2
Bonaparte at Marengo
sections 1-6 • introduction, game components, playing pieces, game map, set-up, sequence of play
1. Introduction
Bonaparte at Marengo is a two-player game based on the eponymous
battle between the Austrian and French armies on 14 June 1800. In the historical battle, the Austrian army in Italy attacked and surprised the French
army under Napoleon Bonaparte. After being initially badly defeated, the
French received reinforcements, counter-attacked and won the battle.
In the game, the French army controls the mapboard at the start, but the
Austrian army enters play quickly while the French army is handicapped
by the surprise Austrian move. The Austrians must drive hard and fast to
the west to defeat the French before they can concentrate, while the French
must trade space for time.
The game’s visual style and color scheme is taken from the tradition of
19th-century battlefield maps, in which blue and red lines were drawn to
represent the opposing armies. Following this style, the French army is
represented by blue blocks and the Austrian army by red.
2. Game components
The game includes the following components:
• 80 rectangular (¼" x ¼" x 1½") blocks. These are the playing pieces
for the game.
• One 22" x 34" game board. The map shows the Marengo battlefield.
Game play aids are along the edges.
• Three ½" marker discs for tracking time and morale.
• Twelve ¼" marker cubes to aid in tracking road movement.
• Two copies of this twelve-page rules booklet.
3. Playing Pieces
convenience. Care in arranging pieces must always be taken, however, so
that it is clear which pieces are blocking which approach and which are in
reserve.
9
In Reserve
Two locales are considered adjacent if they meet at their approaches (the
polygon sides). They are not considered adjacent if they meet only at a
corner.
Adjacent
locales
4
Approaches can be narrow or wide. By default the rules assume narrow
approaches. See section 15 for special rules for wide approaches.
Narrow Approach
A full-strength infantry piece represents about 1600 soldiers. A fullstrength cavalry piece represents about 1000 troopers. A full-strength
artillery piece represents about 40 guns and their crews.
4. The Game Map
The game board shows a map of the battlefield. The map is divided into
polygons marked with various symbols. The polygons are called locales
and their sides are called approaches. Pieces in play occupy locales. A
piece can be in the middle of the locale (called being in reserve) or along
one of the approaches (called blocking the approach).
Pieces in reserve together in a locale can be physically arranged any way
that is convenient: it has no significance in the game. Similarly, the frontto-back order of pieces blocking the same approach is also just a matter of
Wide Approach
Symbols along the approaches for the different types of pieces
(infantry, cavalry, and artillery) are terrain-based attack penalties
against attacks into that locale by the corresponding types of pieces.
See sections 9 and 10 for details.
Other terrain-based symbols along the approaches are for impassable (bad for all pieces), cavalry-obstructing (bad for cavalry), or
artillery-extending (good for artillery) terrain. See section 13 for
details.
French 2-strength cavalry
During play, pieces may be required to be reduced in strength by one or
more steps. To reduce a piece’s strength, remove it from play and replace
it with another piece of the same type but lower strength. The number of
steps lost is the strength difference between the pieces. (A three-strength
infantry piece reduced by two steps would be replaced with a one-strength
infantry piece.) A piece reduced to zero strength is eliminated without
replacement. A reduced piece and its replacement are always revealed during the substitution.
4
4
Austrian 1-strength artillery
During play, you can look at the faces of your own pieces whenever you
wish, but you reveal your pieces’ faces to your opponent only when the
rules specifically require it. Usually, it is easy to keep your pieces’ face visible to you but hidden from your opponent just by orientation, but if a
particular piece’s location makes that difficult, you can just turn it facedown and peek at it as needed to refresh your memory.
Non-adjacent
locales
4
The color of the playing pieces indicate whether they are French (blue) or
Austrian (red). One side of each block, called the face, has white symbols
to indicate strength (the number of symbols) and type (infantry, cavalry,
or artillery). See the examples below:
French 3-strength infantry
Blocking
Blocking
9
In the middle of each locale is a number: its capacity in pieces. See
section 14 for details.
Two other types of symbols found in some locales designate
French set-up (see section 5) and objective (see section 16)
locales.
Connecting the locales is a network of roads: main roads and
local roads. Pieces can move by road faster than off-road, and
faster when moving by main road than when moving by local
road. See sections 7 and 8 for details.
All the remaining map artwork (towns, swamps, elevation contours, etc.)
is purely decorative and has no effect on play.
5. Set-up
(1) Time Track. Put a marker on 6:00AM.
(2) Morale Track. Put markers on indicated starting morale levels of the
two opposing armies.
(3) Piece holding areas. Put pieces face-up in the holding areas along the
edges of the board, matching the strengths and types shown. Many pieces
will be left over. The left-over pieces are used as replacements.
(4) French on-map set-up. Randomly shuffle the pieces from the French
At Start holding area face-down. (You can use the top of the game box
for this.) The French player draws them (without looking at the faces) and
assigns them randomly to the reserve areas of the locales marked with
French set-up symbols. The French player may look at the face of a piece
after it has been assigned its locale. The number of symbols in a locale
indicates the number of pieces that start there.