Automatic Defensive fire.

[FM WarB]

Is Automatic dedensive fire available in either Civil war or Nappy series? And can oob files be fiddled with?

[jdew]

By automatic defensive fire do you mean that you want the AI to carry out all applicable defensive fire for you rather than doing each unit one-by-one?

You can do this.... for your offensive or defensive fire phase you can click the AI button and the AI will fire every applicable unit for you at whatever it determines to be the "better" target. In other words you just turn over those phases to the AI.

Since I rarely feel like shooting all those skirmishers at targets individually what I'll do is manually do the shooting for my artillery, then manually shoot whatever few infantry units I want hitting specific targets, then I'll click the AI button and let the AI shoot with the rest of my troops. Be aware, though, that the AI might have units shooting that you don't want to shoot (e.g. a unit in column I want to melee with).

You can fiddle with the OOBs using Notepad. Its just a text file. You can change anything and everything there, right up to making a completely new OOB. Don't use Word since that will insert carriage returns and make the OOB unusable.

Other than reassigning unit pictures, its been a while since I edited OOBs, so if I remember correctly.....

The unit strengths are in groups of 25, so a strength of 10 = 250 men.

Also, keep in mind that the pictures for leaders are sequential, not numbered like the units. (The first leader named in the OOB is the first picture, the second leader, the second picture etc.) If you insert a new leader and want correct pictures, you have to re-do the leaders.bmp file, getting those in sequential order.

[FM WarB]

I asked because all that extra manual firing is tedious in pbem games.
I've done alot of oob/pdt/wpn file editing and some unit file editing in Tiller HPS games. I asked because oobs became locked (uneditable) in HPS Civil war games.

[Ashantai]

Remember if you're going to add leaders they need to be also added on the silly leaders.bmp file. I never did work out a good way to do that.

[FM WarB]

In HPS games, atleast, you dont need to add leaders;  you can use the same numbered face as oft as you like.  Except for well known characters, who knows what bde and rgt commanders looked  like?

[jdew]

Yeah, the sequential nature of the Leaders.bmp file can create some challenges that don't exist in the HPS titles.

What I've done for oob's I'm editing is to treat each group as a single entity in the leaders.bmp file. It works pretty well. I'll see if I can explain the technique.


Basically....

One row of the leaders.bmp file holds 12 pictures. The leaders.bmp file can have any number of rows. Full rows are more easily inserted, moved or removed. Each oob "group" gets leaders.bmp entries in full rows; each oob "group" will reference at least 12 leaders within the "group".


To explain...

My distinct oob "group" (at least in Napoleonics for the French) is the corps. A typical corp might have 10 or 11 leaders. (If there are more than 12 leaders in the "group" then I've got two full rows, but I think you get the idea.)

When I set up the leaders.bmp I keep that a distinct row (and as a single graphic), stubbing out the last, unused spots. That way I can easily cut and paste the entire rows of leaders.bmp if I want to insert a new corps and new leaders.

For example...

With 10 leaders in the corps, at the end of the corps where I put the supply wagon, I'll insert two of these guys to finish off the group of 12...

L 1 1 0 Leader Nobody

and in the Leaders.bmp I'll use Nobody shilouettes to finish off the row. It won't make any difference because the scenario will never reference or use the Nobody leaders; they are just placeholders.

So in each "group" I've always got 12 "leaders" that match 12 leader.bmp graphics in a single leader.bmp row. Each leader.bmp row is an entity that relates to one OOB "group".

So...

Now let's say I've got I, II, and III Corps of la Grande Armee (followed by English and Prussian organizations) in the OOB. But then I find I want a IV Corps.

OK, there are 8 leaders in the IV Corps. I make the changes to the OOB, putting four

L 1 1 0 Leader

down near the IV corps supply wagon.

Next, I set up a single new leaders.bmp row (a separate graphic that is just one row) for the 8 IV Corps leaders with 4 Nobody shilouttes in the last 4 slots. Its a full row... 8 leader pictures and 4 Nobodys.

Edit the Leaders.bmp, cut the file after III Corps and before the English and Prussians. (Now I've got 3 files, each having complete rows... the one containing all the French BEFORE IV Corps, IV Corps, and everything AFTER IV Corps). Put the three together in the proper order ... Before IV Corp, IV Corp, After IV Corps... and I'm all set.


That way I don't have to tediously adjust all those tiny individual pictures just to insert a new corp commander and two division commanders midway in the leaders.bmp file.

[FM WarB]

Thanks frthat leaders file explanation.
By auto defensive fire, I was refering to AI controlled fire, that eliminates the need for offensive and defensive fire phases. This had been implimented in the Civil war titles, but not the Nappy titles.

[1NWCG]

No I don't beleive it is in the Napoleonic titles except for I think you can activate the AI each time a fire phase comes up.  Though you probably get better results firing yourself.

[IronWarrior]

ORIGINAL: jdew

Be aware, though, that the AI might have units shooting that you don't want to shoot (e.g. a unit in column I want to melee with).

Pretty much says it all right there.

Personally I like the way the turns/phases are set up. If you feel it takes too long or too much hassle, the HPS style may work for you, but from what I've heard it causes too much of what they call a "blitzkreig" effect.

[FM WarB]

I have limited the blitzkrieg effect by changes I made to the oob for Campaign Waterloo scenarios.  Cavalry are in squadrons, Arty are in sections and no inf units are more than 600 men.  Thus it takes longer to deploy from march column on a road to battle formation.  Cavalry is not as powerful  in squadrons, and the old trick when they were in regts of fighting in sqdns then recombining to magicly recover fatigue no longer is effective.

[jdew]

ORIGINAL: FM WarB

I have limited the blitzkrieg effect by changes I made to the oob for Campaign Waterloo scenarios. Cavalry are in squadrons, Arty are in sections and no inf units are more than 600 men. Thus it takes longer to deploy from march column on a road to battle formation. Cavalry is not as powerful in squadrons, and the old trick when they were in regts of fighting in sqdns then recombining to magicly recover fatigue no longer is effective.

Sounds interesting, but one question. What do you do with inf units greater than 600 men? Do you split the battalion evenly or 600 and the remainder or split it into companies?

[FM WarB]

Sounds interesting, but one question. What do you do with inf units greater than 600 men? Do you split the battalion evenly or 600 and the remainder or split it into companies?

Prussian large regiments are split in half. Some A/A and French Regts have light companies or Grenadiers formed into seperate combined battalions or skirmish companies. This was done to eliminate unrealistically large units' firepower and to try to get overall number of skirmishers right, given the universal one sixth sk co detachment allowance.