Expanded Toolbar - Grog

[Didz]

If it was a simple oversight it could easily have been corrected with a patch. It's not like the pre-battle strengths and unit adjustments are unknown

[RebBugler]

If it was a simple oversight it could easily have been corrected with a patch. It's not like the pre-battle strengths and unit adjustments are unknown

I obviously misled with my answer, meant to infer a simple answer, not a simple oversight...If that makes sense. And not a simple fix with a patch since all twenty scenarios were designed, tested and scored according to those numbers.

[Didz]

So it was a design error. Someone forgot to check the historical strengths of the units at the start of each action and adjust the scenario OOB's accordingly.

[mcaryf]

Hi Didz

I did not intend you to understand that I thought the developers had deliberately changed the strength values for design reasons. I think it was a simple mistake that resulted in the same strengths being used and once they had developed and tested the scenarios using those strengths it could upset the play balance if they changed them significantly. It can be quite confusing to create an "accurate" OOB as some historical accounts and web pages quote the strengths at the start of the campaign whilst others do it for Waterloo and others do it for the starting forces at both Ligny and QB because there were other casualties on the day before those battles. Not only are there different battles to consider but there are different numbers quoted for the same battles from different sources e.g. some sources quote numbers just for men excluding officers and others are using different historic records. Thus it is not surprising that mistakes and inconsistencies can creep in. I can send you the OOB files I have created for my campaign versions of Ligny and QB if you would like. There is an added complication for those in that Napoleon reallocated some units between Corps after Ligny, some guns were lost by both the Prussians and the Allies in the two early battles and some officers were killed or wounded so you cannot easily create SOW OOB's that track through from the first two battle to the second two.

One of the "difficulty" factors that you can adjust for the game adds or subtracts 10% or 20% from your or your opponent's side. The difference from the historical values that I identified would only assist the Allies by about 6% at Waterloo. The impact on the French at QB is a bit greater with their strength reduced by about 14% so if you give the French side at QB +10% it would not be too far out but you might then be earning too many points by winning objectives.

Regards

Mike

[RebBugler]

Update, version 5.6...

-'Munitions Select' commands added to artillery officers' toolbars

Click on the resupply button to find and use this function. A window will appear at the selection point with the four munitions options on each side of the resupply command, as pictured below...

The attachment MunitionsSelect.jpg is no longer available

[Didz]

Perhaps I have a rather simplistic attitude towards historical wargames, but as far as I'm concerned the objective should be to recreate the conditions of the historical battle/campaign as accurately as possible. It's what I sought to do in my tabletop games and I expect developers of historical computer wargames to do the same.

So, whilst I can understand the need to adjust troops strengths from one battle to the next in the context of a campaign to allow for variations in the outcomes of previous actions I would expect the one off scenarios to have 100% accurate OOB's based on the known historical troops available.

Likewise I would have liked to see a lot more research into the actual terrain which at present seems to have been lifted from a school boys atlas rather than any of the more accurate maps available, and as such makes nonsense of many of the important tactical aspects of the battles.

[mcaryf]

Hi Reb

Many thanks for the munition selection enhancement to the Grog Toolbar it works perfectly and helps make artillery a real killing machine truly the master of the battlefield.

One other query for you - why is it that an officer can put all his cavalry squadrons into skirmish formation but when you control an individual squadron there is no skirmish command at the unit level?

Regards

Mike

[RebBugler]

Hi Reb

Many thanks for the munition selection enhancement to the Grog Toolbar it works perfectly and helps make artillery a real killing machine truly the master of the battlefield.

One other query for you - why is it that an officer can put all his cavalry squadrons into skirmish formation but when you control an individual squadron there is no skirmish command at the unit level?

Regards

Mike

Not sure why the squadron level skirmish formation wasn't included, there is a convenient available space for it next to the other formations. Should I consider this a request?

[mcaryf]

Hi Reb
I have not really tried out the usefulness of cavalry in skirmish mode yet so I would not classify it as a request. I had wondered whether it had not been implemented because cavalry might be rather ineffective in this mode. I will try it out over the next few days. In the meanwhile I am interested to know if others use cavalry in this formation. The manual says it is a useful formation to delay enemy infantry and I imagine that it might make cavalry less vulnerable to canister.

Regards

Mike

[Didz]

My understanding is that cavalry skirmishers were mainly used to screen the movement of troops and to fend off enemy scouts during a march. You very rarely read of them being deployed during a major engagement as they weren't very effective against massed formations. They certainly would not have hampered the movement of enemy infantry as suggested by the game developers as they posed no threat of shock action, in fact, about the only thing they would do ironically is warn the infantry of the existence of their parent unit.

There are journals from Waterloo that mention the detachment of small units of cavalry (literally one or two men) who would ride up and fire into the Allied squares at close range in an attempt to provoke them to return the fire whilst the rest of their squadron held back waiting to charge. But I wouldn't class these men as skirmishers, just insanely brave. The German squares quickly countered them by ordering their Schutzen detachments to shoot them down, without wasting a full volley.