The scope of 'Napoleonic Wars'

[Le Tondu]

Dear NW development team,

When one reads the press release by Matrix Games about 'Napoleonic Wars', one comes across this curious statement.

"Napoleonic Wars is a seven player game of grand strategy during the Napoleonic era of 1805-1815. "

It has always been understood that what constituted the Napoleonic Era had a lot to do with Napoleon himself. After all, our hobby and this game are named after him.

The dates given for the scope of NW as 1805-1815 seemed woefully inadequate when I first saw them. Off-hand I could see that it did not include Napoleon's Campaign in Northern Italy in 1796. The Campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1798 & 1799 and the Campaign in Northern Italy in 1800 are also curiously left out.

These campaigns are correctly included in David Chandler's tome 'The Campaigns of Napoleon' and quite frankly, I see no reason to not include them. If these published dates for the scope of NW are correct, then the very important Battle of Marengo will unfortunately be left out.

Limiting the scope to only the Imperial time frame would constitute a glaring mistake in my opinion.

I respectfully propose that NW begin with 1796 (maybe with 1792 & the Battle of Valmy OR with 1793 & the seige of Toulon where Napoleon's star began to rise) and possibly even stretch to 1821 (the time of Napoleon's historical death).

Sure, he was in exile when he died, but we are going to play a game where we will be able to do things differently than what Napoleon and his enemies did. We will get a chance to see what it would be like to not invade Russia or to pull out of Spain when the time was right. Maybe even invade England. All these different options will be for us to choose from. -And since we will be doing things differently, it is conceivable that the Napoleonic Wars in terms of this game, might last (at least a little) longer than it's historical ending.

So, in summary, I suggest that the scope of 'Napoleonic Wars' begin sometime before the historical beginning of the Imperial Napoleonic Era and stretch to slightly beyond it's historical conclusion -in order to encompass the myriad of possibilities that NW's wonderful gameplay has in store for us.

IF this topic has already been considered and remedied, please disreguard this post entirely.

Respectfully yours,
Rick

[Reiryc]

Originally posted by Le Tondu
Dear NW development team,

When one reads the press release by Matrix Games about 'Napoleonic Wars', one comes across this curious statement.

"Napoleonic Wars is a seven player game of grand strategy during the Napoleonic era of 1805-1815. "

It has always been understood that what constituted the Napoleonic Era had a lot to do with Napoleon himself. After all, our hobby and this game are named after him.

The dates given for the scope of NW as 1805-1815 seemed woefully inadequate when I first saw them. Off-hand I could see that it did not include Napoleon's Campaign in Northern Italy in 1796. The Campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1798 & 1799 and the Campaign in Northern Italy in 1800 are also curiously left out.

These campaigns are correctly included in David Chandler's tome 'The Campaigns of Napoleon' and quite frankly, I see no reason to not include them. If these published dates for the scope of NW are correct, then the very important Battle of Marengo will unfortunately be left out.

Limiting the scope to only the Imperial time frame would constitute a glaring mistake in my opinion.

I respectfully propose that NW begin with 1796 (maybe with 1792 & the Battle of Valmy OR with 1793 & the seige of Toulon where Napoleon's star began to rise) and possibly even stretch to 1821 (the time of Napoleon's historical death).

Sure, he was in exile when he died, but we are going to play a game where we will be able to do things differently than what Napoleon and his enemies did. We will get a chance to see what it would be like to not invade Russia or to pull out of Spain when the time was right. Maybe even invade England. All these different options will be for us to choose from. -And since we will be doing things differently, it is conceivable that the Napoleonic Wars in terms of this game, might last (at least a little) longer than it's historical ending.

So, in summary, I suggest that the scope of 'Napoleonic Wars' begin sometime before the historical beginning of the Imperial Napoleonic Era and stretch to slightly beyond it's historical conclusion -in order to encompass the myriad of possibilities that NW's wonderful gameplay has in store for us.

IF this topic has already been considered and remedied, please disreguard this post entirely.

Respectfully yours,
Rick

I agree with ya here...

I figured that maybe this had more to do with play balance of other nations more than anything else, not sure though.

Maybe if someone could comment on why the choice of 1805 as a start date instead of something earlier. Another issue that occured to me is that at 4 turns a year, the campaign game (assuming there is one of course) wouldn't be very long (4 turns a year for 10 years=40 turns) unless these 'phases' include doing things in the middle of the seasonal turn as currently envisioned.

So, any info on the game would be appreciated!

Reiryc

ps: if you guys dont have UV yet, get it!

[Le Tondu]

Dear NW development team,

One thought would be to start with the French Revolution and the War of the First Coalition. Since these "wars of coalitions" to turn back the French Revolution were what Napoleon inherited, it seems logical.

It would give the gamer a good sense of the history then. Napoleon becoming First Consul and later Emperor could be pre-programmed events that happen in the game.

BTW, anytime that you guys want to toss them bones, we're ready. Thanks.
Rick

[ABP]

Reiryc,

Matrix writes: The game moves in seasonal turns where diplomacy and builds are conducted. Within the seasonal turns there area variable number of impulses where corps and fleets move about. All movement is simultaneous with battles occurring at the end of the impulse. Battles are resolved by players both picking a strategy and fighting a series of rounds in an attempt to break the enemy.

I don't think this explicitly implies 4 seasons a year and I hope not. Imo that would make the game way too fast.

I was thinking something like one phase each month, i.e. 120 turns.

I maybe wrong, but I interpret seasonal as meaning that there are weather effects, like winter with restricted movement, supply etc.