Teaser AAR

[Ebbingford]

OK folks, here's a short AAR of the Shiloh battle scenario from CW2.

This shows the main theatre of operations and the positions of the two objectives that I have to take to win the scenario, Corinth and Memphis. These are shown on the F9 page of the ledger. Note that Bowling Green and Nashville are also objectives although not listed on the F9 page of the ledger. I'm guessing that they are objectives for the CSA so I must take care to defend them.



The first task is to reorganise Grant's Army of the Cumberland. I will then send out cavalry patrols to McNairy, Lake and Humboldt to try and find out where the CSA forces are located. I don't really want to go charging straight to Corinth as I don't know what is there yet.....
I also reorganise Buell's Army of the Tennessee, giving most of the troops in it to George Thomas. I will then send him straight to Nashville to bolster the defence there. To help him I make Wallace, who is with Grant, a corps leader attached to the Army of the Cumberland and send him to Nashville as well. Next turn I will use him to transfer Thomas's corps from the control of the Army of the Tennessee to that of Grant's Army of the Cumberland. He will then benifit from not being under Buell's control. Buell won't like it so I shall send him off to Bowling Green to organise the defence there.
Foote's fleet is also sent to the river outside Nashville with orders to bombard. His guns might just make the difference...

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[khbynum]

Thanks for posting! I love the new look with minimal borders, uncluttered map and the look of a wargame rather than a period decoration. The new art is excellent. If it plays as good as it looks (pardon the grammar) I'll get "chairsores" from sitting at my computer.

[NefariousKoel]

Thanks for posting! I love the new look with minimal borders, uncluttered map and the look of a wargame rather than a period decoration. The new art is excellent. If it plays as good as it looks (pardon the grammar) I'll get "chairsores" from sitting at my computer.

I'm assuming that the artwork for the borders just isn't done yet. At least, I hope that's the case.

I've always enjoyed the UI artwork in AGEOD games. They've always been high quality and help immersion on a visual level.

[khbynum]

As for the quality, we have no argument. As for the utility, we'll just have to agree to disagree, Sir. Given a choice between seeing more of the map or a decorative border, I'll take the map.

[Ebbingford]

Turn 2. My cavalry scouts have located the main rebel force outside Corinth, and they don't appear to be entrenched at all. Grant is now ordered to the region via Madison, he should swat the CSA force there on his way through. I am willing to accept a battle in Corinth as the enemy appear not to be entrenched and the power ratings of the two stacks are in my favour at the moment. Now is as good a time as any to go. I also push some cavalry out to the region of Hardman, this should let me see if there are any enemy forces lurking out in that direction. I will worry about taking Memphis once I have dealt with the main CSA army.

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As there might be a battle this turn I order up some infantry and cavalry replacements using the F2 page of the ledger so that any battle losses might be made good.

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[loki100]

nice to see, I rather like the less stark province borders (if that is indeed the final goal)

[wosung]

On-map green is quite ... green.

Best regards

[Leibst]

Nice job with the leader portraits and other models pictures

[Ebbingford]

Turn 3.
Grant has arrived outside of Corinth, a skirmish with rebel cavalry was the only encounter when he arrived there. The cavalry force then withdrew to the next region, the rest of the rebel force had already withdrawn inside the town before Grant arrived. One of Napoleon's maxims comes to mind "the side that stays within its fortifications is beaten".......

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A large rebel force under Beauregard is now besieged inside Corinth.
Some other rebel forces have moved towards Nashville. I shall send some cavalry over to find out how strong they are before deciding if Thomas comes out from his entrenchments to attack them.

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I will try and take Corinth before dealing with any other rebel forces. I will have to wait a turn or two to see if I get any breaches before assaulting though, I don't want to waste the lives of my men needlessly...

[Ebbingford]

Turn 4.
As I thought, Albert S Johnston with Polk's corps has advanced to Nashville.

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Thomas will stay put for now inside the town. I don't think I have enough quality troops in my two divisions there to win a stand up fight with the rebels. I will wait for Grant to arrive in a couple of turns time and if the rebels attack me in my entrenchments before then my troops are ready for them.

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I have already made a breach in Corinth but I am going to wait another turn before ordering the assault to let my men regain cohesion. Thomas is in no real danger ........ (I hope)

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[gekkoguy82]

As much as I enjoyed the period flair from the last game, I rather enjoy the new streamlined look to the UI. And the new unit/general portraits look fantastic! Although, I kind of wish they'd included some sort of urban area between Nashville and Pulaski...there were some important locations that were sought after there, and at the moment it just kind of looks vacant. Columbia, or Spring Hill or Franklin are some choices. Something like that. None of those were huge urban centers, but arguably quite strategically important on the way north to Nashville (at least Hood thought so).

[arsan]

Mmmm... And what about those intriguing "battle plan" icons on the bottom of the new battle results window??
Guess is the new "tactical imput" added on CW2 to the battles but i would love to know more about how it works!

Nice AAR, by the way!

PS: i kind of miss the old wood&metal interface too
The new one looks sleek and non intrusive, but... i wish it could be all at the same time: sleek, non intrusive and 19th century looking

[Pocus]

Aaah, interface. We often agree to disagree about it, internally, and with betas. Or betas vs betas. Or the public, vs the public

We know we won't please you all, in all aspects with it. We just hope that, overall, you'll like it!


The AAR Ebbingford is doing is showing you a fraction of all the screens and panels we redid. But CW2 is also introducing a bigger map (not for the sake of bigger = better but because we think there are some interesting developments to show in the western part of the US), and several game feature like the intriguing 'battle plans' and regional decisions.

