Fred Sanford

Get off my lawn!!

Remake Age of Rifles!

Maybe he's saying he's settled on a strategy to win those battles?

I'd like a Rep bonus for inflicting casualties- say 1 Rep for every 500 casualties. It would provide incentive to go after the AI army along with the geographical objectives. For Division commanders, instead of having them as individual units, how about assigning them to brigades? Have an modified icon that shows a flag or star or something similar. I'd like to be able to have individualized icons also- like the Corps symbols the Union used (diamonds, clubs, etc in red, white or blue) or State outlines.

If you are stating/asking that casualties inflicted on the AI army carry over, then no they don't. AI armies are zombie armies and casualties inflicted on them don't really matter.

Something I'd like to see in addition to the geographical objectives would be a prestige bonus for enemy casualties. Right now, there's no benefit to causing casualties other than a small %age of weapon drops. This would be in addition to the rewards for winning or drawing, and could make it worthwhile to fight some battles that are otherwise not worth it (CSA Antietam, Fburg Union e.g.). Say 1 prestige for every 500 or so.

Allow me to clarify- I operate my cav en masse for the reasons stated above, but the artillery and skirmishers are dispersed throughout the divisions.

Fourth! Still sitting in my closet with the rest of my AH games. My first AH game was War At Sea- still have it along with a bunch of others. Anybody else have a copy of Longest Day (MONSTER Game)?

My first Union play-through I organized my corps to put all my infantry in the first two divisions, cav & skirmishers together in the third division, and all artillery in the fourth division. I did that so that is was easy to use the 'order by division' feature and it worked well. The problem came when I played Gettysburg, and none of my corps' 4th divisions EVER showed up, so I played Gettysburg without artillery. Needless to say, I reorganized my army after that battle. So my advice is to beware of specialized divisions.

Maybe for the historical battles, but I don't see how the campaign engine would work in multi-player.

Getting back to the subject of the thread, and keeping it historical and contemporaneous with the ACW, I think the Franco-Prussian War, Crimean War, Wars of Italian Independence and Austro-Prussian War are all under-represented in game form, and could be modeled readily using the UG system. Also they'd feature "real" shock cavalry units. So everyone can be happy! No fighting in the war room, gentlemen!

I'd like to see a land-based "Rule the Waves" (RTW). If you're not familiar with RTW, it's a dreadnought-era naval game where you design your own ships (you play as the Admiral-in-chief), research technologies, and have to be prepared to fight other powers- you have a little influence on foreign affairs but most is out of you hands. When war comes, the game is basically a scenario generator for tactical naval battles. (Disclosure: I beta-tested RTW). Using this as an analog, I'd like to see a game where the player chooses a nation and has a budget to organize, arm, and staff his army. Sort of an uber-camp, played in say quarterly or annual turns in peacetime, and running throughout the 19th century or a portion thereof. There'd be a map of the globe (or maybe stick to Europe) with zones or territories to deploy your army in. Wars could come at any time, and when it does, the game generates scenarios for you to do battle in.

I'm still waiting on my laser tanks. Driven by Confederorcs. Death to the Federelves!

Shouldn't skirmishers be the weakest melee units in the game? Dispersed deployment, and low numbers.

If you click on the objective label in the upper right (not the one that brings up the victory condition list, but the one that is on-screen), each of those will jump the map view to center on that objective. But I agree, text labels with the VP symbol would be helpful.

What I mean is that 'fixed enemy strength' can cut both ways. No scaling up to your army size, but no scaling down either, right?

What about when you show up to Antietam as the CSA with 35,000 on Legendary (due to previous losses/low recruit) and the Union still brings 120,000?

I'd like to have the fallback command include a second step where you click on the map to specify direction.

Re: map labels- maps are re-used for different battles, so the labels would be incorrect for some battles.

I'm starting to fill up with Major Generals in my Union campaign to the point where about 5 or six are commanding brigades (all Div commanders are MG, and all Corp are Lt Gen). Suggestion: player should be able to "sell" officers back for money or rep (simulates transferring them to another theater to assume command there).

And considering the CSA cavalry troops supplied their own horses privately, they wouldn't be in a position to easily replace the high attrition to horses that would result from bringing them directly into the line of fire- such as would be expected of shock cavalry in particular.

And the title of this thread is...? This is a different issue that the thread starter posted, and I agree with you on these. Shock Cav should have its uses in open terrain in the applications you mentioned, but forested or rough terrain is a different matter. Using them as hooved panzers, though, would be overkill. They weren't 'breakthrough' cavalry in the ACW like Napoleonic Lancers and Cuirassiers.

Nobody said pistol armed cavalry didn't exist, it just wasn't useful for chasing enemy units through thick forest, and the game's units should reflect that limitation.

Then where's my Laser Tanks?

Put me down as another vote for historically based games having units that reflect historical capabilities. There's plenty of fantasy world games out there. One thing that may help the original complaint about the artillery unit- maybe artillery units shouldn't be able to retreat while under direct attack (and still keep their guns). Personally, I'd like to see artillery units that retreat 'drop' their guns (leaving them in place on the map). If they don't rout away, and the owner manages to recapture the position, they can take the guns back.