0
Walkthrough/FAQby James Cobb
This document is to amplify and correct the manual to Interactive Magic's
American Civil War game, designed by Frank Hunter, as well as to explain
features added in patches. The format will not be the usual Q/A of a FAQ as
many of the questions are best answered within the context of a real game
situation.
The version used will be ver.1.21 and the map patch. Conventions in this
article will be: LC = left click, RC = right click , "spinner = the little box
with the up/down arrows where numerical values are changed.The game chosen for
this is the 1861 campaign with all historical options on. The Union side will
be played because there's so much more available for the North (some hints for
the South will be thrown in into make points,) The strategy will be the
"Anaconda" plan of blockade, grab the Mississippi and maintain pressure on the
northern borders. I will also make mistakes: sometimes to make a point,
sometimes because I'm not the greatest of players On June 30, 1861, every
feature on the menu bar should be checked out. Remember that you can change
your screen resolution in the Game menu. For the big picture, use 1024x768. I
LC on the National topic and see that my domestic rating is 52%. This is close
so I can't afford to lose a lot. European intervention pay appear to be high
but don't sweat it. Wars cannot be won without men. so go to the Manpower
Settings under National and adjust recruitment. I set the bounty level to 5
which will multiply the states' manpower potential while not straining the
economy. I will not institute a presidential appeal or an emancipation
proclamation yet because my domestic prestige is low. Since I use quick naval
action, I dial the infantry manpower spinner down to 60% and the navy up to
15%. I give the remaining 5% to artillery because, eventually, guns will be
tactically decisive. I don't increase cavalry because I have no cavalry
leaders,Under the same topic, I go to state statistics to set production for
off-map states.. The North will replace muskets and smoothbores as soon as
possible. The cost of weapons is shown below:
Weapon number/supply points
Springfield Rifles 50/10
Sharps Carbine 50/18
Spencer Rifles 50/44
Parrott Cannon 2/144
Whitworth Cannon 2/224
Since the "Mississippi" theater (everything west of the Big Muddy) has the
least resources, these states only create a few hundred Springfields each by
highlighting states and LC on the Springfield spinner. The "West" (states
between the Mississippi and the Alleghenies) are better off so they create
several hundred Springfields and a few Parrots. The industrialized "Seaboard"
has wealth and is already making some Springfields. They make many
Springfields and Parrotts as well as a few Whitworths. The above description
is about setting the initial production of weapons, rather liking building
factories. The costs to maintain this production is:
Weapon number/supply points
Muskets 50/1
Shotguns 50/3
Springfield Rifles 50/3
Sharp Carbines 12/50
Spencer Rifles 20/50
Smoothbores 1/90
Parrotts 1/140
Whitworths 1/220
Thus, if a city produces 500 Springfields, they cost 1500 points a
month.On-map state production is done through the city production item on the
National item. The procedure is exactly as in off-map production, including
the decrease in theater supply. Everywhere I pulled musket/shotgun production
down to 0 (not recommended for the South), increasing supply a bit. I leave
smoothbore production alone for the moment as a battery may have to be armed
before enough Parrotts are ready.Given the wealth of the North, some readers
may ask why I didn't produce more. The reason is not only the costs mentioned
above but the cost of maintaining troops in the field. Given Standard supply,
each brigade costs one point. It gets more interesting when the modifiers are
applied. Ample unit supply doubles these costs and high triples them. These
values are quadruples for the North and doubled for the South. Encampment can
ameliorate this problem by halving the final costs but a player must move
sometime. Also, June to November is the highest producing months with a
production modifier of 6. It's necessary to save for the lean December to
February modifier of 2 until March brings some relief with a modifier of 3.
For the accountants among us, the production algorithm for non-cotton states
is (10 x seasonal modifier x men in state) minus sacked cities (don't sweat
the sack ratio too much; you lose a big city, you're in trouble; sacking a
city late in the game can hurt Confederate production more than any foreign
anger will hurt the Union cause.) Cotton values are handled the same but are
added separately so the first value is less than 10.A glance at the General
Force Status topic on National shows that most of my men are in the East,
armed with muskets, but have many Springfields on the way. My ports can only
produce 2 ironclads and 13 wooden vessels. That, too, must change.The next
stop on the menu is Overviews. Here, I see that all Union armies are on
subsistence supply. Since this is bad for morale and fatigue, I'll change it
soon. There's also three Union fleets which I'll deal with presently. LC on an
army or fleet to go to it on the map.Having exhausted the menu, I go to the
map. Since I know the South cannot be aggressive early, I see no reason to
garrison Union cities in the rear. I RC on Indianapolis and see two regiments.
I LC on them and send them to the force pool at a cost of 50 supply points
each. I do the same with Columbus. Having four regiments free, I go to the
Build Force menu and click on New Brigades. I LC on a regiment, LC on
Cincinnati and LC on the musket option. I do this three more times. Counting
the garrison already there, I have six regiments in Cincinnati, enough for a
couple of divisions. From the Build Forces menu, I choose New Divisions/Corps.
The next box asks if I want Infantry or Divisions. Picking Division (so as to
find acceptable Corps leaders later on), the available Division commanders are
listed. I pick Corps Sherman and LC and drag four regiments, his max. I could
give him all six but this could be detrimental to his command abilities. I
give Keyes the other two by the same procedure.Going to Cairo, I RC and create
a port capable of building 2 wooden vessels for 250 points per ship and build
a fort at the cost of 50 supply points by using the appropriate spinners. I RC
on Springfield, Ill. and then on Lyons in the selection box. On the unit
screen for Lyons I click on "Transfer Brigades from Springfield" and LC and
drag on the regiments listed. I also go to the "Railroad Destination" box and
scroll to Cairo; Lyon will now move there. While I'm in the neighborhood, I RC
on Springfield, Mo., and RC on Fremont and give him standard, encamped supply.
Evansville gets capacity to build 2 ironclads (500 points per ship) and
Cincinnati 2 wooden vessels as described above.It's time to move East. I bring
up the Overview Map by clicking on the MAP button in the lower-right border. I
click near Maryland and - poof! - I'm in the cockpit of the war. I RC on
Washington and give it another level of fortification. I RC on Annapolis and
then its name to increase its port capacity by 2 wooden vessels. Baltimore
gets capacity for 2 ironclads and 2 wooden vessels while Dover can build 2
ironclads.Short term naval strategy comes next. The North needs to cover three
ports, Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans. However, there's only 2 combat
fleets of 6 wooden vessels each; one at Annapolis and one at Philadelphia.
I'll make three fleets of 4 vessels. I RC on Annapolis and RC on Fleet #1 at
the selection box. The click on the Split box which brings up the transfer
screen. There's a spinner for each type of vessel, I click 2 from the 6 wooden
vessels and then close all the way out to the map. There's now a Fleet #4 at
Annapolis. I do the same at Philadelphia. After creating Fleet #5 there, I go
back and RC on Fleet #2 and give it patrol orders. I choose Savannah since
it's closer and increase the supplies by spinner so it can remain on station
longer. I close back to the selection box and RC on Fleet #5 and give it
movement orders with Annapolis as objective, while clicking on the Home port
and choosing Annapolis again. (Confederate blockade runners will want to
change home ports when objectives are chosen, also; confuses the Yanks
something fierce.) I send Fleet #3 to Charleston. Fleet #1 has only 1
transport with the capacity of moving 350 load points (1250 men, 28 guns or a
mix). More transports are needed to move a significant force.At last, we can
do something with the army. I RC on Washington, RC on AoP under McDowell, and
give Training orders. The corps under Hunter, Tyler and Heintzelman are in
standard supply because the parent army, Potomac (AoP), is also supplied that
way. I want to change every independent unit to standard supply but forget
Butler in Ft. Monroe. I LC on Sherman and drag the mouse over to Frankfurt, KY
under normal march orders.Before executing the turn, I check Supply/Transfer
Statistics under the National menu. I note that supplies are Seaboard-1286,
West - 890, Mississippi - 990; not bad. I choose not to use the Railroad
Capacity spinner to increase the ability to move troops.The long, first turn
is over. I LC on Execute from the Game menu and watch the action.Things go as
expected. The fleets move, Lyon arrives in Cairo, Sherman enters Kentucky and
causes it to join the Confederacy and Magruder moves against Butler at Ft.
Monroe. This causes a screen to pop up asking what level the Union should
fight the battle. The fact that only the "skirmish" and "low" options indicate
that Butler is not the best of generals. I select skirmish to minimize damage.
The bad news is the Confederates win and get 102 weapons. The good news is
Butler is wounded and needs to be replaced. The list of available corps
commanders contains Grant; let's see what Bobby Lee will do with Grant in the
East early. To see how battles are lost, I look at analysis. The upper half
the screen shows the battle elements with variables versus constants as
variables x constants. The elements and constants are:
Battleground 2
Fatigue 5
Morale 10
Leadership 25
Experience 20
Weapons 7
In this battle, 9,000 Confederates with 8 guns attacked 6,000 fortified
Federals with 12 guns and won. The variables were:
Union Confederate
Battleground 26 2
Fatigue 2 1
Morale 18 18
Leadership 4 6
Experience 1 1
Weapons 37 30
It is apparent that the Confederate values in Fatigue and Leadership outweighs
the Union's advantages in Battleground, and Weapons. Butler's replacements
takes care of one element and better supply will help the other. (I saved this
battle and fought it again for an Union victory. One of the differences could
have been the randomizer which is important determining how a leader will
perform in a given battle and in determining casualties)The actual combat
algorithm for combat takes 3 single-spaced pages to describe. All values of
each unit are computed, compared and weighted in a very historical manner. To
play the game, it is enough to know to keep your troops well-fed, well-armed
and well-led. Hidden commander attributes are, without a doubt, key to a
suspenseful game. Keeping good leaders alive is crucial to victory. However,
here we should talk about that pervasive, bug-a-boo, attrition. Attrition
happens when forces get tired and hungry. Attrition levels can be determined
by the colored sliding bar under unit counters and LC on the unit and the
Status menu. The Fatigue factor in the Status box is the most accurate
indicator. Men begin to perform sub-par at Level 5 and begin to desert at 0.5%
per level at level 1. Supply is important to attrition as Encampment assures
level 1 and Depot, if the supply is unbroken (a depot line can be no longer
than 5 or less if the weather's bad), assures level 2. Foraging makes things
variable. Unmodified, it causes level 8 attrition but cities drop this by 2
while mountains raise it by 14 and woods by 10. All of these levels are halved
in its home territory. Then, the march mode is figured in; forced march adds 5
and cautious halves attrition. Weather modifiers range from 0 for clear to 8
for snow. When an unit is routed, attrition levels are raised by twice the
rout factor.During the first move, Confederates have moved to Strasburg and
Fredricksburg in Virginia with some movement near Fort Donelson in the West.
Most ominous, Lee has been put in command of the Army of Northern
Virginia.July 7, 1861 brings me more supplies and manpower. I have 9704 supply
points in the East, 6502 in the West and 2759 in the Mississippi. I produced
6150 Springfields, 30 Parrotts, 3 infantry regiments and a artillery battery.I
start building my navy by LC on New Fleet in the Building Forces menu. The New
Fleet box prompts for river or ocean goings vessels; I LC on river. Prompted
for type, I click on transport, which brings up a list of ports capable of
building these. Since I'm going to use Cairo as the jumping off point for
going down the Mississippi, I highlight it and bring the spinner up to Cairo's
maximum of two. I build several fleets using the same procedure, close out of
Build Forces and open Navy overview, (Manpower and Supply costs for all ships
are listed in the New Fleet box) Here I see that I'm building:
Port Ships Turns Until Construction
Cincinnati 2 River Wooden Vessels 6
Cairo 2 River Transports 6
Evansville 2 River Ironclads 24
Annapolis 4 Ocean Wooden Vessels 12
Baltimore 4 Ocean Transports 8
Dover 4 Ocean Ironclads 24
The number of ships has nothing to do with time of construction so I'd have to
wait 24 turns for an ironclad, anyway. Now, I'll have 4 ironclads to get the
earlier-produced Merrimac. I have 1950 sailors left so I dial the Naval
Manpower down to 5% and raise Infantry and Artillery to 65% and 10%
respectively.Using the Build New Forces-New Divisions/Corps box, I see that
two regiments are Ohio infantry and so I can only place them in the West; I'd
have to transfer them to an Army to get them East. I give the Ohio boys
Springfields, put them in Cincinnati and place them under Curtis. With two
divisions, I need a new army so that I need only to give one set of objective,
march and supply orders (although these can be overridden for individual units
by the method described earlier). I open the Leader Status box under National
and LC on Available Corps Commanders and see 3 non-entities. Since McClellan
has the most support, I promote him and close out. I then go to Build
Forces/New Army and select him again, click on Cincinnati and notice the army
name is Ohio - fine. From the force list, I highlight Keyes and Custis and
close. An army appears at Cincinnati; I RC on it and RC on Ohio. From the Army
Orders box, I give it standard supply and Training orders.Grant can use some
help in Fort Monroe. I don't have enough Springfields to re-equip the infantry
but I can reinforce and upgrade his artillery to 22 Parrotts by LC on View
Brigades in the Corps and Division Orders box and LC on Reinforcements for the
battery and LC on Smoothbores and selecting Parrotts.. I give him standard
supply. Lyon has his supply base changed by RC on his box and highlighting
Cairo. I also give him Advance orders so he'll attack anything he sees. I
close out and LC and drag him to Columbus, KY.The second turn sees the fleets
continue to move, McClellan train, McDowell do nothing and Lyon move out.
