ACW Campaign Games FAQ

ACW Campaign Games Frequently Asked Questions

Updated 08/05/04

Back to ACW Campaign Games Design Center

Below you will find the answers to most questions you might have regarding HPS' American Civil War Campaign Games Series. If your question is not answered below, please e-mail me at acwcgdc@brettschulte.net and I'll be happy to answer it for you.

1. What is HPS?

HPS Simulations is a computer wargames company that sells its games by mail only. Some of the series currently available include the ACW Campaign Series, the Panzer Campaigns Series, the Early American Wars Series, the Napoleonic Campaigns Series, the Squad Battles Series, the Modern Battles Series, and the Naval Campaigns Series. Learn more about the company's large selection of wargames at their web site.

2. What is the ACW Campaign Games Series?

The ACW Campaign Games Series of games from HPS consists of Campaign Corinth, Campaign Ozark, Campaign Franklin, and Campaign Gettysburg as of August 2004. Although no announcements have been made regarding future titles in this series, the odds are very good that more will be released in the future. These games feature Campaigns where each side is presented with choices, and in a matrix-based decision process individual tactical battles are fought out as a result of those decisions. The battles are turn-based, regimental-scale, and use 20 minute turns and hexes at 125 yards per hex. John Tiller, the programmer responsible for this fine series, along with a group of dedicated game designers, is continually creating new games for HPS. As more games are released, look for upgrades to the existing games.

3. What is Campaign Corinth?

Answer: Campaign Corinth (usually referred to as CC or simpy Corinth) is a turn-based tactical level wargame for the PC that focuses on the American Civil War Corinth Campaign of September and October 1862. The game features the battles of the Campaign linked together through a Campaign System, thereby allowing the gamer choices to make between battles that affect where, when, and under what circumstances the next battle will be fought.

4. What is Campaign Ozark?

Answer: Campaign Ozark (usually referred to as CO or simpy Ozark) is a turn-based tactical level wargame for the PC that focuses on the American Civil War Campaigns for control of the Ozarks region in southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas through 1861 and 1862. The campaigns included in the game are Lyon's Missouri Campaign of 1861 featuring Wilson's Creek, the Pea Ridge Campaign in early 1862, and the invasion of Arkansas in the fall of 1862 featuring Prairie Grove. The game features the battles of the Campaigns linked together through a Campaign System, thereby allowing the gamer choices to make between battles that affect where, when, and under what circumstances the next battle will be fought.

5. What is Campaign Franklin?

Answer: Campaign Franklin (usually referred to as CF or simpy Franklin) is a turn-based tactical level wargame for the PC that focuses on Hood's 1864 Campaign to regain the State of Tennessee for the Confederacy and force Sherman to retrace his steps to defend the Union-held territory. The campaign includes the Battles of Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, as well as a potential what-if battle in Columbia, TN. The game features the battles of the Campaign linked together through a Campaign System, thereby allowing the gamer choices to make between battles that affect where, when, and under what circumstances the next battle will be fought.

6. What is Campaign Gettysburg?

Answer: Campaign Gettysburg (usually referred to as CGF or simpy Gettysburg) is a turn-based tactical level wargame for the PC that focuses on Lee's 1863 Offensive into M<aryland and Pennsylvania. The goal of the camapign is no less than to gain recognition of the Confederacy by foreign powers, and a victorious conclusion of the War. The campaign includes the Battles of Brandy Stationl, Middleville, Second Winchester, Gettysburg, and Falling Waters, as well as many what-ifs including various decisive battles fought northwest of Fredericksburg or along Meade's Pipe Creek defensive line. The game features the battles of the Campaign linked together through a Campaign System, thereby allowing the gamer choices to make between battles that affect where, when, and under what circumstances the next battle will be fought.

7. Which add-on scenarios can be used in the original game folder with no modifications &
which do I have to change things first to use?

Your typical add-on has any of the following files:
.scn (scenario) files
.oob (order of battle) files
.pdt (parameter data) files
.map (map) files

leaders.bmp files
units.bmp files

The first four are always downloaded into your main folder and do not usually overwrite existing files (the author will probably state if they do in the typical readme). Any add-on which only has a combination of these four files only can usually be dropped into the main folder and played correctly immediately.

The last two are trickier, however. Both the leaders.bmp and units.bmp files go into the Info folder, and overwrite the files that came with Corinth. In Dierk Walter's Shiloh, he was careful to just add to the leaders.bmp file, so you can play his add-on and it won't hurt Corinth. Most others, such as Pete Seibel's files, Chris Hopper's files, Tom Hick's files, etc., use leaders.bmp and/or units.bmp files which would cause strange graphics in a regular Corinth game. There would be no error messages, but units could be wearing the wrong country's uniform in their unit picture. The reason this occurs is because each unit in an OOB file points to a corresponding picture in the units.bmp file. If you change the units.bmp file, you change which picture a unit is associated with. My solution is to create a subfolder in the Info folder for every leaders.bmp file (and units.bmp file if included) that you have downloaded. The info on how to do this is at www.brettschulte.net/ACWCGDC/AddOnSetup.htm, so I won't take up more space here explaining that.

Ken Miller has made a huge leaders.bmp file to try to reduce confusion. It is located at Ken Miller's website. Chris Hopper's scenarios, Pete Seibel's scenarios, and Tom Hicks' scenarios all use this leaders.bmp file, so this saves a lot of space and time.

Here is the short version of what I suggest any new Corinth owner should do.

1) Read my Add-On Setup Instructions at www.brettschulte.net/ACWCGDC/AddOnSetup.htm

2) Get all of Pete Seibel's downloads from this page: Pete's Add-Ons and set them up as I did, except you don't need to set up his leaders.bmp files in the Info folder (Ken's leaders.bmp will take their places)

3) Get all of the scenarios that interest you at my website:
www.brettschulte.net/ACWCGDC/acwscenarios.htm and set them up in the same way, again ignoring the leaders.bmp files at the moment (again, Ken's file will be the one you need)

4) Download Ken's leaders.bmp file here, and make a subfolder for it in your Info folder. Also download Ken's files that make Pete's scenarios compatible with his leaders.bmp file here. You don't need to worry about the fixes for Chris' and Tom's files. They are included in the zips at my site.

5) Chris Hopper's scenarios, Tom Hicks' scenarios, and Pete Seibel's scenarios will all work with Ken's leaders.bmp files now, and to play them, just take Ken's file, copy it, and paste it into the Info folder. When you want to go back to the stock Corinth leaders.bmp, you should have a subfolder in the Info folder where it is saved.

6) Tom DeHoff's scenario, and Dierk Walter's scenarios are ones I talked about earlier where you can just download them and play without hurting anything.

7) That's it. (Or maybe you're asking Huh?) No other scenarios currently exist for Corinth that I am aware of. So you only need Ken's leaders.bmp file, the scenario zip files, and Ken's patches for Pete's files, and you should be ready to roll.

8. These Add-Ons won't work with Corinth after I applied a new patch. Why not?

HPS has decided to protect their investment in their games by blocking maps which did not come with the original games, starting with Corinth patch 1.02. I would suggest setting up a separate folder for these games by following the instructions in my Add-On Setup section. This way you can continue to enjoy the mods on my site and others while still being able to update Corinth with new patches.