AAR RJH (Union) vs Joel Billings (Confederate) - Confederate POV

[WallysWorld]

I noticed that in your first post you mentioned that Fog of War is turned on. With the above screen, are the Union unit figures accurate or just an estimate because of Fog of War?

[Joel Billings]

Each unit can be hidden or spotted. The Union numbers represent the number of units I have spotted in the area. I can get a sense from my cavalry scouting raids whether there's likely to be a lot of unspotted units or just a few. I'm guessing there are around 45-50 units in Paducah and another 45-50 in Bowling Green, as both areas have been relatively well scouted. A much higher percentage of my troops are unspotted at this time due to weaker Union cavarly (plus some of the Union cav was busy taking areas in Kentucky). Once spotted, a unit must go to an area that is not adjacent to any enemy areas to become hidden again.

[ph4n]

But what about the force overview screen (listing trained/untrained inf, cav and so on)? Are those #'s estimations or 100% accurate with FoW?

[WallysWorld]

Yes, as ph4n wrote, I was referring to the force overview screen where it lists the amount of each type of unit each side has. Are these estimate or accurate numbers?

Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

[Joel Billings]

The totals in this screen are accurate, but with FOW on you don't see your opponents units in production. So you know the size of the enemy army, you just don't know where they are.

[Joel Billings]

Rafael is unavailable for the next week, so I don't expect to post another update for the game until he returns. Feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer them while we wait.

[ph4n]

Ok, I'll fire away a couple:

1. Regarding the previous question (FoW/knowing enemy overall strength): what is the logic behind that? Shouldn't there be some uncertainty regarding enemy total strength?

2. Is it possible to see the existence of cav/art in a stack (your own or enemy's if scouted) without selecting said stack? From the screenshots I would say no, the cavalry icon is used as a (the) generic force icon. I'm thinking in the way of WaW - if only inf is present, use inf. icon; if armor also, use that.

[WallysWorld]

I second ph4n's first question. If FOW is on, why do we know exactly what units and numbers the enemy has?

[Feralkoala]

As notedin post #13 above, FOW is on--but Joel has been actively scouting with his cavalry. You will note if you read his postings that he doesn't know everything about those stacks, and that some of them have a significant amount of unspotted units.

[ph4n]

ORIGINAL: Feralkoala

As notedin post #13 above, FOW is on--but Joel has been actively scouting with his cavalry. You will note if you read his postings that he doesn't know everything about those stacks, and that some of them have a significant amount of unspotted units.

Yes; but we are still talking about the "overview" screen; read a few posts up and you'll see what we mean.

[WallysWorld]

The scouting of the main map seems fine in terms of what I know and what I don't know. But should I know the exact totals of each unit that the enemy has on the overview screen? Especially with FOW turned on?

[ph4n]

ORIGINAL: WallysWorld
The scouting of the main map seems fine in terms of what I know and what I don't know. But should I know the exact totals of each unit that the enemy has on the overview screen? Especially with FOW turned on?

Exactly, it's the knowledge of total strength indirectly via that screen that seems questionable.

The actual on-map scouting/FoW on the other hand seems really interesting; a game where you have to be active to earn your information. [8D]

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: ph4n

Ok, I'll fire away a couple:

1. Regarding the previous question (FoW/knowing enemy overall strength): what is the logic behind that? Shouldn't there be some uncertainty regarding enemy total strength?

2. Is it possible to see the existence of cav/art in a stack (your own or enemy's if scouted) without selecting said stack? From the screenshots I would say no, the cavalry icon is used as a (the) generic force icon. I'm thinking in the way of WaW - if only inf is present, use inf. icon; if armor also, use that.

1. Good question. We elected to leave total forces available in World at War/A World Divided and War Between the States (even with FOW on). With the Civil War it's hard to know what to fog up and what not to fog up given information publicly available to each side in the newspapers. We knew we wanted players to have to work at getting information on where the forces were, with the focus on cavalry. We also knew we wanted a mechanism to fog up the abilities of the leaders (thus the various random and unknown leader options). We didn't really feel the need to fog up the total forces. Now surprisingly I can't remember any of the testers bringing this up as an issue (I could be wrong, but I really don't remember it being raised during testing). If we were to randomize it somewhat, it's hard to say if it would have much impact on the play of the game. Feel free to start a new thread in this forum to discuss this.

2. The symbol you are seeing is the "Leader" symbol (2 horses with a flag). It takes priority and it's the one you're likely to see, as there is usually a leader in areas with units. If you look back at the first map screenshot I posted in this thread you'll see small infantry, cavalry and artillery symbols to the right of the leaders. You will see a symbol in each area where there is at least one unit of the given type. There is a way to turn these off in the preferences, and you'll notice I turned these off in later screenshots.
In order to get details on what's in a stack, you simply mouse over the stack and you'll see information on what's in the area at the bottom of the screen. Notice in the screenshot you can see the known enemy forces in Paducah, 15 Infantry, 11 Militia, 8 Artillery, 3 Mounted, 1 Heavy Artillery, 40 Supplies (and 9 leaders). Notice the ghost symbol. This means that there are more units and/or leaders in the area that you have not spotted. Notice I've also turned on the preference to show leader ratings. So each leader has 3 numbers shown, Attack Rating - Defense Rating - Appropriate Skill Rating (for infantry leader, infantry skill, for cavalry leader, cavalry skill, etc.). These are all between 1-4 with 4 being best. As of yet unknown ratings show up as a "?".

