Turn based, hex strategy games have been around for a long time. My favorite two games in this particular genre provided me with endless war gaming within the confines of a clean and intuitive interface. I fondly remember looking forward to every new battle in both due to their role playing element. My units were able to gain experience through battles, and as a result of various levels of success, my war machinery would score major upgrades.
At the same time, the Napoleonic Era and World War II eras have always fascinated me. Warfare was very different during these periods. During the Napoleonic Era, communication was achieved via couriers and most battles lacked the fluidity and speed of today's conflicts. But, what has persevered through the years and is still true today, is the strategic brilliance in waging war.
Campaigns on the Danube 1805-1809 is not an easy game to pick up. You must read a 40 page manual in order to understand the game mechanics in order to succeed. Once you master the game's rules you must also factor in some considerable time and patience this game requires in order to fully enjoy it. You must consider the historic factors when playing each campaign; these range from weather and troop supply; fog of war and the time required for your orders to reach the various units on the map. Campaigns on the Danube does offer you battles that can be won and lost, but only after a significant time investment. Each hex measures about 9 km and the victory conditions are mainly focused on the capture of enemy cities (which are also known as victory hexes). Total elimination of enemy formations is only necessary if they are in the way of achieving the above mentioned goals.
Campaigns of the Danube game play is turn based, as is the case with all hex based strategy games. In this particular game you fight as either the French or the Austrians. The computer AI is very good, but it is imperative to understand how to play the game before attempting any grand strategies. The game units are on the order of battalions and upward. I tried playing the game without reading the manual just to see how steep the learning curve was and I quickly realized that reading the manual is the only way to fully understand how to play, and more importantly, enjoy the game. It offers only a single player mode of play over several different historical campaigns. There is no multiplayer available and there is also no scenario builder to try out "what-if" situations.
The graphics behind hex based strategy games are more or less simplistic representations of units on a very basic two dimensional geographical map of the area. Cities and roads are marked as very important areas of control. The sounds are also minimal and are usually limited to some military music and (or) few clicks. The good part about hex based games is that they will run on almost any computer including your grandmother's Pentium I which she bought over six years ago!
Campaigns on the Danube 1805-1809 is a serious game that belongs to a well defined niche. Due to the unique game play, it can be either a heavenly experience for the die hard fans of the genre, or pure hell for the rest of us. I'd only recommend this game if you have the patience and the time to devote to learning it first and then the additional patience to play it properly. It is not for the feint-hearted.
I have been addicted to gaming since I played Pong for the first time when I was six years old. In the meantime, I have played thousands of games (all possible genres) on various systems from Atari 7800 and ZX Spectrum to Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga 500, PCs (Intel 8086 to the latest Intel and AMD chipsets), all Nintendo systems, all Sony Playstation systems, all Sega systems and finally Microsoft's XBox. Aside from gaming, I love to read (sci-fi, military history, politics, mysteries, puzzles...) and love to play chess which I do on a daily basis...
