Troops are depicted down to the individual regiment and battery level with the basic manipulable unit being the brigade. These can be arranged into various needed organizations such as divisions, corps and armies, handled by a realistic yet easy to understand Command Chain rule. Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply lines and wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light infantry; sharpshooters, engineers, railroad and medics units, balloons, coastal and siege artillery; Rangers (Texan or not!) and irregulars; marines; militias; monitors and ironclads, ships of the line; frigates and transport flotillas, timberclads and cottonclads, etc. There are more than 250 different models of units in all. All are rated for various aspects such as offensive and defensive strength, morale, experience, cohesion, troop quality, geographical origin and movement type. Foreign units include the British, French, Indians and Mexicans.
Feature #1 Relegating generals
One of the cool features of AACW is that you can remove any general from command, or name any general you want to any position... with a cost! You don't really think that removing McClellan from the Army of Potomac could be done without some grinding of teeth! Players will have to take into account the political cost of removing an important general from a position he is eligible to hold. In contrast, if you name a general to command an army without seniority, thus bypassing more senior generals, be prepared to face some disgruntled officers!
Feature #2 More than two hundreds units types
Because a game on the ACW is not just painting soldiers blue and grey, we have established a solid data base of units types to serve you! With more than two hundreds units types, you will have the pleasure to enlist Ohio regulars, partisans of the Shenandoah, Texas Rangers or cavalrymen from the deep south. Most of the units belong to a state and can get some bonuses if they fight at home. Also, each state can only provide a limited number of units at any given time (Force Pool is the term grognards would use) so don't expect to levy a score of regiments in Florida (140.000 inhabitants in 1860, half being slaves) because it would be convenient to raise them here...
Feature #3 Levying units is no magical event!
One of the unique features of AACW is how units are recruited. In many games where you enlist units, they magically pop-up a few turns later on a map. Not so in AACW. For example, as soon as you start building an ironclad, it is deployed on the map with a bare hull, no engine or guns! Craftsmen and engineers will gradually complete the construction. However, prior to full completion you may still order her to set sail in an emergency situation (perhaps the enemy is fast approaching). Another example is the draft of regular regiments. They appear as soon as the next turn on the map, albeit untrained and cohesionless. If the enemy stumble upon them, don't expect the poor boys to put up much of a fight! Rest assured though, militias and partisans may be mustered at a brisk pace. Each unit has a role in the war.
Feature #4 Raiding Enemy Towns
In AACW you can raid enemy towns, or if you prefer, keep the stockpile for yourself. This is accomplished easily with an order given to your units. Combine this with the fact that many units, such as cavalry and partisans, may withdraw from a fight with a good chance of success, you can make your enemy suffer by forcing him to defend his supply lines with a significant portion of his forces.
Feature #5 Return of the British?
And the French too (along with some Mexicans for added spice). AACW allows you play the big "what if" scenario: what if Great Britain and France had intervened on the Confederate side? This won't be easy, in fact it will be rare and quite difficult, though definitely possible. And believe us, the face of the war changes drastically.
graphic in the pixels pipeline
, so here is the corresponding photo
HMS Black Prince (British ironclad)
'A black vicious ugly customer as ever I saw, whale-like in size, and with as
terrible a row of incisor teeth as ever closed on a French frigate'
Charles Dickens
Feature #6 Scope of the game
FONT=Verdana]The Game map[/font]is divided into more than 1500 regions, each being hand-drawn in normal and winter mode, for a whopping 120 millions pixels surface (handled dynamically by a caching technique), with a great diversity of terrain and climate as well as development/infrastructure items and levels. It includes the ability to use most of the major navigable rivers, which played a crucial role during the Civil War. The mapcovers all of the USA, from the Eastern seaboard to Indian Territory. Scenarios:there are mainly two camps fighting each other (with possible foreign help) in the game's yearly or monthly campaign scenarios or the multi-years campaigns, as follows:
• 1861 – First Manassas
• 1862 – Shiloh
• 1863 – Gettysburg
• 1864 – The Wilderness
• 1861 – Eastern Campaign
• 1862 – Western Campaign
• 1863 – Eastern Campaign
• 1863 – Western Campaign
• 1864 – Eastern Campaign
• 1861 – The Early Battles (2 theaters campaign)
• 1862 – The War expands (2 theaters campaign)
• 1863 – Year of Decision (2 theaters campaign)
• 1864 – The Union Onslaught (2 theaters campaign)
• 1865 – The Last Shots (2 theaters campaign)
• 1861-1865 – Eastern Campaign
• 1861-1865 – Western Campaign
• 1861-1865 – Fullmulti-theaterGrand Campaign
Game turnscorrespond to one fortnight (15 days) of historical time. Scenarios vary from a few months to almost 5 years with players primarily controlling the military action of their nation.
