The year is Eighteen-Hundred Nine and the Corsican-born Napoleon Bonaparte sits on the throne of the French Empire.Napoleon's reign as ruler of France has been a period of almost perpetual war with some nation or another,and indeed France now finds itself engulfed by bitter fighting in the Iberian Peninsula.
Recognising an opportunity to reclaim land and the status it lost in previous wars, Austria, though it has sent no official declaration of war, launched armies at France's allies in Bavaria, Italy and Poland.
With Napoleon in Paris, command of the French forces in Bavaria has fallen on the shoulders on Marshal Berthier, Napoleon's Chief of Staff.
Meanwhile, an alliance of Spain, Portugal and Britain tries desperately to check the French advance into Portugal and southern Spain.
