New Mexico & the far west in ACW2

[aaminoff]

The addition of New Mexico in ACW2 is exciting to me because my wife's family has lived in Albuquerque for centuries. We were just there visiting a couple weeks ago in fact.

The family story about the ACW is that as the few US troops in the region retreated north, the city fathers of Albuquerque got together and decided to bury their (few obsolete) cannons and go about their business of being peaceful farmers.

I think the terrain in that section of the map is a little off. In particular, if you visit Albuquerque the Sandia Crest is incredibly dramatic: the city is at 5,000 feet above sea level and the Sandias rise up as a vertical wall east of the city up to 10,000 feet. I don't think calling that area "hills" really does it justice. I would suggest making the regions called East, North, and West Torrance mountains. That would also highlight the importance of Glorieta Pass, the track leading from the Santa Fe area east towards Las Vegas (IIRC). In general I would suggest taking another look at the terrain, some of the areas north near Taos and Mora might also want to be mountains rather than hills.

Distances in the West are large, and certainly it takes time to travel hundreds of miles on foot, but I feel like it is a little too slow moving troops around entirely peaceful areas of Colorado or the Great Plains. I'm guessing the movement rates for units are based on military average numbers in the more populated eastern theatres, where you are moving at least theoretically in some proximity to the enemy. Those don't quite work out West. Perhaps there could be a bonus when the regions you are moving through are all 100% controlled or something like that. Also in the east you rarely notice this because frequently you can use riverine or rail movement.

The California coast has coastal sea zones adjacent. But the Pacific Fleet is fixed in place until attacked. I don't know if it is even possible to sail ships around the cape between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans; but it would be nice if there were a transport squadron or two available to shuffle troops up and down the West coast. Certainly it seems implausible that forces in Oregon or northern CA would walk to get south, they would arrange to use coastal shipping.

[Ol' Choctaw]

I don’t really know who decided what the terrain was, but you don’t have to climb those mountains to move an army into or out of the region.

Albuquerque is in a bowl, as you know with gaps or gentle slopes you can travel over. Mountains means that you are hauling up steep grades and slows march considerably.

The Union player can send transports around the various boxes to the west coast. It takes several months to get there though.