Battles of Napoleon

aka: Battles of Napoleon: A Construction Set

Moby ID: 26715

[ All ] [ Apple II ] [ Commodore 64 ] [ DOS ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 85% (based on 2 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)

Very detailed and complex; challenging, but fun

The Good
This was the first computer wargame I ever bought and played (I was probably 12 or 13 at the time). At that age, I was more concerned with jumping in and blowing the bad guy up -- so I largely ignored most of the thick manual, and just began wildly throwing my units around the map, waiting for my imminent victory.

I didn't do very well.

This is not a fast-paced action game... this game requires you to give each scenario both high-level (strategic) and low-level (tactical) consideration. Your field commanders skill and proximity can be just as important as number of men and weapons. Even though I never personally participated in any warfighting in the Napoleonic era, this "feels" realistic to me.

Once you get the hang of it, the game is fun, if a bit long. It is very much a thinking person's game; the level of detail, while extreme, adds to the realism.

The Bad
To a casual wargamer, the level of detail is probably too high. As an example, here are some of the things which can affect how well a given unit does when attacking:

Morale

Terrain

Unit Size

Facing Direction / Line of Sight

Weapons

Time of Day (no cav charges at night) Pretty standard, right? Well... there's more:

Fatigue (how "tired" the unit is, affected by actions and terrain)

Disruption (state of order/chaos -- taking a cavalry charge, for example, will disrupt a unit)

Formation (every formation has attack/defense modifiers)

Efficiency (how skilled the unit is)

Command Control (combination of how skilled the leader is, how "close" the leader is on the battlefield, and a few other things)

Position of Target Unit (flanking attacks)

Size of Target Unit

Remaining Operation Points (so moving then attacking will do less damage than just attacking)

Ammo Remaining (no ammo makes your melee damage go up)

% of Skirmishers In or Out (too complex; read the docs for more!)

Frontline Status of Defending Unit And so on, and so on... So there's a lot to consider, and the details can get to feel cumbersome. Another example of this is that even though you command at a high level, troop movement is still done one unit at a time (so for each unit, you have to consider formation, road mode, operation points, and leader proximity). Sound and graphics don't really make sense to evaluate by today's standards. Sure, in modern wargames you can see each individual soldier and hear their weapons fire. But the sound is really unnecessary (again, a strategic simulation, not an action game) and the graphics give you an accurate representation of the battlefield -- the only gripes I have about graphics are that "open" formation makes it impossible to see what kind of unit it is (you have to select it if you forget), and terrain elevation isn't immediately apparent (you have to select the square to see elevation). Overall, the astonishing level of detail just proves to be a bit too cumbersome, particularly in the larger scenarios. Would be nice to be able to give units "standing orders" or movement orders that could span multiple turns.

**The Bottom Line**
Gameplay is fun, but not quick and not easy. Chances are, all but the most combat-hardened battlefield commanders will have to replay the scenarios a few times in order to get the hang of it all. Oh yeah... there is also a construction set with this game. But I didn't even touch on that part in my review. Suffice to say that you can exercise minute control over almost every single statistic in the game, and then create your own scenarios. Some of the game mechanics can't be changed (formations, terrain modifiers, map graphics), but you can still do a lot. This might be good practice; design a one-sided battle to play through and win, then gradually add more bad guys.

DOS · by Mirrorshades2k (274) · 2007

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Patrick Bregger, firefang9212.