THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES (1861 – 1865) by Cantankerous

THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES (1861 – 1865)

An American Civil War scenario...for use with Civ3TW v1.27f

The American Civil War encompassed more than 10,000 fights of one kind or another, covering more than 4 years. Fought by men of all ages, it was not only the professional soldiers and cavalrymen involved, but also shopkeepers, farmers, and newly-arrived immigrants. Eventually taking the lives of more than 600,000 combatants, total casualties amounted to more than one million. ... Fight as the Confederacy and try to survive the Yankee onslaught; or fight as the Federals trying to stop the southern rebellion. If you were president, what would you do?

__________________________________________________


Hello, and welcome to my first “real” scenario.

I had been away from these forums since long before the summer (for a variety of reasons), and a few months ago I got the idea in my head that it would cool to play an American Civil War scenario for Civ 3. And I wondered why no one had ever made one. So I decided to make one myself.

After starting this scenario (and thinking that I was being novel in making a Civil War scenario) I suddenly noticed that an excellent, very detailed American Civil War scenario had already been made, namely the AWC scenario by Procifica. Well, by the time I discovered Procifica’s work I was already deep into the designing phase of this scenario, and I figured that the American Civil War was big enough (and rich enough with history) to support two scenarios on the subject.

In deference to Procifica, I have never downloaded (yet) his scenario, nor have I scrutinized beyond a cursory inspection the forum dedicated to that scenario for fear that I might subconsciously “steal” some of his ideas and design choices while I was refining this one. Now that I’m finished with this scenario (at least I “think” that I’m finished) I certainly will check that scenario out.

So I guess what I’m saying is that this scenario, while similar in subject matter, is not intended to be a rival to Procifica’s scenario in anyway. I hope that it can stand on its own as a “different” version of the same period in American history. And any similarities beyond the historical elements of the two scenarios are purely coincidental.

As well, this scenario is not intended to be absolutely historically accurate (my history and my research is not quite that good), but it IS intended to be a fun, playable, challenging campaign containing many actual historical elements of the time period. And I sincerely hope that others will feel the same way about it.

I don’t even pretend to suggest that this scenario is without fault, and comments and criticism are encouraged.

Civilopedia entries have been included for all “new” units, “new” technologies, and “new” Civilizations. Most of them just include detail information, but I think that they’re all historically correct. (After all, the information gathered for them is mostly from the internet, and everyone knows that all information on the internet is correct, right?)

SAVED GAME DOWNLOADS

Because of the limitations of the editor, (pre-Conquests) there is no way to make a scenario where all applicable parties start the game already at war, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of since to play the American Civil War and not have the Union and the Confederacy at war with each other from the very start.

So to remedy that slight little “issue” I have included pre-saved games (see below) that can be played “as is” so that things start out “right”.

Saved Game Files

The above zip file contains ten saved games. They are called:

1. WBTS-Confed-warlord.sav
2. WBTS-Confed-regent.sav
3. WBTS-Confed-monarch.sav
4. WBTS-Confed-emperor.sav
5. WBTS-Confed-deity.sav
6. WBTS-Union-warlord.sav
7. WBTS-Union-regent.sav
8. WBTS-Union-monarch.sav
9. WBTS-Union-emperor.sav
10. WBTS-Union-deity.sav

To use these saved games, simply unzip the entire file into the following folder on your computer:

C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\CIV3PTW\Saves


Because different people have different tastes when it comes to difficulty levels, a .sav has been made for every level except Chieftain (it just seemed so completely not necessary to worry about this level).

And if you’re interested to know just what the fundamental differences are between the Union and Confederate civilizations, you can see all of the ridiculous details here:

Basic Scenario Information

This file (which is included with the entire download of the scenario itself) gives details regarding:
(1) The number of units each Civ starts the game with
(2) The different types of units each Civ can build
(3) The altered combat factors and costs for each unit
(4) And a lot of useful (or useless, depending upon your perspective) comparative information

DOWNLOAD SECTION

Linked below are all of the files you will need to play this scenario. I apologize that there are so many, and most of them are unfortunately approaching the 3 Megabyte limit of this forum (and might take a while to download if you don’t have broadband), but all of these parts ARE necessary in order to make the scenario work correctly. As well, I have included instructions on what to do once the files are downloaded.


