Campaign of Nations (2018)

With games like Objective Shreveport! and Hood's Last Gamble, designer John Theissen has found a unique, accessible, streamlined approach to games of operational maneuver. With Campaign of Nations, he turns his attention to the Napoleonic era, and specifically to the dramatic and turbulent 1813 Leipzig campaign. Waterloo might get the attention and the catchy pop song, but it was Leipzig that saw the emperor encircled, defeated, and forced to abdicate. These are far larger, grander armies than those that marched across your plexi in Mr. Theissen's ACW games. New Zone of Control rules appropriate for this scale make it more difficult to slip by the enemy. Just before being attacked, defenders in multiple hexes may attempt to concentrate forces, leading to dramatic swings in fortune. These and other rules support a tense board situation in which the French player, occupying a central position, must contend with enemy armies marching in from all directions. Will Napoleon defeat each one in detail, or will they be able to tighten the noose?