Everything ya need to know........ maybe...

[falkonfive]

First of all what is it and what does it do? It's the latest variant of the tried, tested and much loved NTW mod originally developed by the Lordz. What does version 5 do? It features new graphics, new stats, new troop types, it plays very differently, it's designed for historical gaming but still can be played the same way the old NTW did i.e just choose any army at random and go. It also makes good Martini's. plays tennis like Bjorn Borg and has a database which includes Jennifer Lopez's mobile number. In other words, everything a man ( or woman maybe? ) could wish for. It's our humble attempt at streamlining and dragging into the 21st century what we consider to be an ideal platform for Napoleonic gamers. i.e the NTW mod of MTW.

First of all a few words to those new to NTW. What do I need to play it? Answer, a copy of MTW and the Viking Invasion expansion pack. Now both outta production but plentifully available on Amazon or E Bay and will cost you around £5. The Gold Edition will do which combines both discs in one. Before you download read thro all the notes and read anything that tells you to read it that comes with the download.

Now to the old NTW hands who want to know whats different. First of all its centred around the 5 major nations of the Napoleonic Wars, i.e Brits, French, Austrians, Russians and Prussians. The other factions currently in NTW1 have not yet been modified and in an historical sense some of them probably never will. The Swedes and the Spanish will probably be coming on line shortly. Soon as we learn how to change major faction details we'll be using the slots for other periods such as Revolutionary and post 1812 etc Napoleonics. We have put some Spanish in with the Brits so the Peninsula is complete. By all means try out the minor factions if ya want but even we don't know what will happen. We haven't had time to look. You could get a battalion of Swedish legs marching with no bodies or Piedmontese lancers riding their horses backwards. The graphics dept has stolen bits from everywhere.

First thing you'll notice is there is no money required to buy troops. Everything is set at a low value because we have to have something in the system. Our attitude is battles weren't fought historically with what you could afford. They were fought by what was there.

Secondly, there are no value additions to morale, armour etc. Every type has had the stats adjusted to make the troops behave as they did historically. Everything is set to 0. You can up the modifiers if you like but you'll probably get some weird results. One of our testers tried it and his humble Austrian Jaegers routed the Grenadiers a Cheval, a Converged Grenadier battalion and put Davout's 3rd Corps to flight.

Cavalry are much more potent now as they should be. We still can't form squares but use blocks instead. Just drag your attacked infantry into a square block formation and it works exactly as a square did. You can still stand with a stiff upper lip in your nice lines and blaze away at charging cav. Ya may stop 'em. If ya don't your toast.

Melees are shorter and breaking troops will reform much quicker. This reflects what normally happened on a Napoleonic battlefield. We have taken away the ' running ' speed for all line infantry ( not lights ). The only time you will see units speed up is in the last 25yds of a charge to contact. If your charging you'll be wise to use columns of attack, not lines. That way ya get more initial damage. Cavalry charges best by squadron, usually 4 ranks. Use cav for their historical abilities. Don't expect Hussars to break a British square. Use lights to pursue, save the heavies for the blood and tears stuff.

Artillery has had ranges and effectiveness adjusted. The constraints of the MTW game engine means we cannot get it as we would like. We still can't get the same guns firing cannister when appropriate and ball otherwise. We,re working on the graphics but artillery is not easy to mod in MTW. Look for a patch relatively soon.

THE NTW CAMPAIGN!! It stays in because we cant remove it. It will behave strangely and give odd results. Same applies to any factions in the game outside of the 5 major powers, Brit, French, Austrians, Russians and Prussians. Our advice is to steer clear until we get round to them.

The graphics are limited by the factors inside the MTW engine. For that reason we have removed some rarely seen on the battlefield and substituted others. Heres the list of what each nationality now comprises:

British and Allies

Brit 6lb Art
Brit 9lb Art
12lb Artillery ( Not really available to the Brits but used occasionally by their Allies )
Brit Cav Patrol
Brit Dragoon
Brit Dragoon Guard
Brit Dutch Line
Brit General
Brit Guard
Brit Highland Light
Brit Highlander
Brit Hussar
Brit KGL Dragoon
Brit KGL Hussar
Brit KGL Light
Brit KGL Line
Brit Lifeguards
Brit Light
Brit Light Dragoon
Brit Line
Brit Portuguese Cacadores
Brit Portuguese Dragoon
Brit Portuguese Line
Brit Rifle Bt
Brit Rifle Co
Brit Royal Dragoon
Brit Royal Horse Guard
Spanish Line

French

6lb artillery
8lb artillery
12lb artillery
Bavarian Cheveau - Leger
Confederation Guard Cavalry
French Confederation Light
French Confederation Line
French Conscript Line
French Converged Grenadiers
French Cuirassier
French Dragoon
French Dutch Hussars
French General
French Grenadiers a Cheval
French Guard Chasseur
French Guard Lancers
French Hussar
French Italian Guard
French Italian Leger
French Italian Line
French Leger
French Middle Guard
French Old Guard
French Rhine Cavalry
French Saxon Cuirassier
French Saxon Line
French Swiss Infantry
French Veteran Line
French Vistula Infantry
French Vistula Uhlans
French Young Guard

