Battle Events

[McNaughton]

Given that the game can be played pretty much on the player's schedule, I was thinking about adding some 'mission' events for the player (not the AI), to 'spruce things up'.

Missions could range from the following.

#1. Capture this city (actually controlling a certian city). If you are nearby (won't have an event requesting the capture of Pittsburgh when you are being besieged at Richmond) these events have a chance at triggering given a certain timeframe to capture this specific city.

#2. Make sure that the enemy does not have troops in this area. You have to keep enemy troops out of this region for a certain number of turns, even if a raider gets through, you lose the challenge.

#3. Raid this town or region (not capturing it, but having a unit at it for at least one turn).

Why would players complete such missions? What could they gain, or lose?

A) National Morale and Victory Points. Simply moving into a region can raise your national morale, as you are accomplishing a political (rather than military) goal. On the other side, if you fail to protect a region (the goal would be to delay), or fail to advance into one, then your national morale or victory points may drop.

B) War Supplies. Capturing a specific city which may have an arsenal would result in gaining much needed war supplies. There were many arsenals around which were critical targets. Some key arsenals were St. Louis (40 000 rifles, which Price tried to capture and would have equipped his army), and Harper's Ferry.

C) Conscripts. The Border towns were rife with possible sympathisers. Capturing a border town in a mission may result in you gaining free conscripts.

D) Units. Along with war supplies, capturing an arsenal would result in the capture of heavy equipment (Wagons and Artillery). Gaining batteries and supply wagons in an event should a specific arsenal be captured.

There would be a specific timeframe for these events, maybe lasting 4-6 turns (enough to gather forces, and move on the objective), but a set of criteria are in place as to not overload or duplicate events too frequently (chance of events should be small, like 1-2%, but the frequency is high enough for it to happen at least 1-2 times for a specific event in a 100 turn game).

This will encourage the CSA player to 'invade' a border state, or even a Union state (gaining morale, war supplies, conscript points). It will keep the Union player from sitting around, building up a substantial force and overwhelming the south in a massive attack in 1863. It will add politics into the game (attack here, not because it is a military target, but because it is politically profitable for us to have a victory here).

[Rafiki]

I like the sound of this

[McNaughton]

I like the sound of this

I am going through the 'AI General Promotions' events first, then will think about tackling this one.