Victory and Glory: Napoleon is a turn-based strategy game set during the Napoleonic wars. Glenn Drover, a creator of board games, and his Electric Games are responsible for its creation. The development of the title was partly financed by a successful campaign on Kickstarter, covering both the video game itself and its board game equivalent.
Story
In the game we play the role of Napoleon Bonaparte, trying to rewrite the history of 19th-century Europe. The plot consists of six different scenarios with different starting conditions, in which the armies of the legendary French Emperor face a coalition of several European countries led by the British. In the original version of the game, the scenarios included: The Second Coalition (1800), The Dash for the Danube (1805), Who's Next (1806), The Austrian Phoenix and the Spanish Quagmire (1809), Into Russia (1812), and Defending the Empire (1813).
Mechanics
Mechanics in Victory and Glory: Napoleon combine the features of classic turn-based strategy games with elements of board and card games. The game takes place on the vast map of Europe between 1800 to 1818 and focuses on tactical land and sea battles in which we make use of a range of diverse units, including infantry, cavalry, artillery and top commanders for each country involved in the war.
During each turn, players move up to hundreds of units on a strategic map. As soon as we enter enemy territory, a battle begins in which each side throws a certain number of dice (depending on the characteristics of its units). The result of the clash depends on the ratio of damage inflicted to damage received. When the damage is small, units can be withdrawn or reorganised. A significant loss leads to their permanent removal from the battlefield.
Although the game is based on board games, the gameplay is tactical in depth, and each type of army has specific bonuses when fighting against other types of units. Bonuses are also granted for merging individual armies or setting them into specific combat formations. Special event cards, which reflect actual historical events, are also an important modifier of the game; they allow for additional forces to be recruited or provided with specific bonuses. Each game starts with a random set of cards, which increases in the course of the game.
Game modes
Victory and Glory: Napoleon is a PC game that provides only single-player gameplay.
Technical aspects
Victory and Glory: Napoleon features "grand strategy" visuals, reminiscent of early Europa Universalis games. The whole thing strongly refers to its board equivalent, and at the same time it was realized in a legible way and enriched with illustrations of troops and events retaining the atmosphere of the epoch.
