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here:
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Napoleon: Total War AU Review


Excerpts taken from "The Bonaparte Diaries: A Look At Me By Me" by Napoleon Bonaparte.


by Kosta Andreadis, as Napoleon Bonaparte, IGN AU

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Australia, February 22, 2010 -

Hey there. Congratulations on picking up my memoirs – it was a sound choice. Now, I know what you're all here for. You want the juicy stuff. You want to hear about my glorious triumphs on the field of battle. Well, we'll get to that shortly. But first, a little background to set the scene.

I had a typical French childhood living on an island estate, received world class education from a bunch of teachers and scholars, ate plenty of good food, enjoyed a fair amount of nice weather, and was lucky enough that my parents employed of a large number of loose women. Ever since I was a young boy I've always been fascinated with battle and war, from large scale city sieges to defending key supply lines; all done in the name of conquest, valour and all that. My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, and this is my story.


June 30th 1796 – Northern Italy
War is kind of my thing, and it's not that I dislike peace or diplomacy, I just happen to like war a lot more. I hate the King of England also, so that's another thing you should probably know about me. I love France, and who knows, someday I might be its ruler. That's the plan anyway, so don't go telling the Emperor! But I'm writing this on the eve of battle, and there's a small chance I won't survive or be victorious. You see it's been tasked to me to reclaim Northern Italy from the Austrians, a group of people who - by the looks of it - just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hey, I think I just coined a new phrase there! But you know what, when I look around, Italy seems like a nice enough country; very picturesque like my homeland France. And tomorrow I get to destroy a small slice of it. Well, fingers crossed.


Seriously man, I just hate these guys so much. Nice mutton chops losers.





July 28th 1796 – Torino, Italy
As a general, I generally (hah!) stay well behind the front lines during a battle. Moving troops and lining up cavalry flanks and artillery shots means that I have to be everywhere and nowhere, whilst trying to ensure my men are always inspired. One way to do that is to stay near them, which allows them to react and rally when required. Another way is to make sure each regiment has a person who plays flute and another that bangs a drum. Sure, marching into battle with a musical instrument, as opposed to a rifle or sword, may sound ridiculous, and who's to say – it may actually be ridiculous, but everybody does it. There's even a guy in my squad who has a trumpet... but he can only use it to inspire nearby troops a handful of times each battle. Not quite sure why that is.



August 4th 1796 – Torino, Italy
Now, being my first battle, you might expect a few nerves - or as we French call them 'le-butterfly ala-stomache' (also a delicious delicacy by the way) - but I had plenty of practice playing a war game called 'Empire' at the academy. It provided a total war experience and allowed direct control over large armies during battle, while also giving us a taste of moving and positioning our forces across entire continents, as well as the sea.

The Austrian general I faced today wasn't all that bright, but he wasn't a pushover either. He was wise to set up both his artillery and infantry on a strategic hillside, to help cover a forward advance. I won't lie to you - even though I had a bigger army, things still looked pretty grim. If there's one thing I hate more than losing a regiment to enemy forces, it's losing two regiments. That, and people over four baguettes tall. Somebody needs to change France to the metric system stat. Perhaps that someone will be me.


The enemy had taken up position roughly eighty baguette-lengths away. We kicked their butts, natch.



But I lie, I was actually pretty nervous at the start of the battle. It was at that moment I looked up to the sky and yelled out, "Hey God! This battle looks pretty hard, couldn't you press a button and make it just a little bit 'easier'?" Now I'm not one who believes in miracles, or even a bearded man in the sky, and maybe the Austrian general was a bit on the thick side, but it did feel a little too easy to win after that. Next time I'll ask God to keep things at a more 'normal' pace. I won't ask to make things harder, that's just plain silly, unless by some chance I get to replay each battle over and over, in 'real-time'. As for the battle itself, it was textbook stuff really. I kept his main troops at bay with artillery fire while I flanked him with two regiments of cavalry. This left his forces with no choice but to march directly towards my infantry troops, who used their muskets to thin his ranks, forcing them into retreat.



August 17th 1796 - Italy
News spread quickly of my decisive victory; even the Emperor himself was impressed, and who could blame him? I just got word via IM (instant message via carrier pigeon that took three days, amazing technology!) requesting that I lead the charge against Austria and its allies. Sure, why not.



June 12th 1798 – Egypt
Okay so it's been a while since my last entry, but you know what, have you taken a look at a world map lately? I've been kind of busy. And if you're a map maker you can thank me later – people are heading out to buy a new map every other
July 23rd 1798 - Egypt
Right, so this desert heat is probably getting to me. It doesn't leave much room to position my forces strategically; the extreme heat tends to thin their ranks quicker than a fat guy sitting next to a dozen croissants. At the academy, when I was taught diplomacy, commerce, and other political wastes of time, I thought creating allies would be easy if you simply dominate the field of battle. Out of fear, your enemies would simply do what you say. It might be because I'm in Egypt, slowly making my way to Damascus, but I'm slowly learning that it doesn't really work that way.

