Austerlitz 1805

There were three emperors at Austerlitz. Two of those emperors were the product of hidebound tradition and court intrigue; the other was the product of an insatiable ambition for glory coupled with a limitless appetite for hard work. Two saw their armies in terms of being a regal adornment of colour, martial airs, and ceremonial drill; the other knew his army down to the last pot of axle grease and the face of every soldier aspiring to win a marshal’s baton. Two dallied with war; for the other, war was his stock-in-trade.

On December 2nd 1805, in a very ordinary part of Moravia, the mettle of all of them was put to the test.

Trafalgar Editions’ Austerlitz is a miniatures-orientated rendering of Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest triumph. Using an adaptation of the system first seen in Waterloo 1815: Napoleon’s Last Battle, Austerlitz offers a larger battlefield for manoeuvre, the early morning effects of fog (hidden movement and the chance that forces will blunder into each other), and opposing armies of contrasting strengths and abilities.