Napoleonic Battles - Optional Rules Guide 1.4(4.06)

[BigDuke66]

I think we all agree on the "Movement Threat Disorder" OR sounds fine but doesn't work out. And looking at details it gets really strange like supply wagons disorder that can be brought to order again, etc..

Regarding "No detached melee" OR, I don't see a problem here as it only demands to keep the units of your brigades together like it usually was done.
There are fine examples like some Saxon Grenadiers at Jena that were placed behind the first Prussian defensive line, and when that was thrown they did nothing but grab their bags a march back to their brigade.
Overall we also speak of a tiny fraction of incidents were it could indeed come out strange, but for the wast majority it's OK unless you ignore that OR and spread your troops like landing in the Normandy.
Furthermore it does play out the internal structure of the armies, the French with more sinful compositions will have even less trouble, mixed brigades of Cavalry & infantry like Prussians used at J-A will have more trouble. again a welcome side effects in depicting the armies and the differences between them.(ADDED this last point to the OR explanation.)


Regarding "No Melee Eliminations" OR, again no problem unless ignoring it. Maybe I should have tried to connect some of the rules but it seemed I already wrote more then enough for each and I didn't want to expand it even more.
So for the NME please note 2 things:
1. I recommend weak ZOCs what means you can maneuver or rout of of encirclements that could cause NME.
2. I recommend Partial Retreats as to allow the escape of at least some men if you have a eligible hex.
With that the NME isn't nearly as "hard" as some may think. Using it in my current Caldiero battle we are 1 1/2 days in and both we close in on 20k casualties, and from these there were maybe 2-3 incidents on both sides were the NME resulted in kills of units, overall a tiny fraction of the casualties. In all cases I was perfectly fine with the result, you got to pay a price if you pull something off and fail.