We can talk a little

[Hard Sarge]

Hi Guys
we been asking if the Gag order could be slacken some, so some of the testers could talk, instead of Gil haveing to do all the work

which, they have agreed to let some of do some talking, so, if you have some questions, ask away

JC is more with the Ecc and settings (and the other boreing stuff) and I am more into the Combat system (the good stuff)

so......

ask away and we will try and answer your questions as we have seen them in the game

(with in reason)

[:-]

[marecone]

Wow. Ok. Is battle graphics done? How do units look? Do they have flags over them? Rebel and union or do we have some unit flags?
What about the sound? Few or many?
More to come[:D] because you asked for it [;)]

[Andy Mac]

What is the smallest unit is it like COG at Divional scale or is it Bde or even regt scale ?

Are their morale restrictions if you reinforce a Georgia regt from a Virginia regt ?

Can you rename all units and is the field big enough ?

If Britain enters the war the enter from Canada - where do the french come in if they are activated ?

Thanks HS.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: marecone

Wow. Ok. Is battle graphics done? How do units look? Do they have flags over them? Rebel and union or do we have some unit flags?
What about the sound? Few or many?
More to come[:D] because you asked for it [;)]

okay first off, remember, I got to try and be sure of what I am saying as some of it is still in the touchy area, but over all

we are close, still some touch up and goodies being added, the Guy doing the art is a Master

units have changed and changed, but they look great, and the final model should look even better then what I have to suffer though (did I say that, oops)

Flags, we got flags, they got flags, there are flags all over the place , but what I have seen may not be what you will see, it is still changing, but it is very good and I like it

sounds ? sure we got sounds, we got combat and command, and music, you can get a good feel for the battle while it is going on, touchy on few or many, think that may depend on the player

ask away, I will try and answer any question, with in reason of what I can say, and when I can get to it

[marecone]

Thanks Hard Sarge. That was quick [&o]
When you are organizeing your forces do you have some screen that helps you or you do it manually? Is it drag and drop thing or something else?

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

What is the smallest unit is it like COG at Divional scale or is it Bde or even regt scale ?

Are their morale restrictions if you reinforce a Georgia regt from a Virginia regt ?

Can you rename all units and is the field big enough ?

If Britain enters the war the enter from Canada - where do the french come in if they are activated ?

Thanks HS.

game is Bde level, during combat, if the Bde is large enough, it can be split, the Bdes are grouped in Div size Containers, and the Divs can be placed in Corps or Armies (of course, Bdes can join a larger container also, so you could have a Div with it's own troops and then troops that belong to the Corps that controls the Div)

Reinforcements, come from a standard pool, so you will not really be joining troops from different states into Bdes, they will have there own, Exp and Morale level, which can effect the levels of the unit they join

you can pretty much rename anything in the game (troop wize) you will still have a set number of letters you can use, but I have been able to get what I want in there

I have run around and named my Corps based on who the Commander of the Corps was, and then the Divs based on who was commanding them, and of course, I got to have my 1st Vir Cav Div

(of course, I also had my Slaughters Slashers, except, Slaughter couldn't ride a horse too well)

Where do the French come from ? hehe, be nice

during that time, the French were down south a little bit from the US, so I would think they would come in from the Tex border, but to be honest, I have never seen them in a game I have played/tested, so do not know for sure if they come from on the map or show up in one of the ports ?

remember, it is not a sure deal that you can pull either into the war on your side, it can happen, there is a chance it could happen, but the AI or the Union is also working to keep them from joining you (or if a PBEM game, they should be)

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: marecone

Thanks Hard Sarge. That was quick [&o]
When you are organizeing your forces do you have some screen that helps you or you do it manually? Is it drag and drop thing or something else?

