Matrix Games Forums

Hi Lancer, i will try to answer to your questions:

1) We could say that Army size is considering the total number of units inside each region. The term Army in WBTS can be misleading as the Army is led by the Army Commander but he has no stack because no troops can be attached to him, all the troops belonging to your side are armies themselves. Therefore, what you need to do is to keep all troops supplied, wherever they are, whatever leader and sub-leader they are attached to, because this helps against attrition and in combat. The bigger the number of troops in a region, the more supplies you need to forward there and since you have no control over supply movement, you'll likely need to build depots so that supplies are "attracted" to it, never forgetting supplies are used to recruit militia and to help with initiative. They are actually a critical factor in WBTS.

2) The grid definition in itself is just a number with little value. A grid is a network of connected bordering regions through which supplies (and initiative/combat bonuses) may pass. You are required to make it so that the TC and AC belong to the same grid for example, and be advised that supplies belonging to a grid may not support troops being in another grid. Obviously 2 grids are separated by enemy territory, or by ET + the sinking of tranport ships connecting 2 territories via "water-bridge" and this is how wbts simulates the Union strategy to cut the CSA in 2 and the importance of the Mississipi river. Cut the production centers where supplies are produced from the troops at the front and you are on the way to victory.

3) That line, is the grid itself. Not a line as i explained above but a number of connected regions forming a grid through which supply move freely towards units.

4) Grid not connected to supply means troops unsupplied. The units will either forage or be unsupplied, which means extreme combat and attrition issues.

5) Each supply will strive to get to all units in its grid with no priority distinction.

Feel free to ask if you want to know more. [:)]

Goodaye GShock,

Thanks for the prompt answers. Could I clarify a few points.

Am I correct in assuming that the game models the American theatre as two seperate and distinct theatres (east and west) which also ties directly into the supply 'grids'. Eg. there is a grid for both east and west?

Also the two theatres are connected via key rivers / towns and that supply from one theatre could feasibly flow and be used in the other if required - provided that the connections between the two theatres haven't been broken?

Supply depots 'pull' supplies to them a-la-AEGOD's civil war game. So if you want more supplies in an area you build more depots?

Does the supply map overlay show the line of supply (edit: or regions on that particular grid) connecting your armies to their supply sources?

In a region with no grid (eg. 'grid 0') can you put supply wagons with your units to prevent attrition hits and penalities a-la-AACW?

I'm asking a lot of questions but, hey, you did offer. The game sounds really interesting.

Cheers and thanks in advance,

Lancer

edit: Are you the same GShock from the AACW forums. A Beta tester with the crazy avatar? If so would you be able to give a brief comparison between the two games - not on features but on any aspects that clearly define one from the other?

You can't clarify but you can ask for further clarifications [:)]
As of me i can try to clarify and you should all take my answers as temporary because any time Pyle or Joel may come to clarify to you, and to me, how exactly some things work. WBTS, like all games of this genre, is an apparently total simplification of a complex struggle, but believe me, the mechanics behind this simplification are very complex indeed. Complex to understand and even more to employ (which is good, we don't want a risk game do we?) but very rewarding. [8D]

I'll just never detach from the philosophy of Gilman "Chopstick" Louie, CEO of Spectrum Holobyte, the makers of Falcon4: "If we had wanted to produce an accurate flight simulator we would have needed to build an F-16". [:D]

Now to the answers:
There's no specific need to employ 2 theater commanders and at the same time, there can be an unlimited number of supply grids, each representing a different area separated from the others for supply purposes.
You may just employ 1 but the help the TC can give to the Army Commanders is bound by the grid and a maximum distance of 6 regions within the same grid. It is evident that it's better to have a good TC than a bad one, but having a mediocre TC and not having a TC at all can be good or bad according to the situation. Dismissing a bad TC costs a lot of points while a good AC can get initiative without help from TC. Choices...choices...choices and remember that according to the settings, you may also not know that a leader is performing bad until the moment he sees action for that particular rating category.

Production of supplies happens as with all other "units" of the game. A Resource point connected to a Factory generates a Production Point. These PPs can be used to build supplies and each supply unit is worth 10 supplies. Supplies are forwarded automatically to the troops and are attracted to depots but there mustn't be broken links (enemy regions cutting the lines and the rivers itself cut the lines if there's no transport fleet in the river) because grids are not connected to one another. Differently from AACW, Depots in WBTS do not produce supplies but you need higher level depots to attract more supplies when in that region you've got loads of troops to keep supplied. Depots also allow you to influence where your troops will retreat if beaten. They will always in priority select a region with a depot for a retreat.

I asked for such a map overlay in the beginning, to make things easier for players but then i realized there wasn't a specific need because there's a Shift-U key that shows you all unsupplied units on map by highlighting the region. The Devs chose to highlight unsupplied rather than highlight supplied, it's the same. [:)]

You have a limited control on the forwarding of supplies...you can build depots to make more supplies go there, but you don't move them, the engine does.
Ultimately if troops in a region are unsupplied, you can tell them to forage for supplies but you can't attach supply wagons to them...you must work this solution with territory control and prevent the enemy from cutting you out of supply areas or your armies will be totally destroyed....which in WBTS is a tragedy more than in AACW because the monthly+big region compared to 15-day+small region is unforgiving on mistakes of this kind. 

I think Joel and Pyle's AAR shows this clearly. You can see on the big map how CSA is shrinking turn after turn but CSA still has armies because it keeps falling back.

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Killjoy12

The promo video had some box art labeled "Standard Edition". Care to elaborate on what the different types of editions will be?

Don't get too excited.

Matrix Games Announces Three New Game Editions

Thanks for clarifying.

Goodaye GShock,

Thanks for the informative - and diplomatic - reply.

One last question. Is there a distance component to supply? Eg. Do units sitting on top of a supply depot get the same supply as units eight regions distant but still on the grid?

Cheers,

Lancer

A unit is in supply or not. To get in supply they either use up resources in an area (for infantry/cav types only) or they use up supplies from their supply grid. Each area has a supply cost based on how far off rail/sea transport the area is from a factory source on the grid. If connected by rail/transport then supply cost of the area is 1. If off rail/transport, but within 4 road areas of rail/transport, then supply cost is 2. If off road one area (from rail or road), then supply cost is 3. If off road 2 areas then you are not on the grid. Each unit uses up supplies equal to the supply cost of their area to get into supply. Cav and mounted units expend double the normal supply points (so a cav unit in a supply cost 2 area uses 4 supplies). Since cavalry raids can damage railroads, a great way to make an army in enemy territory pay is to use a cav raid to damage the rails in their area. If you damage the rail to level 2 damage, then the area is considered a road area, and instead of paying 1 supply per unit, they have to spend 2. An army of 60,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 200 guns would normally expend 46 supply points, but if the area was raided and the rail was damaged to level 2, if the area was not adjacent to a river or ocean with a transport link to the supply grid, it would expend 92 supply points instead. So the cav raid would cost the army 46 supplies plus 10 supplies to repair the rail. This "rail" damage actually is a reflection of the raiding cavalry's ability to disrupt the supply lines of the army. This is were a great cav commander can make life hell for an army that is relying on a rail connection. Depots have more to do with helping attacking armies get initiative then they do with units getting supplied.

Can rail then be repaired?  By any unit?

Goodaye,

O.K. Got it.

Many thanks.

Cheers,
Lancer

Yes rail can be repaired and repairing/raiding rails is a top strategic priority.

In many cases I see the rail damage system as being an abstract way of dealing with supply lines. We do also allow units to damage factories, rail and resource centers by expending movement points, so some scorched earth is possible (in addition to cav raids which just targets rail and supplies in an area).