Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Hi fellas!

Finally, after years of waiting, the Napoleonic computer game ‘Les Grognards’ is nearing release.

This weekend they’ll release their demo. (Probably Sunday) Pre-orders, for those who like it, open next week (204th anniversary of Austerlitz) and the game aims to be out well before Xmas.

If you haven’t kept an eye on it, you can visit their site at www.histwar.com and change the froggy lingo to English with the button top-right (sorry, no Dansk!). (or visit the ‘telechargements’ hyperlink). There is plenty of information and stacks of screenshots, explanations of the games, and videos (also see YouTube) of how the orders etc etc run. I expect they’ll post computer specs with the DEMOs. Reputedly the specs aren’t that high as the designer did not want to produce some high-end graphics fest that only cashed-up geeks could afford to have. So there’s hope for us all! (NB. a playtester posted this:
"I can say my system : 1,6 Ghz Pentium, ATI Mobility Radeon 64 Mb, OS Win XP, (it is a laptop), I am testing it without problems"

Apparently the DEMO will be single player with three scenarios to enjoy learning the game at divisional, corps and full army level (7 corps!!!!!!). (The game itself allows multiplayer LAN battle with up to 8 or 10 players, and 1v1 ‘play by email’ with 15 minute turns, as well as the usual battle vs the AI).

You can also download the first two manuals from the histwar site at: http://www.histwar.fr/dl/manuels/book-01-v1.00-en.pdf and http://www.histwar.fr/dl/manuels/book-02-v0.1-en.pdf. They cover the basic mechanics and the editors (Orders of Battles, Terrain, etc).

The first version of the game covers 1805-1814 with France, Austria, Russia and allies (=> Danes!). A following ‘module’ will have the 1815 armies covered (the Brits, allies, and the Prussians) which should also cover the Peninsula. Further modules should hopefully include a campaign system.

Cheers

Harry

Thanks for that Harry. I was awaiting more info on it as it looks like it could be a big step forward in some respects.
I like the period 1805-1814, not trying to be everything for everyone (however I would have split that period as well as i do like the HPS more campaign specific titles). The campaign system has peeked my interest.
Will be looking at those sites this wekend.

Regards


Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

Demo is available
http://www.histwar.com/news/histwar-les ... lable.html

General-Feldmarshal Count Konstantin Koryakov, Prince Bel'giyskiy
8 Infantry Corps,
Life Guards Litovskii regiment,
Russian Imperial Army
[url="http://www.komikor.narod.ru"][/url]

So what is the feedback so far? Has anyone test drove the demo? What are your comments?

If I wasnt so busy looking for work and doing game design and other things in life I would give it a look.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by konkor</i>
<br />Demo is available
http://www.histwar.com/news/histwar-les ... lable.html

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I tried that, but I get an error message that the file does not exist.

Maybe it is the millions of people trying to download the demo?[:D]

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
General, 1ère Brigade, 19ème Division, VI Corps, L'Armee du Rhin
President, Colonial Campaign Club
</b></font id="gold">

i dont know how to download it.it's asking login and password.






The Fligel-Adjutant of His Imperial Majesty
Podpolkovnik Alexander Marinin,
Astrakhan Gr.Reg,
2nd grenadiers div.,
VIII corp,
2nd West Russian Army

I downloaded it and it seems that it isn't a fully working version of the game. Some bugs and the AI doesn't seem to all be there (I believe the developer mentioned somewhere that it was quite passive in the demo but won't be like this in the final version). It's more like a cut down public beta test version rather than a finished product and will undoubedly put some people off. But it is promising if the final version has a better AI and the bugs can be ironed out. I'm sure it will be good. The good news is that it seems to run on my old pc (2.2Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 256MB Geforce 6200). There's plenty of discussion about it at the Histwar forum if you are interested. I sincerely hope JMM succeeds in realising his dream in creating a great game. He obviously believes in it totally so we must be patient...

http://www.histwar.com/forum/index.php/board,24.0.html

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/nwc/nwc_personal_record.htm"]Brigadier General Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://home.scarlet.be/~tsh40803/AAA/Brit.html"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Cavalry Division, II Corps, Anglo-Allied Army[/url] ~
----------
~ [url="http://home.scarlet.be/~tsh40803/AAA/BritGuardHorse.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
</center>

The instructions with the download are that you don't need a username or password. Just hit OK and it will work.

Yes, it does play, and stutter, like a public beta-test demo. That's not ideal but then it's not produced by a company with a full development team. It also means that there will now be a big flow of bug info to JMM etc and the first big patch is likely to achieve a lot. One of the commenters on the histwar forum reminds us how many other excellent games ran rough at their start and quickly picked up speed and quality, which is reassuring.

However, it seems that LG really will have a lot of depth and will achieve the goal of providing a truly grand-tactical representation of napoleonic warfare. I hope it will be a great addition to the NWC and thank the committee for adding it to the games here.

Obviously, some people can download this demo and others cannot.

When I try, there is some kind of connection problems. I download other files, frequently, and have not found this particular error. Basically, it tells me the URL is correct, but the file to download does not exist.

I guess I will wait until the next update that might work.

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
General, 1ère Brigade, 19ème Division, VI Corps, L'Armee du Rhin
President, Colonial Campaign Club
</b></font id="gold">

Tested the Demo and the Jury is still a veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy long way out.

Marechal Bruce Hall
Grande Duc d'Arcole
et Comte d'Artois
Chasseurs à Cheval de la Vieille Garde,
CoS
L'armée du Rhin

This can be a double-edge sword. Demos are supposed to generate alot of interest in a product. Not be use for QC by the public.

I just hope that JMM gets the bugs worked out by the time he does the first or second update.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

I must say that the more I play with Les Grognards the better it feels. There is so much left out of the demo too, like the doctrine editor, the OoB editor and the terrain editor to name just 3 elements.

It looks like a good game. I really do hope that he gets the kinks out of the system.

I like the Total War games. I used to play them alot and often just the battles though I like the campaigns too.

Mainly though I like games that play in a Window. I hope that he considers building that into the code. Its easier on my eyes if I dont have to be immersed in a game like Total War.

Its why I play John Tiller's games so much. And they rarely crash too.

Good luck JMM!

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

I was finally able to download the demo.

ONE GOOD POINT, that is mentioned on the HISTWAR forum: If the demo fails to load, keep trying several times to get the game going.

My demo failed 3 times to load, but the next time it fired right up and into the tutorials.

It was mentioned that maybe 10 times might be needed.

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
General, 1ère Brigade, 19ème Division, VI Corps, L'Armee du Rhin
President, Colonial Campaign Club
</b></font id="gold">

I've asked about windows in 'the machine'. I must say though that I'm very pleased at the ease of alt+tabbing out and re-entering.