My ultimate game would have four levels of play:
1) The International Strategic Level
Turn based with turns covering perhaps 3 months at a time. Each turn would include military unit raising and training tasks, financial and economic considerations, espionage and diplomacy. Very high level military moves would also be made on a map accompanying this level. The player would represent a government or dictator and would conduct the highest levels of diplomatic and strategic activity. Activities such as resource handling, economics and espionage would be AI controlled. For example as a government I would request that we go to war in support of our ally Blogdovia who has just been threatened by the dastardly Flangites next door. I request we send an army of 40,000 men in two corps with an artillery and cavalry reserve. In the meantime we send the Blogdovian government 250,000 in gold as immediate financial aid. The AI works out the army will take six months to assemble and send by sea arriving in the Blogdovian main port next autumn. We can afford to send the 250,000 in gold now but this restricts our army to 30,000 and only corps artillery, no army reserve park. As this is a small command our best Field Marshal has refused to command it and we can send it only in the care of a lesser officer. Or we can send the full army as planned with our Top Boy in charge but the Blogdovian rescue package will only amount to 100,000 gold. The player then decides which of these options (there could be several) he will take, the AI handling all the minor jobs of recruiting men to bring the depot battalions up to strength, cost of issue new uniforms, costs of buying extra artillery horses and so on. The 'minor' detail of what units to send unit strengths, and higher formation structure are not relevant to this level of game command. All this is worked out by the AI in accordance with our army doctrine and organisation (which we specified at the start of the game). Espionage would be similarly handled by the AI based on the standing of our consulate in that region, general reports from travelling traders, army co-operation officers writing letters home or the reports from agents operating in the enemy government or civil echelons. There wouldn't be much in the way of pretty animations on this map but it would be an open map (a la RTW) rather than a map of provinces.
2) The Military Strategic Level
A level on which pure military campaigns could be fought, preferably of the scale of the whole 100 Days, the whole French invasion of Russia, the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, all of Bonapartes 1796 invasion of Piedmont, and so on. This level might be turn based at around 1 day to 1 week per turn, or it could be real time (with time steps that include obligatory night time rest periods). This game level would allow great detail in units, strengths, marching rates, scouting, visibility, fog of war, disease, wounds and recovery from wounds, replacements, weather, minor politics (such as negotiating terms in sieges, or temporary cease fire conventions). The impact of higher politics (such as alliances or ceasefires affecting the whole campaign) would come in from 'on high' but in accordance with decisions made on the International Strategic Level. For example, continuing our expedition to help Blogdovia the map will be of that country plus the border regions of Flangia and her ally Thurn. We don't know it but the clever Blogdovian Prince has used our 100,000 to 'invite' the Thurnian government to stay out of the war and not join in the invasion the Flangites plan. The campaign starts in the spring following the autumn in which our army landed so we have had plenty of time to get to know the good defensive terrain and the likely avenues of the Flangian attack. So our campaign map is a clear one and shows where the Blogdovian troops are. Generally apart from the ability to send replacements to the front and maintian the games supply system there would be no resource management in this level of the game. The player would represent the highest level of army command in a local theatre. In essence this level is the ultimate miniatures campaign but run on a computer with all the admin tasks that so often bog down miniatures campaigns taken care of by the computer. This level could be run as a stand alone game or it would 'switch on' as a result of very high level manouverings in the International Strategic Level.
3) Grand Tactical Level
This level switches on when opposing forces meet in the Military Strategic Level above. I can think of no better description than to say Les Grognards sits in here. However I would like to see Rome Total War quality graphics (perhaps even more realistic graphics) and a toggle to switch off a map view altogether and manage the game from eye level and only being able to respond to the changing situation by means of real time dispatches and scouting reports, or personal reconnaissance. The player would represent an army commander if the encounter was a large one (e.g. Borodino), a corps commander if the encounter was mid-sized (e.g. Busaco) or a division commander if the action was small (e.g. Maida). If the action was just one of picquets or petit guerre the player could still involve himself at the battalion, company or platoon command level if he wished - the game engine would be flexible enough to activate the games rules, AI and level of graphic detail commensurate with the level of battle being resolved.
4) First Person Level
This level could stand alone as a fun game or be nested within level 3. The player could, if he wished, be a single soldier and experience the chaos of battle from the centre of a fusilier company of Durutte's division as it advances on Papelotte or you could be Colonel Baring and organise the defence of La Haye Sainte, or you could be a lowly French sous-lieutenant in charge of 20 men and a hay wagon out foraging near Ciudad Rodrigo when you are surprised by a vedette of 8 British Hussars. I'm thinking Sean Bean as Sharpe here
This game would be pure fun and might just be a pleasant diversion, but you could dip into the perspective of any man in your army, in any battle at any time. Some of these men would have no influence on the battle, some might have a significant part to play. The AI at this level would be very subtle and each of your own men and the enemy would be acting in accordance with orders issued from a higher level (level 3 above) plus be constrained by their training, morale, instincts, experience and army doctrine.
The game could be played offline entirely as single player against all computer controlled opponents.
But now the fun part. All levels allow massive multiplayer, online in real time. In Level 1 each player simultaneously sends out political instructions and requests, conducts diplomacy via chat windows with other players, pays players to spy on opponents or whatever, very much like the board game DIPLOMACY and when each is ready the game turn marker is advanced and all moves take place. In level 2 campaigns are planned and forces march or sail across the map. The players of the 2 (or more) countries fighting this campaign are the army commanders. The other players in the Level 1 campaign are allotted commands of corps, divisions or garrisons by the AI on a random or pre-determined level. Each of these subordinates has limited information commensurate with his level of command. In level 3 a similar structure is in place. Subordinate players will each gain honour, prestige and skill transferrable in some way to their own Level 1 positions (gold?) if they obey orders, act within national doctrine, co-operate, are successful in battle, do heroic deeds and so on. This incentive binds players into teams to work together even though they command opposing nations on the Level 1 map. Level 4 can really only be played online as a stand alone game, not as part of Level 3 I think, but being in an online game with 50+ other grognards all enjoying the period and the fun of a period first person wargame would be great.
Because the AI is so heavily intertwined in all levels of this game, if any one player cannot be at an online session, his entire nation will continue to function in accordance wiuth the situation he is currently in.
In addition to all THAT, the naval aspects of the game would be fully playable, from the International Strategic level (do I pull my home defence fleet out of the water this winter and have their bottoms scraped and recoppered - or do I keep it at sea watching that troublsome enemy) to the Military Strategic level (does Nelson follow Villeneuve out to the Caribbean or stay off Gibraltar?), to the Grand Tactical level (sea battles, landings from the fleet to attack forts, cutting out operations, putting armies ashore on a foreign beach, naval bombardments), to the first person level (leading a boarding party across the deck of your frigate, sword in hand).
And in addition to all THAT the game would allow not only accurate Napoleonic period wars and campaigns (chosen from a list of pre-set start dates and political set ups) but allow fully fictional nations and maps to be generated, much like the fictional games of Charles Grant and Brigadier Peter Young in the golden days of 1960s wargaming, the unit builder would allow you to make up armies based on historical practice but with your own personal stamp, uniforms, flags, regimental titles, doctrine, etc.
I would also like the game to cover the period from the Seven Years War as well, since that's one of my favourite wargaming periods. So 1755 to 1820 would be nice, thank you
Did I miss anything out?
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