Well, I work nights, so am home from work now

there is a screen that shows all your troops and how they are set up and you can do things to them from this screen (change weapons, change flags, change name, add sub troops (I call it skills, think they call it something else) don't believe you can move units around from here though, but you can go to the unit in question)

over all, the rest of it is done with in the state area, and is click and click (click on the 1st Bde, then click on the 1st Div and the 1st Bde goes into the 1st Div, and in this area, you can also pretty much do any of the things you could do in the unit screen)

really, once you have done it a few times, you do not even think about what you are doing, you just do what you want, very simple

you want the 1st Div to move to a new area, click on the 1st Div and a Arrow will show up as you move from area to area, click on where you want it to go and it "should" go there

(winter and weather can effect this and this can also be something that is decided in the settings)

[kmb]

Do I smell a little aar?[:D]

[Hard Sarge]

That will have to wait I think, they giveing us a chance to try and tell what we know with out telling too much of what we know yet

plus my AARs tend to get the details lost in the story

[Oldguard]

Hard Sarge, I sympathize with you for having volunteered like this. But since you did

My question concerns the AI. In many ACW battles, the opponent's mistakes were capitalized upon to change the outcome. In a PBM game you can get much the same flavor with sufficient fog of war. However, my concern is playing against the AI. I want to at least have the opportunity to surmise the character of the opposing commander - if he's a McClellan, I would expect him not to be real aggressive. If he's a Grant, I would expect the opposite. If he's a Pope I would expect to be able to send Jackson around Cedar Mountain and hit his supply base before he was aware. (And if I'm Pope, I would want to deploy my cavalry in such a way as to discover those maneuvers before they were a threat).

So does the AI cheat? Is it possible to trick it into the sort of realistic blunders that actual commanders commited during the war? Or if I have half as many men in my AoNV am I necessarily doomed to the defensive?

[spruce]

hello, I have a question.

Can you decide on intensity of the battle ? Like second Manassas, Jackson had orders to defend and avoid a major engagement as long as possible until Longstreets corps had appeared on the battlefield.

question = can you delay the advancing enemy so it would allow you to converge your divisions and corps until you have a strong fist to punch the enemy ?

[Terminus]

Calling for reinforcements whilst in battle is definitely possible. Of course, while you wait for them it's always possible for the other side to beat you up and off the field.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Oldguard

Hard Sarge, I sympathize with you for having volunteered like this. But since you did

My question concerns the AI. In many ACW battles, the opponent's mistakes were capitalized upon to change the outcome. In a PBM game you can get much the same flavor with sufficient fog of war. However, my concern is playing against the AI. I want to at least have the opportunity to surmise the character of the opposing commander - if he's a McClellan, I would expect him not to be real aggressive. If he's a Grant, I would expect the opposite. If he's a Pope I would expect to be able to send Jackson around Cedar Mountain and hit his supply base before he was aware. (And if I'm Pope, I would want to deploy my cavalry in such a way as to discover those maneuvers before they were a threat).

So does the AI cheat? Is it possible to trick it into the sort of realistic blunders that actual commanders commited during the war? Or if I have half as many men in my AoNV am I necessarily doomed to the defensive?

hmmmm, this one is kind of tricky, parts of what you would see on this would be when a battle begins (or gets a chance to begin, as the General in charge would be part of the mix, did him move first, did he wait, did he follow his orders to the letter)

and at the start of the battle, depending on the force type, you get a screening roll, where you have options as to what to do, sneak attack, raid supplies are some of them, and also the General can let you pick the type and terrain of the battle field (you may gets forts, or you may get open and lots of roads, or swamps and woods, or other combos inbetween, based on where the battle is fought)

a smaller, but better trained unit (Div,Corps) can indeed win vs numbers, but Defending is Strong, and Attacking is HARD

so it is HARD to run wild in the game

the West is the battle of movement, in the East, it is kind of stagenent (at least for me, I don't like losses, so I stand my ground while the Union Stands his and we watch each other)

does the AI cheat ?, overall, I do not really think so, some things may happen, where it looks like it may, during tactical Combat, but there are so many "skill" combos that can effect what a unit can do (sometimes, the AI seems to be able to move a unit pretty far, but I also have units that March pretty good (not counting if it is using forcemarch or not) I got units that shoot good, and so does the AI (hate when I run into them)

does it know where your at, or where your weak ? No I think not, I have seen it try to outflank me and I have had it walk right into the middle of my line

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: spruce

hello, I have a question.

