KS SOWWL Mod 1.28 is Released

A new version of the KS SOWWL mod has been uploaded.  It is version 1.28.  Also a new version of the KS Sprites Mod, (version 1.07), is also available.  You can find the links in the first post of this thread: KS SOWWL Napoleon Mod Thread

More improvements to the AI have been made.  These include:
1. The ability of artillery to run to a nearby square if cavalry approach too close.
2. An infantry battalion will automatically be assigned from a nearby brigade to guard a battery once it is unlimbered and begins firing.
3. Improvements to the AI in both its tactical and strategic assessments.  You'll see the latter especially in Hunt Them Down scenarios.
4. A zoom button, ('Z'), has been added to the toolbar.  It will bring up a telescope view of the battlefield. This was requested by DarkRob in one of his videos.  The keyboard 'Z' key will still zoom in on the battlefield as it always has.
5. 21 new scenarios have been added. These are all quite difficult if played from the recommended side.
6. A new OOB has been included for battles in the 1800 German theater between Austria and France.  Several new sprites for it have been created by Remus.  The KS Sprites Mod., (version 1.07), contains them.
7. The manual has been updated so reading it again will be useful.

Kevin, regarding our last game where I managed to completely destroy a French division using just the 4 jager battalions from my division plus 3 dragoon regiments, I'm concerned that too many Russian troops can skirmish, and skirmish too well. Could we have 2 classes of Russian jager, one of which can skirmish and the other cannot? My hope is that if we have a Russian brigade with 4 musketeer btns and 2 jager btns, then only 1 btn of jagers out of these 6 could ever skirmish. The alternative which may be better is to try and represent the poor skirmishing tactics or training of Russians and make their skirmish capable battalions of lower quality (such as musket/aim ability or morale generally). I would like as a part of this upgrade for the Russians to make their musketeers and grenadiers much better in melee (edged factor) to try and encourage more shock tactics with them.

Can we please remove entirely all skirmish capability from all the Russian guard infantry as well. Russian guard jagers was really a nominal title and I don't think they were actually light troops.

The issue with the Russian grenadiers and guard troops has already been taken care of. However, the Russians employed a lot of jagers as skirmish units. Advance guard formations were heavily weighted with them. Typically, this unit would be comprised of a brigade of jagers and one of line along with a regiment or two of cavalry and a horse battery. The jagers operated in open order wherever the terrain permitted. This arrangement was even implemented in the 1806/7 campaign with good results.

Currently all skirmishers have a 4.5% firing advantage over troops in line. All Russian jagers and almost all jagers/voltigeurs/legere of other countries have firearm rating of 5, (the Fr. light guards being the exception). All Russian jagers have a marksmanship rating of 5. The French vary from 5-7, with most being 6 or 7.

I think the real problem is how the AI responds to enemy skirmishers. It does not aggressively attack them or attempt to flank them out of their position. Also when the skirmishers are driven back, they reform and move back to the fight far too quickly. Since I'm currently working on improvements to the infantry code, I'll see if I can implement some of this.

My understanding though is that Russian jagers were just nowhere in the same class as French skirmishing infantry. I suspect the Russian jagers were light infantry only in name. Yes, there were lots of them but they did not skirmish or if they did, not very competently.

Perhaps you need to adjust the Russian vodka rating?

Kevin, today I tried playing the French scenario 92 as one of the division commanders but neither Eugene nor the corps commander would issue orders so the entire corps sat on the ridge doing nothing. Is there a tweak I can apply to get the French to take the offensive?

That's not an easy one to change. The scenario intends that the Austrians do not move, (sandbox=0). That also means that an AI French corps commander also will not move. I think you'd have to play that one as the corps commander, issue initial orders to all the divisions and then take control of one of the divisions for the remainder of the battle. You'll get the periodic updates from the other division commanders and also their requests for help. You could choose to ignore those if you like.

Could it be changed to a French attack setup? I just tried Scenario 93 where the French defend but after an hour no message had come from the Corps or army HQ in that one either.

I think these scenarios need to be playable from any command level whether it be brigade, division or corps. Something needs to happen for the player no matter which level of command he prefers to play. I hate to be negative but they're not really suitable to give out to the public if they're not fully functional.

I just tried #93 and orders were sent to all three division commanders. Maybe you had the map open when the orders arrived.

Maybe so, but might you address my question?

BTW, if you need scenarios testing I am happy to help.

If the scenario is not sandbox=0 then all divisions should receive orders. One of those orders may be that the player's division is held in tactical reserve for part of the battle. In that case, a brigade commander will not receive any orders. Otherwise, regardless of command rank, the player should always receive one. If you want to help, you could look in the scenario.ini file of each scenario and check the sandbox= value. It is located at the bottom of each ini file. For those scenarios, we can then add to the scenario description the proviso that the scenario is to be played with the player as corps commander.

I just ran #93 and all was well.

Thing is, if a player is only interested in division or brigade command, many scenarios might be useless. I think that is an issue.

Perhaps the scenario briefing might mention what command level the scenario needs to be played at.

I hate to be so negative but over the years I have come across a number of potential KS Mod players who for various reasons decide its not for them, so I think it is in our interests to either make the mod/scenarios as flexible as possible or give clear info if there are restrictions.

The scenarios are sandbox games with specific OOBs and objectives. Aside from that, they are the same as doing a random sandbox game that 99.9% of the players do once they step outside the NSD scenarios. If you wish to custom design scripted scenarios for inclusion in the mod, then by all means gives it a shot. You could even use some of these scenarios as the starting point/idea and just write the script file to force the divisions to specific locations with predefined goals.

My query was about making the existing scenarios work better. I presume turning 92 into a French attack set-up would fix the problem.

No. I wanted the Austrians to remain in place. They won't if the battle type is changed.

How could you change the scenario so the Austrians stay in place but the French AI attacks? I tried changing the AI setting to both 1 and 2 but the French C-in-C still didn't issue any orders.

Have you played this scenario in MP? I'd like to give it a try as it uses an area of that map we seldom go into.

Yes, it was one of the scenarios we played earlier this year.

The only way to make the Austrians stay in place is to set the sandbox variable to 0. Good catch on the error in the scenario. Eugene Bonaparte has a class of corps commander. Change it to Army and he will issue orders.

Aha! Thanks!

Changing Eugene to an army commander still gets no orders out of him. I give up.

It works for me. I'm not sure why it doesn't for you. Perhaps you were meant to only command 1807 Russians.

What steps did you take to fix it? I made Eugene an army commander in column K of scenario.csv (FR_INF_CDR_Army). I select one of the divisions but Eugene doesn't issue any orders. Do I need to edit any other files? Thanks.

I think 1807 Russians is a bit beyond my ability. I'll try 1806 Prussians next time. They only go backwards and forwards in straight lines so I should be able to get the hang of that.

Did you change the sandbox variable in the ini file to something other than 0?

No, I left it as 0 because any other value would make the Austrians move and the scenario requires them to stay still.

Setting it to 2 made Eugene send divisions off randomly over the map and setting it to 1 caused the Austrians to attack, so I guess I'll abandon this scenario. I would be interested in playing it as an MP game. I don't recall it so must have missed it when you played it online.

We can try replaying it today.