New GCM

Just sent to our email list of past GCM'ers who've yet to try the New GCM:

Tried the New GCM?
If not, you're missing out on some wild, nail-biting Scourge of War Gettysburg action! It's just like old times, but in many ways Swinder's NGCM is even better.

Consider:
-Our game is now Windows 10 compatible (using W7 compatibility and turning off ALL notifications);
-Players have enhanced management control of their divisions;
-There's a brand new replay viewer complete with formation and facing symbols and a zoom-in feature;
-We're currently playing from a stable of 125 of Garnier's Large Random Maps;
-No more donations;
-All regiments and batteries are historical;
-Regiments may potentially reach higher levels of experience than before;
-There are no more "global" turns, but players may request replacements on a division-by-division basis;
-Regiments and guns stay in your division until you dismiss them OR, they are captured in battle. Guns are lost back to the pool when either routed or captured;
-The battles are getting larger. We fought a 13-player epic a few days ago, with battles fought virtually every day at 5:15 pm Eastern;
-There are now several game options open to hosts beyond just the standard, symmetrical GCM meeting engagement. For instance...
*We now also play "attack/defend" battles with defenders beginning in one quadrant of the map together with the vp's
*Objectives are not all (necessarily) created equal. Hosts may set up "50-50" or "75-25" battles where one vp is worth 50% or 75% of the total with the remaining points divided among the rest

Join your comrades along with a growing number of new and returning GCM'ers in NGCM. To get started, look to this Norbsoft forum thread and the NGCM Website "Help" section for all the links, downloads and info you'll need. We're using "Discord" now rather than Teamspeak, so join us there (info and invitation link are also in the Norbsoft thread).

There's even a Facebook Page for us. If you'd like to receive an invitation to join, send me a note along with your email address (the one that's known to FB), and I'll send you an invite.

Check it out, muster up, and come recruit your own NGCM division!

Best,
Palmer

Norbsoft forum link: www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/mp-forum/77499-new-gcm
NGCM Website: ngcmsow.com/

Swinder made a couple of notable changes yesterday. First, in order to make the game more competitive for new and infrequent players, the floor experience levels of new regiments was increased. You'll also recall a few days ago a change was made for very experienced regiments that significantly impacts their levels when receiving replacements. In some cases, regiments at or above level 7 may see a 2 or even 3 level experience decrease when receiving lots of new recruits. As a result, players will want to give close consideration when replenishing depleted units!
Second, players may indicate their preference (or lack thereof) for taking corps or army command. Everyone can check all the changes in the Change Log (link on NGCM home page).

Two more improvements have been added to NGCM in the past couple of days. Swinder has added kind of a slick mechanism to reduce the likelihood that random games are dramatically unbalanced in terms of player skill levels. To do this players are given an anonymous rating that may be used by hosts to create team parity.
Secondly, cavalry is back. For those who enjoy the horse soldiers, historical cavalry regiments have been added to the pool of available units. Players who wish may add these to their divisions in the same manner as infantry and artillery i.e., by adding cavalry commanders and assigning the regiments to commanders. As with the old GCM, hosts may include or not include cavalry as they wish and the horse soldiers carry the same effectiveness restrictions as they had in Garnier's system.

Big Labor Day battle today. Don't miss it!

Regular games played daily starting at 16:15 central time. W10 no problem as we know what the issues are join us on discord details for the website are to be found in the links above.

For those who haven't been to the NGCM website recently, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised! To view the latest battle replays go to Battles/List Battles/View Replay. Don't forget to use your mouse wheel to zoom in on the action (a very cool feature).

If you'd like to join us to check it all out, sign up by clicking Register. Getting set up is a breeze too. Simply go to Help and follow the step-by-step Installation Instructions then follow the Division Setup directions to customize your personal division of troops. Links to everything you need are right there as well.

As Jonah mentioned, we play games virtually every day (often 2) beginning at 5:15pm US Eastern time. Our battles are getting larger too with 8 to 12 players now the norm. We're looking for a return to the GCM glory days where we had as many as 23 players in a battle!

You'll want to hook up with us on our Discord communications page ahead of time so someone can test your settings and answer any questions you might have. It couldn't be easier!

Looking forward to seeing both old SoW vets and those brand new to SoW multi-player. Everyone's welcome so come muster up!

Palmer

PS It's important to reiterate Jonah's point that Windows 10 is no longer a barrier. So much so that, in fact, I now host our games using W10!

I've just had to reset my account to log in. It's been a long time since I last played SoW:G, it would always crash in multiplayer on Windows 10.

You Sir are a saviour ! I look forward to whatever else it is that you whip up.

Hi Guys

Its Norselad from the old version of the game. is the game still going strong?

Thanks

NGCM is indeed going strong. In fact, just hitting its stride with some new features and several innovations in game play. Join us in Discord and check us out at:

ngcmsow.com/

Register, then go to Help/Install & Setup to get going. Everything you need is there.

hi,i am new NGCM user.I download a scenario from your website then I get 2 questions:
1. the map has 4 directions objective ? NE SE NW SW 4 diretions ,every randommap has these?
2. the battles list is MP battle records ?
and my system is win10 x 64,I find the UI text will be red bar ,no text showing when first playing.After set launcher to compli mode with win7 it show text normally.
I hope new mod could play random map sp campaign with showing the referenced data,like injured nunber/kills with page or other clear tables.

