Steam and steel redraw the map as telegrams outpace cavalry and dreadnoughts cast long shadows on distant straits. Imperial Elegy lets you steer a great power through seven decades of brinkmanship-industrial booms, colonial crises, and alliances that never sit still. Each turn spans a decade; the Great War may erupt...or be averted-depending on how you play your hand.
Your engine of statecraft is a hand of Action Cards. Spend them as command points to recruit, industrialize, move fleets and armies, influence minors, set war aims and build reach-or unleash their events to bend history at exactly the right moment. Control the pace by dominating flashpoints-the Low Countries, the Balkans, and global Power Projection-to draw more cards and roll your industry forward. At sea, ports and bases across linked naval boxes determine how far your influence can travel; chokepoints like the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles can open or close entire theaters.
Alliances breathe. Political shifts and crisis checks can flip blocs, sometimes twice in a single step. If the guns do speak, the game changes cadence: fixed wartime budgets, trenches, reserves and naval interceptions make every decision tighter-and every loss sting-until winter closes the campaign.
Victory wears many faces. If peace holds to the end, reveal National Goals and tally your triumphs. If the Great War crowns a side, alliance victory (with room for a canny neutral to slip through) decides the outcome. On rare occasions, sheer territorial conquest ends it early.
Highlights
Grand arc across seven decades - war is possible, not inevitable.
Card-driven statecraft - choose between flexible command points and powerful historic events.
Flashpoints, not borders - dominate key regions and global Power Projection to accelerate your tempo.
Sea lanes as policy - ports, bases, Suez and the Dardanelles reshape movement and strategy.
Living diplomacy - shifting influence and crisis resolution can realign the whole table.
Distinct wartime mode - fixed CP budgets, trenches, interceptions, and punishing attrition.
Game Information
Players: 1-6 (designed for six; supports smaller counts and solitaire)
Structure: 7 decade turns (1850-1920) plus up to 6 Great War turns if war occurs
Core Systems: card-driven actions/events, flashpoint domination, naval projection & chokepoints, dynamic alliances & crises, wartime/Great War cadence, hidden National Goals
What's in the Box
- Map of the late-19th/early-20th-century world with flashpoints and naval boxes
- Action Card decks - counters and markers for powers, fleets, armies and control
- player aids and reference sheets
- rulebook and playbook.
Hersteller und/oder Verantwortliche Person innerhalb der EU:
Verantwortliche Person für die EU:BNW Distribution GmbH
Winkelsweg 169
40764 Langenfeld
Deutschland
eMail: sales@bnw-distribution.com
