Help me through my first scenario

[Quitch]

I bought BoA when it first came out, but due to some performance issues it has been sitting on the shelf until now, when I find myself with a laptop and plenty of free time. So I've been giving it a crack, trying the tutorial and reading the manual.

Problem is, I'm finding plenty of elements I just plain don't understand, and I can't come close to winning the Carolinas 1776 scenario.

Firstly, a few questions:

1) I split my supply wagon (by accident) and the 33rd foot from Vaugn. I couldn't rejoin either of them to his tab, they both kept trying to march into the sea and the supply wagon tab had a small lock by it.

2) The manual says the ledger will tell me where the VPs are coming from, but so far as I can see it does nothing of the sort.

3) What does the second detection rating in the tooltip mean? I recall the tutorial briefly touching on one being land and one being water, but since water regions are entirely separate I don't understand at all.

4) The supply view shows as red a territory which I had a town in. So is this showing territories where I have supply, or where supply outstrips demand?

5) Is there a way to see the supply demands of a stack without mentally adding the supply numbers of each company(? sorry, I forget)?

6) On turn two I receive reinforcements by sea. How can I know in advance that these are coming without having played and memoriesed the scenario?

7) What difference is there between a stack positioned outside the town and one which resides within it, in terms of combat?

8) Is there any downside to a stack in a friendly town area residing within the town?

9) Is the four turn listing for this scenario an error, or am I missing something as regards the "two turns taken, three to go" status?

Any hints for this scenario? I take Charlotte straight away and send Vaugn on an assault on turn 2 against Wilmington since it seems to me I need to get started ASAP. However I can never take Charleston, it seems too well defended for an early assault, but I don't have time for a siege, and my ships get cut to ribbons bombarding it. As I can't find the VP breakdown I don't know how practical that route would be, but my gut says "no chance" as the Americans are far more manouverable than I am.

Like I said, hints?

[Korrigan]

[color="Blue"]I bought BoA when it first came out, but due to some performance issues it has been sitting on the shelf until now, when I find myself with a laptop and plenty of free time. So I've been giving it a crack, trying the tutorial and reading the manual.[/color]

Hey Quitch, nice to see you here. You 'll see the community is as friendly as the Octopus community.

[color="blue"]Problem is, I'm finding plenty of elements I just plain don't understand, and I can't come close to winning the Carolinas 1776 scenario.[/color]

Winning as the British in the Carolinas scenario requires to keep your forces concentrated, a perfect sense of timing, a good comprehension of the naval landing rule... and some luck.

My tips:
- Defend Ninety-Six and Charlotte (which you easily size first turn). Later, you might have a go against Hillboro if Green goes south, however attacking Savana is very risky as you'll obliged to take some troops from Brown and the AI will immediatly counter-attack Ninety-Six with Lee.

- When Parker and his fleet arrive, immediatly land and attack Wilmington. Backed up by a proper bombardment, you can take the city with virtually no losses. If Clinton & Jones are not active, send Vaughan with the troops, he can handle this alone, and the commandment penalty is not that hard.

- Next turn, everybody back aboard, just leave the 37th Foot to garrison the city otherwise the AI will send Green to claim it back. In the same turn, send the fleet against Charleston (yes, you can board an army & move your fleet in the same turn, if troop are on the seaside ships will wait for them before to move)

- Next turn, you land and attack Charleston, beware defenses are really harsh. Very often you'll need 2 turns to seize the city, so it's a very tight timing. As your fleet is going to take heavy damages from the port guns, it might be worhwhile to abstain from bombarding to support the assault. Not try yet.

All in all, it's quite hard to change history, and this scenario theaches you why. However, I generaly win 50% of the time.

[color="blue"]1) I split my supply wagon (by accident) and the 33rd foot from Vaugn. I couldn't rejoin either of them to his tab, they both kept trying to march into the sea and the supply wagon tab had a small lock by it.[/color]

I've not seen the lock, but I noticed a small problem with splitting and merging the British expeditionary corps indeed. I shall report.

[color="blue"]2) The manual says the ledger will tell me where the VPs are coming from, but so far as I can see it does nothing of the sort.[/color]

True, I think Pocus posted it somewhere in the forum.

[color="blue"]3) What does the second detection rating in the tooltip mean? I recall the tutorial briefly touching on one being land and one being water, but since water regions are entirely separate I don't understand at all.[/color]

How easily your troops can be spotted by a passing-by ship.

[color="blue"]4) The supply view shows as red a territory which I had a town in. So is this showing territories where I have supply, or where supply outstrips demand?[/color]

Where supply outsripts demand

[color="blue"]5) Is there a way to see the supply demands of a stack without mentally adding the supply numbers of each company(? sorry, I forget)?[/color]

Pass your mouse over the little supply icon

[color="blue"]6) On turn two I receive reinforcements by sea. How can I know in advance that these are coming without having played and memoriesed the scenario?[/color]

Could be done through a mod event but right now you have to play the scenario before. Not a problem for Carolinas as the whole scenario is about this fleet, but much more painfull for the ARW...

[color="blue"]7) What difference is there between a stack positioned outside the town and one which resides within it, in terms of combat?[/color]

[color="blue"]8) Is there any downside to a stack in a friendly town area residing within the town?[/color]

Well, ask the grunts: They will tell you they prefer to stay within warm barracks behind thick walls and reveive some reinforcements if this city is level 2. You can force them to attack an incoming ennemy using the attack stand.

