How to create 2 corps vs. 2 corps battles?

[Strategos]

Hi, I've wanted to play on the same team as someone with both of us being corps commanders. However, I don't know how to create battles involving four corps (two on either side) in sandbox. How do I do this? Is this possible?

[cliometrician]

One way would be to create your own brigades and Corps. That's possible--I just don't know how to do it. A friend and I play at least three times a week, both of us on the same team commanding a corps each. The OOB we've found most competitive is one from the Peninsula Campaign OOBs posted here earlier this year. We use the Glendale: Jackson What If OOB. He takes Fitz-John Porter while I take the Army Commander, McClellan. That way I control Heintzleman's two divisions plus one division from Sumner's Corps. So we each command three divisions. That leaves one division left, which we just put on hold and leave behind.

We have always played cooperatively, and have done so for years, and we are always searching for the most aggressive Confederate OOB. We always play the Union side. That's because we've found on average that the Rebels, controlled by the computer, are on the whole more aggressive than the Union OOBs.

[Saddletank]

There are several gettysburg OOBs that have multiple corps a side, so you could each take a Union or a Reb corps and let the AI handle the rest. The best method though is to create your own OOB, its not difficult at all and working from an existing OOB is the best way to start.

There is also Leffe7's Scenario Generator which lets you build armies of any size and structure you like (and their opponents) and place them anywhere on most of the game's maps. You can even keep an element of surprise by randomising start positions. You can add objectives too, so the AI will try to take and hold that ground rather than wander about the map in sandbox hunt them down mode.

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/modifi ... rge-of-war

[2ndAcr]

I will 2nd Leffe7's Generator, I use it all the time to create 3 versus 3 Corps level fights. My primary group of 3 take on the AI in co-op with each of us commanding a Corps of Yanks with 2 Div each in them. Works like a charm. We use hunt them down with no objectives, so you never know where the enemy pops up at. We usually field around 70,000 men and the Reb AI will have around 90-100,000 men. Makes for quite a challenge with that much grey on the field.

Warning: The random start can be extremely evil in deployments. Nothing worse than being the lone Corps in one corner of a 5 mile map with a Corps of Rebs on each side of you.

The generator is extremely easy to use. You can even use the Penn OOB in it if you load her up in it, it is not included in the actual generator. Has a ton of maps you can use, but some I wish for it does not have in them.

[Leffe7]

Thanks Digby and 2ndAcr for the recommendations.

It's always interesting to see how others design their scenarios.

@2ndAcr:
You can also add more maps to the Generator. You won't have a picture of the minimap but you can create scenario files for any map.
If the random deployment is too evil you can also have more control if you like . Say you position your 3 corps in one part of the map, you can set the reference point to a sector on your side, and then let the enemy to appear in Close/Intermediate/Far distance to that reference point. This works on Corps level.
On Corps and Division level you can also manually create a list of sectors (Custom 1-4) to be chosen randomly from.

[2ndAcr]

I might add the Lynchburg map and a couple others to the Generator in that case. No mini map hurts some, but we could hang with it.

Heck no, evil is 90% of the fun. I create the scenario's but don't peek at the deployments or anything so 95% of the time I am in the dark as to enemy deployments just like my fellow commanders.

I have used it since you released it, but have not really dove deep enough into it. This winter when work slows I plan to dive really deep into it and create a couple of base OOB's we can use depending on who is playing that day etc.

But overall, your program rocks and really added something special to the game. Many thanks.

[2ndAcr]

Scratch that last, just saw you uploaded a new version, many many thanks Leffe7, already grabbed her.