Grant is attacked with Lee using his values with Magruder's forces. Grant can
choose from all for battle intensity choices, skirmish, low, moderate, high
and all-out. I choose low because of the numerical inferiority. The battle is
a draw with the following analysis:
Union Confederate
Battleground 26 2
Fatigue 8 2
Morale 16 6
Leadership 7 6
Experience 1 1
Weapons 45 30
If Grant's fatigue can be remedied, he'll pose a thorn in the Confederate
flank.The July 14 turn is simply setting things in motion. Sherman is moving
fast enough so I order him to force march via the Corps and Division Orders
Box.. I give the AoP orders to Advance and give it Strasburg as its objective.
I assign Patterson in Harpers Ferry to this army by RC on him and changing his
Army Status from Independent to Potomac. The execution of this turn has Grant
routing Magruder with better fatigue, leadership and weapons. However,
McDowell's 3 corps are beaten by Beauregard near Strasburg for the same
reasons and Johnston crushes Patterson at Strasburg through fortifications,
twice the leadership and one-fifth the fatigue. ( A re-run of these battles,
using a saved file, shows draws, indicating the power of the randomizer)
Sherman captures Frankfurt, returning Kentucky to the Union and Lyon occupies
Columbus. Neither town is worth sacking.Patterson has to go so I RC and select
Halleck from the Corps leader list . I adjust Lyon's and Sherman's supply
cities and rest them. The strategy for the AoP is to withdraw. I send Halleck
back to Harper's Ferry.Fast forwarding, August sees draws in northern
Virginia, Grant routing Magruder, the AoP receiving a division under Franklin
who marches toward the sounds of the guns two hexes away and the Army of Ohio
occupying Kentucky. McClellan is made to move by first, making Frankfurt
supply city, then sending the troops to Bowling Green and again moving the
base there. In a surprise, Lyon rips the heart out of Polk's Army of Tennessee
in two battles. Emboldened, McClellan, now commanding Sherman, takes and sacks
Nashville to hinder Confederate production and bring Tennesee back into the
Union. Outside Charleston, 4 Union ships sink 2 out of 8 blockade runners,
while another 4 Yankee vessels sink 2 out of the 6 that got away. My domestic
prestige is up 3%.On September 1, I promote Grant by opening Leader Status, LC
Active and Corps and Promote even though it's without support (his units go
into the Ft. Monroe garrison. I then RC on the AoP and select Grant over
McDowell, taking my chances on losing prestige. Had I not wanted to risk
prestige, I could have gone to Leaderstaus in National, LC on Active Army,
highlighted McDowell, LC on Temp Remove, closed out and given him command of
another corps, provided it was in that same turn. I reinforce this army and
Lyon and begin to move on Donelson. Another interesting was to reduce the
importance of a bad commander is to do the "garrison shuffle". Move an unit
with a bad leader and one with a good one into the same town. Transfer all but
one units from the bad leader into garrison, then RC on the good commanders
unit and transfer them from the garrison.The next 3 weeks show the the AoP
can't beat the Confederates, regardless of its leader; it begins to fall back
on D.C. Donelson falls. On September 22, I merge the transports of Fleets #3
and #7 (only same vessel types can merge) by RC on Fleet #3, LC on Merge and
then LC on Fleet #7. Since #3 has only one ship, I do not touch the spinner.
If it had more, I could spin down to how many I wanted left in #3. I then
close and RC on Fleet #7, LC on Amphibious, LC on Banks in the capacity list,
and pick Norfolk as the objective. On the execution phase, Banks takes Norfolk
and scuttles the Reb navy, even though the fleet is destroyed by coastal
guns.The naval war turned in October with a Confederate battle fleet of 1
ironclad and 2 wooden vessels sink 6 Union boats. The Navy is being rebuilt.
Meanwhile, Ft. Monroe and Norfolk are besieged but hold well.This may seem an
odd time to leave the fate of the Union in the balance but now you know the
mechanics of this fascinating game. When you play by e-mail, remember that
there are four files to be sent, .acw, .acm, .btl, .txt. Have fun!
