Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire, led by Napoleon I, against an array of European powers formed into various coalitions. They revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription. The wars are traditionally seen as a continuation of the Revolutionary Wars, which broke out in 1792 during the French Revolution. Initially, French power rose quickly as the armies of Napoleon conquered much of Europe. In his military career, Napoleon fought about 60 battles and lost seven, mostly at the end of his reign. The great French dominion collapsed rapidly after the disastrous Invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon was defeated in 1814, and then again in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo after a brief return to power. The Allies then reversed all French gains since the Revolutionary Wars at the Congress of Vienna.

France under Napoleon defeated five of seven coalitions before final defeat. The first and second coalitions were defeated during the French Revolutionary Wars, the third (at Austerlitz), the fourth (at Jena, Eylau, and Friedland) and the fifth coalition (at Wagram) under the leadership of Napoleon. These victories gave the French Army a sense of invulnerability, especially when it approached Moscow. After the retreat from Russia, France was defeated by the sixth coalition at the Battles of Leipzig and Vitoria, and by the seventh coalition at Waterloo.

Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade is a medieval action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, developed by the Turkish company TaleWorlds, and published by the Swedish company Paradox Interactive. Its retail version was released on September 16, 2007, in North America, and three days later in Europe.

Reception on Mount & Blade has overall been positive. Reviewers praised the game for its innovative combat mechanics, complex character skill system, and large modding community, but also criticized it for its repetitive quests, dialogues, and locations, as well as low graphics quality.

A sequel, Mount & Blade: Warband, was released in March 2010, and a spin-off stand-alone expansion, Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword, based on the historical novel With Fire and Sword, was released in May 2011.

Gameplay

Mount & Blade is a single-player, action-oriented role-playing game without any fantasy elements, which takes place in a medieval land named Calradia. The game features a sandbox gameplay style, in which there is no storyline present. The player is able to join one of the five battling factions, fight as a mercenary, assume the role of an outlaw, or take a neutral side.

Green Man

A Green Man Sculpture is a sculpture, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Commonly used as a decorative architectural ornament, Green Men are frequently found in carvings on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings. "The Green Man" is also a popular name for English public houses and various interpretations of the name appear on inn signs, which sometimes show a full figure rather than just the head.

The Green Man motif has many variations. Found in many cultures from many ages around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetative deities. It is primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of growth each spring. Some speculate that the mythology of the Green Man developed independently in the traditions of separate ancient cultures and evolved into the wide variety of examples found throughout history.

Green Man Gaming

Green Man Gaming is a United Kingdom-based online video game retailer. It has a catalogue of over 5200 games from more than 350 publishers, selling games in 185 countries; 90% of its revenue is generated outside the UK. Green Man Gaming also owns and is integrated with Playfire, a game-tracking social networking website that allows users to automatically track their gameplay and in-game achievements or trophies from Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live.

History

In 2009, Paul Sulyok formed Green Man Gaming with Lee Packham. Sulyok had previously been the CEO of Prize Fight, an online gaming platform, and Packham had been responsible for developing the technology behind Prize Fight. Green Man Gaming officially started trading on 10 May 2010 with a launch catalogue of 500 games from 26 publishers.

Packham developed and managed the initial launch of the retail platform, and was the architect of a new system and method for facilitating a Video Game Exchange for Green Man Gaming. Users who download games from its "Capsule" gaming client with SecuROM DRM can then trade-in some of their digital games for credit to use against anything on the Green Man Gaming website. This works by deactivating the code required to play the game, which is then re-sold as 'pre-owned'.

Napoleon

Napoléon Bonaparte (/nəˈpoʊliən, -ˈpoʊljən/;French: [napɔleɔ̃ bɔnapaʁt], born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. Napoleon dominated European affairs for over a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, rapidly gaining control of continental Europe before his ultimate defeat in 1815. One of the greatest commanders in history, his campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide and he remains one of the most celebrated and controversial political figures in Western history. In civil affairs, Napoleon had a major long-term impact by bringing liberal reforms to the territories that he conquered, especially the Low Countries, Switzerland, and large parts of modern Italy and Germany. He implemented fundamental liberal policies in France and throughout Western Europe. His lasting legal achievement, the Napoleonic Code, has been adopted in various forms by a quarter of the world's legal systems, from Japan to Quebec.