War Between the States File Folders

Ground Units Part 1

Ground Units Part 2

Ground Units Part 3

Naval Units Part 1

Naval Units Part 2

All Other Units


DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

A. Once everything is downloaded, it is IMPORTANT to unzip the "War Between the States File Folders" zip file FIRST!! This is imperative because all the "unit files" HAVE to be extracted INTO this group of folders in order for the scenario to work correctly. (If none of this makes any sense to you, just following the instructions below and you’ll be OK!)


1. Extract the "WBTS File Folders" into the following folder on your computer:

--C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\CIV3PTW\Scenarios

2. This will extract all necessary components (except the unit animation folders) into the correct place. Included in this zip file is the .bix scenario itself.


B. Now that the main file folders are in place, it is necessary to extract the unit folders as follows:


1. Extract ALL unit folders (i.e., Ground Units-Parts 1, 2 and 3; Naval Units-Parts 1 and 2; and Other Units) into the following folder:

--C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\CIV3PTW\Scenarios\War Between the States 7851\Art\Units

2. Once completed, all necessary custom units are now in place.


C. That’s all there is to it! Start playing!

CREDITS FOR CUSTOM UNITS

Several custom-made units designed specifically for Civ3 are used in this scenario, and I can't take credit for making any of them. But to make sure that proper credit IS given where due, the following text file indicates what animator created each unit used in Cantankerous's War Between the States scenario for Civilization III-Play the World.

Scenario Unit Credits

My hat is off to each of these fine animators, many (if not all) having made numerous other outstanding units as well for use by the Civ3 community. And without whose labors to make all these fine custom units, this scenario would have been very plain indeed.

CHANGES AND SPECIAL SCENARIO RULES

In addition to the combat units added (and combat factors and costs altered), to make this scenario work properly some changes had to be made to the "normal" rules of Civ 3. Listed below are the "departures" from normal Civ 3 rules that exist within the confines of this scenario.

CHANGES:

