American Civil War (full-release version) Discussion Thread

Procifica

ACW Scenario Creator
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Jan 5, 2003
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This thread will be a discussion thread for the full-release version of my American Civil War (full-release version) Scenario. I'm putting this up now to gather people's thoughts about the scenario, and what could/should be added to the full-release version.

Feel free to post anything related to the information below, or other feedback/comments regarding the scenario.

Tenative release date: April TBA, 2003.

Here is a list of prominent features of the scenario:

Map size: 160 X 160
Civs: Union and Confederacy, each distinct
Governments: USA and CSA, each distinct
# of cities: Over 200 forts and cities, over 100 for each side.
Barbarians: 9 Native American Tribes in realistic locations for 1860-1865.
Techs: 38
Units: about 90, about 1/2 of which are Union or Confederate variations of the same unit. This includes two unique units for the Native Americans.
Buildings: 22 improvements, 6 small wonders

Map information: The map was made by dividing the 160 X 160 grid of 25,600 squares into lines of latitude and longitude, roughly from 23 N latitude to 47 N latitude, and 68 W longitude to 108 W longitude. This has caused some slight distortions of the shape of the map, especially in the northeastern portion, but these are not a factor in the realism of the map.

City information: City populations have been extensively researched. Most cities of size 3+ (about 9,000 or more people) are based on the 1860 official United States Census. Population sizes are based on a sliding scale, with New York City being size 20 (about 1.2 million people, counting Brooklyn). City placement is within .3 latitude and .5 longitude of actual location, nearly all cities are within .15 latitude and .25 longitude of actual location.

Fort information: All forts in the scenario are real forts which existed during the early 1860's. Like cities, these are placed within .15 latitude and .25 longitude of actual historical location.

Unit information: Units have been placed with as much accuracy as possible with regard to actual location of June/July, 1861. The exception to this is Kentucky, which I have been unable to come up with accurate figures for until November/December, 1861. Union and Confederate troops did not enter Kentucky till September 5th and 3rd respectively, but by setting them up in the November/December positions, real battles of the West are able to be fought. The # of troops is based on # of hp, each HP is 500 troops. The exception to this is Fort garrisons (most fort garrisons numbered under 100, so the scale for these is much smaller). All units also are named realistically, including army names as appropriate.

To give an example of the above, you're going to find approximately 22,000 Confederate troops stationed at Manassas, which was about the actual figure for early July, 1861. This means 44 HP worth of troops.

Home Guards/Militia: Home Guards and Militia are set to a specific scale, based on city and state population respectively.

Blockcade: The blockcade is hard to simulate, because of the ineffectiveness of Coastal Fortresses in Civ3. Ships have been placed off major Confederate ports to simulate the blockcade. The Confederates are given blockcade runners as well.

More information and screenshots will be posted soon.
 
Old screenshot of Virginia, this will be updated with a new one soon.
 

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This is a screenshot of the United States map.

This is an old screenshot, the map has changed somewhat since this was taken (before beta). A new one will be posted soon.
 

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Here is a screenshot of the Tech Tree.
 

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This is a placeholder for me to upload another screenshot later.
 

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Another placeholder.
 

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One more placeholder.
 

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Full-release version date is being pushed back to April 5th, 2003 as I'm making some other changes to the beta which are taking more time than I planned on.
 
It looks like no one is interested in discussing the scenario...

If anyone has some information which might be useful to this scenario, feel free to post it here. :)
 
Yes, units will each cost 1 population point (this is more realistic and it cuts down rampant city growth), "larger" units (like cavalry divisions) will cost 2 population points.
 
Have you calculated the effect on small cities
with regard to unit production?
 
Well, smaller cities won't be able to produce units very fast, so their population shouldn't be affected as much as larger cities (which also will have more ability to grow).

I'm hoping that unit costs are balanced enough so that large and small cities won't be crippled by building units. Most small cities will probably be building improvements anyways, as larger cities (especially those size 5+) have most of the improvements already built at the start of the scenario, while a city of size 1 just has a church and maybe a harbor if a coastal city.
 
I guess you then have to change the current AI
settings concerning "build often".
 
Well, I have alot of things checked as "build often", so the AI will be able to choose what is important.
 
Well, that's true, the AI in this game sucks. :)

One thing which I'm interested in, is the odds of a typical Rifleman winning in these situations:

Attacking on open ground vs. non-entrenched enemy.
Attacking up a hill vs. non-entrenched enemy.
Attacking in a forest vs. non-entrenched enemy.
Attacking on open ground vs. entrenched enemy.
Attacking up a hill vs. entrenched enemy.
Attacking in a forest vs. entrenched enemy.
Attacking a Fortress (or Fort) with light fortifications.
Attacking a Fortress (or Fort) with heavy fortifications.

Also, the difference in real attack and defense power for 1860 era Smoothbore Muskets, Rifles, Repeating Rifles, and Breech-loading Rifles.
 
When this is released, can we hold a ACW tournament on PBEM?
 
I'm not familiar with what PBEM is?
 
Release date has been pushed back again, as its taking me longer than I thought to complete the changes from the Beta version. Most importantly, without some help with the civilopedia entries, it could take me another week or two to finish. (I'm no good at writing them and can't do it for any length of time)
 
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