Learning to play FoF

[Der Stöhn Schlüßel]

About a week ago, I have installed Forge of Freedom on my PC! After changing a few rooms at home, I came across my collection of Civil War books and suddenly wondered if there would be a proper PC game these days. A quick search of the internet, checking several sources, taught me that Forge of Freedom is by far the best game on this epic episode of history.

Despite the very very steep learning curve, I’m still full of enthousiasm. But I still feel I have touched the toughest subject of this game: where to start, how to start, what to do and what not to do.

I have now played two incompleted games. I do think my experience might suit other beginners very well and I do hope I can learn some easy tips & tricks here.


My first game:

I got the easiest level, simply clicked the basic game options and picked the Union, assuming that would be easiest to learn about the game. Just aiming to quickly understand some strategic gameplay, I didn’t bother about building or producing anything. It was all about moving my armies into provinces. I also didn’t bother about naval forces.

I focussed on two areas (duh): east & west. In the west, I mostly combined my armies and simply headed down south along the Mississippi. Nothing special. Once gotten into the state of Mississippi, I turned towards Georgia.

In the West, I grabbed every single regiment I could find near, and randomly added them to my armies. I simply ordered all armies, and loose regiments from Cumberland,
Annapolis and Potomac River into Fredericksburg. I have repeated this for several turns.

While advancing nicely in the west, every turn I lost the battle in the east. I figured that, though having the disadvantage of being the attacker, I should have a 10% chance each time. However, I didn’t win any battle. Another thing I learned is that the quick combat option is very very annoying when fighting big battles (100k+ men on each side). Apart from setting the field at the start (charge/attack/defend), one simply cannot do anything but wait. I’ve seen battles where 2 or 3 regiments are left on each side, routing each other in the same tempo as routed regiments return……

After a dozen of turns I was fed up with my strategy in the east and seperated my armies. In the mean time, I had also moved over every single garrison regiment from the north east to Annapolis. About two thirds (two armies) guarded Annapolis and one army marched into West Virginian provinces. Eventually, the Southern army in Fredericksburg went after it, giving me the opportunity to take the province of Fredericksburg with the other two armies.

My “expeditionary force” ended up in a isolated province in either Virginia or North Carolina, and was attacked by the southern Army chasing it. After suffering deafeat, it was completely vanquished! This incontrary to other defeats I has suffered.

My other two armies (or one of them) in Fredericksburg tried to invade the province of Rappahannock. This failed three or four times! Not even a battle. Simply a failed move, without any notice.


This is where I ended my first game. I have some questions and remarks.

-Does a defeated army suffer total annihilation, if it is defeated in an isolated province? Or does this work differently?

-Why can’t I march into Rappahannock? Does this have anything to do with garrisoned forts? Or does this work differently?

[Der Stöhn Schlüßel]

For the second game, I once more started a basic game playing the North. The only difference was adding detailed combat options. I hadn’t planned to try to learn to manage detailed combat, but I was so annoyed with the quick combay screen, that I simply had to!

Soon enough, I found out that I could now chose between quick combat, detailed combat and instant combart. That’s an option I like in this stadium!

Having learnt a few things from the first game, I took different approaches.

In the east, I immediately split up my armies. Two of them would simply stay put in Annapolis, whereas the third, containg about 40% of the total forces available started conquering the West Virginian Provinces.

In the west things went so easily in the first game, that I deciced to split up forces there too. The main part now kept buys in Tennessee, whereas a smaller army headed south.

I also decided to actually get into building and producing stuff. I still neglected naval businesses.

In the west, the smaller army advanced smoothly to the south and then to the east, eventually reaching Atlanta. I decided to besiege the city, for no perticular reason and was succesful two turns later.

The bigger army got struck in Kentucky’s most western province. It simply wouldn’t move out…..

