Stripped Down for Parts: Coalition: the Napoleonic Wars, 1805-1815

  

 

I blame Gilbert Collins. Of all the YouTube content creators I watch with any regularity, Gilbert is directly responsible for more game purchases than any two other channels put together. Collins did a quick run-through of Javier Garcia de Gabiola’s game Coalition: the Napoleonic Wars, 1805-1815 (Compass Games, 2021), and I was intrigued.

When I first stumbled across Coalition, I was sceptical. Here’s a game that, in a few hours of gameplay, tackles eleven years of particularly turbulent history stretching across the whole of Europe, with at any given time, maybe a couple dozen counters on the board representing the hundreds of thousands of men under arms. I couldn’t see how such a satellite’s-eye view of the Napoleonic Wars could make for compelling narrative. Then I made the mistake of watching Gilbert talk about it and push some counters around.

The cover art is compelling. It’s an extract from a painting by the famed Victorian war artist, Elizabeth Thompson (1846-1933), of the British 28th Regiment in square formation at Quatre Bras (the painting is held in the collection of the rather cheekily-named National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood).

The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras (Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler, 1875)

The box a solid, 2”-deep Compass box. Lately, every Compass game I’ve bought has arrived in a really sturdy box (with the exception of Herman Luttmann’s Position Magnifique (Compass Games, 20##), but being a Paper Wars magazine game, that’s forgivable).

The back of the box gives us our glimpse of the map and counters (0.75”). It then informs us that Coalition is “a grand strategy game with operational elements that could recreate ALL the Napoleonic Wars (1805-1815) in just ONE EVENING.” A bold statement, with a built-in qualifier’ “could;” I think a four-to-six player game would take a lot longer, but I would say it would probably be manageable with two players. I’ll circle back to this later.

The ratings on the box tell us that the turn scale for the game is one-two years (the rules offer an “accelerated” play experience, playing two years per turn instead of a single year; I haven’t quite got up to this part of the rules so I can’t speak to it, but it seems a bit reductive on the face of it, but maybe I’m being unfair – I’ll cover it in the review when I’ve played the game a few times). The ratings go in to say the map scale is countries/seas (see my comments on the board), that units are armies and fleets (ditto my comments on the counters), that the game can accommodate two-six players (I’ll return to this later as well), and that the solitaire suitability is rated at Medium – which I think is a little hopeful; as the Gimpy Gamer is wont to say, “Every wargame is a solitaire game,” but I don’t think this one is ideal for solo treatment. The age rating for Coalition is 14 and up, which, from what I’ve read of the rules, feels about right.

The Coalition rulebook is sensibly laid out on medium-weight gloss paper, in a serif font common to Compass Games productions. The text is printed in about 11.5 point and eminently readable and the book is littered with relevant illustrations. It lacks an index, but the Contents page on the inside cover and the thorough section titling make up for this deficiency admirably. The rules themselves run to about 15 of the rulebook’s 24 pages. It also includes the aforementioned cover and Contents table, a four-page play example, running through the game-equivalent of the Hundred Days campaign (the example covers the basics of manoeuvre, combat and the aftermath of action clearly and succinctly), and a reproduction of the token punchboards. A facsimile of the Player’s Aid Card adorns the back cover of the rulebook.

Rulebook (sample page).

At time of writing, I’ve nearly read through the complete rules – half-way through I skipped ahead to the Hundred Days play example to clarify how the Manoeuvre rules work. So far, everything makes sense. The rules for movement and combat are simple and quite elegant, capturing the action of months a handful of decisions and die rolls. Battles, both land and naval, are resolved by a single roll (by the aggressor) on the Battle Matrix. The result may lead to a Major Defeat, and a visit to the Surrender Table to see if the losing country ha met its criteria for surrender.

 A turn in the game covers a year of historical action. The Sequence of Play looks daunting at first blush – nineteen individual steps (taking in both factions' activities), but I think after the first couple of turns it would become nearly second nature.

Mounted game board.

The mounted gameboard is a representation of Europe at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, which is appropriate given the subject of the game. The map is pretty spare; stripped back to the merest essentials for play, it eschews any geographic indicators beyond coastlines (and some countries) and highlights the borders of the major powers with a wash in that country’s representative colour.

