Will napoleon total war play on a netbook

No.

In general "netbooks" are low end laptops intended mainly for mobile internet access. They can run internet browsers, mail applications, office suites without much problems. In order to play high-end games such as those from "Total War" series you need a computer with more computing power. Refer to the required system specification to see what kind of computer you need to run the game.

Do note that netbooks can be sufficient to play some older titles, maybe even older parts of the "Total War" series.