Drills Modifications

[30th PVI]

NSD Dev Team~

I have been working on my own mods for this game since I purchased the game. I have figured out how to manipulate most of the CSV's to create the effect I was looking for in the game. However, I am having a difficult time with the drills.csv file. What I am looking to accomplish is to create in the game, the ability to have skirmishers in front of a DIV line of march. Reading up on the tatics employed by Robert Rodes at Gettysburg, he used the skirmishers/sharpshooters from O'Neals Brigade to hold the ground between his 4 Brigades attacking Oak Hill, and Doles Brigade out towards the Harrisburg Pike. These sharpshooters initially drove off Devins Bde pickets, then skirmished with the 11th Corp until it had to pull back (same time as Early's Arrival). I can modify the OOB to add them in (and subtract the numbers from O'Neal's Regiments), but can't figure out how to make them move with the Division Commander in skirmisher formation. IE...I want to have the skirmish command for Div Commanders. I can create one on the tool bar but as soon as I click on the command, the commander goes to the edge of the map, and the soldiers march in the opposite direction to the other end of the map. I tried to modify the DRIL_Lvl4_Inf_Line by removing (220-0-0-0-DRIL_Lvl5_Cav_Line-2) and replaced it with (100-0-0-0-DRIL_Lvl5_Inf_Skirmish). Once I figure this out, I would do it for Column formations so thier would be a skirmish line in front of the Column for screening/getting the enemy to form against the skirmishers. Any suggestions or help on this would be greatly appreciated.

One additional note~ Based on the research I have seen, I think a scenario addition (I know thier is a forum for add-ons) of Blackfords fight on the first day would be interesting. One mixed battalion of approx 150 confederate SS's armed with Improved 1853 Enfields against the 11th corp moving north out of Gettysburg would be challenging.

Thanks

~Matt

[Damned Black Hat]

That would be an awesome formation to have in-game. I didn't know if anyone else even tried to use skirmishers.

[Davinci]

I’m sort of confused, are you trying to get a part of the regiment to form into skirmish while the rest of the regiment stay in the battle line formation.

Or, are you trying to place a regiment ahead of each brigade in the skirmish formation.

A small part of the regiment will probably not work, they will be in the lead of the regiment, and since they are still with the regiment, any action such as retreat, or melee, will be conducted by the entire regiment.

One regiment forms into skirmish, while the rest of the regiments stay in battle-line, this may be possible, provided that the regiment has the skirmish formation already assigned to them in the OOB, still not easy to implement the correct formation spacing.

Don’t let this discourage you from experimenting with the drills file, but I’m just not seeing how this is going to work.

Also – if I were going to try this I would use a formation that the AI will not choose to use, such as the double-line formation.

Perhaps one of the team-members will have a solution to this!

BTW – if the Commander runs off towards the corner of the map, your numbers are probably incorrect in the formation.

davinci

[Damned Black Hat]

I interpreted it as having one regiment line up in front of the brigade, in skirmish formation while the rest of the brigade remained in battle line.

Because my artistic abilities can probably explain this better, here is how I interpreted the formation as it would apply to Col. William McCandless' 1st Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves Division, 5th Corps:

The attachment brigadeskirmish.png is no longer available

[Davinci]

Thanks, Damned Black Hat - excellent example!

Yes - that will probably work, provided that the regiment has that particular formation assigned to them in the OOB.

Probably will not work if all of this is going to be done by a toolbar key.

But, I haven't really studied the drills file in great detail.

davinci

[Damned Black Hat]

Thanks, Damned Black Hat - excellent example!

Yes - that will probably work, provided that the regiment has that particular formation assigned to them in the OOB.

Probably will not work if all of this is going to be done by a toolbar key.

But, I haven't really studied the drills file in great detail.

davinci

The only way I could see this working for the toolbar is if there was a button added to designate a regiment as the skirmisher. As in, if you would press the Battle Line with Skirmishers formation with no designated skirmisher with McCandless' brigade, it would randomly choose a unit to use as skirmishers. But if you would select the 13th PA Reserves as the skirmishers (a wise idea, as they are a sharpshooter unit), they would automatically assume the skirmisher position when you activate the formation.

[RebBugler]

I really don't think this is possible with the present Drills system. There is only one category for the sub formation. To make this happen you would need two categories, one for line and one for skirmish. Then another script addition to indicate which number/regiment gets what formation. Furthermore, you could still not designate a specific unit to that formation, maybe up front by oob order, but then it would change with different numbers of regiments per brigade, and, when a regiment routs, the number would change, so a different unit would pick up the skirmish formation.

But then again, you can always rewrite the Drills system, go for it.

Or, ADukes might know a way, he's the Drills guru. B)

[30th PVI]

Doing some more thinking on the subject, I will probably just leave it the way it is. I was able to add a Button to the tool bar for the DIV Commander to order a skirmish formation, but it did not produce the results I wanted. However, I will continue to mess with it and see if I can get one regiment from the brigade to cover the entire brigade front while in skirmish formation. I was wondering also, if it is possible with the current game engine to have the scripts and the drills some how pick a specific number of people per regiment to form the skirmish line, versus an entire regiment from the OOB. For example, based on Gen Lee's order from Jan '63, he directed the brigades in the AoNV to create a composite Battalion of expert Light Infantry to be the Skirmishers. The Brigades (Rodes in particular) took approx 40 people per regiment (200 in total) to accomplish this. I know I can create this in the OOB and then set the Drills.CSV to always pick this regiment, but does the game allow for commands to take 40 men from each regiment and create a new battalion? Just asking...

If not, I will just change the OOB and the drills file to always pick one regiment.

Also, Is it possible to have a dismounted officer in charge of a regiment? I was thinking of changing the sprite for the composite battalion to either a DCAV sprite or a regular infantry sprite so that it would shoot as well. Again, looking at the Blackford led his men throughout the war, he had his own Sharps Rifle that he carried and according to some of the research I read, he was the finest shot in the battalion.

Thanks for your assistance and help.

Matt

[ADukes]

I tried to modify the DRIL_Lvl4_Inf_Line by removing (220-0-0-0-DRIL_Lvl5_Cav_Line-2) and replaced it with (100-0-0-0-DRIL_Lvl5_Inf_Skirmish).

(100-0-0-0-DRIL_Lvl5_Inf_Skirmish-1)

[30th PVI]

I tried doing the -1 as well. I will try it again when I get home, but it still had the leader going to the south side of the map and the men disappearing off the northern edge of the map.

thanks

~Matt