Feedback on Napoleon in Italy ?

[Ricky D]

[font="Verdana"][/font] [&:]Anyone playing this new game and if so, what's your impression of it ?

[Adraeth]

I am playing my mod Italian Wars, not every day but i play it. I am wondering about new scenarios ... what can i say...
 
Not because i was beta tester for this game, but HEY! I like it, this game might seem old fashioned but it is amusing, even in solo play Vs AI really amusing. I hope Hussars Game will make a sequel for Danube Campaigns or Polish Campaigns.
 
A feedback is a GOOD Feedback [;)]

[Ricky D]

I share your enthusiasm for this game - it's unflashy - yet solidly built - the AI can be challenging, surprising and threatening on many levels ! Given a dire shortage of Napoleonic tactical pc games in recent years has makings to platform further Nap era campaigns - ideally with a few minor design tweaks. Gripes : Puzzled by v generous melee capabilities of units both to initiative or receive repeated melee actions without apparent loss of unit morale / coherence in tactical battle settings ? The historical record point to extreme aversion, below the Elite or fanatical Revolutionary units, to engage in melee at all, let alone in multiple occasions (a fact Wellington knew well to exploit against the French). Nosworthy's masterpiece "Battle Tactics of Napoleon" makes this case very clearly together with many other sources. Strategic map needs regional colour schemes (e.g. Piedmont) to enable simple recognition of strategic goals (the tip in scenario 1 of the game is for France to quickly conquer Piedmont prior to Austrian intervention). Text boxes in some message areas need a scroll down setting ? Command structures for rally / morale gain etc. in tactical scenarios disregard unit affiliations at the outset of the battle ? Unsure if tactical game takes negative account of enfilade and rear melee or firepower received by units ? Data summary tables throughout the game would be more usable with an option to print to hard copy ? Beyond this, there's much to endorse here... Hussar must put Wellington's campaigns in Spain/Portugal high on their next steps list - it would sit well here.[:)]

[rschilla]

I find the tactical battles unsatisfying...whereas the strategic element is not bad at all.

There is a disconnect between the strategic map and the tactical map which other games (Rome - Total War....Medieval Total War, for example) have overcome. For example, a force may be trapped between two armies. The main attack comes from the bottom hex and the second army enters from the top hex. Yet, when the game transfers to the tactical map both attacking forces are together at the bottom and the "battle" becomes a track meet in which the defender runs for the map edge. If lucky, your cavalry may run down a battery or two as recompense for your efforts. With the two games mentioned above, if reinforcing armies enter a battle they do so from the directions they were in on the strategic map.

Second... armies can retreat "through" the army that is attacking them. This makes surrounding a force fairly pointless.

I've enjoyed the game to a point but I doubt if I would buy another version of it relocated to another theater of operations.

[Ricky D]

Having played deeper in to this game since my last posting on this thread I've encountered identical challenges to those posted by rschilla above which seriously detract from the game. It has the sense of thus far offering only the first dish of what ought to comprise a really satisfying three course meal : holds some real promise, yet leaves too much still to be desired of the programming and the total scope of the offering to be really satisfying. The tactical battles become repetitive in flavour, there's little visual differentiation of the basic units from one battle to the next, the very opposite of the drama and tremendous dynamism of what would have been the historic experience of Napoleon's remarkable 1796-97 Italian campaigns ! With the impending release of the eagerly awaited Napoleonic period "Histwar: Les Grognards" title from the respected stable of the mighty Battlefront programming team, the Hussar programmers will need to either radically upgrade their offering to "a full serving" status or settle to being a poor relation in the shape of this launch title and any other sequels they plan to publish ? I nonetheless remain of the view this title holds plenty of opportunity to improve and expand to become something really worth exploring with further work and refinement, it seems more like a beta version "work in progress" that has been released prematurely.

[Adraeth]

Considering the 1848 game and For Liberty! i think that Hussar Game product is to viewed with those games in mind. Considering this, i assume that NapInItaly is a really good game. As i said, it is a bit old-fashioned in style, but it is amusing and with a quite challenging AI (that is not so usual these times)
 
I am sure Hussar Game will provide new titles with improvements, anyway i do not think that a comparsion between this game and HWLG or even Ageod's ones can be done.