Suggestion for fixing equipment scaling issues

[derpus.maximus]

So I'm doing a Union campaign right now and finally got around to playing the historical Cold Harbor battle.

I was flabbergasted by how well-equipped the Union army was. In that first phase, the entire Union cavalry force is armed with Spencers. The entire Union infantry is equipped with Springfield 1863s. Even if I had the money to buy enough of that equipment for the army, the game doesn't even make enough of those weapons available.

And, of course, if you get the highest-tier weapons possible, then the equipment scaling madness comes into play.

Here's the suggestion. At certain points in the game, what if you had the option to equip all your troops with a certain weapon type? It wouldn't necessarily have to be the latest-and-greatest, but at least it'd be something. The tradeoff is that you lost all the weapons your troops were equipping, whether they were better or worse than whatever you had.

For example, by this point in 1864 you might equip all your infantry with the Springfield 1861s. The game would remind you, "hey, you're gonna lose whatever they're equipped with now." And then you'd be able to do at least have stuff that's one generation back from the cutting edge. There might be an appropriate money cost to offset players selling whatever fancy equipment they have before the game takes it away.

[Wright29]

Many many players would not have anywhere close to enough money to do this. To impose this restriction on the player would cause many to walk away. 

[Bigjku]

Not sure that is the solution but the problem is a problem.  The Union side weapons buying is badly broken in particular.  You should effectively have unlimited and ultra cheap 1861 muskets by 1863-64 or so.

And the whole situation with repeaters is even worse.  They aren't generally worth buying.  You can't get enough to equip units as they were historically at any price.

[derpus.maximus]

12 hours ago, Bigjku said:

Not sure that is the solution but the problem is a problem.  The Union side weapons buying is badly broken in particular.  You should effectively have unlimited and ultra cheap 1861 muskets by 1863-64 or so.

And the whole situation with repeaters is even worse.  They aren't generally worth buying.  You can't get enough to equip units as they were historically at any price.

THE WHITE HOUSE, 1864

GEN. GRANT: Mr. President, how will we equip our armies for the upcoming campaign?

PRES. LINCOLN: Well, you recovered a paltry amount of Spencers from those Indiana regiments slaughtered holding the bridge at Chickamauga.

GEN. GRANT: So can we have more?

PRES. LINCOLN: No. But you could sell them and buy a bunch of Springfield 1861s.

GEN. GRANT: Would there be enough for the whole army?

PRES. LINCOLN: No. But I hear you captured a bunch of rifles in the last battle, too. Use those.

(╯°□°)╯( ┻━┻ 

[thomas aagaard]

It is also not historical.
The AoP had large numbers of Enfields in use. From the army perspective the 1855, 1861 and 1863 version of the Springfield was considered the exact same and what type one soldier was issued was not noted in the paperwork. And plenty of regiments used a mix. Having a mix of enfields and Springfield was also common. (both north and south)

If the goal is to be historical many of the weapons should simply be one type... All the Springfields should be one weapon.

Or allow the same brigade to use a number of different weapons.. and just giving the brigade the weighted average of the weapons.

[Bigjku]

I agree there.  Statistically there should be very little difference in muzzle loading rifled muskets from the 1855 Springfield on.  Any differences are incidental (include the confederate knock offs here as well as all used same barrel specs).

The big issue is in the cavalry weapons honestly.  For the Union in particular there are lots of carbines few of which I can buy in numbers to equip units.  And late in the game Spencer's should basically be available and affordable for all cav units.  The Union outfitted almost three corps equivalents of cavalry with the weapons for 1865 and has at least one corps of 15,000 outfitted that way in 1864.