daztek

Strat map reminds of those 90s pirates games

Yah see Colossal Order's run up to Cities Skylines 2, they are doing great job of generating a buzz.

The scale seems to indicate. Battalion/company rather than brigade/detachment (as in UG:CW).

Game Labs seem to be building up to it. American Revolution adds a lot of new systems, especially the new real-time campaign and a maritime game imported from their other naval games. Every addition builds on the system. They will have that much more code and more developed systems for when they do finally turn to the Napoleonic wars.

On tactics, fireships. Otherwise, turn and sail with the wind, cut your sails, the Spanish will come up on your gift ships first with the three-deckers in the rear, you can overwhelm their van by cutting your speed.

I just got to Cape St Vincent. I sadly realised had to sell my Endymion-class frigates. They are amazing ships.

The battle of the Chesapeake was after all the decisive battle of the war

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Maybe. Does the red ribbon behind the name & portrait mean a land officer?

I'm playing the US campaign. After the first battle I got two new 12-gun ships, Oakwood and Aldernay I bought a couple of officers to captain them, but I wasn't able to appoint them. The two new officers appear in the admiralty screen in the reserve, but when I select 'assign the officer' for the new ships on the fleet screen they don't appear Is there a one turn delay until new officers can be appointed or something? [I think I

Wow. Just had this awesome Union charge. Had to share Lined up a huge D'Erlon style formation, a mass of 20 brigades, five across four deep, in front of the town, just outside canister, a full line of batteries in close support The whole mass advanced at the quick step and charged right over the top of the double line of CSA entrenchments sweeping all before it What an amazing spectacle Please give us more of this! In a new game I mean

Ancient battles are linear in nature, just a lot more compact than ACW. The real problem with an ancients or medieval system is coding a huge array of new troop types and modeling their interactions, it would be a whole new game Other mid-19th century wars would be the easiest port, although European cavalry would have to be modeled differently, which isn't too much of a task I guess Napoleonic would require grappling with a lot of new code for troop types and interactions not represented currently - infantry brigade formations (line, mixed, column, square, all the above with skirmish screens), cavalry with different roles to ACW cavalry (cuirassiers, dragoons, hussars, lancers)

I love the idea of a late Roman / Justinian game Otherwise, any of the 18thC / 19thC wars already mentioned would be awesome Did anyone mention War of the Spanish Succession / Great Northern War? Throw that into the mix too If it's Napoleon, start with his Italian campaign in 1796 and work forward

I just did at normal, as part of the Union campaign Similar strategy to others Sent my left wing around through the forest on the southern edge of the map to hit Prospect Hill from the flank and rear At Fredericksburg, evacuated everything back across the river and moved the whole right wing to the marshy gap between Telegraph Road and Prospect Hill, and then fed it through the marsh in a narrow column to come at the Telegraph Road VP from the south I did leave 3 brigades to hold the Fredericksburg bridges, and the CSA did occupy the town and unsuccessfully probe the crossings. Otherwise the two main attacks do need a continual focus on flank guards while keeping maximum force at the leading edge (two ranks of brigades and the artillery) This strategy cost me 5,000 casualties from 61,000 total army size to take the Telegraph Road and Prospect Hill VPs for the win

Also, splitting skirmisher and cavalry brigades would be useful (similar mechanic to detaching infantry skirmishers)

Hi, AI gets confused by skirmishers, which makes it easy to fox. Sometimes AI brigades will clear skirmish lines but usually get trapped in static long range firefights. Another trick it can't deal with is, as soon as the AI charges, if the target detaches skirmishers the charge stalls as the target is blocked and the erstwhile chargers are trapped in a firefight with condition loss from the charge. So it is easy to exhaust the AI and have it waste all its ammo with deft use of skirmishers Also, any plans for getting the AI to detach and use skirmishers? Overall, fantastic game! Spending hundreds of hours on this And looking forward to the next game using this engine

Awesome sequel. So much more content! and the system as a whole and AI seem more realistic Campaign shell is a nice step forward - well done!

Koniggratz!! It is one of the few battles where the combatants had very different firearms. Very interesting battle. Large, slow but concentrated Austro-Saxon army with modern breech loading artillery and muzzle loading long range rifles, lightly entrenched on a long ridge, faces a smaller Prussian army with muzzle loading, shorter range artillery and fast firing short range breech loading rifles, but with another Prussian army half a days march away to their left. In the morning, the Austrians from cover hammer the Prussians from the ridge with their long range Lorenz rifles and artillery, decisively repulsing several Prussian attacks. However, on the right, in defiance of their orders, the local Austrian corps commanders let their infantry get sucked into a forest where their longer range fire advantage is negated and the fast firing Prussian needle gun is brutally decisive, and multiplied by the better doctrine and training of the Prussian officers. At midday Austrian staff officers beg the CinC, Benedek, to order a general offensive from the ridge as the Prussians in the open in front had taken heavy casualties and were shaken from hours of artillery and rifle fire. This was the big what-if of the battle, but Benedek, cautious due to the Prussian army somewhere to his right, demurred. By early afternoon the second Prussian army arrives and starts feeding fresh troops into the hinge on the right where the 2 Austrian corps had been mauled in the forest. The Austrians were driven back all along their right, forcing them to eventually abandon the ridge as well. Against overwhelming odds, bloody rear guard actions by the right wing Austrian infantry and artillery enabled the centre to withdraw; but by evening the Austrians and Saxons are in general retreat, covered by their reserve artillery and charges by their heavy cavalry reserve, which successfully brought the Prussians to a halt. Overnight the Austrians crossed the Elbe to their rear, covered by the guns of the Koniggratz fortress. But Austrian political will had collapsed, they sued for peace and Bismarck takes the first step to uniting (klein) Deutschland under the Prussian crown. Conversely, the Austrians could have acted like an American army and simply entrenched on the other side of the Elbe with all the advantages of their guns and rifles. It is an interesting tactical puzzle for both sides; the Prussians have to work their way forward avoiding Austrian firepower and get into close range with their needle guns; the Austrians have to keep the Prussians at range, while resisting their out dated infantry doctrine of close column assault, a fatal tactic against the needle gun. Operationally, if an campaign shell is ever considered, it would be an interesting contest between a more competent and mobile Prussian force, but widely divided into two armies, before a slowly concentrating Austrian foe with the central position, with the Prussians having to cross mountains and rivers against Saxon and Austrian corps sized detachments, and unite on the battlefield. Another what-if is Franz Josef appointing Habsburg Archduke Albrecht to command the northern theatre; Albrecht had been in command prior to the war and knew the country; he was widely regarded as the best Austrian general. He did win decisively in Italy against the Piedmontese. Franz Josef withdrew him because he was afraid a defeat would weaken the dynasty, which happened anyway. Albrecht couldn't have been worse than Benedek, previously the Italian army commander, who for a variety of reasons failed to give any meaningful direction to the campaign or the battle.

One thing about WSS is that the troop types are limited, a bit like the ACW - there's really just foot, horse and guns, at least in the west. They don't even have squares yet. Plus irregular foot and horse units for volunteers, croats, hussars etc. A lot of Marlborough's victories in the low countries were very exciting, an attack following a fast concealed or overnight march over a surprising distance was his specialty.

* NOT WATERLOO * sorry to shout but its been done to death! Big battles from the 18thC Austro-Turkish wars, War of the Spanish Succession, Great Northern War, Seven Years War, Napoleonic Wars, Seven Weeks War, Franco-Prussian War, or the Boer War would all be awesome a campaign shell would be cool too