Game flaw: Indian capital overrun

[havoc1371]

There is a flaw in the game where you have to build Indian allies when they join your side. I'm playing a game now where the Union player moved units next to the Indian territory, and when they declared war, overran their capitals because they have no troops (takes 3 months to get them from the time they declare). This wipes out the units in the production que with a loss of 275 mpp per unit purchased.

I would suggest each start with at least a half strength unit in their respective "capitals" to prevent this, as I'm sure it will become a common practice to eliminate them before they can come into play, making the CSA player have to send a unit to each capital to prevent this. The Indian tribes already existed with warriors and shouldn't need "forming" like regular brigades.

On a side note, the Osage capital was overrun in my last game and the two Osage Indian "brigades" didn't surrender with their capital. Is this supposed to happen?

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I'm not inclined to call this a flaw with the game... historically while the Five Tribes did have some warriors, their populations weren't that high. Giving them five units collectively (ie, one for each tribe) is a bit of a stretch - while I leave the strength of Indian units vague, for the 1863 start (at which point several more units had been raised compared with at the beginning of the war), I felt their historical contribution warranted only three units, and that's after the CS helped equip some of them.
Though I'm also not sure how big of a problem this really is? The Cherokee already start with a unit, nothing to worry about there. The Seminole, Choctaw and Chickasaw typically come in a couple of turns before the Cherokee or Creek do, meaning there's a substantial geographic buffer preventing the Union from just walking in. And it is only a problem for the Creek if you purchase a unit with them so soon after they enter the war that you haven't established some sort of defence there yet. Historically the Creeks were quite divided on what side to join, so it's not unreasonable that the Union could rush in there and disarm the pro-CS Creeks if they made it a priority to do so.
So while I see where you are coming from, I'm not sure a "fix" is warranted? Thanks for the suggestion nonetheless!

Re the Osage, that's correct, Indian units (excluding those in New Mexico) fight on if they were outside their home territory at the time their capital was captured.

- BNC

[havoc1371]

In pretty much every game I've played since the first one, the Union player can move regiments and at least one Osage and one regular cavalry to the borders of Indian territories, wait for them to declare and overrun their capitals because it takes about six game turns (3 months) to receive the Indian units if you buy them as soon as they declare war. So essentially the Confederate player has to move units to Indian territory to "defend" the tribes till their units arrive. Union can usually overrun at least two capitals, sometimes a third.

[Duedman]

Maybe a check can be implemented that raises Indian forces when Union Cavalry is at the border?

Other solution would be playing with houserules.
Like not to rush into El Paso (dont know if still possible) or not to drop a Brigade into Jacksonville in like turn 4.