This document is to amplify and correct the manual to Interactive Magic's
American Civil War game, designed by Frank Hunter, as well as to explain
features added in patches. The format will not be the usual Q/A of a FAQ as
many of the questions are best answered within the context of a real game
situation.
The version used will be ver.1.21 and the map patch. Conventions in this
article will be: LC = left click, RC = right click , "spinner = the little box
with the up/down arrows where numerical values are changed.The game chosen for
this is the 1861 campaign with all historical options on. The Union side will
be played because there's so much more available for the North (some hints for
the South will be thrown in into make points,) The strategy will be the
"Anaconda" plan of blockade, grab the Mississippi and maintain pressure on the
northern borders. I will also make mistakes: sometimes to make a point,
sometimes because I'm not the greatest of players On June 30, 1861, every
feature on the menu bar should be checked out. Remember that you can change
your screen resolution in the Game menu. For the big picture, use 1024x768. I
LC on the National topic and see that my domestic rating is 52%. This is close
so I can't afford to lose a lot. European intervention pay appear to be high
but don't sweat it. Wars cannot be won without men. so go to the Manpower
Settings under National and adjust recruitment. I set the bounty level to 5
which will multiply the states' manpower potential while not straining the
economy. I will not institute a presidential appeal or an emancipation
proclamation yet because my domestic prestige is low. Since I use quick naval
action, I dial the infantry manpower spinner down to 60% and the navy up to
15%. I give the remaining 5% to artillery because, eventually, guns will be
tactically decisive. I don't increase cavalry because I have no cavalry
leaders,Under the same topic, I go to state statistics to set production for
off-map states.. The North will replace muskets and smoothbores as soon as
possible. The cost of weapons is shown below:
Weapon number/supply points
Springfield Rifles 50/10
Sharps Carbine 50/18
Spencer Rifles 50/44
Parrott Cannon 2/144
Whitworth Cannon 2/224
Since the "Mississippi" theater (everything west of the Big Muddy) has the
least resources, these states only create a few hundred Springfields each by
highlighting states and LC on the Springfield spinner. The "West" (states
between the Mississippi and the Alleghenies) are better off so they create
several hundred Springfields and a few Parrots. The industrialized "Seaboard"
has wealth and is already making some Springfields. They make many
Springfields and Parrotts as well as a few Whitworths. The above description
is about setting the initial production of weapons, rather liking building
factories. The costs to maintain this production is:
Weapon number/supply points
Muskets 50/1
Shotguns 50/3
Springfield Rifles 50/3
Sharp Carbines 12/50
Spencer Rifles 20/50
Smoothbores 1/90
Parrotts 1/140
Whitworths 1/220
Thus, if a city produces 500 Springfields, they cost 1500 points a
month.On-map state production is done through the city production item on the
National item. The procedure is exactly as in off-map production, including
the decrease in theater supply. Everywhere I pulled musket/shotgun production
down to 0 (not recommended for the South), increasing supply a bit. I leave
smoothbore production alone for the moment as a battery may have to be armed
before enough Parrotts are ready.Given the wealth of the North, some readers
may ask why I didn't produce more. The reason is not only the costs mentioned
above but the cost of maintaining troops in the field. Given Standard supply,
each brigade costs one point. It gets more interesting when the modifiers are
applied. Ample unit supply doubles these costs and high triples them. These
values are quadruples for the North and doubled for the South. Encampment can
ameliorate this problem by halving the final costs but a player must move
sometime. Also, June to November is the highest producing months with a
production modifier of 6. It's necessary to save for the lean December to
February modifier of 2 until March brings some relief with a modifier of 3.
For the accountants among us, the production algorithm for non-cotton states
is (10 x seasonal modifier x men in state) minus sacked cities (don't sweat
the sack ratio too much; you lose a big city, you're in trouble; sacking a
city late in the game can hurt Confederate production more than any foreign
anger will hurt the Union cause.) Cotton values are handled the same but are
added separately so the first value is less than 10.A glance at the General
Force Status topic on National shows that most of my men are in the East,
armed with muskets, but have many Springfields on the way. My ports can only
produce 2 ironclads and 13 wooden vessels. That, too, must change.The next
stop on the menu is Overviews. Here, I see that all Union armies are on
subsistence supply. Since this is bad for morale and fatigue, I'll change it
soon. There's also three Union fleets which I'll deal with presently. LC on an
army or fleet to go to it on the map.Having exhausted the menu, I go to the
map. Since I know the South cannot be aggressive early, I see no reason to
garrison Union cities in the rear. I RC on Indianapolis and see two regiments.
