Infantry Weapons Tech Discussion

[Mithrilotter]

I decided to review historical Civil War infantry weapons. Much to my surprise, both sides began in 1861 with smooth bore muskets. Both sides converted to Springfield and Enfield rifles, as fast at they could be purchased, by 1863. Some units converted to single shot breech loading rifles, like the Sharps and the Burnside carbines by 1863 (cavalry mostly) and some units further switched by 1864 to the Spencer repeating rifle (cavalry mostly). All of these rifles had been invented, manufactured and were available for sale before 1861.

As I see it for infantry, smooth bore muskets were Level 0, Springfield and Enfield rifles were Level 1.

As I see it for cavalry, smooth bore muskets were Level 0, Springfield and Enfield rifles were Level 1, Sharps and the Burnside carbines were Level 2 and the Spencer repeating rifle was Level 3. One could make a legitimate argument that only Union Cavalry could be upgraded to Level 3.

In my opinion, lowering the tech improvement Level of Infantry Weapons to just one, would reduce the attack power of the Blue Horde. That might improve the flow and play balance. It would also reduce the research costs for the Confederates, who are already MPP stressed.

I believe some already developed tech, leadership and tactical improvements should just be time delayed. This just involved battlefield learning and experience. No expensive lab research would be involved. But this would likely involve new coding which might not be available until the next Strategic Command game is developed.

Perhaps another idea would be to allow only one or two units to upgrade their weapons per turn. This could better simulate the limited flow of newly purchased weapons to the front.

[Bobo2025]

I was discussing this in the mod forum. I set a 1 chit limit on all research and then reduce total research MPP for both sides by about 1/4. I’ve played now 2 games with the 1 chit limit to test vs the AI and the effect is rather good. The CSA now deploys a lot more units around the map. Is more easily able to upgrade across their units to keep pace with the USA.

In my games, I was seeing Infantry 2 by 1862 because both sides (rationally) prioritized it. The effect on the CSA was not good. They had to toss 750 MPP into Infantry Weapons, 3 chits, and then run two full cycles of upgrades on their units costing goodness only knows what. The USA could rather more easily absorb the cost.

[metabagel]

I wonder if it might make sense for the second chit to offer a diminishing return. Say 50% of the value of the first chit.

If you try to throw too much money at a problem, you start to encounter diminishing returns. It might be worth it just to get that little extra push, but you'd want to think twice about it.

[eightroomofelixir]

Lowering the tech/chit level of Infantry Weapons for balancing is undoubtedly interesting. Surprised to know there are even actual playtests to support this idea; it might work out for CSA. Currently, with Inf W at level 2, it is pretty easy to murder entire Divisions, which did not happen much historically.