Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Why 1859?
This is a very important year for european history and modern warfare as a whole. During the Franco-Austrian extremely brief war that saw emperor Napoleon III march against Franz Joseph's forces, the first basis for a whole new kind of firing doctrine was born. Many were the factors that made the war go how it did; France had agreed to a secret pact with Piedmont, one that would give her, if successful, the former territory of Savoy while Piedmont would start the process of annexation of Northern Italy to form the Kingdom of Italy later in the years to come. Piedmont-Savoy wouldnt be able to beat the massive numbers of the Austrian Empire by itself, France therefore could affirm its supremacy over central Europe once again. But the external forces of Britain and Prussia were watching. Napoleon III was pressed with time constraints, he had to act quickly and gain a decisive victory or it's role would be severely compromised. During the campaign, many mistakes would pile up between the belligerents; Piedmont didnt possess the numbers and the former quality of the Napoleonic times, France had to press on with melee tactics due to the aforementioned time constraints and an aggressive politic centered around the use of the bayonet, while logistic problems and lack of proper scouting from both sides led to embarassing and deadly clashes. The Austrians were no less unprepared to face the French as their italian counterpart was in their own respects; they advanced slowly, made use of old, inaccurate artillery pieces dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, and were not trained to aim. But their weapons were much more accurate than those used bi the French and italians, so the casualties for both sides would be massive; seeing as the carnage was much more brutal than the decades past, Napoleon III encouraged the all out assault with the bayonet even more. In short, it was a bloody mess, hastily brought to a halt when France was victorious, much to the disappointment of the italian government.
In this overhaul I've tried to depict the essential components of that brief conflict that would later lead France to adopt new powerful and precise firearms, directly affecting the training and modernization of the slumbering Austrian army, and to an extent a better organization of the italian army itself later on. The conflict marked a decisive need for improvements over the old tactics adopted in the Napoleonc Wars and, shortly before the American Civil War, made it apparent that the old age of musketry and dense formations had to be brought to an end.
In this conflict, the key factors were as follows:
- France had superior artillery pieces, more accurate and with a longer range than the Austrian's';
- Austria had better firearms than France and Italy combined, but its troops were still trained to shoot in the general direction without aiming;
- Austrian sharpshooters were deadly at very high distances and they picked up officers like flowers in a grassy field. For the first time after the Crimean War, casualties were enormous for such small arms;
- Austria had terrible artillery pieces, far less accurate and barely working in some cases.
I have tried to calibrate the stats and accuracy to make sure that the French player has to use melee tactics while retaining the old muskets as a defensive action or last resort to cover an ally. Special light units such as Zouaves and Chasseurs are still able to do some decent damage if used correctly. The italian player is in a very difficult position on its own: he hasnt the numbers nor the power to defend himself against the Austrians, but with desperate charges and aggressive play he can push his enemies away while waiting for the French to finish the work.
The Austrian player has the easiest time, since the accuracy and loading times of his weapons are considerably higher and the numbers at his disposal are high too. Although a good cannonade from the enemy may prove fatal.
I would like to make a campaign out of this, but the Italian Campaign is very difficult to open and tweak. So I'll try my best but I cannot guarantee anything unfortunately. At least the multiplayer campaign could be modified if there is enough interest. I'm also planning to make some battle maps to encourage tactical play for each faction.
Some screenshots below. All models are new, I thank Beethencourt for letting me use his Austrian Cuirassiers and Grenadiers to save time. This mod was done in approximately 3 months as a personal challenge.
