New Recruits!

My PC wargaming friend and myself just discovered the SoW games last November. We each now own both SoW-GB and SoW-WL, though we have concentrated on learning to play SoW-GB.

We both live in the United States, my friend on the west coast and myself on the east coast. We play HITS, and have been team-playing in MP against the AI. Our SoW-GB settings conform to the KS norms for SoW ACW games posted in another thread on this forum.

We've noticed that most folks here play SoW-WL, and we both intend to do so as well someday.

But for right now, we'd like to play SoW-GB MP team games versus the AI with others who might be interested in doing the same. If any KS forum folks are interested in this as well, we'd like to hear from them.

Welcome to the group.

The regular games have been using Waterloo for quite a while now, but I still like GB and would be happy to play. Maybe some others too. Also happy to play vs the AI, which can provide fun opposition.

Unfortunately I have continuing ISP problems, which means I cannot play at peak periods atm. It's a utilisation issue, rather than a technical one - ie too many users at peak times. At other times my connection is very fast and stable. What times would you be thinking of playing? I live in the UK btw.

Martin (J)

Do you and your friend use teamspeak? If not you could join ours and would could chat about it. Although we do mostly WL I know of one other person that would be interested in a GB game other than myself. The KS mod maker has made a scenario generator for both WL and GB

What days do you and your friend play.

I am from Maine myself.

Pleased to meetcha, Martin, Morsey , and thanks for the quick response.

Yes, my friend (his name is Jess, I'm Jim) and I do use TeamSpeak. In fact, we played an SoW-GB MP scenario earlier today, and used the KS TS server for the first time, thanks for that.

Jess & I generally play at 0900 Pacific Time, 1200 Eastern on weekdays, and also at 1000PT/1300ET on Sundays. We'll be playing again this Sunday, and I think we have some flexibility on the time.

Martin, what times would be best for you, given the issues you mentioned?

I'm going "off the air" for the night now, but Jess might chime in. I'll check here again tomorrow morning.

Hello I'm the friend.

My name is Jess. Interlocutor and I have been having great fun playing the Civil War for a number of weeks now. Mostly getting stomped by the AI, but not always. We have been searching for others who play this game and we both liked what we've seen here. As noted we already conform to your standards of play and we use TS. In fact I logged into your TS this morning. We are hoping that somewhere in the this forum there is a regular ACW game we might become part of.

Regards Jess

Hi you two and a warm welcome from a damp dreary late winter UK!

12:00 and 13:00 ET are quite close to when we play. Our games are usually 19:00 GMT. East Coast is 5 hours behind that, and Pacific time is 8 making our usual time 14:00 East Coast and 11:00 Pacific. We in Europe *may* be able to begin a little earlier but people have to get in from work, perhaps another 30 minutes is possible, if you guys can start 30mins or 1 hr later we'd be able to meet regularly.

I too am interested in a few more ACW games than our group is currently playing. I might even be tempted to run a campaign.

Have you downloaded our KS Mod for GB - "Couriers and Maps"?

The latest mods versions are here:

https://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t370-set-up-for-sow-acw-games-for-kriegspiel-style

Have you guys got all the add-on packs? If not, which ones?

Martin, who posted above, is also in the final stages of making a really fun and different mod for GB that covers the 1870s Plains Indian Wars, that might interest you as well.

Using the GB base game, we have also in the past played various other mods that cover a number of European conflicts from 1700s Blenheim to an 1860s fictional Kriegspiel style setting between the 'Blue' and 'Red' armies.

Hi Jess, long time no see .

And hi Mr. Digby, thanks for the warm welcome!

Jess and I have already discussed the KS 1900GMT MP game start time, and we agreed that it would work for both of us.

We already play SoW-GB in HITS mode, 2 yard camera lock, using the "Realistic Smoke" and the "Couriers and Maps" mods. We had a few differences in our "Options Page II" selections from those listed in the KS setup thread, but in the MP game we played yesterday, we changed to your recommended "Options Page II" settings, and I think we can live with them, though I forgot to ask Jess after the game yesterday how he felt about them.

I've been unable to download the "KS Supplemental Maps" mod cited in the setup thread; the link seems broken. Let us know how to get it, and we'll use that, too.

Also, I'm a bit of a modder myself . From the beginning of my SoW-GB experience last November, I disliked the way in which the toolbar obscures the terrain in the standard Heads Up Display (HUD), interfering with my sense of immersion. Last month I made a mod which eliminates the toolbar almost entirely from the HUD, and which thus requires that all orders be issued via the courier system. Here's a link to the NorbSoftDev forum thread where the mod is explained, illustrated, and made available.

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/modifications/75012-minimal-hud-mod-available

I'll play any SoW-GB MP games using this mod, it's just a personal preference thing, but it won't get in the way if other MP players in the same game do not.

Jess and I had tentatively set this coming Sunday, March 5, for our own next SoW-GB MP game. We had planned to play at 1000PT/1300ET/1800GMT, but for my part I'd be happy to change that to 1100PT/1400ET/1900GMT if that might make it easier for other KS folks to join us. Jess and I do use TS, in fact yesterday we used the KS TS server for our MP game, thanks for making it available.

