Come on Conor. That's the first commercial game I ever worked on. I still have 2 box copies. Not these new dvd boxes, but the BIG box that computer games used to come with.Seriously? Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle
WNLB?
First Impressions
Re: First Impressions
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privatewilley
- Reactions:
- Posts: 105
- Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:30 am
Re: First Impressions
Loving the game so far, it's my new addiction. Another great release from the team. It took me a day or so to figure out where charge, advance and etc. buttons are at. Right click is your friend. 
After getting used to the new interface, I like it!
After getting used to the new interface, I like it!-
Pawsy_bear
- Reactions:
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2015 11:20 pm
Re: First Impressions
plus one
"Loving the game so far, it's my new addiction. Another great release from the team. It took me a day or so to figure out where charge, advance and etc. buttons are at. Right click is your friend. After getting used to the new interface, I like it! "
good to see the game going forward and the improvements, I like the right click context menu system too. Quicker and easier
"Loving the game so far, it's my new addiction. Another great release from the team. It took me a day or so to figure out where charge, advance and etc. buttons are at. Right click is your friend. After getting used to the new interface, I like it! "
good to see the game going forward and the improvements, I like the right click context menu system too. Quicker and easier
Re: First Impressions
My own first impressions...
The Battlefield
The map looks great. Hougoumont looks right, so does La Haye Sainte, and even the church in Plancenoit is in the right place. I've walked the real battlefield and the SoW version feels right, but no Lion Mound, thankfully! The only thing I wonder about is the contouring of the ridge to the west of the La Haye Sainte crossroads. I get the impression that the elevations might be current, instead of what they were before the earth for that awful carbuncle was excavated. That's more of an observatin than a criticism, though. (To be fair to the mound, it may stick in your eye, but it does give a great view.)
Deployments
First think I did on running the game was to take a tour of the French positions, followed by the Allied. Units and formations are in the right places. It's nice to see the Nassauers get some credit for their part in the defence of Hougoumont. I was surprised not to see the Duke of Cumberland's hussars, but I guess they were folded into that Hanoverian light cavalry brigade near Mont St Jean farm, which is more or less where they would have been anyway. Or maybe they just left extra-early this time...
Uniforms
I like the uniforms. I've read some complaints about the colours, but they look fine to me. It would have been nice to see the Guard's Elite Gendarmes, but I guess they're so similar to the Guard Horse Grenadiers that it would make more sense to fold them into that unit. Many miniatures orders of battle would do the same, and I would have no complaints. There are a couple of minor omissions like a cuirassier-less cuirassier regiment, and a "blue" squadron of Guard Lancers, but these are just quibbles. I read somewhere that the Empress' Dragoons uniform and the line dragoons graphic is the same, but if a trooper from each regiment was 50 feet away from me, I'm not sure if I could tell them apart anyway.
A really nice touch with the uniforms, though, is the French line infantry. A mixture of covered and cover-less shakos, greatcoats and tunics, red cuffs/collars/facings/epaulettes/piping and plain. It looks good, and it fits with historical accounts of the wide variety in French uniforms. I believe the Guard infantry, particularly the 3rd and 4th regiments displayed similar variation in uniforms, but again, no big deal if that isn't represented in the game.
Unit formations
I've posted separately on this aspect, but I'd just like to say a particular well done for including the four-rank line used by Wellington's infantry, and also the new approach to deploying skirmishers, this is really first-class. both in terms of how the player can determine the percentage or number of men to be told off to skirmish, and how those skirmishers are presented, i.e. in pairs, with close-order supports a little way back. I also checked to see what would happen to the skirmishers when the parent battalion went into square and, sure enough, they were automatically recalled. Bravo!
The Interface
The interface works well, containing a wealth of information, but not overburdening the display with it. I'm still getting the hang of when-to-AI and when-not-to-AI. I'd rather not need to, but I'm OK with micromanaging as a workaround, especially now that I know how to quickly get everyone in an organisation back under AI control without having to click each one individually.
Sound
I find the sounds to be very immersive, the boom of artillery, pounding of hooves, rattle of musketry, etc, combine to at least give an impression of that maelstrom of noise reported by survivors of the battle. I was particularly impressed by this during the cavalry charges scenario.
AI
I won't comment on the AI yet because I'm still getting the hang of it.
Scenarios
The scenarios you'd expect to see are there, covering the various phases of the battle. I would prefer to see the 6th Corps v Prussians scenario start a little earlier, but that can be taken care of with the scenario editor when it's available. Likewise for scenarios where Wellington gets to use the troops left at Hal, or where some of Grouchy's forces turn up to assist in the fight against the Prussians. Full marks to the developers for allowing any scenario to be played without needing to play a preceding one first.
Nice-to-haves
The option to move but retain an existing formation, for those occasions where the player has tweaked a brigades formation into something non-standard. I guess modded formations might well mean that this isn't necessary, though.
A zoom-able map would also be handy.
This is one from the miniatures world, but...with everyone from battery commanders to the army commander represented by two mounted figures, it's hard to find who's who without a lot of clicking and checking. Napoleon and Wellington look a bit lonely with only one man trotting along behind them. How about indicating the rank by adding some more staff, e.g. battery or brigade commander: 2 as it is now, division commander: 3, corps/wing commander: 4, army commander: 5...or something similar.
