AAR my Rebels against Pionpion's Yanks

[kennonlightfoot]

Lessons and Observations:

My other AAR against Beriand showed me a lot of mistakes I was making in Research. My take on most things is based on my playing the South. I don't think I really know how to play the north yet. And a lot of my conclusions on the South may not hold up against a well-played North. I have a feeling that the Southern strategy will hinge more on how to make a fighting retreat in the West.

Research for the South:

There are certain ones you have to get to max as soon as possible and keep them there until they reach their cap. These are:

Corps Organization - This controls how many Corps you can build (4 per level) and of course how soon you can start. Never let it get off maximum chit commitment.

Industrial Technology - You want this maximized as soon as you can. It is what generates your MPP.

Infantry Equipment - Upgrading you infantry is critical and this has the maximum impact as Beriand showed me by taking Washington with his Corps on steroids.

Skirmishers - They increase the morale and are another attribute you want to maximize in your infantry.

Cavalry Equipment - This is the equivalent to the "Infantry Equipment" for cavalry.

Production Technology - This one decreases the cost of building and reinforcing units. Well worth an early commitment too.

After these I am not as sure as to which ones give you the most bang for your buck (MPP). But I tend to select these as I get enough MPP to expend on the until I hit the Maximum Research.

Fort Modernization - I like this one because the South has a lot of coastal forts that it wants to make as hard to take as possible. I like to eventually upgrade all the coastal ones and some of the river ones to 2.

Infantry Tactics - This is across the board improvement to infantry morale. I am not sure it is significant but the chit cost is low.

Cavalry Tactics - for the same reason as infantry.

Amphibious Warfare - I found this useful not so much because I planned to invade the North by sea but because it allows me to build Marines. How useful that is depends on how well your economy is going and you get to the point where you have the MPP to build extra units. It also gives you a way to later counter invade Southern coastal cities the Union took earlier.

Leadership - The South starts with "1" level in this so it as pressing a need, but it is probably needed later.

The following depend on what kind of fighting you think you will be involved in. Each has its advantages which may or may not justify their cost.

Scouts - This gives infantry the ability to spot so it doesn't need cavalry around. But it is rather limited and of questionable advantage over using cavalry.

Field Telegraph - Increases command range of HQ's.

Spying and Intelligence - hard to say how much this does for you since it is on the order of 1% changes.

Logistics - Another hard one to measure. One thing it does do is lower Rail Movement costs which are substantial later in the game as the South tries to react to Union movements.

Most of the others are bonuses to the Navy, Artillery or Specialty units. Putting chits into them depend on whether you plan to build such units and can afford the cost.

[Eric Estes]

Excellent AAR Kennon. Thanks very much for posting it.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Great AAR, congratulations on your victory and thanks for posting

- BNC

[kennonlightfoot]

Lessons Continued

A couple of things from getting beat by Beriand.

The California Column has a problem unless the developers modify how they arrive in Arizona. The Union can place their main force right on the border hexes and wait for them to pop into existence. Then kill them before they have any chance to entrench. The lesson choosing the New Mexico route is certain death. It will only work against a player that doesn't know about the flaw or if they played being prepared so long they forget to do it. There is a possibility that the Rebel player will choose not to put anything into the west and won't have the strength to attack it. For now though I recommend that you always choose the Denver route.

The other is that the Union needs to hold the line early on based off Alexandria. They also may want an Engineer early to entrench the positions around Washington DC. Washington lacks the fortifications that we built there during the war allowing operations like Grant moving on Petersburg without worrying to much about DC. In this game, particularly in the first year, the Rebel can put a force together that can take Washington with head on attacks. Just needs Siege Artillery to undo the type fortifications that Engineers build. I don't know how vulnerable the Union is to this. Look at my AAR with Beriand and you will see how quickly he broke the Potomac line. However, I was late seeing the danger and also didn't build up my units with Infantry Equipment early.

This may not be that big of threat if the Union prepares early. But for certain you want to send your early builds to DC so you can form a line that can't be turned along the Alexandria-Manassas line in front of the Potomac.


West Virginia

Keep in mind this is a side show for both sides. The Union gets MacLellan and more than enough troops to take West Virginia. But they aren't strong enough to do much else. For the Union you want to put your brigades out blocking the main roads but there is little point to advancing south or east unless you know the Rebel has withdrawn the units protecting against this. West Virginia has lousy supply, so you won't get far before your men started dying.