I LC on them and send them to the force pool at a cost of 50 supply points
each. I do the same with Columbus. Having four regiments free, I go to the
Build Force menu and click on New Brigades. I LC on a regiment, LC on
Cincinnati and LC on the musket option. I do this three more times. Counting
the garrison already there, I have six regiments in Cincinnati, enough for a
couple of divisions. From the Build Forces menu, I choose New Divisions/Corps.
The next box asks if I want Infantry or Divisions. Picking Division (so as to
find acceptable Corps leaders later on), the available Division commanders are
listed. I pick Corps Sherman and LC and drag four regiments, his max. I could
give him all six but this could be detrimental to his command abilities. I
give Keyes the other two by the same procedure.Going to Cairo, I RC and create
a port capable of building 2 wooden vessels for 250 points per ship and build
a fort at the cost of 50 supply points by using the appropriate spinners. I RC
on Springfield, Ill. and then on Lyons in the selection box. On the unit
screen for Lyons I click on "Transfer Brigades from Springfield" and LC and
drag on the regiments listed. I also go to the "Railroad Destination" box and
scroll to Cairo; Lyon will now move there. While I'm in the neighborhood, I RC
on Springfield, Mo., and RC on Fremont and give him standard, encamped supply.
Evansville gets capacity to build 2 ironclads (500 points per ship) and
Cincinnati 2 wooden vessels as described above.It's time to move East. I bring
up the Overview Map by clicking on the MAP button in the lower-right border. I
click near Maryland and - poof! - I'm in the cockpit of the war. I RC on
Washington and give it another level of fortification. I RC on Annapolis and
then its name to increase its port capacity by 2 wooden vessels. Baltimore
gets capacity for 2 ironclads and 2 wooden vessels while Dover can build 2
ironclads.Short term naval strategy comes next. The North needs to cover three
ports, Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans. However, there's only 2 combat
fleets of 6 wooden vessels each; one at Annapolis and one at Philadelphia.
I'll make three fleets of 4 vessels. I RC on Annapolis and RC on Fleet #1 at
the selection box. The click on the Split box which brings up the transfer
screen. There's a spinner for each type of vessel, I click 2 from the 6 wooden
vessels and then close all the way out to the map. There's now a Fleet #4 at
Annapolis. I do the same at Philadelphia. After creating Fleet #5 there, I go
back and RC on Fleet #2 and give it patrol orders. I choose Savannah since
it's closer and increase the supplies by spinner so it can remain on station
longer. I close back to the selection box and RC on Fleet #5 and give it
movement orders with Annapolis as objective, while clicking on the Home port
and choosing Annapolis again. (Confederate blockade runners will want to
change home ports when objectives are chosen, also; confuses the Yanks
something fierce.) I send Fleet #3 to Charleston. Fleet #1 has only 1
transport with the capacity of moving 350 load points (1250 men, 28 guns or a
mix). More transports are needed to move a significant force.At last, we can
do something with the army. I RC on Washington, RC on AoP under McDowell, and
give Training orders. The corps under Hunter, Tyler and Heintzelman are in
standard supply because the parent army, Potomac (AoP), is also supplied that
way. I want to change every independent unit to standard supply but forget
Butler in Ft. Monroe. I LC on Sherman and drag the mouse over to Frankfurt, KY
under normal march orders.Before executing the turn, I check Supply/Transfer
Statistics under the National menu. I note that supplies are Seaboard-1286,
West - 890, Mississippi - 990; not bad. I choose not to use the Railroad
Capacity spinner to increase the ability to move troops.The long, first turn
is over. I LC on Execute from the Game menu and watch the action.Things go as
expected. The fleets move, Lyon arrives in Cairo, Sherman enters Kentucky and
causes it to join the Confederacy and Magruder moves against Butler at Ft.
Monroe. This causes a screen to pop up asking what level the Union should
fight the battle. The fact that only the "skirmish" and "low" options indicate
that Butler is not the best of generals. I select skirmish to minimize damage.
