Napoleon in Italy Interview

By Larry Levandowski

The next six months will be bliss for gamers who want to follow in the footsteps of Napoleon. Among the Napoleonic strategy games coming out soon is Napoleon in Italy, developed by Hussar Games, and published by Matrix Games. ACG asked Varhegyi Bulcsu of Hussar about the game, and what Hussar has in store for the future.

ACG: Students of Napoleon certainly are familiar with the campaigns in Italy, but most everyone else may never have even heard of them. Why did you choose this subject as your next game after For Liberty?  

Varhegyi: Napoleon’s first campaign is a relatively brief (one year) campaign with lots of maneuver – this is very well suited to our game engine. It is also a very balanced affair, the outcome of the campaign was not decided until the end. Both sides have an equal chance for victory. Since we would like to make this into a series, it was logical to start with the first campaign, especially since it was pretty much neglected so far.

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ACG: What scenarios will be available?

Varhegyi: There are nine scenarios, a tutorial, the Piedmont campaign and various other short period campaigns plus of course the full campaign covering a whole year. All campaigns can be continued beyond the scenario limit. Users can make their own campaigns as well.

ACG: NII is both a strategic and a tactical wargame. Tell us a little about the strategic part of the game. What level of units does the player control? How long are turns in game time? What challenges does the player face at the campaign level?  

Varhegyi: On the strategic level the player controls different sized units, from detachments to full armies. A typical turn takes about 10 minutes, but in multiplayer (especially play by email) we guarantee that you would want to spend more time on a turn. The challenge is to keep your forces in fighting shape, manage the replacements and reinforcements and set the correct stance for your armies, which matters a lot.

ACG: How do the tactical battles play?  

Varhegyi: In the tactical battles the player controls regiments and cannon batteries. Infantry units can be deployed in four formations; line, column, square, and skirmish. Leaders provide morale bonus and special abilities, plus they can also rally the troops. Tactical battles are also turn based and the interface is very similar to the strategic level.

ACG: The game advertises an advanced initiative system, can you describe this for us?  

Varhegyi: In tactical battles, at the start of each turn leaders must pass an initiative roll (based on their initiative rating). If they pass this, then they provide bonuses to the troops and they can rally routed units. If they fail, they can move around but they have no effect on the soldiers.

ACG: Tell us a little about the units and armies themselves.

Varhegyi: There are six types of units; hussars, dragoons, infantry, light infantry, cannons and heavy cannons. Each unit has its historical name in the game and assigned to the army where it started the campaign in real life. There are three armies; the Piemontese Army, the Austrian Army, and the French Army. The French are different; they get more movement points on the strategic map to reflect their much better mobility.

ACG: The game is advertised as coming with a campaign editor. What will this allow the player to do?  

Varhegyi: The editor allows you to set up campaigns from scratch or to modify existing campaigns. For each unit, all starting attributes and starting leaders can be set. The editor does not allow changes to the map or unit stats.

ACG: Will the game support human vs. human play? PBEM? TCP/IP? Both strategic and tactical modes?  

Varhegyi: We have three types of multiplayer; hot-seat, PBEM and TCP/IP on both the strategic and tactical levels.

ACG: What improvements or new features did you put into the game engine since For Liberty?  

Varhegyi: We have lowered the memory requirements and improved the artificial intelligence. Our map is now based on a satellite height map, which makes the map much more realistic. There is a new formation (square), we have a new unit attribute (cohesion) and we also have the initiative system. There are other small changes to the game system as well. We feel also that this game plays better than For Liberty because the game is based on a focused short campaign with two equally professional armies. Play balance is much better in this setting.

ACG: What’s next for Hussar Games? Another Napoleonic campaign?

Varhegyi: If the game proves to be popular then we would like to make all the campaigns of Napoleon. We also have plans to make another game based on Hungarian history, but the setting of this is not decided yet.

Thank you Varhegyi for your time, we are certainly looking forward to this game!

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