Prussian

Prussian 12lb Art
Prussian 6lb Art
Prussian Cav Patrol
Prussian Cuirassiers
Prussian Dragoons
Prussian General
Prussian Grenadiers
Prussian Guard Cuirassiers
Prussian Guard Dragoons
Prussian Guard Hussars
Prussian Guard Infantry
Prussian Guard Jaeger
Prussian Hussars
Prussian Jagers
Prussian Landwehr
Prussian Landwehr cavalry
Prussian Line
Prussian Uhlans

Austrian

Austrian 12lb Art
Austrian 6lb Art
Austrian Cav Patrol
Austrian Dragoons
Austrian General
Austrian German Grenadiers
Austrian German Line
Austrian Grenzers
Austrian Hungarian Grenadiers
Austrian Hungarian Line
Austrian Hussars
Austrian Jagers
Austrian Kuirassier
Austrian Landwehr
Austrian Uhlans

Russian

Russian 6lb Art
Russian 12lb Art
Russian Cav Patrol
Russian Chevalier Guard
Russian Cossack Guard
Russian Cossacks
Russian Cuirassier Guard
Russian Cuirassiers
Russian Dragoons
Russian General
Russian Grenadiers
Russian Guard
Russian Guard Jagers
Russian Hussars
Russian Jagers
Russian Musketeers
Russian Opolchenie
Russian Preobazhenski
Russian Uhlans

We have left in cannister batteries and siege guns, plus Generals of course.

Thats the broad outline, release date is hoped within a few days i.e early March.

Once the system is up and running there will no doubt be more questions to be replied to and a few ( hopefully ) minor problems that may need fixing. Meanwhile anything ya want to know just post on the site.

1809 NTW comes into it's own in large scale Multiplayer actions. If you would like to join the currently small and slightly deranged but very informal MP crowd currently playing then we'll be glad to see you. Feel free to use our pre-set Orders of Battle which can be found elsewhere on the site. They are carefully researched and pretty accurate but scaled down for NTW obviously.

[noone23]

Bug: in custom battle unit selection the game crashed when I clicked on the overall infantry icon for the Dutch faction to see what was available for that side. A bugfix for this would be appreciated.

[noone23]

Bug: The game crashed when in the 1809 Mod campaign I right clicked on the veteran French infantry unit to get more info about it. Please fix this because this campaign looks quite appealing otherwise.

[noone23]

So, F5, you said at the Guild forums that you were going to look into doing campaigns when it turns out you already have a couple in this mod. What is the difference between the two? Faction colors(for the Dutch in particular)is something I noticed during my first look but what else sets the two campaigns apart from one another?

[noone23]

Those irregularities on the campaign maps certainly got my attention. From the creases in the map to various stains to the bite marks(that's what they looked like to me; what are they?)at the east mapedge. It appears somebody decided to bypass the normal rules of map creation, whatever those are. Were all those irregularities intentional? They tend to act as a distraction at times. Is there a plan to remove them?

[napman]

Your problems have all arisen from not reading the install instructions which are clearly marked as important and should be read. The only 5 factions to have been modded are France, Britain, Prussia, Russia ans Austria, not sure what you'll find in the other stuff. The map works for everybody else.

[falkonfive]

Yep, its all a bit confusing at the moment 'cos the mod has taken priority. Lets clear up the game campaign business first. The mod is built around the NTW version 7 which is the Lordz creation. We have concentrated on the battle side for multiplayer and SP. In vers 7 which is overwritten by the 1809 mod the original campaign still exists. We haven't touched it. What we have done is take the 5 major historical nations and developed them for the battle side. Thats France, Prussia, Russia, Austria and the Brits.

The campaign is just a hangover from the old Lordz mod. We can't remove it so it stays in. I have stolen, amended and adapted various bits of graphics for the battle side and the Lordz campaign uses the same graphics for the campaign. So if ya go outside the 5 nations mentioned ya could get anything including a nuclear meltdown. I've just written a note in 'Annnouncements' which says a bit more about the Lordz campaign. But basically at the moment its just there because we cant remove it. It wont hurt anything if you play about with it but its gonna do odd things if you do. Given a little time we'll look at the campaign and see what needs to be done. Basically its just another chunk of graphics work on the minor nations and it will be perfectly useble. We dont use it. We have a campaign running based on the 1809 Danube campaign. That is organised and run outside the game itself and the actions fought using the system. Its played in real time and involves independent game controllers, historical backgrounds and is ( in our humble opinion ) the best thing since sliced bread as far as campaigns go. Anyone is welcome on board and it will be kicking off again shortly. So just to repeat, the ingame NTW campaign is an unknown quantity. You will get odd things happening but our advice is to wait a while until we can take a close look. Watch this space.

