Napoleonic Battles: Campaign Waterloo

In 1789 the French Revolution set in motion events which would change the course of history and warfare forever. General Napoleon Bonaparte, a Corsican, rose from the revolution a saving hero by opening fire on Parisians who were rioting and demanding a return to monarchy. In a few short years, Napoleon rose from General of the Army of Italy to Emperor of the French. In becoming such, he found himself constantly at war with his neighbors: Austria, Russia and Great-Britain. In 1814 he was defeated after a disastrous Russian Campaign and forced into exile on the Isle of Elba. But Napoleon still had plans of conquest, and plotted his return to French soil. In 1815 he did return and found himself again at war with the British and the Prussians. This short reign of 100 days came to an end on the 18th of June 1815, in the fields of what is now Belgium, at a place called Waterloo. Napoleon would be defeated once and for all by the Anglo/Dutch and Prussian Armies. Campaign Waterloo is HPS' latest title in the Napoleonic Battles series, and John Tiller has scored a winner again.

The game installs from a CD and is quite user friendly. The CD starts and the installation is accomplished with a few mouse clicks. The game still has very low hardware requirements, 280M HDD a Pentium 133 with 32M RAM. Having such low requirements allows almost any computers, be it a low end PC, a laptop or a high end performance machine the capability to play Tiller's games.

HPS supports their games very well and issue patches from time to time. Patches can be freely downloaded from the HPS Upgrade/Patch Files page.

The game doesn't come with a printed manual. All documentation comes on the CD. The user's manual, campaign editor, scenario editor and a main program help are available to print in Microsoft Word format. Also, online help is always available during gameplay in the help drop down menu or by pressing the F1, F2 or F3 keys.

For those familiar with Tiller games, the interface is the same throughout the series. For those less familiar, it is menu driven and has numerous menu icons which are used for firing, cavalry charging, movement, assaulting (melee), a jump map, zooming, and so on. All commands can be given from those icons, or the player can still use the normal menus.

The game is hex based and has a scale of 100 meters per hex, and each turn corresponds to 15 minutes of real time. The player has a choice of 61 scenarios to play, ranging from small engagements of 12 turns to a massive 388 turn Waterloo battle. Also included are several hypothetical battles which run for 400 turns! Units are at the regiment and battalion level and come complete with leaders. These leaders are at the Army, Corps, Division, and Brigade levels, and come with their second in commands. Leaders have command values ranging from A to F (A being the best), and units have quality rating ranging from A++ to F. Units also suffer from fatigue, represented by a fatigue number from 0 to 900. Units included are infantry, cavalry, artillery, leaders and supply wagons. Units can become disordered and can even rout when their morale has dropped significantly. The units can be displayed using 3D or a 2D NATO style icon. A 3D style is definitely preferable in this series.

The infantry can march to the fight in column or in line. Again, the player has complete control over the stance of the unit. Supply is traced to supply wagon. It is crucial to keep your units supplied; if they fall into a low ammo status, they will not fire offensively. Cavalry can charge, and if the proper rule has been selected, they can charge repeatedly. There are several optional rules available to the player which allows for a full control over the way the game will play out.

As previously stated, the game plays out in turns. The player issues commands, directs movement, attacks, melees and charges using cavalry all using the mouse and the icon interface. The player also needs to study the map prior to issuing orders. Are the defending units on good defensive ground? Are they disordered? Are they accompanied by a leader? In Campaign Waterloo, Tiller has managed to build a game engine that resembles or emulates real combat decisions, command and control of the early 19th century. A fog of war setting is also available and is a must if a player wants a real feel of combat. Once the player has issued his orders and has played his turn, he finishes the turn and his opponent, be it the AI or a PBEM or LAN opponent, plays out his turn. This lasts until the scenario expires. Points are accumulated for casualties inflicted and also for capturing key map locations. The results range from decisive defeat to decisive victory.

Although the game comes with a good AI, the strength of this game, like other Tiller titles, is in the multiplayer arena. Turns are played and a PBEM file is created and can easily be attached to an email and sent to an opponent anywhere on the globe. There are several web sites which support PBEM ladders, and StrategyZone Online is no exception, with a new ladder (W.A.R.S.) growing in membership.

The player has the choice of playing a single scenario or a campaign game linking several scenarios together. A campaign and scenario editor are standard on the CD and allows would-be scenario creators to contribute to the Napoleonic wargame community.

Graphics in this title have been improved by HPS. The terrain is smoother, and unit sprites have more detail. For example, the infantry battalion has an officer attached to the unit icon brandishing a sword. The infantry, cavalry, artillery and supply wagon icons have had facelifts that have greatly improved their design.

The map used covers small engagement to the full historical battle, which include Charleroi to Hal to Ligny to Quatre Bras, and of course Waterloo. The map supports numerous terrain types, including villages, chateaux, forests, marshes, fields, and clearings.

Hex information boxes provide information indispensable to the player. Unit icons, composition, strength, morale, and fatigue are easily accessible to the player, and by right clicking in this box, full information is made available about terrain in which this unit is located.

On occasion, there are alternative art packs released to replace the original leader and units icons. These art packs are very coveted and do add “prestige" to the game. As of this writing, there is already one art pack released for Campaign Waterloo, which can be downloaded freely from the Unofficial Panzer Campaigns Home Page.

The game sounds are very appropriate and make for a good feel of the Napoleonic era. Sounds of musket fire, cavalry charge, and artillery fire add to the game and help the player immerse into the game fully. A full score of French, British and German military music accompanies the game and also contribute to the epoch.