Emperors and Eagles
Field of Glory Napoleonic Companion
Emperors and Eagles is the first Field of Glory Napoleonic Companion book that has been made available. This book covers the Napoleonic Armies from 1792 until 1814. Conspicuously missing is the year 1815 and the Battle of Waterloo which I assume will be included in a future companion.
This hardback book begins with a short Introduction and then some brief historical backgrounds on all of the different periods of Napoleonic history. This background information fills in some of the blanks that may occur for some who are not fully conversant with French history. Historical areas that are covered are:
- The Wars of the First Coalition 1792 – 1798
- The Wars of the Second Coalition 1798 – 1802
- The Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalitions 1803 – 1807
- Other Theatres of War 1805 – 1813
- Serbian Uprising 1805 – 1813
- Ottoman Turkish Army in the Balkans 1805 – 1808
- Russian Army in the Balkans 1806 – 1808
- The British in Scandinavia 1707
- Sweden’s Wars 1808 – 1809
- Bernadotte’s Army of Denmark and Sweden 1808
- Swedish – Finish Army 1808
- Russian Army of Finland 1808 – 1809
- The War in the Iberian Peninsula 1807 – 1814
This is just a small sampling of what is provided to gamers in this book as the Companions Index takes a full two pages.
The Army Lists that are provided are in the specific format for the Field of Glory Napoleonic set of rules. You are given specific information for each of the armies in the following areas:
- Commanders
- Corps Commander
- Division Commander
- Core Infantry
- Regular Line Infantry
- Light Infantry
- Field Artillery
- Core Cavalry
- Hussars
- Chasseurs à cheval
- Dragoons
- Optional Troops
- Various optional troops that the nation can field
The ѐlan of each of these troops can be rated as poor, average, or superior and their training can be irregular, drilled or veteran. After this you are provided with the point cost per base of the different units and the maximum number of bases of that type that can be included in this type of army.
To provide an idea of the depth of information that is included between the covers of this book, here are a few of the armies that are included:
- French Armée du Nord 1792 – 1794
- French Armies in Germany and Italy 1795 – 1797
- Army of Austria in Italy 1796 – 1797
- The Army of Hanover 1793 – 1803
- The Army of Spain 1793 – 1795
- The Egyptian Expedition 1798 – 1801
- The Army of Consular France
- The British Expeditionary Force in Egypt 1801
- French Infantry Corps d’Armée 1805 – 1807
- Austrian Army of the Danube 1805
- Prussian Army 1806 – 1807
- British Army in Portugal 1808 – 1809
- Allied Army in Spain and France 1812 – 1814
- The Spanish Army 1808 – 1814
This is just a sampling of the armies that are presented in this book.
Conclusion
Emperors and Eagles is a 176 page book jammed with information from cover to cover for the Field of Glory Napoleonic player. It provides necessary information regarding France’s different armies of this period, their allies and some of their enemies. With these army lists the gamer can build up different armies according to the points system that is used with the rules. Gamers can even field armies that didn’t fight one another as an alternate history exercise to see what would have happened if that battle would have ever taken place. An extra plus in this book are all of the color photographs of miniatures and illustrative plates from other Osprey series. These photographs and plates provide the reader with a visual reference of the colorful uniforms of this period. Emperors and Eagles, Field of Glory Napoleonic Companion Book 2 is an excellent addition to the gamer’s library and one that they should be referencing often.
