Legacy Guide #3: Spain 1812

Ayy, we're back. It's only a legacy guide because I'm suffering from Carpal Tunnel and on vacation, but it'll do, won't it?

So, I did this racing my friend (he did Hessen, to balance it out). Well, I got 53 turns. Here's how



Generals:
2 Artillery (Sophia and Yermolov)
1 Econ (Fatimah)
1 Cav (Sulkwowski)


So here's the plan.


1. Defense


Jourdan, and possibly Bennigsen, will come for you. Focus all your troops on stopping them, and taking St. Louis. Try to keep all Generals alive.


2. March on Washington


Send Yermolov with one Light Cav to Nashville, then the US Stable. There, build a double Armored Car for Sulkowski. With this force, take Washington and Baltimore


3. Louis and Clark


Send Sophia and both Spanish guys up through St. Louis to Fort Dearborn. Be sure to kill Perignon and Washington (tavern). Ignore the Fort Generals for now


4. Northward Expansion


Send Joyes to cover land and Sophia to kill Barclay. If Barclay crossed the lake, they're headed to separate places. Meanwhile, send Ballesteros East


5. Invasion of New England


Send Sulkowski, Yermolov, and Ballesteros to New York. From there, continue to Hartford, Providence, Boston, and Augusta. This is a good time to wipe out forts. Also, make sure you knock out Verhuell with Ironclads from Baltimore





Green: Your attack
Blue: Allies' attacks
Red: Enemy attacks

Modding Lesson #1: General Skills

I'm not going to spoon-feed y'all (unless someone wants to be spoon-fed, in which case comment and you will get a spoon-feeding on Monday). I'm going to give quick lessons and let you out to explore and mod.

1.Today's Lesson:
How to change General's skills
2. Needed:
An unlocked APK. I'm not going to publish it directly, but BJ Blazkovic (youtuber) has one.
An APK editor. The one I use is crap, so I'm hoping youse can go out and find a less poopy one.
3. How to do it:
In the assets folder, there's a file called "def_commander.xml". In it is a list of Generals, with all their specs coded. Today, I'll focus on their skillz. There will be coded under skill1, skill2, skill3, and skill4. The number after them will go from 0 to 39 for actual skills, or be -1 if there is none. The list of codes is below.
To change the skills, edit this doc by replacing the 1-2 digit codes you wanna change. Then, sign the APK, install the new modded version, and have fun!

Codes:
Banner=0
Geography=1
Fireproof=2
Leadership=3
Spy=4
Accurate=5
Engineering=6
Ballistics=7
Explosive=8
Strike=9
Surprise=10
Mobility=11Formation=12
Infantry Tactic=13
Bugle=14
Mass Fire=15Steersman=16
Sailor=17
Navigation=18
Nobleman=19
War Expert=20
War Master=21
Logistics=22
Economic Expert=23
Economic Master=24Disguise=25
Transport=26
Trench=27
Fence=28
Siege Master=29
Architecture=30
Assault Art=31
Defense Art=32
Infantry Trainer=33
Cavalry Trainer=34
Artillery Trainer=35
Navy Trainer=36
Fort Trainer=37
Business Trainer=38
Move Trainer=39

Age of Steel: Choosing Generals

Here is my opinion on choosing generals, as of 0.1.1

Aggregate top 5:
1. Napoleon
2. Lan
3. Victoria
4. Isabela
5. Radetzky
Honorable Mentions:
6. Lee
7. Kate
8. Sophia
9. Scott
10. Murat
Infantry:
1. Victoria (for obvious reasons)
2. Lee (he has some very punchy skills, and artillery capability)
3. Brock (I modded him to have Formation instead of Sailor. That means he can get the highest output of any infantry general in the whole game)
Cavalry:
1. Lan (kick-ass and no cost)
2. Radetzky, aka tanky Lan (who has Geography instead of the bs War Master skill)
3. Murat, the Fort-Cracker
4. Grant, aka Lan's twin
5. Dombrowski, aka slow Radetzky
Artillery:
1. Napoleon (yeah, I made him kick ass)
2. Isabela (I'll fix ET's atrocious spelling soon).
3. Scott (Ol' Fuss and Feathers is very slow, but is powerful and has Leadership)
4. Sohpia (begone, Forts!)
5. Seymour (strong Art-Navy Hybrid, especially if you don't have room for Scott in your lineup)
Navy:
1. Kate (pure, focused, tough)
2. Victoria (the queen of S&l)
3. Seymour (Leadership!!!)
Fort:
LOL.

Age of Steel v0.1.1

This is a MINOR update. This means not much has changed, and I guess you can skip it.

Changes:
1. Savary is made normal
2. Grant (store version) loses Surprise, gets Mass Fire
3. Sophia gets Defense Art
4. Tavern generals tweaked slightly
5. First mission of Waning Days campaign released.

I'm not sure whether I can make a major update before Thanksgiving, but I'll try to get Waning Days made kinda piecemeal before that.

Thank you to kind reader Transfermium for pointing out Savary's crazy specs.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04hI0ajr6cxb3RxTEVuWDVpVGs/view?usp=sharing

Age of Steel Guide Pair: 1861

To compensate for screwing up this weekend, I present two guides now.

America 1861

Using a true-to-history strategy, we can actually win this one really fast. I got 24 turns, with underdeveloped generals used in a subprime way, and without trying to rush.