The bad news is the Confederates win and get 102 weapons. The good news is
Butler is wounded and needs to be replaced. The list of available corps
commanders contains Grant; let's see what Bobby Lee will do with Grant in the
East early. To see how battles are lost, I look at analysis. The upper half
the screen shows the battle elements with variables versus constants as
variables x constants. The elements and constants are:
Battleground 2
Fatigue 5
Morale 10
Leadership 25
Experience 20
Weapons 7
In this battle, 9,000 Confederates with 8 guns attacked 6,000 fortified
Federals with 12 guns and won. The variables were:
Union Confederate
Battleground 26 2
Fatigue 2 1
Morale 18 18
Leadership 4 6
Experience 1 1
Weapons 37 30
It is apparent that the Confederate values in Fatigue and Leadership outweighs
the Union's advantages in Battleground, and Weapons. Butler's replacements
takes care of one element and better supply will help the other. (I saved this
battle and fought it again for an Union victory. One of the differences could
have been the randomizer which is important determining how a leader will
perform in a given battle and in determining casualties)The actual combat
algorithm for combat takes 3 single-spaced pages to describe. All values of
each unit are computed, compared and weighted in a very historical manner. To
play the game, it is enough to know to keep your troops well-fed, well-armed
and well-led. Hidden commander attributes are, without a doubt, key to a
suspenseful game. Keeping good leaders alive is crucial to victory. However,
here we should talk about that pervasive, bug-a-boo, attrition. Attrition
happens when forces get tired and hungry. Attrition levels can be determined
by the colored sliding bar under unit counters and LC on the unit and the
Status menu. The Fatigue factor in the Status box is the most accurate
indicator. Men begin to perform sub-par at Level 5 and begin to desert at 0.5%
per level at level 1. Supply is important to attrition as Encampment assures
level 1 and Depot, if the supply is unbroken (a depot line can be no longer
than 5 or less if the weather's bad), assures level 2. Foraging makes things
variable. Unmodified, it causes level 8 attrition but cities drop this by 2
while mountains raise it by 14 and woods by 10. All of these levels are halved
in its home territory. Then, the march mode is figured in; forced march adds 5
and cautious halves attrition. Weather modifiers range from 0 for clear to 8
for snow. When an unit is routed, attrition levels are raised by twice the
rout factor.During the first move, Confederates have moved to Strasburg and
Fredricksburg in Virginia with some movement near Fort Donelson in the West.
Most ominous, Lee has been put in command of the Army of Northern
Virginia.July 7, 1861 brings me more supplies and manpower. I have 9704 supply
points in the East, 6502 in the West and 2759 in the Mississippi. I produced
6150 Springfields, 30 Parrotts, 3 infantry regiments and a artillery battery.I
start building my navy by LC on New Fleet in the Building Forces menu. The New
Fleet box prompts for river or ocean goings vessels; I LC on river. Prompted
for type, I click on transport, which brings up a list of ports capable of
building these. Since I'm going to use Cairo as the jumping off point for
going down the Mississippi, I highlight it and bring the spinner up to Cairo's
maximum of two. I build several fleets using the same procedure, close out of
Build Forces and open Navy overview, (Manpower and Supply costs for all ships
are listed in the New Fleet box) Here I see that I'm building:
Port Ships Turns Until Construction
Cincinnati 2 River Wooden Vessels 6
Cairo 2 River Transports 6
Evansville 2 River Ironclads 24
Annapolis 4 Ocean Wooden Vessels 12
Baltimore 4 Ocean Transports 8
Dover 4 Ocean Ironclads 24
The number of ships has nothing to do with time of construction so I'd have to
wait 24 turns for an ironclad, anyway. Now, I'll have 4 ironclads to get the
earlier-produced Merrimac. I have 1950 sailors left so I dial the Naval
Manpower down to 5% and raise Infantry and Artillery to 65% and 10%
respectively.Using the Build New Forces-New Divisions/Corps box, I see that
two regiments are Ohio infantry and so I can only place them in the West; I'd
have to transfer them to an Army to get them East. I give the Ohio boys
Springfields, put them in Cincinnati and place them under Curtis. With two
divisions, I need a new army so that I need only to give one set of objective,
march and supply orders (although these can be overridden for individual units
by the method described earlier). I open the Leader Status box under National
and LC on Available Corps Commanders and see 3 non-entities. Since McClellan
has the most support, I promote him and close out. I then go to Build
Forces/New Army and select him again, click on Cincinnati and notice the army
name is Ohio - fine. From the force list, I highlight Keyes and Custis and
close. An army appears at Cincinnati; I RC on it and RC on Ohio. From the Army
Orders box, I give it standard supply and Training orders.Grant can use some
help in Fort Monroe. I don't have enough Springfields to re-equip the infantry
but I can reinforce and upgrade his artillery to 22 Parrotts by LC on View
Brigades in the Corps and Division Orders box and LC on Reinforcements for the
battery and LC on Smoothbores and selecting Parrotts.. I give him standard
supply. Lyon has his supply base changed by RC on his box and highlighting
Cairo. I also give him Advance orders so he'll attack anything he sees. I
close out and LC and drag him to Columbus, KY.The second turn sees the fleets
continue to move, McClellan train, McDowell do nothing and Lyon move out.
