KS Mod

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Mr Digby -> KS Mod (12/5/2015 10:42:36 AM)
Hello everyone. I'd like to promote the KS (KriegSpiel) Mod for SOW:WL here, if I may. We have a thread for the mod over at the NSD forums: http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/69371-ks-mod The KS Mod makes considerable changes to gameplay and AI behaviour as well as introducing numerous new weapon types, sprites and maps. Almost all the nations of the Napoleonic wars are represented with a couple of notable exceptions and some minor nations still to be covered. The GUI (user interface) has also been given a complete overhaul and is, we think, more user friendly now and more comprehensive in terms of formations you can use and courier orders options you can send. We have included many of the free add-on maps that were made for SoW:Gettysburg by NSD or the modding community and we are constantly adding more maps. The mod was originally written four years ago for SoW Gettysburg and a was a complete Napoleonic overhaul for that game. We moved the basic structure of the mod over to Waterloo when that was released in summer 2015. The mod is currently at v1.15, with the supporting Sprites Mod at v1.02 and the Supplementary Maps Mod at v1.09. The mod has been tested with and is compatible with patch v1.043. We have announcement and support threads for the mod on NSDs forums but our home is at the KriegSpiel forum: http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/f32-scourge-of-war At the NSD forum there is an images thread to showcase some of the different nations and years supported in the mod: http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/69491-ks-mod-images A thread showing a Russian-French 1812 MP battle: http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/68731-russians-at-waterloo The KS Group is currently fighting the Peninsular War 1808-1814 using PBEM and umpire-adjudicated rules, each turn of which covers two weeks, and using SoW:WL to resolve the battles in MP. We've been playing for over 2 years now and the campaign involves around 20 players at any one time, though many more than this have participated over the months. We are currently at March 1809 and Napoleon has just secured Madrid after a hard winter campaign and a terrible battle at Somosierra Pass in which the Polish Light Horse were as spectacularly prominent as they were in history. The Peninsular Campaign thread at the NSD forums: http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-mp-forum/70905-peninsular-campaign-1808-1814-being-refought The campaign forum at the Kriegspiel site: http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/f40-napoleonic-peninsular-campaign In addition to this there are hidden sub-forums for the Allied and French teams on the KS forums. We play using HITS (10 yds radius) and couriers with no spoken communications allowed in-game unless its to discuss technical problems. We use TeamSpeak for arranging games, pre-battle generals councils/planning and after-battle discussion but our games are played in spoken silence. All reports, orders and other messages are carried by in-game couriers and we observe a strict chain of command structure with usually a corps commander and several division commanders per side. We play both co-op vs the AI and player vs player. The mod also emphasises the maximum fog of war that SoW:WL allows and combined with our 'house' rules for gameplay we like to think our MP games get you as close to the atmosphere and command delays and confusions its possible to be with a retail/commercial black powder era software combat simulator. If HITS and couriers isn't your thing you are of course very welcome to use the mod in your preferred play mode in single-player or in your own MP groups elsewhere. We are happy to give support on the KS forums to other MP groups or SP players who use the mod. New players are always very welcome to join us for MP games, whether as part of the campaign or stand alone player-created scenarios which we play usually once or twice a week. No matter what your skill level, HITS and couriers is a great leveller of player skills; our players can be beaten by the AI sometimes so please do not be concerned about joining us for an MP game if you don't have much experience under your belt. We will give you whatever command level you are comfortable with which usually means initially having charge of a small infantry brigade. We are a very friendly and non-competitive group and we like to conduct our games and forums in a very friendly and open manner. We are all on first name terms and don't hide behind usernames in our MP games. We find this helps promote a more relaxed friendly atmosphere. If you'd like to try HITS and couriers MP play, or have questions to ask about the mod, or would like support using it, please drop by and say hello. Many thanks - Martin

