As described on the back of the pack which contained 60 cards, "Eagles is a collectable, tradable card game for two players that captures the drama of the Waterloo Campaign of 1815." And to a fair degree it does.
Anybody familiar with the same company's ACW card games will know the format. Each player buys a pack and from the contents makes up a Battle Deck to play against their opponent, the troops being fairly obviously British, French, and especially for Peter Hofschroer, the Prussians. There are cards representing Generals, brigades, events and terrain, and quite frankly they give a damned good game. The balance between the forces is pretty good, although the Prussians tend to be a bit harder to win with.
The cards themselves are nicely printed, with a representative unit from each brigade drawn on them, surrounded by the various statistics required for playing. Indeed, play takes very little time to get into and before long ideas are springing up for additional rules and campaign systems (Next Issue my rules for these will be published, God - sorry, Editor Willing).
These rules are straight forward, splitting the playing table into eight areas where cards can be placed. You need a handful of D6's to sort out the simple firing and melee systems and you are away.
So this is essentially Magic the Gathering for wargamers, and so what? Spend 6 pounds on a pack and you have a fully painted little army to play with. I warn you that you can get a bit addicted to the collecting - side, and I now proudly own 3 whole packs! (And I STILL haven't found Napoleon). Also, because of this the cards are less personal, meaning that you can play for relatively high stakes in a game and not feel bad when you have handed over half a dozen cars to your opponent. I can vouch for that as Rob Jones has now handed me loads and he's still smiling. Serves him right for drawing the Prussians in a campaign against the British, I say.
Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #30
© Copyright 1996 by First Empire.
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