KriegsSpiel Napoleon Mod 1.710

[Grog]

Jack

there is a KS Nap+portraits at the KS forum. Just Waterloo oob adapted for now but others to follow.

Its under the nap generals portraits thread.

Portrait codes for all oobs have been released so anyone can convert others too.

[Jack ONeill]

Tank,

I fully intend to once my work schedule settles down just a little more. Really looking forward to it. :laugh:

Grog,

Thanks. Figured there was something like that around. Will check it out.

Now, Question - Ran a couple of small SP battles last night. Really like what's been done here. One question - How do you keep the 2nd unit in each Brigade from forming Skirmishers? I like the way it works very much, but there were several times when that unit needed to remain in line of battle, not forming skirmishers, and I couldn't get it to stop. I tried TC'ing the unit but it still did it. It was rather disconcerting to have a unit suddenly change it's formation and leave a gaping hole in your battle-line. Thoughts?

Otherwise, excellent job. I'm going to have to write a new rifles.csv mod for reducing musket ranges down to 100 yards in SP, (120 yards for a standard musket is still a bit to long IMHO), but that's minor.

Love the re-written maps. Nice job. Oh yes, I see we still can't get the bloody squares to hold still when they are charged, eh? LOL!

One more thing - Nice job on the Skirmisher "Cloud-like" formation. It took me a minute to figure out that was the deal.

Jack B)

[Jack ONeill]

All,

So, naturally, I started digging around in the OOBs for the _sk units. Great Idea BTW. Have created an entirely separate copy of the KSNap mod to fiddle with. Question I have now is - what does the _1ST mean in the unit designation line in the OOB?

Thanks,

Jack B)

Okay, so the obvious answer was to un-attach the skirmisher Battalion/Detachment and let it run around shooting and/or run away. Cool. Allows me to keep my battle-line intact, more or less.

[Saddletank]

I don't think I've encountered the skirmish unit leaving a gap in the line. Other units move to fill it, or its taken from the end of the line. You'll find skirmish units are vital to use as they will do lots of damage to formed units and the only effective counter is to face them off with your own skirmishers or run them down with cavalry.

I'd recommend you play the mod as it is for a while to get a feel of the nuances of the changes, for example we left musket ranges at 120 as that seemed a good compromise due to the fact that units move faster than was historically the case. Reducing the range will unbalance that a little. Note also there are several different ranges for several different weapons and I created a 100yd range for the badly trained Spanish volunteer and civilian units in our Peninsular campaign, so again, putting good quality line troops range down to that level unbalances things again.

What was the maximum range of the smoothbore musket on the Napoleonic battlefield is open to debate and I've known some pen and paper rules that allow firing out to 200 yds, though at this range effects are limited. A range of 120 in the mod isn't an effective range, only a maximum and moving in to about half this if your boys are brave enough to deliver a volley will really hurt the enemy.

[Jack ONeill]

Tank,

Twice now formed Battalions in the primary line of battle have changed into skirmish formation as the enemy approached. When they are in skirmish order, they seem susceptible to (a) Cavalry, as they will not stand against them but retreat and (2) as the enemy infantry approach too closely, they will either fall back or retreat, thus leaving a hole in the line which requires some quick thinking to get someone else in there.

I have fought 6 small actions since the download last night. The overall gameplay is excellent. I am a HUGE fan of skirmishers. If I was not, I wouldn't have put so much time and effort into developing my own version of a useful skirmisher formation sometime back. The idea of skirmishers actually deploying AS useful skirmishers in fantastic. So far, my preferred usefulness for them is to detach them. They are STILL very effective in all their assigned roles, running all over the place and generally being the nuisance they are supposed to be. Awesome!

As always, there is the difference between "effective" range and "maximum" range. Maximum range for a Brown Bess is approximately 1000 yards. You will not hit anything you are aiming at nor will it penetrate anything. Effective Range is the distance you can actually hit and/or kill someone before the vagaries of powder manufacture and the fitment of ball in the barrel take over. Most of the research I have read, (and mind you we have many of the same books on these subjects), has indicated roughly 100 yards as an effective range for a smoothbore weapon. That being said, 120 yards as a game range perfectly acceptable. I did the mod and left the actual download alone so as to not have to figure out at the last minute why I can't join the game. Great idea for the Spanish and Civilian weapons/Skill levels to be reflected that way BTW, IMHO.

So far, all else seems outstanding. Good job to everyone involved.

Jack B)

T - BTW, don't you own a Brown Bess also?

