Union Leader Modifications

[Bodders]

An early problem I've had, though I'm not sure if it's because of this mod or the way it interacts with patch 1.06a or 1.06a itself but the options to travel by rail/river no longer appear in the movement section on the unit box. I can't find a keyboard shortcut for this so I'm a bit stuck at the moment.

Edit - For now, I've gone back to 1.06 and it seems to be working fine, which is ok for me as I didn't suffer the crash fixed in 1.06a

Only other thing I noticed in early playing is Banks is still a 2 0 1, did you decide not to make him 2 0 0 in the end?

[Winfield S. Hancock]

@PDubya -- I am doing the arrival dates and theaters right now for the Rebs. So far I have made it to the mid 62 leaders. Suffice it to say there are many changes that should help the Rebs in the West -- Floyd will go to either West Virginia or Ft. Donelson, Bushrod Johnson to Memphis, Ben McCulloch to Little Rock, and Felix Zollicoffer and Dan Ruggles to Nashville. Early next year guys like Jones Withers and John McCown also go to Nashville, giving the CSA Army of Tennessee/Army of Mississippi some of the historic division leaders in-theater.

@Bodders -- I think the problem is with 1.06a and not the mod. I dont know that I am going to change anything yet with CSA divisional command with the mod, as I dont have a firm opinion on that one yet. Bishop Polk will definitely remain a 2 star leader in the West, and I think Hardee will come in at 2 stars given his stellar pre-war reputation, and he will probably be brought in in West Tennessee rather than current location of Arkansas.

@Runyan -- yes, once this is done, the leader optimization mod is complete from my point of view. AGEOD did a great job with the leaders, and it has been fun to fine tune them up even more. One thing I am interested in doing in further modding is a unit names mod, whereby new units purchased, mainly brigades, come in with historic unit designations of component regiments. I am not sure if this can be done or not, or if it is an impossibly hard task, but if it is doable, I am planning on taking a look at that next for even more flavor.

@Pocus -- thanks for the consideration on making some of these changes official. When complete, I will send you all the changes I have, my notes on the changes, etc., and am more than willing to answer any questions you have regarding rationale for changes. If I can in any way help you to further improve the game, I am happy to do so.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

Also, with regards to some of the poor Union leaders such as Banks and the like, I am considering doing with them what I did with the new Sigel model, namely, giving them the "Poor Spy Network" characteristic which will limit their ability to gather intel and general awareness of CSA movements. The goal here would be to duplicate the historical record of many of these incompetents being caught flat-footed or surprised by quick Rebel movements.

Any thoughts from the board community on this idea? Some of the leaders that I am considering using it on are Banks, Butler, Burnside, Milroy, Blenker, Patterson, Miles, Hunter, Runyon, and Tyler. I realize most of these men are already rated quite poorly, but adding Poor Spy Network gives them the further drawback of not being good at monitoring or being aware of significant enemy activity in their areas of responsibility, which IMHO is historical for these men.

[Black Cat]

Thanks for your excellent work on the Union Leaders, I`ll try it out in a new April 1861 Campaign Game VS the AI this weekend. Changing where the leaders come in on the Map is a blessing. Thank You !


I wonder if your considering the effects the leader stats changes will have as regard PBEM VS AI play ?

I, and I suspect many others, just play VS the AI, and the Game seems very well balanced for that.


Some newbie type questions, I agree with upgrading the chance of leader losses. I assume it will effect both sides, and all leader ranks in a battle up through Corps commanders ? Will it get reported in the Log report ?

It would be nice to see some of the Jan. 1861 - 1862 1 stars, who went on to great things, be able to activate more often, it`s my experience that it always takes 3-5 trys to do that.

Thanks for your hard work

[Pdubya64]

Also, with regards to some of the poor Union leaders such as Banks and the like, I am considering doing with them what I did with the new Sigel model, namely, giving them the "Poor Spy Network" characteristic which will limit their ability to gather intel and general awareness of CSA movements. The goal here would be to duplicate the historical record of many of these incompetents being caught flat-footed or surprised by quick Rebel movements.

