by Michael Eckenfels, 5 January 2025
Introduction
Bonjour, mes amis! It is I, Napoleon Bonaparte, the greatest military genius and most dashing figure in all of Europe – if I do say so myself1. Welcome to this grand adventure where you shall step into my rather stylish boots and guide me through the tumultuous years of my illustrious career.
Prepare yourself for a whirlwind of battles, political intrigue, and, dare I say, a dash of romance. After all, I am quite the catch, non? Just ask Josephine…or Maria Walewska…or Marie-Louise of Austria…or that one scullery maid…well, all of them actually…but I digress!
As we embark on this journey together, we will be facing the same challenges the ‘real’ (but no less dashing than moi) Napoleon faced. Will I lead our glorious French armies to victory in our game? Will I navigate the treacherous waters of European diplomacy with the finesse of a master fencer? Or will I, perhaps, make the same mistake the real Nappy did and invade Russia in winter? (Pro tip: Don’t do that. It’s colder than a royalist’s heart out there!)
We shall start as a humble artillery officer – well, as humble as someone of my natural brilliance can be. From there, the sky’s the limit! First Consul, Emperor, master of Europe – It’s all within our grasp. Just remember, when in doubt, charge forward with confidence. It worked for me at Austerlitz, after all!
But beware, mon ami. The path to glory is fraught with peril. One wrong move and we might find ourselves shuffled off this mortal coil, hopefully with some modicum of panache. Or, far worse, we could be exiled to some godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere. Not that I’d be bitter about that or anything.
So, are you ready to rewrite history with me? To conquer Europe with nothing but our wits, charm, and an impeccably stylish hat? Then let us begin! Vive la France, and more importantly, vive moi!
Okay, Real Introduction
Alright then. No, I am not Napoleon. Nor do I claim to be anywhere near his acumen when it comes to fighting on battlefields of Europe or being a self-proclaimed ladies’ man2. I’m just me, playing through this newest game from GMT called I, Napoleon. This is a solo game (a TRUE solo game) where the player puts themselves into the stunted general’s outfit and tries to mimic, or better yet exceed, the historical accomplishments of the real Napoleon Bonaparte. The game has several scenarios that are shorter in scope, but this is going to be on the full game, for better or for worse (most likely, worse, given my luck). Throughout, there will be narration, commentary, pictures, and hopefully successes – enough, anyway, to keep the game going.
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
The game begins in 1793 and proceeds with one game turn per year, all the way through the final turn, which is 1817-1821. At that point, Napoleon died from some stomach flu or bug or cancer or poison or loneliness or horse appreciation or something. Historians think it was stomach cancer; others think he was slowly poisoned in his outcast years. Who knows. None of them were there. Neither was I. But, I have jokes. I don’t purport to know the full story of Napoleon, but I have been reading a biography on him – Napoleon, A Life by Andrew Roberts. At a whopping 976 pages, it delves pretty deeply into his life and times. Admittedly, though, I am ‘only’ at the point where he becomes First Consul. I will not try to comment on the history as it actually happened, because I am no Napoleon scholar.
One more thing – I will probably mess the rules up. I will endeavor not to do such a thing. But, mistakes happen, so please forgive me in advance.
I will refrain from going into too long an introduction on the game and will just jump right into the first Turn – 1793 – and will try explaining things as we go along. At first, there may be a lot of explanation, but as we both get a feel for how this plays out, I’ll try to lessen that and make it more about the actual gameplay. Some things will probably not require detailed explanations after the first few times they happen. I’m still learning this game, though, and us solo players, we talk to ourselves. A lot.
BOARD SET-UP
I need to talk a little about the board set-up so you have some idea of what’s going on, here.
most images can click to enlarge
This is where most game information is recorded. There are five things being tracked – the Year which marks the current turn, and then four Resources – A, D, G, and P.
The ‘A’ that you see in the 3 space is Administrative Points, or A for short. This represents Napoleon’s ability to administer his area of responsibility; early on, that’s his part of the army, but that later becomes bigger things like an entire army and/or a nation, too. This starts at a value of three.
