OK, let's focus on building up th army. I have the resources to buy one more cavalry and one more artillery. I'll get both into queues. The city screen is actually the best place to manage macro events in my opinion. From here I can see the manpower available, the economics that might be disrupted and can click on production and select to build a cav - I'll go ahead and add one in Des Moines.
While I didn't want to gut my manpower on low quality forces, it is obvious that even with my economic muscle, I won't be able to buy all high quality troops. Just getting some cavalry and artillery going is taking its time. I need to go ahead and expand the army through muster and conscription.
Muster means asking people to join. Whether or not you succeed is determined by the SUCCESS percentage shown. If you fail, you get nothing but it doesn't hurt anything. Consc(ription) is the draft. That always works, but the DANGER shows the likelihood that the city will experience unrest. Since I want my offensive to be out west initially, I'll focus my build activities there. Davenport, IA is a good spot. The economy is weak and it is out west. There is only a 50% chance of raising troops through mustering and only a 10% risk of unrest through conscription. In this case, I'll go with conscription. Quality is slightly lower, but I want to be a bit more confident than 50%. Cairo, IL is another good place to build. I still don't like the 50% chance of success, but 40% is much to high a risk of unrest for drafting.
