A friend of mine, Steve Carey, is a fanatic over the stuff being 
produced by Victory Point games.  He has been raving about them.  
This last Saturday I sat down to play one of the games in the 
Napoleon 20 series with him.  We played Waterloo.

First, I was impressed with the quality of all of the components with 
the exception of the even cards.  The event cards were flimsy and 
printed on thin cardstock, but won't be a problem should players 
discover what CCG players have known about for years-- Card sleeves.  
The counters were colorful and well done, carefully punched.  The 
rulebook was printed in a very nice manner and I especially liked the 
dice images showing the effect of various dice rolls.  

However, beyond the components, I was impressed with the gameplay... 
The rules were basic (even the optional fog of war rules that we did 
not use) and clearly written.  The sequence of play was clear and 
concise.  

This small game (which sells for under $20.00 at the Victory Point 
website- www.victorypointgames.com) is chocked full of choices, all 
surrounding the morale chart.  If a player's position ever falls to 
zero, he loses the game.  Players can choose to use morale points to 
break larger units into smaller units, or to commit the Imperial 
Guard into battle, etc.  This game is full of choices that involve 
more than simply moving.  However, even movement offers a choice.  If 
I move next to the enemy I will be committed to an attack.  Certain 
chess-like manuevers are weighed carefully.  

The event cards are not the typical "screw you" cards, but are rather 
well-thought out events that actually make sense.  They can have 
negative consequences, but for the most part the events only enhance 
the game, they don't tilt the balance one way or the other.

I lost my game, despite the French smashing the Prussian Army (they 
were able to re-generate via some lucky die rolls during the night 
turn and return to the game at the wrong time and wrong place)..  

This was a great game, even though Napoleon never even got close to 
Waterloo itself.

David "the preacher" Wilson