History Lesson: The Anaconda Plan

In the beginning of the Civil War, the Union's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, proposed a plan to defeat the Confederacy.
In his plan, an elite Union force was to land in New Orleans and push up the Mississippi River, while the US Navy blockaded the Rebs. For political reasons, Lincoln added in an attack directly to Virginia. Ultimately, the Union's victory followed this rough plan.

How I did it:

I put Sophia on the Heavy Cavalry outside of New Orleans, and Maria on MGs I built in Philadelphia. I then used Scott and Maria to march down the Eastern seaboard (aided by the superior Union Navy), while Grant marched to Nashville, and then pushed south.
Sophia's task force was the interesting one. I landed them in West Florida, then marched into New Orleans while the Privateer drew the Confederate battleship away. After New Orleans, she pushed into the Deep South, and participated in the serial obliteration of the South.
One general of note is Robert E. Lee. I spammed forts and artillery to get rid of 'im, and it was not easy.

Confederacy 1861

This one was tougher, but at the same time dumber. I used Grant on Cavalry to seize small towns in the West, while spamming artillery from occupied St. Louis to kill his Doppelganger. Lee, Sophia  on Siege Art, and a pile of units Zerg Rushed the Eastern Seaboard, and Kate on an Ironclad wreaked havoc on the Union's blockade. It wasn't fun, but it was won.

Unrelated note: I'm told Savary's specs are weird. This will be fixed in the next update, which will also contain changes to Tavern generals.

Age of Steel v 0.1.0 release

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04hI0ajr6cxbW0yNHJEYW1XeEk/view?usp=sharing

I promised you, and I deliver. In this first open beta release, you get 17 new generals, 5 modded countries, and 6 new conquests. I've even playtested, and can verify that 1861 (5th Conquest) US and 1848 (4th Conquest) Hungary are both playable. I urge you all to playtest it too, and tell me how it goes. I'll publish my readers' successes in a weekly list, if I get enough.

Sidenote:
Yes, the Confederacy features in this mod. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis are both gens, and Lee's specs are OP. This is in no way to be construed as support for white supremacism, slavery, or anything of the sort. It's in the interest of depicting the period properly.

Keep an eye out for 0.2, whose release date will be announced on Tuesday

Mod Reveal: Age of Steel

Super Epic, Exclusive, For Your Eyes Only Mod Reveal: The Age of Steel Mod

Ooh, a gutsy name! "Age of Steel" just sounds like a phase in Emo kids' breeding cycle, but it's also the name of my Victorian Era mod. That's right, Picard is in town!

My plan calls for 6 clean-sheet campaigns and conquests, and a TBD amount of new Generals.

The Conquests shall be:
1. America 1812 (but changed, I promise)
2. Europe 1814
3. Europe 1830
4. Europe 1848
5. America 1861
6. Europe 1866

The Campaigns shall be:
1. Waning Days (1812-1815; France, Britain, Prussia, Sweden, Poland)
2. Manifest Destiny (1812-1848; USA)
3. A Conservative Period (1812-1866; Austria, Russia, Prussia)
4. Rise of Democracy (1830-1871; France, German Confederation, Piedmont-Sardinia, Romania, Poland, Ireland OR Hungary)
5. Blood and Iron (1848-1871; Prussia, German Empire)
6. A House Divided (1861-1865; USA, CSA)

The first to be made, Waning Days, will chronicle Napoleon's fall from the Battle of Borodino to the Hundred Days through 5-8 easy, tutorial-esque maps. Manifest Destiny, its companion, will be a full-scale one going from the War of 1812 to the Mexican-American War (kinda, with a lot of creative liberties taken on geography). Rise of Democracy and A Conservative Period will essentially be twins, with similar maps played as opposite sides. Both will have some period (but no content) overlap with Blood and Iron, whose subject I presume to be obvious.

As you can see, you're looking at one heck of a broad span, going from the depth of the Napoleonic Wars in 1812 right up to German unification. This means months and months of work to some level, but I'm up for it.

Version 0.1

Version 0.1, which will be released on Thursday, will include all 6 conquests to some level of completion (the borders will be done, that much I promise). Potentially, I'll include a few maps in the Waning Days campaign.

A Glossary of EW4 Terminology

Hello, my fellow Simians,

While copying my legacy (read: old) guides, I realized how much jargon I use. There are two solutions to that:
1. Don't use jargon and write things out
2. Make a dictionary of jargon
Evidently, I chose the latter, so here it goes

1. S&L: Saving right before a key fight, and reloading/redoing it until you get an outcome that satisfies you
2. Rushing: Doing conquest really fast to get princesses. This is considered a key part of completing the game by most.
3. Art: Shorthand for Artillery, aka cannons
4. Gen: Shorthand for Generals, aka those dudes you buy with medals or emblems and put on troops to make them stronk
5. Princess: Like generals, but you earn them by winning conquests fast. 5 of the 8 are beasts
6. Medals: The money you earn for killing enemies and winning campaign maps.
7. Emblems: The money you buy with actual Dollars/Euros/RMB/Yuan/Pounds. I will not encourage you to buy them, but it can be helpful.
8. Cav: Short for Cavalry, aka Horses
9. Inf: Short for Infantry, aka little men
10. Skills: those thingies at the top-right corner of the general's info card
11. Farming: Doing repetitive tasks to boost various specs