Firearms and Musings

I was watching The Patriot (for entertainment - don't look at me like that!) and I got a hankering for some 18th century warfare. Heck, even Napoleonic warfare, if you are so inclined. So I was thinking about modding M2TW - not necessarily myself but others, like a NTW3 or something.

I've played the demos for M2TW and will probably get the full version for Christmas. I have a basic idea of how musket-armed units behave. Currently they're broken, but I have hopes that it will be patched - or solved by a community member, who knows.

I was thinking that a mod focused around battles of the style of that time period would be fairly simple to implement. The base is there - musket-armed troops that line up and volley. Creates some new models (hopefully we'll get the tools sooner rather than later) and have at it.

I was thinking about units firing on the move, and how that could be accomplished. I don't think there is ultimately any way, which is disappointing since it looks cool even if it isn't historical (I actually have no idea). However, would it be possible to make units horse archers with invisible mounts? This of course would create the problems of unit behaviors and movement - really fast infantry shooting at target behind them would be quite weird, if entertaining.

That's most of my ideas and thoughts on the tactical battle map. I am curious about the possibilities of making carbine or pistol armed dragoons, based off of M2TW Reitters (sp?). Sieges would be interesting, especially with artillery.

On the campaign map, I see a number of difficulties for implementing an engaging single player game based around 18th-19th century warfare. Although the time per turn is modifiable, I don't know how that affects seasons, which is one issue. Another is the general = family member thing, which detracts from immersion among other things. Also, the AI is still not stellar, though it is generally getting better. Passive AI bug could be quite bad for battles between only or mainly missile units...

So, a lot of rambly thoughts on modding M2TW for 18th century warfare. Have at ye.