Napoléon I 1805 - 1815 ToTPP and Lua scenario updated to v1.3

I may have a solution for you. I'm 99% sure that I can write an event that forces the human player to unload units either into a city or from a transport that has full movement points if onto a beach. (I've tried similar things for Over the Reich, which may or may not be kept.) So, scrap the kill driven Maritime Supremacy system, and allow the French to build transports from an early stage. Since the first part of the invasion must take place on a beach, the full transports must be exposed to English attack before they can be unloaded. If the French have not adequately thinned out the Royal Navy, then the transports are in serious trouble.

I would also write move unit events that direct nearby English warships to attack tiles with loaded transports, in order to help the AI be dangerous, and events to make the English try to keep "enough" warships in the Channel to challenge the French fleet. Perhaps add a delay for reinforcements after new French construction or victories ("Alarmed by recent losses at sea against the French, the British Admiralty recalls ships deployed outside of Europe. It will take some time for these ships to arrive."), so not only may a victory happen at an unpredictable time, there will be a limited window of opportunity to exploit it, so the troops must be kept near the shore, and not guarding against the Austrians or Prussians.

Even if this works, there is still a problem that a successful invasion of England seems like it would decide the game in ~1808. Maybe it doesn't, and only just seems like it since I haven't played through the game. For all I know, leaving England free or not might be mostly inconsequential compared to the combined might of Russia, Austria, and Prussia.

EDIT:

I wasn't meaning to assert that he did sacrifice allies over Frenchmen (I don't know enough about that either way), just that it would not be surprising if he did.

 

Unfortunately, though that is an interesting idea it's exactly what I don't want to occur, i.e. meaning that I don't want France to have any chance whatsoever of being able to invade England if it hasn't met some prerequisite objective, in this case maritime supremacy. Historically, the odds that Napoléon could have successfully invaded Britain where slim to none.

Even if Admiral Villeneuve had won a glorious victory at Trafalgar in October 1805 the window of opportunity for invading England was very limited, as the British where in the process of mobilizing their reserve naval forces and France being primarily a continental power would be unable to match this level of mobilization. Not to mention the fact that in pure expertise and experience, the French Navy wasn't the equal of the Royal Navy. This was even more problematic due to the fact that, at the time of the naval battle, the Grande Armée was some 1000km away from the English Channel trying to defeat the combined forces of Austria and Russia.

I'm going to need sometime to rethink this, maybe provide the French with naval barges with limited movement factors that would expose them at sea instead of naval transports. I'm not sure.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you had somehow impinged on French national honor and that a dual at dawn was in order ... 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.

I think instead of adding the Allied minors to the calculation, that it would make more sense to add all the French units instead of just the Régiment de Ligne to this calculation but increase the number of required units to be killed from the current 24 limit. Therefore, it would be impossible for France to be successful in any campaign without committing its own forces.

 

Heads up @techumseh! Today (err, yesterday, actually, is the 210th anniversary of the day Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Archduke Charles (the guy whose given you so much trouble in this scenario, and you've fretted about stats, balance, spawning, and tendency to turtle since this scenario was released) at the Battle of Wagram. If you haven't got him down yet, time for another good whack at him!

 

Which time? Italy in 1797, Abensberg, Landshut and Eckmuhl in 1809 or Wagram 1809? Or by Massena in the Battle of Caldiero in 1805?

Btw, we haven't had a report from you on your progress playing Napoleon. How did you do?

 

I haven't defeated the RL barbarian civ yet. I should have some free time in a couple of weeks to give good, solid, informed, and serious go at the four or five most recent released scenarios.

 

Hi countmc,

We are currently working on version 1.3 of Napoleon, and we were reviewing the code related to your observation that the invasion of Russia didn't appear to be triggering for you. Unfortunately, at this time, we were unable to find any issues either with the logic or the code associated to this event. As I mentioned to you, at the time, in all my play tests I never encountered this problem.

All the same, though you may have deleted them some time ago, as per my post #176, if you still happen to have copies, would you be able to send me the saved games:

• On the turn before you managed to defeat Austria in the war of the 5th Coalition, and
• One were you see that you had been granted the prerequisite "Russian Preparations" advance (assuming you ever received it)
  After you defeat Austria in the war of the 5th Coalition, you will have a 1 in 10 chance every turn to receive it until you do.
  It is a prerequisite for researching the "Invasion of Russia" advance, which is required for invading that country.

