Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

A. P. Hill

Members2
  • Posts

    595
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by A. P. Hill

  1. While it is true that "forming squares" was practiced in training, I am not been aware of this particular formation ever having been used in the ACW. Forming Square as I see it is a defensive tactic, used mostly against cavalry. By the time of the ACW, entrenching became the defensive mechanism of choice for both armies as opposed to forming squares, which is why it is not a given command in any civil war games. Cavalry was also used entirely differently in the ACW than in the earlier European battles. Only on rare occasions were cavalry ever engaged in massive battles. And then those battles were mostly cavalry against cavalry and not cavalry charging en mass into a line of infantry, unless the cavalry knew it had a decided advantage in numbers. Weaponry of the time was mostly the reason why cavalry quit being used as a means of breaking a line of infantry.
  2. In the camp feature, (in campaign mode,) there is a box in the upper right of the screen with a pencil in it. Try that.
  3. You can try Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants 3 volumes Or Catton's 3 volumes on the Army of the Potomac
  4. Not bad overall observations Koro. One comment, as a spelling Nazi, the union commander's name at 2nd Manassas was Pope, Not Poke.
  5. At the actual battle, McClellan did not send reinforcements to Porter until the very last minute. And then it was a single brigade, not an entire corps. The Confederates had breeched the Union line and the V Corps was in general rout/withdrawal and the brigade that was sent as reinforcement eventually provided a blunting point to the Confederates over running. Porter was able to get his troops back in hand behind the new line that was established by these reinforcements 5 miles or so behind his line at the Boatswain Creek bluffs. Here's a good bit of info! Enjoy. Also according to the link's website, Porter only had 30,000 troops available, the Lee had 60,000 troops.
  6. I tend to agree. The "Fallback" command is errantly used in the programming. What the current "Fallback" command is doing is issuing an "About Face" command, which means the troops turn 180 degrees to "Face Rear" in which case the game determines that they're "Rear Flanked" thus causing on many occasions a "Rout". "Fallback" as a general order should mean that the unit steps backwards still facing the enemy but giving ground with resistance, thus never being rear flanked and possibly routing.
  7. This sounds about as plausible a reason for this phenomenon as I can think. The math/mechanics are ... run 180 degrees from the enemy. If a unit gets turned, then running into more enemy units may be the result.
  8. You forgot Jackson's capture of Harpers Ferry? As a reminder, 11,000 troops, plus commanding officers and all except for a bit of cavalry that got out. Jackson's total capture of the place included what was know as the VIII Corps consisting of 1st Brigade with the 39th NY, 65th IL, 111th NY, and 115th NY ... the 2nd Brigade consisting of the 9th VT, 32nd OH, the 60th OH, and 126th NY, the 3rd Brigade consisting of the 32nd OH, and 125th NY, the 4th Brigade consisting of the 12th NY Militia and the 87th OH, ... The Potomac Home Brigade from MD consisting of the 1st MD and 3rd MD Infantries. Not to mention the 2nd IL Arty Btty M, the 5th NY Hvy Arty Btty A and Btty F, and the IN Lt Arty consisting of the 15th and 26th Bttys. If Jackson had been quick enough, he could have bagged the garrison cavalry consisting of the 1st MD Home Cav, 7th RI and the 1st MD US Cav units.
  9. Then the AI should also have these restrictions and not an unlimited amount of men or gold to work with. But based on your thought process, maybe the AI can get a 2 percent increase in these items to sustain itself. It should be forced to calculate how best to use it's limited resources as well. But then I suppose a resource limitations setting like this is better suited for PvP than PvAI.
  10. I've noticed that artillery crews will stand and fight surprisingly. The thing to remember about ACW artillery, is they were only equipped as artillery. Meaning, no carbines, no sabers, no weapons of any kind on the crewmen, (officers, Sgt., and up, were all equipped with 1 revolver and possibly a sword dependent of rank,) all the crews had as weapons were the implements of the artillery piece they were serving. There was no such thing as in the Old world pre civil war era, called an artillery guard or anything like that. Artillery was determined to be protected by the troops they were supporting. If those troops broke and skedaddled, the artillery usually did the same. Also as long as we're discussing this, I would like to be able to lay claim to the pieces after over running an artillery position. They should be selectable and either be able to draw them off the field as trophies or turn them on the opposition. I would also like to see the sprites changed to reflect actual ACW artillery, 12 pound and up artillery pieces were pulled by 6 horses, all 3 inch or 10 pound pieces were pulled by 4 horses. I'd also like to see the limber as an attached piece if possible. And with that said, the limber and the team need to be on the field as the guns are firing and not instantly and mysteriously vanish from sight. Please! Of course if you really want to get into your authentication mode, each gun should be supplied with at least, one limber and caisson team as well. 4 horses per limber. On a side note, the supply wagons need to be pulled by a team of 6 mules with 1 teamster sitting on the left wheel mule. Okay, I'm done being anal now.
  11. Good Pictures. I've been to all those locations many years ago. I need a revisit.
  12. I would suggest limiting the AI to the same restrictions as players have to go through. Granted the AI will always have the upper hand on being able to calculate, but it should also be limited. None of it's calculations should extract information from it's opponent. It's calculations should be separate and independent.