This includes such activities as drafting forces, building forts and depots, sieges and blockades, raiding enemy cities, supply lines and rail network, building ironclads, raiding commerce, escaping blockade, and battles, both on land and at sea.
Troopsare depicted down to the individual regiment and battery level with the basic manipulable unit being the brigade. These can be arranged into various needed organizations such as divisions, corps and armies, handled by a realistic yet easy to understand Command Chain rule. Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply lines and wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types is implemented, including: light infantry; sharpshooters, engineers, railroad and medics units, balloons, coastal and siege artillery; Rangers (Texan or not!) and irregulars; marines; militias; monitors and ironclads, ships of the line; frigates and transport flotillas, timberclads and cottonclads, etc. There are more than 250 different models of units in all. All are rated for various aspects such as offensive and defensive strength, morale, experience, cohesion, troop quality, geographical origin and movement type. Foreign units include the British, French, Indians and Mexicans.
A large array of historical leaders (over 300)is included, most feature unique abilities based on their historical performance. Over 50 different abilities are included, some examples of which are: Charismatic, Hated Occupier, Stealthy, Expert Seaman.
Population-based (i.e. political) aspects of the conflict (especially during the Grand Campaign) are taken into account, impacting militia and guerrilla levies, Foreign intervention, shifting loyalties, information gathering, reconnaissance, etc.
Feature #7 From armies down to regiments
AACW features the concept of Chain of Command (more details later, as this is one of the major feature of the game). It simply means that the units in the American Civil War were organized more and more efficiently, within a hierarchy. With just an handful of rules, you will be able to manipulate armies, corps and divisions, each providing advantages. You can still detach units to act independently, but this will be less optimal.
Armies HQ are formed around a general. The better he is, the more powerful the bonuses given to attached corps will be.
Corps are attached to specific armies (Army of Northern Virginia, army of the Ohio, etc.). Each one is commanded by a corp commander, and receives bonuses from the parent Army.
Divisions and brigades are the fighting bricks of the corps.
Regiments, artillery batteries and cavalry squadrons are the smallest element of AACW. They are integrated into divisions and brigades, and can't be detached from them. You can still manipulate them indirectly by forming or splitting divisions into brigades.
Samples of the Union Corps available:
Feature #8 The various kinds of movements
AACW features fully integrated rail and riverine transports which allows troops to smoothly combine the various movements types in the same turn. Improve your network by laying new rails and buying new locomotives. Lay waste to the enemy network by destroying rails. Use Riverine movement to surprise your opponent and block waterways or estuaries with forts, ironclads, gunboats and emplaced batteries.
Locomotives and riverine boats are handled by the Transport Pool, at the national level. You can expand this pool to allow more troops to be moved, or at the very least you will want to maintain it, as rolling stocks and locomotives suffer from wear and tear regularly.
But that's not all, as you also have both ocean going ships, and shallow draft river or coastal ships. The Union will have most of these units, unless the Confederate player spend a significant part of his income into a naval strategy ...
Feature #9 Supply Lines
The game portrays supply lines, which are used to transport food/water and ammo to your troops (2 supply types). This network benefits greatly from new depots built in strategic locations, but Supply Wagons will also be of great help to support your armies in hostile lands or if you want to stockpile for a major operation. As the North has a thriving economy it can produce great quantities of supplies. Use your riverine and rail pool to its best advantage by being near waterways or in a region with a railroad track. Beware though to protect your depots, as your enemy can take them and burn or capture the stockpile.