1. Game turn limit is 250 turns; each turn represents One Week.
2. No settlers can be built.
3. There is no culture flipping.
4. There is no culture production. Almost all cities start with some cultural boundaries already assigned to them, however no buildings will produce any culture for the duration of the scenario. In other words, cultural boundaries will not grow during the scenario.
5. City populations eat 3 food (instead of the normal 2).
6. Starting treasury is 250 gold for all civilizations.
7. No Great Wonders are included nor can be constructed.
8. All Small Wonders have been eliminated with the exception of the Heroic Epic, Battlefield Medicine, Iron Works, Military Academy, and the Forbidden Palace.
9. The improvement "Temple" has been renamed to "Church".
10. Resources like horses and saltpeter are not considered important. Any unit that would normally need these resources in order to allow it to be constructed can be built without them. The only "important" resources then become iron and coal.
11. The cost of constructing improvements (i.e., buildings) has been significantly increased.
12. Worker tasks take 20 times longer than normal. (Exception: Fortress worker task only takes 10 times longer than normal; Pollution clean up is only 2 times longer than normal.)
13. The technology tree has been customized for this scenario. (The regular tech tree is not used.)
14. Minimum time to research a technology is 25 turns; maximum research time is 50 turns.
15. There is no pillaging of improvements allowed in the scenario.
16. Elite units have 6 Hit Points.
17. No veteran ground or naval units can be constructed. The ability of a barracks or a harbor to allow the construction of veteran units has been disabled. Except for the units that begin the game as veteran or elite, all units will have to earn their promotions through combat in order to achieve the veteran (or elite) experience level.
18. There is no ability to "upgrade" units.
19. The defensive value of walls has been decreased to 15%; the bombardment defense of walls is set at 5.
20. A city with a barracks is given a defensive value of 25%. Barracks allow no additional bombardment defense.
21. The Battlefield Medicine small wonder requires 6 barracks (not hospitals) in a player's controlled cities in order to allow construction (once the technology of Battlefield Experience I has been completed). This change was made for two reasons: (1) in order to give the barracks another reason to be needed; and (2) because no hospitals can be built during the course of this scenario.
22. Because no hospitals can be built, no cities will therefore grow beyond size 12.
23. There are no Golden Ages for any civilization.
24. Both the Union and the Confederacy governments of choice are Democracy. There is no war weariness during the course of the scenario.
25. Democracy government has been altered to allow for 2 military police factors. In other words, each troop stationed in a city will make one unhappy citizen content (up to a maximum of two per city).
26. Free maintenance for 2 troops is given for each city (population size 7+).
27. The corruption slider has been moved downward in order to lessen the effects of corruption because of the large number of cities that each side controls.
28. The Mobilization attribute has been disabled.
29. No civilizations can engage in Mutual Protection Pacts or sign Military Alliances.
30. Certain luxuries have been added to the map (i.e., Gems near Washington and Atlanta, and Spices near Baton Rouge) that aren't necessarily in "historic" locations. This was done in order to allow the civs to have at least a few luxuries so as to control happiness.
31. Certain luxuries have been given to the two AI civilizations (Canada and Mexico) in order to allow trading for additional luxuries for the player civ(s). Note that these luxuries are not necessarily "historic" (i.e., Mexico has Ivory and Incense; Canada has Silks and Dyes).
32. The number of gold pieces it costs to buy a shield when hurrying production of a city improvement or military unit has been increased from 4 to 16.
33. Naval bombardment has been completely disabled. (No naval units are able to bombard.)
34. All flags (within the editor) that allow "trade over ocean" have been disabled. This has been done to allow naval units flagged with "sink in ocean" to have a chance to sink if they end their move in an ocean tile.
35. Naval units (for both sides) that typically were not considered highly sea-worthy or were not built as "ocean-going" vessels have been flagged as "will sink in ocean". These units include the Ironclad, Ironram, Gunboat, and Iron Gunboat.
36. There are four units in the game that don't require a maintenance fee to be paid for their upkeep each turn. They are: Militia, Gunboat, Iron Gunboat, and Coastal Battery.
37. Barbarian activity is set at "Roaming". (At Deity Level it is changed to "Restless".)
38. There is no bonus when fighting "barbarian" units. (Exception, the Warlord Level save game allows a bonus of +50%.)
39. "Barbarian" units are Native American tribes. The "basic barbarian" unit is the Indian Warrior. The "advanced barbarian" unit is the Mounted Warrior. There are some other barbarian units called Men With Guns that have been placed around the map and are there to cause mischief and create mayhem.
40. There are no roads (or railroads) connecting Washington and Richmond (when historically there were roads and a rail line linking the two cities). This has been done to make it more difficult for the player (or the AI) to initially attack the other's capital (since they are so close together).
41. Victory Point Locations are in the following Northern cities: Washington, D.C, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
42. Victory Point Locations are in the following Southern cities: Richmond, Atlanta, Vicksburg, and New Orleans.

SCREENSHOTS

Here are some screenshots showing a few elements of the scenario. If there is enough of a request, I might post additional screenshots in the future.

THE MINIMAP




A NATIVE AMERICAN CAMP




SAMPLE CIVILOPEDIA ENTRY (Gatling Gun)






THE TECHNOLOGY TREE

KNOWN “PROBLEMS” AND “ISSUES”

No scenario would be complete without a few small “issues” to solidify its rightful place in the great flawed scheme of things. And this scenario is no exception. There is nothing that I’m aware of that could keep the game from functioning properly, but there are a few things that have alluded me or maybe just seem “out of place”.


(1) The small and large in-game icons for the Small Wonders are not right. Notice that the “Military Academy” icon in the “improvements” box of Albany, NY shows the icon for the Great Lighthouse. And I’m not sure why, nor can I figure out how to fix it. Notice that the Great Lighthouse “large icon” shows as well in the “bird’s eye view” of the city.






It’s not a huge issue, and it doesn’t affect game play at all. But it is an annoyance that laughs in my face.

The other Small Wonders have incorrect icons as well. The Forbidden Palace icons show as the Colossus; the Heroic Epic icons show as the Pyramids; the Battlefield Medicine icons show as the Great Library; and the Iron Works icons show as the Hanging Gardens.

