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Post by jeff on Dec 9, 2023 23:42:51 GMT
 I just uploaded the grenadier game. It is two months old, and just learning to walk already. web.utk.edu/~jcrouch/ |
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 10, 2023 0:16:10 GMT
Executables check:
grn_map.exe - opened
grn_edit.exe - runtime "53"
Grenadier.exe - opened
1 turn played so far...
Edit:
At AI turn 4 I got an enemy army broken label.
Continued for I think two turns but turn counter did not pass 4.
Until the game eventually gave me no more access to units and told me my army was broken too.
So, I probably won at turn 4... and should have stopped then.
That was the Blenheim scenario.
Took some time to gather the units with fire arms have some range. And need LoS. But already started getting the hang.
The name does say "tactical"...
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Post by jeff on Dec 10, 2023 15:47:09 GMT
Yes, it is still a bit of a mess. Actually today I was planning on working on....
Victory Step (End Game)
Leaders (movement, and function)
Recon / Spotting step ( I am sort of planning a PanzerBlitz style spotting system)
Just before I uploaded it Friday, I noticed you could not load saved files !!!! The problem was not really in the save, or load subs. I had changed the version
number from 802 (PGX) to 001 (GRN) ! Just doing that messed up all sorts of stuff.
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 10, 2023 19:05:46 GMT
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 12, 2023 15:39:50 GMT
Just before I uploaded it Friday, I noticed you could not load saved files !!!! The problem was not really in the save, or load subs. I had changed the version number from 802 (PGX) to 001 (GRN) ! Just doing that messed up all sorts of stuff. Game (apparently) saves and loads but the loaded save does not give control of the units to the player. Edit: Tried Auerstadt. Just as I was seeing my numbers shrinking to the point I was saying I had lost, the "Enemy broken" signal appeared. Went for 36 turns. Larger scenario than Blenheim with the enemy arriving in three waves. Created some fire fields for the cannons, using terrain to cover at least a flank when possible. Infantry seems to benefit considerably from river covered positions and somewhat from forest. |
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Post by jeff on Dec 15, 2023 11:33:37 GMT
You sound like you pulled off a 'Davout' ! Congrats. I was working on the victory step last night. Playing the French, got too aggressive, and LOST.  I have a lot of UPDATES to upload. PGX, Grenadier, and some changes to the web-site. Hopefully I will get them uploaded today. I always notice some little glitch at the very last moment. Grenadier will have slopes in addition to the mountains next update. I finally properly added them as a new terrain type. (version 2 coming today I hope.) |
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 15, 2023 16:26:33 GMT
You sound like you pulled off a 'Davout' ! Congrats. I was working on the victory step last night. Playing the French, got too aggressive, and LOST. I have a lot of UPDATES to upload. PGX, Grenadier, and some changes to the web-site. Hopefully I will get them uploaded today. I always notice some little glitch at the very last moment. Grenadier will have slopes in addition to the mountains next update. I finally properly added them as a new terrain type. (version 2 coming today I hope.) I think I had less units than the enemy when it ended... But yes, I kinda defended against the successive waves - the French receive reinforcements in waves too and away from action - and advanced after defeating each wave. The meager Cavalry force I used to capture objectives. And used those points to replenish units as much I could. If the French forces started all together maybe charging could work better... Maybe Mountain Terrain should be included but maybe it should be impassable. Or impassable except if there is a road. But with the increased scale of this kind of map a pathway of Clear Terrain going through the mountain to make for the road looks less awkward than in the continental maps. I guess even a maritime scenario may not need a huge map in Grenadier. Maybe bigger than most land battles, still. As to air battles... there are reports of hot air balloons having been used for observation purposes during the Napoleonic Wars. And their use probably increased in later years. But real air battles were yet over 60 years away... I think I remember though reading something about the use of a hot air balloon as a bombardier in some battle that involved Ottoman or Turkish forces, before WWI... Wikipedia states first military use, for observation, was in 1794, Battle of Fleurus. The article on military ballooning states first aggressive use - unmanned units carrying bombs that were time fuse dropped - was in 1849 by Austrian Empire against Venice. The Slope tiles bear some resemblance to the "Seawall" tiles I produced for the LGeneral project. They also have a line / bar denoting a level differential. But "Seawall" has a much contrasting darker band positioned at the edge(s) of the hexes. Slope uses parallel lines, creating much less contrast, positioned from the center of the hexes to one or more edges. The idea behind slope is Units being on the slope. The idea behind "Seawall" is Units being "looking down over a precipice". Seemingly, conferring an even bigger advantage to the resident Unit than a slope. Another case of level difference that may be pertinent in Grenadier are the man made ramparts, or walls. Well, the ramparts are probably too similar to slopes to be splitting hairs. Walls though need to reflect a higher level of protection. As Fort Units or as Fortification Terrain. |
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Post by jeff on Dec 19, 2023 17:46:42 GMT
Yes, the slope lines are the coast hexes without the water ! They now represent land climbing, instead of going down below sea level.
