Field of Glory and questions

[agathosdaimon]

Hi - my first post,  although i post on wargamer also but i have had a few posts there which just fall away with no reply.

so i will start afresh with some other questions and welcome if anyone can answer them or not -

I ve heard that Field of Glory is a great tabletop game but are the pc games at Matrix good? and will there ever be the Napoleonic Era game.
However what i really really really wish would be made would be a Napoleonic Era game that had the operational strategy of Campaigns on the Danube with its excellent fog of war and then also tactical battles which are not just an afterthought. The game Napoleon in Italy looks like it might be kind of what i am after though i wish the 1813-1814 period could be done (a period skipped over in the main campaing of Napoleon Total War)
Anyhoo, am i alone in thinking that there still isnt a serious wargame done since Wargamer 1813 that attempts this? One gets some great tactical games on one hand and then great grand strategy games on others but nothing to combine the two. (sorry, i think Crown of Glory might do this, but its tactical battles dont look detail at least from screenshots or am i incorrect in this regard)

I guess i am asking here in case someone may be able to point out something thats in the works. I had read that there was going to be a followup to campaigns on the danube but nothing ever eventuated.

Fortunately, i am playing the massive 353 turn leipzig battle with Tillers Leipzig game and that is so enormous and thrilling in just the manage to move long columns of armies and groups to places where i am speculating the enemy may appear in a hundred turns time. This is so enormous for me that it almost answers my desire but i guess the grand strategy component that led to the Voelkerschlacht is still absent.

[Toonces]

I can't help you on the Napoleonic front, but with respect to Field of Glory, every single post I've ever seen regarding the series is that the AI is not good.  It is a great MP game, but single player is ultimately unsatisfying.

I've been eyeballing it for years, but have yet to pull the trigger.  If it goes on sale during these little sales Matrix has going on I may just get it anyway.  I'm not very good at wargames so the AI is probably just right for me!

[agathosdaimon]

well i am also not great with wargames, but i do want an AI (in current games at least i see no excuse for having bad ai) which will punish me for my mistakes form strategies based on historical doctrines and accounts - thanks for the info. I will disregard it for the present time.

[jomni]

Field of Glory has very basic AI.  Multiplayer is great though. 
I have it but I'm not into it as I can't seem to grasp some of the intricacies of the tabletop rules.

[Bison]

Crown of Glories: Emperor's Edition tactical battles are detailed and the AI isn't too shabby.  They don't have men sprites just the blocks that form lines, box, ect...it's a good game that you can scale the level of complexity on the Strategic level to suit your needs.  Unfortunately for you it was just on sale a few weeks ago, so it'll carry the normal price right now.

Field of Glory is not a good single player game unfortuantely.

[LongBlade]

Field of Glory has very basic AI.  Multiplayer is great though. 
I have it but I'm not into it as I can't seem to grasp some of the intricacies of the tabletop rules.

Field of Glory really shines as a multiplayer game. It also has several expansions which are good.

The single-player game is designed to familiarize the player with gameplay. Don't expect the AI to do much more than basic stuff.

[Sir Slash]

Welcome Agath. I've only played Napoleon Total War and that almost doesn't count as there is no operational level to it and not a lot of strategic level management either. But it can be fun and a real challenge at times and focuses mostly on the war and battle side of the era. My hat's off to you for even attempting Tillers giant effort at Leipzig. There are smaller and more recent campaigns using the same engine from Tiller. The 1814 campaign looked good to me.

[agathosdaimon]

Thanks all, i think crown of glory may be the answer in terms of what it combines together. I had read a review which said the tactical battle just felt like a boardgame, which sounded as if they were too simplified but looking them up on youtube now, they look satisfiably detailed. Perhaps te reviewer only played the basic battle resolution screen which looks more like stratego - if crown is like FoF

Campaign Leipzig is absolutely thrilling. What i enjpy most is that all the division, corps army and such leaders can be selected and the the units under their command highlighted so i can minimise detachments which can easily occur as the trains of forces snake their way along the roads to leipzig and may often meet and slowly have  to cross a bridge or such. The game makes it very easy for one to move all the units that are in the same group by just selecting one of the units and holding the alt key when selecting a destination hex, the group will then seek to form an orderly column and will use roads where possible . It works well also to just run the leader unit through a tangled blobs of units and the units under him will attach themselves automatcally like a magnet. There is a certain small pleasure one gets from forming up nice mobile columns out the palaver of multiple corps that coincided in one area.
I am about 13 turns in and can just play it in the background at my leisure while at work in breaks and quieter moments.
The coalition forces who i am up against are  just now coming into range of some cannon i hastily unlimbered on the road to Halle which they have taken. Its hard to know though what the ai will do. I havent looked up the exact battles details but i know at least to expect the larger army from the south ( well, from the screen bottom) and i will keep my pioneer sappers in leipzig near the bridges in case much later if or when the allies force me to retreat, i can hopefully repair bridges if they blow them up with artillery - though i imagine if allied guns get that close i have probably lost the battle. This though is just the 16th, and the there were battles on subsequent days, so i dont know what kind of conclusion to expect

[Nefaro]

Sounds like COG:EE may be down your alley.

I recall hearing grumbling about some bugs left in the game, however.   Wargamers generally tend to love it despite the warts.

I've never picked it up because of the limited screen resolution (and price of course).  I probably would've picked it up while on sale but money was tight at the time.

[Boggit]

If you like an AI challenge, then check out any of AGEOD's (now Matrix/Slitherines) titles. They are quite different from many wargames where you micromanage the details of combat. Here you are the Commander in Chief. You tell units where to go, but your subordinate commanders fight the actual battles for you. Quite realistic in many respects. :)

[agathosdaimon]

thanks - i have gotten napoleons campaigns and march of the eagles which is the sequel if i am not mistaken - i want to play these definitely, but so many games so little time!

Tactics help:

Okay things are starting to interesting now - into turn 14 and the allied armies a now making more contact and they are using their infantry in alot of skirmisher formations - which just get in the way and i guess do their job of shielding the main force. What is the best way to get around this? and how does one best use skirmishers themselves -

[Bismarck]

I wouldn't really call March or Eagles a sequel. rather a stripped down military version of NA.

[agathosdaimon]

Oh right, well hpoefully March of the Eagles at least has better looking units. I had a go just a Napoleons Ambition to see if it was good, but the units looked ahistorical although they are not critical to the game, but also the options for the types of units to create looked limited, i didnt find it too interesting.

I am though satisfied i think with the numerous napoleonic era games i have to play at the moment and i want to get around to trying out Strategic Command WW1 later too

[besilarius]

Agathos, your interest and excitement in Campaign Leipzig are so very refreshing.  Most of us groggy Grognards flinch at the prospect of such huge campaigns.
Since you like this so much, have you ever considered doing an AAR of your Leipzig campaign?  On the home page of Grogheads , you may note that Thursdays are devoted to AARs.  One by you on Leipzig would be quite unique.
Oh, and if you are leaving the Guard Engineers in Leipzig, remember that they blew the bridge way too early in real life, trapping a goodly amount of troops and generals on the wrong side of the river.

[agathosdaimon]

That would be a great idea, though i am not sure how to an AAR and what to to show. This would be quite an undertaking as the game is bigger than anything i have ever attempted before, but i think also because of the way in which Tiller has designed its possible to focus on the various smaller battles - its like playing several wargames at once.

The other difficulty i have with writing this all down is that that i am playing this game at my workplace (which is probably bad enough) but my day job is a humdrum of responding to email enquiries for a health insurance company (not my preferrd place to be but i try and make sure i can give the best service i can and try to help get claims paid as best possible - fortunately in Australia health insurance is more heavily government regulated and so companies dont just rort members, there is an obligation to pay claims, although sometimes invoices and forms can be a mess to handles so i try and help - i mention this because it appears that health insurance runs differently in other countries)
anyhoo, point being i dont know how i would be able to write it all down and also it may be a year before i finish this.

Things are getting slower now with the game in my decision making as now at turn 15 the allies as now more of the allied army comes in to view. Trying to get some vantage points to see though weather is overcast and limited to 50 hexes, but i can still see the parallel rows of allied artillery that are coming up from the south.
As the french i have alot of infantry but not a great deal of artillery - at least not many sections wholly dedicated to it, i have cavalry but perhaps less than the allied forces.

perhaps i can put up information here and there as the game progresses and screenshots

how do i put screenshots in the body of an thread? - i hit the image insert button i get these "[img] [/img" things what do i do with them?

also i was directed to some modded graphics for tillers games and i have made a copy of the game with the modded graphics as well as a copy with the original. I like the modded terrain as it looks more autumn but i prefer all o ftillers figures and icons as they are easier to see - can i just have the modded terrain but keep everything else original?