Your review for Histwar

[Darsh]

9/10

pros:
- Finally we have a correct AI in a game.
- massive battle and the feel to be a real general
- Easy to learn
- the editors
- historical accuracy

cons:
- some bugs with the animations especially with the firefights
- graphisms and the interface aren't up to date

[thilio]

8/10
Globally the game holds promises
Gaphics and animations bugs are not so strong issues (maybe a patch will be performed)
To me, the main concern is the management of the units of a corps when attacking. It's very difficult to have a combined attack and to bring all units together on the ennemy. Sometimes despite a strong numeric advantage, units go to fight one by one rather than in a combined manner.
Maybe I don't handle the game properly....

[glaude1955]

6/10 pour l'instant. Trop de bugs ou blocages.
9/10 bientôt dès le premier patch (j'ai confiance)

6 / 10 for now. Too many bugs and bottlenecks.
9 / 10 soon as the first patch (I trust)

Yves

[ross_ntu]

7/10 for me  The game has lots of potential and is attempting something different.  Personally, unlike Darsh I have not found it so easy to learn so far, and I would say the interface needs streamlining to make it more accessible.  At the moment I spend too much time trying to see and do what I want to rather than being able to execute strategies.   That said I do not regret buying.

[FinnN]

8/10 for now

+ simulation of high level battlefield command in the Napoleonic period
+ competent AI
+ straight-forward interface
+ easy to learn and (so far) difficult to master
+ graphics clearly reflect the information you need to make decisions
+ comprehensive range of editors
+ good atmosphere evoked throughout

- some minor graphical bugs
- AI still has room for improvement
- graphics look primitive (2D as well as 3D)
- limited configuration options such as keyboard mapping, way times are shown (I prefered the way they were in the first demo)
- no full walkthrough of a battle in the manual
- definite bias towards large/huge battles in the available scenarios

Have fun
Finn

[CountArach]

7/10 for the moment. The concept and depth of the game is amazing and the AI amazes me all the time, but there are a few bugs. Once the larger bugs are sorted out things should be so much better and will likely get a 9 or 10 from me.

[GrosPaul]

Je répugne à fournir une note. Les chiffres sont tellement brutaux, ont un côté école primaire et je ne suis pas instituteur ni de près ni de loin.

Je me contenterai seulement de dire que je serai réellement enchanté lorsque les procédés pour jouer en PBEM et multi-joueurs auront été développés.

=====================
I hate to provide a note. The figures are so brutal, have a side primary school, and I am not teacher either closely or from far away.

I would merely to say that I will be really delighted when the processes to play in PBEM and multi-players will have been developed.

[EylauHurricane]

8/10!!
I agree: it's very difficult to manage an entire corp to attack; and it isn't easy to fight in a large battle commanding in "little", regiment by regiment. I'm waiting for the next step promised, the AI at Division and Brigade Level. For the moment, to practice, I'm creating a simple map with a little order of battle (Mohrungen, may be?), and I'll try to exercize myself (not only with the tutorial).
 :smile:But the game is great: -very good AI; -the way of fight is according to me historically correct; -I like graphics (I don't find them out of date); -the creativity of the player is exhalted by very good editors (all most famous Napoleonic PC games don't have editors, or, if yes,  limited, expecially map editors); -the potential for the future is enormous (with other battles, with Prussians, British, Spanish etc..).
Great work!!!

[dOrleans]

8/10

- Downloaded, installed and began running the game without a problem  (I use an iMac with Vista on an external drive)
- I wasn't sure what to fully expect, but Les Grognards has surpassed what I had hoped for!
- Amazed at the scope and appearance of the battles. Movement of units and delays of orders is very good and quite realistic in my opinion.
- I like the graphics currently and a large battle would look very good.
- There's a learning curve here but I do love a challenge. Not overly difficult to learn, but will take time to master
- Tremendous potential here for future mods/battles/ armies
- Good atmosphere! I also liked the martial music you hear from time to time. Very nice touch!

Excellent job overall JMM. I'm very happy with LG so far. Well worth the purchase! I will be busy with this for a long time to come.
Let's see what the future brings....

[Gunner24]

Get the graphic behaviours as they should be and it will be 10/10.

[HarryInk]

There are many things I'm sure will improve and I agree that it will reach 10/10 in good time.  I'd give it 8/10 now but I find my way into it bumpy due to petty computer problems at my end.  It's probably beyond LG's scope to tell me how to open ports to sort multiplayer - something that forums and gamers do for each other instead - but the contextual teething problems are a source of frustration & disappointment.  I'm very aware, however, that we are the first wave.  We'll clear the path for those who follow just as we help ourselves and each other forward.

Within LG, I want fast and easy access to a quick battle, so the edit map + edit OoB + start the game process seems unnecessarily complicated at the moment.  Essentially it's just an expectation from histwar, I suppose, that we read the manual and learn the process.  After that it will be fine.  This feels different from a 'quick start' or MAC-like attitude of "What will the user want when they first open the game?"  "How simple and intuitive can we make it?".  Of course, they have full development teams to smooth all that over, eh!  Accessing the scenarios is nice and quick.  Can't complain about that.  I just want to get something similar for quick battles.  Perhaps I'll find that soon...

Overall though these are very petty gripes.  It's an awesome achievement for which JMM should take pride and we should give thanks as we savour the future!

Oh, and the manual I have at the moment has no contents or index.    When you need to go to it to find things, you want those items there to save you time for the game.

I also found the terrain editor confusing at first.  There was no obvious save or exit & others have had the same issue.  It causes frustration and a little shake of confidence when you have to task manager/end task to escape from the program the first half-a-dozen times until the penny drops.  So, with more development, the penny will have dropped on the programming side, I'm sure, and the new player will find it smoother.

There are also little bugs like if I alt+tab out to desktop then try to return at certain moments (like waiting to connect multiplayer), or often on my first start, I get a non-responding white screen that I have to task manage out of.  2nd start is always reliable but you don't want to continue beyond the first patch.