Another Post asking for a bit of Help before I just give the game to someone else....

[Scrogz]

I am almost to the point of just literally throwing the game away. I am clearly just not understanding everything involved. I am not new to war games. I've been playing them for 20+ years. I am not new to computer games. Nothing about this situation is new to to me. I REALLY want to like this game. On the surface it's the type of game I should just LOVE.

That being said, as far as I can figure nothing about the combat makes any sense to me.

Now, understand, I am playing on the Basic game with detailed combat turned on. This may be what is really causing me my issues and I may not know it. Tonight I am going to play the advanced game and just turn off the majority of the features. Also, someone had suggested turning on "detailed combat reports" to help me try and solve what is happening in the combats but I was unable to locate the options.

Anyway, the basic problem is I am just getting slaughtered in combat, it's not even close, and I have no idea why. I have situations where a Southern unit that is 1/4 the size of my Northern unit with just maul my unit so bad it flees.

Here is an example....

I have a full strength unit in a house space (which should give a HUGE defensive bonus I would think but apparently it gives nothing) and a southern unit attacking me that appears to be at least 1/4 of the strength. The Northern unit had not moved for several turns as someone had suggest earlier my units may be tired so I was paying close attention to this.

I find I cannot form a line in a city square. OK, so I don't believe I can do much damage based on combat mechanics. That's OK, I am good with that. The Southern unit fired and does 180 casualties to me =/ I return fire and do 4. This happens for the next 6 turns with the southern unit never doing less than 80 to me and me never doing more than 5.

I chalked this up to a learning experience as I find, despite being historically accurate, defending a town is a death sentence.

In the same battle I find I cannot for a line in any type of terrain except open terrain. So, defending in a wood or rocky terrain is also a death sentence. VERY frustrating.

Do you think this is being caused by my game settings being basic or is this a consistant game mechanic?

I guess I just totally fail to understand anything about the combat mechanics. At this point, with my current game settings, the mechanic fail to make any sore of sense.

Does anyone have a "walk through" posted anywhere that deal with combat or can anyone give me some clue? I REALLY want to like this game but the frustration is rapidly taking over any desire I have to play this game. As I said, I am not new to this type of game. It should not be this hard.

[GShock]

Relax.
The harder to master, the more the rewards and trust me, you'll have because it's a BIG game.

Now, if you play easy but use detailed combat, you should know many things, mainly the modifiers, that apply to your troops...it's things we grognards learned with experience but you can find them in the manual.
1) weapons: different rifles have different results
2) flanking: watch out for the morale loss which is increased when being shot from more sides
3) Fatigue: If you repeatedly order to shoot, the performances will not remain unchanged
4) range marker: Excluding the musket, all weapons reach a range marker (the technical name of this i forgot) you can see the aiming pipper on a unit when you have shot it and neither u nor the unit have moved. This gives bonus to the shooter of course.
5) Quality: troop quality is ESSENTIAL for victory and u must learn how to improve the quality and what the costs to do it are.
6) Leadership: Leaders apply further modifiers, use the G key to move a leader from a unit to another
7) Attributes: Plenty, try to put each unit in the best place to use its attributes.
8) Supply: unit with no ammo is severely penalyzed
9) Formation: U must never let the enemy shoot you when you are in column formation (which is how u are 99% times when occupying a building hex). Move leader to that unit to give it the MP bonus and set it on skirmish or line.
10) Numbers: the bigger ...the more % of kills becomes important on the targeted unit.

I know it's a bit awkward but at least by reading these basic concepts u can make yourself an idea on why you are beaten. You must NEVER forget your Will to Fight will further modify the rolls...and yes, turning on the combat report will show you the mechanics on the hit/kill/death of yours and enemy troops. Finally, if you play easy i must assume you didn't arrive yet to the hardest concepts...read the manual all these things (and much more!) is explained there.  Hope it helps, if you need further details, just post.

[Scrogz]

Thanks for the respone....
 
A good deal of my frustration is tied to the fact I have read the manual, several times.  I pride myself on not being the "whiner" type but this is just very frustrating.
 
Can you tell me where to find the "Combat Reports"?  Is that related to the difficulty?

[Ironclad]

If you haven't already done so its a good idea to read the patches documentation too, these are essential reading since they cover the many improvements introduced after the manual was written.

Don't be surprised if you are getting beaten up badly by Southern units as they have a decided superiority in the earlier part of the game. Northern resources will gradually help to even things up by allowing you to obtain things to improve the fighting capacity of your troops although some of these eg the ability to purchase improved weaponry are advanced options.

To give yourself a better fighting chance its advisable to try and fight them on your home ground initially as your force will get defensive bonuses. If you fight them in South lands they get the benefits.

Also take comfort from the fact that battle experience even when losing gives an opportunity to gain morale increases for your troops engaged. As troops with lower morale gain more than those on higher morale this is an important method for helping to close the quality gap on the CSA.

However I wouldn't worry about battle results to start with just use each battle as a chance to try out things during detailed battle and to see what works and what doesn't. You could even switch sides briefly (shock horror!) to see how things go when you are using the better quality CSA troops.

If you are finding it difficult to form line in certain terrain, try withdrawing slightly to better terrain form line there and then move forward in line to the original hex. That will often work - unless its terrain which won't accept lines.