The ‘D’ represents Diplomacy. This is Napoleon’s and France’s diplomatic strength and can be used to hopefully positively influence Diplomacy rolls, though that is later in the game. Right now, it starts at zero.
The ‘P’ represents Politics, or Political. This is Napoleon’s domestic political power and is used in those situations, where needed. Like with Diplomacy, Napoleon is not ready for the big time quite yet, so this starts at a zero as well.
Finally – last and certainly not least – there’s the ‘G’, which represents Glory. This is Napoleon’s standing in the eyes of France, the world, history, and not least, himself. A major goal of the game is to increase his Glory as far as possible. It is a ravenous requirement and can fluctuate up and down as his fortunes crest or fall, and can even be used to spend on playing certain cards, too.
The Diplomacy Tracks pictured here indicate France’s standings with the other major European powers – Britain, Spain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Everyone is at a Neutral standing, meaning they don’t care about Napoleon nor France, either way. Yet. Oh…they will. Oh my yes, they will…
Ahem…anyway. Note that this middle space the markers are on is Neutral, with Allied and Hostile as potential other locales for these country’s dispositions. Except Britain. Britain can go sit on a stick as far as France and Napoleon (at this time) are concerned. Note that they are always Hostile. Yes, all three spaces for Britain are Hostile. There’s no making some people happy, I guess. Unless they get conquered of course. Muwahahahaha…
This marker keeps track of a nebulous thing called…you guessed it, Napoleon’s Luck. This can be ‘spent’ once per year to do things like re-roll a bad die roll, or discard a card that you do not want played. Once it is used, though, it cannot be used again for the remainder of that turn. It also cannot be ‘banked’ from year to year so you cannot accumulate them if you choose not to use them.
This is the majority of the game board – Europe in all its glory in the late 18th century. These locales and names changed a lot over time, of course, especially under Napoleon, but they represent current happenings during the game. You’ve probably noticed the countries each have spaces similar in size to a card. Congratulations! You’re adept enough to join my/Napoleon’s army and join us on this trip of conquest and fun. (I have another game called Legion Of Honor that might be a nice follow-up to this one…hmm.)
These maroon-colored spaces track things like Napoleon’s people, wives, mistresses, family, staff, and a few others. This can all change during the game. We’ll see how lucky Napoleon gets in these areas. Heh-heh-heh.
And this is where we track Campaigns, Campaign Modifiers, our Commanders, Current Treaties, and Strategy Cards (that last one is the space at far right that has two face-down cards in it at start).
That’s the board. Now that you’re generally familiar with things, let’s just dive into the first turn.
TURN 1
Since this is the first turn, in the year 1793, we skip a few Phases. Normally, we’d have a Year Setup Phase and a Card Deck Phase to process, but we’ll ignore these and get to them in the next turn. So for now, we get to jump right away into the Card Action Phase, just like Napoleon liked to jump on scullery maids. Or something.
This long track here helps us remember how many cards we’ve played for the current Turn. This can be a minimum of five up to a maximum of 12 in our turn/year. Note on the track there are a range of numbers that appears in the ‘6’ space (DR 1), increasing slowly through the 12 space (DR 1-7). Normally, we draw a card and advance this Card Draw marker one space. However, once we get to the ‘5’ space, before we draw the sixth card, we have to roll the d10 included with the game. If our roll equals or is within the range shown with the DR notation, the Card Draw Phase ends and we move to the next Phase. If the die roll is outside of that range, though, we draw another card. It’s possible to go and draw 12 cards for the turn, and if we do, that automatically will end the Card Draw Phase there. Simples.
Now, we’ll draw our first card.
The first card is Bonaparte’s Plans, which is a Strategy & Tactics card. Read it over; note that it says “May” as its first word. The ‘May’ indicates we can, but do not have to, conduct the action indicated. In this case, the card can be discarded and we’d move to our next draw. Or, I can place it in the STRATEGY & TACTICS box on the board, and use it in any upcoming Campaign. The combat effect, as you can see, costs 1 Admin point (that’s the “A”) but will give us a +1 DRM to the first Combat Round of a Campaign. I have no reason to not play this to the Strategy & Tactics space on the board, so I’ll do that now.
