Here are the 17 dedicated Mamluk images I am planning for the mod which also kick off the top of the “Units” file. 

 Not that these are all the images available to scenario designers working with Mamluk armies. For mercenary and auxiliary troops they will be able to draw on the 13 “Other Turcoman” and 15 “Other Arab” images to be set up next as well as a set of generic “Middle Eastern” camp follower and baggage images to be found at the other end of the “Units” file.

Note the War Wagon and Warship tiles at the end of the set.

Enjoy

Ian

I have decided to break my work on the graphics for this mod  down in  to 10 roughly equal stages. In the 1st I will do the Ottoman & Mamluk units along with the varies allies and axillaries that served on both sides in the 2 Mamluk / Ottoman wars. I will then be able to modify the existing Marj Dabik & Raydaniyah scenarios. I will also aim to do a completely new scenario from scratch for the battle of Adana 1488 AD where the Mamluks scored a victory over Ottoman forces. I have already designed published  a scenario for the battle for “Field Of Glory PC” and use this as a basis for the REN scenario.

 With work on the Ottoman unit portraits already underway I have started work on the Mamluk ones as well. The sources for the Mamluks themselves are mostly book based. However for their downtrodden foot soldiers and meagre artillery and firearm units I have chopped out head and shoulders sections from some of the many modds available over the net  for   “Mediaeval Total War III” resized them and in most cases matched them up with weapon fragments from other sources. Below are the 4 I have done today, An African hand gunner, archer and spearman levy infantry and an artilleryman.

Enjoy

Ian

Now the Modding Kit is done and I have got my ideas about unit portraits pretty straight I have some decisions to make about leader graphics. I am pretty clear that I want two types of these. Firstly graphics of specific national, and unit flags  & banners, and secondly ones with a generals head and shoulders in the foreground with the relevant flag showing behind them.

The big question is with a usable graphics area behind the head and shoulders figure of 49 pixels high and 40 wide, is it better to have the flag in the “flying” position in which case it can be only 40 wide, or have it “dipped” so that it can be 49 pixels from end to end ?

Pros and cons here are that in this scale having the flag that bit larger will make its detail rather clearer but this is offset by having more of the flag obscured by the head and shoulders of the general in the foreground.

Included below are a couple of screenshots. The first of these shows a pure flag graphic. With no foreground figure and a few more pixels available (as there is no frame) I am clear that “dipped” is the way to go here. The screenshot also shows what the “French” leader box looks like when selected.

The second screenshot shows two alternative graphics styles (both depicting the French king Frances I) one with a “dipped” and the other with a “flying” flag. In both cases the leader box has not been selected.

What do you think ?

Sorry for the long silence, hopefully its worth it. In addition to my “Field Of Glory PC” scenarios I have been working on a large modding project, the 1st stage of which I can now go live with “REN II” and its associated “REN Modd Kit” The aim of this mod (which will be called REN II) is to expand the scope of the HPS “The Renaissance” game (know as REN) so that within its original time period it can cover a wider range of armies (currently 75 are planned) and battles.

With This stage, stage 1, I am releasing today the “REN Modd Kit”. This contains the core modd files and the template files necessary to make the actual mod.  Stage 2 will involve the release of the full mod with some new and modified scenarios. (using the new graphics) Stage 3 will be the release of a series of battle packs containing further new and modified scenarios. You can download the mod direct the “Graphics Mods & Files” section of this site or direct from here.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/54384751/REN%20Modding%20%20Kit.zip

Since I enjoy gaming with modds of others as much as making my own, I am also making this kit available for others to use and modify in creating their own modds. All I would ask here is that, (as I agreed with Richard Hamilton of  HPS / John Tiller Software)  you do not use it to make modds for any later time periods not already covered by HPS / John Tiller Software,  without checking with him first, so as not to endanger the market for future “Musket & Pike” series titles. However since that leaves you free to make modes for everything from the year dot up to 1600 and to use the “units” file to make new large uniform graphics modds for the Napoleonic Battles series that should not prove much of a restriction.

The kit contains the revised unit & leader box files as well as 2 new 2DSymbols files. You will see that there are no national flags in any of these, so as not to restrict the number of armies covered.  The idea here is to place national and / or personal / unit flags in the background of the unit and leader portraits. Blank template files for these have also been included. These files employ a solid frame style, something which has been done very successfully for a number of modds made for the related HPS Napoleonic Battles series in particular the EZJAX2 modd series.  I have provided a MS Word chart showing the changes in the 2D counters and some suggestions as to how scenario designers might use them.

The blank template “units” file contains 1000 image slots wile its “leaders” equivalent has 960. Richard Hamilton assures me that there should be nothing to stop the game recognising unit and leader portraits with 4 digit numbers (although its not yet been done) so the portrait files could be enlarged to over 1000 slots if necessary. I have placed alternating blue and red navigation dots at the start of every 5th line in each file to make it easier to plan work and find one’s way around them. To keep track of the identity of unit and leader images created for the mod I have also included 2 large MS Word table  “planning grid” files.

At present I don’t have any plans to make 3D graphics for the modd and would suggest that when you install the REN II modd that I am working on, that you delete the 3D graphics files from  that install of the game (it runs perfectly well without them. However if anybody is interested it making new a 3D  counter mod for the game (perhaps along the lines of the 3D counters that exist for the HPS Panzer Campaigns series. I would be very interested to here from them.

If you have any comments or suggestions about this kit and the REN II project generally, please feel free to post comments in response to my blog posts on this website   or in the “Musket & Pike” sub forum of the “Wargamer” website which can be found at http://www.wargamer.com/

Finally I have included a “sneak peak” folder in the mod. This includes the working document I am using to work out which armies the mod covers and how many unit images each army gets, as well as some sample unit tiles.

I will be alternating work on the mod with the production of scenarios for the “Field Of Glory PC” game and plan to do regular updates on its progress here as I go along.

In the immediate future I will be revising and publishing the Tours 732 AD scenerios with which I had a lot of help from StockwellPete and getting my revisionist historians version of “Stamford Boridge” ready for publication. Two battles in one here not only the battle itself but the great Anglo Saxon cavalry debate as well.

Enjoy

Ian Leask

15th June 2012