[Joel Billings]

Good news. Rafael returned sooner than expected and the game is going again. As you can see by the screenshot below, only one Union Army commander got initiative (red arrow), and it was the small army in Harper's Ferry. That army doesn't appear to be big enough to move on it's own, so no Union attacks were made. There is less chance of getting initiative in winter turns, and less chance in 1861, and so far I've been lucky that no major armies have been able to launch an offensive. Things will change in the spring. Another thing worth noting on the political screen is that all of the border states are now aligned with the Union which means their factories can be used by the Union player. Kentucky is still totally neutral, although this will change if the Union players is able to capture London (the only population center in Kentucky not currently controlled by the Union player). These states must still be garrisoned in order to prevent partisans from causing problems, but with less troops than a southern state. The Union has 1023 political points (remember Lincoln wins reelection if they have 1000 in Nov 1864) while I have 1002. If the political points fall below 900, recruiting troops gets more difficult. In January the Union player will be able to call for more troops (called a draft in the game it represents more than just the federal draft) if he's willing to pay the 50 political points. I'd do it if I were the Union player. With the current leaders in place, the Union player is losing 13 PP per turn while the Confederates are gaining 9 PP per turn. My 2 Confederates Raiders can cost the Union a point or two per turn. Of course, winning major battles is worth points, as is capturing territory. Memphis and Nashville are worth 37 and 32 points respectively. My position on the Kentucky-Tennessee border is still very tenuous as my forces their appear outnumbered by at least 1.5 to 1. Of course in Northern Virginia I'm outnumbered by 2 to 1. My recruiting situation will improve in 1862 and hopefully I can improve the odds some before good weather encourages the Union army commanders to move.

[Joel Billings]

In the Union November turn a few Union gunboats moved down the Mississippi river and bombarded my heavy artillery positions in Humbolt. The net result was the damaging of 2 gunboat units and the destruction of a third, with only 1 heavy artillery unit damaged. Almost better than this though was that my Army Commander's defense rating became known to me and it was a 4 (the best possible). So in this game at least, Leonidas Polk is looking to be the savior of the west. Not only does he have a 4 defense rating, but his Army Modifier was revealed to be a 0 (as opposed to -1 or -2) so he's as good as they get. I finally was able to activate enough leaders so that I was able to spare promoting Braxton Bragg to Army command. I've been short of a Theatre commander in the west, and AS Johnston looked like the perfect general to promote to this position. With only a 2 defense rating he was going to be average at best as an AC, but as a 4 star general with a reasonable admin rating and high command points, he'll have a 45% chance of getting initiative each turn as a Theatre commander. His getting initiative will help commanders under him get initiative, which will improve their ability to move to a threatened area. So I've finally filled the 6 top command positions and now wait to see how the AC's perform.

[JudgeDredd]

With the current leaders in place, the Union player is losing 13 PP per turn while the Confederates are gaining 9 PP per turn

Can you explain this further pls Joel?

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

With the current leaders in place, the Union player is losing 13 PP per turn while the Confederates are gaining 9 PP per turn

Can you explain this further pls Joel?

To represent that time is not on the Union side, the Union player loses 27 Political Points per turn while the Confederate player loses only 9 PPs per turn. In addition, both players receive PPs each turn equal to the political points of their 6 commanders (2 Theatre commanders and 4 Army commanders). If one of the slots is not filled, the player will gain 1 PP for that slot. On the political screen, the political rating of each player is shown as the second number in the # column (Cooper has a political rating of 2, Bragg has a 4). So with all 6 slots full, I'm gaining 18 points per turn now for my leaders. My net is 18-9 or +9 PPs per turn. The Union leaders are yielding 14 points per turn so their net is 14-27 or -13 PPs per turn. As you can see there is an advantage to appointing leaders with high political ratings to high command.

[JudgeDredd]

EXcellent. Thx

[Joel Billings]

January was another slow month due to once again the only Union Army commander with initiative was Halleck in Harper's Ferry. I've got to keep an eye on Halleck as his getting initiative this often may be luck, or it may be a sign that he's got a high attack rating and a good Army Modifier. Luckily he's currently commanding the smallest Union army (at least I think it is the smallest). There was one attack made, a combined naval and amphibious operation against Fort Jackson at the mouth of the Mississippi River. A landing by 5 infantry and 1 artillery unit (10000 infantry and 20 guns) supported by 2 Cruiser fleets looked like it was going to take Fort Jackson. However, with some luck, the garrison of 1 infantry, 1 militia and 4 heavy artillery units was victorious. The 2 Cruiser fleets were damaged, while 3 of my artillery units were damaged along with 2 of the assaulting infantry units. It turns out that my senior leader at the battle, Felix Zollicoffer has a defense rating of 4 (a second leader was killed during the battle), while the leader in charge of the attack, George Cadwalader has a 1 attack rating (he was wounded during the battle). I consider myself very lucky (these leader ratings were unknown before the battle), although the Union navy is not yet strong enough to take on a seriously defended fort (that will change as the Union builds more ships). This invasion was possible because the Union Theatre Commander in Washington had initiative and was able to help some of the unit commanders there to gain amphibious initiative (despite the fact that the Army commander in Washington did not get initiative). The screenshot shows my position in Fort Jackson after my turn. I brought in artillery to replace some of the damaged guns.

[Joel Billings]

Here's the situation in the east. The army in Washington is fully scouted, but the army in Harper's Ferry is not. I decided instead to raid the area with my cavalry and was able to capture 6 supplies and destroy another 18.