[Saddletank]

No, I don't own any muskets any more. I had a matchlock and a 17th century replica firelock (flintlock) but sold them when I quit ECW re-enacting years ago. I only once ever fired actual lead ball from one of them. Couldn't hit a thing at 50 or 100 yards!

I don't think anyone serious would say the maximum range of a Brown Bess was 1000 yds. I suppose it might throw a ball that far it you pointed it 30 deg up in the air though! I suppose maximum range is thought to be the maximum it was used by troops on a battlefield with any hope of it being a deterrent and that would be around 200 yds or a bit more, maybe 300. Effective range was around 90-100 but really dangerous range was about 50-60. Remember nobody in a close-order formation aimed at all in this period, you just pointed the dangerous end in the enemy's direction and hoped, but the speed of drill expected of the men meant there was no time to properly aim and no training given for that. I think the Brown Bess had no sights either.

Our group should talk about the skirmishers leaving a gap. It was set as the 2nd unit as a brigade might only be 2 units. I guess it could be the third unit in a brigade. Or the last, whichever that is. That would eliminate any gaps. Yes the skirmishers fall back when enemy push within 80 yds (IIRC), that's intended and they'll definitely be doing the right thing if they retire away from enemy cavalry as they are dead meat if caught by cav as you'd expect. I often TC the sk unit once its deployed and that way it won't auto-retire. You risk it being caught in a melee then though, but its a option to play that way.

[Jack ONeill]

T,

That's right. we talked about matchlocks and such a long time ago. I must be thinking about that. LOL!

You are correct and I miss-spoke while typing. I should have differentiated between "Maximum Range" and "Maximum Effective Range." (Example - my M16A3 had a maximum range of over half a mile (2000 yards). No-one ever expected to hit anything at that range). It's Maximum EFFECTIVE range was about 700-800 yards with a decent scope. A Brown Bess could kill someone at around 300 yards. After that, the muzzle velocity drops off so much that it was just a lead lump after that. No, the Brown Bess didn't have sights. You are precisely correct there. "Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was not just a saying, it was tactical doctrine.

Yes, it happened again last night. Tried to take a screenshot but was busy salvaging the Battle-line. OOB - Italy 1809. Me - Durrutte's Division. After advancing on the objective, I was deploying for action. Leclare's Brigade formed my left. I deployed it in double-line of battle, no skirmishers out front (no need to, the enemy was here). The Austrians came on strong. The 2nd Battalion deployed as Skirmishers, fired a bit, and fell back as the Austrians advanced, leaving a gap, which the Austrians promptly tried to exploit. I grabbed the 4th. Battalion directly behind it and rolled it forward to plug the hole. I did manage to drive them back.

I will say how much I love the new way battle-lines now deploy with Skirmishers in the advance. The visual effect is excellent and I DO use them when moving to the attack. Otherwise, like you, I TC them and Detach them to run around and generally piss people off. Am really digging the "Cloud" effect of the Skirmisher formation.

Well Done to everybody! :laugh:

Jack B)

[Jack ONeill]

OMG!!!!! I was fighting with the Brits in Spain and just realized they form up IN TWO RANKS!!!!!!! Outstanding!!! If that was written down somewhere, I missed it. F-ing Fabulous!!!!

Again, great job!

(Meanwhile, back to the fighting!)

Jack B)

[Grog]

Version released with portraits:

http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t975- ... -portraits

[Saddletank]

Glad you are enjoying the reworked mod Jack. 90% of the work was done by Marching thru Georgia and a number of us did some testing and threw ideas at him but he's the techy wizard when it comes to doing clever things with NSD files. The new cavalry effectiveness is all his work.

We didn't like the fact the game had no way to represent defence of buildings so we have worked in a very crude means to do that. MTG has released a few maps with some small square stone wall enclosures added at key points where there are buildings and you can occupy each one of these with one battalion in a square formation. This then gives about the best representation we could come up with of defending a built-up area. THink of it as depicting a single strong stone or brick building in an otherwise less sturdily constructed farm or village - it could be a walled farm, a church, a granary or just some walled enclosures. The square formation inside allows fire out in all directions (though most goes to the side the flag is in) and the square is the toughest formation to melee in. We also gave these particular wall enclosures an extremely high cover value. A unit can last around 10 to 15 minutes in one unsupported but with support its possible to hold a village or town for a good long fight of up to an hour.

I think that so far only the Alpine and Culps Hil maps have these added but there was some work on adding them to the Brandy Station and Gettysburg 5m maps too.