The War between the States!
I decided that this map was too pretty to keep for myself.
Get into the 1861 spirit - Battlecry of Freedom!
The map is originally based on aeldrik’s pretty EuropeXL100, now sans Europe and with the Midwest instead. I have spent a lot of time minding the details on the Eastern seaboard. Some areas are slightly out of proportion, but this is hardly noticeable, and only for game purposes. I just had to include the Virginia peninsulas, Long Island, and the Shenandoah Valley.
A couple of screenshots featuring Imperator's new units:
The Mississippi River is navigable for river warfare, as are the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.
More screenshots on page 5.
The map was originally part of a grand map going as far west as Russia. It started out as a Victorian Era/post-Congress of Vienna campaign map, intended to focus solely on the Italian unification wars, the rise of Prussia, and various other events in Europe. But I couldn’t keep the American Civil War out of it, and since it was fun to play, so I split the map in twain, creating an American Civil War only game. I’ll share it when done.
Major game changes:
- Rioting: City disorder is now more likely to turn into a riot (inspired by the uprisings of 1848, the New York Draft Riots, and Southern Bread Riots) where improvements are destroyed.
- Blockading: I have added a gold-generating bonus resource called Cotton Trade (and a victory location) in the second costal square in front of all southern ports. If this is blocked by union ships it will, of course, be useless. But it will have to be 2 squares away so Reb artillery can’t sink Union blockade ships. Blockade runners are auto-produced at Bermuda, and have to cross the Atlantic to get to a friendly southern port or offshore VPL. When they get there, they will generate victory points and gold.
- Government: So far, there are only two types of government for each, relics from the old epic game: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Confederate Congress (formerly Provisional Government), and Federal Government (formerly Abolitionists). But I’m working on this, thinking I might replace them with “political decisions” instead of parties. I am considering something like “Suspend Habeas Corpus” which will remove war weariness totally and “Reconstructionist” which will allow the Union to convert Reb citizens. There will of course be a lot of pro- and cons for each government type. The only thing I’m worried about is war weariness, since it is a locked war game.
- Techs: I’m still full at work on these. They’re giving me a headache.
- Victory Conditions: To win the scenario, the Union must capture all victory locations. The Rebs must defend them. In addition, the Rebs hold Bermuda in the Atlantic (historically incorrect, I know, but game necessity) where they have wonders producing "Supplies" and Blockade Runners. These Blockade Runners can transport the supplies (flags) to offshore VPL's or coastal cities to farm victory points. The Union fleet must try to intercept them in the sea squares, ocean squares being impassable for everything other than the Blockade Runners.
- Units: The game will feature only a few units: the vanilla rifleman in six different roles (hope it’s not too confusing in-game), four of aaglo’s ACW guns and a few of his ships, Wheel Gator’s Boer Rifleman, two of Plotinus’s workers, and two of Nemesis Rex’s cavalry and one rifleman unit. I’m thinking of adding some of Misfit_travel’s multi-unit riflemen. All these units, especially the various riflemen are old cut/pasties, but they'll do fine.
- Infantry: All infantry have “zone of control”, so they fire on units trying to flank them.
- Cavalry: All cavalry have lower attack than defence. In this period, direct cavalry charges were likely to cause truly heavy losses for the cavalrymen. But when fighting dismounted, like Buford’s men at Gettysburg, they stand a better chance. Cavalry have Radar ability, and can see two spaces. This is useful when you want to know where an enemy army is hiding, and the terrain bit will tell you why.
- Artillery: This will play an important role in sieges.
- Terrain: Plains and grassland have negative defence bonuses. Units in the open will be massacred if they do not manage to fortify before attacked. Fortifications will play a grand role in the later game. Hills and forests have 50% defence bonus. Mountains are impassable.
- Disease: All terrain causes disease. In the epic game this can be cured with the discovery of antibiotics, but in this game, it means that units in the field are likely to be damaged by disease, and cities don’t grow as explosively. And units can’t heal in enemy territory, so units on campaign will experience non-combat casualties occasionally.
- Transportation: Railroads have been excluded, they’re simply too annoying. Roads are now called railroads, and have a movement factor of 8(!). It actually works out fin so far, but I might change it to slightly less.
Anyway, this is a development thread, I'll gladly take advice or ideas from Civil War buffs or scenario makers.
So ideas, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.
Edit: Dang, I wish I could edit the thread title to read: Scenario: American Civil War (1861–1865)
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