by Michael Eckenfels, 23 March 2025
Here we are! The year of Napoleon becoming Emperor. There’s a lot to unpack this turn.
Our Resource Income is a bit disappointing result-wise…Glory drops to 35 total (again, thanks ever so much, Mr. Nelson), Admin is at 5, Diplomacy at 1, and Political is at 3, which isn’t outstanding.
Since our Political is so low and Glory as well, I’m going to not trade any points for Admin this turn. Let’s just get to the Card Deck phase and add/remove cards.
All discarded cards are added back to the deck, and there’s actually no cards to remove for 1804. Nor are there any 1804-specific cards to add. However, we do have that stack of EMD cards now to add to our Draw Deck, as well as a slew of cards to place/play. I’ll shuffle in the big stack first, mixing it expertly (read: attempting to do so, anyway) with the current, somewhat light Draw Deck.
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Since these cards are all in numerical order and they have to be shuffled, the easiest thing to do requires a bit of room – laying out each card randomly on a table, then picking them up equally randomly, alternating placement top and bottom in a new deck. I then divided that into three roughly equal stacks, then shuffled each of those separately, and then added them together and shuffled again. I’m surprised I wasn’t playing multi-card pickup though some of them did try to do a little dance and fall on the floor.
Whew.
Now, there’s these beauties to deal with. Let’s process them now.
First, we have both Joseph and Louis Bonaparte; both are added to the Napoleon’s Family space on the board. Both of these dudes are beaucoup drags; each of them will cost me Glory each year they are not installed somewhere as a King (taking a total hit of -3 G each turn). Ugh. I’ve placed them on the board and added now a total of -5 G per turn for future Resource Income.
There are eight Potential Treaties that are added to that part of the board, all awaiting their time to shine. They’ll enter play as certain things happen in the game.
Four more cards are placed face-down into the Polish space on the board; they’re all labeled Polish Question, and I’m not sure what the answer is, yet.
This one gets placed face-down in the Spain spot, and remains there until Spain becomes Hostile, at which point it is flipped over. What does it say on the other side? I’m willing to guess it’s not New Beach House for Napoleon or something fun.
Next, I have to choose between one of these bad boys. However, my choice is made for me because the Pope card cannot be played unless the Papal Concordat (card 102) is in play already in the Current Treaties box, which it is not. So, that one is removed. Instead, we go with the other one. This gives us a +10 G gain (thankfully!) so our Glory is now 45. Likewise, this card is now removed from play.
Lastly, this card is put into effect. It gives the same Admin income of 4 every turn; it officially replaces First Consul for Life and makes it official. We are Emperor. We are Legion. Or something.
And now we go to the Card Action Phase. Since the stack is so tall I had to grab a different card holder (again, these do not come with the game; I acquired them from Etsy). The stack, with sleeves, just barely fits in this holder. And yes, sorry I’m using sleeves, but I intend to play this game a lot.
Now, let’s draw our first card as Emperor.
An accurate quote of Napoleon’s as both his judgment and energy, though still remarkable by most standards, declined after 1809.
So much for our Bonaparte Plans +1 DRM modifier…this card removes that from the game. And we’re rewarded with a -1 DRM for all future Campaigns. Yay? Probably a bad start, to be sure.
Next is the second card draw.
When his brother Louis showed signs of acting as the servant of the Dutch people rather than Napoleon, his brother forced him out and annexed Holland directly to France.
Not a bad development, as this will rid me of Louis. I won’t have to install him as King, now, in Holland. I went right for the jugular I guess as soon as Louis started making noises about “Holland this” and “Holland that.” Begone, brother! That’s one less Glory that shall be robbed from me each turn. Losing 4 Glory each turn is still a big hit, but that’s better than losing 5.
Now for card draw three…
The Pope was not without tools in his confrontations with Napoleon, and eventually resorted to his strongest weapon, excommunication.
This is not great; we lose two of our three Political points, reducing us to 1, now. The Papal Concordat is not in play, so that doesn’t matter, at least.
Now for the fourth card draw.
Napoleon was well aware of the importance of logistics, even with an army used to scouring the land for food. But at times, especially in Spain and Russia, the French logistics system broke down.
Oh, lovely. Another negative Campaign Modifier card – and a permanent -1 DRM to boot, as well as an extra -1 DRM if the Campaign is in Spain or Russia.
Surely there are some GOOD cards to be had as an Emperor, right? Right?!?
The Prussian King Frederick William III hesitated to take a stand against Napoleon, even after his catastrophic defeat in Russia. His hand was eventually forced by anti-French feelings in the army and the general population.
“Anti-French?” How dare they.
Prussia is getting feisty. Well, they were already Hostile, so this won’t impact that at least. And we are treaty-less when it comes to them, so that’s ignored as well for now.
For card draw 6, I rolled a 6, which is well outside the DR of 1 required to end this card draw pain for this turn. I guess it ain’t good to be the Emperor.
Unlike Beethoven, the greatest of German writers never lost his admiration for Napoleon, who he met on one memorable (at least for Goethe) occasion.
“Must +5 G…” well, if I MUST, I must I suppose. That’s a good bit of news. My Glory is bumped up to 50.
I guess ask and ye shall receive good things. That means the next card draw will be fantastic, no?
I rolled a 4, outside of the DR of 1-3 for an eighth draw, so let’s find out.
The area of northwest France remained a hotbed of Royalist sympathy throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of Ted Racier’s I, Napoleon from GMT Games; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article, with new ones each Sunday
Guess those uppity French need to be taught a lesson! Or are they English? Were the English not in that area of France for many, many years? I’m rusty on the history. Oh well – they’re anti-me, so let’s anti-them, shall we?
You know what? I’m not even going to bother spending Admin on a Commander for this Expedition. I think I’m going to need all my Admin I can muster for the Campaign we’ll be facing later. So let’s just try this die roll au natural…
And fortunately my bluster pays off as I roll a 9, which is over the 7 needed for success. That gains us an extra Political point, raising our total to 2. That card goes away, the northwestern ‘French’ are anti’d, and we’re ready to keep moving forward.
I get a 9 on my 1d10 for the ninth roll, which has a DR of 1-4, so here we go again.
Eleonore was the first of Napoleon’s mistresses to give him a bastard son, Leon, around the time he was in Warsaw meeting the woman who would give him his second one.
I guess the Prussians aren’t the only ones getting feisty.
I guess go big or go home; I could discard this card and shuffle it back in next turn, or see what happens. This card is added to the Napoleon’s Bed space on the board, first.
And next, we roll for a bastard son. The roll is a 9, so I add a Bastard Son token to that space on the board (yes, that’s a thing).
The tenth card draw requires a roll outside the DR of 1-5; I get a 1, ending this little ride of card draws. That’s enough drama for a turn, I think.
Now, we’re going on to the Campaign Resolution Phase. One thing I keep forgetting is, in EMD, we pick a Campaign from the Potential Campaign pile for the NEXT turn. I can safely say I’m not entirely sure if that is the first FULL turn, or the very same turn, in which you declare yourself Emperor. I may be misinterpreting the rules, but in this case, we will pick a Campaign to fight next year. I could be wrong in my rules interpretation, but hey, I’m having fun with this.
The only card that applies from said stack is the one at right – Austria & Prussia Declare War. Both Austria and Prussia are Hostile, and Russia is not Hostile, so it looks like we’re going to fight with this one next year. I place it in the Campaigns spot. I’m not sure if this would change if the diplomatic outlook changes (such as either or both Austria and Prussia becoming Neutral or Allied), but I doubt it. I suppose we shall see.
Speaking of diplomacy, it’s time for the Diplomatic Phase! Let’s see how much worse things can get on that front.
I can exchange 3 Glory or 1 Political point, for 1 Diplomacy point. And, 1 Diplomacy point spent equals a +1 DRM to a die roll. In this part of the Phase, it’s impossible to actually increase relations; rather, you’re hoping for ‘no effect’ as that, or another step towards hostility, are the only two possibilities. I only have 1 Diplomacy and 1 Political point right now, but 50 Glory, and I’m loath to spend Glory. I’ll spend 1 Diplomacy to get one +1 DRM since I’ll lose that at the end of the turn anyway, but I’ll keep my 1 Political point for now. Seems like spending that for another +1 DRM is like a drop in the ocean and would waste it; I want to build that back up if possible.
Meanwhile, I’ll spend that +1 DRM on my Spain roll, as I don’t want to move them to Hostile just yet (they’re currently Neutral).
Spain – rolled a 1, +1 DRM = 2. Nope. They hate us. They move to Hostile. Ha.
It’s pointless to roll for Austria and Prussia; as I said, they’re both Hostile, and this only checks to see if relations get worse, not better. The best I can hope for is beating them on the field of battle and getting a Treaty invoked, if I want peace. But where’s the fun in that?
Russia is also skipped as they have Tsar Paul in place. For now. That may change sooner or later.
“Wait,” you may have wondered there above. “Did you say, ‘conquered?’” Why yes, I did. It’s possible to Conquer Prussia, Austria, or Britain if they are defeated in a Campaign, and there are no Potential Treaties card that exist in that spot on the board (there are several right now). If Conquered, their Diplomatic marker is flipped over to its Conquered side, and we get an income of +10 G and +1 P during the Resource Segment. There’s rules on how these powers can become unconquered, and more, but we’ll cross those bridges if (when) we get to them.
The Potential Campaigns Segment is part of this Phase, so that’s where we technically place that one Campaign we’re going to fight next year. Now, for the Domestic Politics Phase – how much Glory will we lose this time around?
Well now, I rolled a 10 on 1d10, which is the only ‘no effect’ result. We don’t lose any Glory! I suppose this Emperorship has some benefits. Maybe…it IS good to be the king.
1804 Final Thoughts
Not a bad turn, all things considered. We’re Emperor now, and are going to hit Prussia head-on in 1805. We are aiming to gain as much Glory as possible now to offset our -4 G per turn thanks to Nelson and Joseph Bonaparte being on the board (how dare they exist). Despite the luck of the card draws being kind of random, this is actually quite enjoyable and here’s hoping for an action-packed 1805!
I, Napoleon AAR
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4 ~ PART 5 ~ PART 6 ~ PART 7 ~ PART 8
PART 9 ~ PART 10 ~ PART 11 ~ PART 12 ~ PART 13 ~ PART 14
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