Napoleon: Total War – The Peninsular Campaign
Hello and welcome to our exclusive Generals guide to Napoleon: Total War – The Peninsular Campaign.
The Peninsular War saw some of the 19th Century’s most formidable powers clash in an almighty fight for supremacy in the Spanish Peninsula. Yet it wasn’t a conflict noted for the dominating power of huge armies, but for the emergence of a new type of warfare.
France’s grip on the Peninsula wore thin under the constant harassment, unrest and ambushes brought on by Spanish guerrilla action in the region.
Set against a backdrop of David and Goliath battles – sometimes of individual men fighting against the machine of war – guerrilla warfare has, for the first time, arrived in a Total War™ title. Take arms!
For full details on Napoleon: Total War – The Peninsular Campaign, plus a trailer and 10 screenshots, please visit www.totalwar.com.
Understanding the differences
Veteran Total War™ players will find more of the same warfare they know and love, but also a new challenge: increased unrest and harassment is par for the course in The Peninsular Campaign.
In order to best maximise your chances of victory, you must first understand and harness this new style of play. This useful guide will help you get to grips with a few of the new features.
Political alignment
War is a battle of minds as well as hearts. Understanding this is the key to victory in this campaign. As the French, you should strive to win the propaganda war by stirring up Pro-French nationalism. As the Spanish or British, you should subvert this by promoting Anti-French sentiment. This can be achieved using The Peninsular Campaign’s new agents and technologies.
Agents
There are three new types of agent in The Peninsular Campaign:
Priests are used by the Spanish and Portuguese nations and are spawned from religious buildings. They are used to convince the population to align themselves with the liberating British armies. This occurs simply by their presence in a region or inside a town or city. Priests can also spy passively when in the immediate proximity of an enemy and detect and reveal the position of foreign spies. Furthermore, placing these agents in a settlement will have a direct impact on the region’s public order. Friendly regions benefit from a boost in happiness; enemy regions suffer a penalty as these agents spread propaganda.
Provocateurs are either Spanish resistance members working for Great Britain in the Peninsula, or pro-Bonaparte Spaniards working for the Emperor. Their role is to persuade the local inhabitants to support either anti- or pro- French sentiment, depending on which faction you are playing. Placing these units in friendly or enemy settlements will also raise or lower happiness respectively.
Guerrilleros are fundamentally Spy agents. Their Harass ability allows them to disrupt an enemy unit with added attrition effects. They can also infiltrate enemy units, assassinate generals, incite unrest and passively spy.
Units
There’s also a new type of military unit in this campaign. Guerrilla units can be obtained by liberating Spanish regions from the French. If you’re playing as France, watch out for them – they more than likely already have you surrounded…
Guerrillas are best used as harassing, mobile forces. The key to their success is their mobility and ability to undermine the best enemy plans. In battles, for instance, they can deploy outside their standard deployment zone in order to subvert the enemy. The element of surprise is yours! They can also hide in trees and scrubland.
Keep a look out for historical guerrilla units, based on legendary bands of guerrillas from the 19th century.
Supply
The British, in their unwavering fight against Napoleon, have committed considerable resources to vanquishing the French presence on the Peninsula, but supplying the front lines of a war on distant shores is no simple logistical task.
The British must ship in troops from overseas. As a result, they require supply ports.
The British can also receive new troops by liberating regions from French rule and handing them back to the Spanish. As a token of thanks and support, British armies will receive additional support from Guerrilla units to prop up their numbers.
Technology
New technologies can be found in The Peninsular Campaign to support you in your goals, enabling you to increase your income, spread propaganda, boost recruitment and more. Embracing technology will help you turn the tide of war against your enemy.
Liberation
When vanquishing a French-held region, British players have the option to “liberate” the region, handing it back to the Spanish. In exchange for this, the player will receive Guerrilla units to help their cause.
Trade
Trade nodes provide a significant source of income to fuel your war efforts. The regions in the Spanish Peninsula have been war-ravaged since 1808 and wealth is low. As a result, shipping in supplies from colonies and protectorates in Europe, the Americas and the Mediterranean is critical to your success.