F5

[napman]

To reiterate, we only modded for MP, the campaign which relies on the very dodgy MTW AI game engine was never on our agenda and if I get my way, never will. It is a waste of space and offers no challenge, is not historical and comes up with absolutely hilarious scenarios. I once played it as Britain. I had an army in Hanover commanded by Wellington himself, the French bribed him and his army to switch sides, nuff said, i didn't play anymore.

[noone23]

Napman-you should have given yourself more money, perhaps, in the startpos file and/or given France less. To me your game description is funny, although not to you, obviously.

[falkonfive]

You will detect in certain members an almost indescernible aversion to the workings of the AI. Subtle though this is and difficult to detect I, personally, am a great fan of the computerised opponent.

Its the only thing I can beat!!!

[napman]

[noone23]

It never hurts to give yourself a little extra help whenever you need it. That's what tools like Gnome Editor are for.

[noone23]

Having units so inexpensive certainly helps me with custom battle setup choices. Of course cheaper does not always mean better. Still...

[noone23]

After I went through the download/install phase I started the mod and sorted through the different play options including historical campaigns. There aren't that many from which to choose so I was wondering if perhaps this is an area under consideration for new material to be added in the(near?)future.

[napman]

Nope, the mod is purely for MP, if you want to play around to get anything else done other than that, we are quite happy for you to do so. Neither Falk or myself has sufficient time due to work commitments, the MP side alone is very time consuming. In the future, when we cannot improve the MP game any more, we may consider it.

[falkonfive]

To be exact, the mod is for MP and SP players, however the campaign side we feel doesn't, in its present form, reflect the level of accuracy historically that we would want to build in. Notwithstanding, we feel the MTW built in campaign should be playable and for that reason ( amongst others ) will be adding three more of the minor Napoleonic factions in very short order. Perhaps by the weekend. This should help make the MTW
campaign more enjoyable.

I personally do intend to look at the campaign in depth. There are a few ideas that I would like to incorporate and think, overall, that it could be much improved. Problem is each area we look at means a whole new batch of knowledge required to get it right.
As Nap says MP/SP battles are taking up all of our time at the moment and we are still coming up with ways to improve the system in that area. But the more you work at it the better you get which is why we'll probably have the first patch in a few days.

So just hang on in there.

F5

[noone23]

Napman and Falkonfive, please recall that the historical campaigns in NTW are each a series of three linked battles so I thought those would stand a better chance of getting some attention than the longer campaigns. I just want to make sure we are on the same page here.

[napman]

I realise where your coming from mate, I too have had ideas along these lines. With the mod taken as far as we can go for the time being, besides a few frontend bits I want to sort out, this could well be our next project. I like the mini campaign idea and such conflicts as Leipzig, Borodino, Waterloo and Ulm have all got the right scenarios for such campaigns. We will need to discuss the pro's and con's of such an undertaking first and arrive at an agreed gameplan but it certainly isn't out of the question as regards a near future project.

[noone23]

I downloaded, installed and ran version 5.2 of this mod(after a good go-around with Gnome Editor)last week and it's as good as it was before, but I have been out of the loop here for several months and so I was wondering, what did you folks add or improve from the previous version? Sometimes changes can be subtle enough that you don't notice them even though you know something is different. The talk had been about improving the multiplayer aspect but what did that involve? It looks like this place, meanwhile, has been really quiet since I stepped away for a while. Maybe someone here should take a pulse to check for signs of life, which seem to be not easy to find at the moment.

[lord markedman]

slowed down reload speed, and realistic average fire rate for each nation.
so brits are fastest, followed by prussian and french troops then austria and russia ya know what i mean.

we have experimented with moral to get troops to rout a bit faster from coloums instead of sticking about and fighting for ever (this is still a tad experimental im not to satisfied with it i dunno about other people)

march speed has been sorted no more sprinting about the field like headless chickens
also certain nations have better march speed than others france being the fastest i think

cav speed is also sorted lighter cav moves fast and heavy slower also i think charge values have been sorted to so lancers and heavys have a better charge than lights

lots of graphical changes for inf as well as resorting the unit list.

[noone23]

Thanks for filling me in, Lord Markedman. I guess there is a little bit of life here after all. I pretty much wiped out many of those changes thanks to the aforementioned Gnome Editor(I would be lost without it for all these MTW1 mods). I have my own preferences for this mod just like everyone else and I try to do something about them when I can.

[noone23]

Each unit has a minimum turning speed and a maximum turning speed. I wonder if those can be changed without creating a bug and if so how much.

[lord markedman]

i think turning speed, effects the speed that units change formation to

[noone23]

I had the idea that turning speed involved a unit turning in another direction to face either a moving enemy unit or another enemy formation other than one just faced and presumably defeated but I could very easily be wrong(and probably am).