SCENARIO: American Civil War - C3C only

I've currently setup the picket ship as an attack of 2, defense of 4, movement of 5. The picket ship also has defensive bombard of 5 (RoF 1). Picket ships have ignore movement cost of coast and sea. The movement of 5 could go up to 6 to give it a little more mobility. In its first incarnation, it had offensive bombard, but this proved too problematic with the traditional "run in bombard, run away before the guns get you" type tactic.

Blockcade Runner is attack of 0, defense of 4, movement of 15 with ignore movement cost of coast, sea and ocean. 7 of the 8 game start Blockcade Runners have 4hps (ie regular), while 1 has 6 hps (ie veteran). One of the CSA runners, called the "A.D. Vance" or "Advance" had a very good track record of beating the blockcade. I reflected that with the higher experience.

I didn't want to make the Picket ship as strong as a gunboat, but its attack could go up another point or two, depending on people's opinions.

Misfit
 
Ok. How about this?

Picket Ship att 3, def 3, movement 6. defensive bombard 5, RoF 1.

Blockcade Runner att 0, def 3, movement 15, -1 HP

The Picket Ship won't win every battle, especially against veteran Blockcade Runners, but it will win about 50% of the time.

Picket Ships are cheap (75 shields), which is 5 shields less than a Transport or Gunboat. Mix a few Gunboats in with Picket Ships and you have a decent blockcade force.

Regards
Misfit
 
I have been beaten..... :cry:

Absolute_sad's CSA forced my Union surrender in mid 1862 after a stunning Union defeat outside Washington. He played very well and earned the victory.

Absolute_sad and I had a post game strategy wrapup which we have agreed to post here.

****

Union Strategy (Misfit)

> My strategy was to build up quickly by having Coal Plants in the major
> cities and factories in the smaller ones. Over time I could overwhelm
> you with troops (which is pretty much what happened in the real war).
>
> I wanted to harass with naval landings, but it wasn't a big part of my
> game plan. I had worked out a possible way to attack New Orleans, but
> it would have required far more units than I could realistically
> transport. I was pleased that my naval combat techniques were
> successful, but I doubt I would try to duplicate my river campaign
> again (at least not quite as deep a strike with no way to return).

(side note: My Springfield MO division moved due east from week 28, 1861, eventually capturing Little Rock, Helena and Arkansas Post and getting as far south as Monroe before getting killed. I captured Johnsonville early in the war (using my transports) and moved 3 Divisions down to ravage the cities of Jackson and Corinth. There wasn't a rail line left anywhere in near a river by the time I was done. Unfortunately the CSA recaptured Johnstonville and my units were trapped.)

>
> I think giving the CSA a golden age was a mistake. There is far too
> much buildup possible than should historically be realistic. Even in
> my BEST game as the CSA I never built more than 8 additional divisions
> (and 4 of those were with military great leaders). There wasn't any
> realistic chance of me being able to catch and surpass you.
>
> Hmm, maybe we should try the next game with a 5 turn golden age for
> the CSA and no golden age for the Union. The CSA will also get the
> potential benefit of running the blockcade for a cash injection every
> 15 turns.
>
> The slight changes to the Union cavalry and skirmisher attack should
> help somewhat with these supporting units, and the removal of disease
> will let the Union production advantage materialize more quickly.
>
>
>

CSA Strategy (Absolute_sad)

