bloodphoenix
Posts: 3
Joined: 4/10/2016
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I'm not in any way opposed to playing single-player games against a sufficiently challenging computer opponent.
That said, when I saw this game advertised, I waxed nostalgic for the times when I played the original board game from Eagle Games.
The people I game with are mostly a bunch of hard-core wargamers, for whom the original board version of this constituted a "beer and pretzels" game, the way players might take a break from a highly complex World War 2 simulation and dust off an old copy of "Axis and Allies". But I have to say that as simpler, more abstract games go, this one may be the best I've seen, capturing the various political/economic/diplomatic as well as strictly military aspects that together give the era its unique flavor. I can honestly imagine using it as a teaching tool for a High School history class. You've done such a great job of capturing the best parts of that table-top game (while improving on its deficits) right down to replicating the art used on the board, it can't help but bring back memories of hours spent moving plastic figures and rolling lots of dice!
In particular, I remember one Saturday that started out with the intention of playing for only a couple hours, and turned into like 6-8 hours of game play, as we hammered out the entire Napoleonic Wars in one afternoon, with a human player for every major power clustered around my dining room table. It was one of those wargaming memories that in hindsight seems to have a golden glow around it...a perfect day of: friendship, ruthless back-stabbing, and plastic mayhem. There were epic battles, daring risks, grand strategies, and fattening snacks. I was the Austrian Phoenix that would not stay dead, and among my stalwart allies were numbered two armchair Generals who have since resigned their commission in this life, far too soon.
For me, while there was much to enjoy in the system and mechanics of this game, its SOUL lay in the social experience. I was ready not only to pre-purchase a copy for myself, but to buy a copy for every surviving friend who stood around that table with me that sunny afternoon. Its not enough to say that I was disappointed to hear that it would have NO multi-player capability. I was crushed. And on another level...incredulous. I recognize that the mechanics don't lend themselves to PBEM, unless you're prepared to have a battle take a week to play out! But this game would be PERFECT for multiplayer play in real time! I'm not a computer programmer, so I don't profess to appreciate the full complexity of the challenge that would be involved. But surely if I can play "Napoleon: Total War", in real-time, with a buddy who is stationed in Afghanistan, something like this could be easily made to work? I believe the game contains an option to automate the battle rounds, which could handle that problem.
You have made a beautiful-looking game, and I may yet buy it just to appreciate it for its own merit, and to support what you are doing.
But I ask you please...consider a supplement or sequel that will allow the game to be played with a human player for each major nation. It is SO MUCH fun played that way. If funding that kind of programming work is the issue, well...I'd like to say that I'll write you a check, but my "ship" hasn't come in yet, and I fear it was sunk by the British Blockade! But as weird as this may sound, if I were to win the lottery, I would gladly finance that Multiplayer sequel, in memory of the aforementioned fallen Grognards.
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