Early American War Pondering

[Sean]

Just recently bought MAW and FIW  along with some other non EAW titles in a bulk Christmas deal at WDS.

Had a few thoughts.

(1)I wanted to make Melee in particular more brutal where larger casualties are caused, prefer Attacker to cause more Casualties than the Defender too. How can I do this? Is there a variable for Cavalry Melee value ,or is that tied to the Cavalry Fire adjustment?

(2)In a similar vein I wanted Fire Combat to cause more casualties ,particularly Artillery. How can I do this? I assume the Fire Values for different weapons I can increase to achieve my goal ,but what about artillery. Or are artillery part of these different weapon codes(A to Z for example)?Is there a list of which code corresponds to which weapon ,I can surmise the shorter range guns that fire up to 4 squares are musket type weapons so I could adjust these from this knowledge alone.

(3)I wanted to add more cavalry into a few scenarios in MAW and FIW. What do I need to do to achieve this? I had a go adding Artillery and Infantry using the Scenario editor and found that worked OK as a trial since they were present in the OOB(I assume) that appears when a scenario is opened. Wanted cavalry though ,in some scenarios like in FIW the cavalry is described as Aides but I did not see them in this Unit Dialogue box that first opens in Scenario editor.

(4)I have made a basic 2d Counter Mod that I will share for MAW. It basically adds torso style miniature pictures instead of the stock standard little infantry figures. Was not quite sure of the Grid Dimensions in MAW but it looks OK.

Both games are fun as is but I always like to changes things around for a bit of entertainment.

Ideas?

EDIT;
Counter Mod for MAW,
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ces7yjurf...n.zip/file
Counter Mod for FIW,
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5afpw6t3k...2.zip/file

[Sean]

My 2d counter mod;

https://imgur.com/UNStTMd
https://imgur.com/66PrXsY

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dcgt5j

It is version 1 ,will probably do a version 2 as well.

Added another download location,
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ces7yjurf...n.zip/file

[Sean]

Re question (2).

I would like a list of what the Weapon Codes ,A,B,C,D,E,etc correspond to.
L is Lance/Pistol I worked out looking at OOB for Mexican Force in MAW.
I have a vague memory of these weapon codes maybe being listed in one of the manuals I have read ,(maybe for the Talonsoft Battleground Civil War series)?

What do all the other codes stand for?

[Compass Rose]

My 2d counter mod;

https://imgur.com/UNStTMd
https://imgur.com/66PrXsY

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dcgt5j

It is version 1 ,will probably do a version 2 as well.

Wow a very interesting mod as I have never seen units displayed that way.

Very creative!

Thanks for sharing!  

[-72-]

Re question (2).

I would like a list of what the Weapon Codes ,A,B,C,D,E,etc correspond to.
L is Lance/Pistol I worked out looking at OOB for Mexican Force in MAW.
I have a vague memory of these weapon codes maybe being listed in one of the manuals I have read ,(maybe for the Talonsoft Battleground Civil War series)?

What do all the other codes stand for?

It can be different in each title -  open up the weapon.dat file in notepad, you'll get a list of each letter and the corresponding weapon.   If you really get into it, you can change around the names in this file (probably better too to remember to back up the stock file before making any changes too),  (and then their effects in a parameter data table).

For example from 1776 it is:

A Congrave Rocket
B Rifle
C Carbine
D Small Arms
E 18 pounder
F 4 pounder
G 8 pounder
H Howitzer
J Heavy Mortar
K Musket w/o Bayo
L Lance
M Musket
N 9 pounder
O 2 pounder
Q Sword
R Rifle w/o Bayo
S 6 pounder
T 3 pounder
U Mortar
V 12 pounder
W Swivel Gun
X 16 pounder
Y 24 pounder
Z 32 pounder


Adding forces that are not in an oob, probably means creating a new OOB if I were to do that I might simply rename an existing OOB file to something distinct (assuming it had some units I wanted to keep), and then add in whatever formation I was looking to add - like for example a cavalry troop or whatever; in my case I do a bit of more off the beaten path stuff like native American war bands, and things like that. . . but that's another story.

