Designer seeking compatible playtesters.

[techumseh]

Or you could start over.

[AGRICOLA]

[techumseh]

Don't start over just yet. The Hanover events really don't work.

Why didn't someone tell me?

[AGRICOLA]

Why didn't someone tell me?

Whaddayamean? Every one of us did . . . . . ,, and ! Don't you trust us?

So, what is the problem? I tested them this AM with 1,2 and 3 turn intervals between capturing Brit city #1 and #2, and #2 and #3. All 3 intervals worked perfectly.

[AGRICOLA]

Hexediting looks like it is out of the question. There are differences in the events section of the files one gets if one repeatedly starts with file A, uses DELEVENT, and loads the file.

Anyway, I have a crude but simple workaround that seems to do the job. Simply give the Brits the Convention of Klosterseven [spelling is Klosterzeven in rules and Klosterseven in events] before the French capture the second Brit city.

[techumseh]

This is intriging. When I played from the begining, it didn't work. When I cheated and gave the French a bunch of siege guns outside Minden and Bremen on turn 1, the events worked fine.

I narrowed it down to the city triggers not setting off the mask, so the British never get tech 97, C. of Klosterzeven. My guess is that when the original British garrison units are killed, and there's only a Prussian fortress left in the city, then the AI gets confused about who owns the city, and the citytaken trigger doesn't fire. Does that make any sense to anyone who knows about computers?

Anyway, here's my workaround. I replaced the Prussian fort with a British one, and created a 0move/0 defense Prussian unit called a diplomat. Thus there is much less likelyhood that the British cities will be occupied only by a Prussian unit, since once the British units are eliminated, the diplomat will likely be killed right away.

I also changed the event from:

@IF
CITYTAKEN
city=Hanover
attacker=ANYBODY
defender=British

to:

@IF
CITYTAKEN
city=Hanover
attacker=ANYBODY
defender=ANYBODY

It works fine using the cheat test. I hope it works as well in an actual game.

[AGRICOLA]

Dear Sir,

If you are going to do more testing, the following may help. Before the 1,2 and 3 turn tests, I became suspicious that the Brits were not getting tech 97. To be able to check the Brit tech status, even after all 4 cities have been taken by the French, I cheated an Engineer in Denmark and built a fifth Brit city. It confirmed that the Brits never get tech 97. That's why I ended up giving it to them.

I'll try your fix later and report.

Yours truly,

[Palaiologos]

Was out of town. Got back today. Will try again the scenario with the fix(and the sounds) tommorow.

[EZRhino]

I started a new game with the update and suddenly the imperials want to make peace with me whenever I capture a city?!

[techumseh]

EZRhino: Did you install all 3 files (scn, rules and events) and start a new scenario from scratch?

[EZRhino]

Hi Brian,
umm.. actually it was the second to last patch. I just saw the newer one, and the problem is gone now Once more unto the breach!

[Palaiologos]

Started a new game and tried to imitate Agricola. Things were turning out pretty well; Torgau was captured and fortified, Koenigsgratz too. Von Schwering however ,apparently drunk, was slow to move on Olmutz. The race to that little Silesian city was lost and when the april austrian reinforcements came his tiny command was overun. Freddy came just in time to stem the Austrian hordes. Its June 1757 and i am confident that one more push will get me to Olmutz. At that time the game crashed. Don't worry though it has nothing to do with your scenario-its my computer. Had that same problem in the last playtest but now its more persistent.
Some "Wave out error" message pops up all the time and ToT stops working. Will figure it out though.

The Fortress city of Hamburg was ignored this time and the French were reppelled in front of Wessel-for the time being at least. the Swedes were again knocked out of the war ASAP.

[AGRICOLA]

Agricola:
Anyway, I have a crude but simple workaround that seems to do the job. Simply give the Brits the Convention of Klosterseven [spelling is Klosterzeven in rules and Klosterseven in events] before the French capture the second Brit city.

@techumseh
I don't know if this is good or bad news from your perspective. The above workaround does indeed do the job.

In March 1759, after a stunning display of military virtuosity, Freddy completed his four month campaign to recapture the four British cities from the French. In May, right on schedule, reinforcements arrived in all four cities.

As I did not much want to restart the scen, I'm playing with the events from fredevents2[1].zip. Those are the ones that worked fine when I did the the 1, 2 and 3 turn interval test.

Realizing that I'm attempting an ahistorical but, to me, very interesting line of play, I am going to see how far Freddy can go towards reuniting the German speaking states, 100 years before Bismarck accomplished the task. For that, the number and type of reinforcements are perfect. For a scen that plays closer to actual history, the reinforcements are definitely too many and too strong. After all, even with Freddy's many successful campaigns, Prussia did not gain any territory in the Seven Years War.

[techumseh]

Which workaraound did you use, yours or mine?

I'm glad that it worked, however the first group, including Prince Ferdinand, should arrive 2 turns after the second British city falls to the French. Is that the case?

I'm not surprised that you were able to take the offensive with the Hanovarian reinforcements. I'll consider reducing them, but first I'd like to hear how this front works for the other playtesters. Anyone else?

[AGRICOLA]

I'm talking about May 1759.

Here is the chronology,
1758 Mar . . . . . French captured their second Brit city, Hanover. Events did not give Brits tech 97.
1758 Mar . . . . . I gave Brits tech 97.
1758 Apr . . . . . Reinforcements appeared.
1758 May . . . . . No reinforcements.

1759 Mar . . . . . Finished recapturing all 4 former Brit cities from the French.
1759 May . . . . . Reinforcements appeared in all 4 cities. From this, I would guess that the program is back on the intended track.

Oddly enough, I find that the most useful reinforcements are the lowly musketeers, grenadiers and weak cavalry. Somehow, I have had no problem building expensive units like siege artillery and artillery but have been chronically short of garrison and happiness units, even to the point where artillery have had to be pressed into service for garrison duty.

Questions:
1. In your latest events, what would happen if the French captured the second Brit city in Feb 1758 or earlier and events gave them tech 97? Would the Prussians get reinforced 2 turns later as well as in May 1758?
2. If they could be reinforced twice in the same year, how can one arrange for the French to capture the second city as early as possible?