Some questions from a beginner

[Bertram]

I have been trying to play AACW a few times now, but I keep running into some basic problems. Can anyone tell me what I do wrong?

1) Supply: I play the North. The units in Alexandria/Fairfax va are always out of supply. Washington, just across the river, has a large stack of crates and bullets, and I retreated half the army that way. But surely there must be some way to get some supplies to Fairfax? I got the town, I have some transport ships on the river (don't know if that helps) , but nothing helps. As this is the place where the reinforcements appear in june (?) I have the problem that they get at least half "red" very fast.
2) Railroads: those pesky grey's destroy my railroads. I want to repair them. What do I need to do? (I did send in a unit with an engineer, but 3 turns later the railroad is still disrupted).
3) Disappearing officers... North-west of Hapers Ferry there is an stack that appears in turn 2 or 3, with a raelly pathetic officer (Robertson? - I'll call him that). Just to see how it worked I send him a second officer, made Robertson corps commander, and the other officer division commander, and put all fighting units in the division. Next turn to my surprise the secod officer had disappeared, and all units where once again directly under Robertsen... How did this happen? Is this correct? Do officers get decommisioned or do they die at random?
A few turns later I send Robertsen with his units to Harpers Ferry (yes, he *does* occasionally activate). From the other side I send another division, and merged them. The force managed to breach the Harpers Ferry defences, but got driven off by the army of the South that came to the rescue (5000 loss to me, 4500 to them, not bad).
To my surprise Robertson had disappeared after this. The force was still called Robertsons Corps, but it wasnt a Corps anymore, and there was no Robertson anymore. Robertson could of course have died in the battle, but I could not find any notice of that....does this happen without the game telling you?

[Aurelin]

Build a depot on Alexandria. The units show up understrength, so make sure you have replacements for them.

There is a rail repair button. It's in the special ordrs panel next to the unit panel. Just select it, and the unit will repair it. I think an engineer unit speeds it up. Militia units, in my experience, take a few tries to do it.

It's Patterson who disappears. It's an event you have no control over. (You'll get a message in the mail box IIRC.)

[Le Ricain]

I have been trying to play AACW a few times now, but I keep running into some basic problems. Can anyone tell me what I do wrong?

1) Supply: I play the North. The units in Fairvfax va are always out of supply. Wahington, just across the river, has a large stack of crates and bullets, and I retreated half the army that way. But surely there must be some way to get some supplies to Fairfax? I got the town, I have some transport ships on the river (don't know if that helps) , but nothing helps. As this is the place where the reinforcements appear in june (?) I have the problem that they get at least half "red" very fast.
2) Railroads: those pesky grey's destroy my railroads. I want to repair them. What do I need to do? (I did send in a unit with an engineer, but 3 turns later the railroad is still disrupted).
3) Disappearing officers... North-west of Hapers Ferry there is an stack that appears in turn 2 or 3, with a raelly pathetic officer (Robertson? - I'll call him that). Just to see how it worked I send him a second officer, made Robertson corps commander, and the other officer division commander, and put all fighting units in the division. Next turn to my surprise the secod officer had disappeared, and all units where once again directly under Robertsen... How did this happen? Is this correct? Do officers get decommisioned or do they die at random?
A few turns later I send Robertsen with his units to Harpers Ferry (yes, he *does* occasionally activate). From the other side I send another division, and merged them. The force managed to breach the Harpers Ferry defences, but got driven off by the army of the South that came to the rescue (5000 loss to me, 4500 to them, not bad).
To my surprise Robertson had disappeared after this. The force was still called Robertsons Corps, but it wasnt a Corps anymore, and there was no Robertson anymore. Robertson could of course have died in the battle, but I could not find any notice of that....does this happen without the game telling you?

Bertram,

Welcome to the forum.

I will try to answer your questions.

1) You need to make sure that you have enough railroad and riverine transport built to transfer your supplies to your units efficiently. If you do not, your supplies are sent very slowly; probably not quick enough to keep up with you army's consumption. Check the black screen at the top. It shows you the state of your transport system. Ideally, your RR and riverine should be in 3/3 category. If not, passing tooltip over the black screen will tell you how much you need. The economics screen is where you build your RR and riverine infrastructure.

2) Repairing RR. Move your unit to the affected region. Hit the repair RR button (left hand side of the lower display - right hand tab - button has a black T on a white background). Sometimes the repair can take more than one turn. You will need to check it the next turn. Militia repair the worst and units with engineer the best.

3) Patterson is removed from command and disappears after the newspapers howl at lack of an offensive (or something like that) event. You get a notification in the log. I can not help you with the disappearing division commander as I have never seen this. You can always look him up in the roster to find where he is. I suspect that you did not correctly form your division and it disbanded the next turn (click form division button - CTRL click brigades to be in division - hit '+' button).

