Campaigns on the Danube

In the early 1800's, the beautiful blue Danube River saw its waters run red with the blood of French, Austrian, and Russian soldiers who perished in battles fought along the length and breadth of its shores. Entire European coalitions formed for the sole purpose of defeating Napoleon's Grand Armee met their deaths as they tried in vain to stop the 'Little Emporer's' military juggernaut.

From Rothenburg and Ulm east to Olmutz, Wagram and Pressburg, Napoleon and his marshals (Bernadotte, Davout, Lannes, Marmont, Murat, Ney) fought pitched battles with the forces of Archduke Charles, Mack, Kutosov, Jellacic, Werneck, and other now famous commanders. In the end, the tactical mastery of the French leaders bested the ferocious tenacity of Austria and her allies, causing Austria to finally sue for peace after the battle at Wagram.

In Campaigns on the Danube, the latest operational-level turn-based Napoloenic era PC wargame from the minds of (Frank Hunter's) Adanac Command Studies and Matrix Games, wargamers can now direct the fates of these forces in the best computer wargame of this era on the market today.

Players may choose to command as Napoleon of the French, or as Archduke Charles (Erzherzog Karl) of the Austrians. Not your run-of-the-mill wargame, Campaigns on the Danube is instead a refreshing step in another direction, where players (as Napoleon or Charles) issue orders based on what little battlefield intelligence you have, hope those orders make it to your subordinate commanders, and hope those orders arrive in time. While this does away with much of the micro-management some other wargames have, it does not make the game any less engaging or less strategic. This recreation of prevalent battlefield conditions of this era are what make this game work, and work well.

I only have a couple of quirks with Campaigns on the Danube, most of which I'll address in this section.

I received the game in a nice box and CD case, but without a paper manual. The 38-page manual is, as you may guess, in Adobe Acrobat .pdf form, and can be found on your hard drive in the games' folder after installation.

Another bothersome item was the lack of an installation screen after inserting the disk into the drive. Instead, I had to open up My Computer and click on the drive icon to find the .exe file to install the game. I thought it might be my computer alone, but after an uninstall and reinstall, the same process had to be done. In fact, inserting the game disk into the drive after the game is installed still does not open any game menus for play. Maybe this has something to do with being able to play Campaigns on the Danube without having the disk in the drive. As I said, a bother, but, like the manual, one I can live with.

As of this writing, the current up-to-date game is v2.20. Also as of this writing, there seems to be a snafu with Matrix Games' trademark TrueUpdate patching program. None of my Matrix games will update through it, and I don't seem to be the only one experiencing this problem. My Matrix Games contact tells me they are aware of the error and are working to correct it. In the meantime, Campaigns on the Danube patches can be found on the Matrix Games website.

That sums up the technical problems I have had with Campaigns on the Danube. The facts that the game disk is not needed while playing the game, and that it only takes up 138MB of my hard drive space, make up for these pesky items.

Campaigns on the Danube does nothing new or improved as far as giving players the required game information, but sticks to what's tried and true, and most of what is expected by wargamers. Players look down onto the battlefield from a fixed overhead view, with no zoom available. Above the gameplay area is where you'll find the Phase/Date info, along the right side is a column of toggle icons called the Options Panel, the bottom-right houses the mini-map, and the Orders Panel takes its place at bottom-left.

The Orders/Phase section does just what the name implies; it shows players the current date, and (in parenthesis) when the scenario ends. Weather info is shown here, along with the currently selected hex grid coordinates. When certain orders are given, such as setting an objective or retreat point for a unit, a confirmation message will appear off to the side of this section. The slim white open bar underneath all that shows the time progression of the orders phase once a player has issued all the orders wanted and clicks on the End Orders button.

The Options Panel consists of the following icons (from top to bottom): End Orders, Find Army, Find Corps, Find Division/Brigade, Find City/Town, Load Game, Save Game, Victory Report, Show City Names, Show Forces, Show Hexgrid, Show Supply, and Sound. The slider below those controls Game Speed.

The Orders Panel is where players will do the majority of their mouse-clicking. This window changes according to what unit is selected. As shown in the following screenshots, the Orders Panel will change to show the different orders available to army, corps, and division commanders.

