Overview
Play as a General in Kriegsspiel ~ 7 Years' War, a real-time wargame simulating battles from the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). You command different types of regiments: line infantry, field artillery, cavalry, hussars, and more.
Your control over your troops is limited: you depend on couriers to transmit your orders to these regiments. Your regiments will also send you couriers, to keep you informed of the situation beyond your field of vision. Furthermore, you must pay attention to the terrain, supplies, and the condition of your troops.
But these constraints also apply to your opponents: you can use them to your advantage!
Command and Control
Kriegsspiel - 7 Years' War adapts the rules of Kriegsspiel, the ancestor of modern wargames, into a real-time strategy game:
You command your general on vast 3D battlefields, covering at least 100 square kilometers.
Your army is divided into regiments and battalions. You send strategic orders to your regiments. The regimental officers organize their battalions as best they can according to the orders received, the visible enemies and allies, and the terrain.
Your field of vision is limited around your General due to the relief and environment. Your units inform you of what is beyond your field of vision, by sending reports. These reports are sent by couriers.
The orders you send to your regiments are transmitted by other couriers.
All couriers take time to travel, and can be intercepted by enemy troops.
You can record orders, which will only be executed when your general gives a signal. This makes it possible to synchronize attacks and plan retreats, which your regiments will execute immediately. Be careful, however, as only regiments with a clear view of the General will be able to receive the signal.
You must pay attention to your General unit. It can move around, provide bonuses, or rally nearby units. However, if you lose this unit, you lose the battle.
Landscape
Replay historical battles on three-dimensional maps. These are reconstructed based on the topography and historical maps of the battlefields:
Relief and landscape can block your field of vision.
Units sheltered by forests are hidden. If they are not detected, they gain an ambush bonus when attacking enemy battalions that are too close. Light units (hussars, chasseurs) can spot units in ambush.
Terrain affects speed, protection, and even morale: some rivers are impassable, streams are slow to cross, roads offer a speed bonus, forests and towns provide protection... The best fortifications boost the morale of defending units
AI
Even when out of your field of vision, your officers are doing their best, and your staff is there to assist you: take advantage of this to think and act strategically!
Tactical artificial intelligence manages battalions in attack and defense: your troops will organize themselves tactically to carry out your orders. Nearby regiments can join forces to defend an area or attack the enemy.
A virtual command staff estimates your own and enemy supply and communication lines for you. It estimates your total forces and losses, as well as those of the enemy. Finally, it can calculate a local balance of power. All of this can help you make the right decisions. Warning: the staff bases its calculations on what is present around your General, and the reports received: it may calculate false information if data are not accurate.
The enemy AI has the same handicaps as the player: it must recognize the map if it wants to attack effectively. It is possible to thwart its strategies by intercepting its report or order couriers.
Units
On the battlefield, the effectiveness of battalions fluctuates depending on supplies, morale, and physical condition:
Supplies come from supply points and your hinterland. Convoys move supplies to your camp and then redistribute them to your regiments. Make sure you have enough supply points and that your convoys' routes are safe.
Morale depends in particular on losses suffered, the number of enemies and allies around the unit, the environment, etc.
Physical condition decreases if a battalion runs or fights, and gradually increases if the battalion does nothing.
Soldiers, officers of battalions and regiments, and even your General, gain bonuses with experience gained in combat, which can give them an advantage on the battlefield.
Campaign
The game features campaigns set during the Seven Years' War. These campaigns put you in command of an army that must win a number of battles :
Fight in the main battles, or take the risk of facing your enemies in secondary battles, which can bring you rewards (money, troops, officers, etc.), but also cause you to lose men.
At the end of each battle, you earn enough to maintain your army and recruit new troops (or simply try to rebuild decimated regiments).
Whether they command your army, a battalion, or a regiment, your officers can gain levels. For each level an officier gains, you can choose a bonus to specialize him (better firing rate, better endurance, ambush bonus, etc.). These bonuses apply to all the troops they command. Officiers can also be wounded, be killed in combat, or fall ill.
Regiments may gain levels and therefore bonuses, according to their actions on the battlefield.
You can also assign specialists to slightly improve regiments abilities, and decide to pamper them, which can bring bonuses at the expense of maintenance costs, or neglect them, which allows you to save money but can bring penalties.
Manage your army wisely, specializing your troops, saving up to create elite regiments, and others that are just good enough to guard your camp. Above all, keep your troops alive on the battlefield: you will need experienced soldiers and officers to defeat your enemies during these seven years of war.
Kriegsspiel
The Kriegsspiel ~ 7 Years' War system is inspired by an ancestor of modern strategy games: Kriegsspiel. In this game, players only know what the umpire chooses to reveal to them about the battlefield. In addition, orders are transmitted by the players to the umpire, who decides if and when they will be executed, based on the positions of the general staff and the unit being commanded. rs' Kriegsspiel - 7 YeaWar adapts these rules, and others, in real time.
