New Army Variations? Pretty Easy To Do!

[Miletus]

After getting some advice & encouragement from RBS on another thread (see below), I've created a couple of new ECW armies using existing troop types. I wanted to post a note on the main forum to say that it's pretty easy to do, and a lot of fun - and to encourage people to have a go!!!

My aim was to create two paired armies that would provide the option for an ECW cavalry v cavalry skirmish, inc some dragoons, as this happened pretty frequently during the ECW (mostly on a fairly small scale). I'll need to play around with the balance between the two forces a bit more to make it an even contest against the AI, but the main process is really straightforward. At some point I'm aiming to create a list for Montrose Scots to provide the Covenanters with a local opponent. That'll involve a bit of research, but if it seems decent enough when I've finished it I'll share it on the forum.

Adding the two new lists in a clone campaign folder was mostly straightforward, though inevitably I ended making silly mistakes that took a few tries to iron out. But editing the relevant text files - ArmyList.txt and Text1.txt - is fairly intuitive and not at all daunting (providing you don't overwrite the original campaign files that is!!!). Here's the original discussion:


Postby rbodleyscott » 14 Nov 2014 18:53

Miletus wrote:Talking of Skirmish mode battles Richard, is there a way to set up a cavalry v cavalry skirmish?


This can be done fairly easily by adding cavalry only (or mostly cavalry) army list variants to the ArmyList.txt file. Although there is already a Royalist raiding force variant list which is mostly cavalry.

We advise you not to edit your main game installation.

You can make a clone of the campaign using the Editor by selecting the option to make a new campaign as a copy of one of the vanilla campaigns. This will be stored in MyDocuments/My Games/Campaigns/NameofCampaign. You can then change the name of the campaign displayed in the campaign menu by changing the text for IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME in text1.txt in the cloned campaign folder.

The English Civil War and Italian Wars campaign folders already contain ArmyList.txt files that you can edit. The TYW ArmyList.txt is in /PikeandShot/Core. Make a copy of that to your cloned TYW Campaign and you can safely edit it there.

[rbodleyscott]

Well don't keep us in suspense. Please list the new army lists (in ArmyList.txt format) here as soon as you are reasonably happy with them.

[Miletus]

Well don't keep us in suspense. Please list the new army lists (in ArmyList.txt format) here as soon as you are reasonably happy with them.

Okay, this is what I've done so far. The two new lists aren't historically researched or balanced, they're a 'first cut' to check how the system works.

i) I went into the P&S Editor and made a copy of the English Civil War campaign, naming it Jays_ECW. This creates a new folder in my Documents/My Games/PikeAndShot/Campaigns master folder.

ii) Then I went into the ArmyList.txt file in the new folder. It's quite easy to see how the army lists in there are put together. I copied and pasted a couple of the existing entries and edited them to produce two new ones:

// 1643-1644
[ECW_ROYALIST_CAVALRY]
SIDE ALLIES
SIDEID 12
NAME IDS_ARMY_ECW_ROYALIST_CAVALRY
YEARS 43 44
SKIN ECW_Royalist


UNIT_0 Cavaliers
MIN_0 6
MAX_0 28

UNIT_1 Veteran_Cavaliers
MIN_1 6
MAX_1 16

UNIT_2 Blue_Dragoons
MIN_2 0
MAX_2 8

- for the Royalists, and -

// 1643-1645
[MECW_PARL_CAVALRY]
SIDE AXIS
SIDEID 13
NAME IDS_ARMY_MECW_PARL_CAVALRY
YEARS 42 44
SKIN ECW_Parliamentarian


UNIT_0 Parliamentarian_Horse_Late
MIN_0 9
MAX_0 16

UNIT_1 Vet_Parliament_Horse_Late
MIN_1 0
MAX_1 10

UNIT_2 Parliamentarian_Horse_Early
MIN_2 0
MAX_2 10

UNIT_3 Lobsters
MIN_3 0
MAX_3 2

UNIT_4 Red_Dragoons
MIN_4 0
MAX_4 8

- for the Parliamentarians.

iii) The next step was to edit the Text1.txt file (again, in the new folder) by adding two new entries:

IDS_ARMY_ECW_ROYALIST_CAVALRY, "Royalist Cavalry 1642 - 1644",

and -

IDS_ARMY_MECW_PARL_CAVALRY, "Parliamentarian Cavalry 1642-1644",

And basically that's it. Two new armies added to the selection options for the English Civil War. The forces will need editing pretty drastically to get them right, but it's easy to get started and the rest is just down to doing the research and getting a balance of forces that you feel is characteristic of the era.

Final point is that it's easy (as I found out when I was doing it) to miss a comma here or a space there, and that DOES make a difference (as any other ex- or current programmers will know). But then it's simply a case of running the program and ironing out any bugs in your edits as and when they occur...

Remember though - ALWAYS WORK ON A COPY OF THE INSTALLATION FILES, NOT THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS!!!

[rbodleyscott]

Ideally the total points cost of the list should be around 2500-3300 points, with maybe 500 points of compulsory units.

The lists are designed for 2000 point armies, and the minima and maxima will be adjusted accordingly for different total points values.

[SteveD64]

Is a 2000 point army considered Very Large, Large or Medium?

[rbodleyscott]

Is a 2000 point army considered Very Large, Large or Medium?

Large.

[Miletus]

Ideally the total points cost of the list should be around 2500-3300 points, with maybe 500 points of compulsory units.

The lists are designed for 2000 point armies, and the minima and maxima will be adjusted accordingly for different total points values.

Is there somewhere where the points value of the different troop types are listed, other than in the army selection screen itself?

TIA,
Jay

[rbodleyscott]

Ideally the total points cost of the list should be around 2500-3300 points, with maybe 500 points of compulsory units.

The lists are designed for 2000 point armies, and the minima and maxima will be adjusted accordingly for different total points values.

Is there somewhere where the points value of the different troop types are listed, other than in the army selection screen itself?

TIA,
Jay

In the squads file.

[Miletus]

Got it, thanks. I'll do the maths and post a revised version!

[Miletus]

Ok, this is a new version with numbers which (hopefully) conform more closely to what they should be in terms of the minimum and maximum points that the program should be working with. It's worth bearing in mind that this isn't a researched and realistic army list - just a short-term fix to enable me to fight battles involving cavalry and dragoons only (plus a few commanded shot to give the Roundheads more of a chance):

// 1643-1646
[ECW_ROYALIST_CAVALRY]
SIDE ALLIES
SIDEID 12
NAME IDS_ARMY_ECW_ROYALIST_CAVALRY
YEARS 43 46
SKIN ECW_Royalist

UNIT_0 Cavaliers
MIN_0 4
MAX_0 24

UNIT_1 Veteran_Cavaliers
MIN_1 4
MAX_1 20

UNIT_2 Blue_Dragoons
MIN_2 3
MAX_2 10

// 1643-1646
[MECW_PARL_CAVALRY]
SIDE AXIS
SIDEID 13
NAME IDS_ARMY_MECW_PARL_CAVALRY
YEARS 43 46
SKIN ECW_Parliamentarian

UNIT_0 Parliamentarian_Horse_Late
MIN_0 4
MAX_0 22

UNIT_1 Vet_Parliament_Horse_Late
MIN_1 4
MAX_1 20

UNIT_2 Red_Commanded_Shot
MIN_2 0
MAX_2 8

UNIT_3 Red_Dragoons
MIN_3 3
MAX_3 10