Zouaves
http://i.imgur.com/ftGw3Nd.jpg
Cacciatori delle Alpi
https://i.imgur.com/I2Lgzaj.jpg
Camice Rosse (Garibaldini) in their classic red shirt (Garibaldi's Red Shirts) this is more for flavour than anything else
http://i.imgur.com/ynxgM1s.jpg
Bersaglieri
http://i.imgur.com/9wka4zS.jpg
Chasseurs à Pied
http://i.imgur.com/62FAnzU.jpg
Italian Line Infantry
https://i.imgur.com/EZ7gokG.jpg
French Line Infantry
https://i.imgur.com/fTeiJhm.jpg
Savoy Heavy Cavalry
http://i.imgur.com/f6utUr5.jpg
Italian Granatieri della Guardia
https://i.imgur.com/fwogbBR.jpg
Hussars modelled after the ussari di Piacenza
http://i.imgur.com/2Fxpx7x.jpg
For some uniforms I had to make a compromise between campaign dress and parade dress to make them more interesting, this was the period when fancy uniforms started their decline.
Installation:
Go to you "C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Napoleon\scripts" folder and add the pack files to your user.script.txt. If there is no user.script.txt, create one and add the following:
Quote:
mod "risorgimento_main.pack";
mod "risorgimento_media.pack";
Add the relevant packs to your main "common\Napoleon Total War\data" folder and that's it. You are good to go. Remember to do this on a clean install.
Download Main files HERE
Campaign HERE
As always feedback is appreciated.
LAST UPDATE 16-08-2018 + CAMPAIGN RELEASED
Make sure to backup your campaign files when overwriting the existing NTW installation
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Just briefly played a few battles and had a few eye-brow raising moments. Both sides infantry were incredibly inaccurate, to the point that some volleys had bullets going so high, that it seemed too ridiculous to be something that happened on the scale that I was seeing. In effect, the soldiers seem to be less accurate than their Napoleonic counterparts.
I don't know the names of the firearms used at this point, I was assuming they were rifled muskets like the Springfield 1842, or equivalent to the more famous Baker Rifle.
Edit: Even Austrian Jaegers suffer from this problem, not being especially effective at killing the enemy, making cavalry and artillery more important to win battles, I'm not sure if this was deliberate.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Thanks for the feedback. To be honest I had problems finding people interested in the mod during development and nobody seemed motivated to play-test it so I had to rely on AI. No that was not intentional but I didnt notice such an incredible inaccuracy. I'll do a few more tests. The Lorenz used by the Austrians was indeed rifled while italians and French relied to an older model. The guard used the famous minie ball instead.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
If you want, I'd be perfectly willing to test this mod and hopefully help improve it. This war is one of my favorite subjects to read about and I would even further love it if the mod got a campaign. I remember that one historian had a book which he called the war "A Carefully Planned Accident"
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
First update
- Major rebalance of all units stats and battle entities.
- Units shoot a lot better, France gets a very good speed bonus while charging compared to the Austrians to compensate for their massive lack of accuracy and long loading times, as well as better melee skills all around. Cavalry has a powerful penetration bonus but is far easier to destroy with precise volleys.
- French artillerymen's' shako has been heavily edited as I have made several mistakes. It now has some sense and a decent plume :D
- Bersaglieri now have their own officer
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Hi! I want to test Your mod but I want to know is it possible to feel the technological progress that has been made since the Napoleonic wars? Is the gameplay very different from the 'vanilla' version?
I rely on the campaign, especially since so few modifications localized in the nineteenth century:whistling
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Of course you cant, as there is no campaign yet and I dont know if it will ever be created, thanks to CA's hardcoded nonsense. The gameplay is different, yes, if you know the conflict you should also know how the battles played out. I've tried to recreate the characteristics of each army at the time, which was a turning point in the history of warfare.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Interesting....let me try it out.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Downloaded the mod, but nothing showed up. Any advice on installation?
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Quote:
Originally Posted by
NauDaModder
Downloaded the mod, but nothing showed up. Any advice on installation?
There is literally Installation written in bold a few lines above the download link with the steps on how to make it work.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
God bless you Sirlion! Finally someone did it! They were ages I was dreaming about something like this! Thank you very much! You should add also some (mainly steam) ship and some more regiment, many are still famous, like Piemonte Cavalleria, Genova Cavalleria, Guide, Ussari di Piacenza and so on .. in any case, once again thank you very much and + rep! :thumbsup2
Now I need to play this gem! .. then and now, the battle cry is: "Savoia!" :viking:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...c70c14e4cd.jpg
Few pics I'm collecting on Pinterest:
******
Side note: SHAME ON YOU, MODDERS (apart Sirlion, of course)!