Standard for wargames is individual unit data detailed on each unit icon, and Campaigns on the Danube follows suit. For combat units, size, army, corps designation and the commander's name are shown. Three colored and numbered pips on the right side show their competence levels for administration, inspiration, and battle. Division and Brigade echelon unit icons show their parent organization, the type of unit it is and the unit commander. A small flag of the owning country and a numerical figure representing the effectives the unit has also fit onto their icon. All pretty much intuitive and easy to read.

Non-combat unit icons are also easily self explanatory. Supply Depots show a small tent and the number of supplies stored, while Supply Train icon depict horse & wagon and its destination. Hospitals are also easy to recognize. City names are prominently placed, with their background color changing to show which side has control; gold for France and silver for Austria.

All the information available on combat icons, and even the unit icons themselves, are subject to the fog of war level players choose, either Full, Enemy, or Minimal. This is just one of the strengths of Campaigns on the Danube, especially playing with Full fog of war, where your units' status and position come in to HQ via messenger, and players must remember that the report is only the last reported position, of both friendly and enemy units, and may be (in game time) hours old. It is for this fact alone that I really like Campaigns on the Danube; all the rest is just icing.

The interface is another simple yet effective tool that does its job in keeping the Campaigns on the Danube learning curve on the low end. Where it lacks is where it is needed most: during combat. All you see here is a screen overlaying the main game map showing your force icons, the enemy force icons, the combat option you and the enemy chose when starting this phase, and a small window that runs a text tally of the actions and results as they are occurring on the battlefield. The game manual explains how combat is handled here, but I certainly am not smart enough mathematically to grasp it, nor the number crunching readout provided on the battle screen. I did understand what the final outcome pop-up window told me at the completion of each battle, however. I either won, lost, or it was a draw. Again, simple, yet effective.

I've already mentioned almost everything concerning the graphics for Campaigns on the Danube in the Interface section. Graphics here, like many wargames, is not meant to impress, but to get all necessary information across. That's exactly what you get here, and it's never hard to find.

One plus to graphics I'd say would be that there are never a whole bunch of units onscreen to busy the eyes with. Icons for the most part stay stacked together, and can be cycled through by right-clicking. With the fog of war set to Full, you get even less icons to show up until the conditions are right.

Since Campaigns on the Danube strictly deals with Napoleon's battles along that river, there's only one map for the whole game. The only time it changes would be the slight color differences used to signify a dry or muddy battlefield. There is no effect on gameplay on either map, and players may not even notice it at all.

Sounds here are about on par with graphics. Short sound file snippets for infantry, artillery, cavalry, combat and weather conditions are all made relative use of. The music scores also well represent the era without overdoing it, and both music and sound effects can be toggles off and on at players' choosing. Of note, there is one particular sound wave file that is an explosion used when a bridge is destroyed. If you have a good set of speakers, crank them up, play the file, and it sounds a lot like the train bank car explosion from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But I digress...

In April of 1809, Austria, perceiving that Napoleon had his mind and military busy with the Peninsular War, again created a coalition with Britain, and decided that the time was right to once again strike against the French by invading one of Napoleon's allies, Germany. Austria did manage to secure the element of suprise, and had begun to place her enemies into dire straits, when Napoleon suddenly jumped into the fray. Charles made a failed attempt to stand fast at Abensberg, saw his army divided in two by the swiftly moving French forces, and instead had to pull a hasty retreat to Eckmuhl and Landshut, only to be defeated at each town yet again.

Austria was forced to retreat further, to the point of seeing their beloved Vienna captured by Napoleon. Charles saw Napoleon make a brash mistake by crossing the Danube during the flood season, so, with the help of rushing water and debris thrown into the river, tried to keep the bridges across the Danube broken, thereby trapping Napoleon. Alas, Charles' plan failed when two of Napoleon's top marshals secured the towns of Aspern and Essling. In about two days of the most terrible fighting, Austria lost around 23,000 soldiers and were yet again forced to retreat, this time to Wagram. Napoleon would catch up with Charles there shortly afterwards and slay about 40,000 more Austrians before Charles finally sued for peace.

Campaigns on the Danube comes equipped with seven historically-based campaigns, and I'll use my favorite campaign linked to the above setting to detail the gameplay section.

Gameplay starts at the campaign selection screen, where players may select to play a solitairy campaign as either Napoleon or the Coalition, to play all as one giant campaign, or to load an earlier saved game. The fog of war level for each side is chosen here, also. I'm playing the Crisis on the Danube (May 20 - July 6) campaign as the Coalition. For screenshot purposes, I've set the fog of war level to Minimal for both sides, but, in my opinion, the best gameplay experience is had at the Full level. Clicking the large Commence button, err, commences the gameplay.

