The Age of Napoleon Beta Playtest PBEM

[Lord rebel]

Comments

Ok, I just took a look tot the scenario, it gave me a nice impression, however a few comments:

1- Due to the many cities already present in the scenario I noticed that only two more can be build! Or there is some kind of patch to solve this?

2- I saw in the events that when the British Empire destroys a foreign slave they win an engineer or an infantry unit; can I destroy foreign slaves also during peace times without provoking a war declaration? Can I also sink boats transporting slaves? And if so I will also need extra energy to destroy the ´floating´ slave if not I will not get my bonus.

3- Transports carry 8! Too much, I would lower that to 2. Also the invasion barges too much, I would reduce it also to 2, much more less movement and 50% chance sink in open waters

4- Communism pays support past 10 units, too much; drop that to 3 or 5

Also I want to remind you all to respect this very important rule: NO RELOADING! I say this because I know many people reload, especially to get better combat results, I will be watching very careful, I think we should make full combat results.

Also, should we not implement that rule that when you make a war declaration you give the opponent 1 turn time to organize his defences? I’m for it.

Also other rules: No terraforming, no ship chaining, no terrain stealing to the AI

That is all, for now…

[EmuGod]

What qualifies exactly as terraforming? It makes sense for engingeers to turn forests into plains, for example, because forests were clear cut so the wood could be used for ships. Part of Britain's need to control Canada was for its vast forests which could be used for the lumber for shipbuilding since Britain has exhausted her own forests.

[Bostero]

Originally posted by EmuGod
What qualifies exactly as terraforming? It makes sense for engingeers to turn forests into plains, for example, because forests were clear cut so the wood could be used for ships. Part of Britain's need to control Canada was for its vast forests which could be used for the lumber for shipbuilding since Britain has exhausted her own forests.

i see Emu, you are of those players who priorizate that 'realism' instead of playability.



@regarding rebel proposse:

i agree with the transport load: i vote for 4.

one turn movilization is good. taking into account that cities terrains are on grassland and cities are very close one from other. sneack attack would defeat an entire civ in a single turn.

shields support of communism is too high, yep. i agree with rebel.


anyways, Heresson (Austria) to play!

[Heresson]

Are You sure? I don't see french (Saladin's) zip?

[EmuGod]

Originally posted by Bostero
i see Emu, you are of those players who priorizate that 'realism' instead of playability.

Not necessarily, for me it depends on the particular circumstances involved. In this case, I agree with you to an extent. I believe that some terraforming should definetely be disallowed and some allowed. It's not a major point for me so if you really insist on no terraforming at all, I won't mind, but I do think there is some room for limited terraforming in the game.

[Bostero]

re:

well i guess that saladin is improving his scen right now with something new according to our feedbacks!

@heresson: yep, i think i saw the frog zip posted somewhere, sorry.
btw, great thread about frog drawings! was checking it!

[Saladin23]

"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space.
I am less concerned about the latter than the former.
Space we can recover, lost time never."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

December 11th 1802
The town Novara
The road to Milan
The Italian Republic

Rising like a morning mist, the billowing breath of thousands of men cut the cold, still air that resided between the grey cloudy heavens and the muddy road, that was surrounded by the snow covered fields of the Piedmont countryside. Although few others would have chosen to move about during winter, had the bulk of these men not carried muskets on their shoulders, marched side by side, rank by rank, or led horses pulling cannon; no one would have guessed that this was an army.

All of the men were ragged and dirty, their boots and winter coats covered with mud. Those who did not have winter coats displayed patched jackets of faded blue and brown. There were even a few jackets whose cut and colour betrayed their origin as being from the pre-Revolutionary Royalist army, or worse, that of British origin taken from the dead at Toulon. Even down to the muskets on their shoulders, only a handful could boast owning a musket that was manufactured in France, the rest being those that the French Republic had been able to import or take on the battlefield from her neighbours.

