Caesar's Gallic War

[Jerec]

Forgot to zip it.

[McMonkey]

But the game begins in November. Surely that is winter?

I think you need to add a brief temporary read me with the vital info, such as what season to begin with

[Jerec]

Now that is a problem. Before, I didn't pay any attention to what month it was; I just have 96 turns, starting in summer, and 4 out of every 12 consecutive turns is winter. Getting the months right is now #1 on my TO DO list. Thanks.

Readme? OK...tell me if I forgot anything vital.

[McMonkey]

Good stuff. A good read me file is essential!

So to confirm, for the purposes of the playtest the game should begin with the summer files loaded, right?

[Jerec]

YES. The event-pop ups telling you to run the bat are geared to start in summer. And thanks again.

[McMonkey]

Cool. I will start my playtest as soon as I get a chance.

Time is a bit short at the moment. My wife has recently gone back to work after maternity leave and when I am not working she is. That leaves me to feed, bath and put the kids (one being 7 months old!) to bed. Then comes my PBEM turns and after that I am usually pretty zonked and have little energy for my own projects.

I just wanted to explain why I was being a bit slow coming back to you. Its not down to a lack of interest in CGW, more a lack of mental energy

[McMonkey]

Now I have made an elaborate excuse I have found the time and will to have a proper go

I have played up to August 57 AD (Turn 10) and have a big list of notes. I will post them later on. Obviously I have not got to the spring reinforcement stage yet so I will not pass judgement until I have seen how severe the storm is

I like the fact that you have only a few strong units to play around with. This makes the turns quicker and forces the player to make choices. You can't just rush build a load of new Legions and advance in all directions at the same time. I hope my strategy is the right one so far but I guess I won't know until spring!

When I have finished the test I will post a detailed account of my game. I have a few minor criticisms but I am enjoying the gameplay and have not found anything drastically wrong this far!

[McMonkey]

Sorry for delay! Here are my notes so far. Sorry they are not more concise but I have typed them here as I wrote them on my notepad.

PLAN:
1) Take out Aedui
2) Take out Southern Confederation
3) Take out Northern Confederation
4) Take out Remi
5) Take out Germans
6) Invade Britain

November 58 - Coerced Southern Confederation and Remi to declare war on the Aedui. Killed German warbands near Alps.

What purpose do the Roman Citizens serve? I guess you need to keep them alive. Neat idea!

Should I focus on Tax or Science?

Lost a Merc Cav scout and Cretan Auxiliary. Decided to keep them in cities after this as I don't really need to scout and they are too

vulnerable in open!

What does killing a village achieve?

December 58 - Still have +93 Gold. Helvetti captured. Where is the best place to send traders. Remi and Germans form alliance and declare war

on Rome. Orleans destroyed.

January 57 - As I had run out of money my Political debt was automatically sold off. In the read me you said not to sell this improvement but

the AI did it without consulting me!

Segusiavi captured and Arvernian countryside wonder captured. Noticed that the CAMO health bars are not hidden.

February 57 - Sequani captured. Gem trader arrives in Roman camp and gets only 42 gold. I guess the idea of Slaves is to disband them in your

cities to boost production?

March 57 - My money suddenly went from +400 to +7 with no explanation. Cavares' Colosseum sold. Decided to develop Gaulish spy network.

Aedui captured and Clan destroyed. Volcae narrowly avoids capture by Celts.

April 57 - Some skirmishes with Remi. Decide to group Legions in Aedui and press on with part 2 of my plan and attack the Southern

Confederation, ignoring the pesky Remi.

June 57 - Declare war on Southerners. I like the fact that there is a small core of elite Legions to move and turns flow well.

Batch file run

July 57 - Veltaui captured

I am a big fan of seasons in scenarios. However the Celts and Romans seem to carry on before! The tent graphics for Celtic units would be a

good idea if they became immobile during winter. Having them move around and attack just looks off. I decided to use the normal unit graphics

for winter.

The winter terrain looks good in theory but playing against a white background is a bit of a sensory overload. Would it be possible to use

the normal graphics in winter with a few tweaks, such as leafless trees and frozen rivers?

October 57 - Ruteni captured. I lost one of my Legions attacking a Free Tribe unit, doh!

