Imperial Elegy Overview | Strategic Historical Wargame | VUCA Simulations | Solo Wargame
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Transcript
Hi everyone, I'm Zillow Blitz and welcome. Today I'll be looking at the epically ambitious Imperial Elegy, the new world history game that covers world history from 1850 to 1920, designed by Michael Lino and published by Vaua Simulations. In this 1 to six player game, you take charge of one of six European powers in 1850 and attempt to guide your people to glory over the next 70 years of world history. Let's do an overview of Imperial Elegy as we look at the massive set of components set out in front of us. This is a strategic level game for one to six players. For solo players, or when you don't have six players, there are bots for every nation and they can be set to one of three difficulty levels. Gameplay length is listed as 1 to 10 hours. There are shorter scenarios like the Great War campaign that simulates just World War I that lasts only a couple of hours, but the full campaign game, the whole enchilada is listed as 8 to 10 hours.
Historically, each turn in the game represents a decade, but if World War I occurs, there is a separate gameplay mode that handles that event in detail. Historical length is 70 years from 1850 to 1920. Unit scale is strategic. Counters represent armies. here. We'll take a closer look at the map later, but it focuses on Europe, and yet there are sub mapaps for other areas like Asia, North America, and Africa. The scale of the game is truly global. Let's highlight the main features of Imperial Elegy. First of all, this is a massive game with a lot of depth and mechanics. We've got military elements, geopolitical elements, and economic elements at play. The heart of this game is that players take one of six nations, France, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, Germany, Russia, or Austria, Hungary, and lead them over the course of 70 years of history. There are also a number of non-player minor powers in smaller nations modeled in the game.
Each of the major powers will play differently each game because they'll be selecting three of eight possible unique national goals. And these goals will dictate how the nation progresses through history as they are a key aspect of victory points and winning the game. Each of the major powers also has national characteristics which will further customize how they play in the game. World War I might happen or it might not, and how various powers are aligned in the Great War can be different in each game as well. It's a fascinating look at the 70-year period in history that was instrumental in shaping Europe as we know it today. Mechanically, all this action takes place on a point-to-point map with the planet carved up into various regions as well. We'll see this in more detail when we look at the map. Imperial Elegy is also a card- driven game. Players will be using cards and command points to take actions to shape the course of their nation as it moves through these 70 years of history. Each turn in the game is a decade, but within each turn, nations will have a number of impulses or action phases. In these phases, they'll be performing various military, political, and economic actions. And this is a very rich nation simulator.
There are a lot of geopolitical mechanics, alliances, treaties, colonies, and colonial wars, national unification, which is one of Germany's possible big goals, truses, international crises, and measures of world tension, and flash points, which are specific areas of international contention, among a number of other things. The economy and development of your country also requires attention. You'll be managing national stability, manpower, industry, building armies and navies, and controlling war budgets. Technology will also advance, influencing various elements of gameplay. There are also unique historical elements that play a role in the game. Things like the Trans Siberian Railroad, the Suez Canal, Dreadnots, and the British Expeditionary Force. And of course, war and peace will dance over the course of the game. An Imperial elegy gives you all the tools of war.
There are naval and land units, minor wars, wars of independence, rebels. For combat, there are land battles, naval battles, amphibious assaults, blockades, mines, forts, pacification, occupation, and control. And of course, a big factor in gameplay is whether World War I happens or not. For some countries, their national goals may make World War I imperative. And for other nations, avoiding World War I altogether could be the best way forward to victory. And there's certainly a few more elements that I've missed as I've done this. This is a very rich and deep game. There are two major documents that come with the game. The rule book and the playbook. The rule book is 60 pages with a low gloss finish. And now most all of these 60 pages are actually rules. Only the last two pages and the back and front cover aren't really rules content. So, we're talking about 56 pages of live content in all. Now, the layout here is clean and crisp with Vauas Sims attention to detail everywhere. There are a lot of graphic examples and examples of play to help with learning and good delineation for sections. Now, I've read through a number of the sections in the rules, and I will say that I'm impressed with the clarity in the writing. For a game with a lot going on, things seems to have excellent organization and explanations. So, I'm cautiously optimistic that this game will actually be a lot of fun to learn.
The back of the box gives the game a seven on the complexity scale, and I'm going to agree with that. It feels like a game that will actually play fairly smoothly once you get going, and the excellent organization and writing makes me feel like we can chop down the complexity a bit because of it. [snorts] Soliter-wise, it's a bit trickier to say, but the back end of the rules dictate how the the solo bots will play. It's also worth noting that the bots are used to fill in major powers when there aren't six players available. Now, reading through the bot rules, they feel like they've been given a lot of thought, and some solitire systems feel slapped on, but Imperial Elegy is not the case. There are rules and gameplay modifications to handle the bots, and on the whole, they seem well structured and not something that will bog down gameplay. The back of the box gives Imperial Elegy a 9 out of 10 for solo play. And based on what I've seen here, I tend to lean towards agreeing with that. Maybe an 8 and 1 half out of 10.