The combat (attack) reports are accessed on the advanced menu - the tab for which appears on the detailed battle screen.

[Scrogz]

Thanks!
 
I'll check the advanced menu again as there is a decent chance I just over-looked that option. 

[Ironclad]

Note I just added some additional comments to my post.

[haruntaiwan]

My suggestion is play the South first, not the North. The morale factor will be on your side, and you will understand why the Yankees have a hard time in the beginning. I especially find the North's units to wander a whole lot (misunderstanding orders) which could be frustrating for a beginning player.

Luckily, northern units who lose in battle get experience relatively fast.

[GShock]

And i add something i had forgotten: According to the difficulty levels the AI or the player get bonus on their rolls! This might also explain why u are beaten when u re sure u shouldnt. [:D]

[Ironclad]

To be accurate I should have said that its quality gained rather than morale from battle experience although as quality is the main factor for determining morale for detailed battle I tend to think of it in terms of morale anyway.

[Scrogz]

If I understand correctly, to actually have reinforcements available I need to have "Advanced Buildings" as an options so I can build Camps? Correct.

[Ironclad]

Advanced buildings yes but without it ie no camps you still get reinforcements but at a fixed level, I thinks its 8000 Union, 4000 CSA per turn. Of course building camps makes it far more interesting, enabling both powers over time to greatly exceed these levels (although initially they will be much lower), very necessary when battle losses are high; complexities include different reinforcement amounts from different cities having regard to their population size and annual city population decreases to offset manpower used by camps. (There is also a chance of a city population increases for other reasons so its not just automatic shrinkage).

[Scrogz]

Sorry to keep hounding you with questions...
 
Do I assign replacements within the cities just as I would if the cities had camps if I am playing without advanced buildings or is there some other method of directly assigning replacements?
 
Man, Minesweeper is looking better and better all the time  [;)]

[Ironclad]

Surely its not that bad?

Reinforcements are assigned randomly unless you have Advanced Supply on. With the latter you get to direct their destination as units with containers (ie armies, corps or divisions) you select for higher supply priority get available reinforcements before those in containers on lower supply.

[Scrogz]

Naw, it's not really that bad.  It's just not really intuative to me and that's frustrating.  I mean, I have played 'The Longest Day" (the board game) 6 times and we have actually contemplated giving "Campaign for North Africa" a go so a computer game should be no big deal right? [:D]
 
As I keep saying, I REALLY want to like this game but it's a bit of a struggle.  Quite the learning curve especially considering Ihave read the manual a few times.
 
So, if a unit is damaged it should receive replacements without me doing anything?  I'll test that out tonight.
 
As a ray of hope, the advice I have received here has been VERY helpfull. 

[Ironclad]

As many units start understrength it isn't just damaged ones that are in the line for reinforcements. A quick way to check is by looking at the details in the supply report showing unit reinforcement allocations for the previous turn. The tab for that report (and for others) appears when you when you move the cursor close to the top of the control box on the main map screen.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Scrogz

So, if a unit is damaged it should receive replacements without me doing anything?  I'll test that out tonight.

Yes, it recieves reinforements automatically, however if a unit is badly depleted I would keep it out of your main line for some time, as a brigade with a mere 500 men remaining might not get more than a 100 men each turn. I tend to fight defensive battles were I form a line, and each brigade with less than 1500 men will never be part of that line, they will be in the rear, and only used when/if I win to help surround enemy brigades.

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

Scrogz, please don't be intimidated by the seeming complexity of the game, I have had the game since Dec have played loads of solos and a few PBEM's and I still don't understand all the rules and have to ask for help here.

Keep at it the rewards are worth it.

All the Best
Peter

[GShock]

Look at the SUPPLY tab and you will see which units received new men. you can influence where the supplies go by assigning a higher supply priority to the containers you want the new men to be delivered to.
As Kingmaker said this is a game that takes some time to master but it's definitely worth the trouble.

I honestly hope you will move to the full set of advanced rules as soon as possible because that's the way it's meant to be played for full enjoyment. However, when there's something you don't understand don't hesitate to post and download fraps (www.fraps.com) and take screenshots of the things you don't understand so we get right there and solve the trivia in a woosh. [:)]

[Gil R.]

Scroogz,
I'm coming to this thread late, since I've been out of town. The others have certainly given a lot of useful information, but I can add a point or two. Regarding your initial post and the 180 vs. 4 results, you didn't say what sort of unit you were up against. For example, if the enemy unit had brigade artillery that might explain some of the results. Or if that unit had special abilities such as "Shooters" or "Sustained Volley" that would add to the amount of damage it was doing. Or your unit might have been low on supply. Regardless, if this was early in the war then the difference in unit quality almost certainly played a role -- but if you play the game until you're a year or so into the war that difference in quality diminishes greatly or disappears, leading to some very different combat results. Also, while in a town, you might want to try going into skirmish mode, which adds to the town hex's defensive value.

I can't remember if it's completely impossible to form a line in woods or rocky terrain, or simply more difficult. Either way, defending in such terrain is not "a death sentence," since again you can go into skirmish mode. (Historically speaking, it was very difficult to get men to form into lines in such terrain, though it did sometimes happen.)

Using the "Attack Report" should indeed help you to figure out what's happening.

I hope this helps, and that you'll not give up yet. Usually there's a good explanation for what's going on.