Perhaps with your files, we can find an unsuspected problem.

 

Tootall

I'm sorry but on new computer and no longer have those files. It very well could have been user error. Once you get a new version done, I would love to play test if for you and keep detailed notes.

Thanks

 

Hi countmc,

Thank you for getting back to me. I will retest this event when we have completed our latest changes (many of which were inspired by your and Prof. Garfield’s previous feedback). No expected release date to report yet.

 

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.​

• NAVAL ENHANCEMENTS:

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.

• UNIT REPLACEMENTS:

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

 

Hi countmc,

I just wanted to confirm that I was able to test the whole Russian invasion events in my latest play tests and they worked as expected.

 

This seems to be an exceptionally cool update. I am beyond thrilled to read what you've done with the regions. This opens up soooooo many possibilities for future scenarios and is truly inspiring.

I will update the home page of civfanatics with this release tomorrow. I would do it today but I just updated it for OTR and don't want to overextend my welcome.

I'll also work on a video review of it to help you publicize it in the OT "what video games have you been playing" thread.

Great work, guys. I tip my hat to both of you!

 

Hi John,

Thank you for the offer to post the release to the homepage and for the video. I believe I can speak for both of us when I say we appreciate it.

Let me know if you have any questions and congratulations once again on your own release of OTR!

 

Oh an update!

That said,
Is there documentation on when and how you can declare war on the Ottoman Empire? I also found the c! Cities in Croatia confusing in third coalition ..i thought they wouldn't be given back? Is that you can keep them but only after the war of the 5th coalition?

 

France can only declare war on the Ottoman Sultanate after it defeats Austria in the war of the 5th Coalition. At that time, it will be granted the prerequiste 'Ottoman preparations' technology which will allow it to research the 'War with Sultanate' advance. Once you've researched that tech the border units between the Ottoman Empire and Austria will be removed from play.

Though the core (!c) cities of Trieste and Agram are returned to Austria after its defeat in the war of the 3rd Coalition, they will remain in possession of France if it imposes the peace treaty of Schönbrunn after the war of the 5th. This was done in part historically, as Trieste was indeed annnexed at that time, and partly to open up a possible invasion route to the Ottoman Empire by turning over the city of Agram as well.

 

@tootall_2012 It just so happens that, earlier today, I stumbled across a thread where people were complaining about the off-kilter, wonky, ahistorical, and almost unplayable "Napoleonic Wars," mod for Civ3.

 

This is why Civ2 is the superior choice. All other Civs are a pale imitation.

 

Gentlemen I took a closer look at this today and recorded a video. I'm in the middle of uploading it now and if it finishes uploading and processing before I have to leave for work I'll update the front page with it. If not, I'll get that updated when I return. I cannot begin to tell you just how polished this looks and inspired it makes me to keep creating scenarios. It's a magnificent job. I *love* what you've done with the game tips that are called up with 1-6 and am exceptionally excited to try out your regions system. It's an outstanding breakthrough that will allow so much more options for dealing with the asinine AI in the future. Thank you so much for all your hard work here as it's truly a gift to the community.

Also, I'm glad you decided to add some larger icons for the improvements. It's a little touch but a scenario like this deserved it. Well done.

Edit: here is the video link. I've updated the home page. A bit later I'll make a post in a "what are you playing," but I need to go get ready for work.

 

Hi John,

Thank you so much for taking the time to post our scenario on the homepage and creating your great little video. Even I was captivated by your presentation and I've been working on the darn thing for two years !

BTW L'Élan Napoléonien is the WoW Sun Tzu War Academy which grants newly built units or those who've won a battle automatic veteran status.

 

This looks simply amazing. From your description I want to commend you on a very interesting way you have handled both Corfu and Ireland. I love the Napoleonic era and having played Napoleon Total War, your version of a pc game on this era is far superior.

My only hope is to convince you at some point to expand the game to include the wider world!

 

Hi countmc,

As you know adding events for Ireland and Corfu were your suggestions. I took me sometime to figure out how best to implement them in game but thank you for the ideas.

To be honest, as I mentioned in the release post, this should be the last iteration for Napoléon. I might still apply some fixes if, heaven forbid, players find previously undiscovered bugs but otherwise I'm most definitely ready to move on to my next projects.

All the same, I hope players will find that all these latest additions enrich their playing experience while keeping the scenario challenging and fun to play.