Quick CEF Update

Xaver · 08-07-2018, 10:59 PM,

You are now in the PzC teams??? or is a different project???

PzC serie is a little abandoned... not like EAW or M&P but...

PzC still have some WWII basics not covered... Poland39 (to be the start of WWII is not a lot covered in wargames), Barbarrossa in the north and south, Crimea42... Berlin45 (a what if west VS east could be great... i imagine you remember Steel Panthers covering this hehehe).

Well, expect you have luck in the new WWII project.

Lohengrin · 08-07-2018, 11:08 PM,

(08-04-2018, 04:15 AM)Sgt_Rock Wrote: We do our best with the time we have and with the materials we can procure. There is no doubt going to be errors in the values (strengths) - I will tell you that right off. The Polish campaign is very difficult to research. For one thing I do not have personal access to the documents that many historians use. I cannot get out of my house and walk over to the French archives.

Oh I understand what you're saying and that's fine. I'm not expecting absolute perfection, only that you maintain your normal standards. I just didn't want you for some reason to hurry it up out the door just to finish it. I guess the remarks about this being the final product in the series made it feel to me like there was a "just get it over with" sense to the project. If that's not the case then all is good. Your prior efforts have been excellent.

Sgt_Rock · 08-07-2018, 11:42 PM,

Its the final product in the series that I will be working on (as far as I know). The 2nd installment of the Peninsular Wars is still in progress. And no, I have no idea when that one will be ready. That one is being worked on by Rich White and Andrew Bamford the same guys that did the first Peninsular game - Bonaparte's Peninsular War.

Sgt_Rock · 08-07-2018, 11:45 PM,

(08-07-2018, 10:59 PM)Xaver Wrote: You are now in the PzC teams??? or is a different project???

PzC serie is a little abandoned... not like EAW or M&P but...

PzC still have some WWII basics not covered... Poland39 (to be the start of WWII is not a lot covered in wargames), Barbarrossa in the north and south, Crimea42... Berlin45 (a what if west VS east could be great... i imagine you remember Steel Panthers covering this hehehe).

Well, expect you have luck in the new WWII project.

PzC and PzB teams working on both series. Pretty excited about that too.

I played the Steel Panthers original title mainly and missed the later games that covered historical periods. I enjoyed the games because the interface was simple and easy to learn.

Xaver · 08-08-2018, 03:38 AM,

PzB is the new bad guy on the block, even when i am against the "WWII wargaming blackhole" (Normandy+Market Garden+Bulge) the engine is the best to cover them (specially the kampgruppes in market garden) and maybe less attractive for east, at least for me... well, see Budapest at this scale could be great.

PzC looks more in improve the actual titles over see new ones (i think the closer title based in the engine is the 3rd one for FWW serie... that smells to the Austrian part in early east war... Galitzia), France40 rework looks great and lets see the Mediterranean titles... and if they can give some soul to Sealion40 (only full what if title but maybe lacks a little more fantasy complement like an american expeditionary force to help defend the island and a italian corpo truppe volontarie to help germans.

I play a lot original SP and later i discover the WinSP versions (2002) playing a lot the modern wars versions but never at the same level of original.

Sgt_Rock · 10-07-2018, 02:39 PM,

Another update on CEF - almost all of the 3D images are done. Just need to do the 3D Artillery and there are not many images in that set.

There are about 5 images for the Units.bmp that need to be done (they were accidentally skipped) and then some corrections by Mark Adams and that will finish up the unit artwork.

I am done with my part of the leader images hunt. One of our playtesters is from Russia and he is helping to find the remaining Russians that I could not locate. And still another member is helping with the French. We should be done with the "hunt" by the end of this month.

Screen images need to be done. Once the artwork is done then I can do the tutorial PDF and product page for the website.

A group of us are looking at the artillery values for ALL of the guns in the series games I helped produce. We are almost finished with the new fire values. They are by nation and groups of years. For instance: the Russian canister for the period 1808-1815 corrected problems with the earlier period. Thus the canister values for that period will be greater than for the earlier periods. We also improved the mid ranges so that artillery is more effective at say 6-8 hexes than it has been. Players will think twice before advancing in the face of a group of artillery batteries.

Playtesting for the Battle of Eylau is now well into the Phase 2 testing. Since this battle will be one of the favorites to play I am making sure that the victory levels are correct. In my game with one of the guys I lost too many guns so my opponent has a Major Victory going so far. However, L'Estocq is marching up to make his attack so we will have to wait on the outcome to see how it goes. We are at turn 30.

Ney really does arrive too late to make an impact but the Russians or Prussians have to put some troops in the northwest to try and stop them from taking key villages. It was Ney's occupation of those villages which cause Bennigsen to pull back as the VI Corps was poised to attack his right wing had there been a battle on the 9th. (I also plan on putting together a Bonus scenario that has more Russians present for the next day - rest of the 6th Division and which allows the players to try out a second day action)

The Battle of Friedland will begin Phase 2 testing very soon. Once the new weapons values have been tested I will update the PDT file and we will have two games of the full battle start up. The first game went well except that I did not allocate enough ammunition for the Russians and they ran out. Note: records seem to indicate that at the Battle of Eylau the Russians ran low on ammo .... I may check out the ammo we have left in our game and see about deducting some ammo points to recreate the historical situation. Am not sure if this also applies for Friedland. I will have to see if James Arnold's book says anything about it.

Game is still on a pace to finish by February 8th but we are not rushing this game. Just letting you know how its going. I am confident that we will put out another fine product. :)

Lohengrin · 10-13-2018, 09:47 AM,

Thanks again for the update. Always eager for the latest information. Keep up the great work!

Sgt_Rock · 10-21-2018, 02:42 PM,

Just got the Units.bmp file from Mark Adams tonight. Am like a kid with a new bike! As this will be the last time I work on one of these Napoleonic games I want to be sure I find any errors before the game ships.

So far I found one error in the Units.bmp and 3D review scenarios. Initially I had planned for a French Imperial Guard foot battery to be in the artwork and OB but upon finding out that the Guard did not have dedicated foot batteries until 1808 I put the Wurttemberg foot battery image in their place.

So tonight when looking through the game to see if I had used the Wurttemberg foot image in the game I found that I had not! I looked through Bill Rawkins' book on the Wurttemberg army but he didn't really say if they sent any artillery to be with their infantry forces. James Arnold lists the Wurttemberg infantry as having served in the siege of Colburg. I noted that Arnold says that the foot guns were divided up amongst the infantry as battalion guns until 1805-06 but then were combined into batteries. I need to research this a bit more to see if in fact the foot and horse batteries were there in the campaign and if so what formations they served in. It seems apparent that I should put one foot battery in the Wurttemberg brigade and see about adding in the Wurttemberg horse battery (there was only one at this time - it later became the Guard Horse battery when a second battery of horse guns was raised).

I will be spending tomorrow morning looking at the Units.bmp file images in the game and compare them to the source artwork image. They should line up as my initial review of the source images ("head") discovered errors which Mark has no doubt fixed. With only the 3D Artillery images left to do this game is very close to being finished as far as the artwork goes.

I just got to the halfway point of my playtest scenario of Eylau with Jim Pfleucke. The Heavy Snow held off for 3 turns but this turn it struck meaning that my Russian batteries are only good for close in shots (4 hexes or less). Blizzzard weather can strike at 2:20pm on a 33% chance or less. If that hits ... all bets are off on this game. I have divided the French army in two and with L'Estocq approaching Jim is in a bad situation. However, the Russian cavalry was wasted early on and the Prussian cavalry remain my sole cavalry force of any size for the most part. Both sides have lost a lot of infantry. He has taken a lot of my guns. Trying to hit the French guns was a waste of time so I stuck to Napoleon's maxim and went after the infantry or cavalry. Its been bloody is all I will say at this point.

geoff · 10-22-2018, 02:13 AM,

"this will be the last time I work on one of these Napoleonic games"
Haha, you're here forever.
I believe all the Wurttembergers were in the cat birds seat down in Silesia while the Russians were crushing heads up northeast.

Sgt_Rock · 10-23-2018, 12:46 PM,

Did more reviewing of the file. Sent off a revised list to Mark for him to work on. Nothing serious and now its back in his capable hands. The 3D artwork should be done before Thanksgiving but I am sure that Mark wont have time to put all of the files together. Its pretty intensive work. Just the 3D Artillery left to go and these Units.bmp artwork corrections and on to the screens and other artwork.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Friedland games have kicked off. I should be hearing back from the guys with a turn 10 game file soon.