Designer seeking compatible playtesters.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
@ techumseh
Check events for an impossible coordinate, [50,43]. Should probably be [50,48].

Judging by the Wikipedia and other sources, the correct spelling for Nuremburg is Nuremberg.

Thanks. Will do. Is 50,48 the Vienna fortress?

[AGRICOLA]

Yes.

[AGRICOLA]

It's April 1758 and the map below*** shows why Freddy the Great is a happy warrior. He is fighting on "only" 2 fronts and he has a secure rear. Austria [white] has to all intents and purposes been knocked out of the war. The Imperials [yellow] are but a minor nuisance. That leaves the Russians [green] and French [grey] to contend with. Against them, his forces can easily hold the present front lines until the cows come home.

There are only a few things that disturb the Great One's equanimity.

A. As previously reported by Palaiologos, the Hanover events do not seem to work. The readme states that "Researching 'British Subsidy' also ensures that if or when the French take 2 of 4 British [pink] cities, you get Prince Ferdinand and future British, Hanoverian and Hessian reinforcements appear for the Prussian civ (in British cities), so you control them instead of the AI."

I find the above quote somewhat ambiguous. The French HAVE captured 2 of the 4 British cities but Prussian reinforcements cannot possibly spawn in the remaining two. Events cannot spawn units of civ A in a civ B city.

I have tried having the French capture all 4 British cities and then the Prussians in turn capture them from the French. No reinforcements appeared.

I think that Freddy can keep going westward at a pace dictated by how many of the key units . . . . . Freddy, von Schwerin, Prince Henry, Seydlitz and the 3 generals . . . . . are needed to act as fire brigades along the defensive fronts. With spawned reinforcements, Greater Prussia can definitely be carved out beween the Rhine and the Polish border.

B. I ran into a situation where the Prussians killed a convoy but did not receive a spawned equivalent. I traced it to the use of 'randomize' in the event that spawns the replacement and the fact that the Russians had captured Konigsberg, one of the spawning locations. I think that the following, taken from another thread, explains what happened.

Originally posted by Catfish
Something you should consider when using the Count parameter and the Randomize modifier with CreateUnit: if a unit cannot be created, due to the presence of another tribe's unit/city or impassable/ocean terrain, the event action will abort at the first hurdle.

Perhaps 'randomize' could be removed from the event.

C. Freddy is having difficulty finding a source for his favorite tipple, wine. Wine producing hills and similar productive terrains seem to lack icons.

D. According to the readme " Only Jaeger and Pandour units may enter mountain terrain." Freddy is prepared to strike a deal. If the French Cav get out of the Alps, he won't send his Kurassiers after them

*** Yes, the Prussian cities are red and the Polish ones have been relegated to the dull Prussian blue which cannot be seen on the world map. If only one civ is playable, it would be very helpful if it could be assigned a color such that its cities can be seen on the little map.

[AGRICOLA]

@techumseh
The last dozen turns, May '57 to April '58, have been a blast. I'm really starting to appreciate what Frederick must have gone through in fighting off enemies on every front.

It's nice to play a scen where one's time is not spent moving 50+ units every turn. In FTG, even in a crisis, only a few units need to be moved. The time-consuming part is deciding which ones to move and where to.

Thanks for a very interesting and challenging scen.

[curtsibling]

Indeed, I can echo AGRICOLA here, I am holding off these myriad enemies very well - And I think the level of warfare is nicely balanced. Everything seems to hang on a thread, but if the player maintains a cautious style, the war keeps rolling along...One false move and the enemy strikes! This is the kind of game I like, where the war is tenous but still leaves the option for daring attacks, the classic CIV2 battle!

I captured a few border cities West and East, and knocked the Swedes for six. I feel that it is a good idea to keep the units expensive, and wait for April re-enforcements. That allows some nail-biting tension as the the enemy piles on the pressure! Already various marshals and generals of the Imperials and Austrians have fallen, and I am now fearing a stack of doom (as reported earlier by AGRICOLA) appearing in the near future!

AGRICOLA has covered most of the technical details far better than I ever could, and I agree with him for the major part. I found that pillage and rebuilding tactics were not really needed for my defence, just fast moving Cannons and Hussars! The hero units are very useful but not overdone. And Freddy is a one man panzer division...He is the secret of success in this war!

Still playing away and enjoying the march of battle!

Huzzah!

[techumseh]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
It's April 1758 and the map below*** shows why Freddy the Great is a happy warrior. He is fighting on "only" 2 fronts and he has a secure rear. Austria [white] has to all intents and purposes been knocked out of the war. The Imperials [yellow] are but a minor nuisance. That leaves the Russians [green] and French [grey] to contend with. Against them, his forces can easily hold the present front lines until the cows come home.

Could you explain how you captured all those Austrian cities?

There are only a few things that disturb the Great One's equanimity.

