The rules for the second and third printings of Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars (which can be downloaded here) contain very minor differences compared to those of the very first printing. Nothing that would prompt me to recommend obtaining or printing out the new rules. In a nutshell, the rule changes are as follows:
- In the very first edition, there was a lack of consistency in explaining the prohibition on assaulting enemy units from the rear or disordered if one was on the flank of other units. In the second reprint, this rule has been removed from the main text and included amongst the optional rules, under the name ‘Assault Priority’ (this is one of those rules I always try to use)
- Some may have turned up their noses at the idea of cavalry being able to enter and hold villages. For this reason, there is a new optional rule stating that a cavalry unit located in normally impassable terrain (e.g. a village it has entered via a road) and which is attacked immediately goes into disorder (as if it were attacked from the rear)
- Finally, I was the one who turned up my nose at how weak the Fortified Terrain rule was. We’ve slightly strengthened the rule, stipulating that all results can be ignored by suffering just a single Casualty.
Otherwise, the changes are merely to correct typographical errors or to try to improve the wording of certain rules.