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When Grenadier Francois-Joseph Jacquin, writer of Carnet De Route
D’un Grognard, returned from the wars in 1815, his father and brothers
hadn’t a clue who he was. When he walked into the kitchen and embraced
his mother, they pounced on him shouting “Let go soldier! What are you
doing?” A decade of Napoleonic conflict had changed him beyond all
recognition. 



We mention this scene because we were expecting Napoleonic conflict
to have had a similar effect on gaming’s favourite historical strategy
series. Having heard talk of supply lines, attrition modelling and
two-week turns, we hadn’t expected Napoleon: Total War to feel quite so
close to its 18th century forerunner.

Of course, both titles share the same superstructure so there was
always going to be plenty of common ground. Like Empire, NTW is all
about taking things that don’t belong to you. You march armies around a
handsome 3D strategy map, snaffling territories like a starving soldier
snaffles roadside turnips. When armies meet, the turn-based malarkey
makes way for stirring real-time carnage. If you’ve never tried it
before, the perfect blend of the managerial and the martial will knock
your socks off. 



The problem is that many of us have tried it before. We hazard a
guess that a fair portion of you reading this will have been Total
Warring since Roman times (2004). A few will probably remember the
spritely surprise that was Shogun (2000). To impress us – the old hands
– NTW needed two things: novelty and refinement. Alas, it offers
precious little of the latter and only a flawed form of the former.

But let’s get the cannonball rolling with some positivity. Even the
weariest, most critical warmongers are going to find it hard to resist
the lure of the new theatres. The three consecutive campaigns all boast
bespoke strat maps and all take their goals from a different phase of
Boney’s blood-spattered career. Once the tutorial has outlined his
formative years, you find yourself in Nice, City of Biscuits, gazing
east at a patchwork of Northern Italian states ripe for conquest,
comradeship and coercion.



Developers Creative Assembly know how intimidating their traditional
grand campaigns can be. This dainty hors d’oeuvre is deliberately
compact, focused and short. Which isn’t to say it’s easy. Having
persuaded Piedmont-Sardinia to become our gimp – sorry, protectorate, –
and ‘liberated’ various minors from Austrian oppression, we were
happily pushing the Habsburgs back across the Alps when a message
popped-up reminding us there were only six turns left in which to
capture distant Klagenfurt. Merde! We’d forgotten about the 40-turn
time limit and the Klagenfurt clause. Horses weren’t spared, stragglers
were left behind, but it was all to no avail. We’d tarried in Tuscany,
lingered in Liguria, and pratted around in Parma too long.

The tight timetable, hard and fast victory conditions, and limited
room for manoeuvre mean the Italian Campaign has shorter legs than
Boney himself. The Middle Eastern adventure that follows it has much
greater replay potential. Napoleon spent two and a half years trying to
gain a foothold in Egypt and the Levant. We get exactly the same length
of time (60 turns) to succeed where he failed. Non-negotiable victory
locations include Cairo and Damascus. Opposition comes in the
beturbaned shape of Mamelukes, Bedouins and Ottomans. Oh yes, the Brits
also make amphibious appearances now and again.



It’s here that NTW really gets into its stride. Before you know it
you’re dangerously overstretched and impaled on the horns of multiple
dilemmas. While some optional side missions nudge you in the direction
of victory locations, others are more mischievous. Can you afford to
spend valuable time, cash, and manpower kicking John Bull out of
Cyprus? Success will mean extra troops from the motherland. How about
that business with the Bedouin? Travelling deep into the western desert
to destroy their base will bring rewards, but it’s expansion in
precisely the wrong direction.