Napoleon in Italy

“Boney” made his bones in Northern Italy, his escapades at Toulon notwithstanding. The Directory probably thought the neglected Italian theater of operations would take some luster off the too-popular young general. Their logic was understandable; the Republic’s army there had not been successful, was almost unsupplied, ill-led and suffered low morale. Napoleon, however, always saw opportunities where others saw only obstacles. He revived the starving troops he found with promises of fruit and honey if they fought well. He discovered a core of good officers – many who would become marshals later – and gave them priority over the dead wood he saw in the other commanders. He led this rag-tag army up through narrow mountain passes to fertile plains and squashed the Austrian presence in the area in less than two years, 1796-1797.

The game industry has largely ignored this campaign. Perhaps, the splendid Grand Armee of 1805 overshadows the scarecrows of the Army of Italy. The Italian campaign had a few sieges that slowed the action. Nevertheless, Hussar Games felt that the engine used for 1848 and For Liberty! would fit this unusual conflict. On at least one level, the Hungarian company succeeded.

“Cols”, Not Passes

Napoleon in Italy is a turn-based game played on an operational and tactical level. Turns represent a week and the operational map has hexes of five mile while the tactical hexes are about a hundred yards. The key units are regiments/demi-brigades and batteries. These units are aggregated into detachments or “armies” with leaders. The icons for troops are small columns, horse and guns.

The terrain graphics for the operational maps cover the northern half of Italy and some of the French and Austrian Alps. These graphics have a 3D feel with the mountains and cols illustrating the difficult ground well. Rivers and cities are clearly shown in a period fashion while waving flags mark units and city possession. The tactical maps have very nice hills, streams and brush. Unfortunately, neither map has a zoom feature, making unit formation and detail hard to see in a congested area. More importantly, the map is peppered with small towns. These towns are important as they serve as supply sources, substituting for supply routes. The large number of towns is fine, but the intelligence reposts each turn uses many obscure towns as reference points. A “Find” feature would make the reports much easier to use, given the relatively unknown nature of small Northern Italian communities.

The lack of a zoom is partially offset by the info bar on the left border. This bar shows every detail of terrain, selected unit’s five abilities, leaders’ qualities and special abilities and weather as well as national zeal and army influence. Buttons initiate orders and postures for units as well as bring up the many screens. The only problem with the bar is the font can be hard to read if the large font option is used.

The 44-page manual is thorough even if it could be organized better. The tutorial campaign and mouse tip information make the mechanics of the game very accessible. The cursor tip is very helpful by showing where the unit can move and attack.

Organizing Units So They Can Be Mauled

The units have six basic attributes such as supply, experience, strength and morale along with six special abilities like firepower, movement and pay. The higher the values for these, the more effective the unit will be. However, all these values go for naught if units are under the command of a poor leader. Leaders come in three ranks representing their command radius. Each leader is rated for five attribute including attack, defense and initiative. In addition, many generals have one or more special abilities such as training, sieges, bonus for specific troop types and morale uppers. Thus, a contingent of good troops is wasted if led by a hack. Players’ first action should be to shunt bad officers aside and put better ones in charge. Such actions are limited. Changing commanders costs initiative points and can lower national zeal. Units can be transferred instead but transfers lower the readiness of both “armies”. The sum of leaders and unit values make up “armies”’s readiness. Organization is of utmost importance early in a game.

Playing the French side in the full campaign and early scenarios of the eight shorter campaigns, players are faced with difficult strategic decisions. The path from their toehold on the coastal plain into Tuscany leads through a few winding mountain passes. The Austrians not only hold key positions along the way but can quickly move massive reinforcements south. These forces can try to stymie powerful French moves. The French can concentrate their forces but will risk Austrian occupation of cities in rear areas. Regardless of the overall strategy, combat happens early, thus forcing players to choose posture and tactics, facing and if a specific “army” will march to an adjacent hex when battle is joined. The five postures and three tactical choices should be paired carefully, e.g. attack posture may need bold tactics. These choices can be made through the info bar or right clicking on the unit. Entrenching aids in defense. Hotkeys can also be used. All orders, movement and combat are dependent on the number of movement points a unit has.

If the player has chosen strategic battle, combat is resolved automatically with scrolling text describing the rounds. In the Advanced rules, leaders undergo imitative checks to see if they lead their men into combat. Since arrival and activation is key to victory, bad initiative can trump advantages in numbers and quality. Combat results are shown as losses in men, changes in morale, dead leaders and experience and – in the case of large battles – changes in national zeal.

Should players choose to fight it out tactically, the screen shifts to a tactical map that is a fairly good representation of terrain. The player first places his forces on hexes designated with flags. A basic flaw in the tactical engine appears here in that artillery cannot be stacked with other units. The hex scale is large enough to allow this so the awkward creation of creating lanes for artillery fire is anachronistic. The same complaint can be made for not allowing leaders to be stacked with units. This flaw is especially important since leaders have a command radius based on their rank; units outside the radius do not respond optimally to orders. During battle, infantry and cavalry can change from column to line formations. The small 3D icons make noticing formations and facing difficult to see. Movement points again determine what units can do. For instance, units that have not moved can fire into an adjacent hex three times but movement can pare this down to none. Fire and melee require separate buttons. Combat results are losses of men and morale. Leaders can increase morale through a “Rally” order. At any time, players can opt to have combat resolved automatically. Where this system was satisfactory in For Liberty!, the feel for Napoleonic warfare just isn’t present.

The aftermath of battles can be ugly. Both sides can lose readiness, making the loser vulnerable for a second attack in a more unfavorable position. Victory can add initiative points which can be turned into replacements at the cost of unit experience. Unlike the forerunner games, sides receive scheduled recruitments. Winning the game is a function of national zeal rations, measured by victories and captured cities.