Napoleonic Wars (DLC)

Released: 19-04-2012

Napoleonic Wars is a multiplayer DLC (Downloadable Content) expansion pack for Mount & Blade: Warband featuring the last years of the Napoleonic Wars.  Experience the thrill of Napoleonic warfare first hand - Take part in the invasion of Russia or fight the French at Waterloo from the front line! Side with one of the five supreme European powers from the era and choose from and more than 220 unique units to play. Fight on the battlefields of one of the most accurate and detailed Napoleonic war games ever!

• Accurate early 19th century weapons, uniforms and environments.
• Massive multiplayer battles with up to 250 players.
• 5 nations with more than 220 unique units to choose from.
• A wide range of artillery pieces ranging from field cannons to mortars, capable of firing cannonballs, canister or explosive shells, all fully controllable by players.
• Destructible environments; players can use a range of artillery and explosives to destroy various buildings, bridges and other structures.
• Finely crafted game balance insuring player skill is the hero of the battlefield, not the gun or the sword.
• Construct barricades, dig trenches, and rig explosives with the multi-purpose Engineer class.
• Special musician units with drums, fifes, bagpipes or trumpets, able to play historically accurate tunes; all recorded and played by award winning musicians.
• More than 40 classical background music tracks.

Weapons

Muskets

In the Napoleonic era the main weapon of any army was the musket, as it provides perfect balance between melee and ranged combat.
Muskets provide a decently accurate shot on range and are equipped with a deadly bayonet for when the fight gets personal.

Rifles

Rifles, the sharpshooter’s preferred tool, are perfect for keeping an enemy force at bay. These deadly, long-range firearms are highly accurate but fairly slow to reload, and the lack of a bayonet may put a rifleman in a dangerous situation.

Carbines and Cavalry Muskets

Carbines and cavalry muskets are shorter firearms used by cavalry and some light infantry. They feature a faster reload at the cost of accuracy. Carbines are perfect for quick mid-range strikes, but do not get caught up in melee if you are not carrying a blade to back you up.

Swords and Sabres

The gentleman’s way of warfare, swords and sabres always come in handy in the thick mist of cannon and gun smoke. Officers carry swords, riflemen use a shorter blade for self-defense, and cavalrymen slice throats with terrifying sabres.

Lances

Lances are the weapons of choice for taking out enemies in one powerful charge. Ride headlong into an unaware regiment and watch them break at the tip of your lance. Beware of enemies getting too close though, the lance is too unwieldy to be useful if caught up in a close quarters.

Other weaponry

While the army may provide weapons to its troops, patriotic partisans will often have to find their own. Luckily farming tools can not only be used for cultivation, but also be carried into battle. Get out your good old bottle of vodka (make sure to drink it first!) and crack your enemy’s head with a mighty swing or throw it right at their face. If that was not enough, you can knock your opponent out with a birch club or use a scythe to cut the enemy like hay.

Cannons

A Mount & Blade series first, cannons let you revel in the chaos of battle like no other weapon! Pack these devastating machines of death with round shot to take down walls, explosive shells to blast apart lines of men or canister shot to wipe out the enemy if they get too close.

Factions

France

Led by Napoleon Bonaparte himself, the French Empire in 1812 is the most powerful continental state in Europe. Two decades of Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare have strengthened her huge armies and expanded her borders and spheres of political influence.

In 1812 the French armies fight all across the continent - from the mountains of Portugal to the endless steppes of Russia. The French tricolour was already raised over Berlin, and Vienna has been captured - for the first time in the city’s history. All major European nations have already suffered defeats against Bonaparte’s Grande Armée, but the widely stretched French nation is now literally surrounded by the enemies. France will have to battle against the whole of Europe. Again...

United Kingdom

The British Empire is on the rise, constantly expanding and strengthening her influence over the world. However, to become the world’s dominant power, Britain first need to get rid of her most dangerous and ambitious enemy - Imperial France. While Britannia may rule the waves, France still dominates the continent, something London neither can, nor will tolerate.

As financing the armies of Napoleon’s enemies to get rid of the “Corsican monster” turned out to be ineffective, His Majesty’s armies are now to take over and make their own attempt to drive back the French with fire and cold steel. However, trying to maintain a huge empire as well as a war against the United States, Britain has to compensate the lack of troops with professionalism and solid discipline. At the same time huge diplomatic resources are being used to pressure Austria and Prussia to join another coalition. Britain needs all the help she can get if she is to beat back the huge armies of France.

Prussia

The glory and power of Prussia is a thing of the past, not the present. In 1812 the once mighty Prussia has been conquered and is now, forcibly, allied to the French. The military catastrophe of 1806 was a bitter lesson for the Prussian military, and the Prussian state overall, but a bitter lesson is still a lesson. Prussia learned from it and is now ready to once again rise to glory and power.

The Prussian commitment to the campaign in Russia is half-hearted at most. Instead she is sharpening her swords, ready to rise against the French invader, should Napoleon’s army lose its war in Russia. Gone are the slow and uninspired troops of 1806, replaced by a newly reformed army, supplemented with Landwehr, Prussian militia, fighting for their homes, families and country. The success of France has lasted for too long and her generals have become too self-confident and proud. Now it is Prussia’s time to return the favour from 1806 and teach the French a lesson they will remember for a long time.

Austria

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars were a disaster for the Holy Roman Empire. With numerous lands in Italy, the Balkans and the Low Countries lost to France, the empire that dominated central Europe for centuries no longer exists. Francis II, once Holy Roman Emperor, is now Francis I, Emperor of the newly formed Austrian Empire. Vienna, the city that held against huge Ottoman armies two centuries ago, was captured by the French, not only once, but twice.

However, despite serious blows the Austrian prestige, the Austrian spirit is not broken. Instead, Austria is now more determined than ever to pay back for all shame suffered from Bonaparte.
While it may have suffered defeats, the Austrian army is still the third largest in Europe and shall not be forgotten as the only army which have defeated Napoleon himself without any allied help, and was close to defeating him on two more occasions. As French power on the continent melts with the spring snow of 1813, the Austrian Empire stands ready to retake what once was hers.

Russia

Ever since the Muscovite Tsardom transformed into the Russian Empire, expansionist ambitions has formed her foreign policy. Having successfully contested Sweden, Prussia and the Ottoman Empire for lands, St. Petersburg has now reached another level of ambition. The young Russian monarch, Alexander I, cares little for the new lands. His ambitions are much higher than that - to defeat Napoleon himself and “save Europe” from French tyranny.

Russian armies have marched against Napoleon twice, and both times they were repelled with heavy casualties on both sides. The third clash, which is about to come in 1812, will be completely different. Belorussian forests and endless Russian steppes are quite different from the fields of Europe with their well-developed road networks and numerous villages. And the Russian peasant will not allow himself to be exploited by an enemy army - instead he will rather grab his axe and escape to the nearest forest. With the forest behind them filled with partisans, and the Russian army endlessly retreating in front of them, the French can look forward to a truly unique experience...

Screenshots

For more information about the DLC, check out the official forums: