Pike and Shot Mod: Anglo-Zulu War - Isandlwana

[spelk]

Oh yes, really looking forward to trying this one out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0Rjqj1J1w

[Slick Wilhelm]

Wow, very nice! I had never considered Pike and Shot due to not being a real fan of the era. But this looks terrific. Is it just me, or does this look like the best possible "Age of Rifles" successor?

[Bill Runacre]

Excellent, this is great to see!  :D

[Philippe]

What you have to realize about Pike and Shot is that the engine was designed to simulate late 16th and early 17th century warfare.  The engine begins to creak when you get outside that period, but in its latest incarnations works well enough for the early 16th and possibly the late 15th century, as well as for the late 17th and the very begining of the 18th century.  Park a mass of infantry directly in front of an enemy cannon, and when they fire you'll only take one or two casualties.  Why ?  Because during the period the game was originally meant to cover there was no cannister and no grapeshot.  Can you make a Napoleonic mod ? Sure, but it's just pixels dressed up in Napoleonic costumes and doesn't reflect Napoleonic warfare in terms of formations, firepower, or troop handling. The same goes for the Seven Years War -- Der Alte Fritz didn't maneuver large square blocks of infantry armed with matchlocks around the battlefield, but that's what you'll get if you make a Seven Years War scenario: you might get the uniforms, map, and positions and names of units right, but it won't be mid-eighteenth century warfare.

There are some really wonderful scenarios that have been designed for the period that the game engine does handle properly, and many of them are superior to the vanilla versions that came with the game (e.g. Edgehill). But when you get outside the period that the game is supposed to cover, you're just playing costume dress-up.

[jomni]

In defence of the engine (STUB aka Battle Academy engine), you can mod the cannon effectiveness and the probability curves.  No one has done it yet. Converting it to later eras really needs a lot of work under the hood.  But I guess that would equate it to a whole new game since the rule sets have changed.

[Blucher]

What you have to realize about Pike and Shot is that the engine was designed to simulate late 16th and early 17th century warfare.  The engine begins to creak when you get outside that period, but in its latest incarnations works well enough for the early 16th and possibly the late 15th century, as well as for the late 17th and the very begining of the 18th century.  Park a mass of infantry directly in front of an enemy cannon, and when they fire you'll only take one or two casualties.  Why ?  Because during the period the game was originally meant to cover there was no cannister and no grapeshot.  Can you make a Napoleonic mod ? Sure, but it's just pixels dressed up in Napoleonic costumes and doesn't reflect Napoleonic warfare in terms of formations, firepower, or troop handling. The same goes for the Seven Years War -- Der Alte Fritz didn't maneuver large square blocks of infantry armed with matchlocks around the battlefield, but that's what you'll get if you make a Seven Years War scenario: you might get the uniforms, map, and positions and names of units right, but it won't be mid-eighteenth century warfare.

There are some really wonderful scenarios that have been designed for the period that the game engine does handle properly, and many of them are superior to the vanilla versions that came with the game (e.g. Edgehill). But when you get outside the period that the game is supposed to cover, you're just playing costume dress-up.

I agree