Ney vs. Wellington: The Battle of Quatre Bras
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Ney vs. Wellington: The Battle of Quatre Bras is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1979 that simulates the Battle of Quatre Bras.
In 1815, the exiled Napoleon returned to Paris and quickly raised an army. Faced with a coalition of British and Prussian armies gathering in Belgium, Napoleon speedily marched towards them, trying to fight and defeat the two armies individually rather than allowing them to join.
On 16 June 1815, while Napoleon was battling the Prussians at Ligny, he ordered Marshal Ney to find and destroy the British under the Duke of Wellington. Wellington and a few troops had moved to the village of Quatre Bras, and had Ney immediately attacked, he might have dealt the British a decisive blow. As it was, Ney did not attack until 2:30 pm, allowing more British troops to move up and reinforce the units at Quatre Bras. Although the British were ultimately forced to retreat, they did so in good order and with few casualties, allowing them to reform and fight Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo two days later.[1]
Description
Ney vs. Wellington is a two-player board wargame where one player controls the Anglo-Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington and the other player controls the French forces under Marshal Ney.
The game uses the complex asymmetrical game system developed for SPI's 1976 monster Napoleonic wargame Wellington's Victory.[2] Although Ney vs. Wellington is a small game with only 255 counters — of which just 70 are the actual army units of both sides — the game has been characterized as "monstrously complicated".[3]
Gameplay
Although each unit has a strength rating, critic Jon Freeman noted, "Firing strength and effectiveness ratings are far more important than unit strengths."[2] As with other Napoleonic games, provision is made for changing a unit's formation (line, skirmish or square), which can have an effect on both attack and defensive efficiency.[4]
The game uses "step reduction" for damage: After a unit takes its first hit of damage, its counter is replaced by an identical unit counter with a slash across it. If the unit takes a second hit, it is eliminated.[4] Several critics did not like the double-counter system, and later games with step reduction used double-sided counters, with the damaged unit graphic on the reverse side, rather than a system of two counters for each unit.[2][4]
Morale plays an important part in the battle, and the presence of leader counters can play a large role in maintaining morale.[4]
Rather than the standard "I Go, You Go" move/attack system used by most wargames in the 1970s, Ney vs. Wellington uses a complex and asymmetrical series of phases:[4]
- French Cavalry Charge
- French Rally
- Allied Facing and Formation
- Allied March
- French Shock Attack
- Reciprocal Artillery
- Reciprocal Infantry Fire
- Allied Cavalry Charge
- Allied Rally
- French Facing and Formation
- French March
- Allied Shock Attack
This completes one game turn. The game ends after twenty turns.[2]
Victory conditions
The victory conditions depend on whether either side is demoralized, and how many French units, if any, were able to move forward past Namur Road.[4]
Publication history
In 1976, SPI published the large and complex Napoleonic game Wellington's Victory, designed by Frank Davis, which simulated the Battle of Waterloo. Three years later, Joseph Balkoski used the complex rules to design a much smaller game, Ney vs. Wellington, which was published with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen as a free pull-out game in Issue 74 of SPI's house magazine Strategy & Tactics. The game was also released as a boxed set, using as cover art the 1875 painting "The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras" by Elizabeth Thompson (also known as Lady Butler).
Although critical reception was generally good, the game did not find an audience and failed to crack SPI's Top Ten Bestselling Games List.[5]