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Denziens Eagles of Empire
Recommendations: 96
About the Project
Finding rules for my growing Franco Prussian War collection and trying out Eagles of Empire rules set.
Related Game: Eagles Of Empire
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
A Day of Gaming
One of the barriers to getting into this game is the need to have unit cards for your models. I finally picked some up. The other factor is not knowing how many minis you'll need. You don't have an army list in the traditional sense but bring on troops when you need them cpdnfing command points which you gain from controlling objectives. These points can also be spent on victory points. The first player to reach the target amount wins. So no set turns either. It was these interesting mechanics that got us hooked on our first four games we did in one day. Each quick and deadly. We started with the basic scenario from the infantry drill book. A take the hill scenario using infantry only.
Both sides took the easy objectives represented by casualty markers but the hill was harder to reach. The prussians can spend command points on a doctrine to double their move so crested the hill first
Taking the hill the prussians come under fire from French chassepot rifle fire that is double the prussians range so they could only respond by using off table artillery which took more points.
The prussians hide behind the hill for safety and have to use more points to rush reinforcements on to the table. This gave the French oprtunity to advance. Now both sides claimed the objective which led to a bayonet charge which the prussians lost. Accumilating enough victory points the French win
Our second game included cavalry and artillery which introduced a whole bunch of challenges. The french hussars rushed to claim an objective and usedcall four points to get ahead in the victorypoints becausethey knew prussian cavalrywould soon contest it .
I realised I need more cavalry so I can make squadrons. This would make them more useful as well as artillery as two make a battery which increases their effectiveness. The French machine gun did help keep the prussians back who struggled to cross the dead ground which the French longer range covered
The tactical decisions really mater in this game. Cavalry battered into each other keeping the prussians back and allowing infantry to break forward while the long French range was hard to combat. The prussians realised too late they should have used off table artillery on the French in the buildings as they would get no cover. But the French had the victory points again
The final scenario we played twice and once again the prussians lost. Its very difficult to win once you get on the back foot and you have to spend points bringing on reinforcements rather than gaining victory points. After being cut up by cavalry in the first attempt the prussians advance through the cover of woods which cavalry can't enter. This slowed them down allowing the French to claim objectives first. It's a tricky game to master but very engaging and it's unique system of resource management kept us on our toes
French forces so far
One of the things that has put menoff this era is that I do WW1 and the French force's are so similar for 1870 and 1914. But it's a good alternative to American civil war. I already had all these French painted up but now they are based with the eagles of empire game in mind
Rebasing
I made my own bases by making some discs the appropriate sizes in sketchup and 3D printing them. The units contain 7 infantry on multiple bases of groups of 3. When you loose a health you rdmivexa whole base. I've never really multi based before but they look good 
Inspiration
I recently went to Paris and visited the Army museum and took a few pics in the Franco-prussian war section. They had an interesting collection of not just uniforms but also art 
Although my wife soon realised the holiday was no break from little men
They have a good selection of uniforms from both France and Prussia as well as Bavaria. You always get more cavalry uniforms on display because there is more variety than infantry uniforms.
French machine gun Where to Start
I found Eagles of Empire by accident when I was looking for Franco Prussian war minis a few years ago out of curiosity and then forgot all about them. Then I started painting up Perry Prussians for my Battle of Dorking game (yet to be finished) before seeing the indie of the week focusing on Eagles of Empire. Reminded of their existence I purchased the rules and the Loire Campaign book. I thought it was odd to do two separate rule books covering all the unit types but then you still need to get the unit cards to play them in the game which I wasnt keen on as its a bit of a barrier to just get started. I also noticed the campaign book is number 2 and focuses on the later half of the war with no sign yet of part one? Despite these criticisms I really like what I read of the rules. Its fast and dynamic and the basing options Ive realised look great but Ill get to that next time. The Youtube videos go through the rules and help you out but I think it wont take long to get to grips with the system. 
The Loire campaign is full of historical scenarios and each comes with its own map card that you can bade your tables around. Im going to be having some fun recreating some of these and the tables get more wintery as they go along. The set all came wrapped in brown paper and an envelope giving a real bespoke feel to the game that shows a care for the period and a love for the subject mater. I just need some unit cards as I rebase all my Perry Minis. 
