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PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 7:22 am 
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I will keep a running commentary on how I am progressing with the updates in this thread. Here is the results of yesterday's progress:

Worked on the Campaign Eckmuhl update:

1. First, I went to the master fire values and noted one mistake and corrected it.

2. Next, I built a master Eckmuhl PDT file fire values/ranges WEC.pdf. For those of you that own Marengo through Eylau these titles have those files in the main game folder. The rest of the series games I worked on will also have those. I also plan on adding in a TEC.pdf file too. (Terrain Effects Chart)

3. I then updated the Austrianfirst.pdt file with the new values. From this I then copied over the other PDT file entries manually rather than use Ultra Edit as the listings did not all match up. Turns out that Eckmuhl has a couple of PDT files that are not used. Rather than leave them as is I added in the new entries. I will do another check just to be sure that they are not used. I kept the original files for safekeeping. One of them had additional weapons that were not in the Eckmuhl Weapon.dat file. One weapon was added to the Weapon.dat file - the French 18lb gun. I am not sure if its even used but it was in the PDT files so I had to add it in.

So the PDT files now are standard with not only the master PDT file values our Eylau team came up with but also with the game itself. As there are no company level scenarios in Eckmuhl I did not have to update any of those values.

Today I will work on the PDT files for Wagram. They DO contain company level scenarios so I will have to create two PDT WEC.PDF charts.

I also plan on creating WEC.PDF files for the games that do not have them. In this way I then can do a Movement Cost Comparison Test between the games. After that I can determine if a standardization project needs to be initiated. For the Eckmuhl and Wagram games they will remain standard within those two games. For the other games I will ensure that the costs are the same. I also plan on standardizing the STACKING limits throughout the game. Thus if its 1600 in the Marengo game but 1800 in Eckmuhl then it will drop to 1600.

Another project for Eckmuhl I hope to finish is what I call "The Bajan Austrian Project" - this will be where I take all of the large Austrian battalions and cut them in half. Any battalion OVER 1000 men will be depicted by two units. This will be for a CUSTOM set of scenarios and not for the standard scenarios as otherwise games in progress will be halted. Thus a battalion of 1200 men would become two units of 600 men. Warren Bajan was keen on this and in his version of the Dresden battle for Campaign Leipzig he used this format. As there are not a huge amount of units that would need this treatment I should not have a lot of work to do. The 1st and 2nd Korps in the Austrian army have these large units as well as a few others. The Grenzers often go over 1000 men.

For battalions that are under 1000 but over 900 I am wondering if I should do the same thing. Its mainly if you can stack a gun battery with an infantry unit. I will do some checking on this. The Austrian 8 gun batteries can use the Extended Line rule and thus breakdown into two components.

I also have to consider if I want to split up any huge French or French-Allied battalions. I seem to remember there only be a few of those. Its in the 1805-07 period where the large 9 company French battalions come into play.

I would love to give the entire game the Squadron Treatment but there just isn't time for that.

"The Bajan Austrian Project" will be for several custom made scenarios I develop for the game. Scenarios like Teugn-Hausen, "Hunt for Davout," the large campaign scenario and so on. I wont have a lot of time to spend on this so I have to keep the list low. Folks in the future can copy a scenario, remove the large battalions from the scenario and then change the OB file reference in the .scn file and then add in the "Half Battalions" back into the scenario on the map. I will be providing a list in the "Design" folder that lists the battalions affected.

Other new files for Eckmuhl will include (as of this writing):

1. OB Compendium - a list of all of the OBs in the game in the "Report" format that I can get by using Dominik's OB editor.

2. OB Guide - the guide that helps folks understand the unit lines in the .oob files.

3. I think I can put an Artwork PDF file together as I plan on updating the French Legere image to be correct as well as some of the Austrians. This based on the Wagram Mod I put out with the help of Warren and Philippe Devine. This will include updated Units.bmp and 3D artwork files. I hope to include the Wagram Mod into the Wagram update so that its always with the game and not a separate download that may eventually get lost. That mod corrected the uniform images of not only the French Legere image but also eliminated most of the duplicate usage of the same Austrian image.

As Eckmuhl and Wagram did not have the bulk of the bonus materials that the other titles received, and original artwork files are no longer around, I will do my best to populate the main and Design folders with materials to help it come up to speed with the rest of the games in the series.

Also included will be 10 min. versions of some of the scenarios. This project will be last on my list as I want to get two players to try out the Teugn-Hausen 10 min. scenario to see if its feasible. The campaign scenario would have 1.5x the amount of turns and be very long to play but for those that want to give it a go it also will be included. As in converting a 10 min. scenario to 15 min. format resulted in a piling up of reinforcement groups when we do the opposite it tends to spread them out. Thus if you have four groups arriving during an hour's time for the 10 min. format there will be two turns where no units arrive. This will result in no piling up at all for sure.

