This purchase was a departure for me as my group are not wargamers. I bought it with an eye to the future for when I retire, as I fully intend to set aside one whole day a week for gaming during this period, thereby enabling us to play the 'long' games to their full potential, with breaks for lunch and tea.

NIE will certainly fall into that category, consisting as it does of 3 levels of rules and a variable number of set-ups and game lengths. The box lid states 1-3+ hours for the Basic game, 2-4+ hours for the Standard game, 2-5+ hours for the Advanced game and a whopping 6-20+ hours for the Full Campaign game!!

For its debut at my normal weekly evening session we were 5 in number and we opted for the Basic game and the 'Limited War' option. Even this comes with a variable number of rounds depending upon the length of game required. We attempted the short game consisting of 12 rounds but only achieved 9 rounds in 2 and a half hours before time beat us. Of course a lot of this time could be put down to reading and understanding of the rules, the abilities of the various pieces, the sequence of resolving battles etc. Towards the end of the evening player's turns were speeding up, so next time the same players would probably finish the 12 rounds in 3 hours.

As Alan How's interview with Glenn Drover indicated Eagle Games are committed to producing games with masses of components on large boards and they have certainly done that. Even with the table extended we were struggling to find room around the edge of the board to put our unused pieces. The 584 plastic pieces are of good quality and certainly look impressive when assembled as a unit. The 80-page rules manual in full colour contains easy-to-follow examples of the resolution of a battle, which enabled us to quickly understand the method. There are 2 double-sided Reference/Tracking cards (large size of course) which are very useful, 180 colourful counters to depict ownership of the territories, 4 dice for battle resolution, a battlefield (for use in the Advanced game) and a pack of 90 cards, which have different uses depending which type of game you are playing. My only criticism of the components is that the cards are quite flimsy and I wonder if they will take repeated use. Given the length of the game it is unlikely that this will be put to the test.

Whilst not wishing to introduce 'grandmothers' and 'eggs' a brief description of the game mechanics might be of use to readers. The following notes relate to the Basic game, playing the Limited war option for 12 rounds and using the Even Steven set up whereby each nation starts with the same number of pieces.

Each player takes the part of one of the 7 nations represented in the game, with any nation not chosen acting as neutral. They set up their pieces in their homeland.

Each piece has a set number of points for movement and attack. A player's turn consists of the following 4 phases:

1. Movement: player moves as many pieces as they wish.
2. Battles: only if applicable. If multiple battles ensue they are resolved in the order the player wishes.
3. Draw cards: If the battle was a Major one the victor receives 1 card. Then the player receives 1 card for each capital region they control and 1 card for each 10 regions they own.
4. Production: the player can trade in cards in various combinations to obtain new pieces, which arrive in their homeland.

Movement can take place on land or water, with various limits applying. It will be either offensive or defensive depending upon the situation at the time.

Alliances can be struck with other nations to the mutual benefit of both but these can be broken at the start of a players turn and a battle between the former allies will take place at the end of the players turn!

Cards can be traded by the active player with any other player, but the promises of the contents do not have to be met once cards are actually exchanged, so beware the devious ones.

The game continues in this sequence for the agreed number of rounds. Players then count the number of regions they own, subtract the number of regions they started with and the one who has achieved the largest growth is the winner.

So how did our game play? It took us a couple of rounds to realise that to take control of a region the player must use an infantry piece. These only move 1 region at a time, so expansion is not as rapid as one would hope. Two players then started to use amphibious movement, which, whilst imposing certain limits on the number of pieces that could be moved, did mean that they could move around the board quite swiftly. The Ottomans used this to gain a foothold in North Africa, much to the annoyance of the French who had swept through Spain to Gibraltar with the intention of landing in Morocco and continuing their advance.

The British then invaded France, causing the French to re-think their aggressive strategy in favour of a defensive one. Meanwhile the Prussians built up their empire to threaten the Austrians who traded cards in attempt to bolster their homeland forces.

For the first few turns there were no major battles as players sought to expand their empires in the neutral regions. Therefore each player was receiving just 2 cards at the end of their turn and I suppose you could say that there is a certain amount of luck involved in which cards you draw, as some give you better production opportunities than others. But it still comes down to how and when you choose to play them as there are better production combinations if a player holds on to their cards until later.

So what was the verdict? - to paraphrase a famous advert "4 out of 5 players who expressed a preference" thought it was good and would certainly play it again and would like to play a longer game. The one dissenter was really quite anti from the start and that was reflected in his play, so we might have to schedule any future outings of the game around his absence.

It would certainly fill a day for retirees but I doubt if many readers of Counter fall into that category. So my advice would be to "try before you buy" to see if the game is really for your group, as it's quite expensive. But value for money nevertheless.