Can you decide on intensity of the battle ? Like second Manassas, Jackson had orders to defend and avoid a major engagement as long as possible until Longstreets corps had appeared on the battlefield.

question = can you delay the advancing enemy so it would allow you to converge your divisions and corps until you have a strong fist to punch the enemy ?

the thing here is Morale, if your morale holds, you can do wonders

over all, you have 3 days to fight a battle, and depending on how the battle starts, it may be early morning or late afternoon when the first day begins

which morale begins to fall as the battle gets longer

we also have something called will, or will to fight, based on morale, troop exp, General in charge, as you take losses and things happen, this will start to fall, you break the enemies will to fight and the battle is over, or you can break his morale, while his will is still up (but overall, they work hand in hand, if your breaking his morale, his will is also falling)

you get a Corps that has had a few losses in a row, it will be HARD to get them to stand and fight a toe to toe battle, as there morale is pretty shot to begin with

[spruce]

Hard Sarge,

thank you for the feedback. To link a question to your last sentence ... and let's take Second Manassas here as an example.

If Jacksons corps is giving the Union army commander a hard time - and as such Union corps morale and will will crumble ... but other Union corps are on the way to prolongue the attack on Jackson

but also Longstreets corps is moving in for assistance of Jackson - so confederate army general Lee might also want to prolongue the battle - perhaps Jacksons corps has lost some morale - but not his will to fight.

- that' still possible for the Union army general to continue the battle. IIRC Pope (commanding Union general) had many corps at second Manassas - suppose he has 3 corps in shambles, he can still stretch the battle and let his remaing corps (moving in) going in for a fight on the 2'nd or 3'rd day?

[Terminus]

If Will to Fight goes to hell, then everybody runs. Routing tends to create an avalanche effect (no surprise there).

[Terminus]

So the point is, you must have fielded forces to receive reinforcements. If all your troops have routed off the map, then there's no action to reinforce.

[Terminus]

Like Hard Sarge said, attacking can be a stone-cold b*tch, costing piles of casualties. I can count the number of times I've won as the attacker on one hand (though thay may have something to do with my skill!)[;)]

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: spruce

Hard Sarge,

thank you for the feedback. To link a question to your last sentence ... and let's take Second Manassas here as an example.

If Jacksons corps is giving the Union army commander a hard time - and as such Union corps morale and will will crumble ... but other Union corps are on the way to prolongue the attack on Jackson

but also Longstreets corps is moving in for assistance of Jackson - so confederate army general Lee might also want to prolongue the battle - perhaps Jacksons corps has lost some morale - but not his will to fight.

- that' still possible for the Union army general to continue the battle. IIRC Pope (commanding Union general) had many corps at second Manassas - suppose he has 3 corps in shambles, he can still stretch the battle and let his remaing corps (moving in) going in for a fight on the 2'nd or 3'rd day?

Term is being blunt, but

as far as how you are saying the battle is going and what not, you could pull the weakened Corps (would be a big battle) back and out of the fight and then let the others stick it out

or either side can, if there are units in range call for reinforcements, limited to one call per day
(reinforcements seem to help with the morale side but the Will stays the same as it was at the start)

if I follow your question, the way I think, Yes, you can have long battles, you can call for help, you can pull troops back out of the line

I have had a few 3 day battles, some I won and some I lost, had one that went almost all the way to the wire, Dusk was just starting to fall, when the Enemy finally broke

and it was truely one of the cases where when one of the Lts rode up to the tell the Commanding General that the enemy was running away, if we move fast, we can catch them, and the General just shakes his head and says, let them go, let them run

battles can be nail biters

[marecone]

Ok. New one.
What about artillery? Types? What about canister shots? Is artillery imortant in the game or so so? Let say in Frank Hunter's excellent game that was one of the errors. Artillery didn't mean s*hit [;)]
Thanks

P.S. Artillery commanders? Is artillery part of the brigade or do you have batteries like independant forces?