I have an update I am putting on in the next few minutes. I added skirmishers. They are pretty much the same rules as the original game.
A qualified unit...(Full strength, or a skirmish trained (Rifle, Light) infantry unit) will break down into 3 small groups of around 30-40 men.
They get double (2) defence from ranged fire.
Of course...being smaller they also have a smaller attack/defence factor.
You should be able to re-combine them. If they all survive, and get back into the same hex. Added some new buttons. Only using one so far. (Skirmisher deploy/attach).
I have been trying to get some less ugly icons. Not really succeeded. But I am still working on it.
No reason you can't use balloons. the air rules are still in there. Pretty much. Although I have changed the unit values a bit. (Soft attack is not Column Attack)
Naval attack is something else now.
Still a lot of stuff I need to do. I try not to actually think about it too much. That way...you just plod along, until it's done.
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 30, 2023 15:30:00 GMT
Played Blenheim with the Franco-Bavarian.
After 6 turns very few units were left besides all the Commanders and Artillery.
The British still had 3 Infantry and 3 Cavalry in full force plus 1 additional "injured" Cavalry
The Franco-Bavarian finished with 2 Infantry and 6 Cavalry, all 8 "injured".
But the British were the ones given as "broken and retreating".
Principle followed was trying to use artillery to the most possible and further reduce the advancing enemy by means of charging with the Cavalry forces available as the left flank while keeping them covered from enemy Artillery fire by the enemy's very advancing forces.
Enemy response was still devastating... any of my Cavalry Units that was able to defeat the outer "screen" of enemy Cavalry was met by fire from an Infantry line next turn and I never had enough Cavalry left towards the end of the turn to make a significant charge against that Infantry line.
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Dec 31, 2023 14:55:27 GMT
Played Auerstadt with the Prussian.
First French wave gave me little time for preparations but losing an Artillery Unit and the better part of the Cavalry I had up front I managed to wipe it out of the board.
Then I had to spend most of the match advancing in search of the remaining French forces to find them short ahead of their entry point.
Once they spotted the Commander / Artillery combo that spotted them they charged.
I withdrew those two and a few more Units that were too far ahead to a quickly assembled defense line.
That line eventually lost another Artillery Unit and more Cavalry was lost charging the French in the same area to protect the other cannons.
The French main advance was made in line against my easternmost forces but the defense line was concave allowing me to use Artillery from the westernmost side to flail their advancing flank.
Also launched a Cavalry charge from the hills to the south against a secondary French force advancing on my western flank.
Achieved "enemy broken" at turn 26. The reinforcing mass of Line Infantry never got any near to action. A few of the reinforcing Grenadier did see action very near the end.
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Post by jeff on Jan 2, 2024 21:35:54 GMT
Just uploaded an Update for Grenadier. V003
Worked on unit Graphics. Just for test. I am using 10 Pixel scale for Auerstadt, and 20 Pixel scale for Blenheim.
Cleaned the leader code up a bit. They should not be running way out ahead of their troops now. They could not get killed so they did not care. Ha Ha.
But, the leader immortality will soon be coming to an end.
Unit icons...I think I will use the 16th position on each row for whoever is on that rows skirmisher icon.
Example Row 20 will could be 8th century Swedes. The 16th Icon would be a Swedish Skirmisher.
Row 21 could be Danes, etc.
That way the program should be able to find the skirmisher (1 man) icon for that unit pretty easily ?
