Imperial Elegy: The Road to the Great War 1850-1920 is a Strategic level multi-player card-driven board-wargame that blends diplomacy, warfare, and statecraft. Players take control of one of six unique major powers in the game: Germany/Prussia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria / Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

IE takes place over 7 turns, with each turn representing a decade. If a GW occurs, the game can be extended by, at most, 6 additional shorter GW turns.

A turn consists of numerous player impulses, during which players play action cards for their CP or events. Players will use CP and events to colonize, conduct diplomacy, fight wars, as well as hinder their opponents.

A turn is over once all players have consecutively passed or when all players are out of cards.

Players take on the role of either Germany/ Prussia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria/Austria-Hungary, Russia, or the Ottoman Empire. Italy, should it unify, is not controlled directly by a player and instead interacts with the game using special rules.

Imperial Elegy was designed primarily as a 6 player game, but it can accommodate smaller player counts, including solitaire.

Players can win by fulfilling their individual National Goals and scoring Victory Points. But if the Great War occurs, the victory conditions change. In addition to this, a game can end in an Auto-Victory if a player takes control of a certain number of territorial keys.