Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

" but interesting that the average speed of messengers was about 2 mph, sometimes slower."

In the game its roughly one hex per hour, which is about 5.6mi/9km, perhaps I need to slow it down It was a long time ago but I believe that number was based on Petre when he was writing about the distance from when Napoleon was writing his orders on the way to the Danube front in 1809.

Not proposing any change, just noting how the friction of war has these effects.

During the Waterloo Campaign the French, in particular, had problems getting good quality horses, then there was the problem of finding the recipient of a message within a multi-national army (Allies), who had not necessarily fought together before. Many of the Allied units had previously fought for Napoleon and were of uncertain allegiance and many French units were suffering the loses of a long war, with many of the better quality officers gone and others distrustful of each other.

It wasn't like the 'old days', where the Grand Armee, of earlier campaigns, was a much more homogeneous unit, as was the old British Peninsular army, both were more efficient forces in 1809.

It's more that anyone doubting the orders delay effects, thinking that it could be too excessive, all the above shows that historically it could be worse.

As always, I think you are on target [:)]

Just to say that it is a pleasure to see Frank Hunter again in these forums, to congratulate him for his excellent games and thank him for working in a new patch for the gem that is CotD !

[&o][&o]

Rasputitsa, I had considered modifying the speed of messengers based on the efficiency of the army HQ. At the corps level for example, when a messenger reaches Davout in 1809 he will react on that order faster than if it was Jellacic that was receiving an order. But the speed of the order to arrive in the first place is the same. That could be changed. In 1805 for example, Napoleon's HQ is better than Mack's in every respect. I could modify messengers under Mack's army to move slower to represent greater friction? The Austrians are already facing a tougher challenge vis a vis the French, however, so I didn't.

Thank you Franciscus!

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

Rasputitsa, I had considered modifying the speed of messengers based on the efficiency of the army HQ. At the corps level for example, when a messenger reaches Davout in 1809 he will react on that order faster than if it was Jellacic that was receiving an order. But the speed of the order to arrive in the first place is the same. That could be changed. In 1805 for example, Napoleon's HQ is better than Mack's in every respect. I could modify messengers under Mack's army to move slower to represent greater friction? The Austrians are already facing a tougher challenge vis a vis the French, however, so I didn't.

It's the continual problem of gaming, historical balance against playability, nobody wants to play a constant losing hand.

Playing as Napoleon is pretty safe, you are a unlikely to lose and what's the point of playing Coalition, if you always get hammered.

The enormous value in CotD is historical reality, but it has to be given some balance to make it playable. I am getting balance and the excitement of playing Napoleon, still with a very capable army, by removing some of the French corps to achieve balance, but not changing the historical capabilities of what is left. Which brings us to the prospect of a game editor, but only you can know your workload and then there is the hope for more campaigns.

I am not using 'To the guns' for the Coalition, as commanders were not expected to use initiative and were too frightened to do so, they would rather lose a battle than be blamed for not following orders.

In the game the player takes command and should not be penalised into suffering all the same command limitations of the historical figures you replace. The whole point is to see if you can do it better and this is where CotD scores so highly. Most games allow a huge dose of hindsight and God like control of the battlefield, whereas CotD has that priceless uncertainty, command delay and realistic FOW, which means that you are working with the some of the same limitations as the historical commanders, but can you organise command and control better than they could ?

The short answer to your question is yes and no, it would be good to have a completely historical game with all the historical delays, but with the option to improve command and control, which is what Charles was trying to do before he was thrown into a war that he didn't want.

It could be by editor, but that could be some way off, or is it possible to have variable settings, which can be chosen at the start of a scenario ?

'Historical' delay setting and 'Successful army reforms' delay setting.

Just as a side issue, at Ulm 1805, Mack was frozen by the inability to make the big decisions, even though he had been given a letter by the Austrian Emperor giving him full executive command, he found it difficult, effectively impossible, to overrule his royal master Archduke Ferdinand.

What of Napoleon, he was convinced that Mack was retreating towards Augsburg, which is what any sane Austrian commander would be doing, it was what Napoleon would be doing in Mack's place. Practically the whole French army was thrown onto the South bank of the Danube chasing towards Augsburg, with Napoleon telling Ney to expect only 5000 Austrians to be left in Ulm, How wrong was he, but is was not to be the only error.

