AGE OF REASON MOD Version 2.0

[SnuggleBunnies]

I was wondering if, to make the mod playable in multyplayer, is only needed to copy-paste the relative folder in the User/Documents/My Game/PSCAMP/Multiplayer folder or something else should be done to make it work properly ...

Afaik that is all that is required. You can test it by making and accepting your own challenge

[Lysimachos]

Thanks, Snugglebunnies,
you’re right.
Initially I had some problems because I didn’t see in the opening screen the “Age of Reason” scenario.
Then I understood I had to:
- click on the “Read me” button of the “Extra Nation v3” scenario,
- click the “Create Skirmish” button,
- change the selected campaign from “Thirty Years War” (that is default) to “Age of Reason”,
- select the appropriate armies, scenario type, force and map size, terrain type,
- then click the “Create” button and repeat the same in the next screen,
- and finally click the “exit campaign” button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
At the end of which procedure, the challenge is set.
So, if anyone is interested, I’ve launched a couple of challenges to verify the effective strength of some of the modded armies.
Then, it would be also great to fight a campaign with some gamers.
About this, I’ve got some ideas regarding a “War of the Spanish Succession”, for which from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 8 players would be required, in order to cover the four main theatres of the conflict (Northern Italy, Flanders, Spain and Northern America) …

[Polskers]

This looks very well-done, Lysimachos! I commend you on this excellent work. As a historian of the 17th and 18th centuries, it's nice to see this era properly represented in the game and you've done an excellent job.

What armies do you have planned for addition in future versions?

[Lysimachos]

Thanks for your comment Polskers!
It's always rewarding to have some appreciation after a hard work.

In the future, possibly in the next six months, I'd like to add Algerian, Moroccan, Portuguese, Anglo-Portuguese, Spanish, Savoyard, Venetian, Dutch, Jacobite, Imperial (HRE), Saxon, Prussian, Polish, Swedish, Russian, Ottoman, Persian, British (Colonial India), French (Colonial India) and Indian (Mughal & Maratha if I'm able to find a way to create the model for elephants ) armies.

[Doyley50]

Many thanks for all your efforts in producing this mod which I have been enjoying very much. While P&S has many fine mods for battles in this period I have greatly missed having the possibility of setting up random skirmish games. Now I can delve into The War of the Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War, AWI and colonial skirmishes. Great stuff!

[Lysimachos]

Many thanks for all your efforts in producing this mod which I have been enjoying very much. While P&S has many fine mods for battles in this period I have greatly missed having the possibility of setting up random skirmish games. Now I can delve into The War of the Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War, AWI and colonial skirmishes. Great stuff!

In fact this was just the reason why I started thinking about an "Age of Reason" mod, given also the fact that I'm greatly attracted by this historical period, particularly for his military aspects

[Lysimachos]

Hi guys,
some updates about the work in progress!

During the last month the Prussian, Russian, Swedish and Holy Roman Empire armies have been finished, and the Native Americans have now two different lists (Algonquin and Iroquois), but all of these are still to be tested. Next ones will be the Ottoman and Savoyard.
The artillery fire has been further enhanced and some units like the Grenadiers and Guards have been slightly revisited.

Here is the preview of some armies.

Prussian:

Prussian_Army.jpg (99.63 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

Prussian deployed

Prussian_Army_Deployed.jpg (129.46 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

[Lysimachos]

And here are the Russians

Russian_Army.jpg (96.84 KiB) Viewed 4118 times

Russian deployed

Russian_Army_Deployed.jpg (148.34 KiB) Viewed 4118 times

[Ivenend]

Thanks for making this great mod!

[Lysimachos]

Thanks for your praise, mate!

In a couple of weeks I shoud be able to release the final version of the mod with all the europeans armies of the period (including Prussian, Russian, Ottoman, Swedish, Savoyard and many more), plus the Moroccan, who can challenge the Spanish and Portuguese colonial armies in north Africa.

[Doyley50]

Good news indeed!

[Lysimachos]

The second and final version of the mod, which presents a Campaign, Single Player and MultiPlayer section, has been released and is now downloadable in-game but, for the players that already own the first version, it will be necessary to move the current version out of their My Games folder in order for them to show up on the in-game download list.

It sports several new units (like, for example, Moroccan Sekhan infantry, Ottoman Bashi-Bazouk and Garrison Troops, Polish Hajduks and Uhlans, Portoguese Ordenanzas, Spanish Militia de Pardos y Morenos, Fijos de Ultramar and Dragones de Cuera, Venetian Cernide, Morlacchi and Schiavoni, etc.) while some others have been revisited, as especially:
- the Grenadiers, that have lost some morale and elan but have acquired 12 AP, to represent their tactical prowess because of which they were used for the most difficult tasks,
- the Guards, that have been decreased from 12 to 10 AP but now represent the strongest unit in the game.