One of the coolest features of this system, is that supply transportation is automated thanks to a sophisticated algorithm, taking into account travel time, enemy presence and rail/river network. But if you are not totally satisfied by the supply stocks distribution, you still have the possibility of rearranging your supply wagons, which you manually control. We tried to provide you with the best of both worlds (a precise system, but without micro-management) and we hope this solution will please you.
interesting detail: the number of barrels and crates displayed on your wagons act as an indicator of the current stock they have.
Stay tuned for screenshots!
Feature #10 Exhausted winner?
Each unit in the game has a Cohesion Level attached to it. Often you will experience that the opposing armies of a fierce fight (multi-days battles for example) will rout far before being destroyed, as mighty leviathians wounded but still alive. Wait a month or two, so that the morale of your units is restored and the replacements conscripts fill the ranks, and you are again ready to engage the enemy. Try to follow the opponent, and you will often find that you are in as nearly a bad shape as him! Welcome to the first major industrial war of mankind!
Feature #11 Promoting Generals
In AACW you can't promote everybody as you wish. First the leader must have shown some capability in his current rank (unless he is one of the most seniors officers, they are always eligible to a new rank!), so don't expect a loser or simply an unknown officer to be the next commander in chief. Also you will find that in some cases the newly promoted commander is not as good in the new rank as he was in his previous one (John Bell Hood for an historical example). Our database has a profile for each general and each rank he can attains, and often the abilities of the officer will vary from one rank to another.
Feature #12 structures
Screenshots are soon coming, but in the meantime let's talk about 'flavor' and 'aesthetic'
The various structures of a region are regrouped in a single sprite in AACW, which has the notable property of showing exactly what is there in the region! This is mostly done for flavor, but it can also be useful to gather quickly some infos, like the presence of a depot, a big stockpile of ammunitions or a high level fortification. (rest assured, you have tooltips and special filters to get more infos on a specific detail).
Pre-war forts have their own sprite, and will only show if there is a stockpile or if an anchorage is there (this is the case most of the time). Teepees show indians village.
Cities are regrouped in something we name 'cityscape'. Here you can see chimneys, showing that the city is producing war supply (heavy materials mostly used for ships and guns), or tents showing that there is a regular 'income' in conscripts from the city (this is seldomly the case, as in AACW you get conscripts by issuing call to volunteers and such, but more later
).
The first board show you some possibles variations of a cityscape (populations level don't change during the war though). It dates a bit and some things have been refined. You can see the final and current version in the second board (comments are in french, but they are not needed to understand what is at hand I think).
Feature #13 Screenshots!
First serie, enjoy!
Some notes on the map:
Many places and sprites are still to be replaced precisely, as some borders. There is also some typos on map and the duplicate town names will be removed (many clean-up as you see). Please do take in consideration that, you are seeing a work in progress and in no way the final version.
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1. Sherman corps managed to rout Beauregard's army and took Corinth. The leader with a '?' is mcClernand's corps (but with placeholder graphic). Grant's HQ is in Corinth too.
2. Foote's Mississippi fleet is ready to leave Cairo and will send some shells against the New Madrid garrison while a Union force will assault the town.
3. Longstreet's corps, in the same region as most of the ANV army is waiting for the Yankees. Details on Hood's division showing the exact composition of the unit.
4. With Burnside operations, only Fort Macon is still in the hands of the Confederates. The garrison is ready to fire on any Union fleet trying to run past them.
Feature #14 National Morale, winning or losing
National Morale represents the will to fight of the nation. It is perhaps the most important parameter of your faction. Not only it conditions if you win or lose, but before this occurs it will alters significantly many of the game aspects for you!
Each scenario has a set of objectives: Richmond, Washington but also Vicksburg for example. When you conquer these objectives, your morale will raise, and the enemy's one will fall.
National Morale directly affects the cohesion of your units which impacts on how fast they move and how well they fight.
How your economy output assets and currencies.
How many conscripts will answer the call or how interesting are some Special Faction Options are tied to the Morale Level. Don’t expect to get many volunteers if your morale starts to fall.