Quickly surveying the battlefield, I see Napoleon's forces stretch westward almost to the edge of the map, while Austria is focused almost entirely across the Danube from Vienna. Clicking on my Charles icon shows me where my hospital and operations center are (Brunn), and allows me to access the Situation and Intelligence reports.

Taking stock of the hell that's about to break out, I send orders to move the hospital and ops center a bit closer, to Nikolsburg. The ops center is where my main stockpile of supplies is held, and I see I'll be needing to have quick access to them, and to the hospital, also. Here I also toggle Supply Control over to the computer, again for writing purposes.

At the start of this campaign, the bridge over the Danube at Vienna is out as marked by a small red X. Napoleon's engineers are busily building new bridges and making repairs, and are well guarded by three divisions. A couple more French elements stand to the left. I can only see their general location and size, not which commanders I am facing, due to the fog of war level.

As I look at my commanders and their units, I find Kolowrat's division out west, just north of Linz. I send orders that have him keeping up a recon of my right flank north of the Danube. In close proximity to my location are my division commanders Hiller, Louis, Liechtenstein, Bellegarde, Hohenzollern, and Rosenberg. I check each units' morale, fatigue, stress, and supply level, and as all is well, I decide it's now or never.

Historically, Napoleon built a number of bridges and came across the river with suprising speed and force. Not knowing how much longer until he has his bridges completed here, I order Rosenberg's cavalry element to speed to Krems and send back word of bridge conditions there. At the same time, I think maybe the French will think it's a flanking maneuver, and pull some forces away from their location across from me. I also order Liechtenstein's and Hiller's artillery to a position directly across from the Frencg engineers. Unfortunately, combat here only happens when opposing forces are in the same hex (each hex representing 9km), so my plan to bombard them is a no go.

As I gave each unit their combat orders, I was also setting their Retreat Point (in this case Nikolsburg, where the hospital is to be set up), their Stance (Fallback, Hold, or Engage - other units have additional options, such as Engineers), and their Urgency (Cautious, Slow, Regular, Quick, or Forced). Another very important item to remember, especially geared toward avid RTS players, is to be sure to hit the Send Orders button. Your units here will not do anything until after you click this, which will bring up a Unit Orders Review window, and you confirm the orders or abort them.

Now that I have issued all the orders I want to, it's time to end the Orders Phase and activate the Movement Phase, by clicking on the hourglass End Orders button at the top of the Options Panel. The game then takes over, and I watch as those invisible messengers hopefully deliver my orders properly, my commanders respectfully execute those orders, supply wagons begin their trek towards their divisions, and I receive updated reports on enemy movement and location, and so forth. I was sure to set the game speed to slow beforehand, else all this information would be quickly flying before my eyes.

After a couple more turns, all visible French forces seem to buy into my ruse, and began marching toward St. Polten. Then, on 22 May, I receive a report that the bridges have been fully repaired! Immediately, I order Rosenberg to occupy and hold Krems, and send Hohenzollern hot on his trail. Across the river, the Napoleon's engineers change from march to flee as my other divisions pour through Vienna and secure the southern bank of the Danube.

Advancing another few turns finds my forces massing at Krems and St. Polten, having startled the French enough to drive them just west of that city. I begin to wonder at the whereabouts of Napoleon himself when I receive a report of enemy contact southwest of St. Polten. Cavalry scouts tell me the French are making a stand across the river there, and that Marshal Davout is at their lead.

Quickly setting up my division to hold St. Polten, I take the fight to Davout, buying some time for Leichtenstein and Bellegarde to fall in. The combat phase is activated when the red crossed-swords icon pops up. The Orders Panel at bottom will change to show an overall Strength comparison of forces for each side. Clicking on Continue brings up the Battle Strategy screen.

This stage of the Battle Strategy screen simply displays the strategies you may choose, along with your starting forces and your Command Rating. Attack Strategies consist of Frontal Assault, Hasty Attack, Escalating Assault, Probing Attack, and an aspect unique to Campaigns on the Danube, Miniatures (off-game resolution). Defense Strategies include Withdrawal, Defend In Depth, Defend, Counter-Attack, and again, the Miniatures option.