Ok - long post here ... I need to get the OB Reports generated so I can finish off the OB Compendium. I will post a sample later.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:59 am 
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Great work Bill!


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:05 pm 
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Bill Peters wrote:
... I also plan on standardizing the STACKING limits throughout the game. Thus if its 1600 in the Marengo game but 1800 in Eckmuhl then it will drop to 1600.
Afaik its 1800 it most of the games, at least for the 1805-15 timeframe. If you do change that, please consider bringing artillery & cavalry stacking limits in line with this.



Bill Peters wrote:
Another project for Eckmuhl I hope to finish is what I call "The Bajan Austrian Project" - this will be where I take all of the large Austrian battalions and cut them in half. Any battalion OVER 1000 men will be depicted by two units. This will be for a CUSTOM set of scenarios and not for the standard scenarios as otherwise games in progress will be halted. Thus a battalion of 1200 men would become two units of 600 men. Warren Bajan was keen on this and in his version of the Dresden battle for Campaign Leipzig he used this format. As there are not a huge amount of units that would need this treatment I should not have a lot of work to do. The 1st and 2nd Korps in the Austrian army have these large units as well as a few others. The Grenzers often go over 1000 men.
Interesting idea, but I wonder if these large bat. are a problem at all, if they are so large you can't stack 2 while the French surely can stack in a way that gives them more then the 1200 and maybe you want it that way for a more flexible French and a more rigid Austrian depiction.



Bill Peters wrote:
For battalions that are under 1000 but over 900 I am wondering if I should do the same thing. Its mainly if you can stack a gun battery with an infantry unit. I will do some checking on this. The Austrian 8 gun batteries can use the Extended Line rule and thus breakdown into two components.
I guess here your decision should be based on the stacking limits and whether you change them or not.



Bill Peters wrote:
I also have to consider if I want to split up any huge French or French-Allied battalions. I seem to remember there only be a few of those. Its in the 1805-07 period where the large 9 company French battalions come into play.
If there are so few, does it even matter? It might be good if the army has some very large & very small units as long as this isn't the norm.



Bill Peters wrote:
I would love to give the entire game the Squadron Treatment but there just isn't time for that.
The way fire on cavalry works squadrons seem to be a huge benefit for cavalry as many can be stacked but few can be fired on. I always wondered if that is good & wanted. Then again it might be hard to stop a whole regiment of cavalry by pure fire as they surely are a rather large formation so that it seems that should always get through.



Bill Peters wrote:
Also included will be 10 min. versions of some of the scenarios. This project will be last on my list as I want to get two players to try out the Teugn-Hausen 10 min. scenario to see if its feasible. The campaign scenario would have 1.5x the amount of turns and be very long to play but for those that want to give it a go it also will be included. As in converting a 10 min. scenario to 15 min. format resulted in a piling up of reinforcement groups when we do the opposite it tends to spread them out. Thus if you have four groups arriving during an hour's time for the 10 min. format there will be two turns where no units arrive. This will result in no piling up at all for sure.
Looking forward to this, I think it's good to bring the 1809 titles to the 10min format that your other titles have.

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 3:02 pm 
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The large battalion cut down to 2 units will have its own OB and scenarios. And it wont be for ALL of the scenarios. Just a few.

As for the Wagram Mod .. well I decided its best to just leave it as a mod. Too much mental work to include it in the full update. When I get time I will put out an Eckmuhl Mod as well. Right now I need to concentrate on standardizing the weapons ranges and values as well as building the WEC and TEC PDFs. So first things first ...

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 3:28 pm 
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Don't mind getting it as mods first, looking at other series like PC these mods can become part of the game one day.

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 11:10 am 
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Well the days of updates for the series are drawing to a close .... other than issuing one to fix a bug or new Microsoft/video vendor needs the series will reach the point where JTS wont be supplying content driven updates. It really needs to happen as many of us are now onto other things ... and we need to keep moving with the new products rather than supporting the older ones. This means that the newer series will continue to get content drive updates in a more timely manner. The exception to this might be if the WDS team ever assumes the oversight on this series, something that would mean possible new main program and graphics enhancements plus updates.

I have tweaked and adjusted and fixed as much of the games as will ever happen for the most part. I do want to standardize the games I worked on as much as I can allow time for.

One thing I decided to do is deal with the German allies artillery. For instance: the Bavarian artillery in 1809 was closer in usage and effect to the Austrians than the French so they will be getting a new letter code for their guns. Thus their 12lb and 6lb guns will use different values. Yes, I could just have them use the Austrian gun values and leave it at that but I have Ultra Edit and changing the OB files will not be a problem. I have to add in new lines in the PDT files and also add in new letter codes in the Weapon.dat file. Not a problem as we have this in Leipzig and other games already.

