Napoleon (board game)

Napoleon, subtitled The Waterloo Campaign 1815, is a strategic-level block wargame designed by Tom Dalgliesh and first published by Gamma Two Games in 1974, simulating the 1815 Waterloo campaign that ended Napoleon Bonaparte's return to power. The game was among the earliest wargames to use wooden or plastic blocks rather than printed cardboard counters to represent military units, a technique that hides unit identity and strength from an opponent since only the owning player can see what a block represents from their own side of the table. It followed Dalgliesh's earlier block-wargame designs Quebec 1759 and War of 1812. After its original release, Napoleon was reissued in further editions, first by Avalon Hill in 1977 and later by Columbia Games in 1994 and again in 2013, and the game is designed for two or three players taking the roles of the opposing Waterloo campaign armies.