KOEI was extremely dilligent in their first year producing 7 games, one of which was L'Empereur. The game places you in the role of Napoleon from the start of his carreer, to his final glory days as the undisputed ruler of France.
You will start the game with a very small force, and just like Napoleon himself you will need to use your artillery to break through the enemy lines. An all out assault will meet certain defeat. The best strategy is to demoralize the enemy troops with cannon blast, then run them over with your ground forces. Cavalry works best against infantry, and infantry is the best against artillery. BUT... even though things look great and the enemy looses one battalion after the other, you can still meet defeat if you run out of food. You must always be prepared for a long battle, and should always take more food with you then you think you'll need.
After playing the game for a little while you will, just as Napoleon himself, start to love your artillery. It is the most important tool on the battlefield. A handful of cannons can turn the tides of war, so protect these units with your life. You will have to position your cannons in strategic positions, as the terrain matters. You can not see beyond forrests, mountains and other objects, which limits your cannons range and effeciency. This works for you as well. Use the terrain to your benefit. Set up traps in valleys where the enemy can only move through one at the time. Position yourself out of the range of enemy cannons, or hide yourself behind obstacles. And whatever you do, keep demoralizing the enemy with your artillery.
L'Empereur can be controlled with either the mouse or the keyboard, which is really astounding as the game was made in 1989. The mouse can be a bit buggy at times, (leaving ghost images at times, and disappearing from time to time), but this doesn't hurt the game at all as it takes you only a couple of seconds to either change screen (the ghost images will go away) or locate your mouse as it will still highlight everything it moves over. In order to give the map commands, you simply hold down the left mouse button and choose a command from the commandbar that will appear at the top of the screen.
As for the sounds and music in the game, it is actually quite catchy for the time. I can easily picture myself listening to the music over and over as a kid (to much annoyance of my parents). The music and sounds would be killed on sight today, but back in the days this was played on max volume in kid rooms all over the world.
This game is one of the few KOEI strategy games that does not have a multiplayer function.