Prussia's Glory is a rare chance to learn about a great forgotten king and his forgotten battles.
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| Pretty main menu... | Frederick? Is that you down there? |
Horse and Musket II: Prussia's Glory focuses on the battles engaged in by Kind Frederick of Prussia between 1745 and 1760. Only 15 years of warmongering to re-live, but I guess you can't win 'em all.
There is something almost depressing about reliving the battles of a genius now lost in the mists of history, something about the short lived heyday of a mostly insignificant European nation that makes you wonder why you bother and makes war itself seem that much more futile, though only if you're one of those tree hugging hippies of course.
The pinnacle of Prussia's military achievements was the battle of Leuthen, in which they killed many Austrians indeed. You can be there again and engineer another Prussian victory, or perhaps give the Austrians a chance to strike back. Other battles include the battles of Soor, Lobositz, Hochkirch, and Torgau.
This homage to King Frederick and his stellar military talents involves playing amidst the hexagons again, moving cavalry, infantry and artillery into the best possible positions for success, and making sure morale stays up amongst the troops. Luckily back then they didn't realize that nobody would even know what Prussia was, let alone know it for its military prowess. Perhaps if they'd joined an axis they might have had more luck.
The amount of research that has gone into this game is very impressive indeed, and the close up feature allows you to see your troops authentically dressed. There's even a drummer to take your mind off the impending doom. Shrapnel has ensured that you have the full compliment of Prussian Military
available to you, including Dragoons, Hussars, Musketeers, Grenadiers and different types of leaders.
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| Warfare was very angular and boxy in Prussia... | But they fought in every season... |
It's not all just shifting men around either, you must develop good leadership skills and ensure that morale stays high among your troops if you are to win. Of course, I always thought that the sheer desire to stay alive might inspire some pretty good fighting, but if you don't keep your men motivated, you might find yourself up against a horde of bloodthirsty Austrians (Yes, I said bloodthirsty Austrians, they can still get rather irritable if you confuse them with Switzerland) and suddenly realize that no-one else is with you.
After all this hype you probably can't wait to get your sweaty little paws on a copy and start killing some old European people. It's an entirely understandable reaction. Prussia's Glory game play is actually relatively
simple in some respects. If you want your troops to do something, click on the leader to activate him, then you have access to the units. Like chess and similar games, if you come up against an enemy held hexagon, battle ensues.
You will have to learn how the different units work and what their capabilities are. In order to help you in this quest, Shrapnel Games have included a handy dandy 55 page manual. It contains gems such as this. "Any Cavalry units that are charged/assaulted in a front hex will "countercharge". No actual movement takes place, but (reviewer inserted advice follows) "just pretend that it does, preferably whilst making clip
clopping sounds with your knuckles on your hard drive."
As you can see, imagination is very important when playing this game, like so many other hex based, turn based tactical strategy games. There are a myriad of rules which cover each units movements, so when you find yourself clicking plaintively to no avail (and it will happen), try consulting the manual. It was as my bible throughout these battles.
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| With pride... | Long live the King! |
Essentially, this is just another hex strategy game. It really doesn't bring anything new to the table apart from a different setting, and perhaps different units. Graphically speaking its nothing to write home about either, the graphics serve their purpose, but even the musket reloading animations fail to really move this into the 21st Century. The sound is largely negligible and forgettable also, most likely because those playing the game are probably going to be providing their own sound effects, or have a constant battle soundtrack playing in their heads anyway.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Imagining what this game might look like if it wasn’t essentially a bunch of little pictures on a map.
