The Standard Rules about fighting in built-up areas (deploying, firing and combat) have been heavily changed for a more realistic outcome. Using the rules from previous editions, built-up areas were not handled as in many historical accounts, so the rules have been adapted to simulate the combats in these focal points in the battlefield more accurately.

Some minor changes have been made in the firing section (e.g. template placement, bonus) both in the Standard and Optional Rules to avoid unrealistic extreme situations.

A new set of Optional Rules have been included to handle some aspects related to the units’ built-in commanding officers, allowing them to have a little chance of rallying the unit independently or limited handling of an out-of-command situation. Now brigade commanders can take initiative tests even though they are not represented on the board. The effects of casualties among attached units have also been slightly modified.

In the Standard Rules units can now no longer pass freely through other friendly formations. Movement in march column and over bridges has also been changed for a more realistic outcome.

A list of abilities have been included as an Optional Rule to avoid a fixed statistic line for each unit type and allow to represent differences in morale, training or experience between units of the same type and nationality, so players and scenario designers can customize the units based on the historical behaviour of a particular unit. The unit sizes have also been altered to fit more accurately in the historical scenarios. A number of updated scenarios are provided within the rules, with more of them to be published on the website plus and a web facility to help building customized armies as an option for players that wish to use it.

Cavalry with a react marker can counter-charge if contacted when having a react marker as a new optional rule (this is considered “Attacking Cavalry”).

A new combined arms attack Optional rule has been designed to avoid a perfect coordination of the battlefield units, which historically was very hard to accomplish. Hence, pulling out devastating attacks becomes more difficult with this rule and the players must weigh different options depending on the risk they want to assume.

The all-out attack and dismounted cavalry sections have been moved from Standard Rules (in the previous edition) to Optional, since they are seldom used and not suitable for beginners. The rules themselves have not been changed, so veteran players can still use them as before if desired.