Out here in the desert, the people are clearly not impressed with the whiteness of my skin, or the pointy-ness of my hat. Instead, the Ottomans and the Mamelukes have allied against France in some sort of religious cause to stop my advances. When I used to play Empire at the academy, presenting an enemy delegate with a stately gift of gold and horses seemed to help soften their view of me, but here it barely buys me enough time to march right though their front gates. That and they prefer camels.


August 2nd 1798 – Cairo, Egypt
Taking any capital is no mean feat, especially one built next to some giant triangles in the sand. They truly are quite remarkable, and right in the middle of the desert to boot. You have to wonder who built them. One of my advisors, Jean-Pierre Francois, likes to say that little men from outer space built them. But whenever someone talks about 'little men from outer space' I can't help but think they're making fun of me. Needless to say, Jean-Pierre Francois is no longer one of my advisors. Hint: he's dead.

I was never really close enough to the action to tell, but dude, it looks like Austria's got some kind of clone army thing happening.



September 19th 1798 – Alexandria, Egypt
It doesn't help that the British have shown their faces in Cypress; clearly an attempt to stop my supply line. But to face the British one must take to the seas, which is their domain. Personally I dislike navy battles, as they level the playing field a little too much. Without using the environment to flank or ambush your enemy, the end result relies greatly on the number of ships in your fleet and their firepower. It so happens that the British have the best of both, so my plan is to sneak past them and take Cypress by land. I've just recruited the right man for the job too, Louie Charles Antoine Desaix. Normally I don't trust anyone with three first names, so hopefully his fleet doesn't get ambushed on the way to Cypress.


February 17th 1799 – Acre, Galilee
Moving into Syria won't be easy, Damascus is heavily guarded. I've sent one of my key agents to spy on their forces, and it seems the city walls are well protected by hundreds of troops, artillery squads and even men on camels. The goal is to take the capital and hold it by December of this year. From Acre, the path to Damascus is blocked by arid desert and large mountain plains, which means I'll have to go through Lebanon.

At this stage diplomacy is well out the window, and every other day I have to station troops in all the cities I've captured just to quell uprisings. Building them theatres and schools seems to help but there's no denying that it feels like the whole world is against me. This is definitely a new thing to deal with; back at the academy when I used to go through similar scenarios with Empire, there was a lot more variation in the nations running around the place, meaning I could use allies to help fight when needed or provide military access. Out here things are very different, as my mission means only one thing, total domination.


January 16th 1805 – Paris, France
Word has it that the British are rounding up allies in Europe, and not only the Austrians, as this time they've got the Russians involved. Fighting the war on three fronts is no cake walk. It would probably be easier to step out of my shoes; pretend I was Austrian and use my allies to take down France. Heresy I know!

Next stop, Moscow, possibly followed by a trip to the local Ziggy Piggy. Hey, a fella's got to reward himself, am I right?


Closing Comments

When I was getting my portrait taken the other day I had the chance to reflect on the last few years. As portraits are taken by paintbrush and not some magical device that captures your image on a piece of shiny paper, this was quite a long time.

Being Napoleon means to be at war, at all times, and in all places. Making friends with people that aren’t French is not really on the top my list of things to do. On the battle field is where I belong, with my troops who are individual people, each with a different face, and some with what look like the same exact faces. There’s nothing like watching a battalion of four hundred troops charging at an enemy force head-on, or getting them to scale city walls to take out the garrisoned forces from up high. From the grass blowing in the wind, to the debris from artillery strikes clouding your view, to the sun blazing down on a cavalry skirmish, I wouldn’t have it any other way. You should try it; live in my shoes for a day. Being Napoleon sure ain’t easy, but it ain’t so bad either.

