

Artillery label

10-12 gun battery

In both views of the unlimbered battery, note that these too have a kind of cadre base even though artillery doesn't have cadre bases in NBIV. The general makes it easier to spot where the cadre base is. Using two or more guns per battery also has the advantage more guns being - apparently - present, which improves the "battlefield look", particularly for scenarios where there isn't much artillery present.

Artillery battery in the .oob file

Note how the battery is treated as a brigade for the purposes of the .oob file. This makes it easier to keep track of which guns belong with which battery in artillery-heavy scenarios.

Generals

Generals are pretty simple...

Army, Wing, Corps and Division generals

In the .oob file they look like this:

Example of generals in the .oob file

Wagons

Wagons are quite simple too. An NBIV wagon unit is represented by two wagon units in JTNBs.

Wagons in column and march column formation

A wagon unit in the .oob file

Note that only one wagon unit is needed in the .oob file because a wagon unit can be "placed" on the map any number of times, whereas other units disappear from the organisation list when placed on the map.

NBIV Markers in JTNBs

The markers we need for NBIV in JTNB's are for:

• Casualty markers
• Artillery crews without guns
• Disorder
• Rout
• Half-move
• No-move
• Limbered
• React
• Unsupplied
• Terrain
• Mystery
• And one other...

Casualty markers: These are built into the game where the strength if a unit can be decreased as required. As with miniatures, a base is removed for every 4 casualties. To mark an artillery hit, one of the guns is toggled as "uncrewed".

Infantry, cavalry and artillery casualties

Reducing strength to record casualties

One lesson I learned the hard way is not to have the brigade general selected when increasing (or decreasing) casualties. It has the effect of demoting/promoting the general from JTNBs point of view, and can result in an error message next time the game loads. Easy enough to fix, but best avoided.


Artillery crews without guns: This is where the battery commander comes in handy. If the guns are abandoned, I just move him to where the crew are supposed to be.

Disorder: The JTNBs editor allows a unit to have its status changed to or from Disordered. In addition, all disordered units on the map can be highlighted. Setting disorder on the cadre base is enough; there's no need to apply it to the other bases in the brigade.

Setting Disordered status

Highlighting disordered units. Note the white highlighting around the base. 

Highlighting shows up more clearly in the 2D view.

Rout: There's a button for that too...

Setting Routed status

There is no highlighting for routed units, but they're not hard to spot because of (a) how the unit graphic changes on the 3D map and (b) routed units are marked with a red "R" in the 2D map.

How to spot a routed unit

Half-move and No-move:  This is a tricky one, because there is no such status built in to JTNBs, so I've used the Low Ammo/No Ammo status that is there. The downside is that there isn't s button for it and it has to be set via the menu bar. For low ammo just set "Decrease Ammo" once, for "No Ammo" twice, and then similarly use the "Increase Ammo" option to clear the status. On the plus side, units with Low/No Ammo can be highlighted..

Setting No-Move/Half-Move status

Highlighting units with No-Move/Half-Move status

Limbered/unlimbered status: One of the big advantages of playing NBIV this way, is that limbering and unlimbering status is built into the game. Status is toggled by selecting the unit base and pressing the "0" number key. This is also how infantry bases change between column and line.

React: This was probably the trickiest status to mark, because it needs to be highlighted for when React markers are to be removed in the Administrative Step, and also it may need to be applied to Wellington, who is a leader, not a unit and so has very few markers in JNBs. There is a "Fixed"" status available for units in JTNBs that can't move until a set time, or enemy moves close enough, and there's no analog for this in NBs and it can apply to leaders too but I was already using that for something else, so in the end I settled on the "Set Objective" option. This places a flag in a hex whose visibility can be switched on and off and and can be seen easily in 2D and 3D views.

Add objective (React) step 1

Add objective (React) step 2.

A value of "1" is enough to place the marker. To clear it I just click the Add/Remove Objective button and select "no Nation" and then "OK".

With the View Objective button selected, "React Markers" can be seen in 2D and 3D views, but are easier to spot in 2D.

Unsupplied: This is something I haven't been able to come up with a marker for, but I my experience it's a rare enough event and could be noted on a piece of paper.

Terrain and Mystery Markers: I never use either of these options so marking them isn't a problem.

And one other...: The "Fixed" marker. Very handy, and at various times I considered it for marking Fatigued units (even though NBIV doesn't use a Fatigued marker.) and also for marking React satus but I found a far more pressing need...the need to remember which units were moved or fired during the relevant steps. This isn't usually a problem when gaming with miniatures, but when you can save the game and take meal breaks and even leave it for a few days, then its easy to come back and scratch your head wondering which units had moved or fired and this can be a real time-waster. So as I move/fire them I apply a Fixed (i.e. "Finished for this Step") marker, then at the end of the step, highlight and clear them. For Non-Phasing and Phasing Fire, clearing the Fixed markers can be done for both sides when Phasing fire is done.

Applying "Fixed" status to a unit.

Finding "Fixed" units. Note the white border around the counter.

A couple of handy features

Organisation highlighting: Select any general at any level, click the Highlight Organisation button...and that's what happens.

General Gardanne's command

Command range: Select any commander and press "K", and his command range will be highlighted - useful for the command phase. Unfortunately JTNBs only allows a range to be specified for each nationality at each level and not for individual generals, but it's still a useful feature. I set all division generals' command range to "3", corps and above to whatever the range is of the lowest-ranged general at that level for that nationality in the NBIV order of battle, then you only need to count the range in hexes above that. I always give brigade commanders (i.e. in the Cadre Base), a range of 36, for when the supply option is used.

Gardanne's range - actually 4" but most others will be 3", so just count one hex further.

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