Nelson, Wellington and.. er Warspite (God help us)

[warspite1]

I have decided (subject to being able to download the latest patch) [8|] to try an AAR.

I have been wanting to play this game since it was released as the opportunity to play the entire campaign really appeals. I have held back because of the poor reviews (bugs) and my own uncertainty over the Ageod game engine and mechanics. However, a 30% discount and recommendations from a couple of forumites I trust, means here I am....

I love this period of history (second only to WWII) and this game certainly looks all encompassing.

I have never played an Ageod game before (best intentions to try PON 5-years ago came to nought when my computer crashed) and so I am going to have to learn this from scratch and play as I go along - a bit of a steep learning curve so this may take some time to work through.....

Wish me luck.

[warspite1]

Well I have downloaded what I think is the latest patch - remarkably I cannot tell [:-]

Here is a picture. Hopefully someone can confirm whether the graphics around the large towns are as per the new unofficial patch 1.02?

[warspite1]

So first off I need to choose a game to play - and there is no choice for me; it's the campaign game [:)]. This starts in January 1805.

I am a firm believer in the importance of aesthetics and am committed to NATO counters. The game on first appearance is... different. However, it is no less impressive for that. The plethora of red units - army and navy - is a joy to see as are many of the well known names from the period.

The map is a little off (I have only skimmed the UK so far). I can confirm that Anglia and Wessex are in the wrong place - but not deal breakers. The map could do with another level of zoom for us old timers with dodgy eyesight too.

The map is certainly BIG. Importantly the map appears not too cluttered - the pieces can be moved within areas to improve access to certain features and overall the map gets the thumbs up.

So my first job is to give the tutorials a go so I can get started.

[warspite1]

Well I looked through the six tutorials. I have to say that they need to have a look at DC:Barbarossa in terms of quality of output. The tutorial length was good - circa 10 mins each, but why did the guy speak so fast?

When a person is new to a game - and indeed game system - it would be nice to have a slower, more deliberate walk through. I have no idea on where half the buttons he clicked were situated, so quick was the movement (and all the while trying to understand what was being said).

Fair enough this is a BIG game and not everything can be covered but, I did not find these tutorials hugely helpful - there was absolutely nothing said about the naval aspects of the game either!

I was hoping for some pointers on where to start in a campaign game but.....

Oh well, to the manual next.

[loki100]

great to see this - you do such excellent exploratory AARs. But some advice/comments.

If this is your first AGE game, I'd really suggest play the Waterloo scenario a few times. Its an hour or so. But there are tricks to the game system such as stances, march to the sound of the guns and so on that can trip up those new. As with the advice I often give about PoN, get your early errors out of the way in a short scenario rather than find out you've undermined 2-3 years of game play.

Related to this, don't want to push my own contribution but do read the set of posts in the war-room. They were written to help those new to the game system avoid some of the learning frustration. Equally some good pre-game reading is Narwhal's Learning from Prussia (its buried deep on the Paradox forum) or mine and Narwhal's 'Wars In America'. Clearly neither are about WoN, but you can skip the game play and concentrate on the frequent bits of play advice. The underlying game system is the same. Warning the Wars in America one contains both lots of trash talk and a lot of needless violence towards the local populations.

Navies.

Few key rules. First unlike land forces naval stacks (whether with a named admiral or not) are always potentially active. This is important as it means you can always set them to look for the enemy or to intercept a passing fleet.

Second, the more active a fleet is the quicker it will lose cohesion. So a passive fleet won't do much but can stay at sea quite a long time. An active fleet is looking for battle but runs up cohesion quickly. The trade off here is obvious.

Third, fleets need to go to port, preferably a naval base, to recover cohesion and take on replacements. When doing this they are better in passive mode - ie useless for operations.

Fourth, when moving from port to sea, fleets are subject to a random delay. You'll see this in the turn messages as 'fleet x was delayed y days in port z'. So if you see that a given journey will take 7 days, its possible that you won't make it one turn.

All this makes permanent blockade hard but the British have enough ships to find and block in the main French fleet - but you will then need a reserve in port to come out and replace the originals and so on. Also on the high seas, finding your opponent is hard (the impact of the detection vs evade scores). So you get a cat and mouse situation. I've just finished a Wars in America PBEM where I was able to use the relatively small US fleet very effectively by exploiting this.

hope this helps you a little.

edit: there are three orders specific to fleets:

a) intercept - pretty obvious, your fleet can be either at sea or sat in a port and will try to engage a passing fleet - as above best if it is in attack stance;
b) distant unload - allows you to drop off troops without having to make a specific order. Use this one to invade. If you simply want to transport troops to a new port then target that port with the fleet. When the fleet arrives the troops will appear inside the city
c) bombard - this means your fleet will bombard troops on shore - most obviously a fort. As you will know full well ships will lose to shore based guns, especially bigger fortress ones. My advice is don't use this option unless you are really confident (or desperate) - I've lost hard to replace ships this way in the past

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Well I have downloaded what I think is the latest patch - remarkably I cannot tell [:-]

After the game loads, press the Credits button. It will show what version you have.

Below is a screenshot using the March 11 patch. Haven't installed the March 24th patch yet.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Well I looked through the six tutorials. I have to say that they need to have a look at DC:Barbarossa in terms of quality of output. The tutorial length was good - circa 10 mins each, but why did the guy speak so fast?

When a person is new to a game - and indeed game system - it would be nice to have a slower, more deliberate walk through. I have no idea on where half the buttons he clicked were situated, so quick was the movement (and all the while trying to understand what was being said).

Fair enough this is a BIG game and not everything can be covered but, I did not find these tutorials hugely helpful - there was absolutely nothing said about the naval aspects of the game either!

I was hoping for some pointers on where to start in a campaign game but.....

Oh well, to the manual next.

Build replacements. Replacements allow your units to recover hits from battles and attrition. They also allow units to get elements they're supposed to get. (I would build replacements, only to have them gone the next turn. Went into various on map units)

Generally it's 1 replacement for every 10 hits. But, elite units take *3* replacements for each hit that is replaced. The production screen will tell you how many hits you need to replace.




However, there is no guarantee of that ratio. What is guaranteed is that if you have nothing on hand, the hits don't get replaced.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Well I have downloaded what I think is the latest patch - remarkably I cannot tell [:-]

After the game loads, press the Credits button. It will show what version you have.

Below is a screenshot using the March 11 patch. Haven't installed the March 24th patch yet.

warspite1

I clicked on credits and the only numbers I can see are:

NGC 1.00

which I take to mean no update....let's try again.....

Nah, still the same.

[Aurelian]

Install the patch in the same directory as the game.....

Of course, a couple of times with earlier patches I had to do it manually.... What a pain.

You might as well get the March 24 patch.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.p ... version-lt

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

Install the patch in the same directory as the game.....

Of course, a couple of times with earlier patches I had to do it manually.... What a pain.

You might as well get the March 24 patch.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.p ... version-lt

warspite1

Sadly I am not computer literate and whatever I am trying is clearly not working. I have put the patch in the folder (directory?) as the game but its still coming up with

[Rondo]

Warspite

I've been intrigued by this game for quite awhile, but reluctant to purchase it for the same reasons as you. Your introductory learn-as-you-go AARs are great guides to gameplay for guys like me. Good luck, and I'll be following with interest.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Rondo

Warspite

I've been intrigued by this game for quite awhile, but reluctant to purchase it for the same reasons as you. Your introductory learn-as-you-go AARs are great guides to gameplay for guys like me. Good luck, and I'll be following with interest.

warspite1

Thanks Rondo, although this could prove to be the shortest AAR in history - I just cannot get the damn patch to download at the moment (or at least download properly).

[Franciscus]

Hi, Warspite.

Let me try to help you!

1. First, DO NOT install Ageod games in the programs(x86) directory. I never do it and I don't have problems. Install WoN in a custom folder (I use C:\Games\Wars of Napoleon)
2. Install the game (release version, 1.00) in the folder you define.
3. You do not need the ofiicial 1.011 patch, you can go directly to latest beta patch (it is stated that, as usually with Ageod, the patches are compreehensive, even the public betas)
3. Download the patch from Ageod, here: http://ftp.ageod.com/pub/WON/WONSetup_p ... arch24.exe. Download it anywhere, for example to your desktop.
4. The patch is an exe file. Run it, by double clicking it.
5. The patch installer will by default point to a wrong install path. Manually change it to your install path (in my case: C:\Games\Wars of Napoleon). Let it install
6. You should be alright [:)]. During loading, on the lower right of the screen you will see that it's the March 24 version of 1.02. In the credits screen, it will also show that you are on "NGC 1.02 Public Beta, March 24-2016"

Enjoy

Regards

[warspite1]

Hi Franciscus

Yes, it looks like Programs (x86) was "chosen".

So do I uninstall the game and then reinstall in the "normal" folder? If so (as I have not received my disc yet) can I just use the link that came with the Order Information?

[Franciscus]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Hi Franciscus

Yes, it looks like Programs (x86) was "chosen".

So do I uninstall the game and then reinstall in the "normal" folder? If so (as I have not received my disc yet) can I just use the link that came with the Order Information?

Well, before an uninstall, I would try to apply the patch to your current instalation.

Run the patch, but be sure to manually input the correct path for it (it must end in \Wars of Napoleon). It must be the folder where the game executable (NGC.exe) is

Regards

[warspite1]

Well I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but still not working....

The folders look different to, for example, DC:B so its probably a case of not putting the patch in the right place but I'm buggered if I can work it out.

[Franciscus]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Well I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but still not working....

The folders look different to, for example, DC:B so its probably a case of not putting the patch in the right place but I'm buggered if I can work it out.

If I can do it, you must be able to do it !!

After all, you play MWIF, something that I think will never do [:D]

Some simple questions:

- what windows version are you running ?
- are you running as administrator ?
- sometimes UAC and antivirus programs stop some executables. I have UAC Off (Windows 7) and have no issues with Microsoft Security Essentials.

>> When you run the patch executable, you must be sure that the path he will try to install is exactly the same where your game was installed. I installed WoN in C:\Games, and my patch install window must look like this for it to work:



If, on the other hand you installed on the default (I think it is the default):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Matrix Games\Wars of Napoleon

then the patch must install itself in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Matrix Games\Wars of Napoleon


Regards

[Aurelian]

Let's install Wars of Napoleon.

Don't want it there, so we change it. (See next post.)

[Aurelian]

You can click between the \ and the M, and back space until you get to the picture on the right.

There are other ways I'm sure. But that is how I do it.



You can install it in any directory you name. I just do it that way to minimize typing.

When it comes time to install that patch, make sure it installs to the same directory on the right hand picture.

In you documents folder, you should have a My Games folder. In there should be a Wars of Napoleon folder. That is where saved games go.

I think the patch could be installing into there

[warspite1]

Obviously not sure what the problem is but I have tried changing the destination - but that is not straightforward (to me) as, unlike other games, there seems to be no separate folder for WON. Also Franciscus mentioned Administrator. There was a box mentioning that but I just ignored it (as I don't know what it means, much less be able to do anything about it).

I am reinstalling again now and will post when I get to changing the folder name. Clearly the game is installing okay - but the patch.....??