In the east, my wandering Army conquered Parkersburg, Grafton, Kenawha, Franklin and Shenandoah. In the meantime, the armies in Annapolis slowly grew and grew, as I was building structures and consequently producing 2 divisions, 1 corps and some infantry, artillery and cavalry. I figured  that, once I felt I was strong enough, the armies in Annapolis would conquer Fredericksburg. However, before I got to this point, the Southern Army in Fredericksburg attacked Shenandoah. It tried to do so 4 or 5 times and was unsuccesful during every attempt! These events had a nice bonus: I lost less regiments than the South. And I could rather easily fill up my ranks with new regiments. At this moment, I also learnt about filling divisions and armies.

When I felt the Southern Army had weakened anough, I charged. All three Armies went into Fredericksburg. I decided to resolve the battle instantly. Despite ourtanking the South in numbers (200k vs 90k), I lost. The following turn I did the same and this time I was succesful. The Southern army retreated.

Next turn, I gave my three armies, now all three in Fredericksburg, orders to besiege  the three forts there. Whereas my 40k army in Atlanta needed 2 (or 3) turns to take control of the city, the forts in FB were taken (destroyed) at once (after watching some nice text messages).

When the next run was about to begin, the game crashed. After reloading, it crashed at the same moment.

I have some questions and remarks.
-How does crossing rivers work? Does one need to control the forts? Or does this work differently? Could anyone think of other reasons why armies cannot be moved, apart from rivers or forts?
-I haven’t patched up. Would that stop the game from crashing?
-What about these southern single regiments crossing the map randomly, seeming to do so purposeless?
-How does limitation on divisions work. I’ve managed to squeeze in 7 divisions in an army, but later couldn’t repeat this. Though having built a corps, I never managed to bring it into an army, before the game crashed.   -I have invaded provinces with several armies at the same time. Sometimes, the armies appeared as one strength, resulting in one battle. But most of the times, this would result in multiple succesive battles. How can this be controlled?

[SlickWilhelm]

First, patch up to the latest version(1.12.2) of the game. Second, bring up the FOF-Manual(ebook) and keep that open while you play. Third, start reading the after action reports in this forum. These can really enlighten you on some things that are not clear.

IMO, you are not going to be able to learn the game unless you're willing to invest a lot of time reading and asking questions.

My guess as to why your units won't move into another province is that it's winter time. If you click on a unit and move the mouse pointer over the intended target province, and the color of the line is black...that means you can't move there. Basically, during the months of Dec. & Jan. your armies will be in "winter quarters", and can't move(except by rail).

When you start playing the intermediate and advanced game, another factor comes into play:initiative.

From page 101 of the FOF-Manual(ebook):

Initiative Checks – When this option is turned on, and units try to move during the Movement Phase, not all attempts to movement will be successful. Before a unit can move it must make an Initiative check. If it fails this check, it cannot move during the current movement segment, but may try again during the next segment. The chance of making an initiative check is based on many factors: the type of the unit, whether the movement is into friendly or enemy territory, and the terrain between the provinces between which the unit is moving. Details about calculating Initiative can be found in the Appendix. Generally speaking, rougher terrain (forests, swamps, hills and mountains) are harder to move through than clear terrain.

Shaded Arrows – A green-shaded arrow still indicates relatively easy movement between two provinces, but a yellow-shaded arrow now indicates moderately difficult movement, and a red-shaded arrow indicates very difficult movement. (A black-shaded arrow indicates extremely difficult movement, and is usually seen only during winter months—see Winter Movement Penalty
below.) The more difficult the movement, the greater the chance that movement will fail at that point, and the unit’s movement for that turn will end.
If multiple units have been selected, then the arrows will display only for the last unit that was selected. However,
if a movement order is given, then all selected units will attempt to move to the destination.

[Mad Russian]

While writing An UnCivil War DAR (during action report) was never intended as a training thread I learned alot about the game as we went and much of that is documented in the thread. I also tried to give reasons for the choices I made during the course of the game.

You might read through it and get some basic ideas on the game. It's here in the AAR section with this thread.

Good Hunting.

