Forge of Freedom
2006 JUL 25 - Matrix Games Announces Forge of Freedom!
Western Civilization Software Revisits the American Civil War
Matrix Games and Western Civilization Software (www.west-civ.com) are pleased
to announce that later this summer they will bring a new American Civil War
strategy game based on the Crown of Glory engine to gamers around the world.
More than seven-score years have passed since the start of this conflict that
pitted state against state, brother against brother and broke the chains of
slavery. Forge of Freedom gives you a chance to relive history from either side
in a work of grand strategy.
Forge of Freedom:
Features and Snapshots
Western Civilization Software presents:
The year 2005 marked the 200th anniversary of the start of the Napoleonic Wars,
the commencement of one of the most gripping decades in human history. It was
an era that saw cobblers become princes and emperors become exiles, an age of
legendary diplomats and brilliant tacticians. In our flagship product, Crown
of Glory: Europe in the Age of Napoleon, the player controls
one of the crowned potentates of Europe in the Napoleonic Era, wielding authority
over his nation's military strategy, economic development, diplomatic relations,
and social organization. It is a very thorough simulation of the entire Napoleonic
Era - spanning from 1792 to 1820, from the dockyards in Lisbon to the frozen
wastes of Holy Mother Russia.
Matrix
Games Signs Western Civilization’s Crown Of Glory
Matrix Games
and Western Civilization Software are pleased to announce that they will be bringing
the Napoleonic-era strategy game Crown Of Glory to gamers around the world. Two
hundred years after the start of the Napoleonic Wars, Crown Of Glory gives you
a chance to change history as the ruler of a nation.
David Heath, Director
of Operations for Matrix Games stated, “Crown of Glory is truly a revolutionary
game for the Napoleonic genre. The designers and developers have left no stone
unturned in realizing their vision of historically immersive and exciting gameplay.
Even if you’ve never looked at a Napoleonic game before, don’t miss
this one!”
full
story
Crown of Glory:
Europe in the Age of Napoleon
Awards
Crown of Glory wins Wargamer.com
Readers' Choice Bronze Award for 2005!
Crown of Glory
has won Wargame of the Year
from the newsgroup War-Historical!
GamersHall has given Crown of Glory a
silver award:
"A marvelous classical War-Game
of strategy and tactics mixed with depth."
Features
Scope of the game covers all of Europe and North Africa from 1792 to 1820.
Main map is divided into more than 200 provinces. There are eight national powers
from which players may control, and more than 90 minor powers controlled by
the computer. The national powers are France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia,
Turkey, Spain, and Sweden.
Turns at the strategic level correspond to one month of game time; turns on
the tactical level correspond to twenty minutes of game time.
Players control military, diplomatic, economic, and social aspects of their
nations. This includes such activities as drafting and ratifying treaties; offering
and accepting trade routes; moving and assigning activities to diplomats; levying
and supplying military units.
Troops are controlled at the division level and can be arranged into corps and
armies.
A wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light and Jager infantry;
cossacks and cossack cavalry; heavy and horse artillery; howitzers; guerilla
infantry; Janissaries; merchant ships; diplomats; frigates and privateers. There
are more than thirty types of units in all. Units have individual strength and
quality (morale) ratings that are determined by the level of barracks and dockyard
improvements in the province in which they were created.
Combat
At the player’s choice, battles can be resolved
either by quick combat or by detailed combat. In quick combat players make the
choice of the initial placement of their units, and then the battle is quickly
resolved. Detailed combat is a comprehensive battle simulation.
Some of the features of detailed combat:
Hex
Map. Detailed combat is resolved on a hex map 50x50 hexes in size. The map
uses a full complement of terrain -- heights, forests, mountains, deserts, rivers,
bridges, roads, villages, swamps, marshes, tall grass, mud: drawn using more
than 800 tiles arranged in four layers. The map is dynamically generated at
the beginning of each combat based on the terrain features found on the map
of Europe and also the population levels and developments found in the province
in which the combat occurs.
Turn
Based Tactical Rules. Detailed combat is turn-based. Each turn units are
assigned an initiative rating and then proceed to act in order of initiative.
