Retrospective of the Battles of Napoleon: A Construction Set
“I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.” – Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington
By Patrick S. Baker
Battles of Napoleon: A Construction Set (BoN) was developed by Chuck Kroegel and David Landrey of Tactical Design Group (TDG) and released by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1988. BoN was the last of twelve serious war games developed by TDG and marketed by SSI. On a note, SSI arguably produced the first “serious war game” for the microcomputer (read personal computer), Computer Bismarck, in 1980.
BoN was a turn-based strategy game, where players would take control of either French or Allied armies during the Napoleonic Wars and make decisions on movement, formations, and tactics. The game incorporated various factors such as weather, terrain types, and troop morale and training to simulate the complexities of real battles.
The development of BoN started with extensive research and planning. Both TDG and SSI prided themselves on the historical accuracy of their games and BoN would be no exception. Napoleon had an extensive military career (to say the very least), so the selection of which of his battles to include as scenarios was important. The development team ultimately picked the battles of Borodino, Auerstadt, Quatre Bras, and, of course, Waterloo. The game also had a scenario editor as well.
After the battles were selected the team which included designers, programmers, and artists, dug into the plethora of historical resources available, including historic maps, eyewitness reports, and Napoleon’s own writings. The team also worked closely with military historians and military consultants to guarantee the accuracy of the game. Experts contributed valuable insights as to the accurate terrain of the battlefields, the historical order of battle, troop formations, range and effects of weapons, and so on. Even the effect of leaders on the dynamics of the battles was included.
The game mechanics were crafted to strike a good balance between historical accuracy and gratifying gameplay. The goal of all this was to provide the game players with an experience with was historically faithful, but still engaging as they faced the challenges of Napoleonic Warfare. Limited hardware capabilities of the available platforms, such as the Apple II, Commodore 64, or IBM PCs using DOS, required careful optimization to deliver a smooth game experience. Meanwhile, the artists worked hard to produce appealing and functional graphics despite the constraints of the hardware and programming language.
The game received a number of rave reviews. Computer Gaming World (CGW) gave it a 100% score and said: “This product may lack the graphic flash of some of the more popular designs, but its play value and historical accuracy mandate its acquisition for anyone interested in the period.” Advanced Computer Entertainment gave BoN a 92% calling it both “complex” and “Great stuff.” Video Games & Computer Entertainment awarded BoN just 70%. The reviewer thought little
of the graphics, but praises the “wealth of detail” and historical accuracy.
CGW continued to trumpet BoN, naming it the War Games of the Year for 1988. In 1994, in a five-year after release retrospective, CGW stated that the game still “outshines any Napoleonic game released since” and BoN had “a veritable cult following”. Further, two years later, CGW declared BoN the 91st Best Computer Game, and the 7th Best War-game, released to that time.
Sometime before SSI was acquired by Mindscape in 1994, SSI transferred the Intellectual Property Rights of BoN to David Landrey and his new company Novastar, Inc. Once they had the rights, Novastar produced six expansion discs, which in total had some three dozen new battles. The battles in the expansion packs went beyond just the French fighting the Allies by including battles from the American War of Independence like Camden and Cowpens and the War of 1812 like New Orleans.
By 1996 the game sold some 10,000 copies and had carved out a spot in gaming history as a serious war game that was also fun and engaging to play.
Patrick S. Baker is a former US Army Field Artillery officer and retired Department of Defense employee. He has degrees in History, Political Science, and Education. He has been writing history, game reviews, and science-fiction professionally since 2013. Some of his other work can be found at Sirius Science Fiction, Sci-Phi Journal, Armchair General, and Historynet.com
Sources:
Advanced Computer Entertainment (May, 1989) Battles of Napoleon
Computer Gaming World (March, 1988) “Titans of the Computer Gaming World”.
Computer Gaming World (October 1989) “Game of the Year Awards”
Computer Gaming World (October, 1990) “Battles of Napoleon” (quoted at Mobygames.com)
Computer Gaming World (March, 1994). “What If Napoleon Was Himself At Ligny?”.
Computer Gaming World (May, 1994) “Intelligence From The Front”.
Computer Gaming World (May, 1996) “Le Grande Struggle”
Computer Gaming World (October, 1996) “150 Best (and 50 Worst) Games of All Time”.
History of SSI Games, The
Youtube.com. Battles of Napoleon (1988) by SSI – Content Review & Gameplay
Video Games & Computer Entertainment (January, 1991) Battles of Napoleon