There are two types of trade node: high value and low value. High value trade nodes bring in more money, but can have fewer ships occupying them (4). Low value trade nodes are less lucrative, but can be crammed with more trade ships (8). It is your choice how you occupy these. Choose wisely!
Military Funding
Once per year, your faction will receive additional funding from allies or the homeland to aid your campaign. A lump-sum of cash can be just the ticket when trying to churn out an offensive force, but beware of spending everything and finding yourself in a position where you no longer have the funds to support your newly-acquired troops.
Multiplayer
In The Peninsular Campaign, two players can play online or over a network, either working co-operatively to eliminate the French or working against each other to win supremacy in the region.
Useful tips
You’re almost ready to mount your charger. But before that, take a look at these useful tips:
- Manage your population and keep a firm eye on unrest. Keep your own nationals happy and try to subvert the happiness of your enemy’s populace as much as you can.
- Don’t underestimate the importance of trade. Money is scarce and an essential component in the machine of war.
- Don’t be disheartened if you lose a region, either due to invasion or unrest – 19th century warfare was a constantly-changing tumult – so if you lose a battle, there’s every chance you’ll still win the war.
For all the latest Total War information, stay tuned to www.totalwar.com, and become a fan on Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks,
Mark O’Connell
The Creative Assembly
Comment # 2
Yeah very good and interesting xD… but when will be released Peninsular campaign???
Posted by LordKain on June 22nd, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Comment # 3
Sounds great!
One question though – the release date?
Posted by ElKobold on June 22nd, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Comment # 4
Mark, Thanks for the update BUT when will the new campaign be distributed. No No, not June 2010, we know that. What Date or is that still a state secret? You know what I can wait for the release actually, but can you give us more information about the 28 units assigned to the different playable factions and yes here is the most important part, will those units be available in multiplayer. You know, we know about the 95th Rifles Great, and the cavalry units for the spanish and French. By my count, that is only about 5 of the 28 units. So lets hear it.
Posted by Cool Breeze on June 22nd, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Comment # 5
spanish kingdom of Galicia was liberated by itself in June after its invasion in January 1809 …
Posted by Antón do Corsario on June 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Comment # 6
Nice. There’s so much hidden information packed into these Total War games, even beyond reading every single tooltip in-game. Something like this is always nice to break down some of those features in plain text.
Posted by WeApOn on June 22nd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Comment # 7
PRESTO, WE HAVE IT!! HOW COOL IS THAT??
Say the word and voila, there it is!! Great BUT what happened to the 95th Rifles of the British Army, are they AWOL??
Posted by Cool Breeze on June 22nd, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Comment # 8
I downloaded the new DLC Peninsular Campaign and it doesn’t work, steam is on but it just sits at the black NTW screen in the beginning before the opening credits. every time i start it nothing but this happens its very strange. please help
Posted by Jonathan on June 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Comment # 9
ive bought all your total war titles from day one and enjoyed them very much so but found empire total war a let down. since playing napoleon yous have redeemed your selfs in the gaming market and i found the game brilleant. but iam deeply sorry to tell you that i think youve made a massive mistake in changing the morale on all troops on your latest update . ive you played the game since if not you should try it .evreyone you ive played say the same thing the moral spoils the game . plaese could yous change it back!!.iam sure other gamers will leave you comments regardng the moral in the troops in the game . thankyou
Posted by james frew on June 24th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Comment # 10
I need an answer please this is terrible cant play peninsula online it crashes the game each time, white French units bug is still here i have a new sea bug i can hear the sound of sea waves in … main menu LOL lotta problems here please answer me i am ur client after all i hope u can do or say something PLEASE MR O’ CONELL help me !
HELP ME!!!!
Posted by Anthony on June 24th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Comment # 11
Lolllllllllllls XD
Mes likies thes news agents ands unrests!
Wes wants as releases dates wes does.
