Background on new game Marching Eagles - Waterloo

[Titus]

I thought it would be useful to put a little background to the new game 'Marching Eagles - Waterloo' published by HPS Simulations Ltd. Promotional details are on their website hpssims.com
The game is significantly different from the Ancient Warfare series. Marching Eagles is a new game engine and will develop hopefully into a new series of games. Each game will focus on a campaign during the Napoleonic period 1796 - 1815 in Europe. The game is a grand tactical warfare game involving a series of battles associated with the campaign - Waterloo. Units are generally at the regiment, brigade and division level.
Marching Eagles is a IGOYOUGO turn based system using irregular shaped areas instead of hexagons. Instead of a 20m hex, one area will cover 400m - 750m. This gives the infantry brigades and cavalry regiments room to form up as commanded by the player suitable for the terrain in the area and the presence of enemy units.
Players are able to place orders on each unit as long as there are Command Points remaining. The number of Command Points available at the start of each turn depends on the battle scenario. The number of turns in the small scenarios is less than 10 giving a player a quick game and exposure to the game mechanics before facing the larger battles such as Waterloo and Ligny.
The Units look like counters on a board and show the basic combat factor in the bottom left corner of the counter and the Unit Strength in the top right corner. Roughly one infantry strength point is equal to a battalion or approximately 500 men. One cavalry strength point is equal to a squadron or approximately 150 men. One artillery strength point is equal to a Company or approximately 6 - 8 guns.
Each player turn is broken down in to 2 phases - In the first phase the player can expend command points to move, change formation and initiate attacks. In the second phase combat is resolved. During the second phase, if the option was ticked at the start of the battle for 'Tactical Play', the player will be asked to decide on the local battle tactics for each specific area. This option only appears if there are 2 or more friendly units in the area where combat is to be resolved. Having multiple units in one area allows a player to conduct local tactics such as flank attacks. There are 9 tactical play options but only a selection of these would be available to the player at any one time dependent on the combination of friendly units conducting the combined attack in the one area.
To win a battle, a player needs to learn how to use combined arms tactics, how to use massed artillery effectively and ensure your units are in the right formation for combat or rapid movement across the battlefield. It is worth reading the Tactical Guide document available when running the game from the menu - Help pop-down list as this highlights key features for infantry, cavalry and artillery units. The Tactical Guide document is in pdf format and can be found separately from the game in the 'Marching Eagles ' folder.
Have fun playing the game and good luck,
Paul

[panzerde]

In the Frasnes scenario, playing as the French, I see a notice of reinforcements arriving. These are all 6e Division. No reinforcements ever arrive. None are listed as reinforcements at the beginning of the scenario. Am I doing something wrong, or should this notification not be showing up?

[Sgt_Rock]

Send this to the HPS Tech Support ... they forward it on to Paul.

[Titus]

In the Frasnes scenario, playing as the French, I see a notice of reinforcements arriving. These are all 6e Division. No reinforcements ever arrive. None are listed as reinforcements at the beginning of the scenario. Am I doing something wrong, or should this notification not be showing up?

Hi;
I do not think you are doing anything wrong. The Event Cards are drawn at random at the start of each player turn and include the one - "March to the Sound of the Guns. If available you may have one unit that appears as reinforcements appear one turn earlier". In the case of Frasnes where there are no reinforcements, this card would not apply. I will modify the code on the next update to prevent this card from appearing.

Regards,
Paul

[panzerde]

Thanks Paul. That makes sense.

Definitely enjoying the game. Jim Owczarski (Cyrano) and I gave a talk at Origins this year on the topic of the "right" size for gaming Napoleonics. Our contention was that if you wanted to command as closely to how the generals of the period thought you'd want to focus on brigades. This game is a great example of what we were talking about!

[surcouf]

Hi all,
i need some feedback before i buy it .
ciao.

[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.

[Lancier]

Any allied opponents for a possible Marching Eagles: Waterloo? a small scenario maybe...

Just bought ME:W so want to try a pbem, learning may be better while pbeming i guess ^^

[phoenix]

The graphics look awfully dated and uninspiring. Are there plans to change them? Are they moddable, or have they been modded to look better, does anyone know?

[Lancier]

The graphics look awfully dated and uninspiring. Are there plans to change them? Are they moddable, or have they been modded to look better, does anyone know?

They are not that bad to me really. Zoom in view quite good, especially graphs on cards on right are great...
Just zoom out view with some nato symbols instead of circles would be better tho.