Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Recently I found and repaired some mistakes in the OOB file for HPS Russia that runs the SB Tournament scenario. Some Russian Uhlan regiment were not displayed on the screen and not numbered.
After repairs I send the OOB file to my opponent and we've started the game.

But I was then wondering: what will happen if you make changes in a OOB file and you will NOT send it to your opponent.

What will happen, for example, if I raise battalion strengths and qualities in my OOB file.

Will the game crash? What will be displayed on the screens?

I hope this is not a weak point in the games.







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Luitenant-Generaal Marco Bijl





Commander Anglo-Allied army.

2nd Dutch guides (guards).
Militaire Willems Orde 3rd Class (MWO)
Commandeur Militaire Willems Orde (MWO).

As far as I can see, changing unit qualities in your OOB will not cause the game to crash. However I think many players may regard it as cheating even if not intended. Say for example I attacked your crappy Hanoverians at Waterloo and got mown down by what turned out to be Guard quality units.

Any changes have to be agreed and copied to your opponent: I corrected some obvious errors in NIR which affect the game, but these are swopped with opponents before we start.



Generaal
2de Brigade
2de Nederlandsche Div
I Corps
Anglo Allied Army

It wont crash if you use different oob files. I played several games when I had a modified oob file that allowd to see regimental colors. The opponents were not very keen to have it (most of all the monstrous units.bmp file). So we agreed to try using different oobs. It worked.

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<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Adjutant Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
Commander of the Second Army of the West </b></center>

As long as you offer your opponent the modified BMP that's fine. Even that could be used for cheating if not, you could for example colour code your opponents units to know what units were where, and what quality for example. Not that I can imagine people going to such effort but still.....

Generaal
2de Brigade
2de Nederlandsche Div
I Corps
Anglo Allied Army

Wow Andy, I had never thought of that one! Good point, you could assign a unique number to each bn./unit and then know exactly where they were ... if you had 1000 hours to copy each graphic, add text to it, etc.

Man oh man, if someone goes to that extent to cheat they probably haven't been seen for years! [:p]

His wife is probably wondering when he will get off of (her) the pc![;)]

Never change the "stock" files that come with the game. Always make a copy first and then alter that file.

The OB file will never cause the game to crash as far as I know unless you format it wrong (missing End statement for instance). Perhaps if you used a weapons code that was not found in the PDT file .... (hmm, have to check that one out ...).

Folks need to know this. It probably is something that members are told when they join the club or its posted on the rules page. If not it should become part of the indoctrination package. It could cause a major fight and I am sure that something is said about it on the website.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bill Peters</i>
<br />Wow Andy, I had never thought of that one! Good point, you could assign a unique number to each bn./unit and then know exactly where they were ... if you had 1000 hours to copy each graphic, add text to it, etc.

Man oh man, if someone goes to that extent to cheat they probably haven't been seen for years! [:p]

His wife is probably wondering when he will get off of (her) the pc![;)]

Never change the "stock" files that come with the game. Always make a copy first and then alter that file.

The OB file will never cause the game to crash as far as I know unless you format it wrong (missing End statement for instance). Perhaps if you used a weapons code that was not found in the PDT file .... (hmm, have to check that one out ...).

Folks need to know this. It probably is something that members are told when they join the club or its posted on the rules page. If not it should become part of the indoctrination package. It could cause a major fight and I am sure that something is said about it on the website.

In answer to your question Marco about strengths: if you increase the value of the bn. it will still use the value found in the .scn file. However, if you DECREASE it then the unit will assume the new value. This happened by accident in a ACW club game MANY years back. An officer was playing another officer and was using a different version of the OB file (same name) - somehow he hadn't renamed it and done so also in the .scn file before he played the OTHER game. Anyway, he reduced the Union cavalry values at Gettysburg and when the Yank checked his units one turn he found that his cavalry was not worth as much. It was an honest mistake but it caused a royal fight! The game was ended of course. The member wasnt punished but learned a good lesson on altering files without naming them (or he was using an alternate file but it had not been renamed).

Bottom line: when you start up a game make sure you state if you want to use an altered file and it should be renamed and a different scenario file created as well. Dont rename the scenario in the files that the Napoleonic team produces.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)





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Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

Thanks for the explanations. Of course you should discuss with your opponent, and of course is cheating when you are not doing so, that's clear.

At least its good new that you cannot INcrease strength and quality. DEcreasing the opponent forces can easily be checked by the opponent.

Although...I am still not sure; if, in your OOB file your opponent strengths are reduced,...and your opponent is still using the correct OOB, then he will not even see it, only in the replay?!

But in general I was just wondering "what if"....

It is important knowledge for new recruits. I will make sure that Anglo-Allied recruits will get this knowledge.


--------------------------------------------------------
Luitenant-Generaal Marco Bijl





Commander Anglo-Allied army.

2nd Dutch guides (guards).
Militaire Willems Orde 3rd Class (MWO)
Commandeur Militaire Willems Orde (MWO).

Marco - lets say I have a fresh 700 strength bn. And when I open up the file I see it now has 650 men. You would know its been tampered with.

On the other hand if that same bn. took casualties during a battle down to 343 men but on a following turn its down to 323 you may not notice it.

Thus some things would be easy to spot and others would not.

You would not see it in the replay because it moves too quickly. The strength of the unit would not be noted unless you have pretty quick vision. Perhaps if you saw a unit of yours that you know was full strength appear with fewer men but its probably going to flash across the screen so fast you wouldn't give it a second notice.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)

Oh my god!

I had no idea that was possible. If anyone goes to those lengths in order to win a game they proably have no wife and must endure a very sad existance indeed. Knowing it now I have no doubt they are out there.

Pity their pathetic endeavours.

Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

In one game against Paco, I assigned all of his infantry to have shovels instead of muskets but it didn't matter - he beat me anyway! [:D]

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)