FOW Question

[Le Tondu]

For the boardgame version was there much FOW or was the satellite view always used with everyone knowing where everybody was -all of the time?

Will the computer version have FOW? Will an army be able to pull off something like Napoleon did when he trapped Mack at Ulm?

Is the element of surprise available for the computer version?

[jnier]

IMHO, FOW was handled fairly well. All players would know where everyone's corps and fleets were, but no one would know the strengths of the units. So players could easily field "decoy" corps and fleets (which might contain only a single army factor or ship) to disguise their true strengths. Pretty good FOW considering the limitations inherent in a boardgame.

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by jnier
................Pretty good FOW considering the limitations inherent in a boardgame.

Agreed. Now, how will the computer version handle this. Anyone know? Many thanks jneir.

[EricLarsen]

I hope the FOW is one thing that gets done differently in the computer version. While one could "hide" the strengths of his corps on his corp chart the corps were always visible on the map in the boardgame. It would be nice to have a better FOW whereby you don't have perfect intel of where the enemy units all are. Plus it would be nice to give cavalry more importance in recon by doing something to allow armies with a lot of good cavalry to see more of their opponent's that don't have as much or as good a cavalry screening force. Nappy certainly used the cavalry like this to his great advantage in 1805 against the unhappy Mack. There should be spies that can reveal corps in the interior of a country like Russia. Lots of possibilities but then they also cost to program so we might not get as much as we really want, but hopefully we get enough to make us happy with FOW.
Eric Larsen