First Impressions?

[Prussian Prince]

What does everyone think so far?

[Syt]

I had a go as coalition in the Polish 1807 campaign. I had the misfortunae of having my army crippled early by running into Nappy's main force who not only took me by surprise but also drained me of 40,000 men in the Mazurian swamps while he lost less then 10,000. I left Grand Duke Constantine together with a Prussian and another weak Russian corps to protect Memel where they manged to kick Soult a bit while Bennigsen and Bagration tried to avoid the Corsican Ogre while at the same time heading for Warsaw (I was hoping that the enemy would tie down forces while sieging Königsberg, Danzig and Breslau. Warsaw was taken, but my northern corps were kicked badly by Nappy and Soult to the point that they disappeared from the map.

Afterwards he marched south, kicked me there almost all the way back to Russia. It was a good experience for a learning game. It was overall a stalemate (I guess I held my cities just long enough) with me losing 200,000 men, the French 100,000.

What I liked: the additional options every turn (draft more recruits, get more horses, or supplies) as compared to AACW, the combat stances, and the whole feel (uncertainty where the enemy is, maneuvering your troops to hopefully avoid Napoleon while beating up his subordinates etc.). Most scenarios are between 15 and 30 turns, so they are playable vs. the AI in an evening or two. Dislikes: not really anything so far, but then again, I only breezed through the scenario before going to bed (i.e. now).

[heckler_rider]

The game is beautiful map, leaders, units.........

Played a couple of turns of the 1813 campaign as the French.....need to go through the rules some, but all in all the game looks to be awesome!

Great job, this game is a winner

One minor glitch one of the Corps in Italy has a wierd name (I beleive its the TEXT name for the game)...I disbanded the corps and reformed it and it became Pino's corps....

[Clovis]

Very engaging: beautiful map, good AI, an historical feel, some new options ( combat stances, new attrition levels...), recruitment options like in BOA. No critical bugs (CTD), quick turn resolution, new leader abilities. All in all, very similar to BOA and AACW but with so many nuances it's really a new game where operational and tactical choices to make will have to be really different ( artillery, cavalry and infantry roles and importance being really new, leader density much higher)

Maybe some battle results will have to be toned down as I consider some to have to much losses but that's not a new critic

[caranorn]

I just finished a quick 1805 Austerlitz scenario as France. I started out too slowly, envelopped Ulm but did not otherwise engage Mack. Still I ended up nabbing that entire Austrian Army as historical. In Italy I forgot to reorganise forces during the first turn, so Massena won himself his first battle with 35% malus, after that Italy was only victory after uncontested victory, but unfortunatelly I failed to take Venice and trieste in siege. Otherwise this first game turned out quite messy, a cavalry raid (half the Bavarian Cavalry) against Bohemia having met disaster and I made the unfortunate decision to place my centre of operations north for the rest of the Campaign thinking I had found the main Russian Army. As a result Napoleon (with among otehrs Bessières, Ney, Bernadotte, Murat and Augereau) took Prague in late December (I was again pretty slow) but was at the limit of his supply capacity (his depot in Bohemia only was completed around the time he took prague itself) (Ney's corps was decimated from lack of supplies). In the meantime Davout (supported by Deroy and later Lannes) repeatedly clashed with Austrian and Russian Forces on the Danube, destroying a Russian Army in the process but failed to take Vienna.

Despite all my bungling it ended up a victory by points.

So far I have a good impression of the game, I will probably try the same scenario again tommorrow as the Coalition (to get a better idea of forces involved as I was surprised by some of the Russian unit's appearance and I was never sure where the enemy was trying to concentrate...).

[Hobbes]

So far no problems at all - it looks great!
Cheers, Chris

[tagwyn]

I have no problem with stealthy enemy - AACW has a wonderful AI and often surprises the heck out of me. T

[boajack]

Well i have problems with the combat resolution. Somehow it brings my cpu to stall. Even the small engagements in the tutorial takes about 1 min for every battle. In aacw i never had any problems. I have no clue what could be the reason... . The map scrolling and clicking at diffrent units seems a bit laggy too.