Last but not least, if your morale fall below a level, or if it goes above a level, you can instantly lose or win the scenario (or the campaign)! These levels can vary in the course of a scenario/Campaign what's more, eg before the 1864 Election, the Union is particularly vulnerable to a morale loss.
small shot showing Morale and Victory points (with an extended tooltip for whose wanting to know the rule without having to read the manual
)
Feature #15 Songs and Sounds
Compared to our first game, Birth of America, you will experience quite an upgrade in the sound department too.
First the soundtrack. No less than 19 different instrumental songs. All made by musicians of the 2nd South Carolina Band, professional artists well versed in the American Civil War on many aspects.
As you'll be planning your moves, you'll be hearing the ACW classics, recorded specially for AGEOD: When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Dixie's Land, Bonnie Blue Flag, Battlecry of Freedom, Battle Hymn of the Republic, etc. etc.
But that's not all. The game sounds are now made by Michael Huang (he is the man behind the sounds of Dominions I, II, III games, published by Shrapnelgames, and they are rather good). There is now 70 sounds in AACW, from infantry marching to mortar shelling fortifications, cavalry charges, sharpshooters skirmishing, shells landing in the sea, steamers on river, locomotives, etc.
With such an environment, we hope the gaming experience will be even more immersive.
Feature # 16 Assets and currencies
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.
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.
Feature # 17 Calling volunteers and Conscriptions
One cool feature of AACW is that most of your conscript points (meaning any men sent into service including volunteers) are not generated from a given income by your cities.
As most of you know, men enlisting in American Civil War regiments fluctuated wildly. Volunteers responded to the calls, massively at first (On to Richmond!) and when the true horror of the war (simulated by a fall of your National Morale) became apparent, the Union and Confederate governements had to switch to more drastic measures such as paying a bounty to people and even introducing conscription.
This is simulated (but abstracted a bit as you act at the national level, not state by state) by the Drafting Options page of the Ledger. You have several sets of choices.
First, the volunteers. You can get conscripts for free by issuing a call to arms, every 6 months. You can only expect to have a significant number of men if your morale is very high. The good thing is that it costs you nothing.
An alternate solution is that you can give a bounty to incentivise men to join the ranks. You have here 3 levels of bounty possible, costing more and more money but bringing more conscripts into your army. These solutions don't appeal much to people but are still bearable for most of them so you will suffer a light penalty in National Morale.
Finally, conscription. Full or partial. Here you will get a massive number of men (depending on historical census), and don't have to pay anything in money. But in introducing conscription you are basically saying to the population that the war is not exactly going as you expected. Therefore you will have to pay a cost in National Morale!
Feature #18: Riverine operations
AACW has features which allow the player to correctly simulate one of the major aspects of the Civil War: riverine operations.
First, land units can use Riverine Transport Points drawn from a global pool to move along uncontested rivers. These points represent mostly unarmed small steam boats and can be bought with money and war supplies (a generic term meaning manufactured heavy materials ).
The players also have individual Riverine Transport units at their disposal. These are even more versatile since you can use them for amphibious operations, with protection from gunboats or river ironclads if needed. Beware of forts and artilleries positions along river though, as they can sink these units rather easily. Some commanders have the unique traits of reducing this damage or even preventing it completely if they are really lucky.
But that's not all! Because military operations won't last long if supply doesn't flow correctly, here too the riverine boats play a major role. The supply lines are able to run down rivers if you have enough points in your riverine pool, and your transport counter can even be converted at an anchorage into a supply depot! Another nice option is to keep them as ships and they will distribute what supplies they have aboard to nearby troops .
2nd Division is using river boats to run down the river, while Porter Ironclads will open the way just some days before.
Feature #19: Partisans
Partisan activities, such as what the Union suffered from bushwackers in the Shenandoah Valley or from guerillas in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee also play a part in AACW.
Partisans can appear in states where they were historically active if the enemy controls most of the territory but with too few troops. Spontaneous appearances of partisans, made up of small bands of men, will then occur in the wildest regions of the area. In game terms the units are small and not very fit to engage in open fights but have an excellent hiding capacity, can launch ambushes and move very fast, all without the need of a leader.
