Fellow generals and officers,
After a 4th year of development, we're (really-really) proud to announce the 4th version of our beloved and epic NTW3 modification !
NTW3 version 4.0 is now featuring:
- 611 Units (76 new)
- 145 Maps (9 new)
- 23 Historical Battles (2 new)
- Fully functional SP campaign (oh yeah !!!)
- Commodore Wesleys New MP Naval-Mod
- Numerous uniform corrections
- Gameplay improvements
- Aaaaand 6 New Factions
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Factions
Großherzogtum Baden
Großherzogtum Berg
Herzogtum Braunshweig
Königreich Hannover
Großherzogtum Hessen
Rheinbund
Regno di Sardignia
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Units
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Maps
New Maps
Reworked Maps
New Corner Deploy Maps
New Attack Defend Maps
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New MP features.
- New rating system for all factions.
This is to aid in creating balanced battles with uneven numbers of players, or teams with different skill levels.
Basically each faction now has an Effectiveness Rating. This varies from 20 for the Major powers (France, Russia, Prussia, Austria & Britain) to as low as 10 for some of the new, restricted, minor factions.
This rating is a guide only. It is calculated from the troop quality, price penalties & types of troops available to a faction.
For example:
Poland has a wide range of high quality troops available & they pay almost no price penalty for them. ER=19.
Hesse – Darmstadt has a small selection of elite troops available. With the Pricing penalties they cannot fill more than 10-12 slots in a MP battle. ER=12.
Naples has a large roster of poor troops (except for some cavalry & couple of Guard Infantry). ER =15.
To use the ratings:
Each team in a battle is given a total Effectiveness Rating. These can be the same for a balanced battle. One side may receive less because they have a defensive advantage, or more experienced players who want a challenge.
The value of the combined ERs of the selected factions may not be greater than the agreed amount.
For example:
5 players wish to have a battle. To make it balanced it is decided that each team may have a total ER of 40.
The team with 2 players picks 2 majors (ER 20 each).
The side with 3 players picks 2 restricted minors, Sardinia (ER10) & Hesse (ER12) plus one strong minor Bavaria (ER18). A total of 40
So both sides are, in theory, balanced.
Although one side has an extra player, two on their team have restricted minors that will only be able to fill 10 to 12 slots. So the numbers will comparable & the greater quality of the major’s troops will compensate for any deficiency here.
The flag of each faction in the multiplayer lobby with show the Effectiveness Rating. By looking at this it will be easy to see if the 2 teams are matched appropriately.
- New Command Point (CP) unit.
A slow moving objective, that can be positioned almost anywhere on the map.
The High commander & his staff have no ranged attack & are virtually immune to musketry & cannon fire.
They will defend themselves like grenadiers if close assaulted.
This is the only honourable way to claim your opponent's Command Point.
The Command Point will inspire near-by units.
Use this unit to create different scenarios in your NTW:3 multi-player battles, such as:
Defend a position.
Timed battle (suggest 30 minutes for two players, 45 for four, 60 for six & above)
The defending side purchases one or more CPs.
In the deployment part of the battle the defender positions his CP(s).
To win the Attacker must take the defenders CP(s) before the timer runs out.
The rules may specify that once placed a CP cannot be moved, or positioned in a building.
Cover your Train.
Each side purchases a CP.
The winner is the first side to eliminate the opponent's Command Point.
Variant Line of Communication (LoC)
When using one of the LoC maps the Command point can act as an extra VP, worth an agreed value. Rules for placement could be as ‘Defend a position’ above.
Handicap a team.
Outside the in-built Effectiveness Ratings of a faction you can further weaken it by buying a CP & spending extra points by boosting its experience.
Experience level 7 doubles the cost, 8 triples it & 9 increases it to five times the basic cost.
A CP bought to experience level 7 would reduce the Effectiveness rating of a faction by one, level 9 by two.
- Morale
All values are 5x higher than previous versions, so a morale of 5 (in V3) is now a morale of 25.
The new system should produce more stable morale in smaller battles (2 to 4 players) As well as more predictable results all-round.
- Fatigue
Greater fatigue costs for infantry running, shooting & melee.
Higher negitive effect to shooting for being fatigued.
- Infantry
New Drill system.
Infantry are now divided into 2 classes, conscripts & below (generally morale 4, or 20 in the new system) have poor drill. Better troops will form up & fire after movement quickly (a second or two). The lower grade troops will take 4-5 seconds.
Revised accuracy ratings: less difference between good & bad troops, slightly improved mid-range accuracy.
More fatigue for firing & greater decrease in firing effect from being fatigued.
Movement speed of large units increased.
Russian infantry marching speed further improved.
Musketry of Russian troops improved.
Musketry of Austrian troops improved.
Spanish Elite troops made more expensive & some with tighter caps.
Revamped Skirmishers: Their fire is less effective, but they are now cheaper & have the ability to ‘form-up’ & fight as part of the line. They will be very vulnerable to charges & cannot form square.
Most militia class units can now form close column (pike square).
- Cavalry
Better acceleration when moving.
Improved combat stat’s for medium & heavy cavalry.
Slightly decreased pricing for medium & heavy cavalry.
Slightly faster movement for medium (dragoons generally) cavalry
Light cavalry made slightly weaker (lower morale) for average units, or slightly more expensive for ‘battle cavalry’ (more capable elite units).
Lancers made less effective in sustained melee, but still strong in the charge.
Cossacks adjusted to be better at ‘hit & run’ tactics.
- Artillery
Solid shot more effective.
More effective canister for heavy guns.
