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The Best

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: April 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is the first, and so far the only game from this company I've ever played. Out of all my favorite games, this is my favorite. The graphics are fine, but I've seen better, but are not as bad as some of the reviews depict. The history in this game is perfect. There was obviously much research put into it. The scroll is kind of slow, but all you have to do is zoom out all the way, which makes the units and everything hard to see, but if you know where all your units are, there isn't a problem. Like another review says, the uniforms are beautiful, with varying colors. Also, the units aren't just from Britan and France. Britan's allies come from countries including Prussian units, and Dutch units. And yes, the game allows you only to play one battle, but there are 30 different scenarios, some including a calvary battle, with only calvar units, and the final phase of the Battle of Waterloo, where Britan has the high ground and must block the French from getting into Belgium. Overall, I reccomend all gamers, especially the hard-core strategy gamers.

Charge!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a beautiful game for history buffs and gamers. To experience the pageantry and drama of the Napoleonic battlefield you won't find anything better. The game uses the SM Gettysburg engine and gameplay is very similar. However, it has much more to offer and is rich in historical detail. Differentiations are made between light and heavy cavalry, rifles and muskets, light and line infantry and finally different formations are availabe to each side as historically appropriate. The complexities of combined arms tactics lend much more depth to the game and are much more difficult to master. Calvary charges for instance, can be, and often were, decisive. The graphics may not be as smooth as some of the latest techonogy touted in Shogun and Cossacks (which I haven't seen) but if you love to recreate historical battles and play the invariable "what if", this game has all you need. The AI is a tough competitor and you can play the game online. The game has 60 different uniforms and in my opinion the artwork is great. The "smoothness", in my opinion, is not even an issue once you start positioning your hussars to crush a battalion of highlanders. For me it is the history as much as the game and I have already gotten my monies worth.

Flexibility is Not an Option

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Based upon the successful Gettysburg engine this game shares many of the same faults, but does have a few benefits. The good news is that Cavalry is back in. Gettysburg had miserable cavalry which dismounted to attack and basically fought as infantry. Waterloo gives back the elan of the cavalry charge and livens up an otherwise static battle line. Unless you intervene, units attacked by cavalry will form into squares and happily stay that way when infantry move in to blast them to pieces , and that's were the attention to minutiae come into play.When the AI attacks you simultaneously in two places at once you're basically going to sacrifice one or the other as the AI doesn't adequately defend your troops with the same panache it does its own. Unfortunately the vast scope of the game (at least in the Grand Campaign modes as opposed to the bland scenarios)requires the same degree of micro-management. If you don't babysit units they will be quickly overrun or annihilated. The game map doesn't help in this regard as the terrain is basically linear and quite narrow in depth. The strategic aspect of the game involves controlling SITES which give a morale boost to your army. Unfortunately this will lead to a fragmenting of your forces and require that you constantly shuffle between them. There is not much you can do about this as when the game commences the computer pre-positions your forces for you tying you to a strategy not of your liking. The British seem spread out far too thinly across the map defending useless terrain with woefully inadequate troops. Unless you consolidate them in a more cohesive fashion each sector of the line can be singled out and quickly put to peril. Once again, I don't like having strategy forced upon me I'd prefer to choose my own ground. The game does have the expected thrills although the voice overs could be more elaborate (Hoorah!For old Nosey!...)and the addition of musical themes would enhance the atmosphere greatly (a bit of fife and drum, bagpipe and the Marseillaise would set the tone quite nicely). If you liked Gettysburg you'll love this one but only those not easily unnerved will keep coming back for more.

The Best Napoleonic Game Yet.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: July 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Relive the glory days of the little corporal's era in this fun,exciting,& challenging game that recreates the complexities of Napoleonic era warfare in real-time format.Pay no heed to critics who dismiss this game for more simple & less cerebral teen follies;the game has been improved by subsequent patches & will be further bettered with upcoming ones.Strategy wargaming doesn't get better than this.My rating is 4.5 stars.

The Best And Most Authentic Napoleonic Game Ever!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: May 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you Love Real Time Strategy games and Love the Napoleonic period, Buy This Game! The Graphics aren't the best But, the gameplay, the variety of units, the many senerios, the Sounds, and the History make this game Great!... Buy WATERLOO!

Good potential. Try again.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 18
Date: March 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I was really excited about this game. Unfortunately it does not live up to expectations. The graphics are not up to standards achieved on some other strategy simulations (the Cossacks preview, for example). Movement, at least on my PC,(which is able to handle B17 2 with no problems)is not smooth. Also, the game menu, graphics and music are not of the quality, for instance of Sudden Strike or Age of Empires. its been a few years since the fine Gettysburg game. One would have expected improvements in this genre reflecting advances made since then. If you are into 16th to 19th century European strategy, I suggest Age of Sail 2 or wait for Cossacks.

