Empress Josephine Slot Machine

Background to the Theme

Joséphine de Beauharnais was born in 1763 and was six years older than Napoleon Bonaparte, the man who would make her an empress and a lasting symbol of forsaken love. She met Napoleon in Paris in 1795 while he was engaged to Désirée Clary, whom Bonaparte broke off with almost immediately, much to his family's displeasure. Désirée eventually became Queen of Sweden.

Despite having already borne two children to her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, who was executed by the Robespierre government, Josephine was never able to give Napoleon an heir. He divorced her and married Marie-Louise of Austria, who did give birth to a son, Napoleon II. Ironically, Josephine's own daughter Hortense was the mother of Napoleon III, who was the son of Napoleon I's younger brother.

Upon his death bed Napoleon I Bonaparte uttered his last words: "France, l'armée, tê te d'armée, Joséphine". And thus was confirmed the legendary love of this star-crossed pair.

Symbols in the Game

There are 12 symbols in the game and prizes are awarded from left to right. Only the highest-value winning combination on a pay line is awarded a prize.

There are two special symbols in the game, as follows.

• The Empress Josephine logo

  This serves as the Wild, and substitutes for all other symobls except the Crown-on-Pillow. If five Wild symbols appear on a pay line, they award a prize of 5,000 times the bet per line.

• The Crown-on-Pillow

  This triggers the bonus game, which we explain more about later.

Josephine's portrait serves as the highest-value non-special symbol in the game. For five-of-a-kind she pays a prize of 200 times the bet per line. When she pays a prize Josephine's tile becomes animated, zooming out to show her reclining on an imperial couch.

Napoleon is the next highest-value symbol, paying a prize of 100 times bet per line for five-of-a-kind. When Napoleon pays a prize his symbol becomes animated and the point of view recedes from him, revealing him standing in the breeze as his red cloak flaps.

The Apollo fountain is the third high-value symbol, only differing from Napoleon in the 2-of-a-kind prize. Water begins flowing from the fountain when it pays a prize.

Josephine's chest of jewels is the next high-value symbol, topping out at 50 times bet per line for 5-of-a-kind. The chest opens up to reveal Josephine's treasured valuables when this symbol awards a prize.

Her silver dining service heads up the low-value symbols and is the last symbol in the game to use a picture. The remaining low-value symbols are "A", "K", "Q", "J", and "5". The "5" represents High 5 Games.

Game Controls

All of the game's controls line the bottom of the screen and they follow High 5 Games' standard design. The Lines control allows you to scroll through the 5 settings (1, 10, 20, 30, and 40) to determine how many pay lines will be active during spins.

The Per Line control allows you to scroll through the 8 settings (0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 1.00, 2.00, 5.00, and 10.00) that determine how much you bet per active pay line.

The BET display shows you the total bet, calculated by multiplying active pay lines times the bet per line.

The Win / Credits window shows you how much you won on the last spin and what your available credits balance is.

You can use the Replay button to watch your last spin again. It will replay an entire bonus game for you.

The Question mark opens up the help system so you can scroll horizontally through all 20 screens.

Auto Play gives you the ability to generate 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 spins so you don't have to click the Spin button that many times. The game automatically deducts the amount of each bet from your available balance and it stops if your balance is too low to pay the next bet. You can also stop the auto spins at any time by pressing the button again.

The Spin Button activates a single game (spin), and counts down the number of remaining spins during Auto Play too. You can also use it as a Stop button to cut short the animations.

Triggering the Bonus Round

The Free Spins bonus game is trigged whenever twelve Crown-on-Pillow tiles line up on reels 2, 3, and 4. You are awarded 8 free games.

It is possible to win more free spins while the bonus game is playing.

At the start of the bonus round you are prompted to choose one of the crowns. The game then reveals a randomly chosen symbol that will become a Super Stack for you.

The Wild symbol cannot substitute for your Free Spins bonus Super Stack symbol.

If the Super Stack symbol fills up all the slots on reels 2, 3, and 4 (12 tiles) the game awards a multiplier of 2X, 3X, or 5X. The prizes for any winning combinations using the Super Stack symbol on this spin will be multiplied.