Marching Eagles by Paul Bruffell

[pkpowers]

It's available now over at HPS sims . I'm well pleased with this Napoleonic operational/tactical pc game. I enjoy Paul's ancient battles and this new game is similar but without hexes and with an improved user interface. It reminds me of the Avalon hill type board games that used areas/zones instead of hexes. (Stalingrad and crete were a couple of them). In this one the artillery, cav charges, line formation changes, HQ's and action points all blend together to make a worthwhile Napoleonic game. I'm playing as France in the full WAterloo battle, it's turn 6 out of 20 (2pm) and it is still a draw. The AI does a good job of holding it's own. I think most wargamers here will be pleased with it.

[operating]

A link would be nice...

[zakblood]

Code: Select all

https://www.hpssims.com/Pages/Products/MarchingEagles/Waterloo/ME_Waterloo.asp

[Alan Sharif]

Looks and sounds very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Rosseau]

Same here. It looks like a nice change from the (well done) John Tiller Napoleonic series, which can be a real handful. Also, quite an affordable price.

[Infierno]

Looks very cool, thanks for posting. Picked this up right away, looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.

[DonCzirr]

Looks like a good system but another Waterloo?

I'll wait for a sequel and hope for one of the less used Napoleonic battles.

[pkpowers]

It also has Quatre Bras and Ligny

[Rosseau]

I was able to finish a game, which just froze at the end. The scenario editor is completely broken. You are supposed to be able to start with an existing map, choose a custom or core OOB and place your units. But it seems the data from the maps is not clean, so I have units that are already placed based on the scenario map, or "fixed" although I didn't place them fixed, units with no action points, non-selectable units, on and on.

So I will try modifying existing scenarios slightly. UI is better than the Ancients and reasonable unit counts and "area" concept seem workable. But very confusing if there is a battle, a window pops up, but hard to spot where it happened.

If this was Steam, I would refund. See why Steam is good?

[zakblood]

just another game rushed out then, and a lack of amount of testing time then it seems, thanks

[Rosseau]

The core scenarios work and can be lightly modified. Advantage is a quick game in an hour or more.

[Alan Sharif]

I totally agree re the UI in the Ancients series. I want to buy those games, but the demo stops me doing so. The games have potential, but the UI is just awful IMO.

[erichswafford]

The game has received several patches at this point and it has never once locked up or crashed for me.

My only real criticism is that the stacking limit of 3 units per area (and that includes leader units) is based more on the limitations of the ancient engine the game is base upon, rather than anything of historical validity.

It leads to some bizarre situations where, for example, the stacking limit in an area can be anywhere from merely 3 all the way up to 18 battalions- based solely on how they’re grouped into those 3 allowable units.

So, if you want a balanced force of infantry, cavalry and artillery - you can’t have a leader in the area because the leader will take up a slot (and remember, you only get 3).

That having been said, the game tends to generate surprisingly historical outcomes - it’s just that you have to play the game in the way it demands of you (for example, leaving your leaders in the immediate rear since they hopefully won’t take up a critical slot) - and it takes a while to figure out how to “game” the system. Knowledge of Napoleonic warfare is only moderately useful here, but once you adjust to the limitations of what the system can do, it’s a good representation (though an abstracted one) of warfare during the period.