The Battle of Eylau (board game)
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| Designers | Oscar DeWitt |
|---|---|
| Illustrators | Redmond A. Simonsen |
| Publishers | Simulations Publications Inc. |
| Publication | 1979 |
| Genres | Napoleonic |
The Battle of Eylau is a board wargames published in 1979 by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) as a free pull-out game in their house magazine Strategy & Tactics that simulates the Battle of Eylau in 1807.
During the War of the Fourth Coalition in the fall of 1806, Napoleon smashed the Prussian army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt, and spent the remainder of the year pursuing the scattered Prussians. In January 1807, the Russian Imperial Army under the command of General Levin August von Bennigsen took advantage of Napoleon's preoccupation to push west across Prussia. Napoleon reacted by moving to the north, hoping to prevent their retreat back to Russia. After Bennigsen's Cossacks captured a copy of Napoleon's orders, Bennigsen rapidly withdrew to the northeast to avoid being cut off. The French army of 45,000 pursued for several days and on 7 January 1807, they found 60,000 Russians drawn up for battle at the town of Eylau.[1]
Description
The Battle of Eylau is a two-player board wargame where one player controls French forces, and the other player controls Russian forces.
Gameplay
The game uses a set of rules developed for a previous SPI Napoleonic game, Napoleon at War:
- The French player moves all units desired, and engages in combat.
- The second player then has the same opportunity.
In addition, a weather rule attempts to simulate the harsh weather experienced during the battle: A die roll of 1–4 indicates no change to combat results, but on a 5, all retreats on the Combat Results Table (CRT) become eliminations. On a 6, all CRT results are reversed.[2]