But I am very curious to see how this plays solo. If we have a good solo or play experience with less than six players, then the ability for this game to get played magnifies significantly. In addition to the rule book, there is a brilliant 44page playbook. Now, this has the same level of layout and graphics quality as the rule book, and contains the scenarios in the game, an extended example of play, all the card descriptions, strategy notes, and design notes. It's a great set of supplemental materials for not only playing the game, but learning how the cards and the game connects to the actual history of the time period covered in the game. Kudos for this accomplishment. This is a great supplement to play. Now, scenario-wise, there is a lot going on. We've got the campaign and a tutorial setup that starts in 1850. Then we've got three other main scenarios. One that starts in 1870, another that starts in 1880, and one that omits a great war. In addition to the main scenarios, we've got five Great War scenarios, which as we m mentioned uses a different gameplay and sequence of play, almost a game within a game. For this, there is one historical great war in four alternate history setups. And because of the way alliances can shift in the game, it's very likely that whatever great war spawns in a campaign game might be quite a bit different from the historical Great War.
Imperial Elegy comes with 625 pre-rounded double-sided counters, just a touch under 3/4 of an inch for most of them, spread out over seven counter sheets. Now, let's take a look at some of these as they highlight a lot of the different things going on in the game. So this is counter sheet number one and it's dominated by the major the minor power armies. We can see here things like Serbia, Greece, Romania, USA, Italy among a host of other nations. We've also got some minor power naval forces and various influence and control markers to designate the changing political landscape. Counter sheet number two has French and British military counters. Some influence markers up here for Japan and various other markers. Counter sheet number three brings us to Austria and the Ottoman Empire forces as well as holding more British and French naval units.
Counter sheet number four is all about Germany and Russia as well as a lot more influence markers. Counter sheet number five is all about markers for things like industry and pacification status and more influence. Um, influence, by the way, is a stepping stone that major powers use to gain control over uncontrolled areas as they will then shift into pacification and finally control. Counter sheet number six has trench battle markers for the great war, a lot of other influence markers, and a lot of the flashoint markers uh used to indicate active world hotspots. The last sheet, counter sheet seven, finishes off the set with a lot of the major power markers for tracking manpower, stability, key area control, and other gameplay elements. All in all, this is just a gorgeous counter set. Imperial Elegy comes with a literal fiesta of player aids. First, we have these six major power trackers, one for each of the six playable nations. We can see here the one for the United Kingdom. Um, there are tracks for stability, manpower, industry, territorial keys, and colonial keys. Keys, by the way, are spaces on the map that have major geopolitical worth and are often connected to national goals. So, gaining control of keys is often one of a nation's major goals. On the top right, we have the rule guidance for the particular unique characteristics of the United Kingdom. Each of the six major powers have various unique gameplay characteristics. Now, these national trackers are very thick card stock, very durable, and easy to handle. The next aid is the major power influence track for tracking the current status of
global influence. The seventh track here, by the way, is for non-player influence. This is also a very thick and durable card stock. Here are the two identical bot player aids for guiding the nations in the game that aren't controlled by humans. These are a thinner thinner vinyl stock, but also very durable with a good feel to them. This smaller player aid is used for tracking elements of the Great War like manpower and stability. Lastly, we have six identical uh six panel player aids, each with a ton of charts for assisting with the execution of gameplay. So, I think we could make a video just on this player aid, but some of the titles can give you ideas of the types of functions you'll be handling in the game. We've got combat results tables, die roll modifier tables, minor power alliance tables, victory step and treaty options, guidance for colonial wars and the great war stability, an entire page here for the Ital Italy mandatory event. Uh some of the national flag guidance over here.
Um and then there's [clears throat] also a sequence of play in here too, right here. Uh and a list of all the actions that the players can take. Uh, these also are vinyl and have a great feel to them. And again, there's one identical one for each player. There are four decks of cards in Imperial Elegy. The first deck that we're looking at here are the National Goal cards. Now, each playable nation has eight cards. And three times in the game, you'll be dealt three of these eight goals. You then pick one of those three goals that you've been dealt, and that becomes one of the three national goals that you'll work towards in the game. What's extra interesting here is that these goals are kept secret from other players. So, you won't quite know what your opponents are trying to accomplish as they play. Now, here are the national the eight national goal cards for Germany. And we can see how vastly different this could result in play for Germany. So, peace in our time here means that your goal is that the Great War doesn't happen. Stability is a ranking goal where you're trying to have the highest national stability at the end of the game. Our place in the sun emphasizes colonial expansion.
