Civil War II is mostly a war game, most of its features revolving on the conduct of war and winning it, with economy being one of the tool at your disposal, historical options geared toward furthering a military goal or another and politic being limited to enticing the British and French in joining the Confederates (or if you are the Union, making sure they stay neutral). In Civil War II, you can only make peace with the other side by defeating it, period!
This strong focus on warfare could only work well if the military system is deep and historical. We humbly believe we managed to do that on several (many?) occasions, although as CW2 is still a game, we often have to abstract features, because of the sheer complexity of some historical feats and events or simply because a game which is not fun has lost quite of its appeal to many, including us.
In Civil War II, most of your operations will revolve around a few generals (or admirals). Generals can be good or bad, and can have some special abilities, some being drawbacks even. In addition to that, a general on a given turn can be active or inactive. In the second case, he can basically only do defensive tasks in a territory under your control. That's how we have modeled that the Union appeared so lethargic or clumsy at the start of the war, at least in the East. We also introduced a few safe guards, like seniority, a mechanism were some generals will be quite disgruntled if a junior officer gets promoted before them (and unhappy in the game means losing victory points or worse, national morale!).
This feature has very strong root in reality, as many generals had strong political connections and friends, and lobbied one against another to reach a new rank or a better command.
Once you have your army all set up, with generals at the head of each large formation, you'll want to move in enemy territory to either defeat opposing armies or conquer objectives. Here, you'll have to take into account the fatigue of your men, moving in enemy territory or difficult terrains. The fog of war (not detecting the enemy) will be a problem, unless you have strong cavalry forces. Some special orders will be at your disposal, like force marching, setting up a new supply depot, moving your forces by railways (should you have enough rolling stock). Each of your force will be commanded by a general, probably, but if they are too large for the officer to handle, you'll suffer a command penalty, that will slow down your forces and make them fight poorly. Juggling between too many small forces and a few large, under-commanded forces will also be part of the equation you'll face.
And then there will be battles. Here too the game engine will compute for your the minutiae, but you'll have to take into account, at least at a semi conscious level, that you just can't expect to line up tens of thousands of men in difficult terrains. Some regions will be restricted in the size of battles, and so small elite forces, or soldiers knowing the land (partisans, skirmishers) can do very well again larger forces. Battles will be conducted over several rounds, and if you organized your armies in corps, then corps can support each other by marching to the sounds of guns. Seeing a whole corps coming at the rescue from an adjacent region is always a great pleasure (or a great dismay, if they are enemies...).
No plan survives contact with the enemy said Colin Powell (admittedly quoting Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
), and that's quite true, particularly in a game engine where each side move simultaneously. Always keep forces in reserve and prepare a contingency plan. Expect the unexpected each turn and enjoy, as we do, the thrill of clicking on 'end turn' and see marches, counter-marches and battles happen before you![ATTACH]24469[/ATTACH]
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