Introduction by Congress of Vienna Designer – Frank Esparrago: Although Congress of Vienna (CoV) is a game with an enormously robust selection of political and diplomatic decisions and effects with the game’s military aspects omnipresent; you’d think that would be enough. Ha! Some play testers wanted an option to study what could happen if they decided the big tactical choices in a decisive battle to a greater degree of influence than the standard game offers. As CoV’s designer, I could not resist the opportunity to address their desire!
The standard game already includes military units and cards that represent generals and other units such as guard, cavalry, etc. But for a game focusing on grand strategy, how would you arrange different army corps and reserves? This was something the standard game left uncontemplated. It seemed an optional rule the best approach to address this as an optional rule.
David Schoellhamer is one of our play testers who possesses excellent analytical skills and attention to detail. He has significantly contributed to improve Congress of Vienna despite not being a historical expert of the Napoleonic age. Lately, he is involved in the considerable task of making fully operational a scenario that allows playing CoV in a solitary version: the French player versus Bots for the three allied players! This allows the Solitaire Player to experience all the pressures and opportunities for glory that confronted Napoleon during the 1813-1814 period CoV encompasses.
This optional rule is based on the tactical battle matrix of the excellent Avalon Hill games 1776 and War and Peace published in the distant years of 1974 and 1980 respectively. However, playing with this optional rule does slow the amount of time needed for battle resolution. It should only be used by true-to-heart “wargamer” CoV players with enough time and desire to get more involved in the military aspects of this game. What is clear is that the CoV Tactical Battle Matrix does add an additional element of fun, uncertainty, tactical flavor, and “fog of war” to resolving battles. By presenting simple choices regarding the general tactics an army uses; we are sure that to some players it is quite reminiscent of the simple children’s game of rock / paper / scissors / match. But we will further reference this last analogy later during this article.
Additional background regarding Congress of Vienna should help readers best appreciate this optional offering. For that, please reference GMT Games – Congress of Vienna Now to our exposition!
