History VideoGame / NapoleonTotalWar

* GameplayAllyImmortality: Certain historical generals - such as Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blücher - can only be wounded, even in the event of a successful "assassination" attempt -- they simply respawn later at their national capital. If he is wounded on the battlefield, however, his unit loses his special abilities and aura for that battle, essentially putting him out of action for the duration of the engagement.

* GameplayAllyImmortality: Certain historical generals - such as Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blucher - can only be wounded, even in the event of a successful "assassination" attempt -- they simply respawn later at their national capital. If he is wounded on the battlefield, however, his unit loses his special abilities and aura for that battle, essentially putting him out of action for the duration of the engagement.

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/napoleon_total_war_6151.jpg]]

->''"My enemies are many. My equals are ''none''.\\

* BadassBoast: The intro:
-->''"My enemies are many. My equals are ''none''.\\
In the shade of olive trees, they said Italy could never be conquered.\\
In the land of pharaohs and kings, they said Egypt could never be humbled.\\
In the realm of forest and snow, they said Russia could never be tamed.\\
Now they say ''nothing.'' They fear me. Like a force of nature - a dealer in thunder and ''death.''\\
I say: I am Napoleon - I am '''EMPEROR!'''"''

''Napoleon: Total War'' is a game in the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series of strategy games. Somewhere between an immediate sequel and stand-alone expansion to ''[[VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar Empire: Total War]]'', this entry in the series follows the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars bloody campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte]] around the turn of the 19th century. Unlike other ''Total War'' games, the single player mode is not centred around one particular grand campaign, but around a number of smaller ones. The player may control Napoleon's armies and lead them to victory, or side with his enemies and help check the French advance. Scenarios include the Italian campaigns of 1796-97, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the Wars of the Coalition after Napoleon's self-coronation as Emperor, with the Peninsular Campaign added as a DLC. The "historical battles" mode allows the player to recreate such conflicts as Arcole, the Battle of The Pyramids, Austerlitz, Borodino and Waterloo.

* RealityEnsues: Quite a bit in this game.
** In battles where there is rain, either via a slight drizzle or a thunderstorm, the weapons technology of the time guarantees misfires.
** In the Egypt campaign, the French soldiers are not dressed for fighting in the desert and will notably tire out a lot more faster than in the three other campaigns set in Europe.
** The Mamluks are horribly outdated, with medieval cavalry and no professional soldiers. They get routed by the French with ease in every battle unless the player really screws up or overwhelming numbers.
** The Egyptians will not take kindly to French occupation, and you will have to garrison every single city with some regular soldiers to get rid of rebellions.
** In the event France is severely weakened, expect to see the Coalition start fighting each other. Many of them have goals they need to meet that inevitably means fighting each other, so the Coalition breaks apart once France is presumed to be defeated.

* CannonFodder: The Armed Citizenry are little more than local townsfolk hastily given muskets and would break before just about ''any'' other unit. They are mainly used in sieges, either in [[ZergRush massed rushes]] or for garrisoning buildings. Their main utility comes from the fact that they're free, making them utterly expendable, and more over that they can fill out smaller garrisons with utter hordes of angry, armed townsmen. They cannot leave their home city, making them only usable for defense.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Just like in ''Empire'', trying to conquer the whole map in ''Napoleon'' is very hard and not practical as having too much territory will overstrech your finances and military strength, making you more vulnerable to bankruptcy, rebellions, and invasion. Unfortunately, getting an achievement mandates conquering all of Europe.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: In the Egypt campaign, the Mamluks have a melee-only armed citizen unit. Not only does it get shot to pieces relatively easily, but even if it gets into meele, they quickly rout regardless.

* Bookends: The battle tutorial and the campaign tutorial have Napoleon fighting the British, marking the start of his rise. The battle of Waterloo against the British will mark Napoleon's final defeat, or his ultimate triumph.

* EnemyMine: The Franco-Ottoman alliance. It's one of few countries that doesn't openly hate France at the game start, but except the mutual goal of fending off Austria and Russia, they don't share anything in common. On top of that, Ottomans hold a minor grudge over the Egyptian campaign, too.

** Missile cavalry are incredibly fast, and can shoot very accurately, but will fall in a melee fight very quickly, unless it is artillery or skirmishers at the side.

** The Egypt intro explicitly calls Egypt Ottoman territory. Egypt was a technical Ottoman province, and while the Ottomans will send soldiers, they really hated the Mamluks.

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI's inability to handle naval battles, already on display in ''Empire'', this time around leads to absurd results. Since building ships takes many more turns than it did in ''Empire'', Britain can be rendered completely impotent in first few turns. The fact its fleet starts as heavier and bigger than the French one is the very reason why it's so easy to sink it - the ships are just too slow to keep up with French frigates[[note]]And French naval units by default are faster and with more accurate guns than alternatives from other nations[[/note]], turning into easy prey. As a result, invading British Isles in first 20 turns isn't even particularly challenging. And more importantly, once Royal Navy cease to exists, even without invasion, British troops will be simply bottled up on the island.

* SaltTheEarth: As noted above under RapePillageAndBurn, looting captured provinces is generally a terrible idea... unless you know you can take it with ease, but won't be able to keep it against incoming enemy army. Not to mention tearing structures down, too. This leaves your enemy with a province that's utterly worthless upon recapture and AI will gleefully spend time and effort to reconstruct (rather than upgrade other places), while you got away with all the money. Since there are more and smaller provinces than in ''Empire'', this is a viable strategy to soften nations you can simply overwhelm in a turn or two.

