Scourge of War Boards

A,

Now, having blabbed on for way to long, above, I have a question - I have found that the troops don't follow the roads on the Maps you modded, in a "Sandbox" game. I assume that is for a reason. I have no problem with it, just curious. The maps, by the way, are superb, as is every other aspect of this mod. Again, great job.

Jack B)

jack...so, I put your file (above) in a folder and call it logistics, then rename the Blenheim logistics folder something else, and then drop your folder into the Blenheim mod folder to replace it?

The maps that I made are for the scenarios, Luzzara and Blenheim are without roads, Schellenberg and Chiari had some roads removed and Amerdingen has the same roads of Gettysburg map.

A last word from me about cavalry and the 100 or 150 yards musket range, in my opinion the musket range has little to do with cavalry; here you see the problem of sandbox battles against AI



AI send the cavalry against infantry, instead of taking cavalry in reserve or attack enemy cavalry, I didn't find a solution to this behavior, in the next ten minutes after this screenshot 7 squadron charged and were destroyed. What you see in the screenshot is completely ahistorical, in the Marlbourian period cavalry avoided to charge infantry, the role of the cavalry was quite simply to neutralise the enemy cavalry, anything more was a bonus for the commander. So when I was making the mod I've been tempted to give up, but I thought that there is also the multiplayer option in which you are not against the AI.
In conclusion when you play against the AI and unfortunately see the enemy cavalry that is marching against your infantry the only solution to the problem is this



from the second line your cavalry advance in first line to receive the enemy cavalry.
Obviously if you are not the top commander you can't do that and there isn't a solution, this is also the reason why in all scenarios you are always the army or the corps commander.

Cheers

the Campaign of 1708, culminating with the Battle of Oudenarde. During the approach march Marlbourgh himself directed his advance guard commander General Cadogen to "leave his Battalion guns behind as they would hinder the march of his Foot." (Oudenarde 1708 by Belfield, Knight Publishing, 1972). I will say one other thing about pulling the guns from their battalions - Field Expediency. I can absolutely see a Commander on the field needing to cover some area with fire and pulling the guns to do it.

Quite true. Battalion guns were at times a hindrance and could slow down an approach march in some conditions. But then they were left behind and not combined into batteries since there was no administrative structure to accomplish this.

Deleting the battalion guns from a scenario or an OOB would be acceptable if you wanted to represent this. Making them into separate batteries would not. That's an important distinction.

In effect I made just such an ad-hoc battery in my first game. I had an Austrian brigade defending the Schellenberg and as you know from the terrain the gabions are down the forward slope of the hill somewhat, especially on the north face looking towards the town. I had the breastworks occupied by infantry and there was no practical position for the battalion guns so I moved 4 of them onto a shoulder of higher ground behind the infantry and extemporized a "battery" there to lob roundshot over the heads of my battalions into the attacking French.

I think that kind of tactic is reasonable. They are still battalion guns in the OOB, their captains have just dragged them into one spot at the behest of the division commander (or second line commander if you prefer to lose the incorrect term 'division') and they function quite well. There is no pretence at inventing a higher organisational structure for them which is what your first post suggested.

Let's not forget that the word 'battery' originally meant a fortified work of earth, gabions, wood, etc dug into the ground as a place to put several artillery pieces, protecting them from enemy fire and usually during sieges. 'Battery' was a term in use at least as early as the Thirty Years War and its from this that we developed the word to mean 'a group of cannon operated together and supervised by one senior officer'. Instead of each cannon being an independent unit and supervised by it's own gun-captain.

The progression of gunpowder artillery in the period of the 1400s through the 1600s in European land warfare is a fascinating one and the gradual militarisation of the arm from an amateur body of individuals, engineers and artisans with their own civilian drivers into the modern part artillery plays in armies today is one of the more instructional parts of how armies and societies develop.

Can you beleive that in 1808 when Spain rebelled against French occupation, her artillery was still organised on Frederican principals with no military corps of drivers or transport? They still used civilian contractors to supply oxen and wagons to draw the army's artillery and supply vehicles. And this was in 1808 - 100 years after the mod we're discussing. Scary.

Tank,

Entirely correct. Spain?? Well......

Anyway, you and I are on the same page again, (almost as always). As a side note the Battalion Guns left behind by Cadogan's Advanced Guard, (8 Battalions, 16 Squadrons), eventually showed up where they were posted en masse to cover the approaches to the Bridges from Oudenarde itself. This is what I was trying, (badly obviously),to convey. I'm not removing the Guns from the Battalions. I'm creating new OOBs with them in small Companies to Give the Commander on the ground some flexibility. Yes, the term used was to place the Guns "in battery" as in to batter down the walls with cannon fire.

A,

Your example is spot on. It IS the AI, not the Cavalry itself. I have also tried, (wildly unsuccessfully), to get the AI to at least pretend to understand Cavalry tactics. Not happening. I'm a huge fan of Cavalry and try to make sure combined arms are always used on MY side at least. So far, there have been two HUGE Cavalry vs. Cavalry fights along side the contending infantry. I will always remember reading Webb's account of Palme's English Horse charging the French Foot at Blenheim and "...recoiling in haste, in full retreat and crying out for Foot..." to cover them as they regrouped behind the Infantry lines.

Thanks for the scoop about the roads. Caught me by surprise the first time. Thought I'd done something wrong. (Not the first time). :laugh:

Goddamn I love this game.

Jack B)

John,

It has to be this way...

rifles.csv file INSIDE a folder called Logistics.

The Logistics Folder goes INSIDE a independent Folder called something like Blenheim Musket Ranges Mod.

Put THIS Folder in the MODS section of the game.

Activate this Mod as normal in the Modifications section of the running game.

Place this Mod UNDER the Blenheim Mod.

DO NOT rename anything inside the Original Blenheim Mod or you will create problems in the Mod running.

Post back if it doesn't work.

Jack B)

Jack. Kevin has done some amazing work with the KSNap mod to get AI controlled cavalry to charge and threaten correctly, but in the early 1800s cavalry was as much a tool to pin and crush weakened infantry as it was to defeat enemy cavalry. Given its different tactical use in Marlborough's time I am not sure what to suggest, but you can look at the gubbins inside the KSNap mod to see what Kevin did there, or drop him a PM.

I found an error in drills.csv, now the corrected file it is in Blenheim_V_1_0.zip, no need to download drills.csv

A,

Downloaded the drills file but it downloads as an html file rather than a .csv file. Can we just rename it is is something wrong?

Jack

Mere moments later - I went back to look around a bit and found a note on the bottom right corner saying "if you want to download the original, click here." So I did and it downloaded as a .csv file. Problem solved.

I thought the same thing; it has to do with the site doing the download...just try again...click (not try and save) on the link here...then, if you see a page you didn't expect close it, and the actual download page should be there...i'll try uploading it to this post in a sec (probably too big though)...