2903

I am considerably less impressed by the Rise of Prussia tutorial. Not sure what the deal is, but when I got to the final tutorial, the combat one, the battles would take 5-6 minutes to resolve, and often crashed.

Not sure what the deal is, but searching for solutions is coming up not particularly useful

EDIT: Well I found the problem, sort of. I had been trying to play on my tablet, but the battle bug was unbearable. So I downloaded it to my desktop and tried there. Much much better. As in battles take an entirely reasonable 30 seconds or so to play.

I also found there to be one major problem with the tutorial, that being that it gives you horrid advice. As in pants on head bad advice. Ok, Frederick and his two columns are supposed to go to Halle, then on to attack Leipzig. The Ferdinand led Right Column to Torgau.

Thing is this is exactly the opposite of what you should do. Ferdinant has a force about 2.5 times as strong as Frederick, and in Leipzig there is a force of 22k waiting. Send Frederick? Get creamed, or get a close victory. However even if you get a victory you do not have the strength to attack to destroy the column, and attempting to do so you likely get beaten.

So I inverted the orders. Frederick to Torgau, Frederick to Leipzig. Big victory, and pushing on to Chemnitz I was able to completely destroy the army as they fought a running retreat.

It’s odd, I’ll admit. The tutorial is good in some ways, but the final one is just so bad in terms of giving you direction. The fact it is non adaptive to results mean that, if things go differently, trying to follow the tutorial advice is not possible.

Next I need to figure out supply, and how to regenerate it. I was able to complete the objectives (though they seem timed so that you are unable to complete them in the set 7 turn limit), and have a rough idea of how to play. But there are still major holes to patch.

One thing I need to figure out is diplomatic actions. Are there any? I’m sure there must, but no idea how to do them. Also must I send units into every single region to take control? Even after taking over every Saxon city I saw their regions on the map.

Guess there’s nothing doing but to read the manual more.

2904

If it’s like CW2, you should be able to just run cavalry through uncontested territory to take it over. Also, if it’s like CW2, there’s a lot in the manual which isn’t covered by tooltip or simple observation of results.

Speaking of Civil War 2, I’ve been very much enjoying my Union game so far. I think it might be the subject of my next AAR project, or maybe my first forum-game style Let’s Play. I think it could be a riot to have people pick generals and deal with chain of command issues themselves.

2905

I actually loaded this one up too. I figured there are probably things I could learn from that tutorial that RoP does not cover.

Turns out I was correct. Obviously there are some game changes, but that tutorial goes over more of production and unit creation stuff.

Even though I finished the tutorials I in no way feel capable of doing a campaign. I get the idea of supply, but the actual mechanics? No clue. I even ran past the turn limit for the tutorial, after all forces were gone, just to see how supply regenerated. I monitored my stacks, and it seemed really slow, even when sitting on a friendly depot. I know learning how to push ammo and supply will be an important element, so I want to learn it.

In Civil War 2 it explicitly states that cavalry can not flip uncontested territory. Infantry only.

The problem is I know I need to read the manual, but when it’s already 9:30-10pm when I finally sit at my computer, and I’ve got an hour before I really cut into sleep, the idea of spending that whole time reading the manual seems dreadful.

2906

Turns out you’re right. I was thinking of unoccupied/ungarrisoned forts, which do seem to flip whenever you move cavalry only onto them. (That comes up a lot in the Kansas/Indian Territory region in CW2.)

As a huge nerd for game rules and cleverly-designed systems, I sometimes forget that normal people have that problem. :P

The worst part is that neither the manual nor the tutorials nor the tooltips (at least in the case of CW2) provide all the information you need to play with full effectiveness. You have to read the manual, play the tutorials, and hunt around for tooltips to get a full picture of things. For instance, in CW2, seniority determines who you can promote without penalty, but the manual and the tooltips don’t tell you that generals can advance in seniority by success on the battlefield, and that to promote a general, that general must have gained at least four seniority over his initial seniority value. That’s only toward the end of the advanced tips and tricks tutorial. So, I’m not super impressed by AGEod’s communication, but I’m no less impressed with their game.

Speaking of, it’s the end of October, 1861 in my game. Where do things stand?

  1. I realize now what a tremendous geographical problem the South presents to Northern commanders. Everything interesting is behind the Appalachians. There are no rail links, and mountains are a pain to march past. The Northern Virginia theater consists of a tiny frontage which is easily blocked, and in the west, if you can even secure a Mississippi crossing, you’re still marching through the mountains to get to the heart of the South unless you go down to Louisiana. Tricky.
  2. In the Northern Virginia theater, Ambrose Burnside leads an army at the mouth of the Shenandoah, facing off against Joseph Johnstone, with David Hunter in support. McDowell’s Army of Northeastern Virginia has captured Manassas and is marching on Beauregard in Falmouth. Butler’s Army of the James awaits reinforcements from Baltimore, after which the march up the Virginia peninsula can commence. McClellan, in West Virginia, has pushed the Confederates out of that state almost entirely. Being McClellan, though, he refuses to finish off a Confederate force of about a thousand men, who are entirely out of supply, trapped in the North, and unable to escape to the South thanks to nearby cavalry. He outnumbers them at least 10-1, and has artillery where they don’t. Good old McClellan.
  3. In the Kentucky theater, a few random Union generals are heading toward the Tennessee border.
  4. In what was, at the time, the West, Grant and some other guys are marching down the Mississippi toward the descriptively-named Island Number 10.
  5. In the Far West, Union troops are marching into Arizona.
2907

I… I think I’m starting to understand the games. Civil War 2 has my attention. Just did the whole orders, building, economy, etc. tutorial, and there was a lot to digest. But it is starting to click. While I started on Rise of Prussia, I think I’ll shelve that one for Civil War 2. More interested in that time period to be honest.

