Question about purchasing new counters

[RayKinStL]

OK, so I am playing through my first game and I must admit that I am racking my brain about the way some of the various gameplay elements were implemented. That aside, I have a problem that I just can not figure out for the life of me. I am Britain, and I have purchased NUMEROUS infantry which have been piling up as garrison factors because I can not purchase any new counters!!! I click on London so that it has a red border around it. I then click on "View Available Counters". I see my counters there, but when I click on them, they all have a red border (instead of green which the manual says they would need to ave to place them on the map). I NEVER get a green border, and try as I may I simply can not figure out how to get some more counters on the map to make my infintry mobile! I am pretty much stuck until I figure this out, and Sweden is just begging for annihilation now that I have destroyed all their ships, so someone PLEASEEEEE tell me what the heck I am doing wrong and why I can not seem to figure this out!

Thanks,
Ray

[gwheelock]

You can only purchase new counters during an ECONOMIC phase.  Open the counters window at that
time & you should be able to purchase the available counters.

[RayKinStL]

Thank you. 
 
Was this always the case in EiA though?  I could almost swear I remember buying counters whenever I wanted, but it was so long ago I could easily be mistaken.

[Marshall Ellis]

This was always the case in EiA.
So says my tattered rule book that resembles the dead sea scrolls
 
 
 

[pzgndr]

Must this always be the case in EiANW??  There may be some subtle reason to prevent unit counter purchases between economic phases, but I don't see it.  If I have a cav factor arriving and no place to put it, I don't see why I couldn't purchase another corps.  It doesn't seem like a big deal, just an inconvenience.  Could this be considered for a game option?

[AresMars]

What a CORPS counter represents in the real world as a major military and economic investment to raise a new CORPS is why it is limited to the Economic phases....

I would prefer EIANW have a reminder system OPTION, that in an ECONOMIC turn that you have Inf, Guard, Cav or other due in the next three (3) months....

just being able to buy a new counter at any time rubs me the wrong way -- even as a option....

ADDED: I feel that the more options you have/add, that encourage less player thinking and planning, the weaker the wargame.

[Soapy Frog]

The game forces you to plan ahead which, IMHO, is the mark of a good game.

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

Must this always be the case in EiANW??  There may be some subtle reason to prevent unit counter purchases between economic phases, but I don't see it.  If I have a cav factor arriving and no place to put it, I don't see why I couldn't purchase another corps.  It doesn't seem like a big deal, just an inconvenience.  Could this be considered for a game option?

I would say that anything could be considered but honestly I don't think this will find it's way to an option list. This is an abstraction of how much time it took to plan the organization of forces in the early 19th century and IMO a genius abstraction credited to Harry and co.

[pzgndr]

Most all games with production force players to plan ahead.  Some games require the location of where units will be built and will arrive to be specified at time of purchase.  Some games like EiA are more flexible, and considerably flexible if you consider the order of placement issue.  Where's the "planning ahead" for that gamey tactic??   [;)]
 
I can appreciate the corps investment explanation, but players can still add only 1 factor of 2,000 men.  It's not such a "major" military and economic investment if it's really only a brigade-size screening force.  Besides, players still pay the quarterly cost for having that counter whether it contains 1 factor or 20, so there's still a cost/benefit decision players must make.  And in the real world back then, it's not like thousands of trained cavalry showed up only to be told "Well, we've no place to put you, so shoot them horses and you lancers can report to that grenadier regiment over there..."
 
So again, other than "the original rules say this..." it's fair to consider additional options.  Players are perfectly free to enable/disable whichever ones they want.  Regarding options, it might also be nice to clearly identify on the game options menu what all the defaults should be for Classic EiA, so that if you are enabling an option then you are clearly deviating from the classic rules.  I don't believe they are all consistent this way now?
 
