I first saw this game years ago when browsing for a rival to the Total War franchise. I remember hearing of the scale and the possibilities then waiting eagerly for its arrival. Upon release I ended up purchasing a deluxe version with the ability to download the game and having a physical copy with manual and cards sent to my home. At that point played it a bit before it got shelved due to me becoming distracted. What I had read of its depth would lead me to bringing the manual to work to read on the train to, from and when at work or having nothing to do. When I did eventually start my first battle I didn't get far. I became distracted by other things and the game was eventually shelved. It's been roughly a year since then and by now anything I had learned has left me. That said this is my first real attempt at an AAR of any kind as well. Since this game isn't really a big hit I decided to make this entry strictly about setting up to play and going over the various settings and options.

HistWar: Les Grognards is a strategy game by French developers HistWar Games. The game itself is set during the Napoleonic Wars where you may command a side's forces in battle as either the French and the Coalition. Your role is not restricted to that of commander of the army but may instead be that of a corps or regiment commander. The actual scale of battles may reach 500,000 troops -- represented by up to 50,000 actual graphical models -- with maps potentially having an area of over 600 square kilometers. The scale allows real depth of tactics beyond that which smaller armies allow by removing the importance off any single unit thus allowing one to probe or misdirect as one desires. Each army may have up to 11 corps. Each Corps may have up to 24 regiments.

Packaged with the game when shipped are ten battles. Additionally there are three editors -- an order of battle editor, which allows you to create armies; a map editor which allows you to create fields of battle; and a doctrine editor, which allows you to modify how the AI reacts. Battles here don't take a mere ten to fifteen minutes but rather hours. Outside of the editors the game allows you to modify a few other things right down to uniforms.

I wish to dispel any misconceptions one might have. This game is not about flash and pretty animations but depth of play. The graphics are quite antiquated being reminiscent of the first Medieval total war or perhaps Mount & Blade with the absolute lowest graphical settings. That said if any game would, this is the type which creates thousand yard stares out of players because of the surprises which lay in store for the player.

When you open the game you get a quick loading launcher the likes of this

Most of the options are self explanatory. The top button launches the actual game; the next three are the editors allowing you to make basic modifications or to create battles. Exit quits the game and CreditsSetup is the area with graphical settings. I'd like to play this game with the highest graphical settings even if I won't be viewing much in the way of pretties. I think with how antiquated the graphics are the higher settings might aid me in becoming more immersed with the game. We'll click on Setup to check out the graphical settings.

The options shown along with the background image for the launcher probably gives you an idea how base the graphics are in this game. For a game designed for massive battles without multi-threading support one might understand. Once more the top three options are self-explanatory. I'm not quite sure what LoD is and the manual doesn't say. Perspective view right now says total with the only other option being symbolic. I feel this requires explaining. Symbolic view in a manner of speaking merges the 2D top down map with the 3D feel of the units. Units are not displayed in their normal 3D representation of however many graphical models representing the usual troops but are shrunk down drastically in number and the models themselves enlarged so as to make the map more readable. Additionally the symbolic view exaggerates the contours of terrain. I chose to put the graphical settings at their maximum and with my settings selected it's time to hit okay. Now we may load up the game.

The first thing I wish for you to notice in the main menu pictured below is the version I'm running displayed to the bottom right. It's 2.34 which at the time of this post is the latest patch and includes a changed GUI from what was packaged when the game was shipped at release.

I don't know anyone who owns this game besides myself and besides that I don't know how often I'll be updating this thus will be doing a single player game.

Visiting Options you'll notice it isn't difficulty per se which you establish for your battles but how realistic they may be and should give you an idea of what to expect from the game i nterms of gameplay. I decided to at this point briefly review them so one might understand the limitations possible and that which I shall be placing on myself. For reference the left image below illustrates the settings for Conscript (easy) mode and the image on ones right of course illustrating that which Grognard (expert) has.

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View - Restricts or permits camera movement with only two possible settings. Either you may move the camera anywhere across the map or your view is restricted to that of your chosen commanding officer.

Visibility - There are four means with which enemy units may be detected.

• Unconditional disables fog of war so that both sides exact positions are always visible to each other.
  
• A second setting, Marker displays the units normally if detected. If on the other hand one has not yet been detected find a marker on the map at their last known location or their position at the start of the game.
  
• Conditional without delay is the third possibility where by if detected by one of your units, you'll instantly know the detected units location.
  
• The last and most difficult setting would be conditional with delay in that it's the same as the one just mentioned but by the time you're capable of reacting they may already be gone. A runner must be sent from the unit which has dictated the enemy unit to you before you know of it.

Visibility of allies - Like your opponents units the fog of war may affect your own and may only be selected if either of the two above conditional modes are selected. This one only has two options: unconditional where you may see all of your allies units all of the time or the possibility to enable conditional where markers are placed on their last known coordinates but all detected ones are clearly known.

Orders - In most games you've played units both receive orders and respond to them near instantly. This particular option has two possibilities where orders you wish to give may be delivered to the unit desired immediately or with a delay. Any delay has two factors - how far the runner must travel to deliver the orders and not only how competent the commander receiving them is but also how many units are under his command. There's a penalty as well if orders are given to units of a different nationality than the one you're playing.

Delay of orders - A subset of the above this determines how long any delay will be. A delay may only take a shot amount of time on limited but set to historical and it can take up to two hours in game time for them to be carried out. Fortunately it is possible to increase game speed to a speed of 1 real second being the equivalent to 10 game seconds and revert back during the course of a battle so in times of low activity you may speed up to where you might be prepared and later slow down so you may properly manage your forces in combat.

Interception of Orders - Another subset for orders this one determines whether or not you and your opponent may capture any runners the other side sends. If successful you learn what they were planning or yourself lose the element of surprise.

Orders in 3D View - This might be confusing to most in that on the one hand above you may set where your camera may go. On the other this dictates whether or not you may issue orders where the camera is. The local zone setting only allows you to issue orders in a Total War style view if your commander is in the area. Should you wish to issue orders through said view elsewhere then you must move your generals unit. On the other hand with whole map you may do so anywhere at any time. Keep in mind that while issuing orders in this manner may be restricted should you select local zone you will always be able to issues via the 2D top down map display.

Information - dictates the precision of information you are given about detected enemy units. Where as on precise you will be given exact numbers, on vague you may be given a general range.

Loss of Corps Commander - A corps in game is the basic unit right under the army. Those units under the corps are the regiments. Each corps may have up to 24 regiments assigned to it so the loss of a commander if enabled will be significant. Should it occur an aide de camp will take over but won't be nearly as effective at the task. So the relaying of orders and how well they are carried out will be adversely affected. In addition to that there are two possible impacts on individual regiments, and it will vary from regiment to regiment. Some might be incensed by this loss with higher morale and fighting intensity where as others will become disheartened and more likely to flee. With the impact it has on game play the developers sought fit to restrict each army to one corps commander casualty per battle. The effect it has though is significant and won't be risked by myself in cases where I feel it might be easily avoided.

Galvanized units - I have no idea what this does and the manual doesn't say :-s

Ammunition - There are only two possibilities for this option, unlimited and historical. The former speaks for itself with the premise being that provisions are constantly flowing to the units. With historical you will only ever have a certain amount of ammunition at your disposal. Fortunately enough the game has day and night cycles for battles and at night your stores are replenished so units who ran low or out entirely of ammunition may be an effective fighting force once more.

I want to make some mistakes so I may learn first hand. I also believe under what rules you first play will guide your growth as a player and so for that purpose I won't be starting with the easiest difficulty. On the other hand this is an AAR and on the hardest difficulty just about everything is done via a 2D top down map which isn't going to be fun for anyone which might decide to read this. So what have I chosen? I'm going to go with everything in Grognard except the view, which I shall make full simply so that I may take screen shots of what I'm doing.

Command Mode permits one to select which sides forces they command. The game offers several possibilities ranging from an AI vs. AI battle where the player is simply a spectator; a player vs. AI battle where the player may select either side; or commanding both sides which might be useful for testing. Fighting a battle against yourself or watching one unfold would defeat the point in my playing when I wish to learn by brutal experience. Figuring the French will likely be the easier side if for no other reason than because of its commanders I'll select to command a coalition lined up against them.

For the purpose of this AAR any battlefield conditions, the map and order of battle will be selected as the ones attached to a given battle as opposed to pulling them from any battle. Selecting a battle through Scenario will make the selections for the player all at once instead of requiring me to go into each and every option manually selecting them.

So what battle have I selected to fight? With no mods the options are limited to those prepackaged with the game or added via official patch. The list I have to choose from is as follows: Austerlitz, Borodino, Eylau, Friedland, GrandChamp, Hanau, Haslach, La Berezina, La Rothiere, Montebello, Ratisbonne & Wagram. I immediately narrowed it down by removing battles where coalition forces outnumbered the French thus leaving Borodino, Friedland, Ratisbonne & Wagram. I further narrowed it by scale. Where as I want to be outnumbered I don't wish it to mean automatic loss as I'm sure to make mistakes. This thus eliminates Friedland & Ratisbonne. On the other hand there's also a possibility of there being too many troops on the battlefield and right now for me the battle of Wagram fits into that category so I shall fight the battle of Borodino on the side of the coalition. Everything being decided it's time to jump into the battle and show the Frenchies a thing or two about invading Russia. My objective is simple: win a stellar victory or if defeated make a Pyrrhic victory for the French.