Any thoughts from the board community on this idea? Some of the leaders that I am considering using it on are Banks, Butler, Burnside, Milroy, Blenker, Patterson, Miles, Hunter, Runyon, and Tyler. I realize most of these men are already rated quite poorly, but adding Poor Spy Network gives them the further drawback of not being good at monitoring or being aware of significant enemy activity in their areas of responsibility, which IMHO is historical for these men.

I think that is a great starting point Hancock. There should be a way to invoke those characteristics in leaders and I think you found it. It just needs some testing to see how the results pan out over quite a few games. You can always adjust other factors as well later if "Poor Spy Network" throws things too far in one direction I guess. I could be wrong on that of course...
Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained- right?

[wsatterwhite]

I've really enjoyed playing with this mod and look forward to the next version but would like to make a few suggestions-

Edward O.C. Ord arrival area changed to Alexander IL.

Technically Ord should start out in the east, he was one of the original Penn Reserve brigade commanders with Reynolds and Meade.

Also, I'm not sure if this is part of the default setup or the mod but Amiel Whipple and John Foster both enter as Major Generals, they should start as Brigadiers (I don't think Whipple ever actually made it to MG).

Finally, something that has always confused me is the handling of Edward Canby, he's one of the last generals to appear when it seems he should be one of the first, albeit tied down in the far west somehow.

[Pdubya64]

For Hancock and Stonewall:

I was sitting in bed reviewing the Leader Files for both sides I printed on my nifty color laser and raised a question I have yet to figure out.

We know that "Over Cautious" was removed as a leader trait. From my recent play I think it's safe to say that no other changes were made in coordination with OCs removal. The CSA leader JB Floyd has Dispirited Leader and still has his 3-0-0 rating. In other words, Strategic Rating was not adjusted in any way, it was deemed enough in and of itself to invoke the proper leader behavior.
My question is did Pocus and Co. figure that the return of the 4 CP to these leaders was balanced out or some kind of "wash" in the great scheme of things? Or something else?

Also, in your search for better tools to mold the behavior of leaders, might the Over Cautious trait still warrant some judicial use? Maybe even for the Banks' of the game? I don't have the answer myself, but thought it might be a relavant question in this case.
Cheers,
PW

[jimwinsor]

I think Overcautious should be treated as being dead as a doornail, never to be used again. I was the one who initially lobbied for its removal. The trait, IMO, is simply not working as it was intended. It was overkill, making any general endowed with it less than useless.

That being the case, it should not be reappearing in mods, either, IMO.

The main point of a general is to generate CPs. You give a general a poisonous trait that strips him of all CPs, then he's patently worthless. Players will just hide them somewhere, out of the action.

Even a poor general has to have SOME marginal utility.

If you want to simulate overcautiousness, the way to do it is the direct method - lower the Strategic rating. Thats the rating that impacts activation. Not CPs.

[Bodders]

@Bodders -- I think the problem is with 1.06a and not the mod. I dont know that I am going to change anything yet with CSA divisional command with the mod, as I dont have a firm opinion on that one yet. Bishop Polk will definitely remain a 2 star leader in the West, and I think Hardee will come in at 2 stars given his stellar pre-war reputation, and he will probably be brought in in West Tennessee rather than current location of Arkansas.

Yes, it's with 1.06a. I must admit I don't have an opinion on the CSA divisional command as yet either - just lowering the likes of Bonham and Holmes (and probably Jackson too) to one star might well be enough. A few early ahistorical divisions probably doesn't matter too much one way or the other

[Black Cat]

I didn`t see a Readme File included in the Mod and may have missed this in the thread.

What does replacing just the units and models files with yours do in the Game ?

[gbs]

Did I miss it? Where are ther instructions on where how to install this mod? What about saving current files?

[wsatterwhite]

Did I miss it? Where are ther instructions on where how to install this mod? What about saving current files?

