Hi all,
I would like to present what should be the final version of the Napoléon scenario.
As a consequence, I made some adjustments to the event and scn file, which have been released on the Scenario League website (see
post #1 of this thread for the link).
Here are some of the major additions/modifications to the scenario (some of which were inspired by the players feedback so thank you for your ideas):
- L’ÉLAN NAPOLÉONIEN: All French ground and naval units, except leaders, are now calculated in determining when L’Élan Napoléonien expires, though the limit has been increased to 44 (from the previous 24).
- BRITSH REINFORCEMENTS TO PORTUGAL: fixed the code where the regular, non-leader associated, British reinforcements to Portugal where only appearing ONCE in the entire game. The condition that made them appear on a regular basis was mistakenly commented out in the previous 2 iterations, and the error was only discovered during some code review for v1.3. Therefore, as was originally designed, expect a tougher fight in Spain.
- IRISH REBELLION: Irish Rebel units may be generated in Ireland if French vessels (aka munitions) are able to kill any British ground unit located on that island. At the beginning of each turn, each active rebel unit provides a bonus to the French treasury.
However, if there are no active rebels in Ireland on a given turn, England’s chances of sending more troops to the Iberian Peninsula increases slightly once France has been given the right to enter that territory.
In addition, it allows Portugal to have a onetime chance to recruit extra troops if there are no rebels prior to January 1808. This could as a consequence threaten France’s ability to secure that country, and thereby jeopardize its ability to renew the Franco-Spanish alliance.
- BRITISH/ALLIED EMBARGO ZONES: 6 new sea zones have been delimited around the ports of Amsterdam, Le Havre, Brest, Bordeaux / La Rochelle, Marseilles / Toulon and Napoli.
When at war with France, each British, Russian or Spanish naval unit present in these zones at the beginning of a turn will cost the French treasury 15 francs.
- CUSTOMS WAREHOUSE: a new unit, the ‘Customs Warehouse’ has been added to the scenario (it replaces the Russian ‘Life Guard’).
These units will be prepositioned in the French coastal cities of Anvers, Brest, Calais, La Rochelle, Marseille and upon the capture of the Kingdom of Napoli added to the city of the same name.
As long as they exist each warehouse will add 3 francs to the French treasury at the beginning of each month. These units are irreplaceable so if lost due to enemy activity you lose them and their revenue generating capacity for the remainder of the game.
- GARRISON DUTIES: new garrison duties will be required when France manages to defeat or subdue certain of its enemies.
EAST PRUSSIA: After the war of the 4th Coalition and France is at peace with Russia and that nation hasn’t been subdued, you need to maintain a garrison of 125,000 troops (25 units *) in eastern Prussia and the Duchy of Warszawa. The zone is delimited by the brown asterisk’s (*).
Failure to maintain this minimum amount of troops will cost your treasury 25 francs per month.
Note *: Garde Frontalier units are not counted in this total.
ENGLAND: If England has been subdued, France must maintain a garrison of 75,000 troops (15 units) in the country to maintain the peace and order. Failure to do so will cost the French treasury 75 francs per month whenever it doesn’t have the minimum required force there.
RUSSIA: If Russia has been subdued, France must maintain a garrison of 200,000 troops (40 units) in the country to maintain the peace and order. Failure to do so will cost the French treasury 50 francs per month whenever it doesn’t have the minimum required force there.
SPAIN: If Spain has been subdued, France must maintain a garrison of 150,000 troops (30 units) in the Iberian Peninsula to maintain the peace and order. Failure to do so will cost the French treasury 35 francs per month whenever it doesn’t have the minimum required force there.
- FRENCH PRIVATEER ZONE: a new sea zone has been delimited around the Egyptian ports of Al-Iskandariyah and Dumyat.
While France is at war with England, each French vessel located within this zone at the beginning of a turn will add 15 francs to France’s treasury; though beware as the Royal Navy is known to patrol these waters.
- BARBARY PIRATES: after England researches the ‘British Royal Marines’ advance it will begin ‘funding’ Barbary Pirates out of the city of Algiers.
These ‘pirates’ (aka Coalition Shells) will launch periodic coastal raids along the French Mediterranean and Italian coasts.
