Four Lost Battles

About this board game

Four Lost Battles is a two-player board game for 1–2 players, released in 2005, with an approximate playing time of 240 minutes. This quadrigame of the Dresden Campaign covers four battles fought in August and September 1813.

The game focuses on the Allied strategy agreed at Trachenberg: avoid Napoleon personally on the battlefield and fight his subordinates instead. Following Napoleon’s victory at Dresden, his chances of winning gradually slipped away across four lost battles in a two-week period.

• Grossbeeren: To the Gates of Berlin, 23 August
• Katzbach: A Perilous Passage, 26 August
• Kulm: Enfilade in the Mountains, 29–30 August
• Dennewitz: Collapse in the North, 6 September

Four 22 × 17-inch maps represent the battlefields, while 560 two-sided units provide the forces involved. Two decks totaling 96 cards are used for deployments, arrivals, and troop status, supported by four player aid cards.

The 48-page rules include campaign analysis, designer notes, and additional material. As part of The Library of Napoleonic Battles series from OSG, formerly known as the Napoleon’s Last Battles series, the game uses a scale of 480 meters per hex, one hour per game turn, and 500–800 men per strength point.

Four Lost Battles places these engagements within the wider 1813 campaign, which culminated in the certainty of a battle around Leipzig and led toward the Battle of Nations in October. It offers a focused way to explore the battles fought by Napoleon’s subordinates during this pivotal period.