The Life & Times of I, Napoleon – Part 6

Michael Eckenfels, 9 February 2025

This turn dawns with possibilities. Last year, we saw that it’s possible to move to the FCD / First Consul era rather quickly. Or, at least, get the FCD cards added to the deck, which is a rather significant stack!

TURN 6 – 1798

most images can click to enlarge

Spain also became allied with France, which I’ve no idea how to envision in game turns nor historically; forgive my Napoleonic levels of ignorance. It might make for some interesting situations later in the game, though.

In the first part of this turn, I reset the markers and gain our 2 A and 1 P; our Political is now at 10 and Admin is once again at 2. I will not be spending P points to gain more A points, so we’re going to move on to combine cards. Since it’s 1798 now, there’s no additional/new cards to add except for the two we discarded in the last turn; those are added to the deck and it is reshuffled.

Let’s go to our first card draw of the turn.

 

Officially a department dealing with maps, it was more like a General Staff College, with some of the finest minds in the French army. Though employed there only briefly, it was Napoleon’s finishing school in the art of war.

This one says I gain +1 P immediately and have to flip card 23 face up as well. I wasn’t sure where that card (Manoeuvre sur les Derrieres – what is that, ‘maneuver of the butts?’) was located, but see it is face-down in our Strategy & Tactics pile. That card gives us a nice +1 DRM automatically at no cost, in any Campaign. This obviously reflects the ‘brief time’ Napoleon spent at this pseudo-General Staff college.

 

We also gain +1 P so Napoleon is now at 11 Political, reflecting his added clout amidst the government.

Next card, please!

 

Napoleon fancied himself a scientist (not without some reason) and was particularly gratified to be made a member of the Institut de France, a collection of French notables.

This gives us a significant Glory bump; since we’re at 21 Glory, we’re well over the 12 requirement of this card, and we gain another +5 G, getting us up to 26 Glory!

 

The Institute card is now discarded permanently as it was played, and we move to our third card draw.

 

November 9, 1799 (Brumaire int he soon-to-be-abandoned Revolutionary calendar), saw Napoleon with the help of his brother Lucien, Tallyrand, the Abbe Sieyes, and Fouche overthrow the Directory to become First Consul of a new French government.

There we go! It popped up again just like I thought it would.

First, this gets placed in the I, Napoleon box on the board.

This card’s rather dramatic Success effect means Napoleon becomes First Consul. Failure means the game ends. It, however, cannot come into play until a Campaign Resolution Phase is played, so we need ourselves a Campaign to try this out. It also gives us plenty of other DRM possibilities to our attempted roll when this does enter play. For now, we leave it in the I, Napoleon box, and will hope for a Campaign so we can move this career right along!

 

Berthier was often called Napoleon’s “other wife.” A brilliantly capable Chief of Staff, though a very indifferent commander, he organized Napoleon’s plans into detailed and clear marching orders. He died, probably by suicide, in 1815, and would be sorely missed during the Waterloo campaign.

This card is immediately played in the Chief of Staff box on the board, and Napoleon gets another +2 Admin points; we’re now at 4 Admin. We’ll also gain +2 A each turn thanks to him. He’ll be around until the year 1815 or if Napoleon has to abdicate – but let’s cross such bridges when we get there, no?

 

Our fifth draw is another Commander card.

Bernadotte was the most successful of the Marshals off the battlefield, ending his career as Crown Prince and later King of Sweden. But he showed his lack of loyalty to Napoleon by fence-sitting during Brumaire, and would later lead Swedish troops into action against his native France. He also married Desiree Clary.

Desiree? That was Nappy’s first fiance, was it not? Ha, interesting.

He might affect the Brumaire roll later, and can also potentially be crowned King of Sweden. Interesting to see the possibilities laid out in the future, should we get to those bridges (and not burn them first, of course).

I rolled a 10 for the sixth draw, so we’re getting our sixth card now.

 

During his campaigns in Italy in 1796 and 1800, Napoleon organized various Italian provinces and cities into a series of Republics, before replacing them with the Kingdom of Italy as Emperor.

