War and Peace 1796 - 1815
$19.95		(Win98/Me/2000/XP) (DVD Case) (WAR&PPR)

Publisher: Microids

Ages 11 and Up

The Early Stages of the 19th Century

With the 1789 French Revolution begins a long and troubled era. For 25 years, Europe will be the center of titanic confrontations. If France is dominating that whole epoch, Napoleon’s ambitions will generate hostility from almost every major nation of that period – England, Austria, Prussia and Russia – which will accelerate its fall.

War & Peace is a strategy and conquest game giving you the reins of one of the 6 major nations of the early 19th century: France, England, Austria, Prussia, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. You’ll play during Napoleons’ most crucial wars.

During that time, the world’s frontiers weren’t limited to Europe. War & Peace includes a unique worldwide map allowing a better understanding of the geographical and strategic aspects of each nation (town locations, seas, relief…). This landscape is built on 105 screens allowing a great comfort of play. It is possible, at any moment, to access any location on the map in order to keep a watchful eye on all current events.

War & Peace’s action is taking place between 1796 and 1815. These 21 years are divided in 8 different periods, each of them corresponding to a realistic campaign. Italy campaign in 1796, Austria campaign in 1805, Belgium campaign in 1815…

Game Presentation:

Become your nation’s leader and influence the course of the 19th century’s history! You’ll be in charge of your country’s entire governing strategy: from the political aspect to the economic decisions, without forgetting science, war and diplomacy.

On a fully 3D worldwide map govern your country in a realistic historical context and become one of the high-profile headmen of a fascinating period of history.

War & Peace, the figures : 183 real cities, a landscape built out of 105 screens, 12 different architectural styles, 6 major nations to play with, 30 neutral nations, 40 scenarios, over 180 generals, and 16 different types of units.

War & Peace remains faithful to the actual historical era, do not hesitate to visit the History section to learn more about this fascinating epoch!

Features:

• Play on a unique fully 3D worldwide map
• Take possession of 183 faithfully represented cities
• Discover 12 different architectural styles and the world’s greatest buildings (Pyramids, Tower of London, Arc de Triomphe…)
• Guide one of the 6 major nations to victory
• Deal with 30 neutral nations defending their own interests
• Manage diplomacy, spying and secret war to win without direct combat with the whole world
• Choose carefully your type of units to build an effective army
• Anticipate your opponents’ strategies
• Determine your own terms of victory

Barracks

The Barracks are the buildings where you construct your army units: infantry, cavalry and artillery. The type of army you construct depends on the size of the city it’s located in; and so in a small city you can only recruit small units of lesser strength: light infantryman, hussars and light artillery. However, in a big city you have access to more powerful troops like cavalrymen or siege weapons.

University

The university will help you produce scientific points that will permit you to purchase technologies. The science are divided into two categories: military science, increasing your firing precision or your military troops resistance; and administrative science increasing the number of men your farm produces or gold brought by your industries.

Spies

Spies are special units; which have the capacity to infiltrate enemy frontiers without creating a diplomatic incident. But other than being spies, they have unique abilities: they can make enemies population’s start a revolution to increase your empire without mobilizing your troops.

Requirements:

Minimum: PC Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, CPU 800 Mhz, 128 Mb of RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, 800 Mb of hard disk space, Sound Blaster Compatible sound card, 32Mb 3D graphic card.

Recommended: PC Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, CPU 1 Ghz, 256Mb of RAM, 4 X CD-ROM drive, 800 Mb of hard disk space, Sound Blaster compatible sound card, 32Mb 3D graphic card.

Compatible Video Cards: ATI Radeon 7500, VE, 8500, 9700, ATI Rage Xpert, Matrox G400, G550, Kyro 2 / TNT 2, GeForce 256, GeForce 2 MX et GTS, GeForce 3 Ti / GeForce 4 MX and Ti

Reviews:

The Wargamer by William R. Trotter

"...but if you can just relax and enjoy War and Peace for what it IS, instead of scorning it for what it isn't, you might get sucked into its eccentric, richly textured vision of what the Napoleonic world might have been. It is one of the better "theme-and-variations" games to come along in quite a while. "Charming" is not an adjective often found in game reviewers' vocabularies, but in this case it's appropriate and I do not use it disparagingly."

"No, War and Peace doesn't include detailed and ultra-accurate simulations of Borodino, Waterloo, and Austerlitz (and if that's what you want, God knows there are plenty of hardcore sims to choose from). But here there are equally plausible and highly entertaining battles equally pivotal in the context of the game's Alternate History timelines. The supporting elements of city-building, technological development and diplomatic horse-trading incorporate no great originality, but they do work, in context, as they're supposed to, for they enable the player to engineer some quixotic, even bizarre, alliances as well as crank out some really cool military units."

"Worst of all - astonishing, really, at this stage in the evolution of PC gaming - is the inclusion of a code-key that unlocks the game! I haven't seen one of those damned things in years, and I can't imagine why Microids decided to revive a custom that was universally hated even when it was routine practice. Be careful when you open the box - your key-code is printed on a little slip of paper about the size of a shirt label. I almost didn't notice it, and if a stray gust of wind had blown it into the Sargasso Sea of detritus under my desk, I would not have been able to play the game - or even known the reason why! It's safe to say that this archaic "security" feature is going to tick off a great many customers before they even install the game."

"It's real-time, but I liked it anyway. I plunged into War and Peace with out any high expectations, but setting the game-speed on low eliminated much of my initial frustration. After I grew comfortable with the interface and the Big-Mountains, Itty-Bitty-Armies scale of things, I came to admire how densely packed it is with features, and how cleverly the whole "gaming gestalt" had been fine-tuned and balanced. Quick games can be easily setup using modest victory conditions such as "capture six cities." Lots of offbeat tactics can be tried in such games without wasting an entire weekend. On the other end of the scale, mammoth, epic games can be played that will keep players thoroughly entertained for many hours or even days."

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