I repeat: SHAME on the whole modding community for not having been able to produce a mod about the mid of XIX century for NTW ( a game of 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), displacing the starting date of the game of just something like 30 or 40 years! SHAME ON YOU!
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...2e1510098d.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...0cbaa6101b.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...87cf9f1850.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...cb944afa9d.jpg
SHAME on you, if you consider that NTW ends up with the campaign of 1815 and the warfare remained almost unchanged for the whole century and the map could be the same, you'll realize that the main changes are just about uniforms' details (actually not even great changes!) and few other cosmetic detail here and there!
So, once again: SHAME on you Modders! SHAME on you!
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
My ussari are based off of the ussari di Piacenza but I dont have many reference images for other regiments, I've been in Turin at the Museo del Risorgimento last summer but I've unfortunately lost the data with the most relevant photos and, although I'm not too far away, I dont think I'll be able to go there again anytime soon. If you can provide references with sufficient description of the uniform details I can add them. Namely the italian general unit has some lacking features that I'm aware of but I got several examples of the same uniform with totally different details and I'm trying not to get too confused. I'm also unsure about the French line infantry epaulette.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
A campaign for this would be awesome. I've been looking forward to a mod during the reign of Napoleon III.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
First post updated. I've integrated the small patch I added yesterday with the main installation so you just need to download it once.
Corrected French Hussars uniform, added trumpeteer, minor cosmetic changes to the uniforms.
http://i.imgur.com/ksQMP6y.jpg
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Sirloin, sorry I didn't read your instructions clearly last time. I will play test, and give you some feed back.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
First "minor" issue I spotted immediately. The flag for Austria, is the flag for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which didn't exist until 1867https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...narchy.svg.png. The Austrian flags during the Second Italian War for Independence (1859), was a black and yellow flag.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
WOW! I've just realized about the existence of this mod. I have a question: the link you provided in your first post is the last updated with all the changes mentioned above?
Sirlion, my friend, I also see that someone is asking help to develop a mod about Crimea, it would be for Napoleon Total War as well but this person need a lot of help for modeling, map creation, historical research and referencing, artwork. If you know right people interested in this mod would be amazing!. I also thought you would be an excellent fit considering this amazing mod. Please check the following link in modb if you could get in touch with him:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/crimea
Thank you in advance! and great job!
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Yes the link in the first post is the latest updated. I have no interest in the crimean war at the moment and I find it not so appealing for NTW's campaign map, or indeed any other iteration of the Warscape engine, I would also like to point out that this is not the correct approach to modding (I refer to your publicity there). You show something that you've done, THEN you EVENTUALLY ask for help. Posting a couple of paintings with no clear goal and asking for recruitment straight away is, in my view, distasteful and misleading. I'm not going to work on something that doesnt even have a fraction of work already showing up, I'm done with ideas-men, sorry.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
No problem Sirlion I have not any relation with that individual. Now speaking about your mod which is the most important thing right now, you said there is not campaign yet, I suppose this mod is for custom battles mainly but will you plan to make a campaign in the future? Is this mod finished or will be further updates? Thank you! I haven't any words to express my enthusiasm to know that a modder/developer is interested in 19th century later warfare.
Re: Risorgimento 1859 - The Franco-Austrian War
Some new units in progress:
Bohemian Volunteer Hunters (Bohmisches Freiwilligen-Jager-Corps)
http://i.imgur.com/rY2ku8X.jpg
with plumes on the side
http://i.imgur.com/a2LLc3t.jpg
Croatian-Slav Volunteer Hussars (Croatisch-Slavonische Freiwilligen-Huszaren)
http://i.imgur.com/4AuSeur.jpg