Since Army of Italy is not in play, this card is discarded. Normally that means such cards are reshuffled back in. However, I know we already prosecuted the Army of Italy Campaign, so this card won’t ever have any impact on the game from here on out, so I don’t see the point of having it in the deck – other than it taking up space, which might be the point. So game-wise, I’ll discard it, though I want to just remove it from the game. I will stick by the rules as best I can, though, so discarded it is.

I rolled a 9 for the 7th card draw, so that’s happening now!

 

Napoleon always sought to end a campaign in a single action but the greater manpower of many of his opponents did not always allow for this.

Not a great addition to our Campaign box; this one will mean he has to achieve one additional Victory to win the campaign that is next fought. Lovely.

For the next possible card draw – number 8 – the DR is 1-3; I rolled a 5, so we’re drawing that eighth card now.

 

Tallyrand was the initial source of inspiration for an eastern campaign to strike Britain’s links with India but Napoleon soon adopted it enthusiastically, as did a Directory happy to have the ambitious general far away from Paris. Nelson’s destruction of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile rendered all Napoleon’s victories on land moot.

Well, buckle in, because this is going to kick off a few crazy things. I hope I can keep track of it all and not forget to include anything.

First off, this card goes into the Campaign box on the board…done.

 

However, technically, we’re still in the Card Draw Phase, so there’s potentially a ninth card to draw. The DR for that is 1-4. I rolled a 2, so that indeed is the last card, and we are now up to our funny tricorn hats in action. Let’s take this a step at a time.

This Egyptian Campaign card interestingly says to discard all Campaign Modifiers that are NOT marked Egypt/Syria. That’s…kind of awesome, as most of our cards here are not marked that…except one. I happily discard (not remove) these three cards, knowing they might pop up again in a future turn.

The Bubonic Plague one from way back when impacts the Syrian Campaign, and therefore, is not discarded nor removed. It might come into play here soon, too. But several of the ones that were removed were -1 DRMs for our Combat Rounds, and I’m not sad to see ‘em go.

 

Now I need to assign Commanders. I’m not even going to consider Davout nor Massena for this one, as they both cost Glory to use, and I have plenty of other Commanders that ‘only’ require Admin points. And as I have 4 Admin now, it seems kind of silly to spend Glory, even if Davout and Massena each grant a +2 DRM when used.

 

I add Marmont, Lannes, and Junot as they cost -1 A each to use; I drop my Admin from 4 to 1. Both Marmont and Junot give a +1 DRM to use in any one Combat Round, while Lannes also grants a +1 DRM to use in any Combat Round. However, Lannes can instead grant a +2 DRM in the first Combat Round, if I want to remove him from play afterwards. I don’t see the point in using Lannes this way, as I’ll have a +3 DRM if I choose to use everyone in the first Combat Round. I already gain a +1 DRM according to this campaign card, so that’s +4 if I go all in. And with that one card discarded that said I have to do two Combat Rounds, I should be golden to use all three for their +1 DRM in this first Combat Round. That gives me a +4 DRM, as I said.

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

I could now add Strategy & Tactics cards, but as I am at the max +4 DRM already, there’s really no point. Napoleon should sit back now and let this battle happen, his capable commanders in the field handling things…though I’m sure he’s itching to be a part of it all!

Now, let’s resolve this campaign. I roll a 5 on d10 – nice and average. With +4 DRM, that’s a 9, and therefore a Victory! Napoleon and his generals brush aside resistance easily and put another glorious victory down in the books for French arms.

This Victory gives Napoleon +10 Glory, so we’re now up to 36 Glory!

Next, though, we need to resolve Commander Casualties. I rolled a 10, 3, and 6 for them. On a roll of 1-2, a commander would be Wounded and therefore, discarded (to potentially be drawn again later). That 3 I rolled was for Marmont, whom apparently just barely avoided getting hurt. So these three are now able to continue on to Syria, which we have to do according to this Egyptian Campaign Card.

The thing here, though, is this Syrian Campaign is going to be a lot more challenging. For one, I can only use two of the three commanders I utilized in Egypt; apparently, Napoleon has to leave one behind to hold Egypt while he and the other two move on to Syria to prosecute the campaign there. I’ll choose Lannes, just because I’m not quite ready to wring a +2 DRM out of him permanent-like, at least not yet. This leaves me with Junot and Marmont.

Note that the Syrian Campaign automatically inflicts a -2 DRM in all Combat Rounds. Not awesome.

And also note I have to play this remaining Campaign Modifier card – Bubonic Plague.

 

This card inflicts another -1 DRM during all Combat Rounds in this Syrian Campaign. That’s a total of -3 DRM, at least before I put in my commanders and my own Strategy & Tactics.

Since I was able to use Junot and Marmont for ‘free’ for this campaign, I of course tap into their DRMs for this first (and only) Combat Round. That puts our overall DRM to -1.

I’m going to use the Manoeuvre sur les Derrieres card for it’s +1 DRM, bringing our DRM to 0.

 

I’m also going to use Bonaparte Leads, which will give me a +3 DRM. Napoleon won’t take any chances here and is going to try to lead from the front along with his two capable generals.

 

That brings our DRM to a +3 overall.

I have one more Strategy & Tactics card – Bonaparte’s Plans. I can spend -1 A to use this to gain another +1 DRM, and I have 1 A left, so I’m doing just that. No reason not to.

That puts me at a +4 DRM, even given all the negative DRMs from Syria and plague and other minor inconveniences.

And now, campaign resolution. I rolled a 6 – +4 makes it a 10 – and therefore, another Victory. We gain another +5 G, making our total now a glorious 41 Glory.

Now it’s time to check for Commander Casualties, and also one extra thing that must be checked thanks to the Bubonic Plague card. I rolled an 8 for Junot, so he’s in the clear – but I roll a 1 for Marmont, so he is wounded, and he is placed in the discard pile. Unfortunately, we have not left this campaign without something bad happening, but in the scheme of things it’s relatively minor (though probably not to Marmont, obviously).

The ‘extra’ thing is, I can have Napoleon visit sick men in the hospital, as you probably saw on this Bubonic Plague card earlier. I roll a 7, so Napoleon gets yet more Glory – another 5 added, bringing our total to 46. This guy’s legendary status is well on its way – we might hit 50 Glory in no time.

And now…I forgot, I had to actually play the Brumaire card at the start of any Campaign Resolution Phase where I have at least 20 G and/or P, which we easily had even then. So I’ll resolve this now – apologies for forgetting that. In hindsight too, it looks like I should have discarded the Egyptian Campaign card instead of resolving it. But where’s the fun in that? I might have messed that up, but let’s just keep going with the story.

Now, I have to roll the d10 and have to get a 5 or higher, otherwise the game is over. I can add a +1 DRM for every 2 P points I spend, which seems like a worthy investment when facing the game being over! But first, there are other considerations. For one, I get a +1 DRM for this roll automatically as I have Abbe Siyes in my Politics box. I could have used Tallyrand also for another +2 DRM, but that costs 1 A, and I used my last Admin point in the campaigns. Oh well. +1 DRM is better than negative or no DRM, I suppose.

I’ll go ahead and expend some Political capital to help me with this roll…let’s spend -2 P, dropping our Political total to 9, but giving me another +1 DRM, for a grand total of +2.

Okay, those are better odds.

Good thing I spent that P, because I rolled a 3. With the +2 DRM, that makes it a 5, which is JUST barely a success. Whew.

So guess what? Napoleon is now First Consul. I’ll be adding a boatload (Trafalgar load?) of cards to the deck for the next turn. I’ll set this over my card stack as a reminder to do that in the next turn!

End of Year Thoughts

Really sorry that I messed that up with the Egyptian campaign – should have just resolved the Brumaire card instead, which wouldn’t have sent us into Syria, either, and gained us all that glorious Glory. (I think, anyway. I might be misinterpreting my misinterpretation.) Instead of going back I’ll just embrace it and consider it a learning point, and another high water mark for Napoleon. We prosecuted not one but two Campaigns to success, and became First Consul of France, which we really wanted to have happen on our road to (dare I type it) Emperor.

Baby steps, of course.

Napoleon is now at 46 Glory – pretty huge. We might make 100 Glory, but I don’t want to look too far ahead. Rather, the FCD / First Consul event means we’ve just traded up for more cards, more possibilities, and more responsibility, which will add new Phases to the game in the next turn. This should be even more interesting moving forward. Merci for reading, and let’s hope this Glory road keeps heading upwards.

 

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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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