Napoleon

The Good
I decided to look at this one again now in 2020, I got it years ago and played through the campaign, which is a series of battles based on historical battles from the Napoleonic wars. the battles are much more simplified obviously. .

Typically games that are tie-ins with TV and cinema are forgettable and cheap and you could describe this game similarly, however it is better than what I expected or recalled; it has 3 modes of game-play: the narrative campaign, a risk style game like Cossacks 2 Battle for Europe, and just straight forward battles- this last category has your army play a number of battles that each time get more difficult as you progress, and by about the third or fourth battle it is a challenge and does require certainly some tactical thinking. The AI is sufficiently aggressive too which is a plus.

If you also enjoyed the Napoleon miniseries there are cut-scenes between the campaign battles from the series that help to tie it in.

The Bad
The rather smallish size of battles, its really more like skirmishes between a handful of units and i am not sure there is any difference between any of the nations' units - its all just generic infantry, cavalry, artillery, albeit each nation's unit have different colours.

The game can occasionally crash in the risk game part too so best to save when you can.

The Bottom Line
in summary, its a poor man's Cossacks 2. Its not a game one should nowadays have to pay more than a few dollars for. but like the period and like a casual strategy and tactical game, and liked the 2002 Napoleon mini-series, then this is a decent but of mild entertainment and the game AI is aggressive enough to offer a challenge the more you progress.