>
> In the East, my initial strategy was to wait for your attack, but it
> never happened. After upgrading to Rifles and building the Valor, I
> realized that I couldn't just wait or you'll become too strong. So I
> tried to harass you with the NVA. It was risky (especially when I
> attacked your Veteran Div in a Fort) but it paid well. The important
> point in this strategy was the ability of the NVA to attack and then to
> retreat. Perhaps I should have started to harass you sooner, when you
> had only Volunteers, but I was too scary to lose the NVA, the only Div
> or to be counter-attacked while my stack is far from my towns.
>
> In the West, I haven't thought about your strategy of using naval
> transports to avoid front lines and of quickly moving troops while
> preventing me to react by destroying the railroads. It was an error for
> me to attack in Mississippi, a static front is the best I can get here,
> even with 5 Divisions. Later you probably could have saved the 2 Rogues
> Divs by moving the 4 Rifle stack close to the river (I wouldn't have
> attacked them, too risky) and then land them.
>
> About production: it is clear that the Golden Age was very useful, for
> example for paying the cost of Rifle updating. Since the beginning of
> the war, my Top 10 cities started to produce divisions; the result is
> that now I have 13 Divisions while starting with only 6. I also had a
> lot of Rifle Brigades (especially in the West), so I could sacrifice
> some to achieve strategic goals. Several cities have produced Coal
> Plants, and it was the only building I've ever built, except some walls
> in very strategic towns. It is clear that it is a short-term strategy,
> so if the war waged up to 1863, I would have been outnumbered
> financially and scientifically.
>
> About the science, two things helped. The Golden Age of cause but also
> espionage. Around turn 20, I stole you the Banking and a dozen turns
> later the Higher Education. The military report was also very useful as
> I could see that you were creating almost no Divisions, but a lot of
> Engineers and some Transports. That's why several of my Brigade were
> guarding the East coast.
>
> If the war would have continued, I was preparing several things. First
> a massive attack in Kentucky with 2 Rifle Divs, 1 Cav. Div, 5+ Rifle
> Brigades. Perhaps I would have managed to ambush you south of
> Lincoln... I was also translating 3 Irregulars to the east to make some
> surprise ambushes where you weren't expecting it. You must have seen
> that I used near a dozen of scouts, who were very important sometimes
> as I could exactly know what forces were ahead. I was even thinking
> about researching the optional tech to get the 2-movement scouts.
>
> In Maryland, the extra Divisions would have allowed me to block you in
> Baltimore while harassing you in Washington and the town east of it. I
> was also sending a Division to the north because my scouts reported
> that you only had one Brigade there.
>
> I think that your best strategy was to leave Washington two turns ago.
> Without a good supply line, my attack would have been slowed and
> Baltimore was safe with your 7 Divisions. In a dozen of turns, with
> extra Divisions and an Army, I would have lost the initiative. Then it
> is your job to carefully re-conquer the lost lands.
>
> The naval war was really bad. I've made some serious mistakes,
> especially on rivers, but because of your strategy, I think I had no
> chances anyway in the sea. I was building several Ironclads, but
> without illusions. The transport danger was serious, but once you were
> under heavy pressure in Virginia, I knew you could hardly spare a
> Division to make a landing.
>
> Well, I think that's it !
>
> It was a pleasure and a challenge to play with you. You've surprised me
> more than once and without some luck my lines could have collapsed in
> the West.
 
Well I tried again and made a log of the battle since early 1864. I'm attaching it, maybe will help fine tunning the VP.

The scenario is lovely. I couldn't play the marine battle was not in the scenario you sent me, maybe some other time I will get it. :goodjob:
 

Attachments

  • Score date 27-12-04.txt
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  • VP ACW.JPG
    VP ACW.JPG
    249.6 KB · Views: 271
Thanks for the update. It looks like a VP total of 225,000 is not an unreasonable number, given that playing conservatively it took you to 1864 to get to it.

How far into the tech tree did you get? You indicated that you could not use the Marine unit. Could you be more specific?

Thanks
Misfit
 
I'm currently playtesting a single player version of (human) CSA vs. Union. This encorporates minor unit modifications (increased 1 attack point for Union cav and skirmisher), A.I. Corps units have a transport of 1 (with 18HP bonus), and Union picket ships. CSA gets a 10 turn golden age with the first successful Riflemen brigade attack. (Trust me you need it).

The blockcade runner concept is unplayble in single player and will only be available in multiplayer.

The map has been trimmed to remove some of the West and Northern portions. The CSA side starts with 1 Indian scout and 1 Indian native unit as CSA sympatizers.

I have new art for the Union division formations to reflect their 3 brigade composition. I have new art for the Corps unit (but am still working the bugs out of it).