Howitzers scatter increased. They inflict losses at about 2/3 the rate of an equivalent, 2 gun, 6pdr battery. But damage buildings about 1.5 times as fast.
Movement of all foot guns slightly increased, heavy guns getting a greater increase.
Cheaper 3/4pdr cannon.
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Reworked SP Campaign
Please find detailed Release Notes notes and additional info about SP Campaign by following this link:
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New fully integrated SP & MP Naval Battles
Lord Commodore Wesley's
Realistic Naval mod has been now fully integrated in version 4. This is a much enhanced version of the popular
Grand Fleet mod by Sharp Originally put in to help with the single player campaign, these much more realistic Battles are available both in multiplayer and singleplayer.
Some of the changes in Wesley's own words:
Naval battles are significantly improved from vanilla's, here are my tips for naval battles:
1. In the early part of the battle, you will want to get the wind gauge, or in non-sailor talk, be as upwind of the enemy as possible.
2. If you want your ship to turn faster, it is best to shorten your sail (I don't want to go into a physics lesson here, but it is historical). Also
If you want less damage to your sails, shorten them as well.
3. It is completely impractical to sail straight up wind (in sailor lingo it is called being in irons, for good effect as turning is difficult and you will hardly move at all). If you need to go upwind, it is best to zigzag up (called tacking).
4. The cannons are not very accurate at long range, if you want to do real damage, close into musket range (and if you want 100% hits, close into pistol range!). The main disadvantage to closing however is that it is much more difficult to disengage.
5. There are two elemental tactics, the manoeuvring methods (best employed when having smaller numbers or smaller ships) or the good old Nelson tactic, "Never mind manoeuvres, go at 'em!" (this one is best when you want to be aggressive and close in distance).
6. Remember that the turning arks are quite large and take up a lot of distance, your ship will not turn on a dime, so be careful!
7. In large ship of the line battles, (medium and large funds most likely) you will want your whole line fighting at the same time and not do the brush and pass method (reminds me a lot like jousting by the way) that many people tend to do. Line up with your enemy outside of range then close the distance. Fighting like this helps your vanguard ships (leading ships) from being destroyed.
8. You must find your best method, the larger ships will give a nice punch, but they will be overwhelmed by numbers. The 74 gun ship of the line has the best mix, but one on one will lose to a first or second rate. It is best to have a mixture of the heavy ships or the line and the lighter ships of the line and use them properly.
9. The lighter ships (frigates, brigs and sloops) are not effective in ship of the line battles, but in small funds (where at most the other person can only bring two or three ships of the line) they are much more dangerous. They can gain advantageous positions much quicker than ships of the line. The best solution is to have frigates of your own to gain the best position and prevent your opponent from capturing it.
10. Do not forget chain-shot. Even though a stray and lucky round-shot can take out a mast, the chain-shot is more effective at this. A ship that cannot move does not a very strong tactical purpose, and can be isolated and crushed quickly.
11. Boarding is a good way to capture ships, but it can take some time to board the enemy ship and can also expose the attacking ship as well.
12. Keeping your formation is your main and best objective to win in fleet battles. Naval battles require good organization (do not trust the auto fleet formations!). The commander who has the best control of the situation will win.
I also have to give thanks to Sharp's Grand Fleet mod, which created many amazing textures and wind direcetion/speed ratios, plus a whole lot more modifications that helped make this mod a possibility. Thank you again!
I must also thank the Lordz Modding Collective for the inspiration and encouragement plus all of its members.
~ Lord CommodoreWesley
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New HB Battles
In a future patch, you'll have the pleasure to test 2 new HB battles, those of
La Rothiere and
Corunna.
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Credits
- Lord Avon Ulysses
- Lord Bloody Bill
- Lord Commodore Wesley
- Lord Cosak
- Lord Davn
- Lord Desaix
- Lord Fullin
- Lord Hokomoko
- Lord JC
- Lord LeglessLannes
- Lord Liberalis
- Lord Sean Cappone
- Lord Von Clausewitz
Our thanks to the artist
Katrin ’Rai-che’ Buttigova and the person who commissioned this work for allowing it to be the face of our V4 release. Katrin is a freelance artist and available for commissions so please check out her portfolio.
About the artist
"I'm a 24 years old illustrator, student of history of art and napoleonic reenactor from the Czech Republic. I've been focusing on history in my artwork and studies for eight years."http://lesoldatmort.carbonmade.com/Special thanks to AL42, Bastiendep & Firetight (for the loadscreens), Chuckman (for his research), Churruca (for HB), Girona (2d graphics), Kester (for giving birth to Clinch), Oby (for the telescope animation), Uxbrigde (unit models), Vilain de Bourg-en-Bresse (SP help), Ziuk, plus contributions from our fans.
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Installation
Before installing the new version, remove all previous NTW3 installations in your /napoleon total war/data folder. Just double click on the NTW3 uninstaller(s).Run the installer & it will install/update NTW3 automatically, providing Napoleon :Total War is installed in the default location.
If it's not, you will just need to point the installer to the location & it will do the rest.
When you go to play use the NTW3 icon as usual.
If correctly installed you should see in the start-up screen a small red text saying
MOD Version 4.0.
NTW3 version 4.0 Main Pack
NTW3 version 4.0 HB Pack
Mirrors:User Interface ModIf your screen resolution is above 1600, we highly recommend you to download this little mod that will greatly enhance your visual comfort in the Unit Selection Screen.
Just download, unpack and place into your
/napoleon total war/data folder.
Download Pre-Battle Unit Selection modA big fat THANK YOU to the entire community for keeping this mod alive.Vive l'Empereur!,
The Lordzhttp://www.TheLordz.org
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