So formations like the VII Corps (Bavarians), Hesse Darmstadt, Wurttemberg and other German allies in the 1809 games will use their own artillery values from now on. Its more accurate too ....

Rich has mentioned that the newer painted maps (3D) will eventually get added to this series. That is a plus for those that wanted a different look to the product.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 1:35 pm 
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Bill Peters wrote:
The exception to this might be if the WDS team ever assumes the oversight on this series, something that would mean possible new main program and graphics enhancements plus updates.
Afaik this is what will happen according to the WDS blog
https://www.wargamedesignstudio.com/201 ... -part-one/
There it was said that: "Working closely with the John Tiller Software (JTS) team, it was decided to update the whole of John’s catalog with improvements to code, graphics and where possible new content."



Bill Peters wrote:
I have tweaked and adjusted and fixed as much of the games as will ever happen for the most part. I do want to standardize the games I worked on as much as I can allow time for.
This will make it surely easier for players to switch from title to title.



Bill Peters wrote:
One thing I decided to do is deal with the German allies artillery. For instance: the Bavarian artillery in 1809 was closer in usage and effect to the Austrians than the French so they will be getting a new letter code for their guns. Thus their 12lb and 6lb guns will use different values. Yes, I could just have them use the Austrian gun values and leave it at that but I have Ultra Edit and changing the OB files will not be a problem. I have to add in new lines in the PDT files and also add in new letter codes in the Weapon.dat file. Not a problem as we have this in Leipzig and other games already.

So formations like the VII Corps (Bavarians), Hesse Darmstadt, Wurttemberg and other German allies in the 1809 games will use their own artillery values from now on. Its more accurate too ....
I, and I'm surely not alone, welcome that the Germans get their own artillery.



Bill Peters wrote:
Rich has mentioned that the newer painted maps (3D) will eventually get added to this series. That is a plus for those that wanted a different look to the product.
I hope this will not delay any updates, afaik it was a lot work when they did that for the CWS series and I guess that was what the updates made appear over some years.

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:03 pm 
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I dont see how the hand painted maps could be done for all of the Nap titles by the time JTS releases the updates for the Nap series this year. I am thinking that might come in a future release. Some of those maps I did are huge.

David Freer has told me that the WDS does not have the source code yet for the Nap Battles series so until that happens (if ever) we cannot do any changes to the game and frankly with all that we have going, and with Berto busy with work, we are going to have to wait on any future changes.

Bottom line: I will do all of the PDT File standardization first and then if I have time I will drop back and do the German artillery additions. Right now its best if I concentrate on doing one part of the process first and then if I have time add in the additional weapons letters, update the OBs, etc. Its a lot of work and its a meticulous operation. In that I had one of my "attacks" a week ago Friday I need to be careful that I dont get myself in too deep here.

So I finished the Wagram PDT Files for today, build the WEC.pdf and so both games are finished for now. I want to work on the other games first and then I will drop back and do the Terrain Effects Charts and work on the movement costs to see if there is some issue there. My days are much shorter now that I am older. I only work at the most maybe 4-6 hours on the average. I reserve my bursts of mental energy for when I am working to finish a game. I have three WW2 games in progress so ....

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:39 am 
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[quote="Bill Peters"] My days are much shorter now that I am older. I only work at the most maybe 4-6 hours on the average. I reserve my bursts of mental energy for when I am working to finish a game.[/quote]

Willy: Glad to see you keeping busy out there in SPUDSVILLE!

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 9:54 pm 
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Thanks, Ernie! Except for the COVID-19 life here is grand.

Continuing on ....

Today I worked on the Wagram weapons values and ranges. All were adjusted. I noted that the one Company Level scenario was in error. It was using the standard ranges and values but needed to have the ranges doubled. I also worked on the Command Ranges today too. I standardized those for both Eckmuhl and Wagram and again, the Company Level Aderklaa scenario was corrected in that dept. For the Command Ranges - if Napoleon was not at the battle (Sacile and Soave for Eckmuhl, Piave, Raab for Wagram ...) then the French Army command range was reduced. A "CRC.PDF" file was generated just like we have in CEF which shows the command ranges for both sides.

I checked out the new 3D painted maps. Looking good and no issues there that I could see.

Tomorrow I will work on the TEC.PDF files. I didn't get going on those because we had a couple of meetings here at the house on how to deal with the virus. Still lots to do and I have my Panzer Campaigns work to do as well. David returns from a trip soon and once he finishes with the Japan updates we will go to town on one of the games.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)


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