IGN AU Ratings for Napoleon: Total War (PC)


RatingDescription

out of 10click here for ratings guide8.5Presentation
Less cluttered than previous Total War games, as this time all aspects of the game focus on Napoleon and his conquests. 9.0Graphics
More unit variation and more fancy graphical effects means a better looking game. With destructible terrain, HDR lighting, blurring, and improved texturing, the Total War engine moves forward again.9.5Sound
Great voice acting supports this character-driven Total War entry. The music, while impressive, takes a back seat to the wonderfully bombastic battle effects. 8.5Gameplay
A more focussed effort this time around, with battles brought to the forefront. The campaigns follow a strict historical path with no real deviation available. The most ‘linear’ TW game to date.7.5Lasting Appeal
Drop in multiplayer campaign battles add a human element to proceedings. However, the freeform campaign mode feels limited in only offering four nations to choose from. 8.5
GreatOVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)


second one:
http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games...eon-Total-War/


In spite of Napoleon: Total War’s apparent similarities to its predecessor, this stand-alone sequel could well herald a new format for the series. While the game retells the campaigns of its namesake in somewhat linear fashion, developers The Creative Assembly have retouched and introduced a number of new gameplay mechanics that create a much more intricate experience than any Total War game to date.
Ups:

A more nuanced campaign map with greater strategic options. The introduction of attrition, unit replenishment. Spies and gentlemen are more versatile units. A finite pool of military leaders, based on historical figures, who convey genuine advantages on and off the battlefield. More diplomatic options. Looting returns. Ships can repair on the battle map. Online campaign multiplayer and drop in battles that allow an opponent to control the opposition in your campaign battles. Multi-core support, improved rendering and particle effects.
Downs:

Some might find the increased logistical nature of the campaign map burdensome. Enemy AI still lacks a killer instinct.






Review

by James Cullinane (23/02/10)
9.0 / 10
"A nice evolution."




There’s something reassuring about the predictability of the Creative Assembly’s production strategy. As a rule, the studio takes a panoramic view of period warfare, treating both turn-based campaign strategy and spectacular real-time battles, before following that title with an expansion that focuses the lens on the exploits of a particular country, campaign or character.
By and large, Napoleon: Total War is no exception but for two further details: First, that it follows on from Empire: Total War, an ambitious title, but one that was in many ways flawed. Secondly, that Napoleon is such a dramatic overhaul of Empire, it ships as a stand-alone sequel.
The most notable departure from Total War’s traditions is Napoleon’s linear narrative focus. Previous iterations of the series presented a canvas, defining the parameters of technology and tactics before stepping back to allow the player and the AI to shape the course of history in a single grand campaign.







Napoleon spans three campaigns. Each is more limited in its scope than its predecessor, and each recounts the compounding exploits of the titular general – from his command of the Republic’s armies in Italy and Austria, his Egyptian campaign to crimp British trade to the subcontinent and finally, his conquest of Europe.
With this tighter focus comes much smaller and intricate campaign maps. Initially, they beg comparisons to Empire: Total War’s Road to Independence mini-campaign, itself a rough blueprint for Napoleon. But Napoleon’s campaign maps soon distinguish themselves and peg Independence for the prototype it was.
Turns are now composed of two weeks instead of Empire’s six months. Immediately, it adds credibility to the passage of time spent on campaign, but it also increases the rotation of variable conditions that players will have to deal with. Unlike previous Total War games, weather has a direct impact on armies on the campaign map, adding a new layer of strategic depth. Previously, moving in snow or across a desert incurred a penalty to speed – a simple trade-off one turn to the next. Now, armies suffer from attrition as the rank and file desert the corps or succumb to sickness. As winter and summer each run on for six consecutive turns, to say nothing of the intemperate changing seasons, campaigns must be more thoroughly planned.







Strategists will find more to recommend Napoleon to them than previous titles in the series. The micromanagement required is thin next to titles such as Hearts of Iron, but players who consider the campaign map little more than a lengthy pause between battles will endure a small learning curve. Armies are moving towns that must be supported by supply lines and depots. These depots act as a counterweight to attrition, reinforcing depleted regiments as long as that region can recruit that unit type – but they also must be garrisoned against enemy harassment.
Empire’s espionage units have been reconsidered. Rakes are out, to be replaced by a more functional unit type, spies. The judicious application of spies can be crippling: Used to infiltrate and sabotage, spies can hamstring an army’s march, leaving them stranded in a mountain pass as winter closes in, for example. Gentlemen, previously constrained to research and duelling, can now increase a populace’s happiness, or incite rebellion abroad. Both spies and gentlemen have a radius effect, and gather information on units within their line of sight, though as you’d expect, spies are much more proficient at this.
Empire’s diplomatic menu returns, with some much needed enhancements. In addition to their previous functions, such as making and tracking alliances and trade, players can now request other factions actively engage in a campaign, halt trade or break alliances.







