Historic Waterloo as Napoleon scenario plus associated Artillery mod

[mcaryf]

Hi Jean

In my latest variant the French player gets three choices at the start of play- first whether the Prussians start arriving immediately i.e. if Thielmann's Corps was sent immediately from their location North of Wavre. They would not have been delayed by the fire and were closer than Bulow so three of their Brigades would have arrived by 11.30 am (one was still South of the Dyle so comes later).

Second the player can decide whether or not Napoleon kept most of Grouchy's units with the main army - so you can choose that they did not. Finally they can choose whether Grouchy effectively failed in his attempt to delay the Prussians at Wavre. In fact less than half the Prussians participated in Waterloo so Grouchy's role was more significant than most writers allow. if Grouchy loses then both Wellington and the Prussians will be more aggressive as they are aware that they have a chance to crush Napoleon with much larger forces.

Regards

Mike

[Jean Lafitte]

That sounds very interesting indeed!

Godspeed!

[Jean Lafitte]

Any news on this topic?

[mcaryf]

Hi Jean

You might have noticed another thread of mine about withdrawing units. I am making very good progress with my new technique of setting up routines for AI controlled batteries so that they approach enemy forces and automatically stop and deploy when they get within my longer range for canister. This has made the AI use of artillery so much more effective that I am busy redesigning all my scenarios so that this technique is included. As the AI is more effective I have to change the victory conditions so it is taking me some time to do it. I have nearly finalised my alternate history version of Quatre Bras which is now an all day battle where Ney has additional forces (e.g. Lobau's Corps) but Wellington has more his army earlier in the day. I calculated which units could have arrived if he sent the appropriate orders by 6 pm on June 15th. My new way of handling advancing artillery is very relevant as this is essentially an encounter battle.

The routines will not impact the early stages of Waterloo but will make a huge difference to the Prussian forces as they advance to attack Plancenoit. Previously this has been a bit of a bloodbath for the Prussians and it was very easy for a French human player to drive back Prussian artillery so the Prussians typically fight with just cavalry and infantry. I have not started to code and test the new version yet. The coding will be just to add the halt, deploy and or fallback routines for each Prussian battery but it might take a while to fine tune the play balance as this will be very different o my current version. If you are happy to try an unbalanced game I could probably post a version next week.

regards

Mike

[Jean Lafitte]

I'm disappointed in myself to have allowed over 7 months to pass before I touched base with this thread again.

Even so, I'm still interested in your continuing work.

[mcaryf]

Hi Jean

Actually I have been busy working on a very old Mod I did years ago for a WW2 simulator Strategic Command - Assault on Democracy which was re-issued last year via Matrix to previous licence holders. I had lost my original version of the base game when a previous PC died but I had saved my old Mod files. I have been completing my original concept. Thus I have not posted much on here whilst you have been away.

If you have not tried my new version of my Mod it does let the AI's artillery perform a whole lot better by having them approach to canister range and then gradually withdraw whilst still firing if the opponent advances. Of course my canister range is historically accurate so about double the standard game.

regards

Mike