MR

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Der Stöhn Schlüßel
-How does limitation on divisions work. I’ve managed to squeeze in 7 divisions in an army, but later couldn’t repeat this. Though having built a corps, I never managed to bring it into an army, before the game crashed.

-A division can contain 5 (Union) or 6 (CSA) brigades.
-A corps can hold 8 units (divisions or brigades), but a Union corps can only hold 3 divisions, while a CSA corps can hold 4 divisions.
-An army can hold 8 units (divisions, corps or brigades), but a Union army cannot hold more than 4 corps, while a CSA army can hold 5 corps.

However then a few other rules come into play.
-Union Corps can only contain 15 brigades
-CSA Corps can only hold 18 brigades
-Union Armies can only hold 35 brigades
-CSA Armies can only hold 42 brigades.

So, after including this rule as well, we get this for a Union army:
-Army
-1st Corps

-1ST DIV
-1st Bg
-2nd Bg
-3rd Bg
-4th Bg
-5th Bg

-2ND DIV
-6th Bg
-7th Bg
-8th Bg
-9th Bg
-10th Bg

-3RD DIV
-11th Bg
-12th Bg
-13th Bg
-14th Bg
-15th Bg


-2nd Corps

-4TH DIV
-16th Bg
-17th Bg
-18th Bg
-19th Bg
-20th Bg

-5TH DIV
-21st Bg
-22nd Bg
-23rd Bg
-24th Bg
-25th Bg

-6TH DIV
-26th Bg
-27th Bg
-28th Bg
-29th Bg
-30th Bg


-3rd Corps

-7TH DIV
-31st Bg
-32nd Bg
-33rd Bg
-34th Bg
-35th Bg


This example takes all of the above rules into consideration and is one (of many possibilities) acceptable Union army.

[GShock]

excellent explanation terje

[SlickWilhelm]

Is there any advantage to having only two divisions in a corps as opposed to three(or four)?

[GShock]

There's a strategic advantage with having more containers because you can use them to control territory. Then even when a small container is attacked by a bigger force you may still call for reinforcements from the neighboring regions. Obviously you'll keep the corps in the middle region and 2 divisions on either region on its sides.

Of course if your corps commander is a good one, the more divisions he has inside his corps the more troops he is able to train. Don't forget that the container logistics/command factors ALSO are important (if in use in your settings).

Again all depends on the situation. If it's winter for example, reinforcements might be unable to join in time... and if you are preparing to assault a region, the initiative of a corps leader could be better than the one of the Divs leaders...a corps with good logistical staff would supercede worse ratings of the divisions inside... see that is the time you need to concentrate all forces within the corps.

FoF is a VERY complex game, Slick. It *all depends* on the situation and the enemy IS a factor. [:)]

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: GShock

FoF is a VERY complex game, Slick. It *all depends* on the situation and the enemy IS a factor. [:)]

Sorry to be nit-picky here, GShock, but does that mean that a division always fights better as part of a corps, even if the corps commander & container and the division commander & container have the same ratings?

What I'm getting at is whether a container is always more effective when it is part of the next larger container, or if it's soley dependent upon the ratings of the containers/commanders.

I don't want to be sending independent division-sized units out to fight on their own if they'll fight 2x better as part of a corps container.

[Mad Russian]

Being part of a container doesn't affect their combat ratings. There are lots of things that modify how well they fight.

Things that modify their performance are the weaponry they are equipped with, the leadership they have, the terrain they're fighting in, if the battle is held on friendly or enemy ground, what attributes they have, their morale, and the level of experience and training the unit has reached. What container they are in is one of the things that doesn't matter.

Hope that helps.

Good Hunting.

MR

[terje439]

But being in a higher container that has a general attached means an extra chance for rallying if your troops are routed.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: terje439

But being in a higher container that has a general attached means an extra chance for rallying if your troops are routed.

Aha!

Got it, thanks.

[Mad Russian]

In my experiences, Armies are only completely destroyed if they cannot retreat to an area free of enemy troops.

Good Hunting.

MR