March of the Eagles is out today: Command the Napoleonic Wars, no experience required

MotE (2)

Today marks the launch of Paradox's March of the Eagles, an in-depth Napoleonic wargame that shares some DNA with the grand strategy titles (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis) that the studio is known for. In the Napoleonic Era, however, there is only war. Which is to say, the political and economic systems have been stripped down to the minimum to allow you to focus on the marchy and shooty parts.

While it lacks some of the breadth that makes Paradox's historical games unique, the Eagles' military systems are as deep as any other game from the studio. You'll compete to establish land and naval dominance by capturing key victory provinces as one of the major powers of the time, including France, England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden. The devs told me at PDX Con that the leaner, quicker gameplay is meant partially as a way to introduce new players to some of the concepts of grand strategy, without throwing everything on their plates at once.

It's also worth noting that March of the Eagles makes for a much more manageable multiplayer experience. While it's still real-time, like Europa IV, the tighter focus prevents you from stumbling into the sort of chain of catastrophe that befell me in EU4's multiplayer . Also, I started a campaign-spanning war with France over a misunderstanding of the diplomacy system and basically won. So there was that.

Get it on Steam for $20 .

Contributor

Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.

Latest in Game Development
princeton review best game design programs 2025
The best game design schools, ranked by the Princeton Review 2025
Sharon Tal Yguado speaking at the 2025 D.I.C.E. Summit.
'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it
Palworld early access
Palworld studio's first move as a publisher is to save a struggling indie dev: 'This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025'
Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says his studio's new game won't be that big after all: 'it's not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again'
A man with a sausage-shaped head
'Calm down!' says Facepunch Studios: Garry's Mod successor s&box is getting a fan-requested sandbox mode and an alternative to 'Sausage Men'
Hellboy Web of Wyrd
Devolver has a new label dedicated to making games based on comics, films, TV shows and 'cult heroes'
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'