Prince Eugene at War 1809
$24.95
Author Robert M. Epstein
Publisher Empire Games Press

In his introduction the author states that the purpose of his book is "to study the military career of Prince Eugene de Beauhamais in the Franco - Austrian war of 1809... (including) an analysis of his abilities as an independent military commander, an examination of the military relationship between Eugene and Napoleon I, and a narrative account of the military operations of the forces under Eugene's command"

In my view the author has accomplished his goals with this work, but the book is not "wargamer friendly". A brief biography of Eugene's early life and tutelage under Napoleon is provided followed by Eugene's organization of the Franco-Italian forces in preparation for operations against Austria in the campaign of 1809. The following chapters guide the reader through this campaign to the end of Eugene's independent command in Hungary.

At the end of the 1809 campaign Eugene's command had been joined to Napoleon's and the author, having argued his thesis that this future Marshal of the empire was capable of successful independent command, ends his narrative.

I purchased this book because I began building Italian divisions for "Napoleon's Battles" some months ago but new little or nothing of their performance. The Osprey series "Napoleon's Italian and Neapolitan Troops" provides an excellent source for uniforms (Prince Eugene provides no uniform info) but precious little on Eugene or his command. Prince Eugene at only begins to fill this void falling short for a wargamer on several points.

First, while the narrative is well written and fairly readable, it is a scholarly work and subsequently can be rather dry reading. Some fiat person accounts of the battles would have made the book more readable but admittedly have little place in a dissertation.

Secondly, there is no index. This presents several obvious problems including the ability to check for references to specific units or officers in Franco-Italian or Austrian service during the campaign.

Finally and most heinousely, there are no appendixes at the end of the volume providing orders of battle. Any information of this type must be gleaned from the narrative, which, as is endemic of most narratives, has substantial gaps.

In conclusion, this is not a book for Napoleonic beginners. Neither is it "Wargamer Friendly". If it were $10 less I would not hesitate in recommending it but at the hefty $25 price tag I'd suggest investing your money elsewhere. If anyone knows of a more comprehensive volume regarding the Napoleonic Italian army's performance in the campaigns in Spain, Austria and Russia, I would be interested in tracking it down.