Gentlemen of the ACWGC Union Army
ATTENTION TO PARADE!It is my distinct pleasure to make the following special award of the Union Army's Distinguished Service Order to Lieutenant Colonel Richard Simonitch, 1/2/VI/AotS. The award is presented here, within the Mason Dixon Tavern, due to the nature of the accomplishment which extends to all officers of the ACWGC, north and south, and has only lately been recognized for its value!
In October of 2010 Col Simonitch completed a modification project to the HPS Campaign Gettysburg set in which he very studiously and carefully modified all of the HPSCG scenarios to reflect the historical weather patterns of the entire campaign. Col. Simonitch credits others in his work and explains in his installation guide the scope of the modifications.
"This Mod creates a more realistic daily weather pattern based on Ken Miller's gradual dawn/dusk visibility weather files for the HPS Civil War games. Now, in addition to Ken's mod, the historical weather patterns are included for every day of the campaign between June 9th and July 14, 1863. The effects for each type of weather pattern were based, more or less, on HPS’s Antietam_Weather.pdt file provided with that game.
"You will also see new Campaign games that use the weather patterns (designated by the word “Weather” in the Campaign name). The Historical stand-alone scenarios are designated as !HIST_Weather and the rest of the scenarios have a “_W” at the end of the scenario name and “Weather Variant” at the end of the scenario description.
"Every single Campaign and standard scenario now has a corresponding weather variant. None of the stock files will be overwritten with this mod, you will still be able to play the old scenarios if you wish. It should be noted that many historians agree that if it had not rained as much as it did between July 4th and July 9th, Meade would have been able to engage Lee's retreating troops more aggressively, and perhaps even destroying the Army of Northern Virginia before it escaped across the Potomac. Also the documented misty summer mornings along the Rappahannock and the South Mountain passes should not be ignored by the serious gamer.
"Various levels of rain, mud, mist and even the occasional afternoon thunderstorm will make their appearance during those periods of the campaign that have documentation supporting it's occurrence. The actual battle of Gettysburg between July 1-3, 1863 was not affected by inclement weather, but you will experience some minor variable visibility based on Ken's mod. You better believe that the battles occurring between July 4-9 will see showers and mud, effecting the operations of both armies."The Simonitch HPS Gettysburg Weather Modification was undertaken by him in co-operation with General Frank Mullins'
Old Banshee's HPS Tweaks and Tune Ups and can be found at
http://old-banshee.yolasite.com/gettysburg-weather-and-map-mod.php.
For his very unique and technically proficient contribution to the expansion of the HPSCG game pool, and on behalf of the ACWGC Union Army, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Simonitch is hereby presented with the UA's DSO.
Gentlemen of the ACWGC Union Army
Present, ARMS!
Order, ARMS!