The Best Strategic Level Napoleonic Game available

[Colonel Marbot]

As a amateur historian of the Napoleonic era, I have by and large, been disappointed with most game simulations of the era. Strategic level games are generally quite simplistic when it comes to battles and and frequently force players onto a script that locks them into following actual history.

This game is fascinating in that while being a Strategic level game, it does allow players to employ tactical Napoleonic elements, such as battle plans, leaders with historical attributes and diverse unit types. The player has a an infinite number of diplomatic options, with individual diplomatic relations maintained with over 30 nations and principalities. And while it does take time to turn around relations with a historical belligerant, it is very possible. Afterall, in the campaign games, you have over 400 turns in which to convince the United States to ally or to create a Defensive treaty with Sweden for example.

The Leadership factor is of great importance. As Napoleon, you begin the campaign with Armies under the Emperor and Marshall Massena. Who shall you give a third army to? Shall it be the rash Murat who is senior in line... or should it be Davout... Lannes? The choice is yours.

Strategically, you can recreate history or run your own course... invade England, stay allied with Spain, join Russia and attack Turkey? The game becomes infinately varied each time you play it.

The rapid advances in the military science is simulated in WON, by improvements in whichever direction you choose. Will you develop the use of Mass Battery Artillery tactics, Cavalry screens and reconnaissance, Naval advances? These are all in your control and can developed in an order that matches your strategy.

Let me share the decisions and flavor of the opening of the 1805 campaign from the French side. My beginning decisions and direction might be:

1. Get my naval fleets out of their respective harbors and attempt to consolidate them before Nelson can begin to pick them off.
2. Do I consolidate the Grande Armee and march my corps in supporting distance of each other on Ulm which will guarantee a victory, but also the escape of a portion of Mack's Austrian army, Or do I march to surround Mack completely, cutting off his retreat, but also risk a premature engagement with only a portion of my force. I generally choose the later and detach corp cavalry to screen my routes of advance and send Davout, Murat and Bernadotte around to Mack's rear... careful not to make the historic mistake of violating Prussian neutrality.
3. Reorganize and modernize Massena's army in Italy, before beginning a careful advance towards Venice.
4. Begin diplomatic overtures to improve relations with the Ottoman's and the Persians, knowing that eventually I can use them jointly to create a secont front against Russia. Similarly I begin to enhance diplomatic relations with the U.S., with the knowledge that they can help me with Britain, while swearing that I will keep Spain firmly in my camp and never create the Pennisular Ulcer.

The strength of this game is the vast complexity and flexibility within its design. No two games will be the same. The scenarios are interesting, but the campaigns make the game fascinating.

Before I finish this post, let me address some of the playability concerns that some have. First of all let me say that I have played all 400+ turns and taken a campaign to completion. In many ways I followed the historical approach of war with Spain and Russia, but in other ways I chose a separate course,.. with an invasion of England and Turkey. Ocassionally I did run into a minor challenge, but a change in direction would always allow me to carry on. Running the game on an older Computer system which has dozens of background programs did bring me an occassional error, which required going to backup (the game auto-saves every turn). But upgrading to new computer has brought zero errors. If you enjoy the Napoleonic era, this game is a must-have for your library.

[Korléo]

Excellent post, sum up my experience, exactly.

[Volunteer]

Publicado originalmente por Colonel Marbot:

As a amateur historian of the Napoleonic era, I have by and large, been disappointed with most game simulations of the era. Strategic level games are generally quite simplistic when it comes to battles and and frequently force players onto a script that locks them into following actual history.

This game is fascinating in that while being a Strategic level game, it does allow players to employ tactical Napoleonic elements, such as battle plans, leaders with historical attributes and diverse unit types. The player has a an infinite number of diplomatic options, with individual diplomatic relations maintained with over 30 nations and principalities. And while it does take time to turn around relations with a historical belligerant, it is very possible. Afterall, in the campaign games, you have over 400 turns in which to convince the United States to ally or to create a Defensive treaty with Sweden for example.

The Leadership factor is of great importance. As Napoleon, you begin the campaign with Armies under the Emperor and Marshall Massena. Who shall you give a third army to? Shall it be the rash Murat who is senior in line... or should it be Davout... Lannes? The choice is yours.

Strategically, you can recreate history or run your own course... invade England, stay allied with Spain, join Russia and attack Turkey? The game becomes infinately varied each time you play it.

The rapid advances in the military science is simulated in WON, by improvements in whichever direction you choose. Will you develop the use of Mass Battery Artillery tactics, Cavalry screens and reconnaissance, Naval advances? These are all in your control and can developed in an order that matches your strategy.

Let me share the decisions and flavor of the opening of the 1805 campaign from the French side. My beginning decisions and direction might be:

1. Get my naval fleets out of their respective harbors and attempt to consolidate them before Nelson can begin to pick them off.
2. Do I consolidate the Grande Armee and march my corps in supporting distance of each other on Ulm which will guarantee a victory, but also the escape of a portion of Mack's Austrian army, Or do I march to surround Mack completely, cutting off his retreat, but also risk a premature engagement with only a portion of my force. I generally choose the later and detach corp cavalry to screen my routes of advance and send Davout, Murat and Bernadotte around to Mack's rear... careful not to make the historic mistake of violating Prussian neutrality.
3. Reorganize and modernize Massena's army in Italy, before beginning a careful advance towards Venice.
4. Begin diplomatic overtures to improve relations with the Ottoman's and the Persians, knowing that eventually I can use them jointly to create a secont front against Russia. Similarly I begin to enhance diplomatic relations with the U.S., with the knowledge that they can help me with Britain, while swearing that I will keep Spain firmly in my camp and never create the Pennisular Ulcer.

The strength of this game is the vast complexity and flexibility within its design. No two games will be the same. The scenarios are interesting, but the campaigns make the game fascinating.

Before I finish this post, let me address some of the playability concerns that some have. First of all let me say that I have played all 400+ turns and taken a campaign to completion. In many ways I followed the historical approach of war with Spain and Russia, but in other ways I chose a separate course,.. with an invasion of England and Turkey. Ocassionally I did run into a minor challenge, but a change in direction would always allow me to carry on. Running the game on an older Computer system which has dozens of background programs did bring me an occassional error, which required going to backup (the game auto-saves every turn). But upgrading to new computer has brought zero errors. If you enjoy the Napoleonic era, this game is a must-have for your library.

Thank you.

[Beowulf]

Publicado originalmente por killedbypropaganda:

Btw I fixed the stuttering. Apparently the game didn't save my changes for memory usage in the settings and always reset them to 10%. I had to edit a text file in the game directory (wtf ageod?) and now it uses 75% and runs smooth without stuttering. But that didn't noticeably improve turn times which still makes it a pain to play.

Hi. I'm having similar stuttering issues and the memory slider keeps resetting. Mind telling me in what file did you change the memory usage setting?

[Beowulf]

Publicado originalmente por mrepit:

Whatever setting the slider was last placed does change the percentage in file. But everytime you enter settings in the game be sure to move the slider back to the prefered memory because it does reset every time you go into that menu. I hope that makes sense.

So if I got it right, I just have to change it, and then not open that tab, or the settings will be reset again. Got it, thank you.

And do you happen to know where is that settings file if I want to check the values or change them manually?

Edit: Nevermind, I think I found it - it's the General.opt in Settings folder in your installation directory. Thanks once again.