Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

There is a terrain type that is never used in the series - rails.

There is no artwork to support them. And of course rails didn't exist in this era.

My plan is to use them as hidden fords on my maps. You would have to search for them with your units. By selecting the river hex or hex where there is a stream or creek you then right click on the Info window area and it will tell you what kind of terrain is present in the hex.

The scenario description will tell you that they are present. Or the Campaign Outcome dialog (which you read just before the campaign engine turns it over to the game engine) will say something about them being present.

I also plan on making copies of the maps and having different fords on the maps so that you never get totally familiar with where they are. Using the Campaign Game ability for a wildcard in the scenario name I can then use up to as many map files as I want. Thus you would have to look for the fords in each game.

I could use fords over streams, through walls or hedges or even orchards and woods.

Just another way to sort of give new life to the series - the gamer that is looking for this will be rewarded for his efforts.

And yes, you could blunder onto one too.

The description or outcome dialog would plainly say that they are present. And I probably wouldn't use them for the default maps - just the ones for the campaigns. But that is not set in stone yet.

Anyway, what I wanted to know before I did this was is there any major issues anyone has with this or is there an argument you might have that I may have missed?

But the idea is to reward the diligent player who sends his scouts out looking for a path across a river, stream or creek.

Just think - your cavalry would not disorder if you used such a ford across a stream - but you still could not charge across a stream using a rail.

You can melee into these rail hexes. I checked it out today.

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)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

excellent idea Bill. This kind of small stuff blended with things like the ability to melee cavalry in cover are excellent improvements to the game.

Got my new patch on Austerlitz today - thanks for the extra scenarios with the big maps most excellent.



General de Brigade Knox
Grand Duc d'Austerlitz et Comte de Argentan



Escadron Mamelouks
Chasseurs a'Cheval
Division de Cavalerie la Vieille Garde.





CO. 1er Brigade, III Division Cavalerie Legere, III Corps Armee du Nord
http://www.aspire.co.nz/colinknoxnwc.htm

Bill,

Definitely a great idea. Fully support it. Is it able to be placed in previous games eg Eckmuhl, NIR etc?

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

I am not sure about previous games. I usually can send updates to John but it means he has to redo the engine to hard code the map again.

I prefer to just add it into the new games.

But something like weather lines for Eckmuhl and Wagram is possible for instance. As a matter of fact I have my volumes by Gill on the 1809 campaign and I am going to study the weather for that time period and add them in for the next Eckmuhl update.

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)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

Sounds great!

A couple of notes:

There should be some limitations. Rivers like Danube, Dnieper and Dvina should not be fordable. When they are fords are well known to both sides beforehand.

Ability to ford should be comprehended not simply by clicking right mouse and examination of hex-borders. A unit must be close enough (adjacent hex for example). It represents units carrying out recon missions.

A related question. We have units with attribute "Has boats". They can cross wide obstacles like rivers, lakes etc. Still they can't cross the minor ones - creeks. Quite strange. Can it be changed?

If it is done cossacks should all be given has boats status. Hence they will be able to swim across smallish obstacles and hunt for enemy detachments conducting recon. Quite natural.

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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>

No, the creeks are still a barrier to boats.

Think of them as swift running, rocky rivers I guess.

And actually if you think about it a ford is not always a known place. Its somewhere that the troops fine that is crossable.

Thus for the Danube I would agree - pretty hard to cross especially in the Spring. In 1805 the waters must have been pretty cold. But you do read of French and Russian troops at Durenstein swimming to the other bank. Just not in full unit size.

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)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club