One of history's great captains was Frederick, King of a relatively small European state that was called Prussia. When he first took the throne, nobody would have guessed that Frederick would earn the name of 'Soldier King' due to a remarkable series of battles in two major European wars. From 1740 till his death in 1786, Frederick would control Prussia's destiny purely by force of arms and his own intellect. Players can re-fight some of the key battles of his many campaigns in Prussia's Glory.

Prussia's Glory is a turn based tactical game that recreates some of the major battles the Soldier King took part in. Players move and command historical units from the major powers of the period on a hexagon map board. This game is a part of a series called Horse and Musket, and this installment features five of his most significant engagements from both the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Year's War.

Players will square off and re-fight the battles of Soor, Lobositz, Hochkirk, Torgau and Luethen. Although these battles may be obscure and forgotten today, they helped shape European politics during an important period in its history. Frederick's genius kept Austrian ambitions in check as well as those of France and Imperial Russia. Always heavily outnumbered in war, Frederick led his proud Prussian regiments to victory time and time again.

This game system is heavily reliant on tactical board war gaming and miniatures type rules. Units include infantry regiments, jagers, Musketeers, Grenadiers, Cavalry regiments, commanding officers and even special units such as the Von Kleist Free Korps. Each regiment can be viewed close up, and wear correct period uniforms. A strength of this game system is that it attempts to show not just the look, but the feel of combat in this period. Artillery is also included in the game, as are the effects it has on combat.

Play is turn based and consists of first activating a leader and then moving units in the leader's command. If the activation fails nothing moves. Units move a certain number of hexes and may engage in combat if the enemy is in a nearby hexagon. Unit facing is critical in this game system as it was to 18th century warfare. Players also have to change unit formations, column for march and then deployed in line for combat. There is bonus damage for combat if you hit an enemy's flank and rear.

Cavalry can do additional damage if it charges units that are disrupted. Disruption is caused both from movement and combat, and simulates the fact that units that move and fight have stragglers that degrade combat performance. If a unit becomes too severely disrupted it may rout, which means its literally running for its life, and they may retreat off the game board.

Most battles can be played in a relatively short time and go fast. Typically units move to contact fire and one side or the other begins to give way. Destroying every enemy piece is not required to win or lose battles, since the requirement is to meet the historical objective of the battle. The challenge is in recreating the correct tactics that the Soldier King used to great effect throughout his career.

Graphically this game is rather pedestrian compared to the current state of the art. It isn't really designed to be a flashy game, but it will appeal to its target base - dedicated war gamers. With a large number of variables to movement and combat, as well as an interesting if unusual historical time period, Prussia's Glory is a nice little game, but its not for everyone. If you enjoy the history of warfare this will certainly appeal to you.

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