Units attached to a corps have a significant initiative advantage and also have
the advantage of acting on the same initiative segment as the other units in
their corps: this allows them to move as a group without risk of having their
movement interrupted by enemy divisions.
Fully
Detailed Combat Simulation. There is as much detail in this tactical combat
as there is in the strategy-level of the game: supply, weather, morale, fog
of war, zones of control, formation, disordered and shaken units, fatigue, facing,
leadership, time of day, terrain, and fortifications are all modeled in depth.
Night
Turns. Night turns last 90 minutes game-time; during the night all units
have their sighting reduced to one hex.
Weather
Effects. Weather can vary from turn to turn – for instance, rain might
clear up periodically throughout the day, or a clear day might be punctuated
by a brief flurry of snow.
Special
Unit Abilities. Special types of units, such as guerillas, Jager infantry,
and howitzers, have unique abilities in detailed combat. For example, guerillas
can bypass zones of control and have special rules regarding terrain; Jager
and other light infantry have increased performance when fightin in, entering,
and leaving skirmish order; howitzers can fire over friendly units; light infantry
can avoid the charge of a regular infantry unit.
Beautifully
Rendered Animated 3D Units. Over 13,400 frames of units graphics.
Excellent Sound Effects.
Over 100 digitized sound effects put the player into the thick of the battle:
horses braying, men cheering, cannons roaring.
Eagles.
Units can “lose their eagles,” making it much harder for them
to rally.
Fresh Units. A unit
begins a battle “fresh” which provides a significant attack bonus
when the unit delivers its first attack of the battle.
Command
and Control. Units have a chance to "misinterpret" orders given
to them. Units engaged with other units in fierce fire fights may be pinned
in combat and unable to respond to commands..
Smoke! Realistic looking
battlefield smoke accumulates on the map wherever there is intense fire-fighting.
Smoke has an effect on visibility and on combat values. Smoke gradually drifts
and dissipates according to prevailing weather conditions.
Other Unit Specialty Orders.
Units can deploy and recall skirmishers, split into half-sized units, attempt
to form impromptu squares when charged by cavalry, capture enemy artillery and
caissons, surrender, retreat from the map, and be ordered to force-march.
More Than Seventy Historical Military Leaders Simulated. Military leaders
are attached to divisions in the detailed battle and augment several aspects
of their division’s performance in such aspects as: movement, morale, rallying,
formation involutions, and cavalry actions. Some military leaders possess “special
abilities,” such as Lord Wellington’s ability to allow infantry to
resist cavalry charges, Michel Ney’s propensity for routing defending units
in a charge, or Marshall Murat’s greater chance of re-forming disordered
cavalry units. Leaders begin the combat attached to a random division within
their assigned army or corps but may be re-attached to any leaderless division
within their current unit’s movement range. Leaders are also rated from
one to four stars indicating the extent of their command.
Complex Morale Model. Morale
rules are structured to allow a smaller force to win a battle if it can prevail
in a quick set of localized victories and cause a cascading loss of morale in
the larger sized force. Guard units -- elite infantry units -- are a tactically
important factor as the presence of guard units helps to bolster the morale
in a localized area of combat.
Military
Upgrades. Performance of units is modified by the technological and training
upgrades that are possessed by their controlling nation. There are more than
fifty different upgrades, such as: march training, skirmisher training,
esprit de corps, elite guard, flanking tactics, and efficient
foraging. Most of the upgrades improve the performance of units in both
the quick battle and detailed battle segments of the game, though some augment
performance on the strategic map or make modifications to the nation’s
economic performance (such as levee en masse.) Nations begin a scenario
with a pre-determined list of upgrades, which give the units belonging to each
nation a distinct flavor. A nation that builds or captures increasing levels
of barracks improvements can qualify for additional upgrades. In this way, players
over time customize their nation’s military performance.
Reinforcement
Rules. Players can call reinforcements from adjacent provinces. In a detailed
battle these reinforcements arrive slowly over many turns. (Reinforcements may
also be called in a quick battle.)
