ACW2 vs the first game?
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2016 2:20 pm
I played ACW I way back when, and I enjoyed it a lot. Is CW2 significantly different? (AGEOD: get your marketing people in here, stat!) Thanks. 
The biggest difference is the larger map; all the way out to New Mexico and up into Canada.
Then the next absolutely new thing are RGD (Regional Decision Cards). You get some at the start of the grand campaigns, and then some more and renewals at the start of each year, with a few in between. Mostly they just add a bit a flavor to the game, but some, if you use them in the right place at the right time can give you some local advantages.
Just a couple of these:
- Partisans: in a region, even behind enemy lines, where you have >50% loyalty, creates 2 Partisan units, which are smaller and weaker than militia, but stealthy and good at destroying rail lines.
- Partisan Raid: if you have a unit, like a partisan, adjacent to an enemy depot, you play the RGD on the depot to reduce its size by 1.
- Subvert Indians: did I say there are neutral Indian units? Put a cavalry or infantry unit next to an Indian village and recruit >=1 Indian unit in that region.
A few new units: mounted milia, small supply trains: only 2 elements, instead of 4, Texas Rangers: very small, but very cheap and quick raiders, mortar boats: park one next to a harbor city you are besieging to gain a 1 siege-bonus, cotton- and tin-clads: like gunboats, but tougher.
No more strategically moving a huge force stack to nearly anywhere on the map once a year, but every turn you can move several stacks of leaders from one rail location to a connected rail location of any distance.
The economy is no longer so abstract with investing in a state and maybe getting something every now and again. Now you get options to build blocks of certain types of factories, like iron-works, powder-works, arsenals, etc.
There are also farming regions which produce large amounts of GS, which can be targeted to reduce the enemies supply production.
There have been some good tweaks to fix the retreat rules. No more retreating into regions with 0 MC, but you are never forced to attack more than once in a region you moved into with <5% MC.
Building units is no longer into random locations within a state. You can pick the city where you wish to build them, with some minor restrictions.
That's the most of it. Generally, if you've played AACW you will be able to pick up on CW2 very quickly, and have a blast [:)]