Despite the terrible conditions of the weather, equipment, clothing and road being against, the men of the French Army in Italy continued to maintain their march. The same determination that had won them, at least for now, independence and recognition for their republic from the old European monarchies surrounding them was once again showing its quality here. So far the only times the soldiers had halted on their journey were for the night, or for when the wheels of a supply wagon or artillery piece had become stuck in mud that rose up to the ankles whenever a foot exerted any pressure on it.

Such a misfortune had befallen the men of the 211th batterie de l’artillerie. One of their pieces in the battery had got both wheels trapped in the mud. As the infantry were forced off the road and had to go around in the road’s ditches, the artillerymen were busy lashing ropes around the barrel and horses, hoping that they would not have to abandon the field gun since at the moment, replacements were scarce in Italy.

After half an hour of trying with no success, a messenger came down the line. He cast his eyes over the exhausted artillerymen leaning against the barrel of their gun for support until he made eye contact with the man that he had come to see, a grimy faced captain from Normandy.

‘Captain Galtier, sir’ he said, straightening up in the saddle of his horse as the captain stepped forward to peer up at him through piercing blue eyes, ‘the general conveys his respects and asks you to continue for a another hour only, and then leave the gun here. He promises that it will be recovered later.’

Captain Jacque Galtier allowed a moment of pause before responding. Jacque Galtier had been a farm labourer in his mid teens near Caen, when the Revolution had swept his area of France. Not long after he had joined the revolutionary army as an infantryman fighting to defend France’s eastern border and eventually fighting the British in Flanders.

Towards the end of 1796, he had been sent with his demi-brigade had been sent to Italy to fight under Napoleon against the Austrians. There, he had been promoted to lieutenant and had been put in command of the 190th batterie de l’artillerie when artillery officers, like everything else in the army in Italy had become unheard of. Despite a hostile reception, the batteries had eventually accepted him once they had got used to him.

1798 then took them to Egypt, where the batterie took part in siege of Acre, until battered and depleted in numbers, they had been able to return to France with Napoleon. Once again part of the French Italian Army the remnants of the 190th were reconstituted as the 211th and Galtier had been made a captain. And now after several months of peace brought about by the Treaty of Amiens, the 211th was on the move again.

‘My respects to the general. I am waiting for more horses to be brought up to help. Tell him that I will be back moving down the road with the next hour and that I am thankful for the patience that he has shown.’

The messenger nodded and the two men exchanged salutes. The messenger then turned his horse around to the direction from whence he had come, and galloped back up to the front of the column, with Galtier’s message.

Once the messenger had disappeared, Galtier took a clay pipe out of his coat pocket. After lighting it, he turned and rejoined his men to resume their efforts to recover the gun. A few minutes later, the discussions that had been going on before the messenger had appeared also resumed.

The main topic of conversation was that of the campaign that they had been sent upon. As President of the Italian Republic, Napoleon had decided that the time had come to place the erstwhile French puppet directly under the administration of Paris, along with the Republic of Lucca, the Duchy of Parma and the Kingdom of Etruria. The reason for this appeared to be the French dictator’s desire to ensure that the route to Rome was under the direct control of the Revolutionary Army. It also sent a message to the Pope that France could easily remove his rule there and reinstate the Roman Republic that had briefly been established during the Italian campaign if he did not toe the line.

After about half an hour, the additional horses had arrived and the field gun’s wheels were at last free of the mud. By the time the general’s deadline had passed, Galtier and his men were on the move, eager to enforce the will of their Corsican master in Paris. They did not care where he chose to impose it on the great European continent, as long as he continued to bring the republic, security, glory and recognition from those that would rather have seen it destroyed.


French Artillery on the move

*****

[Saladin23]

I can't leave you lot alone for 24 hours!

^^ Ok here's the turn. I've read for your comments and I'll be looking into the points you have raised.

-s, for the cities limit being reached, didn't someone crack that part of the code a little while ago? If I can find the utility for it, maybe more cities will be built. The reason for the lack of city building is due to the lack of mass colonisation at the time. Even with the Louisianna Purchase, US settlers didn't immediately begin flooding the area.

