Read this in conjunction with my topic post before this one which deals with big battles in OCMOD3. But read this post first. I have just tested Cavalli's Realism Mod since it has been updated recently. I will note that Cavalli's Mod uses quite a few of OCMOD3's parameters and the OCMOD3 economic balance plus it uses General WVPMs Flexible Formations Framework as does OCMOD3. As a result, the Realism Mod and OCMOD3 look somewhat like cousin mods. Having said the above, they also look different in significant ways too. The Realism Mod implements bigger, more-to-scale buildings and different (historical) flag and uniform colors. A very big point of difference is Cavalli's fire system for his Realism Mod. That's what I want to focus on in this post. I think the Cavalli fire system is very good. That doesn't mean I think it is perfect (perfection is impossible anyway) and that doesn't mean it would be perfect as it stands for OCMOD3. Having said that, I would like to put a variant of the Cavalli fire system into OCMOD3 and match it up with the range damage and head-shot systems General WVPM has given us. (Which I still have not understood properly and which the General still needs to set me right on.) I really liked some of the effects of the Cavalli fire system, though I found it a little bit too hard to kill enemies with musket fire. OCMOD3 kills a bit too easily with musket fire so it errs in the other direction. I really liked the effect of having a reasonable equivalent of ranked fire. I really liked the effect of 18th muskets and grenadiers having to be more reliant on the bayonet at times, especially against cavalry. And I liked the fact that other friendly muskets were not shooting through friendly troop bunches using the bayonet. All this is a real enhancement to the battlefield. The Cavalli fire system brings back linear tactics for 18th C muskets and I even imagine it might bring back the possibility of column bayonet charges in some situations. This fire system also strongly discourages the stacking of musket formations as you will get a much inferior weight of fire. Encouraging the use of line tactics will assist cavalry flank attacks where cavalry attack the ends of infantry lines (so called crossing the T). In turn players will need to learn to "refuse the flanks" or counter enemy cavalry on the wings of their army with their own cavalry. I can see a lot of good effects flowing from the Cavalli fire system and its prevention of fire through friendlies. As I say, I really want to blend it into OCMOD3 and blend it correctly with head-shot percentages and range damage. Infantry and cavalry tactics and combined tactics will become more complex, interesting and realistic. Once that is done, the two mods will become closer cousins but still with significant points of difference. Where will this lead in the future? It's an interesting question on which to speculate.
