by Michael Eckenfels, 16 February 2025
Finally! Napoleon is First Consul of France, taking a leading role and spreading the glory of French things about the globe. Or just Europe. Perhaps only in France. We’re playing to find that out, folks.
TURN 7 – 1799
For the first part of the turn, we’re moving the markers accordingly. The Card Draw marker goes back to 1, the Year marker goes to 1799, and we collect our Resource income, which is +1 D, +4 A, and +1 P. We therefore have 10 Political, 4 Admin, and 1 Diplomacy. Glory is, of course, at 46. I will not be trading any Resource points this turn; perhaps this will change later in the game.
Now for our main Draw Deck. I’m first removing several cards marked FCD in the removal section – three total, actually. Then, the few that were discarded are brought back into the deck.
Next, we’re adding cards. There’s a ton of FCD (First Consul) era cards to add, but several must be played immediately. The first thing is our First Consul card is placed in the I, Napoleon box on the board and General Bonaparte is removed, reflecting his movin’ on up.
most images can click to enlarge
What this card does is offer a pathway to becoming Emperor. Once the ‘First Consul for Life’ card is face up for one year (one turn), I can spend some Resource points and add the EMD (Emperor) era cards in the following turn. It will make times interesting if we can get to that point.
Now, the FCD divider card indicates several that have to be placed immediately – ten others, to be exact.
Faced with Austrian hostility, the new First Consul conducted an invasion of Italy across the Alps in 1800. Almost defeated at Marengo (the day was saved by Desaix), he sent the Austrians reeling back to Vienna, but it was General Moreau’s victory at Hohenlinden that forced Austria to make peace.
What? Austria doesn’t like us? Perish the thought. Well, that card is placed in the Campaign spot, as instructed, telling me we’re going to have some battlin’ to do later.
Napoleon briefly dreamed of an American Empire, an idea that died in Haiti. But what if it hadn’t?
This card certainly provides a tantalizing ‘what if’ angle to the game. It goes into the Potential Campaigns spot which we’ll figure out how that works later.
Under Napoleon, a republican war with Prussia was avoided by the Treaty of Basel.
Another potential campaign that may come up later. Prussia is currently Neutral and the Treaty of Basel is indeed in our Treaties box on the board. I’m guessing we’re good for now, there. Though inevitably, you know we’re going to be fighting them at some point.
Under Napoleon, a republican war with Spain was avoided by Spain’s allying itself with France.
Spain is currently Allied with us, so perhaps this will change later? We shall see.
This is the First Consul for Life card, and is placed face down here as it has not come into play yet. I’m guessing we can avoid some silly democracy by invoking this later. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
These four Treaties are Potential Treaties and therefore, do not enter play yet. I won’t go into analyzing them for now, but will of course discuss them more later when they (if they) become pertinent.
Originally one of three Consuls, Napoleon quickly made sure that “First” effectively meant “Only.”
This is Napoleon’s current status. His +3 A per turn is one more Admin point than when he was a General, and since we already dealt out our Resources, this won’t be received until next year. Now we see that I can spend -2 P to remove this card and then flip the First Consul for Life card over, making it the active one. Would we do such a thing? Heh-heh-heh.
Now there’s a lot of shuffling to do! The stack at left are the new additions to the Draw Deck, while the ones to the right are the cards continuing in play.
Once thoroughly shuffled, we’re ready to start the new Card Draw Phase.
Napoleon sent the bluff soldier Lannes on a diplomatic mission to Portugal, where his frightening manner soon cowed the government into concessions.
Already playing the political game, are we? Well, Lannes is indeed in my Commander stack on the board. This is saying I can discard him (thereby potentially getting him again in a future turn), gain 1 Diplomatic Point, and then remove this Lannes to Portugal card from the game.
I have plenty of Commanders and the new Diplomatic Phase is coming up, so perhaps it would be wise for me to invest Lannes for a time to gain that extra +1 D? I’ll go ahead and do that and hope we’ll see him again soon, because that potential +2 DRM may come in handy – and it’s the only reason I hesitate in ‘investing’ him in this venture. In any case, Lannes is discarded, this card is removed, and I gain +1 D.
When he took power, Napoleon faced widespread lawlessness in the countryside, and his actions to quell “brigands” were very popular, except among the brigands.
Poor brigands. Well, this will let me spend 1 A point to gain 2 more Political points. I have four Admin right now and am hesitant to spend it given the upcoming Campaign in the Campaign box (the Austria card). I’ll go ahead, though, and spend that 1 A to gain 2 P, pushing our Political total to 12, and lowering our Admin down to 3.
A British-backed conspiracy to murder or overthrow Napoleon was infiltrated early by Fouche.
