First Victories: Wellington versus Napoleon

About this board game

First Victories: Wellington versus Napoleon is a 1–2 player grand tactical wargame of the Peninsula War, with games taking around 180 minutes. It recreates the small battles of Roliça and Vimero while introducing the command, maneuver, and combat system of the Glory and Empire series.

With nine scenarios and a detailed solo system, the game offers several ways to experience these early encounters between Great Britain and France. The battlefield is represented at 125 meters per hex, with counters depicting battalions, companies, regiments, squadrons, and artillery companies.

• Soldier’s Game: Learn foundational horse-and-musket tactics, including line, column, square, and skirmisher formations.
• Battalion Game: Add more detailed close combat, two types of skirmishers, battlefield maneuver concepts, and artillery ammunition.
• Brigade Game: Explore close columns, attack columns, closed squares, Austrian division masses, and expanded artillery procedures.

Artillery develops across the rule sets, from simplified procedures to bombardment zones, bounce through, howitzer fire, and separate ammunition tracking for round shot, shell, canister, and shrapnel. The Brigade Game also provides more tools for reacting to enemy movement.

Players can begin with the accessible Soldier’s rules, progress to the fuller Battalion simulation, or choose the Brigade rules for a richer examination of grand tactical maneuvering in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century style. First Victories: Wellington versus Napoleon delivers a flexible path from introductory tactics to a detailed battlefield command experience.