Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign as a Wargame by Adrian Gilbert part 1

I've always had a fondness for Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt, partly down to a fascination with the lovely Minifigs S Range figures for the conflict (see above).

This post is the first in a three post mini series on the conflict, comprising two articles by Adrian Gilbert and some uniform notes for the British Army bu Philip Haythornthwaite.

The first article by Adrian Gilbert appeared in Wargamer's Newsletter #149 in August 1974.

Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign as a Wargame by Adrian Gilbert, part 2

From Wargamer's Newsletter #150 of September 1974

The British Army in Egypt 1801 by Philip Haythornthwaite

Intended as a supplement to the information provided by Adrian Gilbert in his two articles on Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign as a Wargame in Wargamer's Newsletter #149 & 150 in August and September 1974,this article was published in Wargamer's Newsletter #152 of November 1974

More Prof MAR Barker

Following my earlier post of Prof MAR Barker's Confessions of a Fantasy Gamer from Wargamer's Newsletter #199 of October 1978, I am adding two further items:

the first is the covering letter accompanying that article, also published in WN 199

and the second is from The American Scene series, this time from WN #144 March 1974

Airfix Waterloo Wargame 1975 - Description of the Battle

With thanks to Airfix for permission to post the contents of the booklet accompanying the game and to Alan for the scans.

The booklet had three sections - description of the battle, construction and painting, and rules. These are reproduced section by section here and in the next two posts.

Airfix have indicated they might consider re-releasing the game in 2015 for the bicentenary, if there is support for this.

Airfix Waterloo Wargame 1975 - Construction and Painting

With thanks to Airfix for permission to post these, and to Alan for the scans.

Airfix Waterloo Wargame 1975 - The Rules

Again with thanks to Airfix for the permission to post these and to Alan for providing the scans.

Airfix Waterloo Wargame

My thanks to Alan for his permission to re-post these pictures and some text from his recent posts on the Airfix Tribute Forum

There is a previous Vintage Wargaming post here with a scan of the original advert. This came from 1976 which gives an approximate date for its release.

While I have some hard plastic Airfix Napoleonic figures which obviously are pieces from the game, I hadn't seen the other contents of the set, and there are few pictures of it on the internet anywhere.

Alan writes:

The game itself is pretty simple. Each side moves 15,000 men each turn and then the clock is moved on 15 minutes. Combat occurs when two or more opposing units come into contact or if they are in range of artillery. The number of men plus whether Napoleon or Wellington are with them for morale and whether any are in a stronghold and the throw of the dice are all taken into account and the winner decided. Napoleon must take 30,000 allies by 4.30pm or Wellington wins. There isn't much more to it than that really, but it's good fun!

First, some images of the mat:

Then the figures:

Game equipment:

The calipers.

Alan writes there is a set for each player/team. They are pretty self explanatory. A straight line under infantry, artillery or cavalry shows how far they can move on road in a go. A bumpy line underneath is how far they can travel on rough terrain. And the 10 is whether pieces are in artillery range. All units are in centimeters. 1cm = 100 yards.

The time/loss dial

Alan writes - again, self explanatory. Each move the player can move 15,000 troops and then the clock is moved on 15 minutes. Napoleon has to take 30,000 of Wellington's troops by the time the clock reaches 4.30pm (20th move) otherwise it is assumed that Blucher has arrived in sufficient force to help Wellington to win the battle.

The booklet (history, uniforms and rules)

Operation Warboard revisited

I know it is easy to miss new comments made on earlier posts here (which is the reason for the recent comments section on the right hand column of the blog page).

Just below that is the popular posts section, and you can see there that the Operation Warboard post is the fourth most popular of all time on Vintage Wargaming.

I thought therefore I would draw attention to the comment left today by John Curry of the History of Wargaming project, saying that he has tracked down the co-author of the book and is preparing it for republication in a few months.

The Confessions of a Fantasy Gamer, by Prof MAR Barker

From Wargamer's Newsletter #199 from October 1978