Posted by Findlay Crewdun on June 25th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Comment # 12
Why there is no Portuguese Troops?
The Peninsula is compose by two counters Portugal and spain.
Waiting for the game.
Posted by PT on June 28th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Comment # 13
Why isnt the kingdom of Portugal a playable faction in single player? And stop calling it the spanish peninsula, its called the iberian peninsula. Sure u could say spanish comes from the latin name hispania which was what the romans called the area, but the romans are dead u know…
Posted by camaroeiro on July 21st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Comment # 14
Sega needs some history books! Napoleon started to lose the battle in Portugal, he give up passing the “linhas de torres” a tactic that Portuguese use to defend Lisbon, then they move back to Spain. the Spanish peninsula never existed, is Iberia..
Posted by RichardCooper on August 7th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Comment # 15
I’m a fan of Total War series but as a portuguese I would like to know wheres this Spanish Penninsula geographically speaking, and what countries are in it? 
I really have no idea…”Spanish” is Spain but Spain is located on the Iberian Penninsula so… :S Ok I’m just being whinny but I would like to see Portugal to get more credit then it’s getting, afterall napoleon fall somewhat started in here 
Posted by Napoleon on August 16th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Comment # 16
And what about the Portguese? They inflicted the first major french defeats.
And what about the Lines of Torres? And Battles of Vimeiro and Bussaco?
Posted by Rui on August 20th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Comment # 17
were are the 95th rifles????????????????????????
Posted by kyle James on September 5th, 2010 at 12:25 am
Comment # 18
The omission of certain aspects of history leads us the idea that they aren’t as relevant as the mentioned aspects. In fact, if there is a country in the Peninsular War that was particularly different from the provinces of Spain, that independent country is Portugal. Portugal refused to comply with the Napoleonic Continental Blockade. Portugal had a 30.000 men Line Army, exactly the same number the british had stationed there in 1810, both under Wellington command, a time where there were no spanish relevant forces of line.
Simplifying things for gaming purposes doesn’t mean to erase parts of history. Peninsular War never existed if there was no Portugal. The reason why we don’t read any comment on this subject posted by americans is simply because they are repeatedly told the same idea: the globe is the US and the rest of the world is only part of the landscape.
Posted by Carlos on September 6th, 2010 at 12:26 am
Comment # 19
Once again portugal’s historic role being crapped on and ignored, nothing to see here.
Only you CA, to give the spanish more protagonism and to completly overlook portugal in the peninsula campaign itself.
For gods sake go read what wellington said several times about the peninsular war: he gave all the praise to the portuguese while downplaying what the spanish did. In return what does this game suggests? The reverse thing, spain are the big heros, portugal’s role is minor or less than that.
the portuguese elite units caçadores WELLINGTON himself considered to be of the same level as his own british troops. He wanted these troops present in Waterloo but they couldnt make it on time. What has been done about these units? I dont even wanna know, because i just know they either made them spanish, which gives me vomits just thinking about it, or there not even there at all while spain must get some nice historic units like the “matadores”: guerrila warriors who bullfight on part time straight out of the ARENA yeah!
Disgusting
Posted by Kal on December 28th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Comment # 20
If it were not Portugal there where no Penunsular War at all. Half of the the so called Anglo-Portuguese army lead by Wellington was hald made by Portuguese troops and Portuguese officers. The Portuguese army battle alonside with Wellington till France. You know other things (bunch of ignorants) ? Just to say a few, Portugal also had Guerrillas, it was the Portuguese army that was defending the Spanish city Cadiz at the time when the Spanish where trying to create a government…..he had even troops that were not under British command – General Silveira lead a compaign against Soult since Galiza and Northem Portugal. The Portuguese army.
You can call whatever garbish name to your expansion – but it will never deserve to be called Peninsular Campaign. Next time make a favour to your brain and at least take a look to the history books, not that garbish writen for hollywood movies or alike and try to show some respect for the history.
Posted by Albert Ronald on January 16th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
