Background on new game Marching Eagles - Waterloo

[panzerde]

It's a very good game, and tough to beat for $25.

It isn't at all the same as the JTS games. This is much more grand tactical. There's a lot more emphasis on putting your troops into the correct formation and positioning the right mix of units for combined arms attacks than there is the very tactical movement and attacks of the Tiller games.

The limited command points available each turn make doing the above difficult. You'll never have enough command to do everything you want. Decide where to attack and with what, concentrate artillery to support the attack, and accept that you're going to have some units that don't do anything that turn. This is further complicated by having only a limited number of leaders, leading to units being out-of-command and unable to move.

If you can use cavalry to force an enemy unit into square and then have some artillery and infantry in place to tear them up, you're doing great! Getting all of that coordinated is the challenge though - just like it really was in 1815.

There's a nice mix of scenarios with the expected variants (What if Ney had I Corps at Quatre Bras? for example). The game plays quickly, so you can knock out a medium sized battle in an hour or less. Ligny or Waterloo are going to take a bit longer, but not hours and hours.

There's a good bit of period chrome hidden throughout the game that isn't obvious at first. The tactical cards contribute to this. You'll see things like charging cavalry have a morale failure and stop their charge before contacting a prepared infantry regiment. Having a lot of concentrated artillery firing will cause the area they're in to become filled with smoke, causing adverse combat effects.

Most combat doesn't cause strength point losses, but does cause increasingly levels of disorganization. The more disorganized the unit, the more likely it is to break. Units that break in the face of the enemy usually lose a battalion/strength point. Cavalry will pursue retreating/routing enemies. Sometimes, this lands the cavalry in hot water.

The game is simple to play, but captures the mechanics of the period very well. It is not always easy to win versus the AI. I've yet to try PBEM, but plan to soon.

Again, for $25, this is tough to beat. I would very much like to see other campaigns handled with this engine. Overall I would say that this game fits between the JTS games and Campaigns on the Danube. It fills the space for a brigade level, grand tactical game that I know I've wanted for awhile. Paul has done a great job here, and I think anyone that enjoys playing Napoleonics will likely enjoy Marching Eagles.