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Napoleon’s Campaigns

	Author: Jim Cobb Article Type: PC Game Review Publication Date: 5/9/2008 Developer: AGEOD Publisher: Nobilis Publisher: AGEOD Related Categories: Turn-based, Strategic, Single-Player, Napoleonics

Napoleon wasn’t all that great of a tactician; many of his battlefield successes were a function of luck. Neither were his strategies great; he tended to overreach and often couldn’t put his opponents down permanently. Where he excelled as no other was in the area of operations. He took the corps system he inherited from the Old Regime and the Revolution and used it to a dazzling extent. Therefore, AGEOD’s decision to limit its Napoleon’s Campaigns to the operational level was to highlight those aspects that made “Boney” great. For the most part, the game has done well by l’Empereur.

Le Corps de ma Tante

Like the mob in Young Frankenstein, simulating and learning a truly corps-based system can be a “very ugly thing”. Corp structures not only demand all-arms units but leadership and command structure above and below corps level. An idiot commander at any level can defeat the purpose of a corps and its affiliated army. Version 1.03c leads players gently through what could have been a Mel Brookesque exercise with three tutorials using the opening phases of the 1805 campaign and a revised and expanded 79-page PDF manual. Along with quick responses to questions at http://www.napoleons-campaigns.com/links.en.html, AGEOD has made an exceptional effort at lowering the learning curve with a walk-thru of the 1805 campaign. A great tool for making the game more accessible is the tool tip which reflects great amounts of information anywhere it hovers.

The scope and grandeur of the beginning of the 1812 campaign sweeps Europe.

Graphics are very similar to AGEOD’s American Civil War: The Blue and the Gray with the map divided into provinces, terrain represented by color with roads and rivers of different sizes. Cities have icons denoting their size with little icons denoting if troops or ships are present in the city. Ports are marked with anchors with ocean areas divided into sectors. Overlays show such things as movement possibilities, supply, command range and political control. A picture on top of the screen portrays the terrain type with the map and picture changing with weather and seasons.

The new 3D icons may not be all that helpful.	This supply overlay shows French units with a problem to the west.

Units on the map can be shown two ways. The new 3D model has an icon of the dominant unit type with little hard-to-read colored dashes at the base denoting unit strength and other friendly units in the province. Veteran players will probably prefer the old 2D portrait of the commander with unit factors expressed in numbers. Both ways are accompanied by an info bar at the bottom showing commanders and the stack’s constituent units, be they army corps, division or unorganized forces of regiments and companies. Clicking on a regiment brings up a window with a detailed picture of the unit type and 22 ratings of factors such as strength, morale, experience, training and weapons. Commanders have stars for rank and possibly one or more icons represent some of the 94 different special abilities and personality traits. The info bar has a tab for each force in the province and information for each dealing with six factors such as ammunition, morale, supply, and activation status. Movement is shown with a blue trace with the number of days to the destination shown. Parent headquarters and affiliated corps flash when selected. Battles are displayed via a large moving wheel followed by a chart with various kinds of losses. Of course, the ubiquitous mini-map is present for fast movement around Europe.

An Austrian commander moved in northern Italy. Note the penalty on the right side of the penalty bar.

Sounds include marching and galloping. Battles have gunfire, shouted orders, cries and bugles. The most useful sound effect is a short bugle blast indicating the formation of a corps, division or army.