Napoleon: Total War

Moby ID: 45432
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Description official description

Napoleon: Total War is basically a spin-off of Empire: Total War telling the story of famous military and political leader Napoléon Bonaparte at the start of the 19th century. As such, the single player campaign is divided into five parts ranging from his humble beginnings in 1778 to his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

As a spin-off, the game doesn't deviate from the proven Total-War-formula. The game is again divided into two parts: The turn-based campaign map and the real-time battles on land or at sea. Compared to Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War features nine important changes and innovations:

  • Deterioration - The players armies loose soldiers through desertion and diseases, forcing him to consider the position of an army and the current weather when planning his crusades.
  • Reinforcement - Armies who have suffered losses automatically refill their ranks as long as they are inside friendly territory.
  • Improved Campaign Characters - The new spy has the ability to infiltrate and sabotage an enemy army. Gentlemen on the other hand now inspire the people in their home territory or increase the change of riots in enemy territory. In addition each character is now able to spy on nearby enemies, although spies will still be able to get better and faster results.
  • Recruitment of Military Characters - Admirals and Generals are recruited out of a pool, giving the player an assortment of characters with different skills and abilities. Every four rounds new characters are added and the better they are, the more they cost.
  • Improved Diplomacy-Options - The diplomacy-screen now offers additional options like the ability to convince a new ally to join a raging war or requesting a trade-embargo against a third nation.
  • Skills of Generals - In addition to raising the moral of their troops, Generals now also posses special skills to directly motivate a specific unit on the battlefield and are able to reunite fleeing units.
  • Ship-repairs - Ships can now be repaired even during the battle which are of course risky and will suspend every other action the ship is taking at that moment.
  • Multiplayer-Campaigns - Napoleon's campaign can be played with human players.
  • Drop-in-Battles - Allows the player to battle against human players during the single player campaign. This means if another player is fighting a battle in his single player campaign, the player can fight against him instead of an AI-character.

In addition many problems of Empire: Total War like the lackluster AI have been addressed and the graphics slightly improved.

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Credits (Windows version)

319 People (312 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 6 ratings with 1 reviews)

Epic battles, loud bangs, crackling rifle fire and plenty of smoke

The Good
Napoleon Total War has basically corrected most of the problems which initially plagued Empire Total War, and is a master piece and an enjoyable game if played on a high spec computer.

The Game is set during Napoleons reign from about 1798-1820, instead of each turn representing 6 months like in other games, each turn represents 2 weeks. It is set in a number of campaigns from Italy to Egypt to Europe and Russia. (Further DLC from Steam gives you a Peninsular Campaign and additional units.)

I found artillery very important in this game, with good massed artillery units, you can defeat an army twice the size. In one battle I had two French line infantry unit, my general (Napoleon) and 4 artillery pieces with a army of about 400 or so soldiers against a combined force of about 2000 Austrians who had about 2 Cannon batteries. I was lucky enough to place my forces in such a way that the only means of attack was a frontal assault by the enemy. I maneuvered my general sneakily behind the infantry as they advanced and wiped out the enemies artillery from the rear. The Austrians were pounded by my artillery, the cannon blast sound effects boomed through the house, and the smoke effects covered the screen making a true fog of war, and when the infantry joined in with well aimed volley fire, the enemy had no hope. As the enemy closed in, I switched my cannon to grape shot and shrapnel and that was that, only handfuls of enemies survived running from the battle scene, my single Generals cavalry unit could not run them all down.

The graphics are realistic and beautifully done, obviously with high spec machines in mind. The game play is intense, as with the other games you can auto solve battles if they are small or strategically not important, and if you do not mind losing here and there. The Campaign maps are more detailed and have more areas in the European Theaters compared to Empire Total War.

There are new ship types and the sea battles are similar to Empire Total war, but with certain tweaks and modifications which make controlling them far easier.

The Bad
The game is more linear in nature than Empire Total War where you could travel to the Americas and East Indies. The games main Campaign is in Europe and excludes North Africa (which is in a previous Campaign) you have set goals and objectives roughly following Napoleons true exploits.

You have to do the initial campaigns first which are interesting but annoying as ultimately any Total War fans want to do the GRAND campaign and skip the smaller bits and pieces.

The Bottom Line
An excellent game, which I have so far enjoyed with little to no bugs (with the latest steam patches). I have given an idea of what to expect given that most people understand the Total War game concept where real-time and turn based strategy are mixed.

Windows · by Thekwane Black (30) · 2011

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sicarius.

Macintosh added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Sasu.

Game added May 13, 2010. Last modified January 20, 2024.