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (12/14/2015 8:29:23 AM)
Version 1.16 has now been released. Version 1.10 of Supplemental Maps has been released. In this version we have: 1) Amended the artillery AI so that guns pull back or rout away at closer distances from charging enemies than before. This makes guns harder to force back. 2) Disabled guns routing from infantry advances. Infantry now have to charge guns to displace them away. 3) Guns no longer rout away if a friendly unit is nearby and an enemy attacks it. Previously our supporting units logic was not working correctly. 4) We have slowed heavy cavalry charge from 14mph to 12mph and light from 16mph to 14mph in order to lower their extreme effectiveness. We thought cavalry was becoming too dominant and this speed reduction allows a defending infantry player more response time. This also increases cavalry fatigue as it will spend longer in fatiguing terrain and so take more fatigue hits for crossing rivers and woods, etc. 5) Several maps added. 6) Replaced the Austrian marching music. 7) Edited some French and Spanish sprite classes to reduce the number/variation of sprites used. We've playtested the new artillery morale/cavalry speeds and the game seems more balanced now. v1.16 is available in the links given in the first post. KS Forum thread: http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t1614-ks-napoleon-mod-ii-1-16-and-ks-sow-supplemental-maps-1-10#17427

pacwar -> RE: KS Mod (12/16/2015 12:26:01 AM)
OK, I'll bite...my only hesitation is the installation process...walk me through it and I'll give it a try.

GBS -> RE: KS Mod (12/16/2015 11:35:57 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: pacwar OK, I'll bite...my only hesitation is the installation process...walk me through it and I'll give it a try. I second this. I would also like to try it but have the same concern about the install process. Thanks.

GBS -> RE: KS Mod (12/16/2015 1:51:00 PM)
For some reason I cant located the download link for this Mod? Where might I find it.

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (12/16/2015 3:35:40 PM)
Hi guys. Here is the thread with the file links in: http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t1451-set-up-for-sowwl-napoleon-games-for-kriegspiel-style You must be registered at those forums to see and use the D/L links. Basic installation is very simple - just like any other mod. You unzip the contents of the downloaded archive into the Mods folder of SoW-Waterloo and then start the game and go to the Modifications screen. Check the three KS Mods and make sure all other mods are unchecked. The sequence of the mods is not important. Then close your game completely and go back in for the mods to take effect. You'll know the mods are working correctly the instant you restart as the splash screens are different. One other step you must do is to go into your game Options and on the first screen the very bottom button on the right "Disable Context Menu" must be checked. The KS Mod doesn't use the context pop-up menus at all, we reverted to a traditional toolbar at the bottom of the screen because we play HITS and with HITS the context pop-up is usually right over the place you are trying to see! The other changes we suggest in your game options are just that - suggestions. We all use them in our MP games because they increase the fog of war, which we prefer, but the KS Mod can be played in any style you prefer, free camera, without couriers, etc. You should also only use the OOBs that are titled with "OOB_SP_KS_" at the front of the name and the maps that begin with a country name. The stock maps work fine, its just that the others have been fine-tuned to work better with our improved courier system. The KS Mod can also be used in the single player campaign. Southern Belgium can become Russia in 1812, Prussia in 1806, Poland in 1807, Northern Italy in 1809 or the Peninsular ;) The KS Mod cannot be used with the stock scenarios. It can be used with sandbox, custom-written user scenarios, the SP sandbox campaign or MP.

Martin James -> RE: KS Mod (12/16/2015 5:46:24 PM)
Can I echo what Mr Digby has said about the KS group MP games. They are played in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, and an excellent spirit. Seeing only what you can see from the saddle, and reliant on couriers to maintain contact with your fellow team members, it's very easy to make mistakes. But then everyone else will be making them too........ We play with team briefings for both sides, so our battles are set in a realistic context with varying objectives. These may not be the same for both sides. We also play with a chain of command. This style of game does not appeal to everyone, but it's the nearest thing to how it was for the actual generals. If this sounds good to you, you will certainly enjoy our games, and you can be assured of a warm welcome. Martin

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (12/22/2015 5:50:37 PM)
For people interested in what the KS Group does in SoW other than Waterloo, I've quoted a recent e-mail update sent to our members: quote: Regular Games We normally now have games most evenings (UK-Europe time) and afternoons (USA time) from Friday through Monday. As always, our games are played in a good spirit. Some are team games and some co-op vs the AI. For those who just own Gettysburg, the Monday evening games normally use that game, or one of its mods. Peninsular Campaign This is probably the most ambitious email campaign ever run, and Digby is always on the lookout for more players. We have now reached March 1809. Napoleon intervened personally in Spain late in 1808 and brought major reinforcements of good troops with him. The French have enjoyed considerable success, but trouble is brewing with the Austrians, and the Emperor must leave Spain to address the situation on that front. There are two kinds of role available. You can take a typically corps-level command in the email map campaign, or you can join one of the weekend MP battles, which are resolved using SoW Waterloo. You can of course do both! SoW Waterloo After some teething problems, the game is now much more playable MP than it was. This is partly down to the latest patch and partly due to a great deal of work and testing within the group, which is reflected in our various mods. Most of our regular games now use SoW Waterloo in fact. It does represent a real advance over the KS Napoleonic Mod for SoW Gettysburg. Forthcoming Map Mods Ace map-modder Mark has been working on a version of the famous Kriegspiel Meckel map for use with Waterloo. This is a really nice map, and with it�s hilltop villages, and a nice range of period houses and churches, has a very appropriate Ruritanian quality. It is quite unlike any other map yet produced. This will be released shortly as part of the next KS Napoleonic Mod update. Forthcoming Waterloo Mod Veteran modders Crikey and Pom are putting the final touches to their first Waterloo mod, which is now under test. This is set in the 1859 Italian War, and includes an OOB for the Battle of Solferino between the Austrians and the French/Sardinians. It will be interesting to see the Waterloo engine in action in an era of improved firearms. Gettysburg Mods Updated versions of the Additional ACW Flags & Sprites Mod, and also the Little Bighorn Mod are also planned for the fist quarter of 2016. Kind regards Martin James

pacwar -> RE: KS Mod (12/28/2015 12:36:54 AM)
Ok, I downloaded all the files but I can't extract them using windows explorer...the only choices are winzip, which I don't have access to, or adobe acrobat which doesn't seem to work....any ideas?

e_barkmann -> RE: KS Mod (12/28/2015 1:36:30 AM)
You will need to install 7zip. http://www.7-zip.org/

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (12/28/2015 8:29:55 AM)
Winzip also works. Its free and you can d/l it anywhere. There's also Winrar, which will open 7z files.

pacwar -> RE: KS Mod (12/29/2015 3:19:42 AM)
Thanks for the advice...picked up the 7zip program which did the trick.

Miko -> RE: KS Mod (1/6/2016 9:34:02 AM)
Great... my whole post was binned because it contained link to the forum - which was optional anyway... so now briefly my message to all players: 1. download KS 2. play MP either KS or vanilla in HITS mode (or with slightly elevated camera - max 50 yards) with couriers 3. join the community - I can't post link to the forums... but look for the Steam group and you'll find us... Question to KS people: whenever I try to make a new scenario using KS Peninsula OOB, the scenario editor crashes - is there any remedy for this? Cheers, Miko

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/6/2016 2:32:51 PM)
Hi Miko Yes, this forum does that if you try using links until 7 days after your 10th post, its to stop spambots. Pleased to hear you are enjoying the KS mod. It would be good if your steam group would drop by the KS forums and say hi since we have a strong regular group of players there and we actually need more since during the winter holiday period we ran into trouble getting enough players for some of our campaign MP games. If you have a technical question about the mod please ask it on the KS forum. That's where most of us hang out and where our main modders and testers are. We'd rather have all questions asked and answered in one place so its more convenient for anyone who wants to know anything about the mod - they only have to go to one place for the answers.

