QB Full 7 hour Battle scenario mod

[Jace11]

On the subject of QB4 and 5 and the battlescripts I was wondering if anyone had played QB4 past 14:55, mine crashes at this point. I figured it was to do with loadcour:Message:Activate_1st_Corps because it happens, at the same time, regular as clockwork, every time I run QB4. I even altered the script time to 14:05: and it crashed then. I fixed it by changing it to loadcour:Courier:Activate_1st_Corps. Maybe its something with my mods or something, but I haven't heard anyone mention it in this thread and some of you are clearly playing for extended periods and might have seen it.

[Jace11]

For QB4 and (probably 5 too - haven't checked it yet), you should also include a modified maplocations.csv, because there are timed objectives in that file such as Quatre Bras - that give VPs but won't after 5 PM in your mod, and also the What-If unit activation objectives probably need to be synced tothe events when the units appear to avoid confusion/problems.

[Henry Hill]

Hi Jace11,

Good catch. I will mess around with the file and check against some reference material and try to balance things out a wee bit regarding locations.

Bear with me as I am pretty new to this stuff and it takes time to check out.

I may break more than I fix. If you want to add anything to the files please feel free.

Cheers,
HH

[Henry Hill]

Hi,

This is going to be a lot more difficult than I imagined.
Simply changing the times in the maplocation file causes the game to crash on loading.

I may have to give up on this as it is beyond my very limited skills. :unsure:

If anybody else, who understands how the engine works, wants to try then please do as I feel a longer scenario along the lines of WL 10 & 20 would be interesting. Maybe the designers could implement in a patch? :woohoo:

If it isn't feasible then I can live with it. Still great fun.

Cheers,
HH

[Henry Hill]

Hi,

OK, I might have solved the maplocation error. When saving the file it was changing the size of the file. Edited using notepad and size stayed the same- no crash.

However, I still cannot change the march speed which I think might help a lot by slowing down time to contact times. Tried just about every combination I can think of but placing 0.5 or /2 doesn't do it. It is probably simple but then so could I be. :silly:

Played until 15:10 (saved) in French scenario. Taken Gemioncourt, heavily engaged on the left from Bossu wood but forcing the allies back. Cleared the right flank. Allied cavalry starting to arrive from QB.

Casualties so far: French 1400, Allies 1500. Just a tad heavy for 70 minutes into battle. A problem when playing these games is we tend to push our pixel armies more aggressively than "real life". Trying to employ some rotation of troops engaged to try to avoid mass desertions.

I will try to play this to a conclusion and see what other adjustments are required. If anybody has any helpful editing tips please pass them on.

I'll add files to zip once I have tested a bit more.

Bedtime.
Cheers,
HH

[mcaryf]

I am changing the QB all day scenario as part of my campaign development. As far as I can see when I run the QB scenario from the User scenarios folder things the standard scenario did to accelerate time will be gone because, for example, I use the Grog Toolbar which has its own unitglobal.csv file which sets units' speed and I am using my own artillery mod which manages rate of fire for artillery.

Am I correct in thinking this? I marched a French unit along 2 miles of road which took 30 minutes which is the normal 4 mph (a bit fast really) for infantry.

One other question - in the map.csv file are the terrain speed modifiers applying a % change or an absolute change. Thus entering a pond is 0.9 so does it slow a unit by 0.9 mph or by 90% of its normal rate?

Regards

Mike

[Henry Hill]

Hi Mike,

I'm glad somebody has taken this on as I really don't have a clue how to get it to work. I tried the suggestion given but it made no difference to the movement speed.

My efforts started ok but the movement and casualty rates are excessive. I feel the Allies are bit too eager to get involved in a fight instead of trying to hold their ground. Troops are a bit too quick to turn and flee as a consequence. Players, as overall CiC, probably add to this as we will tend to push our troops a bit too far.

Waterloo seemed to play out pretty well at nine hours. I have played a few full battles of that, great fun. I have Ligny but haven't had a chance to play it yet so not sure how that one goes at seven hours.

I really hope you can get this to work. As I said, currently the three hour scenario feels like a fast game of capture the flag. As the battle stands it is still very difficult for the French to actually get near QB.

Many cheers,
HH

[mcaryf]

Hi Henry
I am sorry to disappoint you but my objective is to create a sensible campaign from the French point of view that flows one OOB covering both QB and Ligny through to a battle on the Dyle near Wavre and then to try to win at Waterloo with the resulting balance of forces. In that flow there is no point in the French trying to capture the QB crossroad as Ney's objective should merely have been to prevent Wellington from interfering in the Ligny battle. Thus after possibly a brief period of aggression at QB to exploit the initial advantage in numbers the best French tactic will be to fight a defensive battle there inflicting casualties on Wellington whilst trying to win at Ligny. My Wellington AI is unlikely to attack too strongly before the Allies have a numerical advantage so the fighting will be low key for a while. I will use a small number of objectives to determine which side has had to retreat from a battle. Thus in QB the French will need to prevent the Allies gaining Thyle and Gemincourt up until 6.30pm as after that it is too late for Wellington to get up the road to Ligny before the battle has been decided. I want to give the French player an opportunity not to have to make the same mistakes with D'Erlon so there could be a strategy to focus on winning at QB but I suspect most French players would want to settle with the Prussians first before Bulow is available.

Regards

Mike

[Saddletank]

Mike

That's sounds very logical. I much prefer your objectives for Ney as indeed his was the 'holding' wing of the army while Napoleon was the 'aggressive' wing on that day. Ney, too, tried too hard IMO and suffered needless losses when he'd have done better pressing forward on his right to sever comms between Blucher and Wellington while battering the QB position with massed artillery. The attacks through Bossu were a wasted French effort.

The stock scenario is skewed I think and tasks Ney with the wrong objectives.

[Henry Hill]

Hi Mike,

You won't be disappointing me. Anything that resembles the full 7 hour battle will be great.

I'm not really sure of the reasoning behind the decision to shorten the QB battle when Waterloo and Ligny have a full battle scenario.

"there is no point in the French trying to capture the QB crossroad as Ney's objective should merely have been to prevent Wellington from interfering in the Ligny battle. Thus after possibly a brief period of aggression at QB to exploit the initial advantage in numbers the best French tactic will be to fight a defensive battle there inflicting casualties on Wellington"

This how I was hoping the stock scenario would play out but not at light infantry pace.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing your campaign.

Cheers,
HH