Third party combat resolution tutorial

[Marshall Ellis]

Hey guys:

I've seen a few questions about the thrid part combat option that you have in EiANW and have noted that it may help to show a little more detail as to how it works...

The goal was to give the miniature gaming world and the EiA community a little common ground to play both at the same time. It's not designed for any particular miniature system but mainly designed to be general enough for most miniature systems.

Anyway, here we go...

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 1 Make sure the "Third Party Combat Resolution" option is enabled when you're starting you game...

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 2 Combat

During the combat phase, when you click an area with a battle to be fought you should see the below menu of options.

1. You can create the battle file.
2. You could still use ther standard EiANW combat system.
3. You could cancel and come back to this battle later (Canceling does not eliminate the battle. You will have to resolve this battle before ending the combat phase).

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 3 Battle!
 
When you select the "Create Battle File" option above, the engine will create an .EIA text file in the BATTLES subdirectory. You can open this file with notepad. This file has all of the variables of the battle. I have included this battle file with a few comments:
 
*************************************************************************
File start
*************************************************************************
Battle of Venice
January, 1805
#System field lines (Lines that EiA for PC read) begin with "~"
#Comment lines begin with "#" and are optional
~aa647
~bb0
#Nation IDs. To indicate winner, use ~w and nation's number ident
#Examples:
#~w0 will enable nation 0 (attacker) to win
#~w1 will enable nation 1 (defender) to win
#~w255 will enable a tie
~0France
~1Austria
#Fill winner in below
~w0
Terrain : Normal
Weather : Clear, Winds calm, Temp 35f to 40f
#Unit info format:
#~uUnitname with Tactical and Strategic numeric values
#~eNumber of guard factors
#~iNumber of infantry factors
#~mNumber of militia factors
#~cNumber of cavalry factors
#~aNumber of artillery factors
#~hNumber of heavy ships
#~lNumber of light ships
#~tNumber of transports
#Change these numbers to reflect new force levels
# Attacker Forces (France) Morale 4.05
~u0I corps  T:2  S:2  M4.00
~e0
~i25
~m0
~c3
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u1II corps  T:2  S:2  M4.00
~e0
~i18
~m0
~c0
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u4V corps  T:2  S:2  M4.00
~e0
~i20
~m0
~c3
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u5VI corps  T:2  S:2  M4.00
~e0
~i20
~m0
~c2
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u37Napoleon  T:5  S:5  M0.00
~e0
~i0
~m0
~c0
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u39Murat  T:3  S:2  M0.00
~e0
~i0
~m0
~c0
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u282Gds corps  T:2  S:2  M4.62
~e5
~i0
~m0
~c3
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

# Defender Forces (Austria) Morale 3.37
~u230III corps  T:1  S:1  M3.06
~e0
~i15
~m0
~c1
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u231IV corps  T:1  S:1  M3.07
~e0
~i14
~m0
~c1
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u237I Grenadiers corps  T:1  S:1  M4.71
~e5
~i0
~m0
~c2
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u250IId depot  T:1  S:1  M0.00
~e0
~i0
~m0
~c0
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0

~u257Charles  T:4  S:4  M0.00
~e0
~i0
~m0
~c0
~a0
~h0
~l0
~t0
*************************************************************************
File end
*************************************************************************

The file may look a little scary BUT should be simple to edit. You only need to indicate the winner (I did France with ~w0). The you should edit the factor levels that are left (NOT the casualties just what is left). When you're completed editing the files then save the battle file as a .RES (result) file in the BATTLES subdirectory.
 
 

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 4 resolve and edit battle file.

While you're fighting the battle, you must wait for this battle file to be loaded back into the system. If you click the area before the results file is placed in the BATTLES subdirectory then your menu will look something like this (Basically, you can do nothing in EiANW yet).

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 5 Create the .RES file

When you have edited the the battle file and saved it as "battle of Venice.res" then the engine will see the results file in the BATTLES subdirectory. NOW when you click the area, your menu should look like this...

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 6 Finish!

When you select the "Load Results" from the above menu then the game will load the results file. Your current factor levels in the corps will be from your results file. Now EiANW will apply retreat to the loser and post pp losses and gains. I have highlighted these events in the below image. Note that Austria retreated and the battle results in the status window...

[Marshall Ellis]

Step 7 Do it again...
 
Anyway, this is the process for using the "Third Party Combat Resolution".
Questions...?
 

 

[Grognot]

An obvious question is -- shouldn't this thread be stickied?

A few more --

- Can one 'reinforce' by adding an eligible corps or leader, and have it actually be moved there?  (although to do this, one would need the unit numbers)
- Are the zero-factor lines necessary?
- If a corps is completely removed by casualties, should it be written up with all-zero factor
  lines, or does that block simply get deleted?
- Does the morale level also have to be updated for the .res?

[Marshall Ellis]

Grognot:
 
Good idea! Stickied!
 
I did not compensate for reinforcements. You are correct that inserting the unit number could do this but I need to make sure that I verify it was an eligible unit (Adjacent to the battle area) since you could essentially teleport a unit otherwise. Another item to look at on the list of items to look at :-)
 
The Zero factor lines are necessary in this release. The engine is reading a fixed number of lines for each unit. Leaving out these lines would then require an "End of unit" line or some type of unit delimiter.
 
If the corps is eliminated then correct, zero all factor lines.
 
No on updating your morale. This will be recalculated by EiANW when the .RES file is loaded.
 
Hope this helps...
 
 

 
 
 
 

[Kai]

Any chance that a third party combat resolution could be implemented for naval combat?

We naval miniatures buffs would love it.

Thanks

[Marshall Ellis]

Kai:
 
Don't see why not??? I'll add this to our wish list!
 
 

[Kai]

You are awesome.

I'm going to name my next child after you. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Kai:

Don't see why not??? I'll add this to our wish list!

[gazfun]

Will be in need of this feature very soon, as there will be a Batlefiled software coming out, that Im helping with, would suit this very much

[gazfun]

For anyone interested in Third Party Combat games see us at The Generals HQ Forum
We will be looking for these kind of players soon
Main site The Generals HQ

[ETF]

Looks great heading over to the General HQ as I type

[gazfun]

ORIGINAL: ETF

Looks great heading over to the General HQ as I type

Thanks for that

[ETF]

No thanks needed you guys do an awesome job. Can hardly wait to get things going when HisWar gets out!
 
 

[gazfun]

ORIGINAL: ETF

No thanks needed you guys do an awesome job. Can hardly wait to get things going when HisWar gets out!

If you have joined us say hello, and get aquainted sometime

[gazfun]

BTW Guys
I have been continually working with this and have made a PDF form progam calculation working for this which is intended to make it a lot easier for the transition of a EiA battle to Hiswar LG as an interim OOB for Histwar LG in this case. It can be easily adjusted as the EiA OOB changes for each Corps.
I intend to make this PDF form to do a reverse calculation after a battle, back to a EiA format
Thanks for your interest