Finally ::)
Campaigns on the Danube 1805 - 1809
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fimages%2F3Dbox%2F170x220%2FCOTD-3Dbox-170x220.gif&hash=c88e4f71a9aabc5bb801796a934e32645f89721c)
Download (65.7MB): ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignsOnTheDanube/COTD-Update-v304.zip
Here's the changelog
Patch v3.04 Fixes
Changes
1. Fixed Broken terrain display problem
2. Fixed "Label1" display problem
3. Fixed loading saved game and clear weather map displayed when should be mud
4. Fixed issue of corps HQ following detached unit Added the "h" hotkey to turn the hexgrid on and off Fixed problem of lack of messengers.
(this last fix required changing the data footprint so previous saved games won't work with 3.04 unfortunately)
5. Made it easier to assign a corps to a separate supply depot than the rest of its army easier
6. Improved Austrian AI to make it more aggressive
7. Various minor bugfixes
:o
I haven't played this game in ages. Loved its theory and (mostly its) implementation. I recall the last update came out of nowhere after many years, too...
Hmmm.....is it in the Matrix holiday sale? I've looked at this one a few times but never pulled the trigger.
It should be. Practically everything is, unless absolutely new, and that game was around back when I first bought from Matrix. It was in fact one of the first games I bought from them. (Not directly, though; I bought my Matrix games through NWS for many years, usually splurging after Christmas.)
Quote from: Rayfer on December 01, 2015, 03:55:00 PM
Hmmm.....is it in the Matrix holiday sale?
Yeshttp://matrixgames.com/products/282/details/Campaigns.On.The.Danube
Quote from: Asid on December 01, 2015, 03:57:25 PM
Quote from: Rayfer on December 01, 2015, 03:55:00 PM
Hmmm.....is it in the Matrix holiday sale?
Yes
http://matrixgames.com/products/282/details/Campaigns.On.The.Danube
Nice....$9.99 digital...the price of a movie ticket!
Thanks you
**does happy dance!**
Thanks for the news, Asid. I'll give this a try.
This play nice on Win7 64? Hows the learning curve, any tutorials included?
Quote from: -budd- on December 01, 2015, 09:05:25 PM
This play nice on Win7 64? Hows the learning curve, any tutorials included?
I had no problem running it on Win7 64-bit. It has a bit of a learning curve to it, mostly because it isn't a traditional wargame in approach. I'd recommend starting with as little FOW turned on as possible to get a sense of how it works. At the highest level of FOW you don't even know for sure where
your units are, you just get reports! The game mechanics aren't hard, but it tries hard to be an accurate 18th century command simulation. The frustration of trying to command troops in the SOW games at higher difficulties is here, just at the operational rather than tactical scale.
Also, let the computer manage supply to start. Mastering the logistics piece is another entire thing.
So you can't see your own units on map? How does that work. Don't think i've ever encountered that before. It's looks like a hex and counter game.Thanks for your replies.
Quote from: -budd- on December 01, 2015, 10:19:20 PM
So you can't see your own units on map? How does that work. Don't think i've ever encountered that before. It's looks like a hex and counter game.Thanks for your replies.
Old review that you may find useful.
http://www.gamesquad.com/review/campaigns-danube
Quote from: -budd- on December 01, 2015, 10:19:20 PM
So you can't see your own units on map? How does that work. Don't think i've ever encountered that before. It's looks like a hex and counter game.Thanks for your replies.
It looks like hex and counter, but it isn't, really. You never move any of your combat unit directly. Instead, you issue orders for them to move to a certain place at a certain urgency, and to take up a certain stance. There is an order delay as your messages are sent to various subordinate commanders by courier. Over the scope of the game, this can be several hours to a day or so. Units them implement the orders, but again, there can be a delay as a Corps CO issues orders to subordinate units. It's somewhat like Command Ops in that way...but you don't specify waypoints and paths, just destinations.
At high levels of FOW, the unit positions on the map aren't necessarily the actual positions of your units, but their positions the last time you received a report from them. If the unit moved and/or fought, it could be several hexes away from where you see it on the map. Likewise for enemy units. So, the units aren't invisible...but the actual position can have a great deal of uncertainty to it.
If you read John Gill's
1809 trilogy, depicting one of the two campaigns in the game, the system makes complete sense. Neither side ever had complete certainty of where the enemy was unless they were engaged, or complete certainty of where their own units were unless the commanding General could actually see them. Conceptually it's a magnificent depiction of Napoleonic operational warfare. Technically the game has been plagued with a variety of glitches and hassles, most of which seem to have been addressed by today's update.
I wish the dev had gone on to make other games using this engine. There's nothing else out there quite like it.
