Forcepool mod, WIP screenshots

[AACW3Plz]

As follow up, it looks like Model 873 is both the 3 star 5-5-2 version of Nathan Forrest and the new Robert Garnett so I can fix that on my end.

[AACW3Plz]

It's looking like the 'TUID Object List is Redundant' is due to objects not being replaced while pasting your mod. The objects dont have the same names, so they dont replace. I dont know if it's because you have the vanilla game and I have the DLC, or if it's because youve shifted a lot of the generals around. In any case, I'm deleting any conflicting models if theyre not from your mod. Most are clearly the same unit with a different name - eg a middle initial added or subtracted.

[grimjaw]

New distro attached.

I'm going to have to make a step by step program for myself so I don't keep messing it up.

There is at least one problem with the 0.2 distro. The model and unit names that I've generated are different names that the originals, so they don't get overwritten when they are copied to their respective directories. My sincere apologies, I should have been paying closer attention. I forgot about the file names being generated from the general names, almost all of which I have updated.

The short answer to the problem is that the model and unit folders in the mod folder should have been completely emptied before the distro is installed. Alternately the folders themselves can be deleted from the mod folder because the mod distro will recreate them. The new installation instructions include a step for this in the correct order.

OK, tell me a few things here. I'm not trying to be insulting with these questions, I just don't know your familiarity with the game. Some or all of this you may already know.

I'm not using the Steam version, so I don't know if there's a difference in the folder structure. I assumed there was not, but I could be wrong. I don't suppose there's any way you can send me either a screenshot of the complete folder structure of the Steam version or a directory list of your Steam install piped to a text file? The latter would be better. If you aren't familiar with redirecting screen input I can send instructions for it, it's really simple.

Did you install the mod to a separate mod folder?

Did you delete the model and unit cache files? It sounds like you have, but I'm asking just to cover the bases.

Can you send me a copy of your !Main log.txt file from a game where you're getting the errors, and the most recent script report?

I think it's just a screwup on my end, but if there were additional models and units distributed as part of a vendor DLC, that could cause a problem. It would only cause a problem in a few cases. It would have to be a significant number of files depending on which type. ALT02 has only three additional models but over 150 additional units. There should be 875 files in the distro's model folder, with the last model being 873 for Robert Garnett. The distro's unit folder should have 1,366 files, with the last unit being 1364 for the Corcoran Legion. The respective alias files should also reflect those numbers.

The first distro for 0.2 had the wrong number files. It also included cache files that it shouldn't have. I have verified the correct number this time , rebuilt the distro. I've also updated the installation instructions. I really appreciate the feedback.

[AACW3Plz]

I can post more thoroughly tomorrow. At the moment I'm out and on my phone.

I believe the Steam directory is the same as standard (it matched up fine with your install instructions at least) but I'll get you the directory file to double check.

I created the mod folder, edited the modpath file and deleted the cache files. Im actually a bit irritated with myself for not catching the duplicate general issue earlier. I reinstalled my game twice and the mod twice for what was an easy fix. Instead I just played through Garnett being a 3 star and sharing a unit number with Forrest. It's hard to object to a free 5-5-2 3 star in 1861. "Wow, didnt know he was that good"

[AACW3Plz]

A few notes:

1.) Not sure why but I didn't see any script error logs anywhere. I checked in both scripts in the main and the mod folders, and the log folders as well. If they're elsewhere, lmk. I do have error logging turned on in settings.

2.) Attached is the directory listing requested, along with screenshots I took of the script error messages in-game.

3.) I had no load errors after deleting the vanilla copies of models and units from the mod directory. I think the 3 generals I originally had at the tail end of my Models folder (3 star Forrest, a 3 star Cleburne, and a 2 star Ben Mcculloch) were remnants of a generals mod I had played awhile ago and aren't part of the vanilla or the dlc, so I dont think subtracting them hurts any campaigns. And obviously the redundant generals are gone.

[grimjaw]

Assuming you're using a recent version of Windows, they put the host and error logs by default in documents\my games\cw2\ and then there's a folder in there for the base game plus any mod folders you've run it under.

[AACW3Plz]

Here goes

[grimjaw]

That helps. So far those are just typos or syntax errors on my part. I've corrected them for the next release.

... but the distro is still missing a file that's now used to unblock Kentucky, so although the events will fire that unlock the forces and allow recruitment, KY won't unlock until I get the next release out, which might be this weekend. If you want to keep playing with it, I can upload that one file, it'll go in with the rest of the events, doesn't require the scenario to be recompiled.

