Military Unit Size

[TBKR]

This game could become the definitive ACW strategy game. It looks like it has many innovative concepts that I have not seen before. How customisable will it be? Will the game contain regimental sized units as the smallest unit and will they be able to be renamed?

[Feralkoala]

Will the game contain regimental sized units as the smallest unit and will they be able to be renamed?

I believe the unit size is Brigade level. As to renaming, I have no idea, but would be cool, especially for the CSA--most northern brigades were simply numbered.

[Feralkoala]

And the linky for unit size: Unit Size Quote

[Gil R.]

Yes, you can rename units. I know this because I've often accidentally clicked on the function while play-testing. (But that's a defect in me, not the game.)

[Gil R.]

Let me elaborate a little. One of the features of FOF will be 100+ "special brigades" -- some named after actual brigades, others named after famous regiments or companies -- which will have special attributes and abilities and thus make them superior fighting units. The Iron Brigade, for example, will have four different attributes/abilities that a newly-mustered brigade would not (as well as better statistics), and will be one heck of a useful unit. So, while there will be the opportunity to rename brigades, some will already have the names you might want to use...

The special abilities and attributes of which I speak pertain to defensive and offensive abilities, supply, morale, movement rates, etc. There are about 35-40 of these in all, and each special unit will have at least one of them. (To find out more, you have to become a beta-tester...)

Also, while the initial release will have just over 100 of these special units, we plan to release additional units in our patches, and when the time comes we will be encouraging input on which to add.

[Sarge]

Will the renaming units have the same restrictions as they did in COG, as in number of characters allowed.

[fmonster]

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

Also, while the initial release will have just over 100 of these special units, we plan to release additional units in our patches, and when the time comes we will be encouraging input on which to add.

Man, this is a great feature. There were many worthy units on both sides that would be great to be apart of the game. [8D]

[Terminus]

Ooooh, this is gonna be so boss... Can't wait to get my mitts on it...

[ericbabe]

Maximum length of renamed units is set at 20 characters right now.  On some screens the names get truncated down to 13 or 16 characters.  We made the buttons on the attachment box a little wider, but names there are still truncated at 8 characters.  On the command boxes for the units we did make a lot of room for long names (unlike COG).

[ericbabe]

Smallest unit is the brigade.

We've added several ways of customizing units (firearms; attributes like sharpshooters, balloons, brigade artillery, etc.) and some new unit stats (disposition, strategic supply, special abilities) and these new options combined with the increase in detail (COG used division as the smallest unit) allow players to do a lot more fine-tuning with their armies than in COG.

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

Maximum length of renamed units is set at 20 characters right now. On some screens the names get truncated down to 13 or 16 characters. We made the buttons on the attachment box a little wider, but names there are still truncated at 8 characters. On the command boxes for the units we did make a lot of room for long names (unlike COG).

Yeah, that 20-character limit makes me eternally grateful that neither the USA nor CSA had a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Brigade.

[Peever]

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Yeah, that 20-character limit makes me eternally grateful that neither the USA nor CSA had a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Brigade.

But just think of the uniform a unit with that name would have. It would be one hell of an explosion of colors I bet.

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: Peever

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Yeah, that 20-character limit makes me eternally grateful that neither the USA nor CSA had a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Brigade.

But just think of the uniform a unit with that name would have. It would be one hell of an explosion of colors I bet.

I'm picturing Sgt. Pepper...

[Capt Cliff]

It would be nice to have the brigades made up of regements, like in War in Russia, where only Korps are dislayed on the map but they are made up of different units. Hampton's legion would be a good example which was made up of infantry, cavalry and artillery!! If you have division HQ's or Corps HQ's you could attach units to them as well!

[Gil R.]

The game works quite well at the brigade level. If we were to divide by regiment, there'd be calls for us to factor in individual companies. But more importantly, such a change would require an awful lot of additional programming, and would not necessarily make detailed battles (the only time this information would be relevant) more fun.

Regarding Hampton's Legion, it's one of our 100+ Legendary Units, and is programmed in as a cavalry unit with horse artillery and a charging bonus. It's one of the better units to have...

[ericbabe]

The "attributes" of brigades allow players to customize a brigade's constituent parts to some degree: players can choose to add "brigade artillery" or "brigade cavalry" to an infantry brigade, for instance, or to attach artillery to a cavalry unit to get a horse-artillery unit.