-Transports and barges will be reduced to a load of 4. For some reason the barges should be vulnerable in

2- I saw in the events that when the British Empire destroys a foreign slave they win an engineer or an infantry unit; can I destroy foreign slaves also during peace times without provoking a war declaration? Can I also sink boats transporting slaves? And if so I will also need extra energy to destroy the ´floating´ slave if not I will not get my bonus.

-I wouldn't say during peace time, unless a house rule is put in place to allow it. You can sink ships transporting slaves and need to destroy the floating slave.

4- Communism pays support past 10 units, too much; drop that to 3 or 5

-I'll sort out communism asap

one turn movilization is good. taking into account that cities terrains are on grassland and cities are very close one from other. sneack attack would defeat an entire civ in a single turn.

It will be added.


Looks like I better get started! I'll have the new rules ready by my next turn.

[Eivind IV]

For what it's worth here what I think. Wiping out an entire forest square, which in civ terms would be on the size of Holland, in just 5 months, I don't find very realistic. For my own colonialism I added a lot of forest to the map, so everyone could chop down freely. But there one turn is one year, and stretches over 300 years

And maybe also just transporting 2 units is more apropriate. I've been thinking of the same for the next update of Blitzkrieg '36. This way the seafaring nations won't have that big an advantage. Maybe even add another with 4 only for Prussia/Austria.

[Lord rebel]

About terraforming I think all actions using the letter 'O'' should be prohibited and the ones with the 'I' allowed

4 for ships I think is still too much, I would like to see it has 2, or why not 3? maybe then is everybody happy The idea of Eivind is also a good one

Saladin, will read your nice report tonight when I will have more time

[Eivind IV]

Btw, saladin, extending the city number is only possible if everyone changes the civ2.exe-file, which is very inconvenient as you then can't play other scenarios or whatever.

[Saladin23]

Btw, saladin, extending the city number is only possible if everyone changes the civ2.exe-file, which is very inconvenient as you then can't play other scenarios or whatever.

Fair enough. I didn't know much about it which is why I was going to look into it. Still, there wasn't that much city building in this era so it isn't that much of a concern.

About terraforming I think all actions using the letter 'O'' should be prohibited and the ones with the 'I' allowed

Agreed.

[Eivind IV]

You can easily make it physically mipossible to terrafor, by tweaking the terrain stats.

And yes, you could with clear justification just fill up the map with cities.

[Lord rebel]

Saladin, another thing I don’t like too much is that some cities near the Alps are not well placed giving them very unrealistic base squares; the real Milan is in the middle of the Po Valley and here it is on the Alps! (What will make it impossible to capture it). Also Venice should be on a River square. This could be solved if you eliminate the city Ravenna and put Livorno on square 136, 60 instead and Geneva, that seems also to be in the top of the Alps, relocate it on square 133, 53 (Hills), then you will have the space to relocate Milan and Venice in their right positions (135, 55 and 137, 57 respectively). Also I don’t like to see that Paris has no River square, the illustrious River Seine should cross the city what will make it also much less vulnerable to any foreign attack, if you decide to put Paris back on the Seine (square 130, 50 to be exactly) you will also have space to create a new French city between Paris and Brest (Le Mans?)

[Saladin23]

Saladin, another thing I don’t like too much is that some cities near the Alps are not well placed giving them very unrealistic base squares; the real Milan is in the middle of the Po Valley and here it is on the Alps! (What will make it impossible to capture it). Also Venice should be on a River square. This could be solved if you eliminate the city Ravenna and put Livorno on square 136, 60 instead and Geneva, that seems also to be in the top of the Alps, relocate it on square 133, 53 (Hills), then you will have the space to relocate Milan and Venice in their right positions (135, 55 and 137, 57 respectively). Also I don’t like to see that Paris has no River square, the illustrious River Seine should cross the city what will make it also much less vulnerable to any foreign attack, if you decide to put Paris back on the Seine (square 130, 50 to be exactly) you will also have space to create a new French city between Paris and Brest (Le Mans?)

I think what you're coming up with Rebel atm is great! (ok, it is showing a lot of mistakes, but this is my first scenario! )

I will be taking on board what you have said, but the above changes will mean restarting the scenario (which is proving tough to get going), so I will include them in the official release.

Heresson up!