The fire power of artillery has been further enhanced, and it now seems to properly represent the main role acquired by guns on the battlefield during this period, while the combat capability of disrupted and fragmented units has also been modified, to make them a bit more resilient on the battlefield.
Many units come with original flags of the period or model reconstructed resembling them.
The campaign section has been updated with all the new armies and some new province names.

Overall, the following armies are available:
- Anglo-Dutch (2 lists),
- Anglo-Hanoverian (2 lists),
- Anglo-Portuguese (2 lists),
- Austrian (3 lists),
- Austro-Savoyard (2 lists),
- Bavarian (3 lists),
- Bourbon (1 list),
- British (3 lists),
- British (Colonial America) (2 lists),
- Danish (3 lists),
- Dutch (3 lists),
- Franco-Bavarian (2 lists),
- Franco-Savoyard (1 list),
- French (3 lists),
- French (Colonial America) (1 list),
- Grand Alliance (1 list),
- Holy Roman Empire (3 lists),
- Jacobite (2 lists),
- Moroccan (1 list),
- Native American (Algonquin) (1 list),
- Native American (Iroquois) (1 list),
- Neapolitan (2 lists),
- Ottoman (2 lists),
- Ottoman (North Africa) (1 list),
- Polish (3 lists),
- Portuguese (2 lists),
- Portuguese (North Africa) (1 list),
- Pragmatic (1 list),
- Prussian (3 lists),
- Russian (3 lists),
- Savoyard (3 lists),
- Saxon (3 lists),
- Spanish (3 lists),
- Spanish (Colonial America) (1 list),
- Spanish (North Africa) (1 list),
- Swedish (3 lists),
- Thirteen Colonies (1 list),
- Venetian (2 lists),
- Venetian (Colonial) (1 list).

The armies are divided between Pro-Imperial and Anti-Imperial, so remember to disable the filter present on the opening screen if you want to fight against every army you like.

The mod has been thoroughly controlled before the release but if you may anyway find any mistakes in the texts or some problems while playing, please let me know that I’ll try to solve the problem.

[Ivenend]

Thanks a lot for your work! That is such a great mod!

[Athos1660]

Coming from ‘the age of the pike’ Byzantine Games, I find it very destabilising to see all the infantry steady on rough terrain (being all MF).

(One big point to the pike afaic.)

[Athos1660]

I only looked at some armies of 1699-1732. Not a big fan of what I saw about the Cavalry.

French
In the continuation of what was done during the 17th century, there were Impact mounted cav in the French army 1699-1732. See :
- Mémoire relatif à l’organisation de la cavalerie par M. Villars, 1701
- for example, the charges by M. de Magnac’s squadrons at tha battle of Friedlingen (1702) or that by Tessé’s dragoons in 1701.

Moreover, from 1730’s on, all French Determined Horses are Impact Mounted (see military regulation of that time).

Swedish
During the charge, Charles XII’s Cuirassiers (and/or Shock Cav ?) should be better than the British Shock Cavalry (even when Veteran). Charles XII is the one who introduced the gallop during a cav charge (decades before Frederick the Great) while the French and the British (Marlborough) were still using the trot (which is good to keep the important cohesion).

British
No need to give them more love

During 1699-1732 :
- Charles XII is the boss of the charge : Gallop + Impact Mounted
- Marlborough : Trot + Impact Mounted (+ numerical superiority / concentration of cav in one area of the batlefield)
- French : as during the 17th century, their squadrons kept on using either one or the other tactic (Trot + Impact Mounted or the dated and less effective Trot + Pistol Impact) depending on the preferences of their Officer.

Question
Why are Heavy Horse only 50% pistol Impact ? Nothing changes during this period, in comparison with the previous period, that of the Vanilla game, when a pistol Impact Cav and an Impact Mounted one charge each other. They both still charge at a trot (except Charles XII one).

[Lysimachos]

Coming from ‘the age of the pike’ Byzantine Games, I find it very destabilising to see all the infantry steady on rough terrain (being all MF).

(One big point to the pike afaic.)

Hi Athos,

this is not a choice of mine but derives directly from the system, which requires that MF units remain steady even on rough terrain.

In any case, I don't think this impacts the mod negatively because:
- on the one hand, the infantry is substantially represented entirely by MF and therefore there is no risk of unwanted disparities in treatment being created between them and other types of units,
- on the other hand, it doesn't even seem wrong to me that they maintain a prevalence on rough terrain compared to the cavalry, which suffered a lot from this type of terrain.

Thanks anyway for your contribution!

[Athos1660]

Hello,
Allow me to be more precise about what I meant.