[AACW3Plz]

Yes I'd love it.

Im liking the feel of the mod. Texas briefly became a theatre, which was interesting. The Union forces that start outside El Paso decided to bypass and just Fort hop east after the Sam Houston event fired. Not a huge problem but definitely a new wrinkle Im not used to.

I feel like I have more resources than normal, but it might just be that Im not forced into buying 6lbers I dont want.

MO/AR has a nice feel as CSA both game-wise and historically. A ton of militia, hard to organize and messy for awhile, but the manpower was there early on.

[grimjaw]

The file should be attached.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'd classify it as a hot mess at the moment. In the long term, I'd like to place the 1st year's forces and let the player do the rest of the recruiting. The AI might have to have some help there, we'll see.

From what I've read, the forces in Missouri were initially involved in conflicts along the river west of St Louis: Boonville, Lexington, Liberty, etc. But the game has always presented it as if those battles were already lost by Price, who has fled to Arkansas. Eventually I'd like to have the Stl Louis Massacre event spawn Lyon about where he normally does, but Price would be west of Jeff.City, with unorganized militia scattered.

There's lots of thing I'd like to do, especially with leaders. Instead of spawning Grant, Pope, Rosecrans et al at the higher ranks, I'd spawn them as brigadiers and make them earn it, and the chance to bite it. I'd like to base leader spawning on the cliques that existed. For example, McPherson and Wilson got to their rank partially based on ability and partially because they road Grant's coattails. If he dies as a brigadier, do they ever reach that rank?

In the game it might be something more like if Grant is elevated to army command, his generals appear sooner rather than later. If he dies or takes longer to get promotion himself, it forces the player to work with what leaders they have, and as those leaders gain seniority pts they'll be above somebody like McPherson. Things like that, the provisional leader system, different ranking structure for the factions, multiple native American factions to keep the Dakota War separate from Apache raiding separate from conflict in Indian territory, and so on.

One thing at a time, though.

[grimjaw]

After you mentioned it I started looking for a difference in the resource totals between vanilla and ALT02. I did notice a discrepancy so I ran the vanilla and modded games from campaign start until turn 14 (Oct '61). The game was run with no moves (other than taking Ft.Sumter), AI off, automated replacements off, historical attrition standard.

The difference between the two sets of resources is not significant.

USA vanilla/ALT02
turn 10
money 4222/4205 WS 1550/1544
turn 14
money 5731/5665 WS 2126/2104 CS 1509/1495

CSA vanilla/ALT02
turn 10
money 2025/2018 WS 405/403
turn 14
money 2835/2778 WS 570/567 CS 1072/1072

ALT02 actually produces slightly fewer resources than vanilla over the same set of turns. As you noted, ALT02 doesn't force you to pay for artillery or cavalry just to get infantry on the board. I hadn't considered that would leave such a potential surplus, and I might have to deal with it in some way. There are a number of ways to approach it. Under vanilla when new volunteers units are placed on the board by event there's no cost to the faction; in fact there's often a resource boost to go along with it. During the first year the forcepool for each faction is added to at least three times, and every one of those events includes additional resources. Ships have always been underpriced relative to other units, and those could be reevaluated.

I'll look at getting that sorted after I've completed work on the forcepool structure and unit placement.

[AACW3Plz]

Thanks for the KY file

On the resource situation,

1.) The CSA is really the only side which benefits. The Union already had a fair number of non mixed recruiting options, and their bottleneck in 61 is leadership regardless of resource tweaks. That said, if you're a Union player vs CSA Athena, the CSA boost might spice things up a bit. The difficulty buffs Athena gets, as far as I know, are basically centered around movement, activation, and winning battles she shouldn't, which are transparently gamey. Resource buffs are a nice backdoor way to give her a hand. I find that Athena, even as the Union, fails to heavily industrialize.

2.) I dont PBEM, but from what I understand, there are two main issues which give Union players 90% of the wins:
A.) The CSA Coastline is indefensible, especially in Texas
B.) Grant is both easily promotable and very good

You've indirectly assisted the CSA with A, as players will be able to afford a few extra units and have some new unit spawns. It's not, by any means, enough to hold the coast with, but players can probably more effectively garrison a major port or two.

You're working on Grant by making him less easily promotable. I actually went the other route by nerfing him (I didn't see anything at Shiloh, Cold Harbor, or Paducah to justify more than a 6-2-1 with Reckless, although I left his positive traits), but regardless it's a fix especially given your fix could delay or eliminate some solid division/corps commanders.

As far as singleplayer/trying to get a historical feel, my suggestion might be to eliminate some CSA Arsenal/Powder Mill etc options. If the "extra" resources are spent on a few CSA garrisons in 61, and the Union outclasses them in 62 anyway, then all is well and you've just extended the CSA's lifespan a bit. If the CSA player does something overly gamey and catches up industry then things might look a bit silly.

Just my 2 cents. Again, loving the mod thus far.

[AACW3Plz]

I think your suspicion that Athena might not adapt to the shifted forcepool was accurate.

As CSA, I had rough parity with the Union by the start of 62, and now in mid 62 I outnumber them (their combat power is 105 but minus garrisons thats probably 90-95).

Casualties have been lopsided but not particularly heavy. There were no 'Union attacks max entrenched-stack behind a river and-loses 50k at once' mishaps that Athena seems fond of.

I have noticed that Im fighting less in WV. I dont know if you tweaked that or it just worked out that way, but it's nice not seeing 800 power commands stuck in muddy mountains fighting over inconsequential towns.

[grimjaw]

Re: AI's adjustment to force pool, I haven't ,really gotten to it yet directly. The latest changes have involved swapping generic volunteer brigades for historical units. Things like forces that Banks built up for a division after Patterson's army's enlistments expired, or Dix's command in Maryland, or Butler's Dept. of VA with several regiments based at Ft Monroe instead of a single arty battery. Later I hope to make several of these forces AI specific, so the player will have to build them or whatever else they want instead. As it's coming together right now, the forces available to USA will build up fairly quickly, but they'll still be lots of militia types, and the leader load out will be weak sisters until the beginning of spring in '62. No more 2-star Hamilton and Milroy out of the gate. Instead stuck with the political generals, and even considering locking several of them until after historical date of 1st Bull Run, making McDowell the highest ranking 1-star(!) Instead of 3-star. Forces AI to use him instead of other options that I think just confuse it. Too many cooks in the kitchen.

I don't remember tweaking WV yet, but since the forces ther changed a bit, that might have had an effect. This time round I placed a huge nerf on the USA AI interest in New England. It might still build ships there but I hope it doesn't camp leaders et al there.

[AACW3Plz]

I just dont think I realized how bad the AI was in the base game. The spawns of high morale unique brigades and such are less for historical accuracy and more an Athena crutch.

This explains their design decision for higher difficulties to get battle bonuses rather than extra resources. The AI wouldnt know what to do with the resources.

[grimjaw]

Sad, isn't it? I can see where things were tweaked to try to help the AI, but they don't end up being much help at all. At some point the devs seem to have thrown in the towel. The game is hyped as being great as player vs player, but it has all these leftover AI nerfs and quirks in the models and events that can't be gotten rid of easily.

There are AI affinities toward stacks defined in the game settings, but the alias file needed to implement them for models didn't ship with the game nor any subsequent patch. There are also agents, but they weren't implemented and I don't think they were fully developed.

I believe affinities have limited usefulness anyway. From what I can tell, the engine will build a stack, and the leader affinity will draw it to that stack depending on the composition. That seems to indicate that leaders play very little role in AI building stacks. Unless the leader is an army/corps leader, maybe.

I am experimenting with giving the AI a direction. I've defined a new affinity for militia and assigned it to Robert Patterson, who spawns with a bunch of militia anyway. I'm going to assign him an agent that I hope will direct him to Winchester, VA, and then to Harrisburg. The idea would be for him to capture Winchester with his militia and then head back with his force so they would be in the clear when they muster out. We'll see how that goes.

It's not enough to define something like a cavalry affinity for leaders. A large stack of cav units might then attract leaders like moths to a flame. The cav leader ability bonuses don't stack, and having multiple cav leaders in a stack, while historically accurate, is a waste of talent. It might be best to assign a power affinity to cav leaders, which would lead to the AI limiting their deployment to one per stack.

I spent alot of time this past week getting Union forces shaped up, hope in the next two days to upload something playable.

[AACW3Plz]

How's this going? Im afraid much of this is over my head but if theres anything I can do to help, let me know.

[grimjaw]

Still plodding on.

Sorry I missed a projected release date. I get easily sidetracked when I'm tinkering on things and will chase ideas down a rabbit hole, like, how to simulate imported artillery for the CSA, or how to completely redo the US Navy so it doesn't use the same pool of resources as the army, or the retooling of the Indian faction into several tribes with their own very limited agendas and interests. All possible but I need to finish the force pool stuff, get it debugged, useful, fun for the player and employed by the AI.

What I need to know right now is what type of cannons each and every battery started with when they initially mustered, if and when they changed types. I have alot of that information, but it's not in one place and I have to have umpteen windows open on my PC to find all of it. The initial work on models and units is more or less complete, just being tweaked as I deploy new force pool items or board placement. I made an attempt to keep the original amounts of regular and conscript elements. Eventually I'm only going to consider total elements and all newly recruited units will be conscripts, although the latest changes have removed the word "conscript" and changed the concept to recruits and regulars. There are at least three types of line now: volunteers, which are basically militia+; recruits are conscripts with a simple name change, and then regulars are the final iteration. All have the same number of men represented. Volunteers and recruits are mutually exclusive. Volunteers represent really green units early war. Also have introduced enlistment expiration for the first Union 90-day volunteers, so even if you manage to march Patterson's army to Richmond, it'll disappear from the board on 1861/08/15.

Lots of unit recruitment will be rolled back until after Lincoln's July call for volunteers. What I have not done any research on but need to know is this:

Of all the industrial output structures on the board for the union up until July 1861, were they in fact tooled up to produce war material or even existed. This is important because since the Union doesn't have as much stuff to spend resources on with the mod early, resources tend to pile up, and the events taking too many WS kick in. If the economy didn't historically get into gear until later in 1861 or early 1862, I'd like to script that. It will help balance the resources and match the output capability available.

Haven't even looked at CSA except a couple bug fixes, lot of work to do there and more speculation since there are fewer official records.

But I don't have time to do that plus script everything else right now. I want to put something that works out this week, but it won't be a finished project. Eventually I'll retool the names-only mod since that one can be considered for 'official' purposes. Kind of a joke, there's never going to be another 'official' fix for this game, and wouldn't surprise me if all the licensing and IP were sold or warehoused at some point in the future. Probably best to look into something like discord for communication, but I have no resources for that or file hosting.

[AACW3Plz]

I started researching the starting production centers. You had good instincts that things might be amiss.

From what I gather, 70% of powder production came from 4 places (DuPont Mill, Hazard Powder in Connecticut, Oriental Powder in Maine, and Laflin in Newburgh NY). Some others, like Augusta in Maine, were reasonably prolific, but not until construction (in 62). Others, like New Castle in Delaware, were schools not powder mills. Morristown in NJ was a powder mill, but during a different war. Some of course had accidents and reduced production, others you might have a different sort of design issue with - do they supply ws or units? (Phoenix in Philadelphia produced 1000 out of the 1400 3inch ordnance rifles in Union service). I'll try to get something together for you within the next few days.

[grimjaw]

You're a dream! Thanks very much. I actually hoped they were off a bit in the game, because that's easy to adjust.

[AACW3Plz]

I tried to restrict this to changes rather than a full list of every site in the game. Some sites don't list a change and I just try to contextualize them (some were major sites, some minor, some were established producers, some new), some changes are just renames

*California
**San Francisco
California Powder Works - incorporated in 61 but doesn't produce until 64

*Connecticut
**New Haven
Whitney Armory - chiefly supplies the state of CT, not the federal government, until 1864
New Haven Chemical Works - unsure what this refers to. The economy of New Haven boomed, but I'm not able to find anything that specifically pertains too directly to war supply. It looks like their largest industry was producing carriages, which hardly qualifies as chemical works.
**Hartford
Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing - huge, but on February 4, 1864 a fire destroyed most of the factory
Hazard Powder (various) - one of the top 4 Union powder mills
**New London
Maxson and Fish Shipyard - founded just before the war's outbreak, seemed to have been a major player, continually made ships throughout the war

*Delaware
**Wilmington
New Castle Arsenal - did not exist as an arsenal during Civil War
Eleutherian Powder Mills - aka Dupont Mills - one of the 4 chief Union Powder Mills
Harlan and Hollingsworth - well established and large iron ship builder, stopped taking on government contracts in 1863 because government wanted constant last minute changes

*Maine
**Augusta
Augusta Arsenal - likely the Kennebec Arsenal, which was relatively minor by this time
**Portland
Oriental Powder Works - one of the top 4 Federal Powder Mills

*Maryland
**Washington DC -
Columbia Foundry - important in 1812, basically out of use by the Civil War era
**Baltimore -
Pikesville Arsenal - briefly seized by local militia/secessionists in April of 61, many of which seemed to go on to Frederick and then eventually south for the CSA

*Massachusetts
**Boston
Cyrus Alger and Company - rename Cyrus Alger Iron Company
Hinkley, Williams, and Company - seems to have been struggling/reorganizing after bankruptcy in 59, and doesn't produce much until 64.
Spencer Repeating Rifle Company - existed, but wasnt used by the army early in the war for fear that the fast shooting rifles would use too much ammo
**Cambridge
American Powder Company - large powder mill, probably should be renamed Pratt's Powder Mills, as the American Powder Company did not own the site until 64.
**Springfield
Massachusetts Arms Company - factory burned down in January 1861, halting production until the factory was rebuilt in 1863
Springfield Armory - produced, but doesn't really get going until September of 61

*Michigan
**Detroit
Stowell, Turck, and Company - not sure if this refers to anything real

*New Jersey
**Trenton
New Jersey State Arsenal - existed in 1861, although not particularly important. Trenton Iron Works becomes a major Union manufacturer by 1862
**Morristown
Morristown Powder Mill - Revolutionary War mill, non functional
**Jersey City
Secor Shipyard - unsure exactly what they're referring to. Secor sold his company to Morgan (Morgan Iron Works) in the 50s and then helped Cornelius Vanderbilt run the Allaire Iron Works. Both of these were in NYC, not Jersey. Both were established shipbuilding companies throughout the war.

*New York
**New York City
Starr Arms Company - produced starting in 61, but seems small
Adams Revolving Arms Company - records indicate a pretty small trickle of orders not worth including, although Manhattan Firearms Manufacturing Co was very large and should probably go here instead
**Brooklyn
Continental Iron Works - founded in Jan of 61, built the Monitor
**Middletown/Newburgh/Kingston - kind of a mess generally, because both newburgh and middletown exist in Orange County ny in real life, but Newburgh is listed in Ulster County in game, and Kingston is listed in Greene in game although it's in Ulster in real life. Smith and Rand, Laflin Powder, and Orange Powder all existed in Orange County, but in Newburgh. In game there are duplicates of Smith and Rand and Laflin in both Middletown and Newburgh.
West Point Armory - famed academy but I cant find much about any sort of manufacturing or depot capability - originally a fort guarding the Hudson River so might make more sense as a stockade/fortification
**Albany
Watervliet Armory - rename to Watervliet Arsenal
**Utica
E Remington and Sons Armory - existed, took 2 years to manufacture 5000 rifles ordered at the war's outset. At some point the facility was upgraded with steam power but it's hard to get any concrete dates. Seems to have been more capable at re-fits than outright manufacturing.

*Pennsylvania
**Philadelphia
Phoenix Iron Company - already produced cannons prior to war, switched from mainly 6lb smoothbores to 3inch ordnance rifles in 1861 - produced 1000 of 1400 total union pieces
Frankfort Powder Mill - rename Frankford Arsenal - cleaned out by Josiah Gorgas before he reported to the CSA. Produced percussion caps and fuses in 61, but a fire in 62 destroyed the cap factory. Remained an important depot and place for repairs, although manufacturing capacity was not fully restored until 1866.
William Cramp and Sons - existed and helped produce iron hulls throughout the war, but is more noted for its size and ability decades later, not during the Civil War
**Harrisburg
Pennsylvania State Arsenal - existed during Civil War, although Camp Curtin (opened Ap 1861) in Harrisburg was the largest Federal training camp of the war and is conspicuously absent
**Pittsburgh
Allegheny Arsenal - major producer of cartridges. Lab destroyed by fire same day as Antietam, killing over 70 civilians. Rebuilding started immediately and completed within a year.
James Rees and Sons - originally a machine shop and engine works, did not produce ships until after the war, but did produce engines

You'll notice some states don't have any entries. These are generally because all they have are State Arsenals.

[grimjaw]

Thank you. I won't get those changes into the next update, but will look at it after that.

[AACW3Plz]

No problem. I saw that Pocus may even get you a look under the hood :-)

[grimjaw]

Version 0.25 should be attached to this post. It's playable, but still raw. There are several event descriptions missing. As I mentioned, Union changes were more of a focus on this version, CSA still lags.

If it pans out like I hope, the only units that will be placed by script will be up until mid to late 1861. After that almost all units will be obtained by recruiting.

If I understand correctly how the AI makes a decision to build a unit, it can happen a few ways. I think CW1 had a setup where the families were specified, a quota given to each family, and the AI would attempt to obtain a force with with elements comprised of that many families, without regard to the qualities of the element. Another way is using percentages of the total force pool, which is I think how CW2 does it. When a force pool amount is set, say there's 20 steam frigates specified, out of a total of 25 units of all types. Then I guess it's like drawing numbered balls from a basket. The percentage of balls with steam frigate on them is higher, so the probability is higher that a steam frigate gets built. My unscientific observations of this seem to bear that out. The number of ships being built by the AI is pretty high, and they make up a large percentage of the force pool.

Another way it is supposed to be able to build units is using a different command for setting the pool, which includes a percentage of the pool specified that the AI should try to purchase. If I have 20 SC 6-pdrs in the pool and I specify that 25% of them should be purchased, it will try to buy that many. After all those percentages are tallied, I don't know how it makes the decision about deciding between them. I suspect it's probably still using the balls in a basket method after that, but I hope to have a better idea of that soon.

[grimjaw]

Some things I'd like feedback on, if you're so inclined:

The enlistment expiration scenario I've introduced.

The alternate NATO symbol I've used to represent a few cav units (the little horse instead of the recon symbol).

Of the different ways that units are described on the tooltips and stack panel, which are the most/least useful?

The change in description of artillery families and units. For example, 10-pdr Parrotts are now described as "rifled guns" and their descriptions include the possibility that the gun is either a Parrott or a 3" ordnance rifle.

[AACW3Plz]

Thanks, this was definitely a big update :-)

I like the enlistment scenario, and the Union seemed to do OK with it. I didn't see a lasting drop in manpower on their end. The changes to arty seem pretty intuitive although I wouldn't object to renaming 6lbers "scrap".

Taking militia, Baylor, and some of the oddball units away seemed to improve the gameplay in the New Mexico theatre. It becomes more of a choice to engage out there, and the battles are a bit more meaningful given you have to recruit from elsewhere.

I liked that you threw in Pillow and Crittenden for historical reasons (always thought they were an odd absence given Floyd made it). Are you planning on Lovell too?

[grimjaw]

Lovell is a strong contender; his model is already in the DB. Sam jones is in there but I had him spawning too early. Finegan might spawn with emergency militia in event if Florida invasion. On the Union side, john Hatch and John Wool are in. Charles F. Smith is there, which I always thought was a poor omission. His replacement, Wallace, did not survive his first battle, so I decided to flip the script. If Smith dies, I'll try to put in a small random selection of brigadiers to spawn.

Up until July, the edge for the southwest should be CSA. They can recruit cav, but early cav can't capture. The events around Mesilla work like this.

Before July, if either Mesilla or El Paso change ownership, Baylor's event never fires, 7th US is not displaced. If status quo is maintained until July and neither place has enemy forces present, there's a 5% chance Lynde will win, otherwise Baylor event fires (now minus Baylor except for his name). There's also a kind of error trapping condition if none of those things happen, and they're unlocked in El Paso and Mesilla then to do their own thing.

Union NM militia units will eventually be removed from the board and replaced with a cav unit, to simulate their consolidation. Canny Canby doesn't fire unless several regions in NM are still Union by early '62, hoping to simulate that if he lost the territory b4 then, no promotion for you! Hoping to give Sibley an AI agent sooner or later.

[grimjaw]

Maybe you or someone else can suggest a naming convention for the different classes of infantry.

Militia are always militia in the mod, so I don't have to worry about them.

I have two classes of recruits. One is militia plus as far as capability goes, just has more hits than standard militia. Upgrades to line infantry. Currently called volunteer but this is a little confusing.

Then there's what used to be called conscript but I have renamed recruit.

Then there's line infantry which is now called regular.

I don't want to use the conscript symbol for recruits, and I don't want to slap an R there instead b/c that can be confused for regular.

I'm open to suggestions. Not sure if I'm going to stick with the current setup of infantry. Originally had two different sets of recruits so that I could model the volunteer brigades that were used in vanilla.

[AACW3Plz]

It sounds like you're well on your way to making AACW3. Who needs Ageod?

I can think of Enlisted, although that has perhaps the flipside of the issue you were looking to avoid with the label of Conscript. Greenhorn might be applicable despite being a bit informal.

[Blood and Thunder Brigade]

A couple of questions
1. Is Henry Wise making an appearance?
2. How likely is it that Jo Shelby's portrait will be updated? The C.P. Stone thing has always annoyed me.