Player’s Guide

There are none. We’re neither sadistic nor insane.

ESR Series 3 moves Leader Fate from the defunct Artillery & Skirmishing Phase of ESR Second Edition to the Combat Phase.

Leader Fate in the Combat Phase

Leader Fate is now based on whether a Commander, or the Commander’s Formation, is Threatened by the enemy. Unlike in ESR Second Edition, Commanders who participate in Combat but who aren’t Threatened earlier in the turn will not avoid a Leader Fate Test.

The Combat Resolution Step of the Combat Phase from ESR Second Edition has been replaced with the Threat Step.

Threat in the Combat Phase

ESR Series 3 introduces a unified Threat Assessment mechanic that is used in both the Movement Phase (replacing Artillery & Skirmishing) and in the Combat Phase. What differs between them is that ranged Infantry Threat, i.e. skirmishing, is only considered during the Movement Phase, while in the Combat Phase Infantry and Cavalry at contact factor in.

Batch Unit Combat Resolution

Unlike in ESR Second Edition where players roll for each individual Unit-level Combat Resolution, in ESR Series 3 Threat Assessment is performed in a batch process where two opposing Formations add up their respective circumstantial factors and compare them. The results are then applied at the Formation level, but still have implications for individual Units.

ESR Series 3 replaces the Artillery & Skirmishing Phase with the Threat Assessment Step of the Moves Phase.

Threat Assessment

The Threat Assessment Step during the Moves Phase resolves Threat from Artillery bombardment and Infantry skirmishers. It uses the same mechanic as the Threat Step of the Combat Phase. Artillery will have a second opportunity to resolve Threat against targets in the Combat Phase.

The biggest changes to movement from ESR Second Edition to Series 3 are the introduction of the Regulating Unit and Cohesion.

Regulating Unit

The active Formation Directive dictates what the Regulating Unit must do, after a player moves the Regulating Unit, all other Units are moved to remain Cohesive.

Cohesion

Units are required to remain within a specified distance of each other or the Formation’s Reformation Area to be considered ‘Cohesive’, and may not voluntarily move outside of Cohesion.

Movement Priorities

Series 3 also expands Movement Priorities, setting a priority for each Formation Directive and Status. Opposing Formations with the same priority are still pro-rated just as in Second Edition.

In ESR Series 3 we’ve heavily leveraged Conversions to make control of Formations both more flexible and more restrictive pending the circumstances of the battlefield.

Objective Conversions

Formations must now Convert to Defend [D] if they end their movement within a given distance of their Force’s Objective, thus reducing ambiguity over when a Formation has reached its Force’s Objective.

Cavalry Conversions

Cavalry may still Convert to Attack [A] if they have a target of opportunity, and to Defend if not Threatened. However, now in ESR Series 3 Cavalry Threatened while in contact with the enemy must Convert to Withdraw [W] to break-off.

Attack [A] and Defend [D] Conversions

Formations on either an Attack [A] or Defend [D] Directive may now Convert to Withdraw [W] if Threatened, allowing players to break-off assaults in-progress or more easily conduct rearguard actions than in ESR Second Edition.

Move [M] Conversions

In ESR Second Edition, the Move [M] Directive could voluntarily halt anywhere inside Artillery range and was required to halt at skirmishing range. With ESR Series 3 we’ve revised this to make it more consistent with other mechanics, the Move [M] Directive may Convert to Defend [D] if it Threatens an enemy, but must Convert to Defend [D] if Threatened.

Withdraw [W] Conversions

ESR Series 3 introduces the new Withdraw [W] Directive, which must Convert to Defend [D] when not Threatened.

Converting Statuses

The Retreat [RT] and Break [BK] Statuses will still Convert to better conditions as their Fatigue-to-Cohesion Ratios have improved, similar to in ESR Second Edition, but aided by faster Fatigue Recovery.

David, our lead designer, was thrilled to talk about Et sans résultat! Series 3 on the Anything But A One podcast. David, Tom, Ray, and Richard talk about what makes up the ESR Napoleonics system, compatibility between versions, what’s changed from ESR Second Edition to ESR Series 3 and maybe most importantly: Why?

Thank you for the best product launch we’ve ever had.

Nearly all pre-orders of ESR Series 3 Rulebooks, Commander Card Decks, and Stats & Orders Packs have shipped. We have a small handful containing Stats & Orders Packs which should ship over the next couple days. Once these orders have been shipped, we hope to get back very quickly to our “same or following business day” standard of shipping new orders.

The last ~21 days have been quite a ride here at The Wargaming Company. In Q1 2022 we processed and shipped more orders than in all of 2021 – which was our highest year yet for order volume – and the bulk of which we’ve done in the last three weeks. The rate of ESR Series 3 Rulebooks going out the door dwarfs any other book we’ve published to-date. In 90 days Et sans résultat! Series 3 has sold more copies than 1812-1s3: Master of the World, 1812 in Russia has in the last six months or Iberia-1s3: To Assure My Dynasty, 1808 in Iberia has over the last 14 months – and each of these was respectively our fastest selling title to-date. Our ESR Commander Decks blew through over half our initial run and we’ve been struggling to keep up with demand for our ESR Stats & Orders Packs.

