HistWar Multiplayer Group

HistWar, a unique gameplay for demanding players.

Built around a realistic AI, HistWar: Austerlitz immerses you in the Napoleonic battles of 1805 in an epic decorum where hundreds of uniforms shimmer on a sumptuous battlefield.

HistWar: Austerlitz will simulate the major battles of the Austrian campaign of 1805: Haslash, Elchingen, Dürenstein, Schrödingen and Austerlitz. These historically accurate maps will recreate the battlefields where the armies of the 3rd coalition met.
At Austerlitz, on a battlefield of 190 km², maneuver your troops and lead them to victory.

HistWar allows huge armies taking into account the historical chain of command and modeled after the orders of battle relayed by historians. It will have three different scales, 1/6, ½ and1/1. In the latter, each soldier will be represented by its own model (1).
Watch a charge of 1200 cuirassiers.... or observe the firepower of a deployed artillery battery where each canon is represented by a model.

HistWar, play by email (1 vs 1) or multiplayer (8 players), offer unique features.
In multiplayer, players can use dispatches to communicate among each other where delays in order transmission are taken into account for more realism.

The game difficulty is determined by many options:

Fog of war: There are multiple levels of fog of war that can be applied to enemy as well as friendly units. In the most advanced setting, the commander in chief will only learn the position of enemy troops after a certain delay. This delay represents the time needed for a messenger dispatched from the scouting unit to reach him. This unknown adds to the uncertainty to what Von Clausewitz, military theorist, referred to as “friction”.

Order delay: Although it is possible to play without delayed orders, adding delays is more realistic. The order is not executed when it is thought of but when it reaches all its target units. This can take some time, even a long time…the delay is affected by the value of the commanders, the number of units in a Corps, division or brigade, and language barriers. In the advanced mode this could take more than an hour; you will have to anticipate enemy movements or let your Marshals react.

Interception of messengers: What an opportunity it is to intercept enemy dispatches. Take full advantage of that and exploit the weakness revealed by the enemy plan.

Loss of corps commanders: This option allows the loss of corps commanders. This will greatly affect your army.

Ammunition: unlimited or historical. This will change how you manage your units. If artillery runs out of ammo, it will leave the field.

There are many other options… A gameplay video details each of these. This video is subtitled in English.

There are multiple levels of AI that simulate the chain of command:

Army: This AI formulates an initial tactical plan at the beginning of each battle. As the battle unravels, it will adapt to take advantage of any weakness your army might have. Although the AI does take initiatives, it might decide to avoid a battle if its enemy is camping on good defensive ground.

Corps: This AI takes orders from the player or the Army AI. These orders are on a tactical level: To deploy or engage in diversionary actions along a defined line, defend a sector, support another corps to synchronize their progression, or to march to concentrate troops easier in a defined sector. Each order can have many parameters such as time of execution, formation, organization, and reserve ratio. Thus one can try to best simulate the engagements of the era.

Division or Brigade: This AI facilitates more complex movements. A good commander would use it sparingly.

The Corps, Division and Brigade AIs ensure a good cohesion and a synchronized movement to the front. They will also help determine the units that are in difficulty and replace them as best as possible with fresher units as to try and maintain the moral and cohesion of the whole.

Regiment: This AI will try to carry out the orders received. The unit moral will be crucial in determining the outcome. Each regiment has its own characteristics (valor, initiative, retreat and rout thresholds among others) and its own attributes (moral, fatigue, cohesion…) that regulate its behavior. Thus, a unit can sometimes rout with little casualties if it sees a friendly guard unit retreat or rout. This AI is quite complex; for example, an infantry unit will form a square when threatened by an enemy cavalry. The latter will ask for artillery support to blow wholes in the square before charging it…

While the default behavior is for these AIs to be active, they can be all disabled to the point where a unit will look out for itself but wont take any initiative. In this setting it will be up to the player to micro manage these tasks.

Lines of operation: Each side relies on two lines of operation. Defending them should be a major objective in any plan. To this end, you should detach some units of chasseurs or hussars to scout for major threats. To lose one, is a major blow, to lose both is critical. In the case both are lost, it is possible for your whole army to rout and for all control to be lost.

Reinforcements: Reinforcements play a major role in how a battle is managed. They usually arrive to a specific sector at an approximated time…

Tutorial: HistWar: Austerlitz has three tutorials. In addition, « gameplay » videos will ease the learning curve. Two of these are currently available; two more are planed for the two coming months.

Guide: At the beginning of each battle, at the request of the player, a check-list will help the player review and change his preferences prior to starting the battle: Activation of the different AIs, initiative level, scouting orders, detached units, level of reserves …

Season and weather: HistWar: Austerlitz allows you to fight the battles in the historical season and weather conditions as well as weather conditions of your choosing: sunny skies, rain, fog, snow… Different weather conditions will affect the battle due to different visibility, movement speeds, as well as fire efficiency. Similarly, different seasons will also alter visibility by altering the length of the day.

HistWar: Austerlitz will be available soon.

Next HistWarGame on the Steam list : HistWar : Waterloo