Also, don't forget about the Partisan hexes. If a Partisan gets generated it is hard to kill. Put two small units camping their spots. I usually turn on the "Sleep" flag as a reminder to not move them. Also, don't forget if you advance down the Shenandoah Valley there are additional partisan hexes. For the Rebel they only run into this problem if they advance into Missouri.

Rebel HQ's

If the Rebels let all the HQ's they get as reinforcements and events come in, they will reach their cap for number of. But you can at any time dismiss one of these HQ's leaders and replace them with a high-quality commander like Jackson. I didn't test to see how the game would handle replacing some of the odd ball HQ's lake Waite.

Union Problem with Missouri and Kentucky

To take Missouri the Union needs every brigade, especially infantry ones, they have in the area to quickly reduce the Regiment holding Jefferson City. But they have a gotcha. When Missouri goes Union, Kentucky takes a big jump in going Union. As the Union you need to be prepared for this and have units along the Ohio river ready to enter Kentucky.

As the Rebel you want to also have units ready along the Tennessee River to invade Kentucky. But if you wait for Kentucky to declare itself you will go second. Union will have first chance to move into the state and take key cities. Also the railroads will be available for the move.

But the Rebel can get the jump on the Union by watching the percentages for Kentucky to join and declaring war before they hit 100%. This may trigger some militia units (haven't check for this) but there is considerable advantage to taking some key cities before the Union can get across the river.

Navajo's

They join the Confederacy whenever a Rebel unit advances far enough north from Arizona into Colorado. There is an Event that notifies you of this but you can do it before that time. Soon as you can send a cavalry northward. It will probably trigger the Navajo's before they even reach Valverde.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

The California Column has a problem unless the developers modify how they arrive in Arizona. The Union can place their main force right on the border hexes and wait for them to pop into existence. Then kill them before they have any chance to entrench. The lesson choosing the New Mexico route is certain death. It will only work against a player that doesn't know about the flaw or if they played being prepared so long they forget to do it. There is a possibility that the Rebel player will choose not to put anything into the west and won't have the strength to attack it. For now though I recommend that you always choose the Denver route.

California... hmm, that's an interesting one. From a coding standpoint, there's not a lot I can do to adjust it, the code for that event is quite complicated and adding alternative spawns would make it exponentially moreso (if I could get that to work at all, which is not a certain thing). In saying that, I'm not sure I would want to change it - while in the game the Column does just materialise out of thin air, historically that unit marched through all of what is now Arizona, which took a couple of months, so their arrival wasn't exactly a surprise (there was enough Confederate sympathisers, possibly including some of the Indian population, that at least one could get word to El Paso ahead of time).

Another point worth noting is that the Union DE is effectively a game theory problem with no pure strategy Nash solution. The "game" in this instance being that the Union can choose to send the Column to either {NM, Denver}, and the Confederacy can choose whether to defend southern NM {Yes, No}. (NM, Yes) is the apparent "meta", however this means that the Confederacy "wins" the problem. As you've identified, the Union is then better off choosing the (Denver) choice, and once enough Confederate players know this, their best move becomes (No) as having several units guarding the southwest is inefficient. However, this isn't a stable solution either: once a Union player knows that the best Confederate move is to (No)t defend, his best move becomes sending the Column to (NM). The Nash solution to this is a mixed equilibrium, where the Union's best play is {(p)*(NM), (1-p)(Denver)}, and the Confederate's best play is {(q)*(Yes), (1-q)*(No)}. p and q are unknown probabilities, and they can't be known in this setting because they depend on how valuable each outcome is to each player, and that can't be known because there's outside factors influencing the choice - what if a division is sent as a reinforcement to one or other side, what if the game ends earlier or later than expected, &c. So in theory, if players crunch the numbers (and the experts always do), the existence of this mixed solution should ensure that either choice is viable in the game, making for a very interesting decision

- BNC

[kennonlightfoot]

The problem with how its handled right now is that it comes in right on the border in precise locations and (I believe) at a pretty precise turn number. It is worth the Rebel time to put enough units on that border to kill the column. It probably now won't occur but the chance of picking ups so many points and killing so many Union units is worth pausing any northern advance long enough to see if you are going to get a freebie.