Welcome, Chee. Sorry, but the NGCM does not support the old Single Player Campaign battles. It is designed solely for MP. The old Single Player system is gone, I'm afraid.

I think the direction objectives you mentioned are simply the corners of the battlefield. When a host creates an NGCM battle to play, he may customize the size of the Random Map (usually to make it smaller when there are fewer players). The corner icons look like objectives but they are not -- simply, the corners of the map to be played.

If you are playing with Windows 10 in NGCM, follow the directions on the website's Help/Install menus. It is best to use ONLY the NGCM mods and disable all others. Also, DO NOT install the optional mods (one or more of these will cause the game to crash when using Windows 10).

I have to bump this thread; we are now getting 15+ individuals for battles. I believe we have matched or almost broken the old GCM record. We have gotten 20 players I believe.

Game is still going strong as games with GOOD multiplayer continue to do.

Check it out!

We have a mix of W10 (all versions) and W7 machines and it runs fine. The diagnostics Swinder ran on our system had to do with 1 or maybe 2 mods that caused W10 machines to crash. The mods in question are Sounds and Flags -- so we just make sure none of our W10 players don't have these activated.

For the record we have played a game with 22 players besting the old GCM records. We have new players who are just buying the game.


An important consideration for the Norbsoft team: A good multiplayer game will live a long, long time and will attract more attention (and customers).

Multiplayer is the single most important aspect for any game. Scourge of war Gettysburg is a good multiplayer game. (interface and technical issues mostly hold it back a bit, but hell everyone, even fortnite, has those).


Come join the fun!

Swinder has now made NGCM Random Map packs 3 (Maps 910 - 1034) & 4 (Maps 1036 - 1159) available for download. These should be downloaded and unzipped/extracted to SoWGB's mods folder just like our other mods. And don't forget to activate them in game as well.

This brings the number of maps hosts may choose from to well over 500!

Looked you up on Facebook and cannot locate your page ......

regards

The Mad One

Our FB page is only available by invitation. If you PM me with the email address you use for FB, I'd be happy to shoot you an invite.

Introducing NGCM's new Supply Train Scenario Type! Last night Swinder deployed the latest game format for our battles. "Supply Train" joins Encounter (which we play most of the time) and Attack/Defend to give hosts a wide range of battle setups for our games. Here's the essence of Supply Train:
1) 15 minutes into the battle a supply train major victory objective spawns for each side. Placement of this vp depends on the settings chosen by the host and includes these possibilities
-Where the Army commanders spawn;
-Where each side's rear division spawns;
-Somewhere within the rectangle that surrounds all divisions;
-Somewhere within the rectangle that surrounds the army's middle & rear divisions;
-Somewhere within the quadrant of the army's spawn.
2) The point value of the supply train vp may be set from fairly low to extremely high (in effect, making capture of it determinative of the battle outcome). The host may even check a box to end the battle immediately upon capture of the Supply Train vp;
3) Capture of the Supply Train vp is hard-coded to require at least 50 men and an officer for 1 minute. In practice, it appears these need to be within about 50 yards of the vp to start the count-down (click on the capturing officer to view the time);
4) Once the capture criteria are met, the points are awarded and the vp disappears from the map;
5) There may be multiple supply train vp's in a game for each side. Each appears 15 minutes in and disappears once captured;
6) Regular vp's (i.e., that appear throughout the game or with delayed spawn) may also be included in combination with supply train vps.

It's easy to see how NGCM battle format options are opened up almost exponentially with the addition of the new Supply Train scenario type. Going forward, players will need to consider anew their strategies and tactics depending on the format. This takes our "Glorieta" games to a different level as well by building supply base considerations into each battle the supply train option is used, while maintaining the essence of our traditional Encounter battles!

I'm glad to see NGCM going strong. Had several other priorities, but I'll be back soon. TY to everyone who keeps this game alive.

Good to hear from you again, States. The group will be excited to hear you'll be back again soon!

Swinder has introduced some new sprite configurations into an experimental mod (NGCM GamePlay Exp) for us to play with. The graphics requirements are pretty intense and not all machines may run them, but we did successfully play through an 8-player MP battle a few nights ago using it. This is a nice touch given NGCM's use of only historical formations.

In a nutshell, regiments on both sides have distinctive look depending on their theater and other specialty. For example, there are unique sprite configurations for Union Eastern theater, Western theater, Territories, Iron Brigade, Bucktails, Zouaves, etc. Rebel sprite combinations identify Rebel Eastern & Western theaters, Stonewall Brigade, Zouaves, etc.

His sprite combos take advantage of the fine work done in past years by Mark T., Pom, Crikey & Martin James. Thanks, Gentlemen!

Below is a small smattering of some of the looks:

1) A Union Territorial regiment in line. This is the 1st Colorado (looks like they just came up out of the gold mines!)

2) Two Rebel Texas regiments in melee with two Yankee Eastern theater regiments

3) Even the supply wagons and guns get an upgrade. There are individual sprites for different gun models.