This game covers the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 in Germany. Depending upon the scenario the start date can begin as early as March 1813 and end as late as autumn 1814. The player assumes the role of the supreme commander of either the Franco-Allies or the Allies. As the commander you will need to organize your forces, build new units/formations and plan your overall strategy. Emphasis is on Command and Control, with supply being a close second. The computer's Al will start with historical objectives that will change as the overall situation changes. Minimum requirements are: windows 95/98, Pentium 166 with 80OX600 resolution, 32mb ram, 2x cdrorn and 100mb Hard drive space. There are 6 campaign scenarios that include The Grand Campaign which runs from March 1813 and one side is defeated or autumn 1814. Whichever comes first. All positions are historical and Napoleon starts in Paris. The Grand Campaign II begins in April 1813 and ends as The Grand Campaign. In this campaign, the forces are concentrated and Napoleon starts in Mainz. The spring 1813 campaign covers through Lutzen and Bautzen. Napoleon Against Europe begins in August 1813 and ends prior to Leipzig. Autumn 1813 to the winter 1813 covers Leipzig and the retreat into France. The road to Leipzig begins in late 1813 and goes through the 3-day battle of Leipzig. If you do not wish to play a campaign, there are a few battles pre loaded for your enjoyment, These battles are Lutzen, Bautzen, Katzbacb, Dresden (2" Day) Dennewitz, Liebertwolkwitz, Leipzig (all 3 days), Wauchau, and Leipzig the 18'h. The game revolves around your leaders and holding terrain. Each country has cities, towns, depots and provinces that are worth points. The loss of any of these points will affect both the army and national morale. Battlefield results will also affect army and national morale. As the French I have never been able to force any of the allies to defect. I have had units from the French army defect to the allies. The one time I played the Allies I was able to force Saxony and Westphalia to come over to my side. Regardless, the Austrians will be a source of frustration for the Prussians and French. The Austrians are there and move around. But until late autumn 1813, they are very reluctant to engage in combat. Supply and attrition also play a major role in the game. Go ahead and force-march your conscripts 100 miles without supplies. Once you arrive at your destination you will have very few troops left. A smart general will use supply depots he either built or occupy towns as he marches. Rest of your troops is essential, especially if you wish to engage in combat. Each province is allocated a certain amount of build points for unit creation. Each army unit has historical strengths and weaknesses. The player can decide how to spend his points and which units to build, such as infantry, cavalry, artillery and specialist units. Each category ranges from Old Guard to conscripts, except for the specialist troops. Specialist troops include engineers, siege trains and bridging trains. Each unit takes a specific amount of time to create. This ranges from 3 weeks to 13 weeks--guess who takes the longest to create. Combat is resolved by the computer or on the battlefield by the player. The computer resolves all the minor battles and sieges. Only forces that are somewhat equal in size will be relayed to the player for the option for battlefield resolution. If the computer resolves, the player will only get minimum information as to the result. If anything the player is usually given minimum information. Tactical combat is dazzling. The graphics are great. The battlefield will look like an actual battlefield. Fields, woods, towns, villages, streams and any minor terrain features are shown. Individual regiments represent the troops. Each unit is shown in 3D from above. National uniform colors are used. If a division is mixed with Saxon, Bavarian, French, and Italian, each unit is in white, blue, light blue and green. The units move independently of other units. Waving flags represents even the breeze. The player designates the formations. The units will maneuver into these formations once the order is received. Until your timing is perfected, divisions can get caught changing formation and virtually destroyed. It appears that the designers may have actual knowledge of the Napoleonic era. Morale is very important. Victory can be achieved by maneuver or firepower. Melee is seldom needed or seldom occurs. As in history one side usually falls back. Shaky conscripts help dictate OB and battlefield formations. Once a unit's morale is broken it will fall back or rout. As a note, always keep fresh light cavalry handy to chase these units. The light cavalry will make short work of the infantry even if no one is chasing them, the unit will shrink as men make their way home. One more note on graphics. In combat you will see units loading, firing, artillery impacts, smoke, swords flashing, men falling and artillery crews working their guns. The battlefield sounds of gunfire, thundering cavalry and men yelling are a great spectacle. Now for the points I do not like: 1 In the beginning of the game, you will have numerous units in the manpower pool. The computer will assign them to the armies. It is upsetting to see French Guard units being assigned to Prussian and Russian Divisions. DO NOT USE THIS OPTION. 2 Each town can build all units. A bit unrealistic. In one game I had every town create Old Guard Infantry to see how many I could create. I stopped at 30 Old Guard Regiments. I stopped the game, felt as though I was cheating. 3. An Armistice is pushed on you. You are supposed to be the absolute ruler. It is a pain to be pushing the Allies, burning their cities and listening to the lamentation of their women and suddenly the computer puts on the brakes. 4. You loose Soult, Eugene and Italy in the summer of 1813. Again as the absolute monarch you do not get any say in the matter. 5 The AI is spotty The computer launches piecemeal attacks, fails to follow-up on success or even plan ahead. OK I know of gamers and actual Generals who are like this, so this is a minor point. 6. Sometimes the program locks up, I think this is a Windows Program problem. The game is priced in the $45 to 60 range: I would wait until a sale if possible: I happened to get mine for $10 at a clearance sale. Even with the above problems, I would recommend this game. Back to MWAN #109 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com