2 elements in the Civil War Scenario that should be a part of the main game

[phos_hilaron]

I'm looking for some opinions on this, but IMO there are two *great* elements in the Civil War Scenario that I think should be main mechanics in the game.

1. Manpower

2. "Green Promotion"

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For those who haven't played the Civil War Scenario let me tell you about these concepts.

1. Manpower. While you do have an army "cap" based on the number of cities (and population?) in your civ. I think the addition of manpower helps add realism and depth to the game and is a strong mechanic.

Barracks and other buildings add "manpower" to your civ. Infantry units require manpower. It is a limiting mechanic. There would obviously have to be discussion on ways to add to this mechanic.

2. "Green Promotion". New units have -20% to combat. They are new. Once they engage in their first battle, the promotion is removed and replaced with a random one. They can be positive (+1 movement, +30% defense in cities) or negative (-1 visibility, -15% combat in plains).

I think it creates a sense of realism...that's all. I haven't given balance a whole lot of thought because most of the negative promotions are circumstantial. If someone is -10% in plains I just always make sure they are in hills etc.

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What are your thoughts on this?

 

[cpm4001]

Well, there kind of already is a "manpower" cap; it's the limit to the number of military units you can support, which can be checked in the Military Overview. I agree that having the manpower appear as a Strategic Resource might be nice, though.
As for the "Green" Promotion, I think it might be an interesting mechanic to have it assigned to all newly-trained units (save perhaps your first Warrior/Pathfinder) but I disagree with it being replaced by a random good/bad promotion after the first combat. Indonesia's Kris Swordsman unit has come in for a lot of (probably well-deserved) grief for this feature, and I personally would rather not see every unit for every civ have to deal with the same problem. A possible spin-off of this idea would be to rework a policy in the Honor tree to make "Units are no longer assigned the 'Green' promotion upon training."

 

[arand86]

There is already a soft 'manpower' cap.

I forgot how to calculate max units, but for each unit you are over the limit your cities get 10% less production

 

[George Abitbol]

What about the third element, the Pontoon bridge? I don't have BNW yet, wath do you think about it, and how does it work?

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

What about the third element, the Pontoon bridge? I don't have BNW yet, wath do you think about it, and how does it work?

The issue here is scale. Pontoon bridges cross rivers, which are not even represented by a tile in a normal game. In the Civil War scenario, the map is more zoomed in and some rivers are represented by actual sea tiles, hence the pontoon bridge.

 

[arand86]

To come to think of it, a pontoon bridge could be pretty cool. You could end up making land highways across oceans, although I don't really see a use of doing so.

The green idea could work without the extra general designations, it would clutter and out of context most the time, unlike the civil war scenario.

I actually really enjoyed the civil war scenario, unlike most of the users here. The generals were really interesting. Like the union general who got shot right after he claimed the confederates 'couldn't hit an elephant from this distance' xD. Although I don't like how there's a time limit which severely shortens and changes the entire strategy of the war. With Davis you basically have to gun up the left side from harpers ferry and march on washington straight on. With Lincoln, you just take fairfax, fredricksburg and march down to richmond. The west is pointless.

 

[George Abitbol]

The issue here is scale. Pontoon bridges cross rivers, which are not even represented by a tile in a normal game. In the Civil War scenario, the map is more zoomed in and some rivers are represented by actual sea tiles, hence the pontoon bridge.

I understand, one-tile rivers on normal maps would be huge... Perhaps replace the system of pontoon bridge by a ferry? It would work like the Embark system, but without penalty for crossing. Upgraded in modern era by suspension bridge? (I don't know how represent a civ tile in real life, but I'm sure this has been discusses on this forum).

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

gpt is already doing a good job of limiting units, and the random bad promotions ala kris swords I think the general consensus is that is a bad design philosophy.

 

[joncnunn]

With regard to Manpower; I'm thinking a better idea for base game would be to reduce the current soft cap, but have Barracks, Armory etc. increase that soft cap.

That would remove the incentive to following completion of Heroic Epic to sell all barracks in the other cities along with giving an incentive to build a second Armory.

As to a random promotion following combat, that's the UU of the Indonesians.

 

[phos_hilaron]

I haven't played the Indonesians so I didn't know about the Kris' swordsman promotion.

I think manpower should be displayed as a strategic resource. That would be a nice touch. Or at least display it more prominently than in the military overview.

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But, again, I really enjoy the "random" promotion. I do wish they weren't negative because it just really sucks when you are like "what will it be?!" all excited like and then its...wom wom... -20% something.

But the random positive ones would be cool still I believe.

Overall, I just appreciate the realism it adds.