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Pocus
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feature # 16 Assets and currencies

Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:52 pm

Your nation produces various assets in order to sustain the war. The main ones are: Money, Conscripts and War Supplies.

Money is used to buy many things and pay for various options. Every unit or replacement has a cost in money, as most of the special options that the game offers (conscription or economic development for example), or even pressure to foreign countries (even if the main cost is in victory points and National Morale, when your pressure backfires! - more on this later). Money is produced in a few places, like your national capital, in financial places, or in California (gold mines), but you will mainly get money by using the Financial Options available to your nation.

Conscripts are the men drafted to fight for your Nation and are needed mainly for Infantry and Cavalry units, although other unit types need some too (the word is used generically because it also includes volunteers which are not technically conscripts). As with money, conscripts are not received on a regular basis (this is where we differ from all others games we believe), except in a few places like your capital, as a kind of 'bonus' production. Conscripts are in fact received by using one of the Drafting Options available to your nation.

Last but not least, War Supplies. War Supplies represent the heavy materials used during war. They will be mostly used for heavy ships and artillery but are also of use for infantry in lesser quantities to represent rifles and light equipment. Their production is more typical as you get them from your major cities and the output can be expanded if you invest a bit in the economy. Another possible source are the blockade runners for the South.

But let's not forget two others precious assets: supplies and ammunition. They are produced in each region and are distributed through your supply lines to your depots or your troops.




Image

Detail on the assets board, with national stocks and productions (in parenthesis) , along with what is being produced in New York City, one of the few places on the map capable of producing money and conscripts on a regular basis.
Image


Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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James D Burns
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Location: Salida, CA

Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:31 am

Comparing this to the first screenshot in the screenshots thread, it appears the south’s economy is about equal to the union's. Please tell me you're not taking the same approach as Forge of Freedom and balancing the economies of both sides for gameplay reasons. The south's advantage in leadership should be what allows it to compete with the union, not an equal economy.

Is there perhaps an historical scenario that gives the union the near 9-1 advantage in money and resources it had over the south during the war?

Here's a cut and past of a comment I posted in the FoF forum about the economic differences:

[color="Red"]Just to emphasize the production differences, read this page:

http://civilwarhome.com/civilwarindustry.htm

Specifically this paragraph:

One major economic result of the war was that it helped change the U.S. from a country with an essentially agrarian society to one dependent on mechanization and a national market system. Only the North possessed an industrial base, small as it was, before the shooting started. During the fiscal year ending 1 June 1860, the country possessed some 128,300 industrial establishments. Of these, 110,274 were located in states that remained in the Union. The most heavily industrialized states, New York and Pennsylvania, each had more industry than all the seceding states combined. In 1860, too, America had a total of $1,050,000,000 invested in real and personal property devoted to business, with $949,335,000 concentrated in the North; Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts each had a larger investment than the South as a whole. Finally, the North contributed 92.5% of the $1.9 billion that comprised the total value of annual product in the country in 1860.

New York alone outproduces the entire south easily. Pennsylvania as well. [/color]

Jim

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Pocus
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Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:35 am

wrong pick James :)

The first screenshot is also a Union one. See the third one which is a Confederate one.

And you can only compare WSU production (which is ~ 120 for Union and ~ 27 for Confederate in these screenshots) as money and conscripts are received with special options, where the Union has a definite advantage there.
Also California gold is still not accounted, and most data are temporary. We aim to be historical rest assured.
Image


Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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James D Burns
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Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:28 am
Location: Salida, CA

Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:42 am

Pocus wrote:wrong pick James :)


Whoops my bad, it was over confederate territory thus I assumed it was a confederate economy, D'oh!

Pocus wrote:we aim to be historical rest assured.


Awesome news, thanks.

Jim

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