Powerful Artificial Intelligence.
The artifical intelligence (the AI) used for the computer controlled units
is finely tuned to use all of the options available to it. The AI maximizes
along both local and global parameters so that AI controlled units not only
seek to find the best target but also coordinate with units around them to attempt
to break and rout enemy units as quickly as possible.
Playing Time. A moderate
sized detailed battle takes about 30 minutes real time for the player to resolve.
Larger battles at the climax of a campaign may take several hours of real time
to complete.
Economics
Types of Resources. The game employs a robust economic model. There are
a dozen commodities, including: money, labor, horses, food, iron, timber, wool,
wine and luxuries.
Economic
Parameters. Players not only control national level parameters such as tax
rate, feudal dues, and military readiness, but they also control economic development
at the provincial level, allocating labor and building improvements in ten areas
of development: defensive guns, walls, roads, barracks, banks, culture, farms,
factories, courts, and shipyards. Each of these improvement areas has ten possible
levels of development.
Banks
and Loans. Nations can take out loans on which they must make payments each
month. The lending rate is proportional to the number of wars in which the borrowing
nation is involved plus the total number of wars declared overall.
Food and Population Growth. All resources of a nation are kept in a single
national pool with the exception of population, which is tracked at the provincial
level. A nation must provide food resource to maintain and increase its population
and also to feed armies in the field. Population decreases when new military
units are built and slowly increases over time, provided that sufficient food
is available for population growth.
The Reinforcement Pool.
A player manages his nation’s reinforcement pool by setting the level of
draft, the age range of men drafted, and the training time for new draftees.
Population factors are removed from provinces to make men available for the
reinforcement pool. When a nation’s military division loses strength factors,
men are drawn from the nation’s reinforcement pool to help restore the
division’s strength.
Repairing Damaged Ships.
Ships have a maximum of 10 strength factors; they rebuild strength by resting
in port provinces, and their rate of healing is proportional to the level of
shipyards in the province.
The National Morale. A
player manages his nation’s aggregate mood – the nation’s National
Morale – by providing his people peace or victory, and luxuries to keep
them happy. A nation whose National Morale dips too low experiences production
loss, insurrection, rebellion, riot, and is eventually forced to sue for peace.
Trade Routes. Trade is an important activity in Crown of Glory. Players
can propose to set up trade routes between their provinces and provinces controlled
by other players, including provinces controlled by the minor countries. Trade
routes can be disrupted by treaties, political action, military action, diplomatic
pressure, and the presence of privateers. Players can voluntarily break trade
routes once established, though penalties are applied for doing so.
Merchant Income. Players also gain monetary trade income by placing merchant
ship units in sea zones outside of port provinces. The player controlling the
merchant ship and the player control adjacent ports both gain income from the
activity of merchant ships.
Colonial
Income. Nations also maintain an abstract level of colonies not represented
on the map. Colonies may be exchanged between nations as terms of treaties.
Colonies provide monetary and spice resource income. A nation's colonial income
is blocked when its ports are blockaded, and since much of the colonial income
arrives over land through the Middle East, the player who controls Egypt can
deny his enemies some of their colonial income.
Diplomacy
Many
Computer Controlled Neutral Countries. The nations of the game vie for control
and support of more than ninety independent countries. Many factors affect the
attitude of the minor countries toward the player-controlled nations. A country
can become a protectorate of a nation or can be conquered by it. Protectorates
maintain semi-autonomy: they maintain a separate economy and spend their resources
as they see fit, however, their military units are controlled by their protecting
nation. Countries can become protectorates through various mechanisms: military
threats, diplomatic intrigue, or through the overwhelming influence of a national
power.
Customizable
Treaty Proposals. Players design treaties to propose to other players using
a treaty editor that allows players to create treaties from a palette of more
than twenty-five clauses. When a nation surrenders to another nation the victorious
nation can impose a terms-of-surrender treaty upon the defeated nation. A treaty
need not be bilateral but may include any number of nations in the clauses it
proposes. Examples of treaty clauses are: pay reparations, transfer colonies,
lend unit, lend province, pledge of defense, embargo, enforced alliance, feudal
reformations, share supply depots, arms limits, scuttle ships, remove general,
and terms of surrender.