Anyone have any ideas here?


(2) I very much liked BAP’s wonderful horse-drawn artillery, and I thought it would be great for the Gatling Gun. But in order to make the animation for the Gatling Gun seem more machinegun-like, I fudged things by taking the CIV3TW American Heavymachinegunner Attack animation and sticking it into BAP's Horse-Drawn Artillery unit. So this means that when you attack with the Gatling Gun the animation makes a very sudden and abrupt change from two horses towing an artillery piece to two guys lying prone on the ground shooting a machinegun. It might look odd in the game, but I thought this was preferable to seeing a single cannon-fire discharge animation, which is equally wrong. So does anyone want to make a Gatling Gun animation for Civ 3?


(3) For the Iron Gunboat unit animation I used the custom-made unit “Tribal Class Early Destroyer” by Hunter. Most ironclad gunboats in the American Civil War were converted riverboats, but since there is no unit similar to a Mississippi riverboat, this was the closest proximity. It might seem a little odd, but it works OK all things considered.




(4) Much like the Iron Gunboat listed above, for the regular Gunboat unit animation I was very limited with finding a small sailing vessel animation that looked European in style. I went with Colonel Kraken’s excellent “Late Galleass” unit, which actually would fit in rather nicely with the design of other ships of the era if it weren’t for those oars!




(5) For the purposes of making the map work, two cities were intentionally misplaced on the map: Newark, NJ and Vicksburg, MS. The pic below shows how Newark was placed on the map. It’s movement southerly was necessary so that New York/Brooklyn wouldn’t swallow Newark up whole. Putting it in its proper geographical location would have made for too much of a cluster of cities in that area.




Vicksburg was placed on the opposite side of the Mississippi River to allow for better spacing of the Confederacy’s cities and cultural boundaries AND so that it wouldn’t take up too much space from the tiles surrounding Jackson, MS, which would otherwise make the two cities too close.

(6) Some of the black-and-white pix used in the civilopedia entries have “bleed-through”. Notice here on the civilopedia entry for the technology “Revolving Turret Innovation” the large icon pic. I tried cleaning the image up, but I couldn’t really do a very good job. Again, just another “little annoyance”, but there are several pix with this “feature” throughout the civilopedia.

THE “WHYS’ OF DESIGNING THIS SCENARIO


---writeup to follow very soon---

---RESERVED FOR FUTURE USE---

CLOSING THOUGHTS


I do hope that people like this scenario and feel that above all it is a fun game-playing experience. While it’s something of a labor of love (and the occasional frustration), I have enjoyed making it.

The .bix file is included in the download file called “War Between the States file folders” and has been included for the sake of completeness. Certainly one can load this .bix file just like any other scenario file and otherwise play the game just fine, however starting the game will leave a few things “undiscovered”.

PTW patch 1.27f added a feature to the editor allowing the map to be completely explored by all players, however this “feature” only accounts for ground terrain and city placement. Improvements to the tiles cannot be seen using this feature only. So if you fire up a game using the scenario file (and not the “saved game” files) then the first thing you’ll notice (after realizing that your AI opponent doesn’t even know you exist) is that the territory of the other players is bare—or at least bare as far you can tell. Of course, the territory of the other players is NOT bare, and some of the frontier territory (i.e., Indian Territory) has roads and lots of Native American camps. But you won’t be able to see any of this until you “explore” those areas.

Of course by starting the game via any one of the “saved game” files, you’ll not only already be at war with your opponent, but you’ll have a “full view” of the rest of the continent, from sea to shining sea. (And for those of you that are curious as to how this was done, load up the game and look in the Units section of the Civilopedia to find a unit called “Jackrabbit”. The Civilopedia entry explains it all.)

If you’re the type of person that likes detail (and you’ve read this far into my long-winded descriptions—and I thank you for it!), then I think you’ll like this scenario. It’s not easy, and you’ll soon see that there is A LOT of activity—even (or maybe especially) in the “undeveloped” areas—going on. Make sure to not leave any of your cities unprotected for fear of having your treasury raided by all likes of intruders. And running around freely in Indian Territory may not be the wisest thing to do—unless you’re fearless or just want to stir up trouble (and don’t mind losing a few Cavalry units).

