Gimme some info

[Gem35]

WitP is a classic game and only the first few turns take a long time, after you get things rolling and don't have a dinosaur PC, turns take 15 min or less.
Back on topic, how many units do you have in the full campaign? How many territories are there and what is the victory conditions?

[Crimguy]

Units are dependent somewhat on your management of the economy.  You begin with practically no units, and essentially "buy" them.  Each unit costs a certain amount of supply and conscription points. The big commodity I'm finding is conscription points (I guess the equivilent of people).  You get a certain base number of points each turn, and can raise more by calling for volunteers, having a bounty for volunteers (more $ given, more points you receive - but will cost a bit in victory points and morale points), and you can institute a draft.

By mid-1862, you will have a pretty large army to manage, but your ability to grow beyond that may be limited (it is for me in my Union campaign).

I have no idea how many territories there are.  Download the demo - I think the 1861 campaign in it will show you how expansive the map is (I think it's pretty big, but nowhere near the sheer size of the WitP map).

I've bought a number of games from Matrix, I haven't enjoyed one this much since COTA or WitP.  Do not expect the quest for hyper-realism you get with either, though.

[korrigan]

The Game map is divided into more than 1500 regions, each being hand-drawn in normal and winter mode, for a whopping 120 millions pixels surface (handled dynamically by a caching technique), with a great diversity of terrain and climate as well as development/infrastructure items and levels. It includes the ability to use most of the major navigable rivers, which played a crucial role during the Civil War. The map covers all of the USA, from the Eastern seaboard to Indian Territory.

Troops are depicted down to the individual regiment and battery level with the basic manipulable unit being the brigade. These can be arranged into various needed organizations such as divisions, corps and armies, handled by a realistic yet easy to understand Command Chain rule. Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply lines and wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light infantry; sharpshooters, engineers, railroad and medics units, balloons, coastal and siege artillery; Rangers (Texan or not!) and irregulars; marines; militias; monitors and ironclads, ships of the line; frigates and transport flotillas, timberclads and cottonclads, etc. There are more than 250 different models of units in all. All are rated for various aspects such as offensive and defensive strength, morale, experience, cohesion, troop quality, geographical origin and movement type. Foreign units include the British, French, Indians and Mexicans.

A large array of historical leaders (over 300) is included, most feature unique abilities based on their historical performance. Over 50 different abilities are included, some examples of which are: Charismatic, Hated Occupier, Stealthy, Expert Seaman.

Population-based (i.e. political) aspects of the conflict (especially during the Grand Campaign) are taken into account, impacting militia and guerrilla levies, Foreign intervention, shifting loyalties, information gathering, reconnaissance, etc.

Game turns correspond to one fortnight (15 days) of historical time. Scenarios vary from a few months to almost 5 years with players primarily controlling the military action of their nation.
This includes such activities as drafting forces, building forts and depots, sieges and blockades, raiding enemy cities, supply lines and rail network, building ironclads, raiding commerce, escaping blockade, and battles, both on land and at sea.


Best regards,

Korrigan

[Gem35]

I downloaded the demo and I am giving the tutorial a shot. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but then again, I was going to expect that.
Is the game manual good, meaning does it explain everything pretty well?
I really am interested in this game but I am still on the fence.
I will go back to the demo and see if I can get a better feel for the game.
So far it's interesting if not for the fact I am completely lost as to what to do.[;)]

[Grotius]

The tutorial and the manual are both quite helpful, but I didn't really learn the game until I plunged into a big campaign. The short scenarios were too short for me to learn the things I really needed to learn -- the command structure, reinforcements, replacements. And I didn't really come to appreciate the game until I played the full campaign. It has a surprisingly epic scope, and you don't get a sense of that from the tutorials or short scenarios.

What's nice about the April 1861 grand campaign is that it lets you learn the game gradually. For the first two months, you've got nothing much to do but buy reinforcements and replacements and to take your first tentative steps at organizing your on-map army. You'll know what you have to do because you'll realize -- hey, I ain't got no troops! By mid-1861 you can start some small-scale fighting, which introduces that element. Again, you'll have a sense of what you want to do because you can use the filter to highlight objective cities. Then you start to see some events and how those fit in. At the same time, you get a sense of how fast National Morale goes up and down, how the victory locations affect Victory Points, etc. I didn't really have a feel for any of this until I tried the grand campaign.

[Pocus]

Hit the F9 key, it shows the objectives in the ledger. This can serve as the basis of your operations.

As Grotius says, April 61 let you start from scratch (but you will get the initialy army for free except it will needs a massive amount of replacements to fill to 100%). If you want to spare you the burden of levying all the troops, July is good for instant action.

[Richard III]

Crimguy and the others are asking my kind of questions, about a Game I` like to buy and play. I also have downloaded the Manual and tried the tutorial, but found it a bit confused ( my problem no doubt ) Playing 1st. Bull Run was also comfusing.

Although the Game has got rave reviews, the two big issues for me are the automatic played out battles, something that in past games has left me wondering where I went right if I won , or wrong if I lost, was it one side had more numbers, better leaders, better mix of units types or just random generated computer and/or perhaps hardcoded results ?

The other thing is non linear front lines, and a non-hex based map. I realize that`s more Historical but how does that play out in a Game of this Scale ? Against an aggressive AI it would seem to result in a lot of rushing about and super micro- management.

For example, if I move an Army East, what prevents the AI from moving an Army into my rear, or the area I just left ? How does that work in the Game ?

Thanks very much.

[jimwinsor]

ORIGINAL: Richard III

...

For example, if I move an Army East, what prevents the AI from moving an Army into my rear, or the area I just left ? How does that work in the Game ?

Thanks very much.

Nothing. Except perhaps supply considerations.

The AI in particular likes to run around behind you if it gets a chance...much like Jackson did to Pope at 2nd Manassas. How you deal with such moves determines whether you'll end up like Pope did, or not!

[dude]

The biggest problem I had were the wave after wave of CSA Cavalry that kept showing up out west and slipping between my lines.  As soon as I'd catch up to them and eliminate them there'd be another batch starting to make their way north.  For one stretch of time during mid '62 I had six units of CSA cav running around in my rear... one almost made it to Chicago.  Now mind you I had major armies & corps along the front and all the towns within 10 regions of the front garrisoned.  But these guys just kept going deeper and deeper.

This was the only learning problem I had... I wasn't expecting so many cav units to be able to race so far behind my lines for so long.  So I was initially ill prepared to handle them.  I found myself building lots of units in MO, WI, and IN just to stop these guys.  Then having to spend time repairing the rail lines they ripped up.

Diving into the game and following up with the manual as needed (it helps to have two monitors...[:)]) worked for me.  And starting with the April '61 scenario gave me plenty of time to ramp up without the minor mistakes I was making being critical yet.

Dude

[Richard III]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

ORIGINAL: Richard III

...

For example, if I move an Army East, what prevents the AI from moving an Army into my rear, or the area I just left ? How does that work in the Game ?

Thanks very much.

Nothing. Except perhaps supply considerations.

The AI in particular likes to run around behind you if it gets a chance...much like Jackson did to Pope at 2nd Manassas. How you deal with such moves determines whether you'll end up like Pope did, or not!

Thanks Jim, and is the solution documented anywhere or do you just deal with that kind of stuff in trail and error Game play ?

[Richard III]

Thanks Jim & Dude
 
I`ve bitten the minie ball so to speak, [:D] and just bought the download Version of the Game to try on the 4th. of July.

[jimwinsor]

Pretty much trial and error on tactics, yes.

[dude]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

Pretty much trial and error on tactics, yes.

I agree... which is why the April '61 scenerio was good... since you don't start out with alot on either side you have time to make mistakes and not have them cost you the game.

[Gem35]

So far I am liking this game, playing the demo still. One thing that I am having trouble with is when I move units I keep forgetting to lock them and they get all merged up. Good thing there is a delete key.

[SpharV2]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

ORIGINAL: Richard III

...

For example, if I move an Army East, what prevents the AI from moving an Army into my rear, or the area I just left ? How does that work in the Game ?

Thanks very much.

Nothing. Except perhaps supply considerations.

The AI in particular likes to run around behind you if it gets a chance...much like Jackson did to Pope at 2nd Manassas. How you deal with such moves determines whether you'll end up like Pope did, or not!

Not quite entirely true due to the very nice corps structure and the "Marching to the sound of the guns" feature. That enables you to spread your forces out a bit in mutually supporting positions. Given the cramped area in the East, this makes it much more difficult to do an end run. In the West, things are much more wide open, and the armies are generally smaller, so it makes it harder to have any kind of solid front line.

As for not knowing what caused you to lose a battle, that's not a problem either, since the battle screen that comes up after a battle lays it all out pretty much. You get to see what factors played into the battle, and give you a pretty good idea of why the battle went the way it did.

[Queeg]

ORIGINAL: Gem35

So far I am liking this game, playing the demo still. One thing that I am having trouble with is when I move units I keep forgetting to lock them and they get all merged up. Good thing there is a delete key.

Move and merge units using the tabs rather than the counters.

[Arsan]

Also, you can drag units/tabs to different "corners" of an area to avoid merging.
All of the area surface is usable so you can have several stacks deployed in the same area to see and organize your forces. Only on small areas you really need to lock tabs to avoid accidents.
Also on the options screen you can chose between having all ypur stacks on an area visually consolidated (not merged, you will have separete tabs) at end turn or keept separated around and area.
It's mostly a visual choice.
Cheers!

[Richard III]

ORIGINAL: Queeg

ORIGINAL: Gem35

So far I am liking this game, playing the demo still. One thing that I am having trouble with is when I move units I keep forgetting to lock them and they get all merged up. Good thing there is a delete key.

Move and merge units using the tabs rather than the counters.

Started playing the April campaign after going through the Tutorials. What-where are the Tabs you refer to for moving units ?

Also, I`m still having trouble creating Divisions from a stack of units.

Thanks

[dude]

ORIGINAL: Richard III

Started playing the April campaign after going through the Tutorials. What-where are the Tabs you refer to for moving units ?

Also, I`m still having trouble creating Divisions from a stack of units.

Thanks

The creation of divisions can be confusing at first ... I didn't realize it took an "active" leader to do it. The manual I believe says one thing but then the patch notes I believe say that it does require an active leader. So if you are trying to make a division with guys that have a low strategic value... you have to catch them when they are active which can be rare.

The "tabs" he's refering to are the ones just above the unit icon window at the bottom. When you click on a force on the map it's units appear at the bottom but a little tab appears above that window along with tabs for every other stack of units in that province. You can click on that tab and drag it (but it can be tricky). If you drag it to a province the stack will move there, if you drag it to another tab it will merge both stacks.

Dude