Prospective buyer, couple of quick questions

[casperthegm]

I've read some of the forums and viewed some of the tutorials online. This looks like a great, in-depth, realistic Civil War game. I'm just about sold on purchasing it but wanted to clarify a couple of things first. Is this an open game where I can approach it as I see fit or are there set objectives that I must accomplish in order to "win" the game? My preference is to have complete autonomy to do as I please, even if it leads to disaster. Also, is there an artificial "end date" or is that open ended as well, going until one side concedes? Thanks.

[Mickey3D]

Hi Casper,

The goal is to beat your opponent either by "sudden death" (National Moral goes below a threshold) or through Victory Points (if the first does not happen). You collect both of them by capturing key objectives (big cities or important stronghold), winning battles, destroying ennemy units, capturing opponent capital,...

In the grand campaign scenario, you start in April or July 1861 and you can play until end of 1865 (except if "sudden death" happens). You have shorter scenarios.

You can freely decide your strategy, but obviously you have some historical (bad Union leaders at beginning, weak southern economy, ...) and physical (difficult to sustain a huge force in Missouri or New Mexico...) constraints.

Maybe you could have a look at some of the AAR to get an idea of the game.

[grimjaw]

The majority of the time I'm playing the full theater scenario, which starts in April '61 and uses the entire map. Even if I win the game, I can still play on afterward. Come to think of it, I haven't played past a loss, so I don't know if the scenario ends there (I suspect not). There are certain objectives that occur as time goes by that have consequences, but they don't end the game and you can ignore them if you want (the Sioux uprising, etc).

The game sticks to the events that happened during the time period and in order, which can be a little wonky sometimes. For example, General McCook spawns with General Buell at a specified time during the game, no matter where Buell is. For me, Buell happened to be on a ship sailing to Florida, and McCook apparently fell overboard. The game says it placed him in Savannah, but I haven't seen him since.

But if you want to march all your forces to Duluth, MN, in anticipation of a British invasion from Canada, you can do that. You can't invade Canada, though, unless foreign intervention fires. You can't do things like, playing as the CSA and emancipating and enlisting black troops. It's not totally free-form.

Wasn't there a demo available at one time? There used to be for AACW.

jm

[casperthegm]

Ok, thanks guys, for the insight. So, if I'm seeing this right, I can go my own way but won't necessarily be making it easier on myself by ignoring the objectives. I like that you can continue to play even after 1865 or if one side or the other wins/loses. I was concerned that it might not be as large scale as I was hoping, but after thinking about it, with a turn lasting two weeks and 50+ weeks per year, that is over 200 turns or so. That's not bad. I'll check out the aar, as suggested and watch a bit more of the tutorials out there on youtube but I think I might be sold. Thanks again.

[tripax]

The geography is fairly realistic and relationship between city size, in-game objectives, and in-game economic value constrains you somewhat. As a result, as mentioned, the Duluth strategy is not smart. Also as a result, the set of possible strategies is not infinite in the way that Civilization games are. But really, the set of strategies is huge. As CSA, playing for Philadelphia or Cleveland is possible, as is abandoning Virginia or Texas from the get go. As the USA you could focus all on the Eastern Seaboard or Kentucky or Texas or Virginia (this is what Gray Fox is doing in that AAR). You could try to implement the Anaconda. You could go very balanced. You could focus on cavalry and pretend Grant was Ghengis Khan. You can even randomize General statistics, which can lead to better generalship by the Union in the early war. Modding adds more, but requires a bit of work from the player.

To me, this game is perfect for imagining what would have happened different high-level strategies were implemented. It is not, of course, any good at telling you what would have happened a certain small event changed in a specific battle.

[H Gilmer3]

114 turns for full war.

[casperthegm]

Just read the AAR with Mickey and GF. That is awesome- really fun to read. I think I'm sold.

[Gray Fox]

Welcome to the forum and thank you from Mickey3D and yours truly. I believe that Mickey will be launching V-2's at D.C. soon, so stay tuned.