It's on the first page of the thread:

To use the files, do the following:

1. Backup your current game files in the aliases, events, models, and units folder.

2. Copy and paste the USA Leaders, CSA Leaders, April 1861 Campaign, and Various Events files into the ACW/Events Folder. Answer yes to overwrite files (once you have made your backup)

3. Copy and paste the mdl_alias and uni_alias files into the ACW/Aliases folder.

4. Got to the ACW/GameData folder and delete your current Models and Units folders (after backing up elsewhere first of course). Then copy the Models and Units folders from the Mod into the ACW/GameData folder

5. Launch AACW and enjoy the mod!!!

[caranorn]

Hancock, someone is already working on the historical brigades/regiments thing as far as I know. I believe all the list were done a few weeks ago and handed to the two Philippes ( or either).

[McNaughton]

Hancock, someone is already working on the historical brigades/regiments thing as far as I know. I believe all the list were done a few weeks ago and handed to the two Philippes ( or either).

Yup, someone is on this!

[Winfield S. Hancock]

OK, that is great news on the historical flavor regiments for the brigades. I look forward to seeing the release of this mod or its inclusion in the official game files.

With regards to 'overcautious', I will strip that from the characteristics of any of my modded leaders, and make an appropriate reduction in strategic value.

As far as Ord goes, while he started in the east with his PA Reserve brigade, his first divisional command was in the West. Thus, I feel that since this is where he first rose to prominence in game terms, this is the correct place to have him enter. For Whipple and Berry, you are correct and I will make the appropriate changes. I think I will simply reduce them both to 1 star rank, non promotable, since I do not believe either one of them ever held a corps command in the war. Canby will be changed to arrive in January 1862, with the Far West/New Mexico his primary entry and Colorado his secondary entry, to reflect his historical activity against Sibley in that area. Hopefully starting him this far West will make it harder for him to get to other theaters in an ahistorically early fashion as well.

@BlackCat On the subject of casualties, decreasing the number generator to 350 will produce increased casualties of all 1 and 2 star leaders, with the 2 stars guys biting the dust at a rate of 50% of that of the 1 star leaders, per Pocus in another thread. Not sure about the report log. I will think about your suggestion on activating the 1 stars more often. A solid case could be made that many generals were more aggressive at the 1 star rank, and should be easier to activate, which would then mean modifying their strat ratings at that rank up and keeping those at their higher rank the same, representing sort of a 'promotion intertia' that would reflect them being less willing to take risks with a larger command, and feeling the increase burden of responsibility for directing a larger body of troops that they were perhaps not as familiar with as they were their old divisions with brigadiers they had grown used to working with.

[McNaughton]

OK, that is great news on the historical flavor regiments for the brigades. I look forward to seeing the release of this mod or its inclusion in the official game files.

Actually no, the new development does not affect regiments of brigades, but it does deal with brigade names and independent regiments. The names for the regiments are already in the game, just not currently 'activated' or applied to the brigades. I have no clue in this process, and it is probably very low in priority of AGEOD to implement this (when AI and bug fixing are higher priority than names). No independent modder can do this, as it has something to do with the game system.

[Jabberwock]

@PDubya -- I am doing the arrival dates and theaters right now for the Rebs. So far I have made it to the mid 62 leaders. Suffice it to say there are many changes that should help the Rebs in the West -- Floyd will go to either West Virginia or Ft. Donelson, Bushrod Johnson to Memphis, Ben McCulloch to Little Rock, and Felix Zollicoffer and Dan Ruggles to Nashville. Early next year guys like Jones Withers and John McCown also go to Nashville, giving the CSA Army of Tennessee/Army of Mississippi some of the historic division leaders in-theater.

You might consider putting McCulloch in Houston in early April. When Lee was on his way from Texas to Washington DC, he had to evade being apprehended by McCulloch's troops in San Antonio.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[runyan99]

I'm trying to do a count of CSA divisions around the June '63 time in order to try and figure out what the peak number of divisions actually was. I'm finding it fairly difficult.

Anyway, while doing this I found three bona fide Confederate division commanders who are not in the game. John Bowen, M.L. Smith and John H. Forney each commanded a division in Pemberton's army of 5 divisions that defended Vicksburg, and none of these three are in the game. They could all be added if more CSA western leaders are needed.

