Napoleon Scenrio?

With new options with the CIV II TOT conversion, is anyone working on a new Napoleon scenario?

I think with the new options this could be a great scenario to play.

An actual workable single-player Napoleonic scenario, especially going right from 1798 all the way to 1815 (I'd be of the personal belief, myself, that such a scenario should be played from a French point of view, if only because they'd be the only perspective who could realistically participate in every aspect of that milieu) would actually be a great thing to see. I believe most of our Napoleonic scenarios that currently exist are for MGE and are meant strictly (or at least ideally) for multiplayer.

Hello, I'm finishing the conversion to Tot of the scenario GNB4 (Great Napoleonic Wars) by Winter. I need only make the sound for units in Rules. I hope to send it soon.

I agree this seems like the type of scenario that civunits or techumsah would nail. Please, please let it be so. We have great WWII scenarios, we need a great Napoleon scenario.

Actually, there is one on my list. I have a concept in mind, a map and the units are all available (Thanks be to Fairline), though there are a couple of others ahead of it on my list.

I have one in my WIP folder called "L'Empereur", with the full units and tech tree...
I might dust it off sometime and see if it can be updated for TOTPP...

I also have a Test of Time update of John Ellis's classic Bonaparte scenario. I released an MGE multiplayer version (on the larger European map I made for Fortress Europe) several years ago then started work on a Test of Time version. That may well be one of my projects for the not too distant future. There are a few WIPs to be fair, but the units for the Napoleonic sceanrio are just stunning and it shouldn't be too complicated to make the events.

The big question is which nation to set as the protagonist. France or Britain would be the obvious choices. France vs the rest of the world would be the simplest option, but I wonder how much fun it would be to have a hotseat game with the Allies under human control versus a super strong events driven AI France. I guess it would only work if the number of units was restricted to a sensible level. Nobody would want to play a huge turns for multiple nations.

One thing I have found very enjoyable about playtesting my SCW scenario is that there is virtually no time needed each turn on micromanaging cities. There are practically no buildable improvements and you start off with the economy pretty much set up for you. The focus is almost totally military and this leads to relatively quick turns. Most units come from events and there is a limited choice for unit production and little money to use on (non-incremental) rush building.

I would envisage my own Napoleonic scenario along the same lines so that the focus is on the battles and campaigns while the economies and cities pretty much run themselves. Units would represent large formations so that a defeat in combat has bigger consequences. Hopefully I will find time to work on it at some stage this year.

The problem with the hotseat Allied idea is accounting for Napoleon browbeating many of the Allied countries (pretty much all of them at point or another, except Britain, in fact) into short-lived "alliances" with him through decisive battles. I suppose you could have the conceit that "this is a PLAYER Alliance who won't bend to such tactics," but it's potentially ahistorical unless you actually win all those battles that Napoleon historically won to force his terms.

Also, another argument, I suppose, although whether a big or small one depends on your point of view, is that having France as the protagonist would also allow the Ottoman Empire to play a role as an AI player, if only at the very beginning, whereas their presence would be uncertain if the Allied point-of-view were used.

As a multiplayer game this kind of scenario would work really well with some house rules on how to decide if a war is won or lost. For single player it will be more tricky, though I guess the capture of certain AI cities could then force peace or an alliance via events. I would love to play this kind of game as Britain, but other than the peninsular war and naval battles they would be left out of a lot of the action. I guess the French are the optimum playabole nation as they are involved in every historical campaign of the era. I suppose the best way to make it challenging is to have a tough start and then make it progressively tougher as the game goes on, with events reacting to every victory by making things just a bit tougher again!

I think it would be a good idea to be pretty flexible with the history and have the events react to how the game is panning out, rather than following historical dates. For example, if the French capture a Prussian city Austria or Russia declare war. I'm sure that with extensive use of flags it will be possible to create a scenario that reacts to events.

Another question is, in most Napoleonic scenarios I've seen over the years (barring that world-wide back a while that included the US as a full player, and the War of 1812, and the Haitian Slave Rebellion and certain Latin American revolutionary activities as events, which, though very well done, does not really feed into the issue I'm about to make) there's always France, Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, who are pretty always full players, with usually two of the three of Spain, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire, which tends to vacillate from actual scenario to scenario, with the third and all the minor nations usually starting as barbarians. How do you plan to arrange that, if you yet even know?

I don't think an all-power treatment of the entire Napoleonic Wars is the only way to go. The concept I've been playing with limits the scenario to the key campaigns in central Europe from 1805 to 1807, with France at war with Austria and Russia, and then Prussia and Russia. Bavaria was a French ally, Saxony a Prussian ally, and Sweden a Russian one. I have my map done (with cities) and units, but that's all.

Other campaigns that might make a good scenario are Napoleon's Italian campaigns (1796-97), the Peninsular War (1808-14), the War of German Liberation (1813) and the Russian campaign (1812).

I think you may be right about campaigns being a better way to go than a full history of Napoleon in Europe. The only reason I'm toying with the idea is that the map is made, the cities and improvements and units are in place. All I need to do is add the events. I may give it a go at some point, but I would love to see a Peninsular war campaign. Pablostuka's map of Spain would be perfect for such a scenario if anyone wants a copy of it!

I'm going the full way....Glorious global empires in a Napoleon era!

I fully agree with Curtsibling personally, that I'd prefer a full out 1798-1815 all-Europe, all-power scenario, preferably as France, but I won't make demands or at all criticize single regional campaign scenarios, and I will give such scenarios a try if they do come out.

It would be interesting to see all three versions. A Peninsular War or other campaign, a European map and a world map. It seems pointless everyone making essentially the same scenario!

I am currently pasting cities onto a brand new and really huge world map...It will
be the basis for this summer's new global scenarios...Including the Napoleon one.

I forsee a sort "Imperialism", only starting off with Napoleon at Austerlitz.

CurtSibling said:

I am currently pasting cities onto a brand new and really huge world map...It will
be the basis for this summer's new global scenarios...Including the Napoleon one.

I forsee a sort "Imperialism", only starting off with Napoleon at Austerlitz.

Click to expand...

Good idea, but start with Trafalgar!

There's a better way:

Start with the French Revolution! And let the French build or get a wonder called NAPOLEON and an advance named the same, which provides better troops and spoils diplomatic relationships and so on, new government, too (maybe Fundamentalism to allow the French to build a huge army). Then you could cover the whole period from the French Revolution to imperialism perfectly - and you would have different "chapters" in the game (Revolution, Napoleon, Imperialism). I mean, Napoleon himself was only a side-effect of the revolution.

And maybe you can rename wonders and turn them into historical people, like Fouché, Goethe and so on.