glakes wrote:I have a few follow-up questions if anybody cares to comment.
I'm still learning & I try to search thru the Forum archives for answers
... but...however
I'll take a shot at this and try to keep it short, though I'm not know for that.
First and utmost, the goal of the game is to break the enemy's National Moral. You do this by winning battles and taking strategic objectives and generally suppressing their economy.
Each time you win a major battle (one with lots of troops involved and/or high ranking generals) you might see a battle message stating that you have gained X number of National Moral. Congruently, though you don't see it directly the enemy is probably losing National Moral. If your NM goes above the win-level or the enemy's below the lose-level, the enemy faction losses the war and gives up. Look at the objective box in the ledger for actual values.
Only capturing all the strategic cities, though it does give you NM and takes it away from the enemy, does not in itself cause you to win or the enemy to lose.
glakes wrote:I have lost just about every ship that I have had since the beginning.
They all get sunk.. I bought too many to remember and they never seem to make any hits on anyone.. It usually just says... " you- 0 Hits.. Them 30.. "
I bought a brand new armored Frigate and on it's maiden voyage it got
sunk in Charleston Harbor.. and a little Confederate Brig scooted by me
unfazed!
First you need to understand what's going on. Take a look at what is in Ft. Pickens on the far end of Florida on the Gulf coast. That is more or less what are in most of the Southern forts; a garrison brigade of varying size, a battery of 'fort guns' (usually 12 pounders) for defending against land units, a battery of Columbiads or the CSA equivalent for defense against ships.
When you sail into or out of a coastal region with an enemy fort in it there is a chance that the forts guns will fire on you and you will have a chance at returning fire. Your 'hits' can be on the garrison or any of the cannons in the fort. His are on the ships in your fleet and possibly and troops being transported in that fleet.
In general you will not reduce a fort by engaging it in gun-fire; almost never, regardless of how many ships you have in your fleet and how often you sail into or out of the region. You can do it any number of times in a turn restricted by your movement points.
Just standing in a coastal region with a fleet causes no battle; it's the moving in and out of the region which triggers this.
There is a really good description of how this works in the forum.
glakes wrote:Also, forgive my ignorance but.. I seem to get stuck in they same scenario
over & over with the same attackers/raiders in the smaller insignificant southern cities (1)'s that I have taken.
They just keep coming back.. and back ..
Then I go back & kick them out again and they escape into rebel territory
where It takes me 20 odd clicks to get into the area ..kind of like quick sand or a force field.. and by then they disappear into no man's land but come right back the next turn to another small city.. This happens when I'm occupied with large battles and holding the larger cities with a force.. The biggest culprits are Frank Armstrong, Fitz Lee, and for a while there was an Indian band sneaking into Tennessee & claiming little towns over & over again..
It drives me nuts & it gets on my nerves!
That's what they are there for
. Garrison those small cities with small brigades like militia to prevent this.
glakes wrote:One other thing .. then I'll shut up..
glakes wrote:I have played through Nov of 65 now and I have all of my objective cities
except Charleston & Little Rock.( Why is Little Rock an objective? It's in the middle of nowhere!) .
Because it's the capital of Arkansas?
*)
glakes wrote: The rebels have none of mine.. zip.. nada..
I think this will end in a stalemate because the status says the rebs have more Victory points ( How I don't know)..
I don't remember specifically as this has never happened to me, but I believe the victory points come into play if the game runs out of time.
glakes wrote:
The rebs have way more casualties than me
Inconsequential.
glakes wrote:and I seem to win 80 percent
of the victories..( at least in the last 2 years of the game after I got the hang of it
.
As long as your victories bring you NM, you are gaining.
glakes wrote:I have all of their Big Generals & Armies bottled up under siege in the Eastcoast Harbor/Forts..
Other than the strategic value it is totally inconsequential how many armies you 'bottle-up'.
glakes wrote:but the sieges take like forever
especially Charleston.. I think it has been over 3 months now..How they get
food is beyond me ..
The besieged troops can still draw supply through un-blockaded harbors.
glakes wrote:I think I notice ships slipping in when the turn is resolving.. they just slip on thru & then my blockade ships get sunk.. Ha!
What is sinking your blockading ships? You must be getting messages about that. I hope they are not dieing for lack of supply
glakes wrote:Oh well .. Thanks .. sorry to blab on & on!
Great Game!
It might be time to have another look at the manual and with Wiki. It's the last entry in the first section of front page of this forum.
*) If you have captured all the strategic cities except Charleston and Little Rock that means you have also captured Richmond. I'm curious as to where and when the CS capital was moved. Every time I've played vs Athena (the AI opponent) when I captured Richmond the CS NM loss is so high that they lose the war.
