While we're here, Ericbabe....

[Grand_Armee]

HI Again, EB. 1792 is one of my preferred scenarios but the puny size of the Prussian cavalry at the outset really sticks in my craw.

Frederick the Great took what had been Europe's most lumbering cavalry force and created a part of the Prussian war machine that was equal to any other. What had started as a force of just Dragoons and Kurassiers was enlarged and broadened to include Hussars and even Bosniaks. This all happened before he died of old age...not too long before the 1792 scenario begins.

During 1807, one of Murat's worries was the size and proficiency of the Prussian horse. Fortunately for France, this large force of horse was expended on squares in a stupid manner. It is well documented that this force of Prussian cavalry wasn't raised during the short reign of Frederick Wilhelm III.

Despite her small size in land area and population, Prussia had the second largest army in Europe. Thanks to Frederick the Great it was no longer a force of excellent infantry and a few pieces of battle cavalry, but a balanced force of mixed arms.

But in your 1792 scenario Prussia starts with 1 heavy cavalry division. Added to this miserly mounted force is the additional handicap of a poor ability to raise horses....and Money.

Could you please fix this?

What it means in terms of a TCP/IP game is that Prussia cannot really contend with anyone at the outset.

[ericbabe]

I think we had larger cavalry for Prussia originally but the beta testers were finding it too hard to win the 1792 scenario as France -- and mentioned something about how Prussia wasn't able to mobilize fully. Mr Z did an excellent job looking up the historical orders-of-battle, but several times I over-rode his OOB's and modified these numbers based on beta-tester feedback, and I believe that this was one of those instances.

Adding and modifying starting units is one of the easiest ways to modify a scenario. I've created a new scenario called 1792Prussia that adds several more cavalry to Prussia, which you can get from our downloads page:

http://www.west-civ.com/downloads.php

If you open the file start2.txt in a spreadsheet you can tweak the starting units to your satisfaction. The Prussian armies start at spreadsheet row 112 with the Army_Rhine. The 'type' column gives the type of the unit, an exhaustive list for which can be found in the Data/master.txt file, but the essentials are 3=infantry division, 4=cavalry division, 9=artillery division, 18=heavy cavalry. To add units just insert a row, copy data from a similar unit into the blank row, and tweak that data to your satisfaction.

If you want to give Prussia more horse production, you can increase that in the scenario file EuProv2.txt. We did a tremendous amount of economic balancing and I wouldn't want to make any changes to that without thoroughly testing them first, but feel free to tinker with it. (Look up the province in the row and find the horse column.)

(P.s.: I'm just starting to collect ideas for files to put into our downloads section. We'll be happy to put any mods there which people have made and tested and found to be useful.)

[jimwinsor]

Prussia also starts next door to Saxony, aka Pony Paradise. It should be easy enough for Prussia to get Saxon horses thru a very short and secure trade route...or even thru other direct means... [;)]

[garoco]

you don´t like more nothing?, the ambition prussian is much for me like FRENCH

[alaric318]

greetings, i do know my mod is in beta status as i have make changes on the version 1.0 of the files, so, as a example "euprov2.txt" maybe retain bugs about protectorates on 1.0, i have two solutions to this... first, i can make the changes made in 1.0 on 1.2.18 files, or only track out the changes on "euprov2.txt" about protectorate problems and change it, i prefer the second, as i prefer high morale for all troops, well, eric, i will start modding my game from now on, but i do have a question,

what about changes on "master.txt" and a mod that will be "install" to the main /data?
(i think is very easy to change between 1.2.18 plain and a given mod, so i are asking this)

well, if it is ok, when i have finished with "euprov2.txt", and if you, eric, do not find any problem i will send the files with a backup of 1.2.18, and a readme about what to do, say tonight or tomorrow, i have make much enjoyment with mods from players on other games and so i will be very pleased to share my mod,

with my best regards,

Murat30.

[ericbabe]

Modding the /Data directory is OK, it's just a little bit more difficult for players to implement since they have to back up any files they change and make sure to change back to the original files.

I'll look over the code and see if I can move some of the /Data files to the Scenarios directories for a future patch. Presently the files in Data are loaded before the scenario is loaded, but I may be able to re-load them after a scenario is selected.

[alaric318]

some players may have troubles making changes on the /data folder, it has happen with other games, in my own, it is the main reason to include a backup of 1.2.18 for the file i are working to make it available, will be great to host it in the download area, i have already downloaded and make a short briefing about the scenario already in the download area... "Prussia1972", it's a good scenario, good introduction to the game for a player that like to play as prussia, i already have revised my mod "euprov2.txt" and "players2.txt" files, intensive playtesting will be tonight, but for now i have some questions...

1.- it's ok that a province start on "euprov2.txt" with a player setting of a major nation?
explanation.- i have two provinces in this situation, masovia and les_wallachia, all other changes have been made trough setting "relstart.txt" as conquered, i think it may not give problems (all seting is player vs player)
2.- in some "playtesting" session i played a detailed battle between france against britain, france loses, and much glory and national morale... can this cause protectorates conquered to declare it's independence?
explanation.- just the turn after the battle, all of bavaria, previusly under french conquered status, change to independet status, french garrisons on all three provinces are displaced to adjacent provinces.
i must playtest my scenario before making more post about it.

thanks in advance and kind support to the game,

with my best regards,

Murat30.

[Grand_Armee]

Ericbabe,
I'm not much into tweaking files (because usually there is some disaster) or trying to get people on the other side of the game table to see my point of view...there's no fun in arguing. I've been around wargamers enough to know that non-factory modifications always cause trouble. Besides, what am I to do if somebody else is hosting the TCP/IP game?

If I want to beat the French AI badly enough, I can just fight a DB. But after a while, there's no fun trying to win that way...and a human doesn't have the failings of an AI. But in QB, Prussia has no chance against anybody due to a lack of horse troops. There's just no point in trying to fight the historical war because you cannot compete with France...or even Bavaria. The game gives a lot to cavalry supremacy.

Prussia is already strapped financially at the outset. It is doubly handicapped by being left with inferior cavalry. It's further hampered by weak strategic initiative. In the 1792 scenario it's certainly not the army respected and emulated by many European forces as it was. I don't believe that one additional regular and one additional light cavalry division will turn it into some kind of super-power.

The failure at Valmy wasn't caused by the failure of Prussia to get troops to the west. It was caused by an indecisive general past his prime. It was Revolutionary France's luckiest day.