Editing the Blue and the Gray Scenario

[gsayhi]

Hello,

'm doing my first edit of the Blue and Gray scenario. I call it "North America". I want to be able to play Mexico and the USA both under player control. How do I set Mexico to be controlled by a player and not by the AI? Please advise.

[Bo Rearguard]

Try boosting Mexico's mobilization percentage to 100. It's already pro-Union in alignment so should join the war quickly on the Northern side. As a Union ally you should be able to control it.

Mexican Mobilization.jpg (15.26 KiB) Viewed 4337 times

[gsayhi]

Hmmm. That worked. However, I don't want them to start the game at war with the Confederacy. I want to control them when the European powers invade them. How do I structure that?

[Bo Rearguard]

Hmmm. That worked. However, I don't want them to start the game at war with the Confederacy. I want to control them when the European powers invade them. How do I structure that?

That would be difficult as there is no actual "invasion" of Mexico by European powers during the Blue and Grey scenario. Instead, what takes place are a series of scripted historical "events" and territorial control transfers in which no actual military units are involved. I think they were included mainly to lend flavor to the game as to events happening south of the border during the Civil War. As to how to structure a historically accurate and separate war like the Second Franco-Mexican War occurring in tandem with the conflict happening inside the US I have no idea. There would be some work and research involved.

[gsayhi]

Thank you again for your reply.

So, It's not possible to have two "separate" wars going on where a side on each is controlled by a single player? The USA vs CSA and Mexico vs. European powers/Mexican Empire? They could both later be joined as one war if, say France is at war with both Mexico and the USA. How can I set that up?

Also, I did a little "play test" of the first turn. Good news. I could see the Mexican forces. Bad news, they were controlled by the AI. I want them to be player controlled. How do I change that?

[Bo Rearguard]

So, It's not possible to have two "separate" wars going on where a side on each is controlled by a single player? The USA vs CSA and Mexico vs. European powers/Mexican Empire? They could both later be joined as one war if, say France is at war with both Mexico and the USA. How can I set that up?

To try and set that up, thoroughly reading the editor manual would be mandatory at first I think. Maybe one of the more experienced game modders could come along to explain the fundamentals of writing scripts for different nations and setting up historical orders of battle in the editor. Unfortunately, outside of a little dabbling I am not a modder.

Also, I did a little "play test" of the first turn. Good news. I could see the Mexican forces. Bad news, they were controlled by the AI. I want them to be player controlled. How do I change that?

Was there a little blue ring around the Mexican flag roundel when you started the game? If there was then Mexico will be AI-controlled even if fighting alongside the Union.

Mexico-AI.gif (31.97 KiB) Viewed 4266 times

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Hmmm. That worked. However, I don't want them to start the game at war with the Confederacy. I want to control them when the European powers invade them. How do I structure that?

That would be difficult as there is no actual "invasion" of Mexico by European powers during the Blue and Grey scenario. Instead, what takes place are a series of scripted historical "events" and territorial control transfers in which no actual military units are involved. I think they were included mainly to lend flavor to the game as to events happening south of the border during the Civil War. As to how to structure a historically accurate and separate war like the Second Franco-Mexican War occurring in tandem with the conflict happening inside the US I have no idea. There would be some work and research involved.

Correction: each one of those territorial transfers is tied to a bunch of UNIT scripts, so at whatever time the French enter the war, the historically accurate forces for both sides will appear in Mexico as they were at that time.
These are all tied to the DEs between 70 and 87, with each DE representing a time "step" - DE 70 covers the situation should France enter between 1860/12/13 and 1862/02/24, DE 71 between 1862/02/25 and 1862/04/29 and so on. All the UNIT scripts associated with this are labelled as such, so if you wanted to create a campaign starting at the time step for DE 71, then you'd need to add the units I've labelled as belonging to that time step (for instance, "Pre-76" and "70-87", but not "72-74").

gsayhi, the short answer to do what you're trying to do is the following:
- Set France to 100% mobilised, and belligerent with Mexico but not the Union
- Set Mexico to 100% mobilised, and belligerent with France but not the CSA
- Set Mexico to 100% mobilised and pro-Confederate.
- If you want the wars to be able to combine later, unblock diplomacy between France, Mexico, the Union and the Confederacy, this will allow them to declare war on each other.
- Delete all the belligerence scripts currently in the game, and then add as many belligerence scripts as needed to cover all possible DOWs, for example if France DOWs Union, that should then put Mexico at war with the CSA.
- Add units for all Mexican nations as described above for the appropriate time step.

That said, Blue and Gray isn't really set up for Mexico to be able to come in before 12/61 (I don't think it is possible for France to enter that early save by a Union DOW), so I'm not sure how workable modifying that campaign would be, doing this on the 1862 campaign might be easier. Or you could just play the Eagle and the Empire DLC campaign, which starts in 1863. I've had a couple of gos at the "playable Mexico" problem over the years, and Eagle is far and away the best one I've come up with - it starts in 1863, which is really the first time there were large enough forces on both sides to represent on the map as it is and still have enough fighting power to achieve the historical gains without radically altering unit stats to the base game (battalion level units wouldn't play well alongside corps; even regiments can be a bit awkward at times), and it also reflects the fact that the Franco-Mexican conflict was very much tied to the ACW - Napoleon III intervened precisely because he thought the Union was distracted, and if it resulted in a US DOW, then it would be the Union, not the Mexican Republic, that his efforts would have to be directed primarily against thereafter.

- BNC