Grant is attacked with Lee using his values with Magruder's forces. Grant can
choose from all for battle intensity choices, skirmish, low, moderate, high
and all-out. I choose low because of the numerical inferiority. The battle is
a draw with the following analysis:
Union Confederate
Battleground 26 2
Fatigue 8 2
Morale 16 6
Leadership 7 6
Experience 1 1
Weapons 45 30
If Grant's fatigue can be remedied, he'll pose a thorn in the Confederate
flank.The July 14 turn is simply setting things in motion. Sherman is moving
fast enough so I order him to force march via the Corps and Division Orders
Box.. I give the AoP orders to Advance and give it Strasburg as its objective.
I assign Patterson in Harpers Ferry to this army by RC on him and changing his
Army Status from Independent to Potomac. The execution of this turn has Grant
routing Magruder with better fatigue, leadership and weapons. However,
McDowell's 3 corps are beaten by Beauregard near Strasburg for the same
reasons and Johnston crushes Patterson at Strasburg through fortifications,
twice the leadership and one-fifth the fatigue. ( A re-run of these battles,
using a saved file, shows draws, indicating the power of the randomizer)
Sherman captures Frankfurt, returning Kentucky to the Union and Lyon occupies
Columbus. Neither town is worth sacking.Patterson has to go so I RC and select
Halleck from the Corps leader list . I adjust Lyon's and Sherman's supply
cities and rest them. The strategy for the AoP is to withdraw. I send Halleck
back to Harper's Ferry.Fast forwarding, August sees draws in northern
Virginia, Grant routing Magruder, the AoP receiving a division under Franklin
who marches toward the sounds of the guns two hexes away and the Army of Ohio
occupying Kentucky. McClellan is made to move by first, making Frankfurt
supply city, then sending the troops to Bowling Green and again moving the
base there. In a surprise, Lyon rips the heart out of Polk's Army of Tennessee
in two battles. Emboldened, McClellan, now commanding Sherman, takes and sacks
Nashville to hinder Confederate production and bring Tennesee back into the
Union. Outside Charleston, 4 Union ships sink 2 out of 8 blockade runners,
while another 4 Yankee vessels sink 2 out of the 6 that got away. My domestic
prestige is up 3%.On September 1, I promote Grant by opening Leader Status, LC
Active and Corps and Promote even though it's without support (his units go
into the Ft. Monroe garrison. I then RC on the AoP and select Grant over
McDowell, taking my chances on losing prestige. Had I not wanted to risk
prestige, I could have gone to Leaderstaus in National, LC on Active Army,
highlighted McDowell, LC on Temp Remove, closed out and given him command of
another corps, provided it was in that same turn. I reinforce this army and
Lyon and begin to move on Donelson. Another interesting was to reduce the
importance of a bad commander is to do the "garrison shuffle". Move an unit
with a bad leader and one with a good one into the same town. Transfer all but
one units from the bad leader into garrison, then RC on the good commanders
unit and transfer them from the garrison.The next 3 weeks show the the AoP
can't beat the Confederates, regardless of its leader; it begins to fall back
on D.C. Donelson falls. On September 22, I merge the transports of Fleets #3
and #7 (only same vessel types can merge) by RC on Fleet #3, LC on Merge and
then LC on Fleet #7. Since #3 has only one ship, I do not touch the spinner.
If it had more, I could spin down to how many I wanted left in #3. I then
close and RC on Fleet #7, LC on Amphibious, LC on Banks in the capacity list,
and pick Norfolk as the objective. On the execution phase, Banks takes Norfolk
and scuttles the Reb navy, even though the fleet is destroyed by coastal
guns.The naval war turned in October with a Confederate battle fleet of 1
ironclad and 2 wooden vessels sink 6 Union boats. The Navy is being rebuilt.
Meanwhile, Ft. Monroe and Norfolk are besieged but hold well.This may seem an
odd time to leave the fate of the Union in the balance but now you know the
mechanics of this fascinating game. When you play by e-mail, remember that
there are four files to be sent, .acw, .acm, .btl, .txt. Have fun!