Previous Next

Ken Wright, author of Waterloo and Austerlitz, has moved from Lothlorien to CCS for his latest Napoleonic battle, the little-known draw against the Russians at Eylau on 8th February 1807.

It uses similar mechanisms to his two previous games, but is improved by a few extra features. Artillery is represented separately this time, and on the big battlefield of Eylau the devolved command system, by which the player leaves Corps commanders in charge of their own forces, works rather better than in previous games. At least, the Marshals of France do fewer stupid things…

But the game is still very limited, and rather poor value. You get no choice of scenario, no choice of terrain, no choice of side, no choice of starting position, and no re-run facility.

All you have left is the chance to give the French side orders. Unfortunately, the combat mechanism seems to involve such a large random factor that whether they win or lose has almost nothing to do with the orders you do give them.

One result of this is, oddly, to make Napoleon at War slightly more playable.

Eylau was a confused battle, with reinforcements for both sides arriving at odd moments throughout the day (this is not represented in the game, by the way). At the end it was a messy and hard-fought draw, which amounted to a strategic defeat for Napoleon, who needed to keep on advancing. The arbitrary nature of the combat system means that while Austerlitz, Napoleon’s greatest victory, is virtually unwinnable, Eylau, a battle he virtually lost, stands quite a good chance of being won.