Miko -> RE: KS Mod (1/6/2016 5:21:07 PM)
Hi Mr Digby, I don't have problem with the safe measures against spambots, but I lost the message that I edited at work for 15 minutes... maybe cutting out the links or throwing back to message editing would be better. KS mod, yes, I prefer it slightly over vanilla, especially since in latest version artillery is not destroyed by skirmishers standing 100 yards from them... I'm not sure about this en-mass joining your campaign... there are some very competitive players among us that could have spoiled the atmosphere :) I'll be interested for sure... The problem I spotted with this game now is that players are scattered over the world around several forums often duplicating the effort. Combine this with the fact that the real fun starts from 6 players in MP upwards and you get frustrated guys like me, you, shouting and trying to consolidate the community. We come from different backgrounds and with maybe different expectations. At first I thought I'd just play only in helicopter view mode - like in Total War... as I got to know about SoW via NTW3 HB mod for N:TW... I still think it's possible to mod SoW the way that would be more "helicopter friendly".. but for now I'm really into half-HITS... I'm saying half-hits as I'd like the camera higher so I could point at the place on ground easier. We play in vanilla at 16 yards range for some technical reason that mitra can explain. btw. It's not mine Steam group.. it's been started by someone else and promoting vanilla mostly. But I think integrating as many players as possible is the only way to go and as long as there are no major differences the groups should merge. I'll post on KS forum... it's not a big problem for now as other KS OOBs seem to work well with scenario editor.. but sometimes in the future I'd like to try Peninsula one, too :)

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/6/2016 6:48:34 PM)
If you use Firefox and hate losing long posts get the Lazarus plug-in. It caches your posts as you write and recovers them with a right-click in the posting box panel. It has saved my life numerous times. I am curious to know how competitive some of your players are. Will they ignore historical reality and real formations, tactics, etc if they can find a game loophole that lets them win?

Miko -> RE: KS Mod (1/6/2016 10:33:42 PM)
quote: I am curious to know how competitive some of your players are. Will they ignore historical reality and real formations, tactics, etc if they can find a game loophole that lets them win? I really wouldn't like to badmouth anybody.. but yes, for instance skirmishers would be sent directly on the batteries in KS and that's pretty much game over... if playing without couriers then cavalry becomes master destroyer as you get into charge-retreat dance until you don't react on time and finally your infantry is either charged by cavalry if in line or by infantry if in squares...

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/7/2016 7:35:03 AM)
Yes, I understand what you are saying. Our group is into as much realism and fog of war as the game allows which is why we play with couriers and HITS at 10yards. As well as being realistic this has the side benefit of making unit control at a distance harder and is a great leveller of different player skills or experience levels. I'd like to think we have some quite adept players in our group and we often play co-op vs the AI and the AI can still sometimes beat us or hold us to a bloody draw using that environment. The two tactics you mentioned generally don't work with the KS mod using HITs and couriers - skirmishers who are unsupported tend to die from cavalry quite quickly or are neutralised by opposing skirmishers. We also generally keep our guns well back and supported. Putting them in the front line is an invitation to lose them anyway. Our enhanced canister also makes life brutal fort enemy skirmishers. I have seen skirmishers drive off a battery but that's rare and the artillery player (me!) was doing everything wrong! Our latest version (v1.16) has slowed cavalry down for the reason you gave. We too thought that cavalry was becoming too powerful. And again with couriers its harder to use it in that precision manner. Sounds like your group should use couriers! Why suffer from gamey players when there's an easy fix and the game becomes more balanced and challenging? ;)

ETF -> RE: KS Mod (1/10/2016 2:48:54 PM)
Is there a KS North American group or chapter? One that plays in the evenings rather than the day for our EU friends?