Above all, please comment on the scenario. If you like it, let me know. If you hate, I still would like to hear from you. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, and it can be a good tool by which things can many times be made better.

So fire up your Civ 3 games and dive in. I don’t think you’ll be bored!

Couple things I've noticed in your scenario information:

1) The Gatling gun was not officially commissioned in use by the US Army until 1868.

2) The Union Navy did not have any Ships of the Line, their largest ship was a Frigate.

3) Union Ironclads should have lower attack values, since they cannot "ram" a ship or board a ship. Unless these are not monitors.

4) Why does Cavalry have the highest attack value for both sides?

5) The Confederacy did not use Frigates. Maybe renaming the regular Frigate to say Cruiser would be more appropriate.

6) All ships seem to have the same movement rate. A Sloop is probably the fastest ship in your list, while most of the others are pretty similar. Making the Confederate Ram slower, as you did, is good.

7) I would think the Union would be a bit more industrious than the south, the state of Massachusetts alone produced more industrial goods than the 4 largest producers in the Confederacy.

8) West Point (the military academy) is located in New York City.

9) The Virginia Military Institute (I believe that is what you mean by the Military Academy in Roanoke) is located in Winchester, VA, which is well to the northeast of Roanoke.

All in all scenario looks good at first glance.

I see that you used a similar thread format, as I did for my ACW scenario.

I would move a Union victory point location from Baltimore to St. Louis, to give a reason for the Confederacy to attack out west.

You're a bit incorrect with regard to the rail link between Washington DC and Richmond. The actual railroad started at Alexandria, VA (across the Potomac from Washington DC) and then went to Gordonsville, VA, where then it connected to the railroad that went from Aquia Creek to Richmond. A bit of an indirect route, so to speak.

If you placed Newark in its correct geographical location, it would sit on New York/Brooklyn. It is just across the Hudson River from New York City. I would rename Newark to Atlantic City.

As for Vicksburg, just move the Mississippi River onto the other side of it.

You don't really need the lengthy disclaimer, there are already at least 2 other American Civil War Scenarios on these forums that I know of, which were both up before I had completed mine. I don't see your scenario as a rival, rather, I see it as a scenario for those who aren't worried about complete historical accuracy, and for those who want a much quicker game (my scenario on average probably will take 300+ turns to complete).

All in all, it looks good.

Procifica,

Thanks for the feedback. Some of your questions where things I was going to address in my "Whys" section as design choices, but since you were kind enough to ask, I'll try to answer right here.

Originally posted by Procifica
Couple things I've noticed in your scenario information:

1) The Gatling gun was not officially commissioned in use by the US Army until 1868.

Click to expand...

Within the framework of the scenario, the Gatling Gun doesn't become available until just before the end of the game, so it doesn't give much time for it to be used. However, even though the US Army didn't officially commission the Gatling Gun into their arsenal until after the war, there are several documented cases of this weapon actually seeing use during the Civil War.

General Butler apparently used two of these guns at Petersburg and stationed eight of them on gunboats. General Hancock even ordered twelve for his Corps.

Granted their use was not just limited, it was almost nil, but they were there. (And by making them such a very late edition to the scenario they shouldn't hurt balance too much. In fact, if a player doesn't research his techs as rapidly as possible, there's a good chance that he won't get this tech at all anyway.) And by having them available in the game gives incentive for the player to continue researching beyond just the point when they get repeating rifles.

Originally posted by Procifica
2) The Union Navy did not have any Ships of the Line, their largest ship was a Frigate.

Click to expand...

The US Navy actually had five ships of the line on their registers, however none had seen active duty since 1850. All of the information that I could find was that three were burnt at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861 in order to keep them from falling into Confederate hands, and the other two were used as floating warehouses during the course of the war.

So you are right in that they officially didn't have any in service, however Colonel Kraken's SOL unit is so good I had to find a place for it.

Seriously though, I made the SOL expensive to build and very slow, and I suppose there's nothing that says the US Navy couldn't have built new Ships of the Line during the war, but since they were obsolete why would they bother? I guess the Union could have sunk money into recommissioning the SOL's, but of course new innovations (i.e., iron warships) made that choice unwise.

