This is a strategy game that isn’t afraid to show the Europe in all its splendid geography as turn by turn your armies and their generals seize power. The focus is on historical accuracy and wants to give players a glimpse of just how grand tactics needed to be in such a time of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Parliaments.
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| It’s not all about Napoleon, Prussia has needs too |
It’s not for the faint heart of a casual gamer |
The whole affair is turn-based, meaning every action is best weighed up carefully before letting your opponents share the reins. The player is the absolute power, you control everything detail of your government and army - keeping an eye on morale, supply lines, the strengths and weaknesses of your commanders in the field etc. Statistics are the life-blood of these kinds of strategy games with everything meticulously calculated, this is no action-orientated war game – it’s about the very art of war, if there could ever be such a thing.
First off, if you just happened to study the Napoleonic wars either as a history major or because you have a fondness for short Franco Emperors then little will come as a surprise to you. The European map, which you’ll be staring at non-stop, is greatly detailed and highly accurate for both its physical and political landscaping. You will get to see some of the most historically important battles unfold for this time period like the infamous battle of Waterloo in 1815, well you’ll get to see the statistical battle unfold anyways.
To get those patriotic juices flowing, each officer has a portrait picture which again is accurate to historic records. I certainly don’t envy the poor programmers who were assigned to flesh out each of these leaders with their numerical strengths and weaknesses which all play major roles in battles. There are over a whooping 1500 characters of worth firmly planted into Napoleon’s Campaigns with many carrying traits too. Much like the Europa Universalis series though the game will let you deviate completely from written events and give you a free hand at carving out your own version.
You don’t have to play as the French; in fact you could opt to play as Great Britain or a number of other defending nations to beat back the Napoleonic tyranny. Either way the generals and troops under your command will over time gather experience, which you can then manipulate to your advantage in later battles or you could do something really desperate and actually opt to train them.
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| Match of the day, Spain vs France |
The tutorial – chances are you’d best give it a look |
The odd thing which some who’ve not sampled Ageod’s previous games might be freaked by a little is the simultaneous movement of troops. Traditionally turn-based strategy games will let you designate where you want units to move, you click “end turn” and then the units while move – then your opponent will get to do the same. That’s not the case here, instead both plan their movements and the resultant plotted routes are then executed at the same time. This is great and adds much more realism to the whole turn-based genre; it means an engagement could kickoff while you were desperately moving a vital reinforcement to a town. If the units come too close to one another they can be drawn into confrontation whereby the numbers start to crunch. Aiding or hindering those numbers comes down to a swathe of factors like experience, supply, morale, weather, standing orders and of course the roll of the dice.
There are a number of campaigns to choose from if you feel like jumping to a specific point like Austerlitz (1805), Trafalgar (1805), Jena (1806), Friedland (1807), Danube (1809), Russia (1812), Germany (1813), France (1814), Waterloo (1815) and Spain (1808-1814). If you’re feeling daring enough there’s even a bonus invasion of England included, something that short Franco could never manage but always dreamed of accomplishing. You could go for a multiplayer match too which will let you play through email, some hot seat action or square off over LAN or the Internet with your friends to keep things more interesting – the AI can only offer so much.
Sadly the one area to be let down in Napoleon’s Campaigns, aside from already knowing how the story ends, is the music. This ranges from total silence to suddenly being invaded by an unprovoked military marching band with very little in the way of context to unfolding events.
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| The patience of a civil servant aren’t required, but are recommended |
The Ageod guys, they like their history, and everybody else’s |
NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGNS VERDICT
Napoleon’s Campaigns is not one for the average turn-based strategy gamer and will likely be no friend what-so-ever to the casual gamer. It’s a niche grand strategy game for a niche gamer that likes to surrender to history and it’s ocean of figures, events and artful conquest. There are hours and hours of gameplay here for the enthusiastic history buff who likes to re-write or try to re-live the times that both captivate and dominate European history.
TOP GAME MOMENT
How could I be expected to put anything in here other than playing as England and beating back the no-good Frenchies? Seriously I’m asking?