Without getting down and dirty with the mathematical artistry involved in combat resolution here, it's easier to point out that each strategy has an Intensity number (in parenthesis) attached to it. Players should choose a strategy that falls under the number of your Command Rating. Also, know that you are trading Intensity for Fatigue; a higher Intensity strategy will be far more effective, but will also cause more Fatigue in the fighting force.

As with other quality wargames, strategy is not the sole consideration in combat. Also factored in are terrain modifiers, the effective strength of the unit, leadership, supply level, fatigue, and troop quality modifiers. All these are brought together to derive the tactical effectiveness modifier for each force. This modifier is then combined with the unit's Intensity which results in the overall chance each unit has of 'hitting' the other. More hits result in more losses, affecting morale, stress and fatigue, and continues until one unit breaks. In the game manual, chapter 14.0 BATTLES spells out all the details.

In three successive battles with each of my three divisions here, Davout is bruised and pulls back from the river just enough for me to get all three divisions across. Spotting Hohenzollern's division across the Danube looking to shut off his rear, Davout decides to break off and catch up with the rest of the French, still moving westward.

Not wanting to spread out too thin, I set up camp west of Krems and St. Polten, three divisions near each, three divisions on each side of the Danube. While my supply trains arrive at their destinations, I send orders to relocate the ops center and hospital to Vienna, where they belong.

I give each division orders for a Rest Day in which to recover any stragglers from the forced marched to here, and to tend to the wounded. An earlier report told me the Linz had fallen to the French, and as far as I knew, Austria still held Enns. So, after rest and resupply, I order one division each down the northern and southern roads that run along the Danube.

As my main force follows the Danube west, a report from Kolowrat in the north says he has encountered Marshals Vandamme and Bessieres. Combat insues, and Kolowrat valiantly thrashes each French division by adopting a Defend posture at Klattau. As Vandamme retreats, Kolowrat's fourty-four effectives (infantry) run down and Counter-Attack his Withdrawing fourteen effectives (infantry)on the road to Cham. Vandamme is routed and surrenders from the battlefield completely, and Kolowrat continues on to Cham.

I have Charles and the bulk of the Austrian army knocking on the doors of Linz and Enns, with cham in eyesight of Kolowrat's division, when Davout again pops up on the radar, this time to the immediate rear of Kolowrat! Why he ran way the hell so far north, and so fast, troubles me, again bringing thoughts of Napoleon to mind. Davout picks a fight with Kolowrat, but his division is near exhausted. The miles and battles are starting to wear on Kolowrat, as well, and their short engagement ends in a draw.

But, no matter, because at the end of the next turn, I had collected enough victory points to end the scenario almost a full month early, with an Austrian decisive victory! I'm sure I was about to run headlong into Napoleon, though, when it would get bloody, for sure. But not this time!

Tucked neatly behind-the-scene of Campaigns on the Danube is a number-crunching, dice-rolling, invisible-messenger controlling AI that works well enough to make and keep the game fun to play. However, it did seem to go with the odds during combat, and at times I wondered why it didn't attack me here and there when it looked like it could have gained the upper hand. I've seen talk around the internet saying the AI here was a bit too easy an opponent, and I'm inclined to agree, especially when compared to some of the massive wargames out there. Still, I don't think Campaigns on the Danube strives to compete with such games, but nicely carves out its own niche with a well-rounded and competent AI for such a 'small' wargame.

Like the vast majority of other wargames, the multiplayer is another gameplay bright spot for Campaigns on the Danube. Only two-player PBEM is supported here (no TCP/IP). What sets this wargame apart and is cause for the high ranking is the option to have all battles resolved 'offmap', through the use of the most classic wargaming, miniatures, if you have them.

Choosing the Miniatures option on the Battle Strategy screen will show an analysis of the opposing forces, who's attacking, and the terrain being fought on. Clicking OK will save the game with a specific filename, then shut the game down. Continue the battle wherever the miniatures are set up at, reopen the saved game file, and input the results back into the game. I on't have miniatures, but I'm itching to try this out!

Campaigns on the Danube ships with seven campaigns, three from the year 1805, and another four from 1809. Four campaigns mimic actual historical battles, while the other three are 'what if' scenarios designed to test out other courses of action besides those that were historically employed. Brief descriptions are given in game and in the manual, but I would like to see a more detailed explanation of events written into both places. However, the Designer's Notes (Chapter 18.0 in the manual) does an excellent job of covering key game elements and how they were historically used overall.