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The PC game Crown of Glory: Europe in the Age of Napoleon covered itself in glory in 2005, winning Charles S. Roberts and War Game of the Year awards. In March 2009, Matrix Games will return players to the Napoleonic Age where they can again utilize military strategy , economics, diplomacy and social organization to lead the nation of their choice to pre-eminence in the sequel, Crown of Glory: Emperor’s Edition, developed by Western Civilization. The principal team behind CoG: EE was comprised of Gil Renberg, Michael Zeddies and Eric Babe.

What changes can gamers expect in this new iteration? Will it live up to its predecessor’s achievements? ArmchairGeneral.com posed those questions and others to Matrix Games and Western Civilization.

ARMCHAIR GENERAL: Crown of Glory won high accolades, including the Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Pre-20th Century Era Wargame and the War – Historical Group’s War Game of the Year. Is there added pressure in creating a sequel when the original game was that well received?

MATRIX GAMES/WESTERN CIVILIZATION: We continue to set high standards for our work, and we were very honored by our awards. There is pressure, but most of it comes from ourselves, simply from our desire to make yet another great game, with brand-new features and game-play options. There are lots of things in Emperor’s Edition that we wanted to include in Crown of Glory from the start, like detailed naval combat and added scenarios like an 1812 scenario, and we really just wanted to take the opportunity to include as much as we could. We’re constantly thinking of the players and fans: would they enjoy this feature? Does it meet the standard for historical accuracy? Will it make the game more fun? So it’s always rewarding to get this kind of feedback from the community.

ACG: Will CoG:EE be covering the same (years, countries, battles, etc.) as the original CoG?

MG/WC: Yes, but we’ve added a number of scenarios and features that we think players will enjoy. The biggest additions in this regard are an 1803 scenario, just before the peace of Amiens broke down, and an 1812 scenario, just prior to the invasion of Russia. We think 1803 is fun, because all the major powers are at peace, and the player is free to make of that situation whatever they will.

1812 needs no introduction: we have faithfully recreated the Grande Armee, poised in Poland and ready to strike, as well as all of Russia’s defenses, in addition to a detailed recreation of the situation in Spain. We’ve added some rules making Russian winters harsher and Spanish supply lines more difficult to maintain, which we think help recreate the operational environment. (By the way, the 1812 scenario features units that are individually named after their historical commanders whenever possible.)

In addition to these, we’ve also provided scenarios that make it it possible to play some of the minor powers just like one of the major powers. In those scenarios, the minor power takes Sweden’s place, and the Swedes are relegated to an AI-controlled player. Depending on the year, you can play Bavaria, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal—and we’ve given Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal larger navies that are fully stocked with their historical complement of warships. In fact, all the major powers now feature historically sized navies, with their historical numbers of first-/second rates and third-rates, as well as some fourth-rates and frigates.

ACG: Will social, economic, diplomatic, and military aspects be available, and to what degree for each?

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