We Understand!

[tc27]

Hi Everyone - long time SOW player and first time poster.

I am a Brit so I suppose I might feel differently to most of you but for me Napoleonic era is a much richer setting for a wargame with this kind of scope - the tactical options are much greater and the colour and variety is more interesting (Plus the 100 days is a pretty good setting for a short operational campaign.
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Norb - I think the greatest challenge will be balancing battlefield cavalry - they are powerful weapon but most horses only have one decent charge in them - fatigue modeling will be crucial here.

[Saddletank]

TC27, have you tried the Napoleonic mod by Gunship24 and further updated by Marching Through Georgia?

It does a pretty damn good job and cavalry is almost about right I'd say. The main lack is that the AI does not form square.

If the second version of the game has moddable factors like the first it should be easy for the community to tweak cavalry as they perceive it to have been in game terms.

[Xreos1]

I hope that the speed of horses will be addressed. Currently the game uses 2 speeds, walk (slow) and gallop (very fast). A generic horse will have 4 natural gaits, walk-4MPH; trot-8MPH; canter-10/17MPH and gallop-25/30MPH. Different breeds can also have a wide variety of ambles at many different speeds, but the 4 basic should be all that is needed. Accompanying infantry horses will walk. Charging and running away horses will gallop. But for screening and scouting horses should use combinations of gaits to both cover a lot of ground and remain reasonably fresh.

I did a test in one scenario by sending a Cav. Brigade to scout the enemy. One regiment went 3/4 around the map, at full gallop taking 59 mins. and of course was exhausted. A more realistic way would be trotting, or combination canter/walk, or trot/canter/trot/walk perhaps taking 1 1/2 hours but only being 'tired'.

Perhaps scouts could trot for 10min, walk for 10 or some combination to achieve the maximum coverage and reasonable wear.

[NY Cavalry]

The move to Napoleonics is a smart decision. It will open up Norbsoft to greater exposure. This will help our community and future releases. The next Civil War game will be better and have a bigger audience.

The only drawback is that we do not have a major western battle such as Shilo or Chickamuanga. The Pea Ridge is good work, but more western expansions are warranted.

[tc27]

I have to admit I haven't used the excellent Napoleonic mod for a while but I will check it out again later this evening and post my thoughts.

[Destraex]

I can see why some might be disappointed in a hiatus in SOW as far as the ACW goes. I would love more battles and maps etc. But the news that the engine is going to tackle Napoleonics, specifically Waterloo more than makes up for it.

Before I got SOW I only had a passing interest in the ACW. I bought the game though because of my frustration with titles like NTW. I was looking for a realistic period game and SOW delivered that in bucket loads. As a result my background knowledge and interest in the AWC grew as I read around the battles I was fighting in the game.

There is a massive gap in the market for a decent Napoleonics Tactical Game. Histwar is great but has its issues and whilst I admire its originality it isnt a patch on the current SOW system. Even Histwar 2 looks like it will be more of the same.

For those that dont have an interest in Napoleonics I would encourage them to look at it as a tactical challenge. The men might have different uniforms, weapons and languages but the tactics (and gameplay) wont be massively different to what you have now. The fringe benefits are that all the enhancements that get put into SOW-W will be passed back down to SOWGB. The biggest to my mind would be the map SDK, which if we are honest with ourselves is the biggest hinderance to us getting (insert favourite civil war action) into the game.

In all I am incredibly excited, not just because its Napoleonics, but as a side effect the Civil war franchise will explode too.

Squid_UK: With regard to histwar can you tell me how the scourge of war engine and features differ or are better?
Histwar2 napoleon is currently in early access and in july intend to release new unit models that make the game look like this:


I do not own histwar or gettysburg but was an early adopter of 2nd mannassas and have played the january 2014 demo of histwar 2 napoleon once I got word of SOW waterloo. I wanted to see which one was going to be best.

So far it's looking like HW2 will have far superior graphics but one of the worst interfaces I have ever used. Perhaps no coop mode either which is a must for me.

Actually I will start a new thread.

[Jonah]

This probably is the timeto open up SOWG to full modding capability

[norb]

HistWar looks beautiful. We won't be 3D modeling any of our units, so they've got the monopoly there. There's always room for more players and different takes on the war. Hopefully both games can be enjoyed for their own attributes.

[Mark]

Might I suggest, as a campaign starting point, Napoleon 1813. It's an older game that was completely buggy, but it had some ingenious campaign ideas that were never fully realized. Just a suggestion!

[Chortle]

I bought SOW for Kriegspiel. I've little interest in ACW but a huge interest in Napoleonics. So I am very happy to read that you are bringing out a Waterloo game. With 2015 around the corner I hope this will be a big commercial success for Norbsoft. I'm sure many of us will help you promote the game on forums where we know Nap Nuts gather. I'm already putting my Napoleonics customers onto SOW because there is a Napoleonics mod.

As Saddletank says, a campaign would be good to go with the release. Or you could have linked battles and carry forward some of the casualties, taking replacements into account. I guess it might be possible to get away with what Fog of War did all those years ago by having just set piece battles for Waterloo, Quatre Bras etc.

It would pay you back to go to the review sites and see what the "check boxes" are for a reviewer of this type of game. I hope you will have a smash hit with your Waterloo game.