[Doomwalker]

Hey Bertram,

Hope I can help a bit in your questions.

1) Supply shouldn't be too much trouble in Fairfax. I know that the units that appear there are severly depleted when they initially arrive, let them sit for a few turns and they should regain strength. If you see that your still haveing trouble with Fairfax you may want to build a depot there, useing two supply carts. I have yet to build a depot there in any of my campaigns as the Union.

2) Have you set your units to re-build rail in the damaged areas? Just moveing the units into the region will not re-build the rail.

3) The Union looses two officers automatically. One is Patterson and the other I am drawing a blank on right now (I am at work). As far as losses in battle, if I remember correctly, they should be mentioned in the turn resolution reports.

[Bertram]

Thanks for the answers.

I (finally) managed to build a depot in Alexandria. Problem solved (I was trying to build a depot from two independent supply weagons, instead of letting my leader build it).
The leader that disappeared was indeed Patterson (Sounds like Robertson, right?). I missed it because I was looking around the mail messages regarding the battle (I though he might have been killed there) instead of the media commotion.

Bertram

[graycoyote]

Rail repair! I sent in a unit with an engineer to repair railway, but the “repair RR button (left hand side of the lower display - right hand tab - button has a black T on a white background” does not show up. Have waited several turns and still no button. (have v1.09)

Thanks

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[W.Barksdale]

Make sure you have a unit "selected" that can actually do the repair.

Additionally, note that locked units are not able to repair rail systems. I am unsure about static units, however, this is easily checked.

[graycoyote]

Make sure you have a unit "selected" that can actually do the repair.

I have selected both the engineer and the line infantry, the result (under special orders-3rd tab) is that I can destroy the rail but no button to repair.

Thanks

[W.Barksdale]

I have selected both the engineer and the line infantry, the result (under special orders-3rd tab) is that I can destroy the rail but no button to repair.

Thanks

This means that the tracks are operational in that area.

[pthomas]

I have selected both the engineer and the line infantry, the result (under special orders-3rd tab) is that I can destroy the rail but no button to repair.

Thanks

i think that if you can destroy the rail then there is probably no rail damage to repair in that region......put your cursor over the region and see if the tooltip says something like "railway: damaged"

[arsan]

Additionally, note that locked units are not able to repair rail systems. I am unsure about static units, however, this is easily checked.

Hi

Yes, static units (like the unmovable militias the CSA get for free) can repair rail. You need to drag them out of the structure if they are inside.
Regards

[graycoyote]

Yea I got to thinking maybe I was not in the region that the rail was damaged. (The message did not state where, it just jumped to an area)
From what I read…. you place the cursor over the regions and look for tool tip stating some kind message referring to rail damage?

I will try this.

Thanks for your help

[graycoyote]

How do I change the Civilian (under login name to Private)?

Thanks

[Rafiki]

How do I change the Civilian (under login name to Private)?

Post once more, and it will become "Conscript". Post 16 times more, and it will become "Private"

Welcome to the forums!

[graycoyote]

Post once more, and it will become "Conscript". Post 16 times more, and it will become "Private"

Welcome to the forums!

Thanks

[arsan]

Yea I got to thinking maybe I was not in the region that the rail was damaged. (The message did not state where, it just jumped to an area)
From what I read…. you place the cursor over the regions and look for tool tip stating some kind message referring to rail damage?

I will try this.

Thanks for your help

It's much easier!
Look for round red icons with a rail bended around a tree inside.
Each area with the railroad destroyed has this icon.
Regards

[Le Ricain]

It's much easier!
Look for round red icons with a rail bended around a tree inside.
Each area with the railroad destroyed has this icon.
Regards

Yes, but the problem was that region with the damaged icon could not be repaired. There are some regions that do not have any RR's, but will show a damaged RR icon. The only way to make sure is to place the tool tip over the region and see if there is a damaged railroad listing.

[Rafiki]

Also, make sure that you don't take the "pillaged" icon for "broken railroad" and vice versa.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[arsan]

Yes, but the problem was that region with the damaged icon could not be repaired. There are some regions that do not have any RR's, but will show a damaged RR icon. The only way to make sure is to place the tool tip over the region and see if there is a damaged railroad listing.

I had never noticed this porblem
I suppose it should be pretty rare, isn'it?

[Jabberwock]

It was fairly common back around v1.07. Now that Gray_Lensman has done his "magic", it's pretty rare.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Le Ricain]

It was fairly common back around v1.07. Now that Gray_Lensman has done his "magic", it's pretty rare.

You are probably right about it not being in 1.09 after Gray's magic. I will check my current 1.09 game.