I don't mean to interfere with anyone wanting to play Classic EiA.  However, this is a different game with new opportunities.  [8D]

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

Most all games with production force players to plan ahead.  Some games require the location of where units will be built and will arrive to be specified at time of purchase.  Some games like EiA are more flexible, and considerably flexible if you consider the order of placement issue.  Where's the "planning ahead" for that gamey tactic??   [;)]

I can appreciate the corps investment explanation, but players can still add only 1 factor of 2,000 men.  It's not such a "major" military and economic investment if it's really only a brigade-size screening force.  Besides, players still pay the quarterly cost for having that counter whether it contains 1 factor or 20, so there's still a cost/benefit decision players must make.  And in the real world back then, it's not like thousands of trained cavalry showed up only to be told "Well, we've no place to put you, so shoot them horses and you lancers can report to that grenadier regiment over there..."

So again, other than "the original rules say this..." it's fair to consider additional options.  Players are perfectly free to enable/disable whichever ones they want.  Regarding options, it might also be nice to clearly identify on the game options menu what all the defaults should be for Classic EiA, so that if you are enabling an option then you are clearly deviating from the classic rules.  I don't believe they are all consistent this way now?

I don't mean to interfere with anyone wanting to play Classic EiA.  However, this is a different game with new opportunities.  [8D]

You're absolutely right, it's not all consistent today but the last thing I want to do right now is use that as a reason to further deviate (I realize this would be an option)! Again, I'm not closing the door on this but it probably won't be for the near future. There are too many plans in the que that have a little higher priority.

[AresMars]

I'd prefer Marshall fixes what we have before we try and add more options.

Let Matrix get " EIANW " working before starting to asking for " EIANW with 1 Millon Options ".

[delatbabel]

There are game balance issues about having nations buy corps counters in anything other than an economic phase.

For example, Britain to all intents and purposes has a nearly unlimited money supply. Britain could purchase a stack of cavalry in an economic phase and then, knowing the cavalry is about to appear, not need to worry about losing its cav corps. At least if restricted to purchasing the cav corps in the econ phase, Britain will have to do without cavalry for a couple of months.

Also France, late in the game (if it's winning) usually has more money and manpower than it can use to fill its corps. A destroyed corps could very quickly be replaced using either garrison factors or newly arrived infantry factors, whereas if France had to wait until the following economic phase to repurchase the corps there is a bit of a slowdown in the rate at which France can churn its troops.

[Marshall Ellis]

Good points Del. I hadn't really thought of those issues. Basically corps could popup anywhere / anytime. This could certainly create some anxiety for sure but as a EiANW player I couldn't live with this rule in my game.

[JavaJoe]

Marshall,

Could you code a prompt that would correct every stupid mistake I make?

Not just in EiA but in life as well? You know...I'm about to touch that hot stove and a prompt pops up..."Hey Joe, don't touch the stove...it's hot"

Thanks in advance,
Joe

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: JavaJoe

Marshall,

Could you code a prompt that would correct every stupid mistake I make?

Not just in EiA but in life as well? You know...I'm about to touch that hot stove and a prompt pops up..."Hey Joe, don't touch the stove...it's hot"

Thanks in advance,
Joe

I would just settle for a game that is playable and doesn't crash as often as it does.

I would also really love it if you guys would make Empires in Arms.

Thanks in advance.

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

I would just settle for a game that is playable and doesn't crash as often as it does.

I would also really love it if you guys would make Empires in Arms.

Thanks in advance.

Neverman:

Crash? Are you having crash issues? I know we have some issues but most are not crashes? Let me know if you are having these...

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

I would just settle for a game that is playable and doesn't crash as often as it does.

I would also really love it if you guys would make Empires in Arms.

Thanks in advance.

crash = not playable in my book, sorry if that terminology is a little off. If you can't move forward with a game, it's pretty much a crash.


Neverman:

Crash? Are you having crash issues? I know we have some issues but most are not crashes? Let me know if you are having these...

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

crash = not playable in my book, sorry if that terminology is a little off. If you can't move forward with a game, it's pretty much a crash.

I understand and apologize.
I respect what you're saying. There are a lot of folks that want EiA classic. This is not out of the realm of possibilities. I realize that you may want that now.

[AresMars]

Ah, classic EIA with EIA options -- do I dare to dream!  [;)]
 
You are a naughty boy Marshall.....should not tease me like that!   [:-]
 
 

[Marshall Ellis]

AresMars:
 
I'm not teasing here. This might be quite possible if time permits.