As partisans, they get heavily penalized if they leave their respective home states. You can use them to retake an enemy town, or most interestingly, to burn a depot or stockpile. You can keep them in hilly terrain or wilderness regions so that they remain hidden and then have them jump on unexpected supply wagons (transported by rail or moving by normal mean), thus crippling logistics assets at an opportune moment!
As the opponent of partisan attacks, you will have to patrol the area, engage the enemy (but regulars are penalized in wild terrain!) or at least guard important locations. Since partisans are very mobile, they can often escape a fight even if in the same region as an enemy, so be sure to bring fast units such as cavalry or rangers (if you have some to spare). They will do marvels in counter-insurgency operations!
Confederate bushwacker.
Confederate bushwacker (2nd version)
Feature #20: Keep your resolution!
Or choose the one you want...
AACW is using the AGE engine which can be used in all resolutions your video card can supports. This means that you can play with an undistorted view but there is more!
1. as your resolution climb, the game will show your more regions.
2. as your resolution climb, the main interface panel will enlarge itself.
The second point is notable, because as we are using 2D arts it means that we are using alternate arts and not just elongating (this would be ugly) the interface.
Case in point, here are some examples:
Minimum resolution allowed, 1024x768. The main panel shows at most 6 units.
1152x864 resolution, panel extended to 8 units. Same view but more regions shown. Top panels are bit more spaced.
1280x1024 resolution, 9 units shown:
1440x900 resolution, even more regions and units (I'm in windowed mode as I don't have a widescreen, but it works the same):
Massive 1600x1200 res:
'I'm a weirdos' 1333x777 windowed resolution:
Feature #21 Financials options
How did the governments of the conflict gain money during these four dreadful years?
Mostly through exceptional measures. They received some regular and recurring income from various sources but this was far from being sufficient. AACW gives you three sets of options to simulate this.
Issuing War Bonds (several interest rates proposed):
This was a popular decision. The government promised more money in the future in return of some money now. The higher the interest rate, the more people were attracted. They do have to believe a bit in your chance to repay their loan though!
In game terms, War Bonds don't cost you National Morale as this is not a mandatory measure, but as you are selling a bit of your future (if you have one, for the Confederacy this is not so evident) the game will make you pay in Victory Points, the milleage used to ascertain how successful you were in a given game.
You can only use this option once a year.
Exceptionnal taxes (several taxes proposed):
Not very popular as this was a mandatory measure and something that the Americans of the times were unused to. These don't please the people but you can harvest quite a bit of money with them. The amount collected is based on how many population points you have, modified by you current victory point total.
Inflation will also increase slightly (all your units and investments will cost more).
You can only use this option once a year.
Printing paper money:
Even if it appears as an easy solution that you can use at will (every month if you want!), it is the "desperate man's" response to a lack of money. Inflation will soon go through the roof, so use this one with care lest you totally cripple your economy and thus your war effort by printing tons of worthless paper.
Feature # 22 : traits & Abilities
In AACW, as in real life, many combat elements and leaders represented have special abilities or quirky traits. These improve the historical flavor of the game and can really tip a battle when used wisely or cause a disaster if not.
Some examples:
Leader traits -
Cavalryman: 25% combat bonus when leading cavalry elements in clear, desert or plain (unconstricted) terrain.
Fast Mover: 25% move bonus to the whole stack.
Master Driller: Occasionally improves training of the elements under his command.
American-Indian: Leader may command Indian units without a command penalty.
Reckless: Commander is less likely to retreat from battle.
Railroad Expert: No minimum % of control required to use railroads. Railroad repair time reduced by 50%.
Poor Scouting: Often misled by faulty reports, this leader increases throughout the area the Hide value of all enemy stacks by 1 if the leader with this trait is the Commander in Chief in the area.
Element abilities -
Engineer: Reduce the time needed by the parent stack to build trenches.
Ranger Survival: The parent unit uses less food in wild terrain.
Crossing Expert: Reduces the time needed by the parent stack to cross rivers.
Screener: The unit can negate some losses during rout.
Sharpshooter: The parent unit gains +1 initiative in combat.
There are several important aspects of traits and abilities to consider.
