A recent release from GMT Games is I, Napoleon, a solo, card-driven role-playing game where you take the role of Napoleon, from his early career to his final days (through death, exile, or whatnot). Cards present challenges, assets, and opportunities, and your goal is to equal or exceed his historical achievements. It is an interesting design idea with a lot of potential, so of course I had to order it. It arrived a few days ago, and I tore it open immediately, eager to investigate the game and get started on learning it. In the process, I figured I should take some pictures and post an unboxing, since I would already be examining the components anyway.
As with any unboxing, we start with the box:
A beautiful cover (by Domhnall Hegarty, according to the playbook), with a very understated, but evocative piece of art, and a title that feels perfectly sized. GMT is doing a fantastic job with their box covers lately, very well done!
The back provides us a lot of information:
As I stated, this is a solitaire game, and the complexity is apparently pretty low.
On to the rulebook:
GMT has posted the rulebook here for your viewing pleasure. I am most of the way through it, and there are a lot of interesting things going on, but it does not seem too difficult to get into.
Next up is the Playbook:
This one comes with a very detailed example of play, notes about each card, design notes, and a high-level chronology of Napoleon's career. As with all GMT products, the quality of these playbooks is fantastic, with a lot to read and enjoy, even when not playing the game.
Next up is the Player Aid Card, with a Campaign Battle Mat on one side, so you can easily fight your wars, and a Campaign Selection Table (not pictured) on the other, which provides the pre-conditions for the various campaigns you may fight during the game.
A small sheet of counters is provided, which track various resources, the status of diplomatic relations with other nations, income modifiers, and whatever else needs to be tracked.
The pre-rounded counters will save me a little bit of work, so no complaints here.
Now, onto the game board:
This is a 22"x34" mounted board, with spaces to track a variety of game effects/resources. The larger boxes are for placement of cards, both in draw/holding boxes, and for placement of cards that are currently active and affecting the game. The game board itself seems fine- maybe not the most visually exciting, but it certainly gets the job done.
We are given one (1) ten-sided die to resolve campaigns, random results on various cards, etc. One cool thing to note about the die rolling is that once a turn (once a year), Napoleon can re-roll the die (tracked by the "Napoleon's Luck" counter) if the result is not to his liking. Of course, he can also use his luck to draw a different card or avoid paying a cost. Another resource to manage in the game.
Finally, the meat of the game, the cards. There are cards that will be drawn throughout the game, cards that are used as dividers/reminders of when to add/remove cards, cards that are played as the results of other cards. The contents list on the box mentions 222 cards are included. I did not count to verify.
The previous two pictures are the front and back of the divider cards, which are not shuffled into the deck, but handle separating out cards for easier searching, and in some cases do enter play.
There is also the large pile of cards that get added to the main deck throughout the game, year by year, which create situations/opportunities for Napoleon. The cards are nice quality, well-illustrated, and in my brief look through them, are very easy to read.
This game has a lot of potential, both as a fresh, interesting take on Napoleonic gaming, but also opens the door for future topics using a system like this. I would not mind seeing an I, Alexander, or I, Frederick, for instance. Nothing of the sort has been mentioned, I should rush to add, but it is a really cool concept that I hope plays as well as it presents. I am working to clear up my second gaming table to try to put this out and try it, and if I do, I will make sure to post about it!
That's all for this post- thanks for reading!