Napoleonic Europe...

[PresidentMarcos]

Looking around the Stories forum, in fics that involve the NE conquest, why is Napoleon never popular? Usually, in NE, the French are the easiest nation to play. Also, they have the moral high ground...so why are they unpopular?

[Arnelos]

Who says Napoleon necessarily has the moral high ground? Radical republicanism combined with Despotism may not appeal to as many as you'd apparently think, I suppose. Afterall, while most regimes of the period were absolute monarchies, not all of them were (most notably Britain, which was a relatively liberal aristocracy). Combine this with the fact that Napoleon professed the ideals of republicanism, in practice he was a despot who crowned himself and was a megalomaniac to boot - a ready made villain.

[PresidentMarcos]

Mmm. I just wonder why France is so unpopular through...If I were Napoleon, after conquering Europe, I'd have this Roman Empire phase, where I would set out to basically clone the Roman Empire...and have legionaries with guns and such, and maybe even move my capital to Rome, or rename Paris New Rome and such...ah well. There's a little megalomaniac in everyone, I guess.

[Plotinus]

Well, Napoleon did claim the title of Emperor, thereby ending the Holy Roman Empire which had existed for a little over 1,000 years, and which itself was in theory the successor to the Roman Empire. Napoleon didn't need to ape the caesars... he was great enough on his own terms! But I certainly don't see why you might think he had the moral high ground - as far as his foreign policy went, Napoleon was not so dissimilar to Hitler, even though he was obviously not as bad in other policies.

[PresidentMarcos]

Ah well. I miss the Roman Empire, for some reason. But hey, at least they are in the Hall of Fame...in a big way. I think that eventually, Rome'll make a comeback. Or at least try to. When that happens, I'll get the hell away from Europe!

[Plotinus]

Hey, Rome made a comeback twice - first as Byzantium (the Second Rome) and then as Russia (Moscow is the Third Rome). "Tzar" was a corruption of "Caesar", and that's why the eagle was the emblem of Russia...

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Arnelos
Who says Napoleon necessarily has the moral high ground? Radical republicanism combined with Despotism may not appeal to as many as you'd apparently think, I suppose. Afterall, while most regimes of the period were absolute monarchies, not all of them were (most notably Britain, which was a relatively liberal aristocracy). Combine this with the fact that Napoleon professed the ideals of republicanism, in practice he was a despot who crowned himself and was a megalomaniac to boot - a ready made villain.

I resent these comments, good sir.

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Trip
I resent these comments, good sir.

Oh, stuff it Catilene.

[joncnunn]

Re: Napoleonic Europe...

Perhaps because the scenerio can be won on turn 1 playing either the French or the English when it came off the CD. I don't know if one of the patches fixed it.

Originally posted by PresidentMarcos
Looking around the Stories forum, in fics that involve the NE conquest, why is Napoleon never popular? Usually, in NE, the French are the easiest nation to play. Also, they have the moral high ground...so why are they unpopular?