The Gunner’s Campaign

You are the gun, not the general.

The Gunner's Campaign puts you in command of a single battery during the wars of 1805–1815. The army around you marches, volleys, breaks and rallies on its own. Your job is to serve the guns well enough that it doesn't break first.

Ranging by eye, 1809-style

There is no landing marker. You lay a bearing, set your elevation, fire, and watch where the ball strikes — short, over, or through the line. Round shot bounces along dry roads and dies in ploughed mud. Canister is devastating at a hundred paces and useless beyond. Smoke from your own salvo hides the target you just found.

The drill is the game

Every shot is sponged, loaded, rammed and primed by four gunners. Lose one and the cycle slows. Lose them all and the piece falls silent. Push the crew to rapid fire and the barrel heats — ram a round into a hot bore and you may lose the round, and the man.

The enemy shoots back

Enemy batteries range in on you shot by shot. Infantry columns close to the bayonet. Cavalry finds your flank. Weather is not decoration: fog hides the ridge until it lifts, rain turns the field to mud, and snow slows everything that moves.

Twenty missions, two careers

• The French route — Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Friedland, Aspern-Essling, Wagram, Borodino, Dresden, Leipzig

• The Allied route — Vimeiro, Corunna, Talavera, Bussaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca, Vitoria, Toulouse, Quatre Bras, Waterloo

Start with one gun. Earn a section, then a battery. Promotions are decided by headquarters on your record: orders followed, ammunition spent, friendly fire, guns kept in action. A bad battle gets you reprimanded. A worse one ends your career. Twenty decorations are awarded from what actually happened on the field — nothing is handed out for showing up.