PhilThib wrote:The suggestions are nice and most of them planned or already implemented.
The rifle / musket difference is already in the firepower / hit power of units over the course of the war. Same for the repeating carbines. Those "events" will appear over the course of the game.
I did not know the Union artillery was better than the CSA one. I included a "price difference" to represent the greater northern potential of manufacturing (so the Union will produce more of them). As for the effectiveness, how drastic can the difference be ? Should it bear on range, rate of fire, damage done, something else, a mix of all these ??
It's great you are already putting in those changes in the capabilities of small arms. You guys seem to have done a lot of research on the Civil War, which is making this game look better and better to me. You have two customers right here in the same office, at least.
Federal artillery was definitely better. It was better-equipped (with larger batteries; newer guns, and heavier poundage, on the average); had better gunpowder (Confederate shells often did not explode, and Confederate roundshot often lacked the range of its Federal equivalants), and as the war went on, the Federal artillery was better-organized, as well. The Confederates tended not to mass their artillery as often, or as easily, as the Union did. You can see the effects of the latter's organization by reading about the battles of Malvern Hill in 1862, and Gettysburg in 1863.
In game terms, I would suggest you make Federal artillery damage done about 10% better. Range would vary by gun and battery, so it would not be fair to say Union guns had a greater range at any given moment. If you include siege artillery, however, the Federals are more likely to have large siege guns than the Confederates. It was not that the Confederates lacked such guns, but they did lack the ability to move them easily, and most of their heavy artillery was kept in their coastal or river fortications, in an attempt to protect these from Federal ships and amphibious operations.
Speaking of, are the Federal blockade and blockade-running going to be features of the game? You have probably already mentioned this somewhere else.
Too bad I cannot add this game to my Christmas list this year.
B.C. Milligan