Amd 64 3500+ , 2gb ram, radeon x1950, winxp

[Pocus]

If you run AACW after quitting Napoleon, you have correct combats, or are they stalled too?
First thing would be to update your video driver though.

[DennyWright]

It looks wonderful - I shall begin actually playing it tonight.

[Alias]

Please, I need some screenshots

[boajack]

If you run AACW after quitting Napoleon, you have correct combats, or are they stalled too?
First thing would be to update your video driver though.

I updated my drivers today and the problem is still there. A turn resolution in napoleon needs about 10 min... . Es single battle with bigger armys 5 min. I startet after that aacw and I could play the whole gettysburg scenario in that time. No lags or what so ever. My taskmanager loggs a 100% cpu use when the battles in napoleon are resolved. In aacw about 20% for a few seconds... .

[onslo89]

try cleaning up your system defrag your drive,delete all cookies and internet files,Try downloading cc cleaner this will clean up your pc and speed it up!Works for me and im running NCP on This AMD+3300,1024MB,256Sata,7900gt nvidia,not a problem fast as ****.

[DON]

Any one interested at all in Napoleonic warfare should immediately get this game. The period feel is unbelievable. The tutorials are great for teaching the basics. The game system of BOA and ACW has been further perfected and now has a smooth elegance that is a joy to play. To all my fellow grognards out there who cut their teeth on SPI and Avalon Hill boardgames, this is our dream come true.

[dinsdale]

I didn't have time for much: ran through Waterloo to a stalemate and played the first few moves of Austerlitz until the capture of Mack. I think the French player should automatically lose Waterloo unless winning: a stalemate is truly an allied win.

Something which is going to take getting used to is that the wide open spaces of the Americas is very different from Europe. On this scale, there aren't that many avenues of advance.

Moving forces is like herding cats. Ney meanders there, Bernadotte refuses to move at all, Murat moves too fast. I will hesitate to criticize Napoleon's sometimes uncoordinated operations in the future

I haven't read the manual yet, most of the game is obvious after the last two, though no doubt the subtle differences are responsible for me getting slaughtered in Italy One quick question: is there an attrition report anywhere?

[Pocus]

I updated my drivers today and the problem is still there. A turn resolution in napoleon needs about 10 min... . Es single battle with bigger armys 5 min. I startet after that aacw and I could play the whole gettysburg scenario in that time. No lags or what so ever. My taskmanager loggs a 100% cpu use when the battles in napoleon are resolved. In aacw about 20% for a few seconds... .

I see two possibilities:

a) RAM usage is too high for your PC, and you have the hard disk swap files like crazy in and out memory.

suggestions:
unfrag HD
check that you have plentiful of RAM before launching the game (see in the process list what eat memory for a culprit)
make sure you have in the options window left the option 'bound the map according to scenario limit' or something like that
make sure you have in the options window max cache usage at 50 or 75% and not lower


b) you have an external program like an Anti virus which would slow Napo.exe (scanning what it does) while leaving alone AACW.exe ?

suggestions:
Can you check to play napo without any security resident program (do the test offline !!), firewall, AV, anti spyware etc. just to be sure?

[boajack]

Ah you had the right idea. After the deaktivation of Gdata Antivir 2007 System Guard the combats are calculated like a rocket. Strange, the Virus scanner did not give me any trouble before. Thx a lot --> on the way enjoying the game

[Syt]

Btw, I forgot to mention that I very much like the musical soundtrack - it enhances the period feel a lot, together with the "map room" graphics.

[Adlertag]

I haven't read the manual yet, most of the game is obvious after the last two, though no doubt the subtle differences are responsible for me getting slaughtered in Italy One quick question: is there an attrition report anywhere?

The new RoE are perhaps the things that will take the more time to learn and appreciate fully.
For attrition mini-report , check your message box.

[FatalMad]

Is there a way to tell what RoE each side has during a battle? I can’t find it on the battle screen. Also how can I tell if the Guards been committed to a battle or a cavalry charge happen during a battle. ( hint ) new icons please.

Great game BTW, time to start my 3rd campaign, it is fun.

[Adlertag]

Yes, new icons will be appreciated in the battle record but some rules are still in a state of improving like those that govern cavalry charge ( I think it is planned for the incoming next patch).
For Guard committment, particularly the French one, it is possible only under Napoleon direct command (or Bessières) so it is not seen very often but having a specific icon is a good suggestion.

[FatalMad]

Methinks... someone or I should start a suggestion thread.
Mayhap you could.

[Johnnie]

Playing the 1815 scenario to learn the game because I am most familiar with same. In my last try I finally beat Blucher, but then lost badly to Wellington up by Brussells. In fact my army disappeared. I think I failed to have a retreat path open.

When the game ended, however, I had won on points. I think something is wrong here, either in the victory conditions or in the Army of the North disappearing.

In the meantime, I'm having fun trying to become competent.

[Adlertag]

Victory points initial level have been tweaked for almost all scenarios (too high sometimes especially for the historically losing side). With players experiences, VP could be adjusted again as in the example of Waterloo scenario.
But you can also consider variation of your NM instead of VP to see how efficiently you played a scenario.

[Fouche]

the music...the graphics...everything...so far so good...this game is great. If I come upon any problems I will send them...knowing full well that Pocus and company will do a wonderful job in fixing and tweaking.

[Adam the VIth]

Very good impression thus far. Concur on all the "feel of the era" comments already noted above -- well done.

I still wish there was a massive 1805-1815 campaign -- I know it seems too much, but I live for that -- still, the playable scenarios are nice -- you can go to sleep at night and feel the warmth of a victory or sting of defeat.


Notes: (All in Austerlitz)
POW #s are weird, says C2 and then a number (say 7500) -- not sure what that means -- will catch a screenie and send.
ALso saw some name issues others saw above "TEXT_NAME" stuff, but only on first turn, then they seemed to fix themselves.
Kicked some butt, lost about 55k and inflicted 210k on the Coalition. Did not make it to Wien, but just about everything west of it was mine.

Congrats to teh AGEOD team -- another excellent game -- I was sitting here playing NCP on my laptop and have a game of BOA on my desktop machine -- I guess you have me hooked!

[Adam Parker]

I still wish there was a massive 1805-1815 campaign -- I know it seems too much, but I live for that -- still, the playable scenarios are nice -- you can go to sleep at night and feel the warmth of a victory or sting of defeat.

What is it that would prevent such a campaign scenario. Is it the map size or memory requirements...?

It would make this game legendary. Isn't Europe tiny?

[Crimguy]

What is it that would prevent such a campaign scenario. Is it the map size or memory requirements...?

It would make this game legendary. Isn't Europe tiny?

I have a feeling it would be more along the lines of turn resolution. Someone likened it to Drag Nacht Osten in Operational Art of War. I had turns that took an hour to resolve on that scen . . .

I'm curious though: are there any scenarios that are similar in length to the April 61 campaign in AACW? One of the things I love about that are the possibilities that emerge over 4 years.

[Pocus]

What is it that would prevent such a campaign scenario. Is it the map size or memory requirements...?

It would make this game legendary. Isn't Europe tiny?

The engine is not ready. But suppose we find clever work-arounds, like a GC where you play France against the British, and the others nations activate according to some elaborated events (and join one or the other side)... Then it 'just' remains something like 500 hours of work to add the data, script the events and then check everything.

[Prussian Prince]

The engine is not ready. But suppose we find clever work-arounds, like a GC where you play France against the British, and the others nations activate according to some elaborated events (and join one or the other side)... Then it 'just' remains something like 500 hours of work to add the data, script the events and then check everything.

500 hours...thats nothing for you guys . Seriously that would make us all happy, IF it can be done...PLEASE...PLEASE...