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/11/2016 8:23:35 AM)
I don't think there is. We would fully support any group that was formed however! Can you play in the afternoons at weekends? We often play Sundays at 20:00 UK time / 15:00 US east coast / 12:00 noon US west coast if that is any help. The time difference for MP games across the Atlantic has always plagued online gaming and I've had to endure it for over 20 years and we think the early evening time in Europe is the one timeslot that seems to be most helpful to all. We have quite a few US players in our group - I don't see why they wouldn't want to play in the evenings. You should drop on over the KS forum and suggest the idea. I would be very surprised if you didn't get some playing partners.

Champagne -> RE: KS Mod (1/11/2016 8:09:49 PM)
I like the KS Mod a lot and it was not difficult to install properly.

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/16/2016 6:48:41 AM)
A new version, v1.17 has been released as well as v1.11 of KS Supplemental Maps. Changes: 1. The first SOWWL map named Meckel, created by Mark Tewes is included. Mark made the Gettysburg maps for the original SOWGB game. It contains numerous villages with strong points. The attacker does not have an easy time on this map. Meckel has a west German theme and is based on one of the original 19th century German staff Kreigspiel maps and to see the map in digital form has been a long ambition of Martin James, one of our groups leading members. 2. A large number of scenarios have been added. These are ones that the KS group has played in their MP games. They are fully playable in SP also. You will find them when you press the User Scenario button in the game. They all begin with 'KS'. The country name indicates which side should be the human side in SP or co-op MP play. Most of these will also give good PvP battles. The updated versions may be found here: http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t1451-set-up-for-sowwl-napoleon-games-for-kriegspiel-style#14783 You will need to register for free membership of the KS forums in order to download files.

Ostwindflak -> RE: KS Mod (1/20/2016 7:28:48 PM)
Are all the map locations in German or are there English versions too?

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (1/21/2016 7:25:24 AM)
The map locations are in the language of the country in which the map is set. Think of them as local maps that the two sides are both using.

Miko -> RE: KS Mod (1/21/2016 2:13:17 PM)
Is KS forum down today? If yes, are you planning a game tonight?

Ostwindflak -> RE: KS Mod (1/21/2016 4:37:07 PM)
Thanks for the reply Mr. Digby.

Volunteer -> RE: KS Mod (1/25/2016 5:07:35 PM)
The KS mod is a wonderful expansion on the base game. Great variety of units/uniforms/nations on wide ranging terrains/maps. Playing HITS and couriers is engrossing and at times intense as timing movements becomes critical. The guys who play KS are very friendly and helpful. Give it a go; I bet you like it. Shout out for Mr. Digby he is a particularly good bloke!

kipanderson -> RE: KS Mod (2/1/2016 11:42:10 AM)
Hi, Many thanks to all for the SDK work. Some years ago did, many year ago in fact, did use the files in ACW version. Look forward to really getting to grips with the files and data here too when I have time. With SDK files and map editor when ready will be wonder land of fun. My current reservation as initially coded is that attacking infantry are never/rarely stopped by musketry. Each to their own, but my reading in the books I trust most make clear that at under 100m often attacking infantry did hesitate, grind to a holt and revert to disorganised firing themselves even if not the wish of their officers. Or simply be driven off before actual contact. Not as often as with ACW when lines blasting away for long was the default. But they did not always close as ordered. All good stuff, All the best, Kip.

Mr Digby -> RE: KS Mod (2/1/2016 2:56:01 PM)
Hi Kip Thanks for the kind words. In the KS Mod musketry is more powerful and you will see attack columns driven back or stopped by it more often. A fresh battalion of good morale and with supports will still be very hard to halt however. The KS Mod still produces more melees than I'd like but we are continually adjusting things. A new version v118 will be ready soon with a couple of significant changes designed to defeat some gamey play styles in MP games ;)

kipanderson -> RE: KS Mod (2/1/2016 6:12:02 PM)
Mr Digby, hi, the specific I was planning on look at was the morale effect of musketry. But first must have good dig around in the data and such and relearn how it all works. But look forward to using your Mod very much. BTW, I agree that it is not desirable to go to extremes. High morale troops certainly did close often. All the best, kip.

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