  13. numbers by the book in real life (I assume most know this,) was as follows: 110 men & officers per company, Usually 10 companies per Regiment (some confederate regiments had as many as 13 companies, cavalry always has 13 companies) @ 10 companies per regiment, manpower counts were estimated to be 1,125 men & officers, add 110 per each additional over 10 companies. 2 regiments at a minimum for a brigade to form, not more than 5 regiments per brigade. Thus 2 ten company regiments would be a brigade of 2,250, add 1,125 for each additional 10 company regiment up to 5, or 5,625 men and officers in a five, ten company regimented brigade. (So at this point I'd say the game is short changing us as players.) 2 brigades minimum for a division to form, not more than 6 brigades per division. 2 divisions minimum for a corps to form, depending on the side, union usually had 3 divisions per corps, confederates had 4 - 5 divisions per corps.
  14. I already mentioned this lower down on the forums, but I would appreciate the ability to promote officers from within my pre-existing units in the case of vacancy by leading officers being WIA and KIA.
  15. I agree with this to some degree. Here's my take. During my campaign, I had the misfortune to have certain leaders of divisions and brigades become wounded or KIA. Getting back to the camp page I find that promoting one of my own into the position of the wounded or KIA commander is not possible. I know from having examined the history and from having read many publications that promotion from within the ranks was a very common thing. I would like to be able to get to those core leaders of my units and to be able to promote them to fill vacancies as long as they're qualified. But then, history has shown that many times, even the unqualified were promoted just because someone who was qualified, was not available. This happened more in the Confederate Armies than in the Union Armies. The pretense of the Southern Government was that units from certain states seemed to fight better under an officer from their state. This of course proved to be a false assumption mostly by President Davis, but the commanders and the military tried to appease this personal foible of Davis'. But to reiterate, my suggestion is that leaders from within my already formed units have the ability to be promoted to replace vacancies created in command.
  16. Just a note on the uniform variety thingie. The only real battle where there was much variety in uniforms was pretty much just 1st Manassas/Bull Run. The opposing militaries immediately got the sense of the confusion and immediately started to rectify that issue. In so doing, any unit that came into either the federal or the confederate militaries, were issued "standardized" government issued uniforms. More so in the South than the North, the Southern Governments dictated to the states manufacturing their own uniform issues, that the provisional standard would now have to be followed by all state manufacturing. The North had a ready supply of manufacturers who were issued a federal mandate as to what their uniforms would be and these were followed. Zouave uniforms, Militia uniforms, Berdan's uniforms all disappeared, any semblance of difference disappeared, Union armies became a mass of blue, Rebel armies became a variety of gray colors. (This was from the various materials that were used in manufacturing, and not so much for identification of units.) And maybe it's just my eyes, but unless I zoom microscopically deep into a battle, I can't tell if uniforms are different or not. At the scale of these avatars on these battlefields, I fail to see how a variance in uniforms would be necessary. It could be a time consuming effort, time that the development team could better spend on something different that may matter to game play. Just my $0.02
  17. Not long ago, and for other reasons, I too was curious about casualties during the ACW. Here is a link (hope it works,) to a chart that I made from a sampling of various ACW battles. Not really sure how this could ever be implemented, but I feel comes close to answering the O.P.s concern. Granted this is a game, I don't recall any claims by the developers to state anything near realistic experiences etc., and it may be that the mechanics of the game might have to be revisited.
  18. I am not 100 percent against this feature, for reasons that during the actual conflict there are stories of commanders loosing control of their troops as they flee to the rear. I hate seeing it happen, especially to my troops, I'd rather see it happen more frequently to my enemies. That said, I would rather breaking and routed troops not leave the map entirely either. Whether or not a commander could get them reactivated, and re-engaged, I'm still a bit up in the air about. Some troops did flee to the extreme of the battlefield, and yet many times after they caught their breath, and regained their stamina and courage, they could be found advancing back into the fray in most cases. Just a thought.
  19. The thing I think that needs to be remembered at this stage is, this is still early release. That tells me that there may still be modifications yet to come and quite possibly your linear issues may be pursued at that point.
  20. Thanks for the help and the reply guys! I'll keep checking.
  21. My Thanks Sir. A lot of that is pure common sense I guess. Just my newness to the game I suppose. I'll go looking for the tips thread. I thought I had read every post on these particulars before asking. Thanks again.
  22. Great game so far, I've had it since its early release on steam several days ago. I am a bit confused about player command keys. I get the short list on the actual game screens, but I see the AI enemy doing things that I cannot get my troops to do. For instance, I've had the misfortune to have supply wagons captured by the AI. For all my attempts, I cannot get my troops to capture wandering AI supply wagons. I have had troops chase a wagon and when directed they will fire into the supplies to the point that they loose their points completely and disappear, never to be seen again. I actually had a cavalry unit capture a solitary AI soldier, I have no idea how that happened. I have also found several of my units as captured units by the AI and recovered them to my army. ... but I still do not know what the game mechanics are to get my troops to demand a surrender of AI troops or equipment. Is there a greater list of key commands somewhere that I am not familiar with? Can someone point them out for me? ---- Also, I have seen my troops flash the word AMMO over themselves several times, How are these troops to be re-supplied? In an effort to assume I know what I'm doing, I have moved supply wagons to the vicinity of these troops so that they're enveloped with the ring around the supply wagons when you select them, but I cannot tell if it did my troops any good. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Respectfully, Powell.
×
×
  • Create New...