Originally posted by Procifica
3) Union Ironclads should have lower attack values, since they cannot "ram" a ship or board a ship. Unless these are not monitors.

Click to expand...

There is one thing that has always annoyed me in Civ 3, and that was my Ironclad vessel being beaten by a small wooden vessel. So as a design choice I thought it prudent to make the Ironclad and Ironram have superior firepower to demonstrate (game-wise) that all other ships were now obsolete.

Originally posted by Procifica
4) Why does Cavalry have the highest attack value for both sides?]

Click to expand...

Only the carbine-armed Cavalry has an attack value higher than all other units, and this was because of the high volume of firepower repeating rifles gave these troops. Again, as a design choice, I made the upgraded Cavalry units very expensive to "simulate" the short supply of breech-loading repeating rifles.

Also, even though the animation shows the Cavalry attacking while on horseback, for the purposes of the scenario I always thought of the Cavalry units--as far as their attack values was concerned--as fighting dismounted. And combined with the speed of the horse to gain favorable position, a cavalryman with a repeating rifle was extremely powerful.

Originally posted by Procifica
5) The Confederacy did not use Frigates. Maybe renaming the regular Frigate to say Cruiser would be more appropriate.

Click to expand...

Again, your right. But I don't know of anything--save materials--that prevented the Confederacy from building and using Frigates. If the player wants to build them, then I suppose they could, but they'd be better off waiting for the ironram. As well, it didn't seem necessary to add another naval unit to the Confederacy since it probably wouldn't be built anyway.

Originally posted by Procifica
6) All ships seem to have the same movement rate. A Sloop is probably the fastest ship in your list, while most of the others are pretty similar. Making the Confederate Ram slower, as you did, is good.

Click to expand...

I'll be the first to admit that my overall knowledge on the actual speed of each class of sailing ship was limited, but I knew that the sloops and frigates were considerably faster than other sailing vessels of the time. And since naval warfare in Civ 3 is not all it's cracked up to be, the details of the ships is probably not a gamebreaker.

Originally posted by Procifica
7) I would think the Union would be a bit more industrious than the south, the state of Massachusetts alone produced more industrial goods than the 4 largest producers in the Confederacy.

Click to expand...

Not trying to emulate history exactly was a bit of my intent throughout the design of the scenario. I wanted to make a fun, enjoyable scenario that had many elements of history, but I also wanted it to be possible--although challenging--for a player to win while playing the Confederacy, especially on one of the higher levels.

So again, just a choice in how I hoping the scenario would roll along.

Originally posted by Procifica
8) West Point (the military academy) is located in New York City.

Click to expand...

Actually, it's located in West Point , but I know what you meant.

I put the US Military Academy in Albany to make Armies difficult to produce. If the Academy was in NY, then it would be too easy for the Union player to build them. And were's the challenge in that?

Originally posted by Procifica
9) The Virginia Military Institute (I believe that is what you mean by the Military Academy in Roanoke) is located in Winchester, VA, which is well to the northeast of Roanoke.

Click to expand...

Yes, I was referring to VMI as the Confederacy's Military Academy, but I do think that it is located in Lexington, VA. And so I placed it in the city closest to the geographic location of Lexington, which was Roanoke (at least as far as my game map is concerned).

Originally posted by Procifica
I would move a Union victory point location from Baltimore to St. Louis, to give a reason for the Confederacy to attack out west.

Click to expand...

That's not a bad idea, but as far as the victory locations went, I was thinking of the major centers that would have crippled the North's resolve to continue the war.

And of course, the victory locations in the south are those that were important strategic locations for the north to occupy.

Originally posted by Procifica
You're a bit incorrect with regard to the rail link between Washington DC and Richmond. The actual railroad started at Alexandria, VA (across the Potomac from Washington DC) and then went to Gordonsville, VA, where then it connected to the railroad that went from Aquia Creek to Richmond. A bit of an indirect route, so to speak.

Click to expand...

I was being a bit more general in my description of the rail link. While it may not have been "direct", it was certainly there, just like you said.

