Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Came up with something that others may have already figured on how to allow for multiple reinforcement locations for our games.

Basically, you lay out the troops at one location where you want them to enter. Then you copy the lines in the .scn file and paste them several times. Finally, you change the hex locations and arrival percentages (to 0 percent) and voila - the player will not know (using Fog of War) where his own troops are going to arrive.

One note: once you do this dont open up the scenario in the editor or you will get Duplicate Unit messages galore. One way to get around this is to put the ENTIRE formation (division, corps, etc) in ONE reinforcement group. That way you would have LESS text and lines to edit and also less error messages if you open the file in the editor.

I am going to put up a few scenarios for you guys to play soon using this option.

Oberst Wilhelm Peters
2nd Kuirassiers, Reserve Korps, Austrian Army

Greetings, i found this in your post very interesting, sometimes i have think to post a topic wanting a random scenario generator, as the
generator for Campaign Gettysburg by Doug Strikler, i will give the
system you post a try sometime, a great adition i think, thank you
very much for share this knowledge.

with best regards,

Alaric

Are you sure this works? I mean in game play. It appears to me you will get the same troops arriving at different places.

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons
AdN

Well, since you are using 0% they would not arrive, however, it seems to me that while playing the scenario, if you look in your "Scheduled Reinforcements" box, it is going to show this, so it is a meaningless excercise in confusion. Generally speaking, a commander is going to have a reasonable idea where his reinforcements are, and from which direction they are coming. Scattering the possibilities all over the map, while an opening interesting possibilities, seems a bit unrealistic. If you are just moving the entrance hex a few hexes one way or another, other than terrain effects (which is also silly, for exampley, why would he come in through the heavy woods if there is a road availible) it is of no value.


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Al Amos</i>
<br />Are you sure this works? I mean in game play. It appears to me you will get the same troops arriving at different places.

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons
AdN
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Cadet William Davis
Royal Military Academy

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by WillieD13</i>
Generally speaking, a commander is going to have a reasonable idea where his reinforcements are, and from which direction they are coming.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Hardly. This is pre-radio, remember. Predictability is the worst enemy of good wargame design for the gunpowder era.

<center>Général de Division D.S. "Green Horse" Walter
Baron d'Empire, Duc des Pyramides
Commandant de la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3ème Division[/url], VIème Corps Bavarois, L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant l'Ecole de Mars, L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant de la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

Willie,

Ah yes, if 0% is used for the others, it could work.

Dierk's right in the pre-radio eras commanders could only guess-timate where there troops were. Even an army running at full efficiency would still suffer from the time lag resulting in courier movement.

Bill may be on to something here. I'll have to play around a bit with it.

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons
AdN

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bill Peters</i>
<br />Came up with something that others may have already figured on how to allow for multiple reinforcement locations for our games.

.....................the player will not know (using Fog of War) <font color="orange"><b>where</b></font id="orange"> his own troops are going to arrive...............
Oberst Wilhelm Peters
2nd Kuirassiers, Reserve Korps, Austrian Army

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Isn't there a possibility that they might show up in the middle of a forest? Assuming of course that there is one along your map edge.

Another thought is that there might be a tiny chance that they could show up in a river hex?

--or a town hex without a road which will disorder your cavalry once you try and move them off of it?

I applaud your resourcefulness Bill, but is this really a good idea? I mean if the scenario editor can't do this, why "jury rig" it with file manipulations?

Rick


<center>Lieutenant Rick Motko
1er Bataillon, 33° Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne
2eme Brigade, 11eme division
IIIe corps, Armée du Nord</center>

Rick,

Using this method the person doing it would type in the hex grid numbers, so he should know what terrain is in that hex.

Why do this? Because if it works, and it does add uncertainty to the game, then perhaps JT will add a feature into the editor that will do it for us.

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons
AdN

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Al Amos</i>
<br />Rick,

Using this method the person doing it would type in the hex grid numbers, so he should know what terrain is in that hex.

Why do this? Because if it works, and it does add uncertainty to the game, then perhaps JT will add a feature into the editor that will do it for us.

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons

Thanks Al. Ok, it is a third party sort of thing. Great.
Rick
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

<center>Lieutenant Rick Motko
1er Bataillon, 33° Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne
2eme Brigade, 11eme division
IIIe corps, Armée du Nord</center>

Got in some good answers I see. Here are some answers to a few of the questions:

Al's was basically answered: if you have 0% for all of the groups except the one that WILL come on then only that one will arrive.

And continuing ... the locations are not going to be random but a set of likely routes that a corps could use.

As to the unhistorical aspects of it ... Ney at Bautzen didnt arrive and attack as per Napoleon's wishes. Also Bernadotte didnt arrive at all at Jena but if he had would Napoleon have known? How about Waterloo. Sure, the officer Muffling told Wellington that the forces were going to arrive but how about a bit of unpredictability tossed in?

Desaix at Marengo, John at Wagram (hypothetical) and Grouchy at Waterloo. All of these could be modelled with this system.

Yes, it would be nice to have the Scenario Editor do this. I talked with John Tiller about this at the con. He didnt commit one way or the other on the idea of the Scenario Editor having an option for multiple locations.

And certainly they wont show up in a river hex or in the woods. As of this writing the editor will not allow you to pick any other location than a boardedge and even if you code it for the middle of the board the units dont show up. You dont even get an error message when you open up the game or the editor.

And of course you MUST use Fog of War to make this interesting.

Man, it sure was nice to be on the East Coast for 20 days! I am trying to get used to being home today. After putting 5000 miles on the rental and doing alot of walking while at battlefields I am ready to hit the battlefields again. This time Los Angeles on the 8th thru 16th of July!

Oberst Wilhelm Peters
2nd Kuirassiers, Reserve Korps, Austrian Army