I see a number of cures which will make this a viable option for the Union. Move the boundary that the Rebel can camp on east a couple of hexes. Bring the column in on and on adjacent hexes to Ft. Bowie (I believe it is). Bring them in entrenched and with good setting for readiness and morale so that attacking them would be a poor choice.

The main point is to not force them to commit suicide on arrival. That is, not pop into existence adjacent to enemy units and unprepared to defend themselves. This column has a problem that is of artificial nature. It arrives on a map edge so has no way to retreat. It arrives on top of enemy units. These two things need to be compensated for.

Other games handle this by having a route zone around the entry point so they can't be camped. Other ways to handle is random arrival time. Letting player choose when they arrive.

Probably should have some compensating rule for the Rebel side so they don't have to defend forever against their arrival like an event at some point telling them the California Column route choice. Civil War wasn't known for either side keeping secret troop movement for very long.

[kennonlightfoot]

Some suggestions that would make the informational displays like Maps, Reports, and Graphs more useful.

All Graphs should use major scales of 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 intervals. Who thought intervals of 140 were a good idea? Even odd ball but at least a multiple of 10 ones like 150 are of limited use because you have to try to read the in-between values in thirds.

On the graphs you give the totals which I guess are useful but more useful would be the current readings, so you don't have to try to interpolate the graphs. You have plenty of room at the bottom to show them.

When you show the graph for the other players turn you need to base the end point off of their turn not yours. This would keep them from showing "0" and make their last value relevant.

The reports on what is happening on Convoy lanes are a little difficult to interpret. It would be very helpful for both sides if the Maps display of the convoy lanes also showed how much MPP were moving down each lane and how much was blocked in the last turn. The Rebel has a problem figuring out which ones the Union is blockading effectively, and the Union has a hard time determining how effective their blockade is.

[kennonlightfoot]

And, the I Wish.

I think this would be the definitive game for playing the Civil War on the Strategic scale if somehow the following could be achieved. But I realize that these could be so embedded in the game engine that I would require a new engine. But its a "I wish".

I think the main stumbling block players will have with the game system being a somewhat historical strategic game of the Civil War is the continuous lines that tend to form across Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia. I suspect this occurs because of the more modern era origin of the game engine. But it jumps out at the Civil War enthusiast who expects to see the formation of large armies that move along very narrow lines of advance on strategic objectives like Memphis, Nashville, Vicksburg, Atlanta and Richmond. While enemy forces would move around the flanks of such units to force them to stop, their ability to exploit these gaps was very limited due to supply lines. Plus, the moving armies move slow enough that it was difficult to get much of a march on them before the reacted and blocked the move.

While there were instances of WW I like trench warfare in the Civil War it was very limited and usually only covering short distances like the entrenchments around Atlanta and Richmond. But the game requires the players to form continuous lines from the West Virginia mountains to the East Coast in Virginia and from west of the Mississippi to West Virginia in Kentucky/Tennessee.

I wish I had a great idea that could be easily implemented in the existing game system, but I probably don't but here is once suggestion that may be possible:

Severely restrict how far from a railroad and/or major road hexes are in supply. And make it very dependent on the distance from a major supply source.

Also, very dependent on whether you control the territory. And make controlling territory require a presence of nearby forces. That is, you just can't march through an enemy state and have eternal control over the hexes until the enemy can do the same. Control should immediately start degrading.

The idea being to make lines of advance into enemy controlled territory very restricted and very predictable.

If the Union wants to advance south in the West, it has to control the Mississippi and Tennesse rivers as well as the railroads extending south from these rivers.

If the Union wants to march on Richmond it is going to have to control the railroad path through Fredericksburg.
If they want to go down the Valley passed where the existing railroad is they are going to have also come in from the NE on the Warrenton railroad.

If they want to attack Petersburg, they ae going to have to control the railroads from Norfolk and the James River.

It would also be nice if these RR didn't become instantly operational. A full turn (both sides going) is usually two weeks but that is probably too short a time to rebuild hundreds of miles of torn up track. Two turns would probably be more accurate. This would have the effect of stopping major offensives from being continuous operations. More every other turn.

Anyway, I wish

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Probably should have some compensating rule for the Rebel side so they don't have to defend forever against their arrival like an event at some point telling them the California Column route choice. Civil War wasn't known for either side keeping secret troop movement for very long.

This is already in the game, you get alerts for the Battle of Stanwix Station and the march through Tucson a couple of months before the Californians arrive.

- BNC