Oddly enough doing tutorials for multiple different games is making learning other of their games easier. It’s like each does things a little different, and covers areas another does not. So by doing multiple I get a better picture.

And I think the Civil War tutorial is a bit better for the strategic level stuff, Rise of Prussia better for the chain of command stuff.

Ok, lets do this thing.

2908

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Didn’t go quite like I had hoped.

2909

I’m curious what happened. You had numerical superiority, a better officer corps. They did more damage, so do you know why that was? Were their units higher quality (I’d figure the vastly greater number of cannon would have helped you more)?

Trying to learn, so any insight is appreciated.

2910

Probably tactics, but it’s hard to know from that screen only.

2911

Sure, he was on aggressive, while his opponent was in defensive stance. That accounts for some discrepancy. But with as many guns, and from what I can see, more non Militia forces, I’d think that would balance out.

But I am only just coming to grips with AGEOD games, so there is a lot I don’t know.

The one thing I don’t see is the Army General stats listed. I know Beuregard is something like a 4-3-3, not sure of McDowell. Perhaps that was it?

2912

Man, once I get some free time again I gotta jump back into these.

2913

Yup, McDowell’s a 2-2-2, and all things being equal, an attacking force will be attacking with significantly lower cohesion (since marching has a big cohesion cost). I think Beauregard is a little better than 4-3-3 in this one, since I’m playing with slightly-randomized generals. Beauregard also has level 2 or 3 trenches.

So, I’ve played a few turns since then, and it’s currently early December. What’s going on now?

  1. The West remains in flux. Sumner, out in western Missouri and eastern Kansas, is the locally superior force, but he’s got a lot of smaller Confederate forces to stomp out. In central Missouri, Fremont and Halleck, with a moderately large force, are marching toward Springfield. On the Southeastern Missouri front, Grant crossed the Mississippi at Columbus, securing a bridgehead with which I can lay siege to Island Number 10.
  2. In the Kentucky theater, Albert Sidney Johnston is trapped at Bowling Green by a dug-in Union force under two unimportant generals whose names I have forgotten. Bedford is marching south from Evansville to (hopefully) catch Johnston before he can give me the slip further south.
  3. In the West Virginia theater, I relieved McClellan and sent him to DC to train up some volunteers. Milroy, the new commander of the of West Virginian detachment, finally eliminated the small Rebel force behind the lines there. He has a pretty hefty army, and captured a battery of 20lb guns to boot. My big decision now is where to send him. He would make a huge difference in Kentucky, but…
  4. Northern Virginia is looking a little questionable. After beating McDowell at Falmouth, Beauregard fell back and has now shown up at the mouth of the Shenandoah, facing off against Harper’s Ferry (which has a strong stack heavily entrenched) and Leesburg (which does not). Thomas Wood, who previously held Alexandria, captured Falmouth and is aiming to cross the Rappahannock next week.
  5. The Army of the James, finally assembled at Fort Monroe, is marching up the Virginia Peninsula toward Williamsburg and, eventually, Richmond.
2914

I played AGEOD’s original Civil War and enjoyed it. How does CW2 compare? A big improvement, or much of the same?

2915

By the way, what does “4-3-3” and “2-2-2” mean? I looked in the manual and online and everywhere I could, but I don’t see anywhere it is explicitly explained. I think it means “Offensive Skill-Defensive Skill-Strategy Rating” (where strat rating somehow determines how likely a leader is to be activated). Is that right?

2916

I think it’s strategic-offensive-defensive, but don’t quote me on that. Strategic rating determines activeness and, I think, affects bonuses and penalties passed down the chain of command. (1: active rarely, 2: active infrequently, 3: ~50-50, 4: often, 5+: basically always.)

2917

I just did, what are you gonna do about it, hotshot?

2918

Mine the straits.

2919

“Fishbreath has issued conflicting orders and reverted to defensive stance.”

(If you play the Union with its notoriously crappy generals, you’ll understand. <.<)

2920

Heh, I’m still fiddling with Wars in America, since it’s the ground floor for getting into these games, apparently. ;) I’ll get there though.

2921

There’s a nice historical rhythm to doing it that way, too.

2922

Because I can’t resist providing notes from the front(s), it’s now March, 1862.

  1. In northern Virginia, Butler’s Army of the James marches on Richmond. The Rebels scramble to defend their so-called capital, leaving room for McDowell’s army and its associated corps (under Hamilton, and formerly Schurz and Hunter, but now Gilbert and some other corps commander whose name I don’t recall) to push south. I hope to secure the Shenandoah while Butler’s men peer at the Confederates from the warm coziness of their trenches, along with Virginia on a line due east. Force levels: slight Confederate advantage, but the Union is mustering reinforcements, and should be back to parity in a few weeks.
  2. West Virginia is now a quiet front, because nobody wants to fight in West Virginia.
  3. The Union having reinforced the Kentucky-Tennessee/Cumberland theater with men from W. Va., I now have a decisive advantage in forces there. I hope to push onward to Nashville soon, although I’m a little behind history here. Don Carlos Buell formed the Army of the Cumberland not long ago, aiding in the organization of troops here. Force levels: major Union advantage.
  4. The Cairo-Island No. 10/Confluence theater, where Grant and his pals Sherman and Pope are hanging out, is back and forth. Decisive advantage not yet found, although Grant’s offensives have forced the Confederates to pull forces out of the Cumberland theater.
  5. In the far west, Sumner received a deserved promotion, and is leading eight or ten thousand men in the siege of a fort held by the Confederates. When he finishes with that, I’m not altogether sure what he ought to do.
  6. A new theater opens! Union and Confederate cavalry and irregulars skirmish in the Southwestern desert, while Union troops from the West Coast march through Arizona.