HistWar: Les Grognards

Thursday, 10 April 2008

We are happy to release a new assortment of screenshots along with a gameplay video today. The highlights of the video show off various units engaging in hand-to-hand combat as well as coming under fierce musketry and artillery fire. For the first time you will also witness units routing as well as taking casualties.

[ Link to the HistWar: Les Grognards Video Gallery ] - http://www.battlefront.com/products/les_grog/video.html

[ Link to the HistWar: Les Grognards Screenshots Gallery ] - http://www.battlefront.com/products/les_grog/screenshot.html

Game Info:

Histwar™: Les Grognards brings to life the pageantry, savagery and brilliance of the Napoleonic era like no other wargame before. From its innovative three tiered AI system, the overwhelming level of editing and customization, its unflinching depiction of period combat in gloriously detailed 3D brilliance, and it's wealth of historical knowledge and accuracy Histwar™: Les Grognards is in every way the bleeding edge of Napoleonic combat simulation.

Histwar™: Les Grognards, designed and developed by Jean-Michel Mathé, is a tactical and strategic wargame, putting you in charge of a Napoleonic army on the battlefields of the early 19th century (1805-1814).

Histwar™: Les Grognards can be either played against the computer (solo), or Multi-player via LAN or Internet (TCP/IP) with up to 6 players divided into 2 sides with each player controlling either all or a part of an Army. Play by e-mail (PBEM) with 15 minute game sequences (turns) is also supported.

Thousands of soldiers (over 50,000 animated figures representing up to 500,000 men), deployed in battalions are organized into individually control lable Regiments, Brigades, Divisions and Army Corps are awaiting your orders, and will carry them out in breathtaking 3D environments.

Histwar™: Les Grognards allows you to relive the famous historical (and countless what-if) battles between the French, Russians and Austrian armies as well as a multitude of secondary nations and city states (Wurtemberg, Saxony, Poland, Italy, Naples).

Histwar™: Les Grognards comes complete with ten major historical battles (Haslach, Austerlitz, Eylau, Friedland, Campaign of Eckmul, Wagram, Moscowa (Borodino), Berezi na, Hanau, La Rothière) as well as powerful game editors to create new Maps, Orders of Battle and Unit Doctrines (AI scripting) so you can create your own units, battles, even uniforms!

View the action and plan cunning strategies with 4 different camera modes: a 2D based Strategic Overview map, a 3D Symbolic Unit map, a 3D "real world" map with subjective (ground level) view, and a 3D Real World map with "bird's eye" view.

The heart of the game concept of Histwar™: Les Grognards is to put you in t he shoes of an Army Commander, letting you define - with a few clicks of the mouse- a precise plan of battle, which is then carried out by the various artificial intelligence systems controlling your troops. You can also directly interact with the lower levels of command (Corps - Division - Regiment) to closely manage the implementation and execution of your orders. To allow for these 3 levels of command, Histwar™: Les Grognards was designed with a revolutionary and customizable 3 level AI system, similar in function to the system first implemented in the Combat Mission series of games.

Histwar™: Les Grognards also models the combat itself in impressive detail. All combat losses are calculated using complex mathematical models which take into account factors such as the geometrical arrangement of the physical unit formations, their training, their combat abilities, their fatigue, and their morale. Unit Morale itself is modeled to a great degree and affected by such diverse elements as the presence and status of the Army commander nearby, proximity of friendly units, fatigue, weather effects, sustained losses, and much more!

Histwar™: Les Grognards provides you the tools to make your own massive battles and even construct your own Armies! This is accomplished via the three different editors included with the game.

The Map Editor allows to create custom and random maps, from a small 6 x 4.5 km landscape to a sprawling 30 x 22.5 km battlefield. That's a maximum battlemap size of over 660 square kilometers! The maps are created in real time 3D and the editor allow for a stunning array of terrain features and structures to be placed on the map including villages, farms, hamlets, castles, encampments and sprawling vineyards, rivers, lakes and deep forest.

The Order of Battle Editor allows you to create your own Armies and comes with several data bases including more t han 4000 historical commanders' names (from General-in Chief's to Colonels), more than 1150 historical Regiments from fifteen different countries and include more than 550 historical military uniforms.

The Doctrine Editor allows you to manage and edit the behavior of Regiments controlled by AI. This powerful editor unlocks the very essence of the unit based AI and allows to truly customize how your units will behave, interact with one another and fight.

Histwar™: Les Grognards is currently in development with a release date planned for 2008.