Turns out I forgot to add in the updated PDT files that sync the weapon's values across the three 1813-1814 titles. That will have to go into the next update.
The ratings are NOT that much different so there is not a huge issue here.
In the next update I will include a linking campaign file that will allow you to play from 1813 thru to the end of the 1814 campaign. A new option will be added into the Leipzig game for you to forgo fighting at Leipzig (French) and retreat into France to lick your wounds and call up more troops. There will be one retreat action fight but the campaign will not end with a victor for either side until you finish the 1814 campaign.
Thus once the French player decides to NOT fight at Leipzig the battle to be fought would be similar to Hanau and then you would copy the campaign file to the 1814 game and finish the campaign using that game.
And yes, there will be a linking campaign from Leipzig to 1814 as well. It will just not include the Spring Campaign that was in the Spring - Fall linking campaign file I added to both Bautzen and Leipzig.
This will mean a lot of new scenarios, campaign picture maps and campaign file branching for me for both Leipzig and 1814 but I am up for the challenge.
I hope that you guys have tried out Bautzen and 1814. While not as popular as Leipzig, the two titles have a lot of new material and in particular I learned more about the 1814 campaign by building that game than what I knew from my past reading.
What we aught to be doing is bombard Emperor's Press with tons of emails to get them to release George Nafziger's book on the campaign. George tells me that the book was ready in the EARLY 1990s!!!! Ridiculous how publishers tie up books like that. I really could have used his book for my research.
Also the 2nd vol. by Mike Leggiere on the campaign. I bought his first volume not know that a second was planned and that it would only cover the intro actions along the Rhine but not cover ANY of the main battles of the campaign. Hoping his book comes out in the next few years. I would be glad to make manpower corrections to the units based on either George's or Mike's books.
Manpower figures for 1814 were difficult to obtain - the French clerks destroyed a lot of records for that time period as the Allies neared Paris from what I was told. Very difficult to find out sizes on the Allies too.
Hope you guys like the 1813-14 games. Really a bonus for me to be able to do those. Still have one more to go (no, its not the Peninsular War or Eylau) ....
Too bad, it should be the Peninsular, IMOH. Granted, everyrhimg you produce Bill is awesome!$
Any hints!?!? ;)
I guess I don't follow you. First, I never said that the game I was working on was out next. Surely you didn't get that idea from my thread?
Secondly, Rich Hamilton admitted that a Peninsular game WAS in the works years ago. Maybe it is out next, maybe something else. The game has been in production since ECKMUHL - two guys dropped it and finally someone who will FINISH it has been working on it.
Thirdly, your opinion is that for whatever reason the hobby and John Tiller is losing out if the Peninsular games does not come out soon. I disagree with that. Tell me ONE battle in the Peninsular the ended the wars? None of them come up to the significance of even Dresden.
I would stack Katzbach up against Talavera any day and the same for Arcis-sur-Aube with Salamanca as far as importance. But do you know why YOU think that the Peninsular battles which I named above are more important than those from 1813/14? It is because of the influence of the British historians in planting in our minds the supposed importance of these sideshow events.
The Peninsular War was a drain on French manpower and it cost him politically as well but that was about it. The recapture of Madrid may have hurt Napoleon's prestige but the capture of him after the Battle of Paris is what ended the wars. NOT WATERLOO. Waterloo was a small event which was inevitable. The Allies had large armies that were going to invade France and Napoleon did not have the resources to stop them. The strategy that Napoleon used was similar to what he had done in the past. The attitude that "the French army of 1815 was perhaps the finest he commanded" is ridiculous! It turned tail and ran (except for the Guard). It's leaders were not Davout, Lannes or Massena. You had D'Erlon, Reille and so on. Guys whom Wellington had defeated before. Waterloo holds no mystique to me and frankly is a boring battle to recreate. Usually designers attach some importance to La Haye Sainte and Hougomont when in fact every military historian who has an ounce of brains knows that these were distractions to Ney and Napoleon. The real target should have been the Anglo-Allied ARMY. Not some hard point.
It was the result of the Battle of Paris that caused the end of the wars. The Peninsular War was a severe thorn in Napoleon's side. But it was the Russians, Austrians, Prussians and German principalities and kingdoms that doomed Napoleon. And Napoleon's own pride that would not allow him to see things clearly in 1813 and even in 1814 when he was negotiating with the Allies.
But as I love the early battles of Napoleon I realize that there are some that will find the Peninsular title to be something that they have an interest in. But it is not hurting the hobby, our club or John Tiller's pocket book to not have released it sooner. While I realize that sales on it may be higher than 1814 I know in my heart that the 1814 battles had more significance in the war overall. I took a big gamble in working on that title. Almost walked away from it at one point until I saw the incredible significance of the game. Not only did Napoleon show that spark which he had lacked during the 1813 campaign but the Battle of Paris presented THE challenge for ANY of us that have done a Napoleonic title. I would say that Paris was the HARDEST battle to research for any in our games as the French records were destroyed. I would heartily accept any critique of my strengths in that game as a help as while I did my best with the info I had at hand I know that there are others that could lend some light to the order of battle.
I would much rather play Marengo than Salamanca but I know that due to the amount of British writings on the Peninsular that the former is usually not as well propagated as the latter. But be that as it may there is no doubt that the British got the ball rolling for me. If I had not read Chandler I would not have grown an interest in the period and I still have the honor have holding one of Dr. Chandler's last letters, written by his wife for him and signed by the master himself.
So thanks to the British writers for their contribution. But give me Grossbeeren over Quatras Bras! ;)