First, traits and abilities apply conditionally. For example, consider the Cavalryman trait. The benefit from this trait only apply when cavalry that are lead by this leader fight in unconstrained terrain. Trying to charge horses in mountainous terrain won't give much benefit! The Ranger trait also illustrates this in that the unit is made, at least partially, of hunters so the parent unit can reduce how much food is consumed while the unit is in woods and forest terrain due to local foraging. Forget the bonus if you are camping in open terrain!
Also, traits and/or abilities, while possessed by either leaders or elements, can share their benefits (or curses) with the parent unit, or even the whole stack. And finally, traits and abilities can add or subtract from each other in some very interesting ways. While having 2 elements that are Crossing Experts will not double the time reduction in time for crossing a water obstacle, having them in a stack with an leader that is Reckless will allow your stack to get to a battle quickly if it has to cross rivers AND then not retreat so easily once there.
See the glossary for a detailed description of elements, units and stacks.
Glossary:
Element: The smallest fighting component in AACW. For example, a regiment, an artillery battery or a special company.
Unit: A collection of elements. A division or a brigade is made of regiments (= elements).
Stack: A collection of units. A corps is made of divisions and brigades.
To illustrate this point, consider the following examples. You have a sharpshooter company in your brigade. Because they help suppress the enemy reactivity (lieutenant's take cover when there are sharpshooters around!), the whole brigade (yours!) can fire first more often and not just the sharpshooter company.
Or, lets say, you have a Crossing Expert element in a stack. This is a company of bridge layers ... but they will help several divisions move faster by laying pontoon bridges across river obstacles along the route of movement.
An early screenshot which is not giving justice to the ability system (I will update it within a few days). Jackson will have several abilities as you can expect from this superb commander, and the Detail Window will include several new informations.
Feature #23 : Zooming-out and colored overlays (filters)
AACW features several levels of smooth zoom-out, handled simply by the mouse wheel. The normal view is best to plan operations up to 5 provinces away from your army, but you can zoom-out at any time to decrease the map scale down to 25% of its original size to get a clearer picture of the war.
Another form of helper is the presence of 6 colored overlays. These are displayed either by pressing a button or with the TAB key. They are:
1. Military control mode. Shows the regions where you have significant patrols or presence (even if you don't have an actual army). Having more than 50% control in a region means that your patrols are able to detect passing enemy armies and can even prevent retreat if a battle ensued!
2. Supply mode: Very handy to know what regions will block the passage of supply and where your main stockpiles are.
3. Loyalty mode: Shows where there are rebel or pro-union populations. Loyalty is a very important aspect of the war (more later...), influencing partisans, production and fog of war.
4. Objectives mode: Show regions where the city is an objective or earns you victory points.
5. States mode: Show US States, each with it's own color.
6. Department mode: Show US Departments (Grand Regions/Districts) each with a color.
Partially zoomed-out view (50%) showing the supply filter. The regions where Union supply can enter are shown in green. The crates indicate the size of the stockpile in a city.
Feature # 24 : Population loyalty and counter-insurgency options
The loyalty of the population is of tremendous importance to both sides. Loyalty determines how a given region will react to enemy presence in several ways, and has a large impact on the amount of supply and production you can get from the region.
Having high loyalty in a region will provide better intelligence on enemy moves in the region and in those adjacent to it, but not as much as if you have good scouting units like cavalry and partisans. Also, regions that are very loyal to you and are enemy controlled, but that are not garrisoned by enemy troops will gradually revert into your control. Military control represents small combat units actively patrolling the region and their control of the land (this function is handled by the game and does not require the player to do anything other than leave troops in the region to gain more control percentage). Last, but not least, you will want to have the highest loyalty possible in your production regions, because people have to be on your side to sustain the war effort.
On the other hand, you will have trouble in areas which are not loyal to you. Partisans can appear, cities that you hold without a garrisoning unit can switch sides if there is unrest in the region the land (90% or more loyalty for the other side) and local people will gather & forward information on your moves to the enemy!
What are your options for counter-insurgency? You have many. On the local scale, you can keep a significant garrison in the region, to progressively suppress the activists (backed by a leader with a bonus in suppression, if possible, like Butler in New Orleans). Or you can focus your armies on taking most of the strategic cities of the state, thus disheartening your foe: this will reduce how loyal the population is to him in this state.
