Civil War Battles Updates - Round One

Hi All,

Back at the end of July 2017, we announced we had the responsibility for updating John Tillers Civil War Battles series. See the initial announcement here; WDS now responsible for JTS Civil War Battles

After a truckload of work and the launch of the new title, Campaign Petersburg, we’re happy to make available the first three upgrades to previously released Civil War Battles titles.

 *** Note - Links have been removed as the patches have now been superseded.

For those that are wondering, here is what's included in the updates;

• Implemented Settings > Alternative Unit Symbols.
• Introduced the new Variable, Asymmetric, Turn-Based Victory Points System. [Available, but not really used yet.]
• Standardized weapon and movement values. Soon to be rolled out across prior and future titles
• Auto Defensive Fire has been adjusted so that artillery is set at "Min." This change will enhance play against the A/I, and will help conserve overall artillery ammunition supply levels. This setting can be changed by using the following hot key: Alt + F, or look under the A/I window during gameplay.
• Added to the Manuals Folder: Standard Toolbar Reference Guide
• Made the on-map elevation/coordinates/terrainmod font sizes a step smaller.
• Tweaked the in-game weapon descriptions.
• Tweaked Historical Antietam scenario to better reflect release schedule.
• Fixed a damaged bridge crossing bug.
• Fixed a word-wrap bug in cp_start.exe.
• Implemented a true, large (4X) 2D map view, the new 2D Normal View, aka Zoom2D100.(Unlike before, where the largest 2D map view was achieved via software auto-magnification.)
• Greatly expanded and redesigned the Standard game engine Toolbar, now with 70 buttons. (The Classic Toolbar is retained.)
• Implemented: Settings > Toolbar > None/Classic Small/Classic Large/Standard Small/Standard Medium/Standard Large.
• Implemented dozens of new hot keys. Just about every menu option and game feature has been assigned a hot key. (This necessitated a number of hot key reassignments.)
• Hot keys are now documented in-game, in the menus, in the Status Bar and in Toolbar button tooltips.
• Reorganized the files and folders, such that everything is not stored in one big heap in the top-level game folder, rather is stored by file type and purpose in an expanded file folder hierarchy.
• Implemented a full-featured logging system, to aid in code development, debugging, and user support, among other purposes.
• Added the Extreme Fog of War optional rule. When Extreme Fog of War is in effect, the Visibility highlight only displays from friendly occupied hexes.  Also, for enemy units in obscuring terrain    (e.g., Forest), enemy force counts will only display as XXX instead of, for example, 3XX.
• For artillery (and with the Manual Defensive Fire option toggled OFF), changed the Auto Defensive Fire default value from Max to Min.
• Implemented: Settings > Hex Highlights > Hex Outlines/Hex Shading.
• Implemented: Settings > Map Contours > Colors.../Widths...
• Implemented: Settings > Hand-Drawn 3D Map.
• Implemented: Settings > Unit/Leader Boxes > Color/No Color.
• Implemented: View > Map Elevation/Map Coordinates/Map Combat Modifiers.
• Implemented: View > 2D Map Slopes.
• New 3D hand-painted maps including settings toggle
• New 3D units (with customized regimental flags, etc.)
• New 2D terrain graphics
• Changed the brigade combat colors to display on counter edge (not on counter face).
• 2D counter redesign including all counter symbology
• New unit card colorization for all formations including leaders (includes refreshed B&W images)
• Standardized naming in OOB's to be rolled out across prior and future titles

A lot has been done and you will notice more options to switch graphics on and off as well as additional graphic sets. The Old Banshee team have closely collaborated and provided their excellent work in theses patches and map updates. In Chancellorsville, the team even provided multiple maps covering the different seasons as this area was fought over for an extended period of time. Seeing the attention to detail including both summer, fall, winter and snow maps was above and beyond.

Beyond thanking Frank and the Old Banshee team, Berto our resident (overworked and part-time) programmer has taken a lot of what he has learned updating the Panzer Battles system and applied it to the Civil War Battles set. Rich Walker who authored many of the previous releases along with John Ferry have done all the tough hack work to rewrite order of battle and verify the titles scenarios and overall infrastructure. A lot of the current updates required some very deep reviews of the existing data and these two gentlemen have been tireless in getting through mountains of work.

All credit to the whole team for the time put in and the time still required to get the remaining Civil War Battle titles updated.

 

Here are some screen shots from the new builds (all can be clicked to view full size);

This shot, from Chancellorsville, shows the new alternative 2D unit graphics as well as the new 'natural' zoom level;

 

This capture is from one of the Chancellorsville campaign scenarios and shows more of the details in the 3D units. Note the variation in flags and unit banners;

 

Fall anyone? The Old Banshee team have included autumn and winter trees (no foliage) as well as snow on the ground for the Chancellorsville maps;

 

This image from Antietam is at the mid level 2D zoom with the equivalent new unit graphics;

 

Here is the Confederate defenses around Dunker Church at the beginning of the Antietam battle;

 

This shot from 1st Bull Run shows the zoomed out 3D units and terrain;

 

The new leader graphics are highlighted in this screen grab from Campaign Peninsula;

 

This is another zoomed out 3D shot, illustrating the defensive positions of both sides;

 

Here is the maximum zoom out in Peninsula showing part of the Chickahominy River;

 

Here is an example of the new 2D unit graphics in Petersburg;

 

And the battle scarred terrain around the siege defenses of Petersburg;

These updates are completely free for existing HPS & JTS Civil War Battle owners. There are more details at the John Tiller Software website.

We are working on the next tranche of updates for the game series and will release them when ready.

Like the Panzer Campaigns Gold releases, it's great to refresh another of John Tiller's iconic game series.

 

David