Battles of Napoleon: Volume I – Eylau 1807

From Sound of Drums:

Volume I: EYLAU 1807

Battles of Napoleon is an epic game series that simulates the most famous battles of Napoleon on a tactical scale sharing an elegant and cohesive ruleset.
The series portrays the most important aspects of battles of the Napoleonic era with easy to learn and remember rules, intuitive mechanics and procedures. This enables players to focus less time consulting the rulebook and more time on strategy, tactical decisions and gameplay.
The system focuses on the “cat-and-mouse game” of coordination and timing of the various formations of the different arms without unnecessarily complex or excessively thematic gameplay that too often compromises game-flow.
The scale of the series is appr. 150 meters per hex. Infantry units are battalions; artillery are batteries, and cavalry are represented as regiments.

Thanks to the successful funding on Gamefound and the unlocked stretch goals the components of the game are upgraded: the dice are customized and the charts and tables are deluxe (printed on 2mm grey carton) and the game includes 280 alternative counters.
Marc von Martial, one of the best graphic artists in the business, is in charge of the artwork. Gamers can expect beautiful, era-style maps and counters, and they will not be disappointed by his skill and love for detail.

Game design by Uwe Walentin. 

The Combat Units:

Infantry was the predominant and most important element in every European army of the period. It usually formed between 60 to 90 per cent of an army in battle, and was both the cheapest and most versatile type of unit. Foot soldiers had to endure most of the fighting and casualties. Depending on their task, they were either deployed in line (fire power), column (maneuver and assault) or square formation (protection against enemy cavalry). Infantry units are in "Line" formation on their front side and in "Column" formation on the backside of their counter.

Cavalry were a screening unit for the army and provided the shock element on a Napoleonic battlefield. Due to their shock power, they fixed enemy infantry in place and forced them to take shelter in square formations. If infantry failed to form a square they were overrun. Forcing infantry into such semi-static squares, however, meant they were very vulnerable to artillery fire.
Cavalry units are shown "fresh" on their front side and in "tired" status on the backside of their counter.

Artillery, the queen of the battlefield, was capable of devastating effect on square and closely packed formations, but alone was extremely vulnerable when charged by enemy units.
Artillery units on their front side are in fire mode and on their backside they are shown in limbered mode.

The Command System:

An innovative Command system, where players randomly draw activation cubes to determine which army may activate a formation, leads to highly interactive game play. Reaction follows action. We bring the chit-based Command system to a new level. We use wooden cubes that are drawn blindly from a bag. Players decide which formation is activated when an activation cube of their army is drawn. A formation may be activated several times per turn, but with each new activation it performs less effectively.
During a game turn the players are under constant pressure to decide which formation to activate. By efficient timing of activation, players are in the “driver’s seat” to dictate the pace of a battle.
Formations are given orders at the beginning of a game turn and are therefore limited by the actions they can perform on the battlefield. The more “aggressive” the orders are that formations receive, the more likely is the army will collapse due to fatigue. On the other hand, an army is more likely to gain the initiative on the battlefield by “aggressive” orders.
Special rules like the possibility to launch a massive cavalry charge and features like snow storms, Russian Cossacks and the French Guard add distinctive flavor of the battle.

Army Fatigue:

Each army has a certain number of Army Fatigue Cubes at the beginning of a scenario.
Players lose Army Fatigue Cubes by losing units, leders and/or geographical objectives. Aggressive orders will help to gain the initiative but will also fatigue your army quickly. The army that runs out of Army Fatigue Cubes first, loses the battle.
Unlike many traditional war games where fatigue is tracked on charts, we handle this with wooden cubes.

Game Contents:                                                

• two 88 x 56 cm map sheets
• 1120 counters (15 mm)
• 220 alternative counters (15 mm)
• 40 grey and 42 black cubes
• 20 blue and 20 green cube
• 2 Army charts
• 2 OOB charts
• 2 play aid charts
• 2 tally sticks
• 2 counter trays
• 4 custom dice
• 1 rulebook