I need to wait until Spring before coming to any conclusions. I think you have the basis of a very good scenario here. The objectives are

clear, the game moves quickly and hopefully it will be a real struggle come Spring. I think the graphics need a bit of a polish and the read

me needs to explain the special concepts and units in a bit more detail but I expect you already know that!

As soon as I get a chance I will play on into spring and report on how I coped with the onslaught!

[Jerec]

Originally posted by McMonkey
Sorry for delay! Here are my notes so far. Sorry they are not more concise but I have typed them here as I wrote them on my notepad.

Should I focus on Tax or Science?

Your choice.

December 58 - Still have +93 Gold. Helvetti captured. Where is the best place to send traders. Remi and Germans form alliance and declare war on Rome. Orleans destroyed.

The city farthest away that has a "trading center" terrain square.

Until you fully intend to steamroll them, keep the Gaulish tribes at peace with you at all costs. The consequences of failure can be very nasty.

January 57 - As I had run out of money my Political debt was automatically sold off. In the read me you said not to sell this improvement but the AI did it without consulting me!

I've now changed the -60 per turn to an event, problem solved.

Segusiavi captured and Arvernian countryside wonder captured. Noticed that the CAMO health bars are not hidden.

I haven't bothered to find out how to hide the health bars in ToT yet.

I am a big fan of seasons in scenarios. However the Celts and Romans seem to carry on before! The tent graphics for Celtic units would be a good idea if they became immobile during winter. Having them move around and attack just looks off. I decided to use the normal unit graphics for winter.

Argh. They should be immobile, except for a few units like Legions and True Gaulish Armies. Did you overwrite the old rules2 with the new one I posted?

The winter terrain looks good in theory but playing against a white background is a bit of a sensory overload. Would it be possible to use the normal graphics in winter with a few tweaks, such as leafless trees and frozen rivers?

Sounds like a good idea. I'll work on it.

October 57 - Ruteni captured. I lost one of my Legions attacking a Free Tribe unit, doh!

I'm glad that ordinary Legions can't casually knock off Free Tribes to spawn new legions! I keep remembering Agricola spawning kings in Hammer of the North with bribed giants, and not the proper 'prince' units!

I need to wait until Spring before coming to any conclusions. I think you have the basis of a very good scenario here. The objectives are clear, the game moves quickly and hopefully it will be a real struggle come Spring. I think the graphics need a bit of a polish and the read me needs to explain the special concepts and units in a bit more detail but I expect you already know that!

As soon as I get a chance I will play on into spring and report on how I coped with the onslaught!

All other questions will be answered in the reinforced readme which has been attached.

You are still only 10 turns in? I have substantial changes now, would you be willing to restart?

I don't suppose you already have fiddled with the graphics? Care to share?

[McMonkey]

I will post the modified graphics when I get a moment. I would definitely be interested in doing another test of the revised files. I am not the best at playtesting when it comes to spotting and fixing bugs but I found the game works well so far. Most things can be fixed with a more detailed read me and some tweaking of the graphics. I think this scenario has the potential to be a classic. It reminds me of "Of Celts and Iberians" which I also enjoyed playing.

[Jerec]

Originally posted by McMonkey
I will post the modified graphics when I get a moment.

Got a moment? I haven't had any luck finding a satisfactory set of winter gfx yet to replace the old ones.

[McMonkey]

I have had no spare time at all for the last week or so. I will see what I can do Thursday. Hopefully I can also get some work done of Fortress Europe then too!

[Jerec]

I have a problem with the barb uprisings. When I first tested them, everything worked fine. They spawned and attacked my territory, which at that point of the game was most of Gaul.

Now that I test the uprisings at the beginning of the game, when I don't have 3/4 of Gaul conquered, I realize that the uprising armies are motionless. Unless there is an immediate target nearby, all the barbs just camp wherever they were spawned. I've added Moveunit commands, but they don't take effect.

Do barbs ignore Moveunit commands?

[Jerec]

Are event-spawned barbs usually aggresive? I.E. moving all over the map and attacking everybody?

Would a true civ's units be more aggresive? I'm considering taking out the Iberian or German civ and putting it into the place of the barbs. This would also depend on if barb units are affected by Moveunit commands.

[Boco]

Can you edit some cities so that they are founded by Barbs?