Summary
This might sound melodramatic, but I've been waiting many, many years for a game like this. I thought it had arrived from another source a few years ago, but...well that's another story. For me, this game does for Napoleonics what the Combat Mission series did for WW2, it gives me a virtual 3D tabletop on which to play out battles from a birds-eye or worms-eye view, or anywhere in between (up until now, the nearest I got to that was a scaled down Waterloo map I created for Combat Mission).
I'm not normally a big one for thanking developers in forums. I tend let my money say thank you for me and give focused feedback on various aspects. However, having clicked (accidentally!) on the "credits" button, and read the brief account of the effort and stress that went in to getting this game out on time, I can only say a big THANK YOU and WELL DONE to everyone involved.
The Battlefield
The map looks great. Hougoumont looks right, so does La Haye Sainte, and even the church in Plancenoit is in the right place. I've walked the real battlefield and the SoW version feels right, but no Lion Mound, thankfully! The only thing I wonder about is the contouring of the ridge to the west of the La Haye Sainte crossroads. I get the impression that the elevations might be current, instead of what they were before the earth for that awful carbuncle was excavated. That's more of an observatin than a criticism, though. (To be fair to the mound, it may stick in your eye, but it does give a great view.)
Deployments
First think I did on running the game was to take a tour of the French positions, followed by the Allied. Units and formations are in the right places. It's nice to see the Nassauers get some credit for their part in the defence of Hougoumont. I was surprised not to see the Duke of Cumberland's hussars, but I guess they were folded into that Hanoverian light cavalry brigade near Mont St Jean farm, which is more or less where they would have been anyway. Or maybe they just left extra-early this time...
Uniforms
I like the uniforms. I've read some complaints about the colours, but they look fine to me. It would have been nice to see the Guard's Elite Gendarmes, but I guess they're so similar to the Guard Horse Grenadiers that it would make more sense to fold them into that unit. Many miniatures orders of battle would do the same, and I would have no complaints. There are a couple of minor omissions like a cuirassier-less cuirassier regiment, and a "blue" squadron of Guard Lancers, but these are just quibbles. I read somewhere that the Empress' Dragoons uniform and the line dragoons graphic is the same, but if a trooper from each regiment was 50 feet away from me, I'm not sure if I could tell them apart anyway.
A really nice touch with the uniforms, though, is the French line infantry. A mixture of covered and cover-less shakos, greatcoats and tunics, red cuffs/collars/facings/epaulettes/piping and plain. It looks good, and it fits with historical accounts of the wide variety in French uniforms. I believe the Guard infantry, particularly the 3rd and 4th regiments displayed similar variation in uniforms, but again, no big deal if that isn't represented in the game.
Unit formations
I've posted separately on this aspect, but I'd just like to say a particular well done for including the four-rank line used by Wellington's infantry, and also the new approach to deploying skirmishers, this is really first-class. both in terms of how the player can determine the percentage or number of men to be told off to skirmish, and how those skirmishers are presented, i.e. in pairs, with close-order supports a little way back. I also checked to see what would happen to the skirmishers when the parent battalion went into square and, sure enough, they were automatically recalled. Bravo!
The Interface
The interface works well, containing a wealth of information, but not overburdening the display with it. I'm still getting the hang of when-to-AI and when-not-to-AI. I'd rather not need to, but I'm OK with micromanaging as a workaround, especially now that I know how to quickly get everyone in an organisation back under AI control without having to click each one individually.
Sound
I find the sounds to be very immersive, the boom of artillery, pounding of hooves, rattle of musketry, etc, combine to at least give an impression of that maelstrom of noise reported by survivors of the battle. I was particularly impressed by this during the cavalry charges scenario.
AI
I won't comment on the AI yet because I'm still getting the hang of it.
Scenarios
The scenarios you'd expect to see are there, covering the various phases of the battle. I would prefer to see the 6th Corps v Prussians scenario start a little earlier, but that can be taken care of with the scenario editor when it's available. Likewise for scenarios where Wellington gets to use the troops left at Hal, or where some of Grouchy's forces turn up to assist in the fight against the Prussians. Full marks to the developers for allowing any scenario to be played without needing to play a preceding one first.
Nice-to-haves
The option to move but retain an existing formation, for those occasions where the player has tweaked a brigades formation into something non-standard. I guess modded formations might well mean that this isn't necessary, though.
A zoom-able map would also be handy.
This is one from the miniatures world, but...with everyone from battery commanders to the army commander represented by two mounted figures, it's hard to find who's who without a lot of clicking and checking. Napoleon and Wellington look a bit lonely with only one man trotting along behind them. How about indicating the rank by adding some more staff, e.g. battery or brigade commander: 2 as it is now, division commander: 3, corps/wing commander: 4, army commander: 5...or something similar.
Summary
This might sound melodramatic, but I've been waiting many, many years for a game like this. I thought it had arrived from another source a few years ago, but...well that's another story. For me, this game does for Napoleonics what the Combat Mission series did for WW2, it gives me a virtual 3D tabletop on which to play out battles from a birds-eye or worms-eye view, or anywhere in between (up until now, the nearest I got to that was a scaled down Waterloo map I created for Combat Mission).
I'm not normally a big one for thanking developers in forums. I tend let my money say thank you for me and give focused feedback on various aspects. However, having clicked (accidentally!) on the "credits" button, and read the brief account of the effort and stress that went in to getting this game out on time, I can only say a big THANK YOU and WELL DONE to everyone involved.