I don’t know much on the infantry of this time. So, if this infantry was indeed as depected in your mod (that is all MF steady on rough terrain), infantry of this time seems to me actually less enjoyable to play than that of the period of the pike because of this very lack of diversity on terrain (no P&S vs MF). Just a personal opinion.

Btw :

this is not a choice of mine but derives directly from the system, which requires that MF units remain steady even on rough terrain.

Technically speaking, if needed (ie. historically accurate), you could make some of your line infantry ‘Mixed foot’ (ie with the attributes of P&S) while still using their 3D model of ‘Medium Foot’.

[Lysimachos]

I only looked at some armies of 1699-1732. Not a big fan of what I saw about the Cavalry.

French
In the continuation of what was done during the 17th century, there were Impact mounted cav in the French army 1699-1732. See :
- Mémoire relatif à l’organisation de la cavalerie par M. Villars, 1701
- for example, the charges by M. de Magnac’s squadrons at tha battle of Friedlingen (1702) or that by Tessé’s dragoons in 1701.

Moreover, from 1730’s on, all French Determined Horses are Impact Mounted (see military regulation of that time).

Swedish
During the charge, Charles XII’s Cuirassiers (and/or Shock Cav ?) should be better than the British Shock Cavalry (even when Veteran). Charles XII is the one who introduced the gallop during a cav charge (decades before Frederick the Great) while the French and the British (Marlborough) were still using the trot (which is good to keep the important cohesion).

British
No need to give them more love

During 1699-1732 :
- Charles XII is the boss of the charge : Gallop + Impact Mounted
- Marlborough : Trot + Impact Mounted (+ numerical superiority / concentration of cav in one area of the batlefield)
- French : as during the 17th century, their squadrons kept on using either one or the other tactic (Trot + Impact Mounted or the dated and less effective Trot + Pistol Impact) depending on the preferences of their Officer.

Question
Why are Heavy Horse only 50% pistol Impact ? Nothing changes during this period, in comparison with the previous period, that of the Vanilla game, when a pistol Impact Cav and an Impact Mounted one charge each other. They both still charge at a trot (except Charles XII one).

Thanks a lot for your hints, Athos!

I was quite sure that the French cavalry retained the trot + pistol impact tactic during the first half of the XVIII century. At least, this is what seems to emerge reading the Osprey books about this period.

Regarding the Swedish, I modelled them giving full shock force, as due. If they maybe loose something against the British, it only depends on the fact that some of those are veteran units.

Anyway, I’ll take note of your kind suggestions while shaping the third version of the mod, which I assume will be published in a few months.

[Athos1660]

(...) the third version of the mod, which I assume will be published in a few months.

Good to know.

Some thought about the cav in your mod after 1733 :

French 1733 - 1763
All French Determined Horses should be Impact Mounted. Following how the mod call them, it means there whould be no French ‘Heavy Horse’, only Shock Cavalry Average and Veteran. Most would charge at a trot, like the British or the Austrian during most of the period, except the cav of the Maison du Roi (that most likely had often been charging at gallop since Louis XIV).

Prussian 1733-1763
imho Frederick the Great’s cav reforms are quite invisble in this mod, especially the spread of the gallop to the Ordinary cav : just a few Above Average Determined Horses (Armoured or not) which is more or less what the British 1727-1763 get.

French 1764 - 1783
All French Determined Horses should be Impact Mounted, all charging at gallop. Napoleon was born in 1769 (and an Ordinance was written in 1766).

Note
It seems that the Prussian, the Austrian, the British and the French abandoned the trot when charging (in favour of the gallop) for their Ordinary cav between the 1740’s and 1766, which is a short period of time while covering two important conflicts : the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.
- Prussian (174?)
- Austrian (1751 or later)
- British (ca. 1756)
- France (1766)
I don't know whether or not trot vs gallop can be handled by the game attributes (Troop quality ?).

[Athos1660]

It seems difficult to show in P&S the abandonment by the ordinary Average Determined Horses of each Nation of both :
- the trot during the charge at a certain date
- Pistol Impact at another date,
sometimes separated by decades during the 18th century,
without forgetting Elite Determined Horses who could charge as Impact Mounted at a galllop long before that (for example, French Turenne in the 17th century).

For example, the British Average Determined Horses seems to have abandoned Pistol Impact at the start of the 18th century (with Marlborough) while keeping the trot till c. 1756 (ie. the start of the Seven Years' War) ! The short-lived king od Sweden, Charles XII, abandons both the trot and Pistol Impact at the turn of the 18th century. Frederick the Great improves this formula with training and discipline for the Prussian thirty years later during the 1740's. Until then, the Prussian used the trot and the pistols during the charge. Etc.