Originally posted by Procifica
If you placed Newark in its correct geographical location, it would sit on New York/Brooklyn. It is just across the Hudson River from New York City. I would rename Newark to Atlantic City.

Click to expand...

I wanted to keep Newark as the New Jersey city (note that every state has at least one city represented on the map) because of the fact that Newark (in 1860) was the 11th most populous city in the US. So it just "moved" for purposes of the scenario, and because of the limitations of the map.

Originally posted by Procifica
As for Vicksburg, just move the Mississippi River onto the other side of it.

Click to expand...

Why didn't I think of that?

OK, I want to add the feature to my above links that counts how many times a particular file has been downloaded, but I must admit that I have discovered that I have absolutely no idea how to do this.

Would someone be kind enough to enlighten me?

Lexington, VA, you're right on that as far as VMI. I don't know why I said Winchester.

St. Louis or Cincinnati both would be crucial centers for the Union to control, because St. Louis would block off access to the western USA, and Cincinnati would block the Ohio River. Either of these would be good choices instead of Baltimore. If you wanted the Confederacy to be more ambitious, you could make it Cleveland or Chicago instead. Either of these would split the Union in two halves, and Robert E. Lee at one point was actually considering going all the way to Cleveland or Erie, PA for such a purpose.

Maybe the Confederate Frigate should be more expensive to simulate that they were lacking materials?

I would certainly make Ships of the Line slower, as that was one of the reasons why the US Navy didn't use them so much anymore. They also were very costly to build. Edit: Oh, they are a little slower than the others.

I also didn't realize you aren't using bombard on ships, so the value of the Union Ironclad is about right then.

9. Advanced Cavalry 30 13/7/3 -

6. Sharpshooter 25 12/11/1 5 +1 Hit Point bonus

This is what I meant by for both sides. The Carbines given to the Union is only 1 attack point higher than the Advanced Cavalry. I would think too that the Carbine cavalry at least would have a little more defense than regular cavalry (though not as much as infantry).

West Point is close enough to NYC to be considered such, with regard to either of our scenarios.

I was wondering if it is possible to edit the map or are you stuck
with the map you inherited. How would I create a map for a Civil
War scenario?

LBOTIMER,

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but the map can easily be changed in any way by using the PTW editor. Certainly you can't "change" the map while playing the game.

Can you be more specific with your question?

OK, this scenario has been posted up here for about a week now, and curiosity is getting the better of me.

For anyone that has downloaded this scenario and played it: What's your opinion? Is it good? Bad? Indifferent?

I would really like to know what other's think.

Cantankerous,

I played your scenario as both union and confederacy, won each way prior to discovering Battlefield experiance II. I played the union on emporer setting, and the confederacy at monarch. The war pretty much ended, either way, in mid 1862.

The confederacy was easier to play, as it is pretty easy to take
Washington DC if you gather all the 'Sharpshooters' in Richmond,
let the north waste its forces in early, puny attacks, and then counter-attack with the weight of confederate forces, which are superior at any rate. At about the same time, I was attacking Lexington, KY from Nashville, which -- suprise--fell quickly and gave me "General Lee". At that point the route was on, with the
Confederacy taking everything from Kansas City to Philadelphia,
including Ohio and Indiana.

It took longer on Emporer setting as the North. Realizing the vulnerability of Washington DC, I spent the first half of my efforts defending it against all those wonderful confederate forces. This defense was mounted by nearly all of the initial union riflemen and most of the union's initial artillary. I attacked any confederate units that were stacked, making sure to not kill the last member of the stack, so as to stay in the city (and not be killed on the next turn). The result was a victory of attrition. The south(AI) finally, in spring 1862, quit attacking Washington.

Meanwhile, a long slow buildup had made Lexington, Kentucky a major union base. A huge union army took Nashville without much of a fight, and continued to push South. General Grant comes from the battle of Chatanooga. His impressive abilities (Elite Riflemen) led to his rather expensive capture of Atlanta in Early summer, 1862.

The Victories in the west encouraged me to invade virginia and when it fell, North Carolina, and finally, all of the southern coastal cities.

