AGEOD Forums

Its my first campaign and I am playing the CSA.

It was great fun, but in September of 62 I won due to reducing the Union Moral to 37 after I took Washington.

It really kinda is messed up because ATHENA did a really great job launching a three pronged Eastern Seaboard Invasion and ploughing inland through South Carolina after taking Norfolk.

I had to divert Lee and 2/3 of my troops to deal with it.


That left Jackson up North defending Harpers Ferry and the Strassberg Depot and a 700 Power force entrenched and guarding Alexandria and protecting Manassas which I had taken early in the war and held throughout.

It looked like Athena was going to try and take Manasses, so I took a chance and peaked my head out of Alexandria to try and push him back. My Garrison force won and followed him to Washington placing it under siege. Jackson rushes to support and two turns later DC falls.

I find it hard to believe the AI would allow Washington to be so lightly defended and then be taken so easily.




P.S. As a side question I would like to know....

Do other CSA players like keeping both LEE and Jackson as Corp Commanders, or should you make them Army Commanders ASAP?

Well, the first reasonable question would be about your Difficulty level. Recommendations about that should be obvious - if you think the AI is a chump, ramp it up & see what happens. Also, as may here can tell you better, AACW, unlike many other conflict simulations, has two other aspects besides just Difficulty, namely Aggression and Detection level. There are others much more knowledgable than I, I haven't played with the last two much, but AFAIK, dialing down Aggression reduces "pointless raiding" and other "undesired" aspects of Athena's subroutines and givng Athena a better Detection ability (max is no FoW for her) enables her to make better "decisions".

Myself, I'm a Union guy pretty much, and I can tell you (look the thread up, it's recent), that 1.16rc4a (whatever, the latest) is absolutely brutal on Colonel difficulty. A brass-handing of epic proportions. In 1.15, I lost a Very Hard 62 start in six months; the final blow was losing DC.

And I've been playing this game for the best part of two years. There is a subtlety to Athena you won't find in almost any other engine. Still, be kind to her, buy her flowers once in a while, make her feel good about herself - she's just an AI, after all.

Play a human in PBEM when you feel ready. I'm playing my first one right now and I'm having a blast, even if I'm struggling against my esteemed opponent. I've learned more in five days than in 500 hours of playing Athena, even on Very Hard.

GraniteStater wrote:Play a human in PBEM when you feel ready. I'm playing my first one right now and I'm having a blast, even if I'm struggling against my esteemed opponent. 've learned more in five days than in 500 hours of playing Athena, even on Very Hard.

Even though the sum total of my experience is just this one game I am already set to go for a Human heads-up challenge, but I want a human opponant who is a fantatical enough about the game to be willing to communicate via telephone with the speaker phone open who has all the free time in the world to pass the saves back and forth all day long and all night long in marathon sessions. A break now and then to fix ourselves some food to eat is perfectly acceptable as long as we both agree to actually eat it while we continue playing.

Although the above may sound a bit nuts it comes pretty close to the idea I have in mind in terms of continuity of play to satisfy my adictive lust.

I would be biting my fingernails off waiting a whole day to play one turn.

Well, you're not getting my phone number, then.

Geez, and my lovely, understanding wife thinks I'm fanatical.

On a more serious note, be it far from me to coach, but perhaps more than just one game with Athena, perhaps on Hard or something, would be of value. If you feel you completely understand all the rules and such, go ahead, but fair warning - it took me a good dozen starts to really understand Supply and, as much as I have even received some compliments for my views on how the game and certain aspects are modelled, I'm still learning.

The Hearts of Iron series, Total War, yadda yadda - most of those an intelligent gamer can 'learn and know' in about 40 hours of screen time. Yes, there are subtleties to them, but nothing like the AACW engine (I'm talking "war games" here, not EU stuff or other geopolitical stuff) - seriously.

Just sayin', that's all, just bein' a nice guy. Go ahead and jump in the pool if ya got yer skivvies on.

As always, have a nice war

GraniteStater wrote:Well, you're not getting my phone number, then.

Geez, and my lovely, understanding wife thinks I'm fanatical.

Being a widower and retired leaves me all the time in the world without any distractions.

Married opponants who have nags are a drag, but I suppose it does have its advantages outside the realm of addictive hobbies.

I am about ready to start another round with Athena and I will completely agree it is a far better AI than the Hearts of Iron series, but then again once you learn the tricks of the trade to any game it becomes routine.

Telephone numbers are not necessary. There are plenty of voice programs like SKYPE. That would be better anyway. I prefer "Push to Talk".

I am truly sorry to hear of your loss.

Skype? Yikes. You really don't want to see that - days at a time without shaving, "I Obama" posters in the background, endless reruns of "Bones".

But enough about my wife.

You don't want to see me.



And that's on a good day.

Granite's wife must not be too bad. We've done 33 turns in less than 6 days. Can't get much faster than that.

GraniteStater wrote:I am truly sorry to hear of your loss.

Skype? Yikes. You really don't want to see that - days at a time without shaving, "I Obama" posters in the background, endless reruns of "Bones".

But enough about my wife.

You don't want to see me.



And that's on a good day.

You described everything about me perfectly except it is not endless reruns of Bones, but instead it is CSI and Law and Order: Special Victims.

As far as Obama posters go I don't vote and never have in my life.

Politics are a scam as far as I am concerned.

Posters that I have gotten in a computer game have occasionally made it on my wall such as the one from "Star Wars Rebellion" which is one of the Hardest Games to master I have ever played and tops the list for Head to Head human competition for the grand strategy catagory. It floped on release because of its learning curve.

I have seen Athena make some pretty crazy moves. It's common for her (at least on some of the easier levels) to park all her armies inside cities for the Winter. I just waltz in with artillery, engineers, and supply wagons, and soon enough it's all over. But she can definitely punish you when you crank her up a notch or two.