L'Empereur Question

[Casati]

I've had the NES L'Empereur for years but haven't really played it through until now. I'm doing the scenario #1 1796 in which Napoleon begins his military career with victories in Italy. However, that's not how it's playing out for me at all. The manual states that the conditions for winning the game are the French holding 9 territories. I've held at least 9 territories during many turns. Is it one of those games where you have to be holding territories until the end of the game turn which includes counterattacks by other nations?

One thing is I'm not sure if I held 9 regions before the year 1798 which is the starting point for scenario #2. If you don't attain 9 before 1798, does it automatically switch over to scenario #2 with it's victory conditions? What is going on? I've been playing this for days and am now in 1809 and Napoleon has divorced Josephine and remarried, and Napoleon was promoted to C-in-C but the game didn't end there. I thought scenario #1 was supposed to be a short game to introduce the gameplay. Why will I not win until Waterloo in 1815 or later? :roll: Does the game just not let you know when you've already won? Does it just go on forever if you've already lost?

[goldenband]

I don't know L'Empereur itself, but a lot of Koei games simply continue into the final scenario when you've beaten one of the earlier ones. For example, Romance of the Three Kingdoms goes straight into Scenario 5 after beating any of Scenarios 1-4, though I don't know if it announces the transition.

[Edmond Dantes]

I've always understood that the "scenarios" just determine starting conditions, while the victory is always "kick they ass."

but I never played L'empereur (Kinda jealous of the OP for owning it when I don't...)

[Gameguy]

I kind of wish I would have kept this game, I had it complete in excellent shape but sold it for about $30 years ago. I don't usually play these types of games but maybe I should have given it more of a chance.

[Casati]

It's just somewhat strange because I was expecting scenario #1 to be limited to battles in northern Italy since that's where Napoleon was gaining his early fame as a military leader, and here I am in 1809 moving toward Waterloo. The manual does state the victory conditions for #1 as 9 territories and you start with 6 territories. I already have occupied most of the territory in Italy, Belgium and Germany.

...

I finished this game later today by rather quickly losing territories in 1812 and Napoleon was left defending a territory in Italy without any adjacent territories held by the French, so he had to retreat to his "home country" and was sent to Elba in a cut-scene.

I started a new game from scenario #1 again, this time quickly taking 3 territories in Italy and there was a cut-scene of Napoleon being promoted to C-in-C. I think this happened in January, so I'm guessing they go by how many territories you hold at the end of a year. But the game continues on until either you conquer a majority of Europe or you lose. I think scenario #1 is probably the most challenging since you don't start out with Napoleon as leader of France so you can't execute nation strategy until he's been promoted to such. On the other hand, it's a good way to learn the mechanics of city strategy and battles since the nation strategy for France is handled by the computer (as Barras). This is turning out to be one of my favorite NES games!