Having played a number of Civ scenarios, I'm finding that a single strategy defeats most efforts. Given the observation that Nations are the weakest at the outset of the game, it is the primary time to gather "a lot" of forces and attack. Civ's AI will eventually produce some huge stacks, but in the early game, it piddles its units away in pathetic attacks which have little chance of overcoming a defensive effort. These pathetic attacks are, in sum, costly to the AI, allowing an eventual "blitzkrieg". And if you get an Army, the Blitz is truely on.

I found this scenario enjoyable, none the less, as it has a great geographic distribution of cities and culture, and as either side, I felt somewhat in the era.

Some changes I would consider:

1. Make the Mississippi river and Ohio rivers navigatable by ships, with only a few points (memphis, cincinatti, etc) where these rivers can be crossed by land units. This will add to the realism, as the western battles of the civil war centered around opening these crossings. Mortars and Cannon mounted on river-boats and barges were significant players, and I'd add them and allow a bombard strength. Perhaps some other rivers could be so "widened", but particularly the Miss and Ohio need to be. This step creates defensive points for the AI to fortify (if it ever effectively fortifies).

2. I would consider reducing the railroad coverage. Civ's rail movement is unrealistic, as it is instantaneous. While railroads deeply influenced the civil war, it is still unlikely that a unit from Providence, RI can so rapidly enter a battle in Louisville or
Kansas City. It would probably take three weeks, and couldn't happen within one, as there would be assembly and loading time,
train changing, etc, that would make the trip anything but instant.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to eliminate the railroads alltogether and increase road movement a bit to compensate for the loss of the too-high speed rails.

3. I would consider adding personalities. A Jeff Davis and an Abe Lincoln to represent the seat of government, and perhaps lots of generals (Lee, Jackson, McClellan, Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, Burnside, etc). By increasing the number of Armies, the "Blitz" effect of later gaining one is negated. I found in each play, that the gain of a single army sealed the fate of my AI opponent. Alternately, I'd eliminate armies altogether, though I'm somewhat
drawn to each side having several.

4. I never saw most of the unit improvements, as the war ended far too quickly to need them. Most of my cities simply produced riflemen (or confederate riflemen), while the weaker producers produced Field Artillary. I found the Cavalry pretty worthless for most attacks, other than the initially provided "Elites". Timewise, however, the tech tree was being properly incremented, and I think the point here is to somehow prevent early victory by either side. Widening the rivers and eliminating the rails will help in this
effort, though other steps may also be required.

5. That other step could well be a very hard to destroy unit called a fort. It would have no movement strength, but a whole lot of hit points. Attacking one would be foolish, as most of the battles of the civil war (or wwi) for that matter, were foolish and
senseless sacrifices of good men -- or else, the very impressive victories by overwhelming force over such targets. Likely, powerful forts would be placed in certain cities and be otherwise unproducible. Memphis, Vicksburg, Washington, Richmond, Cincinatti could have them, which perhaps could be further fortified with your coastal artillary units.

6. I very much liked the distant portrayals of Mexico and Canada, with whom I conducted some very successful trade. (Most interesting was getting Confederates to Canada....). You may think about somehow adding England and France as very distant
"islands" which could intervene somehow. Or, you could just read harry turtledove and harry harrison and be done with it.

7. Somehow, Slavery needs to get worked in. Southern Workers which can be turned into to northern soldiers by Abolitionists allowed by the Gettysburg speech wonder? A southern only city improvement that gives sheilds at the cost of happiness? Likewise, the south could have the option of freeing its slaves into the Army, allowing a late, great thrust by a desperate confederacy (more turtledove...) (a new unit, the slave soldier, which is cheap and plentiful, but not neccessarily motivated toward the southern cause?).

8. I very much liked Veteran-status coming omly from combat. This added much realism, as 'regulars' died in droves.

9. In the North, there were draft-riots in New York, while in the south, the constant possibility of a slave revolt. Could New York have a valued-improvement (immigration) which causes Unhappiness while increasing production? Ditto for slavery.

Cantanquerous,

I enjoyed it and appreciate your efforts and the seriousness with which you take your scenario. I would love to see the scenario played by equal opponents, as the AI isn't equal to the task.