A. As previously reported by Palaiologos, the Hanover events do not seem to work. The readme states that "Researching 'British Subsidy' also ensures that if or when the French take 2 of 4 British [pink] cities, you get Prince Ferdinand and future British, Hanoverian and Hessian reinforcements appear for the Prussian civ (in British cities), so you control them instead of the AI."

I find the above quote somewhat ambiguous. The French HAVE captured 2 of the 4 British cities but Prussian reinforcements cannot possibly spawn in the remaining two. Events cannot spawn units of civ A in a civ B city.

I have tried having the French capture all 4 British cities and then the Prussians in turn capture them from the French. No reinforcements appeared.

I'll have to check this. They worked just fine for me. It is very possible to have Prussian units spawn in British cities, because there is a Prussian fortress in each one. You can't see them when thy spawn in another civ's city, but the cursor flashes. If you fortify them they will not appear again. You have to move them out of the city.

By any chance, did you use your spy to break the alliance with the British? This would have relocated the fortresses to Magdeburg.

B. I ran into a situation where the Prussians killed a convoy but did not receive a spawned equivalent. I traced it to the use of 'randomize' in the event that spawns the replacement and the fact that the Russians had captured Konigsberg, one of the spawning locations. I think that the following, taken from another thread, explains what happened.


Perhaps 'randomize' could be removed from the event.

I was wondering why they didn't always appear. But that suits my scheme, which was to find some event space to randomize the appearance of captured convoys.

C. Freddy is having difficulty finding a source for his favorite tipple, wine. Wine producing hills and similar productive terrains seem to lack icons.

Next on my list. Thanks.

D. According to the readme " Only Jaeger and Pandour units may enter mountain terrain." Freddy is prepared to strike a deal. If the French Cav get out of the Alps, he won't send his Kurassiers after them

I suppose I should actually make the mountains impassible since it says they are.

*** Yes, the Prussian cities are red and the Polish ones have been relegated to the dull Prussian blue which cannot be seen on the world map. If only one civ is playable, it would be very helpful if it could be assigned a color such that its cities can be seen on the little map.

I'll see if anything can be done within the context of Prussian blue. This may just be one of those philosophical differences.

[AGRICOLA]

Originally posted by techumseh
Could you explain how you captured all those Austrian cities?

Expect 22 game saves and an OPSUM in your e-mail within the hour.

In essence, a typical spearhead was composed of
1. Freddy or another senior hero type
2. A general
3. A spy
4. 1 or 2 Siege Artys [a lot of IRB and logistical planning went into having them available when needed]
5. 2 Arty
6. Musketeers and/or Cav as occupation troops.

Typically, the spy recced the next target; if a Fortress was present, the Siege Arty attacked first; if no Fortress, the attack was made by one of the other attack units; the most valuable damaged unit captured the city. What helped a lot was that the terrible May 1757 defensive battle at Olmutz decimated the fresh Austrian reinforcements so there were a lot fewer enemies to contend with for the next 12 turns. Only the fact that Olmutz is on river terrain saved the Prussians. On the other hand, there would have been a lot fewer Austrians in Brunn if there had not been a faulty, repeated coordinate in events.

Originally posted by techumseh
I'll have to check this. They worked just fine for me. It is very possible to have Prussian units spawn in British cities, because there is a Prussian fortress in each one. You can't see them when thy spawn in another civ's city, but the cursor flashes. If you fortify them they will not appear again. You have to move them out of the city.

By any chance, did you use your spy to break the alliance with the British? This would have relocated the fortresses to Magdeburg.

I'll give it another try and be patient.
There was no breaking of alliances

Originally posted by techumseh
I was wondering why they didn't always appear. But that suits my scheme, which was to find some event space to randomize the appearance of captured convoys.

OK

Originally posted by techumseh
I'll see if anything can be done within the context of Prussian blue. This may just be one of those philosophical differences.

No, this is a playability issue.

[AGRICOLA]

E-mail sent.

[fairline]

B. Can you send me the sounds please?

[Palaiologos]

Actually what AGRICOLA did is pretty much feasible. He has simply concetrated his offensive thrusts into one front and kept a defensive posture in the rest.
He has lost Koensigsburg and Kolberg to the Russians and held them at the Stettin-Kurstin line, a line far more easily held than the isolated Koensigsburg. Apparently he has halted his attack in Imperial territory after the capture of Torgau and diverted everything in the Silesian(Austrian) front.
In my games i did the opposite; i spent most of the IRB resources to keep Koenigsburg(and that required a lot of effort- I even launched an offensive from Kolberg trying to break the siege and reinforce the garisson) and couldn't ressist capturing Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar, cities that due to the nature of terrain are not that easily defendable. When the Russians withdrew from the war the Koenigsburg garisson even reinforced the offensive for Hannover. Needless to say i lost all hero units except Freddy. I think i will play another game and try to immitate AGRICOLA.

[AGRICOLA]

Your analysis is absolutely correct.

I can only add that I also got whatever units I could from Wesel and Emden, sold all their improvements and then abandoned the cities to the French. In addition, excepting Kosel, all my front line cities are on river terrain. I'm planning the next stages as jumps from river line to river line.

I have written off trying to recapture Konigsberg in favor of trying to capture the territory needed to establish Greater Prussia.

[Patine]

Say, Tech, about how long till the general release of this scen. I can hardly wait. AGRICOLA makes it sound like a lot of fun.

[AGRICOLA]

@techumseh
I'm afraid that I still don't understand all the implications of the following entry in the readme

Researching 'British Subsidy' also ensures that if or when the French take 2 of 4 British cities, you get Prince Ferdinand and future British, Hanoverian and Hessian reinforcements appear for the Prussian civ (in British cities), so you control them instead of the AI.

Ensures? When are the reinforcements supposed to start appearing? In my game, the French captured Minden in Dec '57 and Hanover in March '58 but there were no reinforcements in April. IMO, there is not much time left to get any reinforcements before the French capture the rest of the Brit cities.

What does a player have to do to keep getting the reinforcements? Defend the remaining Brit cities so that the French don't take them?

If the French do capture one or more of them, will recapturing them restart the spawning of reinforcements?

BTW, I don't think that any attempt to defend the cities against the French has any chance of success. One can't fight an overwhemingly more numerous opponent in the field. The only hope is to sit behind city walls and whittle down his forces by attrition.

EDIT: I've continued play. Two months later, in June '58, the French destroyed the British civ. It seems to me that, unless recapturing the former Brit cities restarts reinforcements, the Hanover section of the events file will never come into play.

Have you by any chance strengthened the French spawn in April 1757 since you tested the Hanover events?

[techumseh]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
@techumseh
I'm afraid that I still don't understand all the implications of the following entry in the readme

quote:
"Researching 'British Subsidy' also ensures that if or when the French take 2 of 4 British cities, you get Prince Ferdinand and future British, Hanoverian and Hessian reinforcements appear for the Prussian civ (in British cities), so you control them instead of the AI. "



Ensures? When are the reinforcements supposed to start appearing? In my game, the French captured Minden in Dec '57 and Hanover in March '58 but there were no reinforcements in April. IMO, there is not much time left to get any reinforcements before the French capture the rest of the Brit cities.

What does a player have to do to keep getting the reinforcements? Defend the remaining Brit cities so that the French don't take them?

If the French do capture one or more of them, will recapturing them restart the spawning of reinforcements?

BTW, I don't think that any attempt to defend the cities against the French has any chance of success. One can't fight an overwhemingly more numerous opponent in the field. The only hope is to sit behind city walls and whittle down his forces by attrition.

EDIT: I've continued play. Two months later, in June '58, the French destroyed the British civ. It seems to me that, unless recapturing the former Brit cities restarts reinforcements, the Hanover section of the events file will never come into play.

Have you by any chance strengthened the French spawn in April 1757 since you tested the Hanover events?

I have changed things since the readme was written. British Subsidy is no longer required. Here's what is supposed to happen:

Each of the 4 Brit cities has a flag: Brit flags 0-3.

@IF Brit checkflag 0-3, threshold 2 @THEN give tech 97 (C. of Klosterzeven)

When the Brits get Tech 97, it turns on Austrian flag 30 (continuous) and 31 (just that turn). Austrian flag 0 is the one that is turned on each April turn which triggers everyone's spring reinforcements.

Then @IF Aust checkflag 0, 30 and 31, threshold 2 @THEN Prussians get reinforcements in whichever British cities are still under their or British control.

What that should mean is that the turn after the Brits get tech 97, and every April thereafter, the Prussians get the reinforcements.

Prince Ferdinand is a little different. His arrival is triggered by flag 31 only, which means he only arrives once, just after tech 97 is given to the Brits.

The only thing I can think of is that when each type of unit reinforcement is triggered, there is also a random turn event:

RandomTurn
denominator=2
@AND

Which should mean that there is a 50% chance of each unit type arriving on a given reinforcement turn. Is is possible that they all get the wrong 50% at the same time?

The size of the French spawn shouldn't affect things, as long as there's a couple of turns between the capture of the 2nd city and the other 2.

[AGRICOLA]

It looks like both you and I are right at the same time. The Hanover events do work but not in my game, and I think I know why.

In scens that use flags and masks, one should not replace events in the middle of the scen. I have done so twice in my game, once for your updated events and once to make the minor changes to get the end screens to work. The latter is probably what messed up my game. The same thing likely also happened to Palaiologos

According to Catfish's excellent compendium on hexediting TOT saved games, mask and flag information is stored in the events section of a saved game. Obviously, such information is lost if DELEVENT is used to erase the events section prior to loading a revised events file.

I think I can get back on the right track by hexediting the events section in the appropriate saves.

From what you have said, I understand that, if the Prussians manage to recapture the Brit cities, the reinforcements will flow again. Sounds like that will be Freddy's first priority in '58.