Ageod's Upcoming Napoleonic Game

[Jarhead0331]

I played a bit of this. Problem is that I cannot stand the UI. If youre moving a large cluster of units in a short area, it turns into a mess of black lines and you end up having no idea what the heck is happening

All AGEOD games are like that but once you get used to their logic it all makes sense.  It took me many years to finally grasp how to play an AGEOD game the way the creators intended it.  You have to get inside their heads and understand how they interpret wargames.  Once you do the reward is great.  AGEOD games are not for everyone though I will admit that and it's all due to the unique gameplay mechanic.

W8... Can you explain this a little bit and give some more insight. How does playing it the way the developers intended it to be played solve the issue Hofstadter is speaking about? One would seem to have no impact on the other. Thanks!

[W8taminute]

I played a bit of this. Problem is that I cannot stand the UI. If youre moving a large cluster of units in a short area, it turns into a mess of black lines and you end up having no idea what the heck is happening

All AGEOD games are like that but once you get used to their logic it all makes sense.  It took me many years to finally grasp how to play an AGEOD game the way the creators intended it.  You have to get inside their heads and understand how they interpret wargames.  Once you do the reward is great.  AGEOD games are not for everyone though I will admit that and it's all due to the unique gameplay mechanic.

W8... Can you explain this a little bit and give some more insight. How does playing it the way the developers intended it to be played solve the issue Hofstadter is speaking about? One would seem to have no impact on the other. Thanks!

Hi JH.  Yes I think I can clarify a bit further what I meant.  You see the computer games AGEOD makes can be thought of as digital representations of Stratego style game pieces on a complex board warsim.  On a physical copy of the game you would actually use your fingers to move pieces from one space to the other and in a particular order.  This is easy to understand if you have a physical board in front of you with pieces that you can touch and feel.  It's kind of the same thing in their digital games.

To solve Hofstadters problem one would simply choose the army hq unit and set it's subsequent movement orders to 'synchronized'.  Doing this will make all of it's corps that are attached to the army hq move to the same destination as the army hq.   Something like what you see in modern grand strategy board wargames. 

Of course there are times when you have a bunch of stacks that are not in the same army and need to issue individual orders to them.  This is where you need to get a grasp on stack turn order like you would in a physical game.  AGEOD solves this by using the 'next unit' key shortcut (i.e. e and r for land units, and t and y for naval units). 

The guys over at AGEOD are mostly old wargame grognards.  They're veterans of board wargames and have translated that experience to the digital world.  Just check out some of their older AGEOD forum posts and you get the idea of where they're coming from. 

[Queeg]

I am thinking about buying this game, could someone give some impressions about it?

Thanks you in advance :)

I'm a long-time AGEOD fan and own most of their games, but my honest advice would be to hold off a bit on WoN unless you have a high tolerance for bugs and oddities.  I've only been a able to play some of the shorter scenarios and a few turns in the grand campaign because of crashes and other bugs - events that don't fire or events that fire and delete half your army, units that wander the map aimlessly (Russians building artillery in Spain, for example), and a multitude of other head-scratchers. 

As usual, they are working hard to fix the problems - I think they're on their third or fourth beta patch just since the holidays, and the crashes are fewer and some of the events seem to be fixed.  But they still have a long way to go. 

My advice would be to keep an eye on the AGEOD forum to assess the progress. 

[Philippe]

Ageod seems to be jinxed when it comes to games about Napoleon, which is a shame and really odd because they're French.

I still remember the terrible maps from their first Napoleonic game.  I always chalked it up to the way the French educational system works.  If you go the liberal arts route they make you study (and I mean really study) geography to an extent that anglophones have no concept of.  Braudel and the Annale school of historians are a logical by-product.  But apparently they skip all of that if you go into computer engineering.

[Asid]

I'm a long-time AGEOD fan and own most of their games, but my honest advice would be to hold off a bit on WoN unless you have a high tolerance for bugs and oddities.

My advice would be to keep an eye on the AGEOD forum to assess the progress.

+1

[mikeck]

I never had a crash but did experience some oddities. Many HAVE experience crashes though so either hold off or try the new beta patch. I have not tried it yet but from looking at the change log, it may solve A lot of problems. The mechanics and system are great though...much like The Russian revolution game

[verdugo94]

Thanks for your answers :) I have bought The Campaings of Napoleon from Chandler to pass my waiting until the game is fixed.

Have a nice day.

[ArizonaTank]

Matrix tagged me with the Easter Sale on this. 

I played the 1805 scenario, and managed a crushing victory against the Coalition.  Mostly because I kept winning battles.  Speed of turn resolution was OK, about 20 seconds.  The biggest issue I have with the game is that battle results were not realistic.  I was routinely able to ambush the enemy, and proceeded to wipe out 10 thousand troops at a time.  Other than that, it was fun.  And I am one of those players on the fence with AGEOD.

[Philippe]

I really like Ageod games, but you have to take them case by case.  For some weird reason, they seem to be jinxed when it comes to Napoleonics (weird because they're French).  Their first Napoleonic game had a catastrophically bad map that put me off getting this one.  My impression is that the map is ok, but there are other issues and I think I'm going to wait about a year or so and see if the problems get ironed out before taking the plunge.

In the meanwhile there are plenty of other Ageod games like WIA and Revolution under Siege Gold to keep me busy while I'm waiting.

[Sir Slash]

Yeah I really like Civil War II but the videos off the other eras like Seven Years War and the new Napoleon game don't seem to fit as well. The logistics angle and slow, steady approach seems more appropriate for the Civil War.

[Tuna]

This is on sale for its debut on Steam.. Has it been fixed, or is it still a mess?

[Nefaro]

This is on sale for its debut on Steam.. Has it been fixed, or is it still a mess?

What was wrong with it, other than the usual AGE turn processing times? 

Just curious.  I was eyeing it too.

[Tuna]

Reading the forums, it sounds like it was CTDing a lot.. Also the AI was doing Stupid things. Sounds like a big patch just came out, but I didn't see any posts saying all is well now. I love how beautiful the map is and would love to purchase if it was working ok.

[mikeck]

Patch 1.2 came out a week ago and is extensive. If nothing else, reading the change log will show you the complexity of the game. I have always loved AGEOD games but I think they have stretched the AG Engine as far as it can go.

Change log:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?43363-Wars-of-Napoleon-has-been-updated-to-version-1-02!

[Johnnie]

The engine is not the issue.  The game is buggy.  It crashes on different rigs.  I am amazed that a new game which uses such a tried and true engine could be so unstable.  But then I know nothing of programming, etc.