European keys mean your rank in controlling the most key locations in Europe. Um unification which is always dealt to the German player at the start of the campaign game means unifying unifying Germany under one flag. And then look to Berlin emphasizes the number of minor alliances that you build in the game. These cards are such a great way to create depth and uniqueness in gameplay as every game will play out completely differently. So, the largest deck of cards in the game is the action card deck, which is a huge pile of all the cards that players will play during the action impulses in their turns. Each card has a CP number that you can use in a number of ways and an event, and CP stands for command points. Now, these events capture so many historical nuances of the 70 years of history in the game. Um, and it's also important to note that some of these cards, like these green ones, are mandatory cards that happen automatically, and then others are response cards or combat cards. So, there are some more subtleties to how these cards are played. If we look at some of the events though, we can get a sense of the game's connection to history here. So, economic boom increases your stability. Uh, sickman of Europe decreases the stability of Austria and the Ottoman empires. Um, assassination increases world tension by one and forces the targeted player to either discard a card or lose a stability point. Italy uh nudges Italy towards unification. The American Civil War, which is a big event here, triggles that triggers the Civil War in the US and has a number of ramifications for Europe. Decline of the
Quing Empire allows you to grab some territorial control in China. And there are others here like the Eiffel Tower and the res the revolution of 1905. Here are eight more. Uh, so machine guns brings machine gun technology into the game, which makes attacking in land battles much harder. Um, Casix gives the Russians one stability point and allows them to draw another card. Our place in the sun is a powerful naval and colonization card. Uprising in Ireland is just that. It makes life harder for the UK player by creating a rebellion in Ireland. Suez Canal completes the Suez Canal and is a number of other game effects. The third deck in the game is the home deck, which are two powerful nationspecific cards that each player gets at the start of every turn. This ensures that each player will have at least one powerful card to play during their turn. The last deck of cards is the small Great War action card deck, and these cards are used specifically during the Great War should it happen.
Last but not least, we have the mounted 22 in x 34 in game map. Um, as with everything else in Imperial Elegy, there is a lot going on here. Um, we can see at a glance that this is a point-to-point map with areas connected by travel lines designating routes of travel. Also, this is very much a world map. We can see here the major European section, but there are also subsections for North America, the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and then Asia. Over here, we've also got a number of naval boxes for naval movement. And then surrounding the whole map are a number of trackers. the turn tracker and the great war tracker. Uh world tension track and the flashoint tracker are over here as well as VP and power projection track. Uh down here we have the allimportant alliance track too. Areas are also varied. Um key locations are starred and square. Um and those locations are further distinguished by either colonial uh keys roughly keys that aren't connected to Europe and European keys. Now I'm I'm quite impressed by this map. One thing that is clear is that there is a lot going on in the game. The scope is global and turns are decades. To try to capture 70 years of world history on a 22in x 34in map is surely a design challenge and I think it would have been easy to have this map end up as an abstract mess of symbols and tracks. I think the design here has done a great job of keeping a sense of geography in the game and a feeling of a sense of place while at the same time providing a
lot of function that keeps the gameplay from spilling over too much. This game is a bold design challenge in every way and the map is no exception. Well, there we have it. What an ambitious, daring, and creative design this is indeed. Now, I've been back at historical gaming now for about four years, and I can say I've not come anything close to seeing a game that captures world history along so many parameters. Geopolitics, economics, military actions, a great war that can happen or not happen in so many different ways, national goals that allow you to customize gameplay to your liking, shifting alliances and events and technologies that promise to make no two games ever alike. It's such a bold attempt at building a literal gaming sandbox for players that covers 70 years of European and world history. I cannot wait to give this game a shot. And the absolute icing on the cake for me is what appears to be a fully functional and robust solo mode. I mean, playing a sixplayer game for 10 hours would be heaven for sure, but outside of conferences, that will be fairly tricky for me to accomplish. But if two-player or three-player games or the solo experience can work well, that just opens up so much more gameplay with this. I am so excited to dig in deeper.
If this comes close to achieving what it looks like it can do, I could see this being one of my favorite all-time games. Now, I'm curious if you have the game, have you tried it yet, and how do you like it? Are you thinking of picking it up? Let me know what you think, and if you have questions, I'll be happy to answer them as I can. And thanks so much for watching.