Breaking Treaties and
Secret Treaties. Players can choose to break treaties (except terms of surrender)
but pay steep penalties for doing so. Players can also propose and ratify secret
treaties – treaties that are known only to their signatories. The penalties
for breaking a secret treaty are only half the penalties imposed for breaking
a public treaty.
Diplomatic
Options. Beyond treaties and trade, players have a number of diplomatic
options for dealing with other nations. Players can declare war – though
there is a delay of one turn between the declaration and the start of the war
-- or they can make an ungentlemanly sneak attack and begin attacking immediately.
Nations can suspend hostilities by offering a cease fire. A defeated nation
may offer either a full or limited surrender. Nations can choose to violate
the territory of other nations and countries, trespassing on their territory,
though this is a casus belli that allows the offended nation to declare
war without penalty. A casus belli is also provoked simply by massing
troops along the borders of a non-allied sovereign nation.
Total War. Nations
may also declare total war on another nation -- the bold move of declaring
another nation's government null and void. In this case there is no surrender,
except by the capitulation of the aggressor. The nation targetted by total war
bitterly resists, receving additional support from its own populace, and it
gains the sympathy of the other nations in Europe.
Control of Computer Controlled
Allies. A human player who gains allies among computer controlled nations
can attempt to coordinate strategic movement with these allies by suggesting
rallying locations to the computer controlled players.
The
Great Diplomats. Players also control the great diplomats of the period
– Tallyrand, Metternich, Hardenburg, Caulaincourt, etc. The diplomats are
capable of more than a dozen special tasks, such as spy, delay battle, charm,
malign enemy, propaganda, pressure peace, trade stop, foment coup, and organize
insurrection. Each diplomat has three statistics – espionage, influence,
and law – that determine how adroit he is at accomplishing each of the
diplomatic tasks.
Game Play
Game play at the strategic level is structured around
a simultaneous turn: players issue orders to their units during the order phase;
during the subsequent move phase the orders are executed simultaneously in six
sub-phases.
Movement Rules. Units
move using unique movement rules. Each movement has a percent chance of success
– the initiative of the movement – that is determined by factors such
as weather, types of units moving, terrain, presence of generals, roads built
in the province, moving through friendly or enemy territory, and whether the
unit has been order to force march. During each sub-phase of the move phase
units attempt to move by making the initiative check associated with their next
move; a unit that fails its check on a sub-phase fails to move for that sub-phase.
Special Unit Orders.
Units can be ordered to force march. This increases the initiative of the
unit when moving but decreases its combat readiness should the unit engage in
combat during this turn. Armies and corps can be ordered either to seek battle
or to attempt to avoid battles.
Units can be ordered to pillage a province. This provides supply to the unit
but decreases the attitude that other nations and countries have toward the
pillaging nation. Pillaging has a chance to destroy improvements in the pillaged
province, and a pillaging nation also has a chance to steal artwork and thus
lower the culture rating of the victimized province and increase the culture
of one of its domestic provinces.
Cities. Each province
has a city unit attached to it. The city acts much like a stationary corps,
to which military divisions can be garrisoned to maintain control of a province.
Siege Warfare. Military
units outside of a city garrisoned by enemy units automatically besiege the
city if they began the turn located in the enemy controlled province. Corps
and armies can be ordered to execute one of three types of sieges: starve the
city, attack the walls, or charge the walls. Each type of siege has certain
strengths and weaknesses: for instance, charging the walls can capture a city
quickly but at a huge cost to the attackers, whereas starving the city is more
of a slow but steady sieging technique. Port cities are much harder to capture
unless they are also blockaded by naval units hostile to the port city.
Fleets and Port Attacks. Fleets of ships can be ordered to attack enemy
ships in port. All ship combat is resolved using the quick combat interface.An
attack on a port provides significant bonuses to the defending player.