[color="blue"]9) Is the four turn listing for this scenario an error, or am I missing something as regards the "two turns taken, three to go" status?[/color]

Must be an error.

[Quitch]

Hey I joined up here soon after it came out, but the early versions had some issues with hyper-threading, so I went away for a while.

Am I missing how to board and move? I tried to do this on my first attempt at the scenario and the fleet left without the army, so I assumed I had to board for a turn, move for a turn, disembark for a turn. I assume then that you can board and move or move and disembark as part of a single turn?

You mention not bombarding, I assume you mean don't bombard the first turn (when you lay siege) and save it for the second, but then I'd ask what's the difference between causing the casulties the first turn and causing them the second? Since you don't need the ships, I'll assume this isn't to save them. Does it force, or allow the possibility of, the fort guns firing on the ships and not the assault troops (which I assume is the big deciding factor in my attempts to storm the place)?

The game talks about beaches and amphibious assaults and the tutorial talks about the downside of crossing the river to that town South of Charlotte (the one with a transport in the dock), but I can't find any information on this. Is crossing a river worse than crossing a bridge? Is crossing a bridge worse than marching over open ground?

Dorchest is noted as woods and mud (where is the tree icon?). Woods give the defender a defence bonus, however does this apply to defenders inside a city/town?

In relation to questions 7 and 8, I basically want to know why would ever not put troops into a town? There seems to be no downside that I can see, so I'm wondering why it isn't automatic.

On point 3, so if I have no troops in the region, this is the detection rating based purely on terrain and loyalty factors? How is sea visibility determined?

What is the power rating based on?

What's the significence of the two troop colours per-side, e.g. blue and green for the Americans?

I have a list of replacements, but what do I do with them? Does this mean that if I have a company in a level two city which is short of sub-units, they will draw on this pool for replacements?

Hopefully understanding ship movement, and better understanding sieges, will allow me to win. I manage to hold the two strategic cities I need and take one of the two victory cities, I just can't make it into Charleston. This time, this time... damn tricksy Americans

[Korrigan]

[color="RoyalBlue"]Am I missing how to board and move? I tried to do this on my first attempt at the scenario and the fleet left without the army, so I assumed I had to board for a turn, move for a turn, disembark for a turn. I assume then that you can board and move or move and disembark as part of a single turn?[/color]

You can board and move (if your army is on the seaside at the begining of the turn), but you can not move and disembark. Known engine limitation.

[color="royalblue"]You mention not bombarding, I assume you mean don't bombard the first turn (when you lay siege) and save it for the second, but then I'd ask what's the difference between causing the casulties the first turn and causing them the second? Since you don't need the ships, I'll assume this isn't to save them. Does it force, or allow the possibility of, the fort guns firing on the ships and not the assault troops (which I assume is the big deciding factor in my attempts to storm the place)?[/color]

The rational is: You take more hits and lost more points than you actually inflict. So you're better off not bombarding.

[color="royalblue"]The game talks about beaches and amphibious assaults and the tutorial talks about the downside of crossing the river to that town South of Charlotte (the one with a transport in the dock), but I can't find any information on this. Is crossing a river worse than crossing a bridge? Is crossing a bridge worse than marching over open ground?[/color]

Fomr my experience:

Open ground > Bridge crossing > River crossing

Can't tell you exact figures.

[color="royalblue"]Dorchest is noted as woods and mud (where is the tree icon?). Woods give the defender a defence bonus, however does this apply to defenders inside a city/town?[/color]

AFAIK, yes. An army would have more difficulties to deploy itself to attack a fort in a wood/mountain area.

[color="royalblue"]I have a list of replacements, but what do I do with them? Does this mean that if I have a company in a level two city which is short of sub-units, they will draw on this pool for replacements?[/color]

Yes

[color="royalblue"]Hopefully understanding ship movement, and better understanding sieges, will allow me to win. I manage to hold the two strategic cities I need and take one of the two victory cities, I just can't make it into Charleston. This time, this time... damn tricksy Americans [/color]

Alternative strategy: You go direct after Charleston, take it with all of your troops, then send back to Wilmington 50% of your remaining forces to assault it in the last turn. Not tried yet.


I left some questions to the game designers (Pocus & HoK)

[MarkShot]

Quitch,

I wrote this a while a ago when I was teaching myself the game. Perhaps, you'll find it of some us.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=1098

[Quitch]

I won the scenario! Feeling lucky I won it as the Americans (it's hard to lose) and then I pushed on and tried another scenario based in the South (forget the name) and won that after a shaky start.

Go me!

Hopefully in the longer campaigns some of the deeper elements will come to bear. Right now I don't have time to juggle leaders or plan terrain, it's generally moving that big army from one city to the next while leaving enough to keep yourself safe, little high strategy, but these are all swift five turners.

Still don't understand supply, armies don't seem to be losing the resources I'd expect them to.

Like you say Mark, I expect the game to play better in the larger scenarios since it gives you a lot more grey area and the leeway to try different things, where as the tiny campaigns are about optimising your moves from turn one.

[MarkShot]

Quitch,

Glad you are getting a feel for it. No doubt you have a much harder fight ahead of you then I did when I played by GCs. It was probably around BOA 1.04 that I wrote that and it is now up to 1.12. The AI is substantially more vicious than it was in those early days where we were just sparring with Pocus' creation. The AI has grown up and enjoys breaking the careless noob who foolishly wonders carefree into her reach.

Good luck.