So what else has happened? We’ve published Quick Reference Guides for all of the common ground scales for free download, along with free PDFs for French, English, and Russian Commander Stats, and Unit Stats for French, English, Russian, and Austrian Armies – with more to come. On top of driving pre-orders out the door to get you your new stuff as fast as we can, we attended our biggest convention of the year, running introductory games for over 50 players at AdeptiCon 2022. We also got COVID. Yep. Not fun. We have several staff still recovering. Our recommendation: Be safe, get vaccinated, wash your hands, wear a mask when appropriate. You don’t want this, it sucks.

So what’s next? We’ve still got a HUGE project underway with our ESR Miniatures line, which, despite production slowdowns preventing us for having them for AdeptiCon 2022 – is only getting larger with more nationalities being developed. Austrian and Spanish Card Decks are under development… and… we have work going on to get our next ESR Campaign Guides published for Series 3.

We Are Shipping!

Years in development, 18 weeks in production, ESR Napoleonics: Et sans résultat! Series 3 is beginning to ship today, ten days ahead of schedule!

We are overwhelmed by interest and demand for ESR Series 3!

Due to such high demand, and our release event schedule, we have had to divide shipments into waves. Beginning last Friday we halted our usual daily shipments to address the logistics of managing the large increase in volume and have broken fulfillment into waves.

AdeptiCon

We’d said we were targeting to release ESR Series 3 at AdeptiCon 2022 and indeed we are!

The first public games of ESR Series 3 will begin Thursday at AdeptiCon! Gamer slots filled in 17 minutes. Any open seats will be filled from the official AdeptiCon waitlist before we open it up to any generic event ticket holders but even if you’re just showing up to watch, learn, and ask questions, we’re thrilled to have you.

We will have ESR Series 3, our ESR Campaign Guides, and limited stock of ESR Command Cards and ESR Stat Cards & Order Packs available.

Wave 1

The first wave will include most domestic and international orders, approximately two-thirds of all pre-orders. Wave 1 includes:

• Most US orders of single or multiple rulebooks, and those containing ESR Command Decks.
• Most international orders containing single or multiple rulebooks, ESR Campaign Guides, and ESR Command Decks.

With a few exception, these shipment notifications went out over the weekend and will be “in the mail” later today.

Waves 2 & 3

We intend to ship the majority of the remaining orders in a second wave between 28-29 March. If necessary, any hold over orders will begin shipping 5 April when we return to our normal daily shipping. Wave 2 will include:

• A minority of US domestic orders.
• A minority of international orders.
• All orders containing ESR Stat Cards & Order Packs

Orders containing ESR Stat Cards & Order Packs are slated for wave two due to a supply backlog. As a supplier became unavailable in the last phase of production we had to shift our supply chain program to compensate. We believe we’ll be able to have the majority, if not all, of the orders containing ESR Stat Cards & Order Packs shipping between 28-29 March (Wave 2), and any which do not should be processed the following week (Wave 3). We anticipate resuming our regular schedule of shipping orders the same or following business day the week of 4 April.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us, though we ask that you understand we have a ‘couple of things’ going on and are likely to take more than the normal 24 hours to respond.

ESR Stats & Orders Packs for Series 3

We’re excited to announce ESR Stats & Orders Packs, each including 18 Formation Stat Cards that feature Command, Movement, and Combat stats for the Units common in that type of Formation. Traits specific to the Formation are also denoted and explained preventing additional reference to the ESR Series 3 rulebook.

Formation Stat Cards are a terrific replacement for paper rosters and convenient for players whether running a historical scenario from our ESR Campaign Guides or a throwing together a pickup game.

Every ESR Stats & Orders Pack also includes three type of (paintable) order markers: 9 Objective Markers, 20 Directive Dice, and 8 Status Dice. Combined with the 18 included Stat Cards, each pack is amble for at least 2-3 players’ Forces.

We’re beginning with packs for France, England, and Russia. ESR Stats & Orders Packs are scheduled to begin shipping with ESR Series 3 and ESR Command Decks on 31 March and available for a discounted introductory price until then.

It took six years, but we’ve listened, we’ve reflected, and we’ve worked very hard to make ESR Napoleonics even better.

Available for pickup at AdeptiCon 2022.*

Shipping worldwide 31 March 2022.*

*Expected release dates are likely but not guaranteed because after two years, like it or not, we’re still in a worldwide pandemic and supply chains are a mess, but we’re doing our best and we do expect to ship on-time as of this announcement.

Are you a reseller who would like to carry ESR Napoleonics products? Get in touch and let us know! We offer volume resale terms.