What the heck is the deal with playing Napoleon's Battles???

Spartan480BC

Howdy!

A little help please.

I just attempted to play one of Napoleon's historical battles for the first time. The historical battle I selected to play was Friedland.

To my astonishment, I discovered that I was allowed to control only a fraction of all the French units on the map. About three out of four French units on the map were locked; therefore I could do nothing to influence what they did. I attempted to fight the battle with the small number of French units I could control, but, within minutes, the large number of French units I couldn't control were ineffectual in responding to Russian attacks and were routed off the field. Minutes later, the small number of French units I could control were overwhelmed by Russian units converging from all over the field and were themselves routed.

What the heck?

What am I missing?

What's the trick for being successful in this game?

Thanks!

Spartan480BC

I have now advanced all the way through the historical Napoleon's battles. I now see that Friedland is the only game in the historical Napoleon's battles series to behave as I described above. So, I'll now venture an answer to my own question: Friedland is intended to be played as a multiplayer game with co-players playing those parts of the French Army over which I have no control, correct?

Spartan480BC

Okay, I'm getting smarter all the time. No it is not a multiplayer battle, and yes, the French player controls only a fraction of the French units on the field which is a totally asinine bit of game design. The French units which the French player does not control are routed off the field within a very few minutes of the game starting and there's not a thing the French player can do about it. Stupid!