Worst Sid Meier game EVER!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: June 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When I bought this game, I expected it to be basically Gettysburg, but with more pomp of the Napoleonic era. Unfortunately, it took the bad parts of Gettysburg, and blended it into new bad parts. First, the enemy calvary is next to invincible. I just finished playing a game, and was stunned to see one British calvary unit going down my line, crushing all my units. By the time the calvary unit was done, I had a total of one unit left! The game seems to think I'm able to put my whole army in square formation ALL the time, yet still attack. There is ALWAYS calvary attacking me, and I can't always have my men in squares. Second, they took this from Gettysburg: Why do enemy units that are broken run through my lines, into the rear, and regroup? They ALWAYS do this. In Gettysburg, when even easy scenarios lasted a decent amount of time (unlike Waterloo), I found myself taking units out of the line and chasing these rogue units away from my Victory Points. Third, why are there Victory Points? Couldn't the computer just figure at the end of the battle which side has the best position and things like that? Why must I keep units from the line to guard these precious areas from roaming calvary (tanks, for the most part) and rogue units? Fourth, and final:Attacking at all seems futile. Even when I do all I can, like reserve a unit or two to continue firing on the enemy while I get other units in attack column and charge, most attacks fail miserably. I'm not sure if this problem is just due to a crappy game or if attacking back then was really so futile. In Gettysburg, I could attack, and attack often, and I liked that. I could trust my Yanks or Johnny Rebs to take the enemy position, but these French, Brits, and Prussians I don't trust one little bit. I'll stick to Gettysburg and Antietam.

...?where's the graphics!?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: April 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Frankly, I don't know you, so what do I care if you waste yourmoney on this B-class game. I'm just writing this because I wasmislead (and therefore am upset) by the PRICE of this ... game. It is often the case that you get what you pay for. So if you buy a game for $15.00, you shouldn't expect a masterpiece, however, this game advertises with a ... price tag and somewhat good reviews which is usually enough to expect good game-play and well defined graphics. Well, think again. The price tag on this game should read ... (at the most). I mean think about it, how on earth can this game sell for ... when for ten $$ more you can get a spectacular game like "Age of Empires?" But, if you really insist on wasting your money, like I said, what do I care?

Bore terloo!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 27
Date: September 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

What a waste of money! If you are thinking of getting this game then wait until the price drops to about a quarter or what it is because that's all it's worth!
The good points are: There is a flashy title page with a nice little tune. There is a really nice historical account of the battle (although the writer does need to learn a little more grammar!)
Well, that's it. There are the good points! Now for the bad points...
The training scenarios are incredibly irritating. Every move you make it stopped by the "trainer" while a banner appears with information about how to move units etc. and the game automatically pauses which you have to undo manually each and every time. What a pain! In addition, at the end of each instruction you read you are told that to exit the game press the escape key. I wish it told me what to do to get my hard-earned money back!!
When you have mastered the training with lots of swearing at the computer and the notion that you have paid 40 bucks for the game so why not see it through, you get onto the battle action. What a joke! There are, I am told, 60 different uniforms in the programme. Pity we can't actually see them!
I tried to dowload screenshots from a site on the net but each time I couldn't get to see them for some technical reason. Hardly surprising having seen the game! "Is this IT?", I though when I first saw it. Terrible!
Gameplay is no fun either. I give commands only to@see that the unit hsn't moved, and if you want to move several units, sometimes you cannot find the brigade commander the units belong to.
Do I even need to mention the jumpy scrolling?
Maybe a real aficionado of the old table wargames who has never seen a computer game before might get excited over this, but for the rest of you I would recommend you to stay well clear of this.

Table wargamers take heed!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: January 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is not for you!

The play is extremely clunky and the unit graphics are horribly done. It would seem the designers have placed too much emphasis on cavalry as they are way overpowered and the artillery appears to be shooting BBs and may as well not even be on the battlefield. The objective points are never clear as to where the true ground is, so you may hold a solid line for hours but lose the points because your men just weren't on the right pixel.

The AI often jumbles into a solid block of mess with which the inferior graphics engine really tortures, so that you never know what the hell is yards in front of you. Even more fascinating is that the AI somehow fires volleys from this massive mess into your well formed line shattering them for some reason. You suffer incohesion but the AI can just munge corps together and even fire through them.

All in all a very disappointing game not even near some of the better quality games of Strategy First. I think I will skip the next one in this awful series - Austerlitz, and SF needs to give Breakaway Games a break away.

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