Blore Heath Battle Needs Testing

[Bullethead]

OK, I now have my Blore Heath battle ready for testing. I'm looking for 2-3 experienced players who have the time and dedication necessary to play this thing repeatedly and suggest changes.

Be warned: you'll need a pretty serious computer. There are 3800 soldiers and a ton of polygons on the map.

In the battle's present state, there don't seem to be any map bugs. What I'm interested in, therefore, is play balance, comments on playability, etc. I've written a readme.txt file that explains my reasoning for making things the way they are now, so please look at that before suggesting radical changes http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif.

If interested, here's your mission: I want to tweak things so that a good player can win, but just barely. Very bloody, victory always in some doubt, but still possible.

This is because this battle is a classic example of quality over quantity. The player is the Lancastrians on the attack. The Lancs have a 2-1 superiority but have a lot of green, poorly equipped troops, and their best troops are mounted vs. polearms. The Yorkists have experienced, good troops aided by field fortifications (stakes and a wagon laager). In real life, the Lancs lost badly. 2 failed cav charges, then a failed infantry attack during which their general got killed. At that point, the Lanc army disintegrated and got butchered in the pursuit.

If you want to help test this, drop me a line at jtweller@earthlink.net and I'll email it to you.

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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria

[Bullethead]

Here's a picture (http://people.delphiforums.com/jtweller/BloreHeath.jpg) from the Lancastrian (player's) side at the start of the game showing the Yorkist defensive positions across the valley. Also note the radar map showing the deployments.



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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria

[Bullethead]

CRAP!!!

I think I jumped the gun on this. I built the Lancastrians, then the Yorkists. As I was adding Yorkist units in small batches to get them lined up correctly, and test-ran the battle to see if they acted correctly, everything was cool. So I added the last few Yorkist units, assuming this would continue. Then I posted this up in exultation of completing a major part of the process.

However, I've now tried to play the whole thing and have found out what happens when you assume. You make an ASS out of U and ME. Now that they have a full deck, the damn Yorkists abandon the fortified position I've made for them and take a stand in an altogether inadvantageous place, ceding the high ground behind them and on both flanks to the Lancastrians. WTF???

Until this problem is resolved, things are on hold.

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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria

[This message has been edited by Bullethead (edited 10-01-2002).]

[dclare4]

Oooooohhhh lovely!!

Neat screenshot milord. When you're ready to have it playtested send it over to:

dclare4@yahoo.com

Be an honor to serve you sir!

Gilbert de Clare

[barocca]

any movement on this project?

[Lord Krazy]

Quote Originally posted by barocca:
any movement on this project?[/QUOTE]

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only to the top of the hill by the look
of it.

did u see what gilgay said on the topic
lol sorry sad

LK

[Wellington]

I've nearly finished my Italian Wars Historical Campaign (11 battles covering the French invasion of Italy: 1494-1525).

The scale, units/nations/mercenaries involved are all historically accurate and I've created several new maps for specific battles (although I've increased armour/weapon/leader values for several units - in the intestests of balancing). SO far, so good ...

But ... sigh, weep, ... the real problem is lies with the AI's prioroties for ARTIFICAL units. Hence, my historically accurate scenarios tend to play like an Aussie Rules football match - everyone does whatever they want ignoring all rhyme, rythem, order and logic - but without the accompanying mandatory violence, alas!).

Sounds like Bulletheads having the same problems with Blore Heath.

[barocca]

LK,

please point me at the relevent post by GilJay,

i have read about a hundred pages today,
and can't recall....
(TA!)

[dclare4]

Milord Bullethead,

Tried it out. Its wonderful!! Its really neat that it seems like its almost a 1 to 1 scale (actually 2 or 3 to one right?) I'm thinking just off the cuff though that perhaps there should be less holes between the stakes to channel the assaults at specific posts. The stakes don't really do that much for defense as it is. Then again the Yorkists have quite a big advantage as it is. First time I saw foot knights beat mounted knights.

I got a banner for Lord Audley and maybe I can fix it up (if someone will show me how) for this battle. I think Salisbury would use the old Neville armoral badges? Warwick would use his own bear and ragged staff.

Just my two cents http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

Looking forward to more fields of this sceptred isle,
Gilbert de Clare

[Bullethead]

Gilbert:

Thanks for the thumbs up http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif. I kinda like how it plays now, too. The map is full-scale, although the forces are about 1/3 - 1/4 scale in numbers of men.

And yes, if somebody can make historically accurate flags for the opposing forces, I'd certainly incorporate them. In the very few historical battles included with the game, several have their own .bif files to give the Scots the Cross of St. Andrew, so I know this is possible. But not being an artist, I can't do it myself.

I'll think about adding more stakes. Problem is, there are litterally hundreds of them already and I don't know where the upper limit for polygons is. As it is, they do give the defender standing right behind them an advantage, just not as much as a few more would do.

Barocca:

Status report: After doing numerous tweaks in an attempt to get the defenders to hold still, I regretfully took Gil's advice and gave up. Now the player is the defender. I sent a version with this configuration to my 3 testers last night and have already heard back from Gilbert http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif.

Right now, the battle produces more or less historical results. The defending player can withstand the repeated efforts of the AI attacker and, while there are some moments of worry, the only real question is the final exchange ratio, victory being more or less assured.



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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria