Been playing wargames for most of my adult life (that is 30+ years), and there's no doubt that the AGE system is not only something new, but an extremely elegant one.
Problem thus far has been that the periods that it covered haven't really been my cup of tea. Didn't really know anything about the periods, nor did I have any idea of 17th-18th century warfare. Meaning stupid mistakes such as pushing forward even when cohesion was non-existent and the like.
Not to mention that every game in the series thus far have been huge!
If you have no real historical knowledge of the period and sit down with RUS or ACW, you sit there staring at the map thinking "what the hell am I supposed to do here?!?"
So I've bought most of them, and I've dabbled with this title and that, and while I have a reasonable grasp on the basic mechanics of the engine, it never really tickled me enough to stick with it.
This changed with SCW.
Not only are we moving into a time-period that I actually know something about, the scope of the game is much smaller, meaning I'm actually capable of constructing something that resembles a plan.......I think.
But I do have a series of questions that keep popping up.
1) The CPs. The manual states 4, 12 and 24 CPs for 1,2 and 3* leaders respectively with a cap of 50 CPs for a stack, but as far as I can see it's 3,9 and 26 with seemingly no cap (or at least not one that I've run into).
Have I missed something here in an update, or is the manual just wrong?
2) Regional decisions. Many of them state "if successful" but I've yet to figure out where I can see the chances of success. Also, does it matter WHERE you play the different cards?
As in, will I get more conscripts by playing Recruitment on Madrid than on Toledo?
Same with Requisition, am I better off playing it on bigger cities?
Ad what exactly is the difference between Regional Campaign and Persecution? One raises your Loyalty and the other lower your enemy's Loyalty.....Given that Loyalty is either/or what difference does it make?
Some basic questions on the game to follow. As background, I'm currently in Jan 1937, playing as the Nationalists. Madrid has fallen, Badajoz, Malaga, San Sebastian and Gijon are all under siege, and I'm holding on to Zaragosa, but I have a lot of troops currently busy doing mopping-up behind what can loosely be referred to as a line.
So....
3) It seems the basic strategy as the Nationalist is to hold on to Zaragosa, try to avoid a disaster in the north, and then bring in every Legion, African and Italian unit that you can.
Give Franco an army when he arrives, create a few corps for mutual support, and go Jaen -> Ciudad Real -> Toledo -> Madrid. Granted, this does leave you with a fairly exposed supply line, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot the Republicans can do about it without stripping the defences of Madrid.
After that, it seems a question of screening the Republicans while you tackle each bypassed strong-point in turn.
Btw, you gotta love Franco. Give the man some arty, point him at what you want dead, and he goes and kills it.
4) Supply. In every other AGE title, supply has more or less controlled the flow, but from what I can see, it plays very little role in SCW. You obviously still have to have a railway network, but at present I have far more supply wagons than I know what to do with.
Or are all my armies about to die of starvation because I missed a rule somewhere?
5) Corps & Divisions. Again, they don't seem to play as large a role as in previous titles.
I have more than enough leaders to avoid any CP malus, and with the relatively small number of units, there seems little point in building divisions, especially since a 1* can't command a division without help in the first place.
The exception might be the Italians (who've just arrived). That amount of battalions might require forming divisions.
Corps are obviously nice to get the MTSG, but I'm not sure I see the need for divisions.
Or does this change as the war progress?
6) Sieges. They do seem to take a lot longer than in earlier titles. I assume most of it has to do with the one-week turns, but it still seems awfully hard to get a breach?
Anything I can do to improve matters?
I would think adding arty helps, just not sure whether the 75mm batteries are enough to make a difference.
The only thing better than jumping into a new game-system with both legs, is having a small understanding of what is going on.
Nevertheless, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game.
Cheerfully