[Sean]

Cool thanks very much for the descriptions of all the Weapon Codes.
That will come in very handy ,I am going to make a Mod that includes new .pdts with my preferred statistics for these weapons. It will be fun coming up with some new values.
Edit-I looked at the weapons.dat for MAW and FIW, they do indeed differ, their first 5 lines respectively,
A Hall Rifle
B Miss. Rifle
C Hall Carbine
D Pistols/ShotGuns
E US 18 Pdr Gun
A Congrave Rocket
B Rifle
C Carbine
D Small Arms
E 18 pounder
Excellent answer to my query. Thanks Again.



I have spent a little more time modding the 2d Unit Counters.
This time for French Indian War.
This is more conventional than my last 2d Unit Mod, my pictures are from the FIW Info Folder and I have made them transparent so they mimic what is seen in say Squad Battles for example.

FIW

Info Faces Mod
https://imgur.com/h7i0dqE
https://imgur.com/nXGmkcQ
Note British Light Infantry or Militia are now Indians on the map screen.
I wanted Indians on both sides of the Conflict.
https://imgur.com/XuEPXTB
https://www.sendspace.com/file/zchwh3

Same as before this is version 1,may well do a version 2.


Slight changes in version 2,
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5afpw6t3k...2.zip/file

[Sean]

Got 2 new questions.

(1)
Weapon Flags:
& Can be prolonged.
^ Can be fired while mounted.
+ Can fire indirect.
- Has no bayonets.
* Small arms, 50% melee bonus.
Found this info in the EAW_pdt.pdf

Do these apply to NAP and ACW Titles as well?

I tried ^ and * in Forgotten Campaigns (ACW) and it generated an error.
I tried same thing in Eckmuhl (NAP) and it seemed to work -no error anyway.


(2)
This is not EAW related but thought I would ask here;

In Eckmuhl (NAP series) ,I noticed in .pdt weapon lines that the melee weapons do not seem to exist,
(SEEMS L P S not present in any of the .pdts in ECKMUHL)(lance pike sword). However the Cavalry seems armed with Sword ,what fire value does the Sword have and can I modify it by adding an entry into the .pdt ,or are only ranged weapons included in .pdt weapon lines? I suppose I could add Sword to have a range of 1 with a fire value I feel appropriate to represent harassing skirmishing -small groups of slashing cavalry leaving main group to attack enemy ,as distinct from a full blown melee?

[-72-]

Got 2 new questions.

(1)
Weapon Flags:
    & Can be prolonged.
    ^ Can be fired while mounted.
    +  Can fire indirect.
    - Has no bayonets.
    * Small arms, 50% melee bonus.
Found this info in the EAW_pdt.pdf

Do these apply to NAP and ACW Titles as well?

I tried ^ and * in Forgotten Campaigns (ACW) and it generated an error.
I tried same thing in Eckmuhl          (NAP) and it seemed to work -no error anyway.


(2)
This is not EAW related but thought I would ask here;

In Eckmuhl (NAP series) ,I noticed in .pdt weapon lines that the melee weapons do not seem to exist,
(SEEMS L P S not present in any of the .pdts in ECKMUHL)(lance pike sword). However the Cavalry seems armed with Sword ,what fire value does the Sword have and can I modify it by adding an entry into the .pdt  ,or are only ranged weapons included in .pdt weapon lines? I suppose I could add Sword to have a range of 1 with a fire value I feel appropriate to represent harassing skirmishing -small groups of slashing cavalry leaving main group to attack enemy ,as distinct from a full blown melee?

:) Question 1 is actually 5 questions.  No, I don't think they are the exactly the same in NAP, ACW (CWB), and EAW series.  I am pretty sure that the first melee bonus is in there (not sure if it is the exact same percentage but it's the same idea; it's also in Musket and Pike).

I don't recall there being Prolong in NAP/ACW/MP  (MP and NAP are fairly closely related, but not exact; generally MP's engine is more detailed).