Version 4.7 is available for beta testing as of tomorrow (Dec. 28). Multiplayer v4.7 is also available. It will require a new artwork download. If you are interested in participating in the beta, please PM me with a live email address and I will send you a private FTP download point.

Depending on feedback, I plan on releasing the single (CSA) and multiplayer version before Jan. 1. Single (Union) still needs some play testing.

Regards
Misfit
 
Misfit_travel said:
Thanks for the update. It looks like a VP total of 225,000 is not an unreasonable number, given that playing conservatively it took you to 1864 to get to it.

How far into the tech tree did you get? You indicated that you could not use the Marine unit. Could you be more specific?

Thanks
Misfit

Sorry maybe my English is sometime confusing. I was trying to say that I couldn't play the battle at the sea, with pickets, treasury and the stuff you were commenting, now I see that is just a Beta version. I'm interesting to test it so get me in the list for trials.

I reach to carbines in the tech tree, is difficult to go further due to the end by VP points, but I agree that in the spirit of the scenario 225,000 is just right there. I would vote for an increase to 250,000 VP points for more fun (of course for USA), maybe the CSA deffenders won't be very happy to wait more turns to win.

I reported before that there is a bug with the Marine Unit.

I will be unavailable from now until Jan. 6th.
 
The v4.7 files (including single player modes) are ready for upload. I've requested Thunderfall give me FTP access to upload the new art files. Once that is complete I will post the scenario files and update post #1 of this thread.

Regards (and Happy New Year)

Misfit
 
It was possible to introduce some gameplay enhancing elements in the multiplayer version that are not possible in single player against the AI.

Some key differences in the multiplayer game.

1) Fort Monroe

This is now a well defended city. The human Union player starts with a transport near Annapolis (and can build more) which will allow for the option of a Pennisula campaign. Norfolk is now in a considerably weaker position strategically. Map changes allow for the James river to be navigatable upto Drewry's Bluff. The Drewry's Bluff gun has been changed to a coastal gun, so between the Norfolk and Drewry's Bluff guns, Union shipping sitting in Fort Monroe will have a difficult time of it.

2) New Orleans

Map changes near Fort St. Phillip allow New Orleans to be invaded from two directions. The Coastal fortifications still make it very dangerous to do so, but the Union has some more options.

3) CSA foreign munitions

We re-introduced the CSA blockcade runner as a weak defense, very fast, terrain ignoring naval unit which "captures" munitions at the safe foreign harbour (in the middle of the Atlantic) and runs the Union blockcade. If the blockcade runner can make it to a harbour with a Victory Point location, they automatically get 750 gold. (Representing the valuable munitions they have brought back). The Safe Foreign Harbour is guarded by long range coastal guns, so beware Union player!! The CSA player only has 1 game start sloop, so they are at a great disadvantage in protecting their blockcade runners. The Union loses some sloops (relative to earlier versions), but gains a large number of picket ships. Picket ships are good coastal and sea units, but useless in the open ocean.

4) Major warships can "capture" enemy warships

Sloop units and later ocean going warships can enslave an enemy unit. Union ships create picket ships, while CSA ships create blockcade runners. Traditional ironclad units (but not the Ironclad warship) do not capture, they just sink anything they can reach.

Regards
Misfit
 
I'm afraid not. I've created an AI Corps Wonder that spawns an AI corp every 25 turns. Should there be an AI battle created unit, it will be the regular Corps unit. It doesn't happen very often, so I figure the AI Corps would show up in battle more frequently.
 
Ah. A bit of a waste if the AI should be able to get an MGL, but it's perhaps for the best.

The alternative would be having all battle-created ones to be "AI Corps", and keep the regular ones for human-built ones.
 
Its far more likely that the human player will get a MGL long before the AI will. I wasn't too keen on the human player having 1 unit transport, +18 hp corps running around. The AI will use that effectively but the human player would likely complain about not having flexibility to build ARMY units they way they want to.

Misfit
 
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