Likewise this one has been gathering dust on my shelf for some time. I also found the rules very difficult and I was never sure how good this game was so your review really helps. Love TNW but am a bit bothered by the universal criticism of it as not very historical. Wish someone would come up with a historical variant version like was done for PoG. However I'll really have to give AoN a try on the strength of this excellent review. Nations in Arms: Valmy to Waterloo looks interesting, but like most Compass games it is just too darned expensive for me.

I've always thought that the elements are all there in TNW to make for a much better historical simulation and I would be very interested in what you come up with. I don't know too much about the period, but given what I have read and some of the better documentaries along with your review of AoN, I wonder if Napoleon is a little underpowered in TNW. Perhaps he should be given some kind of early war modifier ala the British Regulars advantage in Washington's War until some point when the other nations gain enough experience of Napoleonic warfare to catch up.

IM interested in this game but im a stickler for euro/at type big publisher components.

Is the board mounted? Or is it a card board a la Julius Ceasar?

My Avatar is a photo of a physical replica sword sitting on a Brass Map.
Brass being perhaps my favorite game (certainly a 10) and it also reflects my most interested historical era too, as does the sword (British society in the Napoleonic era etc)