Now, we move the Card Draw marker to the 2 space, and draw again.
Good ol’ Nappy is already on the hunt for a wife, and along comes Desiree Clary. No, I will not add the accent marks to her first name. Apologies to anyone that this bothers, but I am not quite anal enough (yet) to want to do that.
So I can discard this, or try to make her Napoleon’s Wife. The advantage of having a Wife in the game is in her bearing a legitimate son, which adds 10 Glory to Napoleon’s total…a pretty significant bump. The odds are low, though – if I’m doing this, I need to roll an 8 or higher on a d10. Desiree apparently has better taste than Napoleon, and will require some convincing.
Technically, this represents Desiree becoming Napoleon’s fiancé; historically, this was the case. Creepily, though, she was only 16 in 1793, and historically wasn’t his fiancé until 1795 when she was 18. But then again, this was the eighteenth century, so times were different then I suppose.
Trying to marry Desiree and failing means -3 Glory, but as we are at zero Glory, there’s actually no penalty as Glory (nor no other Resource) can go into the negatives. And since having a legitimate heir may do us wonders down the road (especially as this would give us +10 Glory), we’re going to give this a try.
And Desiree breaks off the engagement, just like that. Oh well. Desiree disappears into the pages of history. And historically, she did become Queen of Sweden and Norway and lived to the ripe old age of 83, which is a significant event considering the lifespan of some royals at the time. Getting to 50 back then was an achievement. In any case, I’m discarding this, moving the Card Draw marker to the 3 space, and we’re moving on. Napoleon will have to get over his heartbreak as he’s not even a General yet and nobody cares about his feelings right now.
We’ve drawn our first Commander, Junot. Historically, he led the French invasion of Portugal. For now, he’s an unknown quantity. Napoleon has met him though, and this means he can be potentially used to impact future Campaigns. We will add him to the Commanders space on the board.
And the Card Draw marker moves to the 4 space, and we draw another card.
I’ll recite the entry in the game’s Playbook for this card, to give you insight:
When there was a Paris uprising against the Directory, Napoleon had the good fortune to be in Paris, where, with the help of Murat, he obtained guns needed to put down the revolt. The famous Whiff of Grapeshot cost scores (and perhaps hundreds) of French lives but confirmed Napoleon’s importance to the government.
This was historically one of the first important shifts in Napoleon’s career, him participating in putting down the revolt in Paris. I wish I could remember details but it did start to make a name for him.
For the game, the Egyptian Campaign is of course not in play (so, Napoleon is not off fighting in Egypt), so this card is not discarded. We have to subtract 2 G, though, and since we’re still at zero Glory, this does not happen. (Saved by another zero sum, woo hoo.) However, we do gain +3 P, reflecting our performance and increased status. Not too bad, I suppose.
So, Napoleon is starting to get noticed. About time. We are (yes, ‘we’ are using the plural as ‘we’ slowly become Napoleon – I don’t care what I said in this article earlier) having our natural talents noticed! It’s only upwards and onwards for us!
Hopefully, those are not famous last words. I move the Card Draw marker to the 5 space and draw another one.
This actually makes sense in the narrative. According to the Playbook, this is:
Brief command of the Army of the Interior made Napoleon further political connections.
Our performance in putting down a bunch of peasants with grapeshot (an effective means, no?) gave us brief command of this Army, which in turn, according to the card, gives us a further +2 P. Our Political resource is now at 5, which is good. Moving up is always good for Resources.
We’re doing okay so far. Could have been better by getting Desiree as a wife and getting a legitimate heir, but there will be (hopefully!) other wives that we/Napoleon can get in game to ensure our legacy, which is starting to build a bit now.
However, we have more cards to draw. Since the Card Draw marker is in the 5 space, to move to the 6 space, I have to first roll a d10. If I get a 1, this Phase ends.
I rolled a 9, so we move the Card Draw marker to the 6 space and…wait for it…draw another card!