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Jan 4, 2024 16:15:47 GMT
Just uploaded an Update for Grenadier. V003 Worked on unit Graphics. Just for test. I am using 10 Pixel scale for Auerstadt, and 20 Pixel scale for Blenheim. Cleaned the leader code up a bit. They should not be running way out ahead of their troops now. They could not get killed so they did not care. Ha Ha. But, the leader immortality will soon be coming to an end. Unit icons...I think I will use the 16th position on each row for whoever is on that rows skirmisher icon. Example Row 20 will could be 8th century Swedes. The 16th Icon would be a Swedish Skirmisher. Row 21 could be Danes, etc. That way the program should be able to find the skirmisher (1 man) icon for that unit pretty easily ? 10 or 20 pixel for... a mile? 100 pixel map representing 10 or 5 miles? And turn duration will be much shorter than 3 days. Maybe no more than an hour. I think I saw "leader killed" once or twice. Always when the leader was completely alone in the hex. But did not verify if it got off board. Every time they were in stacks I got "leader almost killed". The program I do not have a clue. It could be a guideline for people building an icon sheet. To have positions reserved for specific things. However, it can lead to having almost empty columns for some subjects. Ultimately, my favorite idea for icons is not using sheets. Old idea that surfaced once or twice over the years but is probably much easier to say than do. One thing is quite obvious: if we had one column for each class we would be immediately limited to 16 classes. 8th century Swedes - Vikings? - are apparently out of scope. But the Grenadier "frame" is probably not much hard to adapt. The really revolutionary changes in warfare come later with the appearance of weapons that can be employed at much bigger distances, or with a very high rate of fire, or with a much bigger destructive power, or at much higher speeds. Pike and shot is not that different from the musket era and even before the advent of powder there was Cavalry for charges and neuro-ballistic engines and archery to conduct distance attacks. Probably can be adapted too for some Fantasy type battles. Maybe the biggest challenge here would be incorporating magical abilities in an interesting way. |
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Post by teophrastusbombastus on Jan 5, 2024 14:00:25 GMT
Played a Blenheim to see what is new.
Smaller figures for flags above the figures.
The flags seem a good idea but not so much the smaller figures.
It would be a lot of trouble but this thing is asking for bigger... bigger equipment icons and bigger terrain tiles.
Maybe something around Wesnoth pattern, which is 72X72.
By the way, if there was no change, Wesnoth elements may be used by third parties as long as the use is kept non commercial.
Although they are in png format; probably they would have to be converted.
And transition tiles would have to be made anew because they use a quite different system involving stacking decreased transparency partial tiles over the "main" ones.
It was just one. But I had one enemy Commander coming forth way ahead of their lines.
So, a bit more "ironing" may still be needed on that department...
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Post by jeff on Jan 8, 2024 16:53:55 GMT
Grenadier is just the first of the series. I have already started working on 'Centurion', and 'Yoeman'. (Rome, and a Middle Age version).
All the new games in this series are going to be based on the old SPI version of the games of the same name. (At least the CRT, and most of the stuff.)
All are going to be Tactical Series for different Periods.
i will check out the wesnoth icons.
Just did...ha ha..I have already swiped them a while back for a D&D game based on the old 'Moria' dungeon crawler. I actually got it into a semi-runable state
then sort of wandered off to do other things.
Pretty easy to adapt the basic game engine to other concepts. I was surprised how much Operational level 'specific' code there was. Just based on playing
PGX. I got to strip out a lot of stuff to make room for new code. I would like to keep the map, and unit editor programs cross compatible if possible.
But, then again...nothing really wrong with having different versions I guess. I have already changed a bunch of stuff for the 'Grenadier' editor..
I think making some Big Icons for the Stack display will be a nice touch. I hope I can get that started today.
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Post by jeff on Jan 8, 2024 16:59:24 GMT
Oh yeah...leaders. I think for now they only get killed if they have no place to displace to. (Friendly unit in it's command.)
If it has no units left to command I just let it die. I still have not got the leader rules in place. More of a data entry problem than coding. Ha Ha.
Hmmm. well some coding too. I wanted to play test as it is a while before adding the leaders. Not sure I like the 'Be within range of the leader to move' stuff.
Most miniature rules I have work that way though. I thought if I just added the combat bonuses ...the player would try to keep the leaders near it's units anyway.
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