Blockading Ports. Fleets can be ordered to blockade an enemy port. A
blockaded province suffers significant economic penalties, income to and from
adjacent merchant ships is lost, trade routes may not pass through the port
location, and its city is much easier to besiege.
Naval Combat. Ship combat determines the weather gage before battle (the
attacking player has a slightly increased chance of getting the weather gage);
having the weather gage provides the player with an outright combat bonus and
also gives him movement bonuses and significant initiative bonuses. Fleets victorious
in battle capture a proportion of destroyed enemy ships as prizes, using these
to re-stock their depleted ship strengths.
Interception. Fleets
have a chance to intercept enemy fleets passing through adjacent sea zones.
Retreat and Prisoners
of War. Divisions that lose a battle attempt to retreat to an adjacent province
not occupied by enemy troops; failing this, they surrender and are captured
as prisoners-of-war, to be returned to their rightful nation’s control
when they are liberated or when the war comes to an end. Similarly, military
leaders can be captured and held as prisoners-of-war.
Achieving Imperial Status.
A nation that achieves a certain level of conquered provinces, protectorates,
or colonies can elect to declare “empire” status. An empire receives
a decoration to its national flag graphic wherever it appears and receives several
military, diplomatic, and economic bonuses. A nation that no longer qualifies
for imperial status suffers harsh penalties as the status of empire is stripped
away from it.
Supply Chains. Players
must supply their divisions either through foraging or by maintaining supply
depot chains. Supply depots are very expensive to maintain and thus players
must plan their deployment very judiciously.
Weather at the Strategic
Level. Weather conditions are simulated on the main map – storms; rain
and heavy rain; snow and heavy snow; floods; etc; and are indicated by an animated
rain or snowfall graphic. Weather affects initiative ratings and combat. Severe
weather can destroy supply depots and leave units unsupported.
Strategic Fog of War.
The main map also uses fog-of-war so that players cannot see too deeply
into foreign controlled provinces.
Reports. There are many report windows that the player can pop open to
inspect the details of the previous turn in such aspects as events, income,
supply, production, battle, rumors, and treaties.
Special Events. There are special events sprinkled throughout the game,
for instance: the Vatican could request a contribution from a nation; paying
the contribution increases the attitude with the Catholic minor countries whereas
refusing weakens this attitude. When National Morale falls too low your nation's
citizens may begin to riot, staging insurrections, riots, and rebellions.
Rumors. One of the
reports to which the player has access is the rumor report. Randomly each month
players will receive bits of information – which are most likely true but
may not be true – concerning things which would normally be secret information,
such as troop locations within the fog-of-war, enemy units under production,
the existence and nature of secret treaties, etc. Furthermore, in a multiplayer
game players can spend a diplomatic action to attempt to plant false rumors,
though there is a chance they will get caught doing this.
Full Power Multiplayer
Support. Robust multiplayer options are supported using Microsoft’s
Direct Play: play by internet, LAN, play-by-email, serial or parallel connection,
or hotseat. Find online opponents at the War Room on the Matrix Games' Crown
of Glory forum.
Complete Spectrum of
Scenarios. Players can choose among a handful of starting scenarios corresponding
to different starting years; the standard campaign runs from 1805-1815. Other
choices range from 1792 to 1820. The 1820 campaign employs greater balance between
the powers and allows nations total control over customizing the technology
and training upgrades with which they start the game.
Advisors to Automate
Aspects of Play. Every major aspect of the game – trade, diplomacy,
treaties, production, labor, troop movements, fighting battles, etc. –
has an associated advisor. Players can activate advisors to deal with aspects
of the game that they wish to ignore. Even when an advisor is activated players
can, to some extent, override their decisions with specific actions.
All for the Glory. Nations play to accumulate score called glory. There
are more than twenty ways to gain and lose glory: winning battles and conquering
territory, having high levels of culture and happy people, importing or producing
ample luxuries. Additionally, each nation has a list of political interests
– a list of provinces which they either want to control or do not want
to see fall into enemy control. If a political interest is met then the nation
receives a glory bonus each turn -- or a penalty if the interest is one they
want to avoid.
