07-21-2017, 12:45 AM
I have wanted for some time to convert the 3 scenario’s from the GDW “Over The Top” miniatures rules set for the Senussi battles with British Imperial forces in 1915 and 1916, into ones for the CS Great War mod.
As the Senussi operated very much on their own account (all be it with some Ottoman help) this also involved building a graphics mod for them, whose files could be swapped with Ottoman specific ones already in the game to play the battles in question. This exercise has also been a test run to work out how I can do this for the mod on a larger scale to cover other armies / conflicts.
Now built a trial Senussi nation graphics set and got the first of my 3 scenarios into the first stage of play testing. The Image from this game below shows the centre of the Senussi defensive line at Wadi Majid on 25th December 1915.[attachment=4541]
For the base and icon files you need to make a set of 4 new files with the new nation / force flags you want and if appropriate change the headdress. For the Senussi “icons2D” file I used the one for the “Arab” nation (with the counter colour changed back to that for the Ottomans) as a basis as I wanted to use a middle eastern headdress rather than a helmet as the “loaded” indicator, and made this white as opposed to the red and white check of the original file.
The trick appears to be to find an existing force in the mod that is on the same side and has the same weapons as were used by the force/nation you want to make an extra nation/faction for and then either do graphics conversion of existing files for that nation, (being careful not to go over the edge of the existing images) or find images from other nations in the mod (or indeed other games in the series) and them give them (and their “tit” mask files) the same file names as the images (with their accompanying “tit” files) as the ones in the nation that you are replacing.
It helped that for the Senussi that the Ottoman units already in the mod included Senussi regular infantry and Arab irregular forces so that I only had to swap in images (also from the Arab nation file) for machinegun, Krupp 75mm mountain gun, and leader units. For Senussi battalion and regiment foot HQ units. I modified the existing Ottoman ones just changing the flag from the Ottoman white on red star and crescent to the similar white on black Senussi one.
The possibilities here for adding extra nations/factions are quite extensive. Here are some others I am looking at.
1. 3rd Afghan War Afghans = built on the Ottoman nation with images swapped in from various sources including some from CSME.(Going to do this next)
2. Ukrainian anarchist army of Nestor Makhno = built on the Ukrainian nation for fighting the Whites. A duplicate based on the Polish nation would need to be created to enable them to fight the Bolsheviks Central Powers and other Ukrainian factions.
3. Estonians = built on the Imperial Russian nation
4. Latvians = built on the Polish nation
5. Lithuanians = built on the Imperial Russian nation
6. Czech Legion = Built on the Polish nation
7. Russo Japanese War Russians = built on the Ukrainian nation, (Basically a massive file swap with the Imperial Russian set except where the Ukrainian files are already identical)
8. Balkan War Bulgarians fighting the Turks with, and without Balkan League allies = built on the Polish nation.(A similar exercise to that described above)
I plan to make the first version of the CSGW Extra Nations Pack available (which will just include the Senussi set) on this site at the same time as I post the first of the Senussi scenarios there. Version 2 adding the, 3rd Afghan War Afghans should follow when the first of the two 3rd Afghan War scenarios,(also based on ones on the DGW “Over The Top” miniatures rule book is posted.
Regards
Ian
As the Senussi operated very much on their own account (all be it with some Ottoman help) this also involved building a graphics mod for them, whose files could be swapped with Ottoman specific ones already in the game to play the battles in question. This exercise has also been a test run to work out how I can do this for the mod on a larger scale to cover other armies / conflicts.
Now built a trial Senussi nation graphics set and got the first of my 3 scenarios into the first stage of play testing. The Image from this game below shows the centre of the Senussi defensive line at Wadi Majid on 25th December 1915.[attachment=4541]
For the base and icon files you need to make a set of 4 new files with the new nation / force flags you want and if appropriate change the headdress. For the Senussi “icons2D” file I used the one for the “Arab” nation (with the counter colour changed back to that for the Ottomans) as a basis as I wanted to use a middle eastern headdress rather than a helmet as the “loaded” indicator, and made this white as opposed to the red and white check of the original file.
The trick appears to be to find an existing force in the mod that is on the same side and has the same weapons as were used by the force/nation you want to make an extra nation/faction for and then either do graphics conversion of existing files for that nation, (being careful not to go over the edge of the existing images) or find images from other nations in the mod (or indeed other games in the series) and them give them (and their “tit” mask files) the same file names as the images (with their accompanying “tit” files) as the ones in the nation that you are replacing.
It helped that for the Senussi that the Ottoman units already in the mod included Senussi regular infantry and Arab irregular forces so that I only had to swap in images (also from the Arab nation file) for machinegun, Krupp 75mm mountain gun, and leader units. For Senussi battalion and regiment foot HQ units. I modified the existing Ottoman ones just changing the flag from the Ottoman white on red star and crescent to the similar white on black Senussi one.
The possibilities here for adding extra nations/factions are quite extensive. Here are some others I am looking at.
1. 3rd Afghan War Afghans = built on the Ottoman nation with images swapped in from various sources including some from CSME.(Going to do this next)
2. Ukrainian anarchist army of Nestor Makhno = built on the Ukrainian nation for fighting the Whites. A duplicate based on the Polish nation would need to be created to enable them to fight the Bolsheviks Central Powers and other Ukrainian factions.
3. Estonians = built on the Imperial Russian nation
4. Latvians = built on the Polish nation
5. Lithuanians = built on the Imperial Russian nation
6. Czech Legion = Built on the Polish nation
7. Russo Japanese War Russians = built on the Ukrainian nation, (Basically a massive file swap with the Imperial Russian set except where the Ukrainian files are already identical)
8. Balkan War Bulgarians fighting the Turks with, and without Balkan League allies = built on the Polish nation.(A similar exercise to that described above)
I plan to make the first version of the CSGW Extra Nations Pack available (which will just include the Senussi set) on this site at the same time as I post the first of the Senussi scenarios there. Version 2 adding the, 3rd Afghan War Afghans should follow when the first of the two 3rd Afghan War scenarios,(also based on ones on the DGW “Over The Top” miniatures rule book is posted.
Regards
Ian