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI's inability to handle naval battles, already on display in ''Empire'', this time around leads to absurd results. Since building ships takes many more turns than it did in ''Empire'', Britain can be rendered completely impotent in first few turns. The fact its fleet starts as heavier and bigger than the French one is the very reason why it's so easy to sink it - the ships are just too slow to keep up with French frigates[[note]]And French naval units by default are faster and with more accurate guns than alternatives from other nations[[/note]], turning into easy prey. As a result, invading British Isles in first 20 turns isn't even particularly challenging.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: The diminutive Bomb Ketch is armed with a mortar that gives it ''the longest attack range of any naval unit in the game''. This provides a considerable first-strike capability at the start of a battle which can really turn the outcome in the other side's favor. As shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLEcpInWWL0 this video]] where a few shots set a fire on the flagship that ''eventually destroys it''. And the flagship was a ''Santissima Trinidad'', no less.

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: As France, you start the Grand Campaign either at war or with historical greviances against your "allies". And your goal is to conquer a whole lot of provinces, meaning earning further diplomatic penalty for territorial expansion. Since everyone hates you and the rest will start to hate you along the way, you might as well ignore diplomacy and simply wage war in all directions.

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: As France, you start the Grand Campaign either at war or with historical greviances against your "allies". And your goal is to conquer a whole lot of provinces, meaning earning further diplomatic penalty for territorial expansion.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: ''[[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte L'Empereur]]'' himself in his campaigns.
* InASingleBound: Boarding fights in a Naval Battle are quite ridiculous as the crewmen of the attacking ship will jump at unrealistic heights.
* JackOfAllStats: Third-Rate Ships have the best balance of Cost, Crew Size, Firepower, Hull Strength, and Mobility. For the price of one First-Rate you can have 2-3 Third-Rates instead.

** Although Cannons are a crucial arm of 18-century armies, freshly recruited and inexperienced cannon crews will struggle to significantly weaken enemy units before they get too close. And even if they survive long enough to become reliably accurate, you'll find that solid-shot cannons only have a niche role in breaking structures and infantry squares at long-range and shotgunning the enemy with canister as a last resort. Also, Cannons can quickly become useless on maps with hills and very uneven terrain: Even a small rise between a battery and the target will result in ineffectual fire.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: In the Egypt campaign, the Mamluks have a melee only armed citizen unit. Not only does it get shot to pieces relatively easily, but even if it gets into meele, they quickly rout regardless.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: The diminutive Bomb Ketch is armed with a Mortar that gives it ''the longest attack range of any naval unit in the game''. This provides a considerable first-strike capability at the start of a battle which can really turn the outcome in the other side's favor. As shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLEcpInWWL0 this video]] where a few shots set a fire on the flagship that ''eventually destroys it''. And the flagship was a ''Santissima Trinidad'', no less.
* PlotArmor: You can '''NEVER''' kill Napoleon in the Campaign Mode as any successful assassination attempt [[OnlyAFleshWound will only incapacitate him]] for a few turns. The same will occur if he gets "killed" in battle; even though the icon will report "Enemy General Killed", and you will clearly see Napoleon's body lying on the ground, it will simply report him as having been wounded, even if he was directly hit by a cannonball to the head.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: While keeping most upgrades from the vanilla ''Empire'' game, infantry regiments oddly can no longer fire in ranks (even if you're Prussian, or British!). The firepower of an infantry regiment takes a major hit as a result. While this does lengthen engagements (rank-firing regiments can level each other with just a few volleys) it seems a strange regression for a sequel which is chronologically later than the main game.

* SoLastSeason: A plot point in the Egypt campaign. The Mamluks have a very medieval cavalry, not a lot of artillery, and only militia. They get curb stomped by the French with ease due to being incredibly outdated.

* DifficultySpike: Napoleon's campaigns get more harder with each one even on easy. Italy is a walk in the park and you are likely to only get delayed due to outmarching your own supply lines. Egypt, while you have to deal with rebellions, is not that difficult unless you really botch things. Europe gets much more harder since you actually fight multiple factions at once who will attack.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Technology itself is still researched, but this is a plot point in the Egypt campaign. The Mamluks have a very medieval cavalry, not a lot of artillery, and only militia. They get curb stomped by the French with ease due to being incredibly outdated.

* AttackAttackAttack: The singleplayer AI's general plan is to just march in a straight line at the player's army, even if it is outnumbered, or if a straight line attack is effectively suicide. The only time the AI acts any smarter is if it is scripted to do so, such as in the historical battles.

** In Italy, Piedmont Sardinia does not work with Austria unless the player really drags their feet. Histroicaly, Austria and Piedmont distrusted each other brutally.

** In the event France is severely weakened, expect to see the Coaltion start fighting each other. Many of them have goals they need to meet that inevitably means fighting each other, so the Coalition breaks apart once France is presumed to be defeated.

* WorthyOpponent: Enemy generals will be dubbed as this should they fall on the battlefield. Napoleon also admits the Russian soilders are "amazing" even when "they are led by fools!" should you lose the historical Battle of Borodino.