Probably the first real time strategy game I ever played, around the mid 90’s when I was a huge fan of ‘Sharpe’ which was set in the same era, Fields of Glory lets you command armies during the Napoleonic wars era. Playing as either the French, British or Prussian armies, you can fight battles that took place following Napoleons escape from exile in 1815 leading up to the battle of Waterloo.
The battlefields are displayed on an epic scale however, the terrain rarely seems to have any effect on movement or combat within the game.
A brilliant feature of the game is that while setting up a battle, the player may choose whether to deploy units manually or historically so that the battle can be played closer to how it was actually played out at the time. The player may command vast columns of infantry, cavalry and batteries of artillery. These units can be commanded individually or in groups as high as corps and army level so the player may order the entire army to move at once through the commanding officers on horseback also visible during play.
The sounds and smoke of cannon and musket fire give a sense of the heat of the battle, with bodies visible and never disappearing from sight giving a sense of carnage,
an annihilated unit if say massacred by cavalry in one spot will seem like a heap of mangled bodies, whereas a unit of infantry advancing on guns or a line of infantry giving volley fire will leave a trail of fallen soldiers behind it being very pleasing to fans of this era of warfare such as myself. Whilst the terrain may not seem to have an impact such as troops on high ground having an advantage in defense or even rivers stopping units from moving across it, Strategic deployment of troops is vital to the outcome of the battle and as such, battles will never play out in the same way, formations of troops will have a realistic effect on the way different attacks effect them such as being in square formation to defend against cavalry and artillery being most effective when attacking side on.
Gameplay can at times progress quite slowly, battles sometimes lasting several hours but this again I find give a more realistic sense of weariness of battle.
Overall simple and fun to play, a must for retro strategy gamers and fans of the Napoleonic battle techniques.
The game is close to historical facts and therefore can be recommended to provide good information about this period of European history.