Once begun, your only have 2 ways to bring an end to this activity: either subdue England or launch a punitive raid against the pirate city and destroy the minor fort installation protecting it.
Do not attempt to launch a punitive raid prior to the pirates being activated otherwise you will forfeit the ability to cancel these raids.
- CORFU: city is now a Russian naval base. As long as Russia is at war with France, the city will allow that power to randomly generate naval units in the Mediterranean (off the Italian coast) and thus be in a position to embargo your Mediterranean port zones.
If France conquers the kingdom of Naples it will have the opportunity to build a ‘sea’ route that would allow you to invade and potentially capture the island of Corfu. The route can be established if one of Davout, Lannes or Soult is located in the city of Taranto and you press on the ‘u’ key. This will present you with a pop up window giving you the option to build the route at a cost of 100 francs.
While France controls Corfu is will be considered to have established a trading post with the Ottoman Sultanate and thereby receive 15 francs per month.
- SPECIAL MAP TRANSIT POINTS:
All French ground units* may now use the following transit tiles:
- Between tile 84,30 and 88,30 to access the island of Kobenhaven
- Between tiles 109,105 and 115,109 to access the island of Corfu**
* Does not include Gendarmes
** Provided you have built the 'sea' route on the 'European Powers' map.
- INVASION OF RUSSIA: in addition to the requirements to capture 4 out of 6 of its objective cities you must also now have at least 325,000 troops (65 units) in the country at the time to subdue Russia (not to be confused with the garrison duty requirements if that country is subdued).
- RUSSIAN DECLARATION OF WAR: if France invaded England, prior to the war of the 5th Coalition, and these two nations were still at war, there is a chance each turn that a neutral Russia could declare war on France.
Note: Russia can only potentially intervene either in a French invasion of England or the Austrian war of the 5th Coalition (should the latter capture 2 cross border cities). Russia cannot do both.
The cost to build French vessels has increased:
Frégate = from 100 to 160
Deux-ponts = from 180 to 240
Trois-ponts = from 280 to 360
Bombarde = from 180 to 300
Each active French vessel now costs the French treasury francs to maintain
Frégate = 3 per month
Deux-ponts = 6 per month
Trois-ponts = 10 per month
Bombarde = 8 per month
Tranport = 6 per month
Villeneuve = 12 per month
- Added a Great Market and Cobbled Road improvement to Paris to increase France’s starting income base. This additional income was added to cover the cost of France’s starting navy (minus Villeneuve). Any additional ship built thereafter could be considered as an additional cost to the treasury.
- Achieving Maritime Supremacy now requires 20 British vessels to kill
- Admiral Villeneuve’s naval leadership bonus has been reduced from 30 to 20%
- France’s starting naval order of battle was reduced by 1 x Trois-ponts and 1 x Deux-ponts (though they can be recouped when building the new Naval Base (see below)).
- Trois-ponts ship now fire one 32 pdr Shells per turn
- Deux-ponts ships now fire one 24 pdr Shells per turn
- Frégate continue to fire one 18 pdr Shells per turn
- The attack factor of the following shells have been reduced
18 pdr Shells = from 4 to 3
24 pdr Shells = from 6 to 5
32 pdr Shells = 7 (new munition for v1.3)
- ATTRITION ADDITIONS: attrition has been modified to include the following:
During summer months, French vessels are now subject to a 0 – 10% chance of attrition per turn when at sea, which represents the general lack of sufficient naval maintenance facilities and qualified shipyard personnel in France at the time (many of which were either dismissed or forced to flee to England during the French Revolution as they were seen as too closely related to the bourgeoisie).
French ground units are now subject to 0 – 10% chance of attrition per turn, all year round, when in the temperate terrain zone of the Iberian Peninsula. This was done to represent both the facts that Spain was a relatively poor country at the time, unable to sustain large armies on its soil, and that the local population was quite hostile towards France.
- ADDED 5 NEW TECHNOLOGIES to RESEARCH:
1. New Naval Base: Available to research from the start allows you to receive a free Naval Base in Toulon along with the possibility to add one Trois-ponts and one Deux-ponts units in Marseille
2. Infrastructure: is the prerequisite tech for the following EXTRA advances
3. Extra Constabulary: allows you to receive a free Constabulary in Reims along with 2 free Constabulary units
4. Extra Military Academy: allows you to receive a free Military Academy in Marseille along with a veteran Cuirassiers and Lanciers units.
