Runyan's Leader Mod

[runyan99]

I played AACW for a couple years and did a leader mod for that game, so I have a lot of experience in evaluating the generals included in a Civil War game. In my first two games of WBTS, I was generally impressed with the accuracy of the generals available, but did notice a problem out west. Phil Sheridan was running wild out west with a large cavalry unit at a time when he was historically riding a desk. I thought this created an extra early game edge for the Union, so I knew there was and is room for a little improvement.

This mod reevaluates many of the generals rank and date of availability, particularly for the 1861-1862 period. Most generals were not changed. Some generals are available earlier than previously, although usually at the next lower rank. This was particularly applied to some cavalry generals of both sides. I wanted to add a couple extra Union cavalry colonels out west, but this caused a problem with the game, so if anyone knows how to add generals, let me know.

Most changes will I think not be noticed by most players. The most significant are for Sheridan and Grant. Sheridan can still appear early, but only as a colonel, so shouldn't run wild over the Confederates. Grant starts on the map, but as a brigadier, so his rise to army command should take somewhat longer. Game balance effect of the mod is therefore somewhat in favor of the Confederacy.

To apply the mod, simply copy the attached file into the C:War Between the States/dat folder and overwrite the file. Make a copy of the original file for backup and put it in another location.

This is version 1.0 of the mod. I plan to continue to evaluate more generals and how they fit in chronologically as I play a few more games, so a few more tweaks to the list are possible.

[Lebatron]

That's cool. Perhaps if there are a lot of historical improvements that can be made that would also bring greater balance, then bring it on. On the other hand, I would never sacrifice balance for the sake of a tiny historical inaccuracy. I hope you have the same philosophy.  

[runyan99]

Well my philosophy is to get the historical details right, or at least close enough to recreate the basics (or feel) of the historical situation, and then use arbitrary values present in every game, like victory conditions, to set the balance. In this game political points (which are wholly a game mechanic) might be the best way to readjust an unfair game.

Not that I have any ideas about WBTS balance. I haven't even finished a game yet.

[GBS]

Runyan

You need to know that when I opened your attachment and copied it into the dat file for leaders61 the game would only show half the map screen and would not scroll at all. I totally uninstalled and reinstalled the game and am afraid to use your attachment again.

[runyan99]

I installed the attached file from the site, clicked through a few turns, and it worked fine. I can't reproduce the error.

Be careful how you save the file. The Matrix site doesn't seem to want to preserve the filename for some reason, so I had to rename the attached file again as leaders61.txt, but it worked.

For future reference, there is no need to reinstall if you have an issue, just replace the file with the original, as I suggested. No other files will be affected.

[GBS]

What I described happened two times. I open your attachment and theN select all and copy and paste to the dat.leaders61 file. Should it be done some other way?

[runyan99]

Here is what I did. Copy a backup of the original leaders61.txt to your desktop for easy access. Click on the attachment link above. That brings up the popup. Then right click on the link in the popup. Select "Save As". Rename the file in the dialogue as leaders61.txt, then save the file to WBTS/dat and overwrite your original.

Start up the game, and start a new game of the 1861 scenario. If Grant appears on the map in Illinois, then the file is working.

[runyan99]

Going to take this down now in favor of the full scenario version.