It would make a hell of a multiplayer DAR, too. O:-)
Thanks everyone, i was had at" there's nothing else out there quite like it" It probably helps me that i wont be controlling all the units because i know very little about that's era's warfare and would for sure screw up. I forgot this was a Frank Hunter game, haven't tried his stuff yet...........SOLD.
I was reading the product page, is the resolution still fixed at 800X600? might give me pause being fixed at that resolution.
No, Frank added in higher resolutions.
Quote from: panzerde on December 01, 2015, 10:30:28 PM
...If you read John Gill's 1809 trilogy, depicting one of the two campaigns in the game...
John Gill, the 23rd century historian (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/John_Gill)?!? :o
And thanks for the info, panzerde. I'm going to have to buy this now.
Quote from: panzerde on December 01, 2015, 04:52:20 PM
**does happy dance!**
You are all welcome....I would like to see the "happy dance" though.... 8)
Well that was weird. I hadn't installed this on The Presence before -- the game is so old (by Matrix standards) that the installer requires you to provide not only a name but a company, it won't take a blank company space for an answer :o -- and so naturally after I was done I dl'd and ran the patch.
According to the patch, when it ran the scan, the game was already patched up to the current patch version.
I ran it anyway. But still. Weird.
I actually bought this the last christmas sale and haven't really played it. The goal was to use it as a campaign tool for histwar because it has an import function for using a 3rd party tactical battle game to resolve tactical battles. It was originally designed for minis, but you could use histwar or even scourge of war Waterloo with mods. Never got around to it though.
I was thinking Scourgealoo, too. O0
Not that I have that yet; and as you say, mods. Also, I feel like going to tactical would sort of defeat the purpose of the game, which is to sit in your well-apportioned tent and try to figure out what the heck you're supposed to be doing. :))
Thread bumpty to remind people who recently got the game that I'm working on a DAR, which I'd still be capable of turning into a multi-player game if anyone is interested. You don't have to write a parallel DAR if you don't want to: this game is ALL ABOUT the fog of war, so having the other player permanently behind that screen (until game end perhaps) would help illustrate what the game's about.
Strangest thing...can't get the original setup file to run regardless what I try....I know it worked a couple of years ago, maybe a Windows 10 thing...
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 07, 2015, 06:03:49 PM
Strangest thing...can't get the original setup file to run regardless what I try....I know it worked a couple of years ago, maybe a Windows 10 thing...
No, I installed it and it runs fine on Windows 10.
Quote from: bbmike on December 07, 2015, 06:22:39 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 07, 2015, 06:03:49 PM
Strangest thing...can't get the original setup file to run regardless what I try....I know it worked a couple of years ago, maybe a Windows 10 thing...
No, I installed it and it runs fine on Windows 10.
Guess not sure then....did you try installing after Windows 10 installed or just converted over?
Yes, I've had Windows 10 installed for a while now and just install Campaigns. Can you download the original setup file from Matrix again?
Quote from: bbmike on December 07, 2015, 06:38:38 PM
Yes, I've had Windows 10 installed for a while now and just install Campaigns. Can you download the original setup file from Matrix again?
I was looking for my original email with link, but couldn't find it....and appears I must have purchased after they implemented the ability to redownload from their store. Oh well....not a huge deal, was just curious to fire it up again.
It installed fine and runs fine on my Win 8.1 system, by the way.
It looks kind of like the new patch features the whole game as a reinstall, so if you have your disc code that may work...?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frobertlenz.de%2Fshare%2Fdanubemod%2Fteaser.jpg&hash=6e3fcc15534670cd455e8b9a2ed2400fade7409d)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3884743
Quote from: JasonPratt on December 07, 2015, 07:03:23 PM
It installed fine and runs fine on my Win 8.1 system, by the way.
It looks kind of like the new patch features the whole game as a reinstall, so if you have your disc code that may work...?
Good call...seemed to work from the patch...strange though...my original install file was like 30-40 MBs bigger than the patch file....maybe better compressed.
You might not have installed the pdf instructions?
The UI has changed quite a bit since release, but I doubt that's the difference.
Oooooh... that alternate map looks nice, Asid!
My original attraction to this game was the feature that allowed you to fight battles with miniatures...making it a kind of miniature campaign system. But I remember trying it oh so many years ago, and having it crash...so I gave up in frustration. Does this work now?
Also, any hope for getting the game to run on a more recent OS like Win 7 / 8 or 10?
I just bought it and loaded it up in win7 64 without issue. Opened it and looked around haven't played yet.
It runs fine on my Win 8.1 (in a window only, by the way, not full screen). That was after I patched it, I think, so I don't know whether it runs on Win 8.1 originally. (I installed from an original release disc.)
Well, I say "it runs fine", I haven't sent orders out to start a day's turn yet. I've been writing up introductory material for my AAR. (Which can still be shifted to a multiplayer game, btw, as long as the other side is playing France in the standard 1805 scenario.) For all I know it may crash. But meandering around, it hasn't crashed yet.