[loki100]

think the visuals are stunning, the idea to include the west praiseworthy (I recall an old Victory Games ACW that covered that theatre and it added quite a lot of variation), and the battle plans sound a great innovation

[anjou]

I'm beginning to warm up to the new visuals

[Ebbingford]

Turn 5.
Grant has made another breach in Corinth. I would like to wait and starve the defenders out but the scenario only has 4 more turns to go, have I got enough time? (Stranglers lyrics are going round in my head now).
I think the time has come for an assault to be made.
I order some more replacements from the F2 page of the ledger as the assault may be bloody. Thomas is OK in Nashville still, I will go and relieve him afterwards.

When the turn is done I see that my assault was successful, although a tad on the bloody side as I thought it would be.

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[veji1]

Hmmm.. It would be interesting to know why Beauregard retreated in Corinth... I mean it is quite dangerous in terms of game dynamics if that type of thing happens too often. Fort Henry, Vicksburg, and later Petersburg/Richmond situations where an army let itself be surrounded was either 1/ an egregious mistake by a dumb commanding officer (Fort Henry), or 2/ Because the place where the army got surrounded was the actual goal of the campaign with an overwhelming strategic value (Vicksburg) or 3/ Well pretty evident, the political ramifications of losing one's capital, and even there in game these are entrenched armies, not besieged ones.

But in this case why on earth would Beauregard retreat in Corinth, where he doesn't have a very dense defence system to endure a siege, which has no strategic value per se (ie it is a railroads center, but once an ennemy tears the railroads around you, it is useless anyway).

I say that because as an AI player I remember that it was a deal breaker when for unknown reasons an ennemy army bottled itself in a city instead of retreating to fight another day. It should be very very exceptionnal, probably require fortifications for it to be possible for a troop bigger than a small division.

[Carnium]

Really nice AAR Ebbingford
Graphics are stunning and it seems that this one will be a winner!

[NefariousKoel]

I think period-centric interface art would still work well, while still being more minimalist than past titles.

The sterile hi-tech look of the UI just jars me right out of Civil War-land when I look at those screenies.

[Leibst]

the problem is that we had knew AACW and we love it. But this CW2 is called to be a great game at least as good as AACW and probably better in several aspects.
Great AAR Ebbingford but dont forget your other duties

[James D Burns]

I'm liking the new look of the game, but it still appears that AGEOD is sticking to the tiny font issue that plagues their games. PLEASE take the time to increase font size in game by several more pixels.

The older I get the harder it is to play these games due to the tiny font, and as the years march on it’s just going to get worse. By the look of the text area in the screenshots, you could easily add to the font size. And I would rather have just three lines displayed that I can read than six that I have to lean in close and pull off my glasses to have any chance at reading.

Jim

[fred zeppelin]

I'm liking the new look of the game, but it still appears that AGEOD is sticking to the tiny font issue that plagues their games. PLEASE take the time to increase font size in game by several more pixels.

The older I get the harder it is to play these games due to the tiny font, and as the years march on it’s just going to get worse. By the look of the text area in the screenshots, you could easily add to the font size. And I would rather have just three lines displayed that I can read than six that I have to lean in close and pull off my glasses to have any chance at reading.

Jim

I'm concerned about the microscopic font size too. PON can be painful to play at modern screen resolutions because of the tiny font.

Can this at least be moddable?

[Ebbingford]

Turn 6.
Grants force is orderd to rest for the turn after the assault. Hopefully he should be back up to strength for the next turn when he can go and relieve Nashville.
I put his force in passive posture as this regains cohesion quicker, as well as drawing replacements better.

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The assault on Corinth has put me in a better position victory point wise, I gained 91 from the battle for Corinth. My national morale is also now better than the rebels which should help when I go after them at Nashville.

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[ERISS]

Do devs really care? they use big screens to work, they see and play their game with. They work for themself, they will work for those having smaller screens if they really want more money from their games.
This problem is many years old, but they've begun to adress it some months ago with 120DPI fonts in the AGE engine. However it is not enough.

[leftguard]

Love the look of the leader portraits and unit graphics! Wow, those Kentucky light infantry boys sure like to get noticed

[Ebbingford]

Turn 7.
Sherman did well in the assault on Corinth and has gained enough seniority points to be promoted. I will promote him to a 2* and send him with a small force to Memphis to take it.

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I give Sherman's divison to R. Johnson. Grant will then go to Nashville to join up with Thomas. He can make the journey by rail in 10 days, hopefully Albert Sidney Johnston will still be there when he arrives.
I have to leave a small garrison in Corinth in case the CSA try a sneaky cavalry raid to take it back.

McClernand's cavalry force in Tishomingo, next to Corinth, is given orders to destroy the railroad there in case the main CSA army makes a dash by train from Nashville to try and retake Corinth.

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[Rafiki]

Congrats, Ebbingford. Yours is the inaugural thread of the new CW2 AAR forum; thanks for putting it together!

[Generalisimo]

Do devs really care? they use big screens to work, they see and play their game with. They work for themself, they will work for those having smaller screens if they really want more money from their games.
This problem is many years old, but they've begun to adress it some months ago with 120DPI fonts in the AGE engine. However it is not enough.

We have increased font size almost all around the place... and we will keep working on improving that.
If we haven't changed ALL the fonts it is because we have a lack of space that it is not easy to solve in some circumstances.

[arsan]

The new tooltips are indeed more easily readable with bigger fonts, and text in various colors

[fred zeppelin]

We have increased font size almost all around the place... and we will keep working on improving that.
If we haven't changed ALL the fonts it is because we have a lack of space that it is not easy to solve in some circumstances.

It's hard to tell from screenshots, but it's good to hear you guys are addressing the issue. My eyes thank you.