5. Extra Train Militaire: allows you to receive a free Train Militaire in a city of your choice
- ADDED NEW CITY IMPROVEMENT:
The world wonder LES GRANDES ECOLES has been renamed L’INSITUT DE FRANCE.
LES GRANDES ECOLES has been added as a new city improvement to Paris, Marseille and Amsterdam. It acts as the Research Lab improvement and cannot be built during the scenario.
This was done to compensate for the fact that France has more technologies to research in version 1.3.
- NEW MESSAGE DASHBOARDS: have been added to the game to provide the player with in game information.
Empire Wide Report dashboard on key press ‘1’
Allied Embargo Report dashboard on key press ‘2’
Minor Power Activation Conditions dashboard on key press ‘3’
Coalition Wars Victory Conditions dashboard on key press ‘4’
General Game Tips 1 Information dashboard on key press ‘5’
General Game Tips 2 Information dashboard on key press ‘6’
The Leader Death Board is now accessible with the ‘BACKSPACE’ key
- ONACTIVATE: Updated the code so that shells that are generated in the same tile as a leader should immediately benefit from the combat bonuses, i.e. you should no longer need to reselect the munitions to see the bonus applied.
Replaced the Russian ‘Garde du Corps’ unit with the ‘32 pdr Shells’
Replaced the Russian ‘Life Guards’ unit with the ‘Customs Warehouse’
Replaced the Spanish ‘Papal Infantry’ unit with the ‘Irish Rebel’
NOTE: Though it pained me to remove the 2 Russian Guard units, they only represented 4 actual units in game and thus were sacrificed, hopefully, for the greater good. They were replaced by an equivalent number of veteran Russian ground units.
- FRENCH LEADER ADMINISTRATIVE BONUSES:
The leader administrative bonuses have been modified:
Napoleon = now cost 600 francs to buy 2 veteran RdL (from 500)
Davout & Others = now costs 200 francs to buy 1 regular RdL (from 280)*
= now costs 260 francs to buy 1 veteran I.L. (from 320)
Murat = now costs 450 francs to buy 1 veteran Lanciers (from 520)
= now costs 500 francs to buy 1 veteran Cuirassiers (from 570)
* With the other leaders you can now buy 3 non-vet RdL versus 2 vet RdL by Napoléon
- PLUNDER units are no longer homed to the city they were captured from (they are now homed to NONE).
- LABELS: Added labels next to each French production cities to identify what unit types they can build and updated the LEGEND section accordingly on the bottom left of the map
Numerous other small changes to the rules, events, maps and scenario files have also been made.
Many of the in game messages have been updated as well as new ones added, so be sure to read them carefully not to miss out on new features or events that may have been implemented for version 1.3.
In terms of all these changes and their overall effect on the game I would say that the scenario remains both challenging and balanced. For the first time ever, in my last play test, I was able to achieve a decisive victory, though I was able to do so, in part, thanks to some fortunate breaks (for example, I managed to kill all three British leaders in Spain and therefore didn’t have to deal with their constant interference).
Is achieving Maritime Supremacy still feasible? The answer is, with a little bit of luck and tenacity, yes though there is a greater cost to do so in terms of your treasury and productive resources. For example, each Trois-ponts built now costs 10 francs per turn to maintain (120 per year) and is the equivalent of producing 7 RdL. Should you fail to achieve Maritime Supremacy after investing in this strategy might leave you a little short in manpower when dealing with your other continental wars. Something to ponder as you are devising your strategies.
Though I strived as much as possible to be the “lead” programmer in this last iteration, Knighttime’s assistance proved, as always, invaluable on many of the more difficult parts of the code and as such I would like to thank him once again for his continued help and support on this project.
As such, though this iteration went through rigorous testing, if any bugs or errors are found they are my fault and mine alone.
I hope players will find the scenario both challenging and enjoyable to play.
Sincerely,
Tootall
... but merely to remark that though players were following the letter of the law, in terms of L'Élan Napoléonien, they may not have been following the spirit of the event as it was intended. But that is my fault as the designer.
!
