|
Légion d'Honneur |
| 2026-04-20 |
Légion d'Honneur
We played Legion of Honour on Saturday evening. I put on the uniform of a Sous-Lieutenant first assigned to the Army of the Rhine.
I didn't achieve much. I stole money from my unit, spread rumours of cowardice about the character of a fellow player, spent a few uneventful weeks in the staff, got investigated for whatever reason (cannot remember). I ended up getting guillotined for treason even before the rise to prominence of the Corsican (and before being challenged to a duel by the fellow player).
The game lets us weave our stories on the frame of the rise of the First Empire and its downfall at Waterloo. After having rolled our characters, their life are dictated by the drawing of event cards. Garrison card and campaign cards. You hope for an assignment in an army that sees some action or to the reserve army, near Paris and political action.
Some event cards allow for some limited choices, some event cards impact you ostentatiously, no recourse to a dice roll. There is History with a big H, as the player you know it, and then there is history, the history of your character. There are so many threads of fate intertwined, History does not care much for you, but the game gets you to cherish that thread that is yours.
The player hopes for the character to be assigned to the Army of Italy, to get noticed by Buonaparte, the Corsican intriguant. I was happy to get assigned to the staff in that same Army, but it led me to nothing. My character probably was just a fancy messenger boy, dashing despatches between the staff and regiments on the move.
I came to dislike my character, the event card dictated that it would be spreading rumours on a fellow character, describing him as a coward. Well, you have to lean into that. Actually that character distinguished himself in the Army of the North, slashing Dutch reactionary forces and my character had no real experience of fighting at that point. The cards were drawing the silhouette of a rascal of a character.
We only played three seasons, but pre-Empire France drove us through many events. Valmy, Fleurus, Rivoli. It feels bad when a great battle happens and there is not a scrap of glory for you because you're assigned to the quiet sector.
There is a side of the game about your character and the Fair Sex. We didn't delve much into it, at least my character couldn't do much on that field, being far from glamourous Paris for much of his time.
We should have watched The Duellists as a warm up. Maybe War and Peace by Bondarchuk, as well, the officers carousing with a bear reminded me of our Legion of Honor trail.
We decided to save our characters, photographing the main sheets, and to continue at a later time. It is not as open as a classical role playing game, but one gets attached to their character anyway. Somehow, it feels right, there are great things happening and they impact you, you hope to be at the right place at the right time. Like a rolling stone.