According to the Playbook:
Napoleon was sent to spy on the city of Genoa, but this exploit was ordered by the Jacobins and gained him no favor with the newly empowered Directory.
That sounds rather neutral. I wish I could recount particulars from this event as it seems vaguely familiar, but for our story here, we’ll say Napoleon’s/our/mine/whatever’s star is still on the rise, and he’s sent to Genoa to do this. Those of you with better understanding of this could probably do a better job of weaving this into the story, but it’s mine, and you’re reading it, so there.
Napoleon’s rising talents either are a benefit or a hindrance, here…I could see him being sent off to Genoa because he’s becoming too big for his britches. Pantaloons? Whatever it is he wore. In any case, the card Robespierre’s Fall has not been played, so the -1 P effect is ignored. Rather, we gain +1 P and that marker is moved to the 6 space.
And now, let’s roll a die. This card is one of those fate changers that could end the game right now, if I roll a 1. Wouldn’t that be anti-climactic as heck?
Fortunately, I roll a 7. Lucky you all, I guess.
We’ll remove the card from play and move on. Now, I have to roll the d10 and if a 1-2 comes up, the Phase is done. I get a 10, so we’re continuing.
The Playbook says:
Bonaparte was offered command of infantry fighting in the Royalist Vendee region but took Sick Leave instead as there was no glory to be had there. (This is why the outcome for this card is -G.)
Since the Campaign spot is empty, we have to place this there.
Note in this image that it says, “Limit 1.” This means this might not stay; if I draw another Campaign card, it will replace this one.
The Campaign portion of the turn will occur later, so this card will sit here for now. The rewards for winning this Campaign aren’t all that great…if we do end up finally getting some Glory points, we’ll lose some if we win here. (Apparently, yes, this is a futile waste of his talents.) But, winning will gain +2 P. So that’s something, at least, if we end up being stuck with it.
The next Card Draw space is 8, with a DR of 1-3. I rolled a 7, so we’re drawing yet another card!
A planned attack on Napoleon’s native Corsica went awry when the French fleet was scattered by the British and the weather.
So, this is kind of like a Campaign, but not a Campaign. According to the card, I have to roll the d10 and if the result is 1-6, nothing happens and the card goes away.
I rolled a 9, so…it does not, it stays right here in all its glory. And Napoleon is off to lead his first major battles! Err…not a Campaign. It’s an Expedition. Expeditions are smaller campaigns, as well as some that are not commanded by Napoleon, but we are being thrown into this one. Let’s see how that goes by rolling another 1d10, per the card.
I rolled an 8, which falls under ‘6 or more’ on the card – and therefore, it is a Success! Napoleon has won the Expedition to Corsica for the glory of France! This gives him +5 G and +1 P.
Napoleon finally has some Glory Points – but this of course means now he could lose them, too. Welp, you can’t get Glory without taking risks as Napoleon, apparently. At least this worked out for us and Napoleon’s star seems to continue to be on the rise!
I’ve rolled a 3 for the Card Draw marker; the next space, 9, has a DR of 1-4, so we are done with the Card Draw Phase. We’re now moving to the Campaign Resolution Phase. Which is not awesome as that Infantry Vendee Campaign card is in that slot and we are going to lose some of that Glory we just gained, no matter what happens as a result. C’est la vie, je suppose.
The first thing to do is select our Commander, if I choose to do so. Junot is our only Commander that we drew, and he costs 1 A to deploy. If I do this, that’s -1 A, so we’ll drop to a total of 2 A. But, we’ll get a +1 DRM to any one Combat Round. It’s possible that a Campaign may take up several Combat Rounds; each Combat Round is a single battle, which is resolved by a single die roll that is modifiable.
Let’s go ahead and put Junot to the test along with our future royal selves. I’ll reduce my A total to 2 on the track, ensuring he is now ready to go.