Our third card draw is this, and Fouche is indeed in our Minister of Police box on the board – but face down. I never implemented the card so, the face up effect does not apply and we therefore do not gain +2 P. Instead, we must roll the die and face an end game here.
Fortunately it’s a 7, with no effect; this card is now removed from play. Had I rolled a 1 or 2, Napoleon would have been ended and that’s the way the First Consul bounces, I suppose. Fortunately he avoided this plot and is moving on to his fourth card draw.
Twice during the Napoleonic Wars (the first time under Nelson), the British Fleet would destroy the Danish Fleet at Copenhagen to keep them out of French hands.
Not very neighborly of the British, wot, to pull this stunt. This card is not discarded as the Peace of Amiens card is not in play, so I gain +1 D, but lose 5 Glory. Our Diplomatic total is now up to 3, but our Glory drops to 41. We also lose one P, dropping that to 11.
So much I guess for the Danish Fleet.
And this reminds me of something I forgot to do in the Resource Income portion earlier. Nelson’s presence in Britain means I have to subtract 2 Glory per turn from my total, now that I’m First Consul. So now our Glory has become 39.
That smug jerk.
Called “the Bravest of the Brave,” Ney fought with the rear guard during the retreat from Moscow in 1812, and his mind never fully recovered. After leading those demanding Napoleon’s abdication in 1814, he promised Louis XViII he would bring Napoleon back to Paris “in an iron cage” after the return from Elba. Instead he deserted to Napoleon, and after performing badly at Waterloo, was shot for this treason against the Bourbons.
A rather dramatic personae historically, but the card itself is kind of bland – he costs -1 A to use and grants a +1 DRM in any one Combat Round. It’s almost as if he’s just a generic commander, but hey, we get another one for our army.
Next is our sixth card draw. I roll a 1 on the d10 and the DR for that draw is 1, so…guess we’re not drawing any more cards this turn. Is that a good thing? I guess we’ll see what happens, and as you know, there’s more Phases to go through now.
First, though, is the Campaign Resolution Phase. First, I’m going to assign Lannes, Ney, and Junot as Commanders; that costs me 3 A (each is 1 A). Each of these Commanders grants a +1 DRM in any one Combat Round, though Lannes may be used as a +2 DRM in the 1st Combat Round instead, if I’m willing to remove him permanently from play afterwards.
From these three, I’ll select Junot and Ney to use in the first Combat Round. That’s +1 DRM each for a total DRM of +2.
For Strategy & Tactics, Napoleon is going to go all in and lead this Campaign. So, I’ll play the Bonaparte Leads card for its +3 DRM. I realize that’s overkill but hey, Napoleon does everything in grand style. I’ll also need to roll to see if he gets himself offed or wounded, but I’ll take that chance. The other thing too, though, is the Austria (Italy) Campaign Card says there’s a -1 DRM in all Combat Rounds if Russia is Hostile, but Russia is Neutral, so this isn’t an issue.
This battle is important. If we are defeated, Napoleon is overthrown and the game ends. So that +5 DRM, actually a +4, is vital.
Now it’s time for French forces to face the Austrians in actual battle. On a d10, I roll an 8; +4 means a final result of 12, which is pretty huge. That’s a Victory (which is a result of 9 or higher). Napoleon is doing just fine on the battlefield, as he did historically, and this is a huge win for him and France both.
There’s a few things to process in wake of this gigantic victory. First, the Victory means +10 Glory to Napoleon! His total Glory is now 49.
Next, we play the Treaty of Luneville card.
This treaty ended the Second Coalition War with Austria, after victories at Marengo and Hohenlinden.
We can only assume that Napoleon has performed dramatic victories in both these locales as he did historically. This Treaty card sets Austria to Neutral, but it already was Neutral. If Russia was Hostile, it would also get set to Neutral, but they are Neutral as well so…no changes there.
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
It also adds more resources to our collections. We gain another +5 G, bringing our total to 54 (thereby flipping the Glory marker over to its +50 side), gain +1 D, and +2 P – those totals are now 4 Diplomatic and 13 Political. Admin is at zero since I used all three A to assign Commanders to this Campaign. This Treaty is played face down, which will have an effect in the next Phase.
All three Commanders I assigned made it through the Campaign unscathed, fortunately.
With that in our pocket, we now move to a first in this game, an actual Diplomatic Phase. This is where we get our first real whiff of foreign relationships and fostering success in a political sphere. For this first such Phase, we need to make a few die rolls to see if any of these other countries go hostile on us. I mean, what’s not to love, here? Don’t answer that.
Normally, we would roll for four of the five nations – Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Spain – and not Britain, because they always hate France for some unfathomable reason. In this game, anyway. Because of this face-down Treaty card we had to play thanks to our victory in Italy over the Austrians, we do not roll for either Austria nor Russia this turn.