Okay, it looks like Asid and I may be playing; we'll see if we can get things set up for PBEM.
I just finished a complete game, with Chemkid's map and counter mod, running on Win 10. Not a single hiccup or problem. The game ran great and looks really nice with the alternate map. I tried the various different sound options and they all worked well. The alternate map really enhances the feeling that you are in your tent, planning the campaign, issuing orders, and receiving reports.
Once you get into the flow of issuing orders and understand what the different options mean, the game really flows. I was able to trap the Austrians against the Danube south of Regensburg and north of Passau. Between Davout and Lannes with support from the Guard and the Bavarians Charles didn't get north of the river with much of a functioning army left.
Honestly, the system for issuing orders to corps and handling supply is so elegant once you know what you're doing that the game became really relaxing to me. It's been ages since I felt relaxed when playing a wargame! It was really cool to see my corp commanders deploy their corps to achieve their missions. At one point I ordered an advance by Davout south along the Danube from Regensburg, and not only did he scout the path with cavalry, he deployed an advance guard of infantry and a rear guard of infantry and cavalry to cover his advance from the remnants of an Austrian force he'd beaten the day before.
I played the Crisis on the Danube scenario, which runs from early April to May 10th, 1809. I think I'll try the full 1809 scenario, next.
Heh, I saw you playing it through a Steam connection last night, P! (Not actually on Steam, but by a shortcut assigned to Steam's gamelist.)
Quote from: JasonPratt on December 08, 2015, 09:13:28 AM
Heh, I saw you playing it through a Steam connection last night, P! (Not actually on Steam, but by a shortcut assigned to Steam's gamelist.)
Yep! :) Though I actually left it running overnight after finishing the scenario and wasn't really playing it all night!
Note: I may have misunderstood Sid, so while we may still be doing a game, if someone else wants to volunteer to French up first, I'll ...
......
...man, there are some things which sound so much worse when I actually type them.
Okay, still doing game with Sid. 8)
So I decided to take the plunge. Unfortunately the game is hanging on my Win7 rig. Even trying various compatibility settings. Sigh...
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 11, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
So I decided to take the plunge. Unfortunately the game is hanging on my Win7 rig. Even trying various compatibility settings. Sigh...
...you've updated to the latest 3.0.4 version, i guess...
anyway, capaigns on win7(x64) here, too - no compatibility are needed on my laptop. weird! ???
if you can't make it work try the matrix-forums and sent frank hunter a pm or mail - just my 5c.
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 11, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
So I decided to take the plunge. Unfortunately the game is hanging on my Win7 rig. Even trying various compatibility settings. Sigh...
Hmmm...very odd. I definitely ran the game on Win 7 x64 without issue in the past, and now on Win 10, again without issue. My suspicion would be something with your video driver rather than compatibility settings. What graphics card are you using?
This gets a mention on this weeks Flare Path!
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/12/11/the-flare-path-danube-speedboats
Quote from: panzerde on December 11, 2015, 08:26:56 AM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 11, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
So I decided to take the plunge. Unfortunately the game is hanging on my Win7 rig. Even trying various compatibility settings. Sigh...
Hmmm...very odd. I definitely ran the game on Win 7 x64 without issue in the past, and now on Win 10, again without issue. My suspicion would be something with your video driver rather than compatibility settings. What graphics card are you using?
Silly me. So when I first tried the update, I got a message saying I already had the latest version. I believed it and shut down the update. And of course, the message was wrong. So now I just continued with the update anyway, and it seems to be running fine. Thanks for the thoughts however.
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 11, 2015, 09:09:02 AM
Silly me. So when I first tried the update, I got a message saying I already had the latest version. I believed it and shut down the update. And of course, the message was wrong. So now I just continued with the update anyway, and it seems to be running fine. Thanks for the thoughts however.
Excellent, glad you got it working!
puh! 良かった！ now, back to work... ;)
@spelk - thanks for heads up!
Love the option to resolve battles offline with miniatures or another gaming system.... If you are not picky, even Napoleon Total War... The only issue with it is that it is for two player only.
Anyway, a great feature that I wish other campaign games would use...
I had completely forgotten about this game. I checked my old Matrix files, and there it was!
This should provide a Napoleonic fix that I'm certain (given past experience) Wars of Napoleon won't be able to provide for at least a couple of patches.
