Great to see the article by Kyle Hoekstra in the gaming section promoting Napoleon: Total War. (https://www.historyhit.com/gaming/napoleon-total-war-brilliant-historical-strategy-game/) I've played the game for a long number of years, and if you put in a bit of effort you can get a decent Napoleonic warfare experience from it, especially if you use the Darthmod or Napoelon Total War 3 mods. The smoke, volley fire, crackle of musketry, fifes and drums, all contribute to the experience, and with the changes the Napoleon Total War 3 mod makes to how Fog of War is implemented, having an undetected enemy column emerging from dead ground or smoke can work really well. The AI is limited in it's tactical ability as you'd expect, so you won't seen it attacking in column or using mixed-order. It's best to look on that simply as your superior ability as a general overwhelming the enemy commander. But if you have a like-minded opponent you can have a lot of fun in multi-player.

Thanks for posting! If you come to Total War for spectacle, NTW and its mods really deliver. I was glad when I discovered the Armstrong guns in Shogun 2, though.