This is where Diplomacy points come in handy; we can spend these to gain a DRM. One D point equals a +1 DRM. And you can see, potentially, with four nations, the D resource can get used up quickly. We have four this time around, though, and only two nations. The roll is 1d10, with a 6 or higher giving no effect, while a 1-5 result means the nation moves one space towards Hostile. In the case of Prussia, though, we have the Treaty of Basel in place, which impacts Prussia. As we are First Consul, the only thing removing that Treaty card is once we hit Emperor level, then all bets are off with them. So, I’m interpreting we do not need to roll for them in this case. At Emperor level, we still need to make this roll even with a Treaty present, as a failed roll will mean the Treaty is removed, but the nation stays at its current status. At First Consul, only the text on the card that says how it is removed, applies; it cannot be removed here via a die roll. So, long story short – Prussia is still tied to this Treaty, so no roll is needed.
The same goes with Spain; we have the Spain Allies with France card in play in our Current Treaties box. Spain is still our buddy and will remain so until one of two cards is drawn – either Bayonne or Spain Rises. So their status stays as Allied, too.
I said Russia does not get a roll either, which is due to that face-down Treaty card. However, Tsar Paul’s presence in Russia means for future turns, no roll is required for Russia in this manner…at least until Tsar Alexander makes an appearance – if he does, that is.
Welp, that was just educational, wasn’t it? We don’t do any diplomatic’in this year, but there’s more to this Phase that we must resolve.
The next part of this Phase is to assign a Campaign from our plethora of Potential Campaigns. However, at First Consul level, this is merely optional, not required. (At Emperor level, it is mandatory.) Looking over our three Potential Campaigns, only the Louisiana Campaign is one we can try next year. The Republican War with Prussia Potential Campaign card can only be chosen if Prussia is Hostile, and they are not. Likewise, the Republican War with Spain Potential Campaign card can only be chosen if Spain is Hostile, and they are far from that for now.
The Louisiana Campaign card is an interesting one:
Napoleon briefly dreamed of an American Empire, an idea that died in Haiti. But what if it hadn’t?
This Potential Campaign can be chosen if Spain is Allied – which it is right now. Engaging in this and winning will mean a big Glory boost and will also head off any future purchase of said territory for the United States, as well – an interesting bit of what-if possibilities. Just for that reason, I’m going to select the Louisiana Campaign.
Also, here’s a shot of our current Diplomacy Tracks. Spain is Allied, Britain is Hostile (go figure), and everyone else stays Neutral.
Now we’re going to do the Domestic Politics Phase. This is essentially just a check to Glory and can be mitigated by spending Political Points should I choose to do so. It can also be modified by other events this current turn, such as getting a ‘Bloody’ result in a Campaign or hostile nations existing. Perish the thought, at least until we get a chance to French-atize them.
This is a d10 roll, as is everything else. For this roll I get a +1 DRM because Spain is Allied. There was no Bloody result this turn, and the Continental System card is not in play. However, there is a -1 DRM because Britain is (you guessed it!) Hostile, so that cancels out the +1 I get from Spain. I can get a +1 DRM for every 2 Political Points I spend. I can also exchange 2 A or 3 G for 1 P this Phase if I wish; I will do neither of those things. I’ll spend 4 P, which drops my P total to 9, and gain a +2 DRM to this roll.
I roll a 5; +2 is a 7. This is a -2 Glory result, so our Glory is now 52.
What is the point of this, you might think? Well, apparently, not everyone at home loved Napoleon; this Phase represents his efforts to maintain support on the home front. And, as the rule book says, “[t]hings were rarely going well for him” so, this effect is measured by removing Glory. Potentially, Napoleon could lose from zero up to 10 Glory this Phase. Obviously, the ‘best’ result is not losing any, but would require big luck on the d10 roll and some promiscuous use of Political or other points to gain DRMs, as you need a 10 or higher result to avoid losing any Glory at all. This is, obviously, not an easy Phase for Napoleon, but we only lost 2 G this turn, which is the ‘easiest’ of the results.
Now we go and clean up for the year. Admin is already at zero, and Diplomacy is dropped down to zero as well.
End of Turn Thoughts
That was a big year for Napoleon. We became First Consul, beat the tar out of Austria and kicked them out of Italy, and got our Glory total up above 50 for the first time. Obviously, that can change, so we’ll need to take things as they come in the next turn (1800) and beyond. So far I think the game is doing a good job of simulating the political shenanigans that went on at the time – a brutal prospect for any game or scholar to keep track of, honestly, let alone a solo game that has been boiled down to a manageable level. So far we’ve done pretty well and I think the year 1800 is shaping up to be a good one. We shall, of course, see what happens in the next article.
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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You’ve used “Bonaparte Leads” on Austria campaign but you should have removed it before, as it has “FCD” on its removal section.