my review

**Marechal_Davout** · February 24, 2010, 01:03 PM

ok, I got the game for a few hours now and here is what I found so far...

I quickly skipped over the Italian and Egyptian campaigns since they do not have all the features enabled.

Napoleon Grand Campaign.
If the intend of CA was to provide a Napoleonic era immersion, then they failed. The game is mostly E:TW with a few fixes and a couple of new features but it lacks the management tools of the era - army corps, officer corps, a true supply and logistics system...

1. Generals.
While Napoleon had 26 Marshals and plenty of other great generals, you start with 6 - and getting that magic number to grow is difficult and lengthy (you need most of the technology tree to get there). Also they are the favorite meal of Spy. I attacked Austria with 4 stacks, each commanded by a Marshal. After 2 turns I was down to 2 marshals, the other 2 having met a suspicious death... So don't get too attached to the Neys, Murats or other Davouts - they will not last.
It was advertised that you would be managing your officers - that is a bit of a overstatement - you can pick them out of a whole list of ... three (hope that you like at least one of them) and it takes 4 turns to get another selection - I don't even know what they were trying to do but it is cumbersome, unrealistic and downright annoying.

2. CAI - actually not too bad but it is true that the AI does not defend its capitals adequately. They do group their units better and use them much more wisely.

3. BAI/Battles
Here is the funny thing - while the BAI itself is much better I find the actual battles nearly unplayable. Even though the Napoleonic era was the time of lines and columns, moving majestically and slowly, this game get every unit moving ridiculously fast. Line infantry must move at 35 miles/hour and cavalry flashes by from one end of the map to the other. Are we trying to set a new world record and get the battle done under 1 minute?

In summary the game is a promising expansion of E:TW but is fairly rough around the edges. Fortunately there is probably nothing that a serious set of mods cannot fix.

Here are the mods that I will apply:
1. modify building and technology tree to get more officers quicker
2. Get rid of Spies or at least their ability to slaughter the officer corps
3. Slow down the battle movements (terrain modifiers)
4. Increase speed of getting technologies and buildings
5. Increase the time it takes to train new units (2 turns - one month - for line infantry is too fast)

btw - I was able to create a mod file (the pack manager works) and so does the esf editor (I was able to give my campaign more money for my sandbox test).
I was also able to modify the technologies table using the db editor but other tables are not compatible

**PlacidDragon** · February 25, 2010, 10:14 AM

Hi there

I focus on your review, because it stands in stark contrast with as good as every other on here (which is numerous variations of "OMG, THIS IS THE BESTEST GAME EVAR!!1!1eleventyone111" written in a more or less rational manner)

As this was written yesterday, have you gotten a few more hours with it now, to expand and/or change your initial impression ?

In particular, i reacted to generals being assassinated left and right, with such apparent ease. That didnt sound..good...
Also, the apparent "super"speed of units, it almost starts sounding more like an arcade game, which really doesnt sound good either..
And you seem to confirm the review where the reviewer just took a stack and moved through Russia and took Moscow without ever encountering an enemy (not defending capitals). Can you if possible elaborate if you've gotten some more observation done on that ?

Thanx in advance

**kinslayer** · February 25, 2010, 11:01 AM

Ive played through most of the campaigns, except the coalition one, and heres what I've discovered.

1.) Battles do indeed feel like an arcade battle, at least the land ones do. Infantry range doesnt matter, you can sit at the most extreme range and slaughter oppossing forces. In othe words, there is no real range modifier, once the enemy is in your fire zone, almost all your shots it. This makes the battles move very very fast, as infantry get mowed down quite easily.
A) Cavalary charges are a bit different...although they do move with very quick speed, I find that the charges are probably the most realistic of aspect of the land battles.
B) Cannon are...well quite innaccurate for the most part. Although when they do actually hit, there is a knockback affect on the infantry line, which I find quite realistic, compared to ETW.
C)I agree on the battle movement, its like soliders on crack, really.
D) The battle AI is much improved from ETW though, nowhere near darthmod-DMUC, but much better than vanilla ETW

2) Campaign AI is much improved...drastically. Playing a campgain on Hard/VH and it will actually be HARD! lol. That's always a plus.
A) I like the replinshment rate aspect, much more realistic than throwing money at troops and they magically replenish like ETW.
B) Harder to earn cash for the most part, which can be an issue sometimes, coupled with the replenishment aspect, however I dont mind that...makes strategy much more important
C) Also I like the refinment of the settelment aspect...in other words certain areas can specilize in certain things, or you can change buildings etc.
D) Don't dig the time limit because I feel rushed...I'm more of a person who likes to take thier time, but considering the nature of NTW, it makes sense.

3) Naval battles are much more improved, as far as modifiers for hit ratios/hull strength and firepower.
A) Skins are great...they drastically improved that, looks much nicer than ETW.
B) Turn rates are insane...I can turn a 122 gun ship on a dime, thats just....crazy. It almost turns as well as a 38 gun frigrate....seriously!?

All in all, I'm not disappointed, but disgruntled regarding the land battles...find myself using auto-resolve alot. Maybe im spoiled after playing Ultimate Commander (darthmod) for ETW. Those battles actually take some time to do...and strategy to implement. But I'm suere there will be some mods out for adjusting this (like the ones proposed above).

**Marechal_Davout** · February 25, 2010, 03:15 PM

I played for a few more hour since my initial review.

First - I want to be perfectly clear - at $39.99 this game is worth buying. It might not be perfect but it will offer hours/days of enjoyment (more if you know how to mod).

I am confident that once I can write a mod to slow down the units speed, the battles will be perfectly fine (I had to do the same thing for ETW)

I was looking forward to a more practical (and extensive) officer management system but it is what it is - I might be able to improve on this depending on how data-driven this feature is...

The BAI is perfectly fine - it will give you a challenge and most of the idiosyncrasies are gone.

The diplomacy is not dramatically better except for the new features (AI still makes stupid decisions)

Once again I just spend more time on the areas that need improvement as oppose to list the pros (they are already mentioned everywhere) but it does not mean that this is a negative assessment.

NTW is already good and it can only get better