If that sounds familiar, it’s because many of those functions have been available in much earlier Total War games. Quite why they were removed is anyone’s guess. Happily, pillaging towns after a successful conquest also returns. Accompanying this option is a menu detailing the relative benefits and dangers of looting – usually an exchange between immediate financial gain and long term income and population depression.
Buildings available to players once again fall into one of three archetypes: industrial, military and municipal. Napoleon: Total War adds further functionality here by introducing a “change building type” button, which allows players to repurpose one archetype for another. For a smaller fee and in fewer turns, dockyards become trading ports and vice versa, allowing players to better manage their resources as campaigns ebb and flow across the map.
The impression we have is that Napoleon is leagues ahead of its predecessors when it comes to campaign detail: The range of options and, therefore, the flexibility of strategies is vastly improved. A linear narrative focus, we said earlier. That’s true: Objectives are predefined and usually lie on the far side of the map. What’s different is the greater number of conditions players must juggle and the methods available to players to achieve their goals before battle lines are drawn.







Perhaps more so than previous Total War titles, the commanders of the Napoleonic era are well-known and well documented characters. The Duke of Wellington, for whom our capital is named, Admiral Lord Nelson (another), Tsar Alexander, and the doughty French Emperor himself. To highlight the game’s historical narrative focus, all generals are recruited from a pool of such contemporaries. These commanders level up as generals have in earlier Total War games, and are irreplaceable. Their usefulness has been greatly enhanced. On the campaign map generals act as mobile depots, replenishing units under their command in friendly territories. On the battlefield, they afford a range of benefits.
The most immediate is the deployment order. Higher ranking generals have the luxury of deploying after their enemies, greatly increasing tactical advantage. Knowing the disposition of enemy artillery and where the enemy general is can result in an unsporting coup de tête in the opening artillery exchange, but one that dramatically increases the odds of an otherwise one-sided encounter.
This will become particularly apparent as players come to terms with their generals' two further battlefield functions, rallying and inspiring units within their sphere of influence. Moving a general to the rear of a bloody engagement can tip the scales in your favour, especially if that general is particularly admired among his men. It also exposes him to stray bullets. Generals are very much a force in themselves in Napoleon, china tigers.







The battlefield user interface has undergone significant improvements. The Creative Assembly have removed much of the mouse-over text relating to units and replaced it with permanent visual prompts relaying the same information in real-time. Instead of mousing over a chaotic melee to read “wavering” or “winning slightly”, unobtrusive bars sit above each unit's flag displaying the same. Units also rank up in real time, allowing you to better rotate veteran units and reinforcements.
Graphically, the battles leave Empire in the dust, featuring five times more particles per effect . Napoleon supports multi-core systems and each battlefield is run through an art filter prior to deployment. Napoleon also compromises some small realism for minor stylisations. A dragoon is flung from the saddle as his horse is shot out from underneath him; shells explode overhead, shredding foliage and scarring paddocks.
The game features over 300 new unit types, many of which are faction-specific, and all of which have unique benefits and short fallings per faction. On the battlefield, each regiment has a minimum of four different models and a maximum of 64, finally making each appear to be composed of individuals.
The enemy AI is also an improvement on Empire’s passivity. All units on the field correctly rank the importance of all information they receive and have a better understanding of tactics. In large part this is because the game analyses battlefields before deployment (much like the art filter) so that it can take more realistic advantage of its position. For all of that, however, we’re already noticing a small lack of ruthlessness in opposing armies – more than once we’ve found ourselves significantly compromised but have managed to plug the gap.







While it’s important for the Creative Assembly to get it right, the new online multiplayer campaigns make it a less pressing concern. First touted for Empire, Napoleon allows two players to go head to head in a campaign. Turn times can either be set to a timer, or left until the second player has hit end turn. Napoleon also features drop in battles that allow an online opponent to control any otherwise-AI enemies in your campaign.
Aside from benefitting from the same graphical and AI improvements as land units, naval combat has also had a real-time repair function added. Ships can now disengage and repair themselves, but doing so leaves them exposed. Perhaps we’re suffering from an ‘auto-resolve’ hang-over from our Empire days, but naval combat still feels foreign to us.
Where Empire broke new ground roughshod, Napoleon paves it. Empire was a game with unbridled potential and ambition, Napoleon picks up where it left off, rounding out its predecessor’s rougher edges and delivering a gameplay experience that will set the course for future titles in the series. In addition to the fact that the Creative Assembly has now tapped most of Western military history’s richest veins, the trend is clear: Less campaign scale, fewer factions, more detail, more dynamic battlefield action.
Total Civil War? More than possible.



9.0 / 10
"A nice evolution."

The second review mentions multicore support. Did ETW lack multicore support? Will performance be improved somewhat on my Q6600?

One of the ETW patches introduced multi-core support anyway (3?) - you probably won't see any massive improvement on a patched up ETW.

I wonder how much it costs to bribe a game reviewer

Originally Posted by Ojf

I wonder how much it costs to bribe a game reviewer

i believe him, everyone always thinks everyone is being bribed.

Thank you Panzer + rep