Lastly, I'm a campaigns guy myself , Jess somewhat less so. But I love campaigns more than anything, and would be delighted to participate in one, or to help run one. I've designed and run many campaigns myself over the years, often based on boardgames as a starting point in the design.

Anyway, glad to be here, and looking forward to gaming KS style...

I was thinking that since we are not doing a WL on Mandays maybe we could use that day for an ACW scheduled game.

Your thoughts?

Ah, you are the minimal HUD mod man! I use the forum name Saddletank on the NSD forums.

Hi Morsey - we could, or do ACW Sunday and make Monday a WL night.

Either way would be good!

Mr. Digby - So you're Saddletank on NSD . I have to say, both your Saddletank avatar on NSD and your Digby avatar here are quite dashing, though I tend to prefer both the uniform and the facial hair of your Digby persona...

Morsey & Mr. Digby - For my part, a 1900GMT ACW MP game on either Mondays or Sundays would work, though a Sunday game during the NFL football season would not work for me . As a New England Patriots fan, I'm hoping for Brady's 6th ring next year ...

Jim ;-)

I am right there with you GO PATS!!

Morsey, I figured you'd be a Pats fan, being from Down East . Go Pats!

I DVR'ed Super Bowl LI, and I've watched it again about six times since , but only from about midway through the 3rd quarter. Talk about OCD ...

Just for you new guys information it looks like we are playing a scenario-generator created WL game today at 19:00 GMT. On Sunday at the same time it will be another WL game, the 4th part of our epic refight of Eylau which we are biting off in corps-vs-corps sized chunks. We can arrange Monday (again same time) for an ACW game using GB.

You're welcome to any and all of those. If jumping in to play WL is a bit daunting you can take the role of an officer we usually do not assign such as an army commander and just ride around and observe.

Jim/Interlocutor wrote....

"Martin, what times would be best for you, given the issues you mentioned?"

With a bit of notice, I can do anytime from 10 am to 7 pm (UK time).  After that, folks in the area switch on their PCs and things can go haywire.

Being retired I can play during the week however.  Tues/Thurs & Fridays preferred.

Martin (J)

Digby - A regular Monday SoW-ACW MP game at 1900GMT sounds delightful to me. I can make that time, even after the States switch to Daylight Time next weekend, which would mean the game would happen at 1500ET for me (and Morsey, a fellow member of Patriots Nation ). For Jess on the Left Coast, it would mean noon his time, Daylight Time.

I've emailed him to look in on the KS forum so he can chime in on this thread. I can play an ACW game this coming Monday, March 6th, as well, still on Standard Time at my 1400. I don't know about Jess.

Martin seems unsure about Mondays?

Digby, I'm also intrigued by your offer to "observe" one of your Napoleonic games. I'm as interested in Napoleonic wargaming as I am in ACW, in fact, by the end of the month I'll finish painting my Napoleonic Russian 25mm minis army .

I can't make your game today, but if Jess is interested in observing on Sunday, he & I could forgo our scheduled ACW game and we both could observe. How would that work? For example, if we were non-participating army c-in-c's, what would happen if one of the human players requested support from us?

Finally, I've nosed about a bit in the SoW-WL SDK, hoping to be able to make myself a "Minimal HUD Mod" for the Napoleonic game as well, but the file structure is different, no "gui.csv" or "guitext.csv", other differences as well. Perhaps I should open a thread in the NSD Forum's "Modifications" section to ask this, but I thought you might be able to tell me quickly if you think it's even possible to do a "Minimal HUD Mod" for SoW-WL.

Jim ;-)

Welcome to the forum. I look forward to meeting you on TS.

I'd suggest you take command of a brigade, rather than just observe. The battle on Sunday has limited visibility as the weather is quite bad and fought on a field of snow. While you'd have no trouble seeing all the battalions in a brigade, you won't get a good view of the battle in general.

With regards, to the WL gui, you won't be able to reproduce the minimalist toolbar you use in GB. Courier orders are not as useful because there is no way to call up the command map to give a destination to a unit. It was a large step backwards, but evidently NSD decided to no longer support courier driven battles.

The map that we bring up in our courier screen doesn't fit the needed format, correct?

No, that's just the normal mini-map. There is no way to click on it transfer a location to the courier orders.

Is such a function simply impossible in the game then?

I think so.

I heard from Jess by email, and we both think we should take a pass on the idea of commanding troops in a Napoleonic game until we've gained some experience. Neither of us has ever played even an SP Napoleonic game, so we'd just be millstones around our c/o's neck, I fear. Tomorrow we'll do our previously planned SoW-GB game, at 1800GMT.

Thanks to Uncle Billy and Mr. Digby for the comments about the workability of a minimal HUD mod in SoW-WL. I'll likely putz around with it a little myself, just to see what the limitations are.

Jim ;-)