Properly understanding OoB Excel files

Gents,

I'm obviously new at all of this. I'm still seeking to intuitively understand how to play Scourge of War, having never played it before in any of its earlier iterations. This is to say, that paying with the KS Mod is my first experience with anything having to do with SoW. So, I'm learning from scratch.

With that said, I have gathered that there are many YouTube videos that will help me learn how to issue orders, move the camera around, etc. However, what I would like is any link or file any of you could provide on how to understand an OoB file. The names of leaders and units are self-explanatory, as are the numbers of troops. What I need help on are the more technical aspects related to the interpretation used by the game itself, e.g. columns in Excel labeled "ID" as well as how to understand the relations between the unit abilities on the right of the OoB sheets. For instance, how do I determine what the numbers under "Leadership," "Loyalty" "Ability" "Style" etc. mean in game play? I assume higher numbers equal greater ability? If we are creating our own OoBs, how can we gauge whether we are using a number too high or too low for these factors?

Anyway, feel free to ignore any of these questions or reorganize them into something more helpful, since my level of understanding is obviously low enough that I probably don't know how to ask a good question, yet.

Thanks.

MJ

In the KS Napoleon Mod folder, there is a sub-folder named Manuals. Inside that there is a pdf file named KSNapoleonModManual. It will give you a lot of information concerning the ideas behind the mod, the things the mod will for both the AI and player controlled units and also ideas on how to survive against the AI.

There are a number of videos on YouTube that show how to move troops around the battlefield. Most of these use a very different toolbar than the KS mod but the ideas are the same. DarkRob316 did several introductory videos on the KS Mod that are very good although they are a little old and don't show more later added features. That would be a good starting point. One of our regular members, Dump Truck, has made videos of many of our MP games. These are very useful for seeing what sort of tactics work and don't work in the game.

The quickest way to learn how to play the game is to join the MP group for a game or two. We can explain things to you while in the game. It can save you many hours. There is a Discord channel that is used and is posted in the Scourge of War sub-forum. The players meet on Tuesday, (today), Friday and Sunday at 15:00EST, 19:00BST. I think that is 18:00GMT.

There is no good description of the OOB values. The columns and values relate to values in the unitattributes.csv file. It is located in the Logistics folder of the KS Napoleon Mod. Higher values do correspond to better behavior as you guessed. There is a SDK for the game which you can download from the NSD website. It provides some information about the various data files used in the game.

I've copied the information concerning the OOB below.

A Name User defined name, not used by the program, cannot be blank
B ID ID string of this unit, this is the ID that the scenario.csv file will use
C NAME1 Textual name of this unit used only within the OOB. Actual unit names shown in the game are in \Layout\Media\Language\OOBNames.xml.
D NAME2 2nd name for the unit, or the brigade/div/corp/army name, not required for reg's. Not used in game either.
E SIDE Which side of the fight is this guy or unit on, 1=French, 2=Allies.
F ARMY Army echelon, always 1 for this game.
G CORPS Corps echelon
H DIV Division echelon
I BGDE Brigade echelon
J BTN Battalion echelon
K CLASS ID of the uniform class for this unit, from unitglobal.csv
L PORTRAIT Index of the portrait for this leader or unit, used by some toolbars and screens, this is the x,y location of the correct picture from the master portrait file.
M Weapon ID of the weapon for this unit from rifles.csv or artillery.csv depending on the unit type
N AMMO The amount of ammo carried by each man in this unit. For
infantry this is rounds per man. For artillery it is 4 per person times 30 persons per gun.
O FLAGS The ID of the primary flag used by this unit, from gfxpack.csv
P FLAG2 The ID of the 2nd flag used by this unit, from gfxpack.csv, leave blank if no second flag.
Q Formation The initial formation of this unit, from drills.csv. This may be superseded by the scenario.csv file.
R Head Count The number of men in this unit. Officers are always 1.
S Ability The officer's natural skill, this and the below skills are listed in unitattributes.csv
T Command The officer's skill at choosing and executing the correct commands
U Control How much control an officer has over his subordinates
V Leadership The inspiration this officer has over when his units see him in battle
W Style What type of fighting style can we expect from this officer, ranges from very cautious to very aggressive.
X Experience How much battle experience has this unit had
Y Fatigue How tired is this unit.
Z Morale How high is the morale of this unit.
AA Close Close Order Proficiency, how well does this unit maneuver in close quarters
AB Open Open Order Proficiency, how well does this unit maneuver on the open battlefield
AC Edged Edged Weapon Proficiency, how good is this unit with a bayonet
AD Firearm Firearm Proficiency, how good is this unit at loading and fixing their firearms
AE Marksmanship Marksmanship, how accurate are this units shots
AF Horsemanship Horsemanship, how good is this unit on a horse (for cavalry)
AG Surgeon Surgeon Ability, does this unit have any first aid, can they bandage basic wounds (placeholder, not used in SOW:Waterloo)
AH Calisthenics Calisthenics, what physical condition is the unit in. Higher rating gives slower accumulation of fatigue.

Note:
The above skills, starting at ability are from the
unitattributes.csv file, their values are described there
The skills before Morale are for officers only, from Morale on
are for battalion's only
Lines with no value in the first column are comment lines and
not read by the program

Hi MJ

The MP games are really a good way to learn the game and there's opportunity to ask questions, however basic or silly you might think they are.

Ideas and aspects of the game can be discussed prior to the game and I'm sure an explaination of some of the Files could be explained by some of our team, perhaps arranging to get into Discord several minutes early.

Wow, gentlemen. This is just fantastic. Thank you for all of your dedication to this forum, the creation of the mods, SG, and so much more. You all are obviously passionate about Napoleonics and are equally dedicated to treating people well on this forum.

I live several time zones away from all of those in the US (Eastern Europe), and I've never done much multiplayer play on PC games. So, I may not be free or able to join one of your games. But this information is so helpful as I learn to make my own SP scenarios. While I enjoy lots of historical eras, Napoleonics will always be my favorite.

Thanks again.

Is that GMT+2? Don't worry about never having played MP. You'd have a brigade command under one of the other players. He would be able to help you out, give directions, etc.

If you want to create scenarios, there is a KS Scenario Generator. It's easy to use and comes with an instruction manual. The download link is in the Scourge of War sub-forum.