1815 Full French OOB possible with KS?

Just a quick question. I've noticed with the Full French stock OOB that there's (understandably) a few glitches when used with KS mod. (eg artillery struggles to unlimber). What would be the best way for me to be able to continue to play using that full 1815 OOB for a sandbox campaign? Sadly the KS OOB only seems to have the two French corps at one time, rather than the full French army to split off. Any suggestions most appreciated, as there's no way I'm returning to the stock game now!

I've noticed with the Full French stock OOB that there's (understandably) a few glitches when used with KS mod. (eg artillery struggles to unlimber).

What do you mean? The guns limber and unlimber almost instantaneously, (and unrealistically). If you mean unlimber during a battle, it may be that that they do not have a target they can shoot at. The mod prevents the guns from firing if there are friendly troops 150 yd. in front of them. If you are playing on one of the stock maps that is flat, the guns may not have many targets.

I confess, I have never used the stock oobs with the mod. We have our own version of the 1815 OOB that we use instead. I also can't answer your comment about using the KS OOB with the sandbox campaign as I've never used it either. It appeared to me that it was a crude beta build that NSD didn't really care to complete, like so many other components of this game NSD decided they couldn't be bothered to do properly.

Perhaps some member can who has played with the sandbox campaign can jump in and comment.

The sandbox campaign works well with all the KS OOBs; I have tried them all. I would avoid the stock OOBs, we recreated the Waterloo OOB because the structure of the KS mod is somewhat different to the stock game in how units function so the stock OOBs may generate some anomalies.

Artillery in the KS Mod is slower to limber and unlimber than the stock game but then we consider the stock game too fast in this regard. However once the artillery is unlimbered you'll see quite quickly how different it is

It may be the absence of targets. The behaviour I've seen is that the battery commander will send out couriers to each gun over and over and over again, almost like it's stuck in a cycle with the guns not actually unlimbering, but instead an animation of what appears to be the gun carriage trundling forwards in front of the horse on its own. Not noticed this whatsoever using the KS OOB for 1815. Which is of course the old joke, 'Doctor it hurts when I do this' and the answer 'don't do that then'.

Agree with you, sadly, about the campaign component. So much room for so much more. Heh. I shall have to MP at some point to replace it.

Thanks for reply all the same Uncle Billy. Shame the KS OOB defaults to a two corps campaign, as that would be ideal really. But, on the other hand, I really should do more work commanding a brigade.

edit: thanks Mr.Digby. Definitely like the use of cavalry on a regimental level (yes, squadrons, but I'll buy regimental for more appropriate use) and the KS OOBs.

You can get a multi-corps campaign working. I've done several. The key is that the AI side must NOT have a 'side' commander, just an army commander, the player side MUST have a 'side' commander. This lets you use as many corps as you like. I am playing a campaign right now with about 15 corps a side, though they are small ones. Mitra kindly tweaked the campaign ai.dll file for me so that now in the "conquer the map" mode, the AI will split up its army into a multitude of divisions and really try to take over the map; this gets you many div vs div games which for me playing HITS are my favourite size.

I'll post more details here later.

Our preference though is to run campaigns by e-mail on a 'paper' map with various rules to govern moves and supply, and fight the resulting battles as SOW MP games and creating the scenarios needed as we go. We've had some very good (and some very very odd!) games using this format.

We played a Peninsular campaign for a couple of years and are now doing the spring 1813 campaign.

I have plans for others in the works - a 'what if' 1815 campaign set in February where Napoleon doesn't escape from Elba and the Allies fall out during the Congress of Vienna. This produces an opposing pair of very unlikely allied armies. I also have a completely fictional thing with a multitude of small German states in the works too. That will allow players to create their own armies using any uniforms/sprites from the game and any flags.

The multiple couriers to the guns is a common occurrence. The battery commander is constantly evaluating the situation trying to find an appropriate target. However, once any gun has a target and begins firing, that will stop. If that doesn't happen, then the battery is in a poor position and can't find any targets. On flat maps, this can be a common issue.

The stock game allows the guns to fire through its own troops. The LOS calculations are buggy.

Oh super it can be done. Thanks Mr.Digby. I'll have more time this weekend to open stuff up, so will have a peek at how to mod the OOBs from what's available.

---

That makes sense now Uncle Billy. Thank you for explanation. Makes it much easier to avoid it now!

In the KS Mod your artillery needs to have about 150 yds of clear ground in front of it. A unit partly entering this zone will 'blind' some or all of a battery's guns.

If you look at our "OOB_SB_KS_NAP_Belgium1815_Full.csv" OOB that will give you a full army campaign IF you pay as the Allies. If you want to play as the French you'd need to delete the very first Allied entry (row 855 "The Allied Coalition") and add an extra entry ABOVE the Napoleon line by copying it and making the '1' in column F into a '0' (zero). I suggest you save that version as "OOB_SB_KS_NAP_Belgium1815_Full_Fr_Camp.csv" or something similar.

If you want to use the stock OOBs, use our adjusted one: "OOB_SB_StockWLL_Campaign Br Cav.csv" I suggest you use this one as it has the Anglo-Dutch cavalry brigades allocated out several to each corps and not all gathered into a single unwieldy cavalry corps. Again the Allied side here has a "side" commander and the French do not so the French will make a good AI opponent. To reverse this, delete row 932 and add a Napoleon 'side' commander by copying row 2 and inserting the copy above it, then change the '1' in column 'F' to a zero. Save with a new name as well.

Here is the modified campaign AI .dll file Mitra edited for me. You should save it in a Mod with the following path:

"Mods/Sandbox_Campaign_Mod/Modules/SowCampAI.dll"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xj0qziblky0i5wd/SowCampAI.dll?dl=0

Note this will ONLY work for the "Conquest of the Map" option of play. It is designed to make the AI break up his army and send divisions all over the map. You will get a LOT of battles with this variant but they will all be small. You will need to break your army down to divisions in order to win as the AI 'infests' the map very fast and you need to respond quickly or you'll lose! You'll get mostly div vs div battles which are short and can be fun.