Scourge of War Boards

Here is an early version of a simple tool to create a new scenario given the results of a previous one.

Features:

• Reads OOB, Scenario and battle result gamedb files
• Applies losses based on gamedb files, with wounded and missing being partially returned. Captured infantry are removed from play. Captured artillery are kept by the capturing side. This latter feature is a bit buggy, so some arty may be missed.
• OOB and simple map display
• Controllable random placement of units in various zones
• Sunrise and sunset calculated based on location and time of year
• Choose next map from list

Potential Future Features:

• Randomize maps, time-of-day and weather
• Randomize arrival times of units onto map
• Better OOB browsing
• Split scenario into several scenarios (to simulate detachment of forces)
• Merge OOBs, with arrival times for each OOB ( to simulate split forces rejoining on map)
• Order of battle and orders summary to PDF or HTML for pre-game perusal
• Automatic analysis of previous battle based on startlocs csv file to determine who retains the field, and appropriate level of losses applied (winner gets back more missing, wounded, etc.)
• Non-1980s GUI

Install is simple - unzip anywhere. You will need the SOW SDK installed under your SOW/Work folder - the standard place for the SDK.

To use, launch by double clicking on the GenerateNextScenario.exe file, or just drag a supported SOW csv file onto the exe. It supports OOB, scenario and gamedb (created after a scenario is played) csv files. NetServe and Sandbox scenarios are supported as well as standard scenarios.

After that, you can apply a startlocs csv file if you like (the type exported by pressing L in the game), or skip by pressing Esc.

A summary of the existing scenario will come up. You can navigate with the arrow keys, or by using keyboard - for example will take you to the unit location editor with a primitive ASCII map.

You can navigate the OOB in the menu, assign areas where units and their subunits should appear with the [A] key and actually randomly place them in that area with the [R] key. You can alter the randomness a bit with the [L] key to set at which echelon level the randomness should stop. I admit this is a bit clunky, but with some practice I think you can get some interesting arrangements.

Sunset and Sunrise are calculated using 'apparent solar time' - that is saying 12pm is when the sun is highest in the sky, as there were no times zones in the 1860s. Thus, only latitude is provided as longitude is irrelevant. If someone know about timekeeping in the period and would like to suggest a more appropriate method, please let me know.

From the main summary screen, press to save. It should warn you if you are saving over an existing scenario. It will place your new scenario in the Work/Scenarios folder, so be careful to rename if needed!

The program reads your sowgb.ini file to determine what mods are used to find maps, unit settings, etc. So, if you played a battle with particular mods loaded, make sure they are still loaded when you run the tool.

It can be downloaded here (64Kb):
PakfrontGenerateNextScenario.zip

Suggestions are welcome here, 'Thank You' credits appreciated, and PM me if you are having problems.


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/148 ... screen.png[/img_size]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/148 ... screen.png[/img_size]

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Hello I was trying to use this because it sounds awesome but can't get it to work properly. It opens a .csv but I can not get the main screen to come up after hitting enter...I am probably doing something wrong.
Can you help?
thanks in advance.

LtDan


Also

Brilliant idea, thanks. We've seen some community mods and tools that do similar things but its great to see NSD now working on campaign type concepts.

Could there be an option to just delete captured artillery please? Often it wasn't able to be used by the captors due to lack of horse teams, crews or ammo (sending captured guns back to an armies depot as trophies was also common in the Napoleonic period).

Might there be a sliding scale of returned wounded and missing depending on whether the side won, drew or lost the previous battle? Higher rates of return for a victorious army, lower for a loser, etc.

Could some units that surrendered be partly returned on the basis that at the moment of surrender there would be a significant amount of straggling and "missing" who would get back to their parent brigade and that the actual act of surrender in the game may not actually represent a formal surrender but could be seen to depict a wholesale collapse of fighting ability, some surrendred groups, some running away, etc?