A plus for the gameboard is that it incorporates all the card-holding and point-tracks required for game-play, into its own 22” by 34” area. The only off-board requirements will be space for the players’ Home (nation) cards, their event card-hands, and for the British player, whichever Coalition card is currently in play.

Three kinds of cards are used in Coalition; Home cards, Coalition cards and Event cards.

Sample Home cards (Major Powers identified by a bracketing title around the map).

Each player has a Home card. The home card offers a bucket of information, from the base number of Economy Points (EP) and Recruitment Points (RP) the player has access to each turn/year, which years various generals or armies become available of leave the game, and the conditions of surrender for that country. Yes, surrender is a thing; but in a multi-player game, it doesn’t mean you lose, simply that you change sides.

Sample Event cards (please forgive the distortion caused by the gilt edging).

Event cards can be purchased in the game much like troops of fleets, at the cost of 2EP. Each player can hold three Event cards in their hand at any one time. If they buy a fourth, they must play one immediately or discard down to three. This shouldn’t be a problem because the cards are drawn from a common deck and not every card will be of benefit to the player holding it.

Events can be quite effective, either giving the player some advantage in a situation, or forcing the opponent to undertake some action that might not be in their best interests if played at just the right moment.

Sample Coalition cards.

Coalition cards can be purchased by the British player, just like Event cards, at a cost of 2EP. The British player may hold on to several Coalition cards at once (these don’t count to their hand size) but can only have one Coalition Card in play at any one time. The in-play card stays in effect for two years, the turn played and the subsequent turn. At the close of the Coalition, any aligned Powers revert to their neutral status.

Counter sheets (three-quarter inch easy-punch).

As mentioned earlier, the counters are nice, three-quarter-inch sized, but I’d like to add that they’re of the pre-rounded, easy-punch variety, printed on good weight stock. The counters represent troops (about 30,000-50,000 men per Strength point), fleets (18-30-odd ships of the line) and various generals (only one admiral is represented; Nelson of course). Other markers track Economy Points (EP), Recruitment Points(RP), Victory Points and Gloire Points for each major nation, locations where a nation’s army or navy has suffered a major loss, cities and fortresses held by garrison, and certain historical events that can have an effect on the proceedings of the game.

The unit markers are clearly readable, printed with a background colour identifying their home country, offering the flag of allegiance (and a home flag, if these differ), and soldier or ship, designating it as an Army or Fleet unit, a title (e.g. Grand Armée, or Mediteranée for the French Toulon fleet), and a single digit, identifying the strength of the unit. Armies and Fleets are purchased at a cost of 1EP (for establishment) and 1RP (for the unit’s initial Strength point – additional RP may be spent to increase the unit’s strength or to reinforce existing units on a one-for-one basis). The low counter density on the board is one of Coalition’s appealing qualities when considering it for a mid-week game.

The Player Aid Cards (two are included) are single sided and printed on a lighter cardstock but still firm enough to use single-handed without fear of sag or drape. The PAC incorporates a Sequence of Play run-through, Attrition Matrix, Battle Matrix, and Surrender table, all the referral data required for game play. Once the turns have been played through a couple of times, I wouldn’t envision needing to refer back to the rulebook until the final scoring.

Also included in the game are zip-loc baggies enough to separate the counters into useful divisions, and six nicely-sized six-sided dice, three each in blue and red (matching the traditional colours of the primary belligerents.

All in all, the production quality of Coalition is up to the standard we've come to anticipate in a Compass game. I’m looking forward to getting this to the table and putting it through its paces. A State of Play report will be forthcoming.

Afterword: Two-Player vs Multi-Player

In the two-player game, the players take on the roles of Great Britain and France. In multi-player games, the other players will play one of the other Major Powers; Prussia, Austria, Russia, or Spain. This may be a good way of introducing new players to the game, but I don’t think it would necessarily make for a satisfying experience for all. The other Major Powers will begin the game either as neutral or aligned with France. When Britain plays a Coalition cards, they may be tied to Britain’s strategic decisions until the expiry of the Coalition, or until they are conquered by France, when they become in thrall of Napoleon.

I was mostly interested in Coalition as a two-player game, although I am curious to try it out as a multi-player. I'll try to arrange at least one multi-player game before I commit to a review, just so I can talk about it with some experience  rather than ignorant prejudice.