First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.

On the 9th day of Christmas War Gaming, my true love gave to me…

9 Mamluk Cavalry Elements Accompanying

Limits of Glory: Bonaparte’s Eastern Empire is a new game focused on the campaign of the French in Egypt between 1798 and 1801. It covers everything from the invasion fleets leaving France trying to avoid Nelson and the British Navy, to the final surrender of the remnants of the French Army to an Anglo-Ottoman force in 1801. The game is very interesting and uses some new ideas to focus on the luck and skill of commanders through a mechanic called the Glory Rating. This Glory Rating can be used as a type of currency by commanders to do several things such as reroll dice for movement or in battle. This becomes a sort of push your luck and resource management aspect and the players who more wisely use this scarce resource will find themselves victorious.

The game consists of the two sides involved in the campaign, including the mighty French and their great leaders against the Allied Coalition made up of the British, the Ottomans and the Mamluk. The combat prowess of the Ottoman and Mamluk is not as great as the French or the British but they do serve a real purpose as the backbone of the Allied Coalition’s forces on the ground in Egypt. The Mamluk were historically slaves that served various ruling households in Egypt and Syria. The Mamluk were however a bit more than that as they also received thorough training in martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences. After this period of servitude they were then freed but expected to remain loyal to their master and continue to serve his household. Mamluks formed part of the military apparatus in Syria and Egypt since at least the 9th century, rising to take over as governing dynasties in parts of both Egypt and Syria as the Tulunid and Ikhshidid dynasties. Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of Egypt’s military under Ayyubid rule in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, beginning under the first Ayyubid sultan Saladin who replaced the Fatimid Caliphate’s black African infantry with Mamluks.

In the game, there is an Event that is repeatable and will typically happen several times called Mamluk Reinforcements. This Event provides the player with additional units to place with their various leaders on the board to use to defend against the invading forces of Napoleon. The Event actually represents the Mamluks rounding up local peasants from the villages and countryside to be Fellahin infantry. This is reflected in their generally poor quality as they will be required to roll higher numbers on the Combat Table in order to actually inflict wounds in combat.

In Combat, each Infantry is worth 1 Strength Point, Cavalry is worth 2 Strength Points and Artillery are worth 3 Strength Points. So as you can see having Cavalry on your side in Combat is very important. In the above picture, you will see that the armies of Murad (left) and Ibrahim (right) have a total of 9 Cavalry between them (5 for Murad and 4 for Ibrahim) as well as 30 total Infantry units (14 for Murad and 16 for Ibrahim). Murad’s army has a total of 24 Strength Points and Ibrahim has 24 as well. These units are referred to in the game as Elements and the box they are located in is called the Accompanying Elements Box.

We had a great time with this game and truly enjoyed the design and what it was trying to do. It was a very interesting experience that required each of us to think about how to keep our armies together, to keep them moving through the rugged desert terrain of Egypt and Syria and also how best to go about attacking and using their Commander’s Glory Rating to swing the odds in our favor.

If you want to know more, you can check out our video review at the following link: