Combat Directive : Napoleonic Wars

10/10 mechanics, the units are sluggish as you would expect for blocks of 100's of men, and that makes for a fun decision based rather than micro based game. "Oh **** the're not going to form square in time" is a common experience. A multiplayer would be nice, but I think the devs are broke.

A great Napoleonic wargame, focused on tactical scenarios (and with plenty of them, playable from both sides). Quick and easy to pick up with an overall philosophy of (around) 10 units\10 minutes battles, but requires you to review the situation well and think up a plan before starting to hand out orders, troops take time to march, turn, change formation and will get tired and take losses, it's up to you to try to give them the best conditions (and terrain and type of troops play an important role as well) to take on the enemy and be prepared to react when things don't go exactly to plan. Yes, it's real time and sometimes things start moving fast and chaos ensues but don't expect something twitchy and oversimplified with troops zooming across the field, you will find yourself waiting for them as they move, shift, and organize, and sometimes will just have to let them catch their breath after a combat even if you wish you could press the attack some more, but then again other times you will have to take a gamble and send them onwards even if isn't ideal and they aren't in the best shape. Battles aren't 100% percent clear cut affairs and the enemy gets a vote too. Glorious, fun, …

If this was turn-based, and not RTS, it would be an amazing game! As it stands, the UI is a bit hard to use and frustrating during the heat of battle. Commands could have been much simpler.

The best Napoleonic wargame available today imo. It follows the course of Napoleon's war with Russia broken down into a myriad of engagements. The mechanics work very well and reflect the form of warfare of the time, as you'd expect there are light infantry, line infantry and grenadiers for foot then various types of cavalry and artillery too, with the individual unit types all being named and modelled authentically, nothing generic about this game. The regiments are numbered and named if applicable. Formations are very important, skirmishers in rough country and villages or ahead of the line, regular lines for musketry, columns for attacking and squares when faced by cavalry. There are several types of artillery and cavalry ranging from guard to cossacks. Morale is very important and units will rout from the field if they take too much damage. The battles are in real time but not rushed, you have plenty of time to issue commands, Facing is important too. The battlefields reflect the real places and are interesting from a tactical point of view with contours, rivers, woods, villages and redoubts. You get a very good flavour of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the slow attrition hi…

if it werent for the timers and high pace i would love this game. i refunded it but still gonna give it a good review bc it def a good game for someone just not me. tho i did play it all the way to the 2 hour mark bc the gameplay is rather nice i just dont have time to admire it w the strict timer. tho the scenarios arent that hard i beat the first 4 or 5 w the french it can get challenging

As a massive strategy game fan I think this game is a good entry level for napoleonic or just overall strategy games. Unlike game such as total war this game is very simple and easy to learn as anyone can learn it in ten minutes even without the tutorial. Its small scale makes it less overwhelming then other strategic games that have many diffrent regiments and whole theatres of war. Cons I had were that the ai army is stupid and will randomly retreat from battle or just leave strategic positions while your not looking. In conclusion this is a great entry level game for people wanting to get into strategic games.