In 1806 Napoleon was convinced that he was confronting the main Prussian army at Jena, when in reality Davout was single-handily beating the principal Prussian army at Auerstadt, wrong again,

In 1809 Napoleon was convinced that Charles was escaping Eastwards the way he had come, whilst Davout was desperately trying to convince the Emperor that the Austrians were actually pushing past him and escaping over the Danube, through Regensburg (Ratisbon), wrong again.

Then there was Russia …...

The point is that although people might complain about the AI, it doesn't do any worse than mistakes like these and I find myself doing similar miscalculations in the uncertainty and FOW which CotD presents.

The conditions at the time sometimes confused the greatest strategist of the age, perhaps the greatest of all time and that is just what CotD does, it puts you right there.

Thanks Frank.

Okay, the unit graphics in the battle display are no longer hard-coded.

Are there any display resolutions that anyone needs that aren't available in the game?

These are the current supported resolutions

1920 by 1080
1680 by 1050
1600 by 900
1440 by 900
1366 by 768
1280 by 1024
1280 by 800
1024 by 768
1600 by 1200
1920 by 1440
1920 by 1200
2560 by 1600
2560 by 1440

I was looking into report movement and noticed a discrepancy between actual and projected travel time for messengers. Its not 1 hex per hour, but that's what the projection is based on, its actually 2 hexes per 3 hours but its not set in stone, it can sometimes be faster or slower, but 2 hexes per 3 hours would be the average. I've fixed the projection.

Last thing on the list seems to be miniatures. Currently in a solitaire game as the Austrian there's no way to have it go to miniatures.

Is there any demand for this? Would there be any demand for the game outputting the forces involved in the format of particular rules like Volley & Bayonet, Grande Armee, Age of Eagles etc?

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

I was looking into report movement and noticed a discrepancy between actual and projected travel time for messengers. Its not 1 hex per hour, but that's what the projection is based on, its actually 2 hexes per 3 hours but its not set in stone, it can sometimes be faster or slower, but 2 hexes per 3 hours would be the average. I've fixed the projection.

The fact that it is variable is good and the ultimate travel times are always going to be a compromise between absolute historical accuracy (but how do you measure that) and playability, but it 'feels' about right with these figures.

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

Last thing on the list seems to be miniatures. Currently in a solitaire game as the Austrian there's no way to have it go to miniatures.

Is there any demand for this? Would there be any demand for the game outputting the forces involved in the format of particular rules like Volley & Bayonet, Grande Armee, Age of Eagles etc?

It would be great if the game output the forces in order to play tactical phase with PC game Scourge of War Waterloo; I don't know if this is possible and how much work it requires but this is my dream for sooo many years.

Is there any resolution for this text error, which can happen after replacements have been added to a unit :

What happened there exactly?

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

What happened there exactly?

The text error seems to appear in the 'view units' panel after allocating replacements, I have game saves for before and after. Will attach to email.

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

What happened there exactly?

Also having problems trying to get these units 'reattached', not sure if it is connected.

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter
I was looking into report movement and noticed a discrepancy between actual and projected travel time for messengers. Its not 1 hex per hour, but that's what the projection is based on, its actually 2 hexes per 3 hours but its not set in stone, it can sometimes be faster or slower, but 2 hexes per 3 hours would be the average. I've fixed the projection.

Maybe consider a slightly faster [average] time for the handicap difficulty setting, to favor either France or Coalition as applicable?

If it's not too late, here's one more display resolution request.

2736 x 1824

It's for a MS Surface.

Thank you.

rjantzi, I will add that one

ORIGINAL: Franciscus

Just to say that it is a pleasure to see Frank Hunter again in these forums, to congratulate him for his excellent games and thank him for working in a new patch for the gem that is CotD !

[&o][&o]

Just to say that it is a pleasure to see Frank Hunter again in these forums, to congratulate him for his excellent games and thank him for working in a new patch for the gem that is CotD !

+1!!!

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

Last thing on the list seems to be miniatures. Currently in a solitaire game as the Austrian there's no way to have it go to miniatures.

Is there any demand for this? Would there be any demand for the game outputting the forces involved in the format of particular rules like Volley & Bayonet, Grande Armee, Age of Eagles etc?

Hello Frank!

If you can please include using miniatures, in any capacity, that would be great. Sam Mustafa created a new Napoleonic rule set called Blücher, which is a fantastic. If you are not familiar with it, I can send you the info you might need to include it.

Thank you for continuing to support your game with this latest update.

~Z