PBEM Issue
JasonPratt and I had agreed on a PBEM game. However there seems to be a bug which will not allow a PBEM game with full fog of war. So we are in a holding pattern....Will Matrix ever fix it? :tickedoff:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4002268&mpage=1&key=�
From post 17: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3984063#
Regards
Quote from: Asid on January 12, 2016, 03:38:24 PM
PBEM Issue
JasonPratt and I had agreed on a PBEM game. However there seems to be a bug which will not allow a PBEM game with full fog of war. So we are in a holding pattern....Will Matrix ever fix it? :tickedoff:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4002268&mpage=1&key=� (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4002268&mpage=1&key=�)
From post 17: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3984063# (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3984063#)
Regards
It really comes down to if Frank Hunter will fix it. Matrix isn't doing much to support the game from what I can see, and to be fair, it's an older game. The patches that have come out in the past couple of years are really just Frank deciding he wants to keep updating the game. That happens pretty sporadically, and when it does he's at the mercy of Matrix as to when the patch gets tested, packaged up, and released.
I understand their position; they only have so many resources to go around and this is an old game. I don't imagine they make much money from it, even with the small spate of purchases they probably saw at the end of 2015. It's sad though that such a great game can't get the resources for the final polishing it needs, or to allow Frank to release the rumored sequel.
Quote from: panzerde on January 12, 2016, 06:04:38 PM
I understand their position; they only have so many resources to go around and this is an old game. I don't imagine they make much money from it,
I Understand...However they still take the money ::)
Quote from: Asid on January 12, 2016, 07:12:34 PM
Quote from: panzerde on January 12, 2016, 06:04:38 PM
I understand their position; they only have so many resources to go around and this is an old game. I don't imagine they make much money from it,
I Understand...However they still take the money ::)
That they do...if I'm not careful I'll get spooled up again on how they aren't handling support for the FOG games either, despite still selling them.
Definitely one of the less appealing aspects of Matrix/Slitherine.
That is an issue I have with several game publishers. Not supporting a game because its old, yet still taking money from some poor slob who happens by and buys it. If there are serious bugs not being fixed, it should be clear that you are buying it "as is".
Quote from: RyanE on January 15, 2016, 07:31:29 AM
That is an issue I have with several game publishers. Not supporting a game because its old, yet still taking money from some poor slob who happens by and buys it. If there are serious bugs not being fixed, it should be clear that you are buying it "as is".
It's even worse when they promote it and put it on sale :knuppel2:
Quote from: Asid on January 15, 2016, 08:05:27 AM
Quote from: RyanE on January 15, 2016, 07:31:29 AM
That is an issue I have with several game publishers. Not supporting a game because its old, yet still taking money from some poor slob who happens by and buys it. If there are serious bugs not being fixed, it should be clear that you are buying it "as is".
It's even worse when they promote it and put it on sale :knuppel2:
I think GOG does a great job of ensuring that the games they offer run well on most platforms. I have had very few problems with GOG games.
However, while I really like Matrix generally, it does bother me that they sell some very old games with little "fair" warning to the potential buyer.
Napoleon in Italy for example, ran fine on my Vista rig, but has choked on my Win7 Machine. Sure in the small print they never promise it can run on Win8 or Win10, but the way the game is presented it looks like it is a recent game...certainly has a "recent" price ($29).
And then there is Maximum Football...$39, last patched in 2008...the small print only says XP.
I would be OK, if they put in large print somewhere, "warning, this game only runs on XP."
Multiplayer bug!
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4002268
Unfortunately there is a bug in multiplayer when using full fog of war. This is a show stopper.
Was posted on Matrix forums 6 Jan 2016... Still no fix... I have seen this before in older Matrix titles. It is annoying though as this was recently updated and advertised in the last sale. I know they can't support a product indefinitely but one of the most interesting features "full FOW" cannot be used in MP. :tickedoff: The dev has been on the forum recently and discussed another issue but apparently ignored this big one.
This has affected the game I was going to play with JasonPratt. :'(
Oh well
That bug is so bad it also broke Jason's single player AAR! :P
???
Actually, I wasn't setting up a single-player AAR for that game. But I may shift over to it. I didn't want to give away my strategic plan should the fog of war problem be fixed.
That being said, PBEM probably works with the next level down, where each side knows the correct status of their own troops at all times, but still has to send orders out to get anything done; and the enemy dispositions are still completely courier-dependent.
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 14, 2016, 10:07:58 AM
???
Actually, I wasn't setting up a single-player AAR for that game. But I may shift over to it. I didn't want to give away my strategic plan should the fog of war problem be fixed.
I could have sworn you had started a tutorial AAR for this. Oh well, I'm not complaining. You have a lot of other good AARs to follow out there. :)
Having played quite a bit of single player with the medium level FOW, I can attest that it works fine. Hopefully Frank will fix the bug with full FOW, but even if he does (and he might take months to do so), Matrix seems to take quite awhile to release his patches sometimes.
Well, I started a tutorial AAR, but that was predicated on a multiplayer game with Sid. But then I did say I might transition over to a single player game once I finished my other AARs running at the time. So you weren't mis-remembering. O:-)