I have to check about fire while mounted in NAP, in ACW, I'm pretty sure that they only do that while dismounted (but it has been awhile since I've played it - I don' t think there is a toggle, at any rate in the Civil War titles).  I think NAP is covered by the class of unit; dragoon I think - but will have to check. And MP I think what I had put together (which was someone else's idea) - a toggle to be unable to dismount -so that they could only fire while mounted.

NAP has a no bayonets toggle; ACW wouldn't (everyone is assumed to have bayonets) -will double check.
NAP also has a fire indirect toggle, not sure about ACW (however I do remember some mortars in some titles, so it is a possibility.

The actual answer is a little bit of a minefield, as I know that Bill Peters had added keys for PDT and OOB files to some of his NAP titles (not sure if they are in all of them, but RBR had it, and I think Marengo might).  The Civil War titles have something similar, and I think they might be in version 4.0 downloads (under the Manuals folder).  Fwiw, and since I mentioned it a few times, Musket and Pike has the same sort of documents.  Conceptually they are alike, but the toggle coding can be a little different, and not everything carries over from one series to the next. I guess maybe part of the problem is that they all look similarly, graphically so that might end up being a bit of a visual cue but it's not an accurate one (at least at this point).

2) Melee weapons exist in NAP (including Eckmuhl), but the PDT weapons' values are only dealing with fire combat. And it is a little different in Musket and Pike's engine, in that you can impact melee combat a little more with the weapons' coding (by applying modifiers to impact melee in a more direct sense than NAP ... leastwise I have done that); meaning that swords, lances and all of that will exist but you won't find that rated on the weapons' lines in the PDT files. Off the top of my head there are bonuses applied to some units, like heavy cavalry, and lancers (and some negative ones, to irregular or cossack cavalry, maybe dragoons) ... in my case when I code this sort of thing, personally speaking I try to stay within the one engine -so there might be better answers from others that work more directly with the Napoleonic or Civil War series scenario building.

[Sean]

Thanks for your answer.
I will have to digest your reply a bit more slowly to understand it ; and experiment further.

[-72-]

From the PDT guide for Napoleonic Battles:

Section III -Weapons Range and Values
Line 40-88 (length of this section varies by number of weapon codes)
Begins weapon lines for each weapon's code letter, range and effectiveness
values.
Adding "+" after the letter gives that weapon Indirect Fire capability
Adding "-" after the letter gives that weapon No Bayonets capability
Sample line:
A 1 16 2 14 3 12 4 8 7 6 10 3 12 2 16 1 -1
A = Weapon.dat code (in this case French 12lb gun)
Range/Effectiveness
1 16 (weapon has a value of “16” at 1 hex)
2 14
3 12
4 8
5 thru 7 6
8 thru 10 3
11 & 12 2
13 thru 16 1
The last entry for each line must be "-1"
...

Line 89 $

There doesn't appear to be any flags that can be added to the Civil War series - none is mentioned in the PDT guide, just how the weapons' effects are coded.   The '$' symbol basically just tell the program that you're done coding weapons impacts an to move on to its next category.

For Musket and Pike, the documentation isn't set up as a separate document -it is all at the tail end of the notes.pdf file -it doesn't go into as much depth about the ranges etc, like the above, but there are many more flags that you can add for different capabilities.

Lines: For each weapon until $, fire effectiveness values.
Use Upper Case letter for "Soft target" fire values, use lower case for "hard target" values.
To flag a weapon as having "no bayonets" place "-" at the end of the weapon character, this will
reduce the melee strength of that weapon to 1/3 normal value.
To give artillery indirect fire capability, put a ‘+’ after the weapon character.
To flag a weapon as being "single use" place "*" at the end of the weapon character.
To flag a weapon as needing "setup" place "!" at the end of the weapon character.
To flag a weapon as "no defensive fire" place "@" at the end of the weapon character,

There are 2 lines for each weapon type in Musket and Pike- the top line is for effectiveness against non-armoured targets, the bottom line for armoured targets (and you can set what has armour, and what levels you want in the OOB file).