v1.23.08 Playtest - 1805 Scenario

[pzgndr]

For the past couple of weeks, I've been running the 1805 scenario to verify changes made during my 1812 playtesting are acceptable. Needless to say, I've run into multiple little things that required attention.

1. France wasn't being aggressive enough. Not that they weren't trying, but I needed to adjust strategic advance and redeployment to get France to push more forces toward Austria and/or Prussia if at war. Also, Russian redeployment is working quite well. For example, France DOWs Prussia, Prussia calls upon ally Russia, and Russia moves an army towards Berlin. I've seen Russians at Berlin by May/June, and France backs off. So now things are a bit better.

2. Combats. I noted a few cases where attacks that should have been happening weren't happening, and the AI was moving to prep areas instead. Players may have seen this with Turkey attacking Egypt and Spain attacking Portugal. I dug into this and made some adjustments. The AI is better now.

3. Builds, reinforcements, and new units. I did not like the way the AI was doing these so I made adjustments. Things look better now.

4. Lastly, I caught a case of AI-AI naval combat where Portuguese fleets were evacuating a port and running a blockade but nothing was happening. Digging into it, I discovered there really wasn't any AI-AI naval combat code. Duh. Just like before when I created AI-AI land combat with chit resolution and later discovered there wasn't any AI-AI trivial combat resolution. I should have addressed naval combat at that time but I guess I assumed naval combat was OK. Anyways, as seen in attached screenshot, both the AI-AI trivial combat land battle at Oporto and the subsequent blockade battle for the evacuating fleet appears to be working fine now.

Alright. Before I pat myself on the back and declare success, I need to restart some playtest games and verify all is well and I am fully (mostly?) satisfied with how the game is playing. To paraphrase a famous Paul Masson winery advertising campaign, "We will release no update before its time." But soon, hopefully, very soon...

[pzgndr]

August 1805. France DOW'd Austria in July 1805. Russia accepted call from Austria to DOW France. Turkey accepted call from France to DOW Austria. Austria stepped back from Bavaria, and France maneuvered forward. I expected a head-on attack but... noted a few issues. France retreated I Cav from Salzburg ok, but also retreated II corps from Tyrol which was too conservative. Napoleon did advance on Linz but failed to gain a majority. Corps were being dispatched to Prague and Karlsruhe. Another weak attack advanced on Venice but also failed to gain a majority. Overall, I was not impressed. So I've spent a few days troubleshooting, digging into the various functions, and making some adjustments.

This is like squeezing jello, trying to find the right mix of options and logics so it's not too much and not too little. Just right would be nice.

[pzgndr]

Here we go after some adjustments. Napoleon is attacking in force the Austrians at Linz under Mack. Finally, a decent attack. Now, as Austria, I have some serious concerns about defending Austria and whether Charles should retreat to Vienna or perhaps strike Murat in Salzburg and put some pressure on Napoleon's rear flank. Also, Turkey is at war with Austria on my rear flank and my Russian allies probably won't redeploy forces towards Vienna fast enough. Decisions, decisions...

Again, this is a playtest with me as Austria against all computer opponents on hard difficulty. Getting better. I think another couple of quick playtests and we'll be ready to start wrapping up.