Also, I noticed that John Marmaduke was is conducting cavalry raids in Missouri in early 1863, and yet isn't available in the game until March of '65, so he is one who should probably be available much sooner.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

Thanks Runyan. I have added the following CSA leaders for the Western theater so far:

New CSA Leader Dabney Maury. Rated 3-2-3. Is promotable to 2 star rank. Enters in Jackson/Montgomery in early 63

New CSA leader John Patton Anderson. Rated 3-3-2. Enters early 63 in Jackson/Montgomery.

New CSA leader Franklin Gardner. Rated 3-1-3. Enters early 64 in Atlanta/Montgomery.

New CSA leader States Rights Gist. Rated 3-2-2. Possesses Charismatic trait. Enters early 64 in Atlanta.

New CSA leader Mansfield Lovell. Rated at 2-0-0. Has Dispirited leader and Poor Spy Network traits. Enters at 2 star rank in early 1861 in New Orleans. Lovell was the chief incompetent responsible for losing New Orleans to the Union.

New CSA leader Albert Pike. Appears in Little Rock with Ben McCulloch in early 61. Pike is rated at 3-1-0 with the HotHead trait. Pike is also notable for his work as the founding father of Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite Freemasonry.

New CSA leader Gideon Pillow. Pillow is rated 2-0-0 and has the traits dispirited leader and poor spy network. Pillow appears in early 1861 at Fort Donelson.

I agree on Marmaduke, I will move his entry date up.

I have already added Bowen in an earlier build, who is an outstanding commander. Forney is already in the game, at a 2 star rank. He has been reduced to 1 star and enters in Jackson in 1862, putting him in position to be part of Pemberton's army. I will check out Smith and look into adding himi. I am very close to being fully done with the mod. Only things left are ML Smith, and looking at a few more arrival dates and theaters for Rebel commanders already in the game.

[runyan99]

Franklin Gardner is already in the game. He appears some time in '63. Adding him in '64 would be a bit late, since he surrendered at Port Hudson right after Vicksburg fell.

I've never seen Forney. When does he appear? He might be one of those who is used in the '62 or '63 scenario, but is not scheduled to appear in the April campaign.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

ML Smith now added. I rated him at 3-1-2 and gave him Defensive Engineer and Entrencher traits, as he was quite the engineer, including the designer of some of the tough Vicksburg works. He enters early 63 in Jackson.

I didnt see Gardner already in the game. I will have to check that to make sure I did not enter a duplicate leader.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

Forney is in the original files as a 2 star leader coming in during early 1862, if I recall correctly.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Winfield S. Hancock]

Okay, replaced my duplicate Gardener with the following guy

New CSA leader St. John Richardson Liddell. Rated 3-4-3. Has qualities of Patriot and Storng Morale. Enters late 63 in Chattanooga/Montgomery. Liddell was the hard-hitting commander of the elite Arkansas Brigade, one of the best units on either side in the war. Liddell performed extremely well as a brigade and division commander in the Army of Tennessee and the TransMississippi theater. Liddell was a super patriot, spending his off time rounding up deserters and recruiting new troops. Pat Cleburne and William Hardee, among others, thought very highly of Liddell.

[Winfield S. Hancock]

The files with the Generals ratings are in the GameData/Models files.

However, I have been keeping a running log in Word of all changes I have made since the start. I will be happy to email it to you, as it would be a lot simpler to follow than looking up the individual files.

[runyan99]

Forney is in the original files as a 2 star leader coming in during early 1862, if I recall correctly.

*shrug*

He's not in the original leaders.pdf, and I have two CSA games in late '62/early '63 in which he has never appeared.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[caranorn]

Concerning Pike, give him the Indian Fighter trait and delay Watie's entry (Pike was Watie's superior officer and Watie should not enter before he reaches at least brigadier general rank).

[Bodders]

In late July 1861, I got two event messages in the log for arriving generals but no one showed up.

The first was evt_nam_USA_1861WestDivGenerals and it centred on Chicago when clicked on - I would assume this is Hurlburt supposed to appear.

The second was evt_nam_USA_1861CentDivGenerals and it centred on Cincinatti - I assume this is supposed to be Milroy and Bull Nelson.

Edit - I checked and these two events are missing the 'apply' command after the creation of the units which hold the leaders. I've added them to mine so I can continue testing