Chris Crawford on Game Design

Napoleonic Cavalry

This is another strategy wargame that takes the ideas of the previous game one step further. I have seen few Napoleonic wargames that captured the essence of Napoleon's technique, which was to use cavalry to blind the enemy while sending the main army along a variety of routes, converging them on the true objective at the last moment. All movement in those days was road-bound, and the road network in Europe was thin enough that it constituted the primary constraint on strategic movement. Cavalry, however, could move cross-country, so Napoleon would send out swarms of small cavalry bands that would serve as Napoleon's eyes, and turn back enemy cavalry so as to blind the enemy. This screen of cavalry could be two hundred miles ...