Eagles of 1807
Vol1: Winter Pultusk, Golymin, and Eylau
by
Fellowship of Simulations
Eagles of France are back in force
The last chapter of the series (Fallen Eagles 2) was published in 2022. It was an updated version of the very first battle in the series published in 2015. Until this day, Eagles of France has covered over 4 titles, 3 battles of 1815 (Waterloo, Ligny, Quatre Bras) and Austerlitz. Quatre Bras (the last original battle published) won the CSR award 2019 for the best Napoleonic era wargame.
In 2019, I decided to create Fellowship of Simulations (FSIM) to be able not to rely on third parties for my game design projects. Even if I got a fantastic reception with my first game “Verdun Steel Inferno” (best wargame CSR 2020), there was an upfront time cost to be paid before I got all the fruits of my design independence. Besides, I had committed to publish friends’ designs and it took years to empty the initial funnel.
Now, the design/development/sourcing/marketing/shipping experience level is high enough to accelerate on my key series.
Why coming back with the Eagles of France?
Originally, I started to design the system for me, because I did not find the right balance between details/playability/realism on the market at this scale. Since 2015, the Eagles of France community has grown.
Rising eagles is the best ranked hexagon Napoleonic wargame on BGG, all the battles of the series are in the top 5% among the over 12,000 wargames of BGG.
But even more importantly, over the last ten years, I have been thrilled to see that the Eagles of France series was not a collectable line of products but wargames that people were consistently playing in conventions and at home.
In my view, the success of the series so far was due to the following points:
The system allows you to play the battle to completion in a decent amount of time. These games are more for players than monster worshippers.
The system has a clear (and relevant focus) at the battle level. No formation rules folklore which is imho irrelevant (and a useless complexity) at this scale where the focus is on the commander’s decision to allocate formations at the right place and the right time. Of course, the infantry/artillery/ cavalry triangulation and combined arms tactics are rendered but without rules and bookkeeping complexity.
An activation system which is superior to the I go you go system of course, but also much better than the chit pull which inevitably overstates chaos versus better leadership (good luck to simulate a battle like Auerstadt with a chit pull system).
One title never limits itself to a plain “recreation” of the battle where all parties know what the real commanders did not know (and this is when the “tactical” realism becomes pointless if you miss the big picture). Every title in the series is offering ways to play variants where history will differ but the state of mind of the players will be better aligned with the historical uncertainties.
The Master box concept
A project around Eylau started in 2019. For the first time in the series, there will be more than one battle playable in one box.
Eagles of 1807: Winter brings the Eagles of France Napoleonic battle system to the bitter winter campaign of 1806–1807. Instead of concentrating on one celebrated encounter, the box recreates three very different clashes between Napoleon’s forces and their Russian and Prussian opponents: Pułtusk and Golymin, both fought on 26 December 1806, and Eylau on 8 February 1807. It is a stand-alone 'master box', using the June 2026, version 2.4 series rules, that combines historical scenarios with tools for exploring alternative outcomes.
Three battles, three different problems:
Pułtusk is a six-turn engagement, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in which Marshal Lannes faces Bennigsen’s larger Russian force. The roads, marshes and deep mud make mobility difficult, while the Russian reserve rules force important choices about when to commit troops. Its victory conditions reward the French for seizing key locations and inflicting losses without paying too high a price themselves.
Golymin, also six turns, covers the afternoon and evening of 26 December. French formations under Murat, Augereau and Davout try to break a Russian rearguard under Golitsyn. Here the Russian task is fundamentally defensive: hold on, avoid destruction and prevent the French from achieving a decisive result before darkness. The special conditions make this battle feel distinct from Pułtusk despite their shared weather.
Eylau is the centrepiece: a 13-turn battle from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., featuring Napoleon, Bennigsen and major reinforcements. Players contest nine important towns while balancing casualties and command risks. Its blizzard can arrive and disappear during play, drastically reducing visibility, hampering attacks and making a second activation costly. Together, the three games contrast an outnumbered attack, a fighting withdrawal and a sprawling winter battle of attrition.
But there is even more. This 1807 Winter module provides you with ALL the order of battle for both the French and Coalition armies from December 1806 to February 1807. This is a sandbox project in which a lot of counters could be used to play other battles that could be published in a lighter format (only the map, or magazine format with few or no news counters). I think that Ostrolenka and Mohrungen could be good candidates for a follow up. I intend to publish smaller battles playable in a short evening.
In addition, even for the battles which are in the box, having a full inventory of the units of that period could allow for even more variant scenarios in the future. For example, a mini campaign of Pultusk-Golymin with more optionality on the units engaged (like the Quatre-Bras-Ligny campaign) could be done one day. Here again the idea is to have a dynamic tool to test history versus replaying the battles with pure pre-science on order of battles and reinforcements timing.
This Master box concept will continue in the future besides one battle set-up. This is moving the game box from a 4 counter sheet game to a 8 counter sheet game.
But why another Eylau?
There was recently an avalanche of games about Eylau.
But this is no different from the crowded place for Waterloo games…
Without repeating myself on what are the key features of the system, I think that this module brings something different.
As always, the ability to play the battle in a reasonable time, with a system which is fair to the dynamic and the addition of the variant cards to try to experience the historical uncertainty about the arrival of Lestocq and Ney.
Eylau is an interesting battle to consider when it comes to wargame design. There were extraordinary events happening during the real battle. So what? Should we force/script them? Or forget them?
What is proposed in Eagles of 1807 for Eylau is randomized tools which could provide a near historical results, but which are not forcing them.
The blizzard for example is a context and not a schedule. A blizzard blast may be triggered randomly and is not “scheduled” or “averaged”. Extraordinary events like the massacre of Augereau’s VII corps lost in the blizzard or the Murat’s exceptional counterattack may occur thanks to the play of specific cards but the right timing may never happen… If players find the Blizzard rules too chaotic (even if this is a good representation of the uncertainties of this battle), they may as a variant roll a die at the start of each turn: 1-2 Blizzard is on for the turn. 3-6 no Blizzard for the turn.
The victory conditions for such a massacre in the snow were also to be consistent with the strategic situation. The Coalition may run away, and it will be a draw because the battle will happen just another day elsewhere. To win, French must attack, inflict more losses and gain some ground. Once engaged with a credible level of losses, the Coalition may not just run away to avoid defeat.
The next Eagles?
As shortly as possible after Eagles of 1807, Winter module, we will move to the Spring Module with a box offering Heilsberg and Friedland.
Also in development today are a battle in Spain (Salamanca) and a mini campaign for 1814 in France. Extensions for 1807 Winter will be in development soon and should be released after the Spring module with the battles of Heilsberg and Friedland in one box.
The next master box should be done with 1812 to be able to play big and smaller battles.
The objective now is to have at least one box per year released. I have enough content in development to be able to keep this cadence from now.
So yes, Eagles of France are back!
I am a huge fan of the Eagles of France system, and have almost all of the games released so far:
Austerlitz 1805: Rising Eagles
Ligny 1815: Last Eagles
Quatre Bras 1815: Last Eagles
Waterloo 1815: Fallen Eagles II
The only one of the above I am missing is Austerlitz.
From the above pictures the newest Eagles looks even better than the older ones, which were a tough act to follow. The Master Box concept is something that many grognards have been looking for in games.
When you saunter along to their website, please take a look at the other excellent games that Fellowship of Simulations has to offer. Below are some of my takes on two of them.
Eagles of 1807: Vol1: Winter Pultusk, Golymin, and Eylau
My look at Wars of Religion France 1562 - 1598
My look at Verdun 1916 Steel Inferno
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