Napoleon Senki

Gameplay

Before each fight, a screen pops up with a summary of the situation and the troop counts for both sides. A simple map of Europe uses dots to show where every possible battle can take place, though all the map text is in Japanese. A notable detail for its time is that mountain heights are shown accurately on the battlefield: lighter brown means small hills, while dark brown marks huge mountains or their tallest peaks. The goal is to win each engagement using tactics from the late 1700s and early 1800s, so Napoleon Bonaparte can take over all of Europe. Players must properly use infantry, artillery (whose cannonballs can smash walls), and cavalry. Soldiers come in three types: friendly troops, potential defectors, and enemy troops. Friendly soldiers can be ordered north, south, east, west, or to halt. When a player’s unit meets a group of potential defectors, no fight happens—those soldiers simply join the platoon that found them. Enemy troops can be fought automatically or manually, with each individual soldier given commands to advance, retreat, move sideways, or halt. Each soldier type has its own strengths: cavalry are fastest, swordsmen are most powerful, and riflemen have the longest range. There is a Japanese write-up explaining the history of each unit type and the in-game tactics, plus a quick military parade showing Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops into battle.