Next up, we need to look at Strategy & Tactics cards. There are two face down at start, one of which is flipped over when a certain card is drawn – which has not happened yet, so it does not move. The other is Bonaparte Leads, which actually should NOT be face-down, so I’ve flipped it over. This is a pretty powerful card that can give us a +3 DRM if we choose to use it, but in this case, we’ll need to roll another die to see what the effect is. Potentially, Napoleon can be killed and end the game if this card is used, or he can be wounded and gain Glory. Or, there may be No Effect at all. There is no cost to use this card, but there is a cost (-1 A) to use the other Strategy Card, Bonaparte’s Plans. If I spend that -1 A, that’ll give us another +1 DRM.
I’ve spent -1 A to get Junot, so that’s a +1 DRM. I’ve moved the DRM marker to the +1 space accordingly.
I’ll go ahead and use Bonaparte Leads for this one. If we’re in it, we’re all in, damn the consequences. You don’t get to win Europe by sitting on the sidelines. This card’s +3 DRM can only be used in one Combat Round for one Campaign, so it’s a one-use thing. I’ve moved the DRM to the +4 space, which is the furthest it can go.
Since I’m using it, I need to roll now on the card’s chart to see what happens. I rolled a 4, which means Napoleon’s bravery causes him to be wounded – but this just elevates him in the eyes of his men and his peers, so he gains +5 G! I’ve moved the Glory marker now to the 10 space on the track.
For the battle itself, I’ve rolled a 5, which with a DRM of +4 gives us an ultimate result of 9. That counts as a Victory (9 or more is such), which according to the Campaign, which was beneath him to win apparently, he loses -3 G. Our total goes back down to 7. However, he does gain +2 P for his political standing being elevated a bit.
Despite this Campaign being beneath him, he managed to wring as much positive out of it as he possibly could.
Next I need to see if Junot is also wounded; he is not as I rolled a 5, and the range is 1-2. He did not lead from the front like Napoleon did, or just dodges bullets Matrix-style. He shall not know the glory of Napoleon, however!
We’ll move to the next Phase now, which is the Clean-Up Phase. Once we get to (IF we get to) the First Consul and Emperor eras – we are currently but a lowly Commander, and not even a General as of yet – we would need to perform two more Phases – the Diplomatic Phase and the Domestic Politics Phase. Those are beyond the realm of Napoleon’s responsibilities at this time, though, and are therefore ignored.
And I actually missed something I should have done at the end of that technically successful Campaign that we just won.
This card gets flipped over at the end of any Campaign or Expedition if I have 5 or more Glory. I missed checking this for the Corsica Expedition, but in this case at the end of the Campaign, we had 7 Glory – so guess what? Napoleon is now a General!
So, promotion in the bag and swagger apparently in pseudo-pantaloons in place, we’ll do the Clean Up Phase. This just means the Card Draw marker moves back up to the 1 space on that track, and the Admin and Diplomacy markers get reset to zero. Glad I spent that -1 A for Junot in the Campaign; I totally forgot about that rule.
End of Turn 1 Thoughts
We are well on our way to making Napoleon a powerful figure; he has led bravely from the front, won an Expedition and Campaign, and is ingratiating himself in France well enough to start getting noticed for choice assignments. His promotion to General is a milestone and important in his story progression; this promotion opens doors down the road, but it also gives him +2 A each turn, as opposed to just +1 A without said promotion. He obviously now has more resources to draw upon and use in his future Campaigns.
In hindsight, I probably should have used Napoleon’s Luck to redraw a card for that one Campaign that subtracted 3 Glory from our total, but it is what it is. It helped us cement a General’s rank and we’re moving on up, which is the goal. As opposed to pushing up daisies or whatever flower is most popular in France in 1793.3
With this Clean Up Phase complete, we’ll move on to Turn 2, which is the year 1794, and will have our first Turn with more Phases in place. Join us then to continue this journey of Napoleon’s with us to see where he ends up!
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
Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web.
You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
Footnotes
- and I do
- ed note: don’t worry, the ladies don’t proclaim it, either
- I asked AI, specifically Perplexity, to tell me, but apparently there was no info on this other than roses, jasmine, lavender, and a few other decent flowers. Just sayin’, I’m putting in extra effort, here! Even when it has no bearing on the story.