Finally, you can act on the state level, by tweaking the Domestic Policies screen! This screen let you decide, state by state, how much you restrict the individual liberties of the population. You can choose between Normal Rights, Suspend Habeas Corpus or Establish Martial Law. Depending on your choice, the loyalty of the people in each region of that state will start to gradually shift. Note that there are bad points to some policies though. For example, the restricted liberty policies will cost you Victory Points, and harsher policies will lower the population's loyalty in a region faithful to you even as they keep the malcontents in line.
Feature #25 : Defensive fire & trench warfare
As you know, the end of the Civil War contained many characteristics that would become typical of the style of warfare experienced by armies during World War I. The most notable example of this was the Petersburg Campaign which lasted 9 months, and saw both sides facing each other, installed in a network of trenches. As the Civil War progressed, defensive fire became more and more lethal relative to the firepower that could be generated by a brigade on the attack (eg Pickett's Charge, one of the most notoriously useless slaughters of the war).
In AACW, trenches play a big role. Armies will construct dug in positions in a matter of days, the first level being done in very short time (the Strategic ability of the general will influence this time, and some abilities provided by either commanders or troops can hasten the process significantly). Infantry can have up to 4 levels of entrenchment, each being more and more effective in providing cover. What's more, artillery units can go up to level 8, with the highest level being considered as permanent field fortifications, like the positions around Washington, Island 10 and Vicksburg. (in addition to the fort of the city)! Starting at level 5, artillery can even fire on ships passing by and prevent the passage of riverine supply in adjacent regions. Last but not least, the artillery fire also increases in power when the unit is entrenched (in addition to the strong protection provided).
Starting in late 1862, your troops will start to upgrade equipment. We went with some automation and abstraction here, as we did not want the player to get bogged down in attending to each regiment in order to change rifle types. We thus distinguish between early infantry and late infantry. Both have a defensive fire which is stronger than the offensive fire, but the late infantry is even more one-sided in this respect. The same process applies to cavalry, with the Union having a big advantage over the Confederacy, with a faster upgrade rate. This is to simulate the Union cavalry's possession of the Sharps Carbine late in the war which was able to fire several shots in a matter of seconds. This is reflected by an increased fire rate for the unit. Also, you may see the appearance of some Gatling guns on the Union side, even if the machine was very experimental and did not impact significantly on major battles.
Trench levels are shown graphically, on map, as an optional indicator. The gun indicates that each army has significant artillery support.
Feature #26 : Military control and its subtleties
Military control in AACW is one of the features that are not readily apparent when you start playing. As with many of the features of the game you can even ignore it during some games and still have fun. But it is there, and it works in a discreet way to further the realism and historicity of the game.
What must be known regarding Military Control is that it is not binary. In most games, you either possess a region or you don't, period. Not so in AACW, you can have a share of the region and your opponent can have the rest. Just imagine that, as in real war, you hold a part of the region, and your enemy is just 5 kilometers ahead of your positions and is ready to welcome you if you try to go on the offensive. In the game, you can coexists in the same region without fighting your opponent if both armies are in defensive posture; and both can also entrench! If one switches to Offensive mode, it won't get any terrains benefits but your foe will. And if you succeed in inflicting more losses compared to him, even if he doesn't retreat you will have gained ground (expressed in ... military control percentage as you probably guessed). This can occur up to a point where he has such a small percentage that he will have no others option but to switch to the offensive (this will be done by the engine as a mandatory posture) or retreat.
Another set of niceties impacted by this rule is that if you don't hold part of a region while you cross a river, you are considered to cross it under fire. On the other hand, if because of a previous action you already have a given percentage (11%+) representing a bridgehead, an army crossing it and attacking the enemy won't suffer any penalty.
Military control can be gained rather easily when you are alone. Leave some units in a region for 1 or 2 turns and voila it is entirely yours. If there is a enemy, the percentage won't move at all unless you gain some ground with an assault. This helps the game simulate intricate situations like the Petersburg siege, where each side was facing each other on a 30 miles long network of trenches and had to use all kinds of tricks to gain some ground (see the Battle of the Crater for one truely amazing story of what happened during this siege).
Finally, military control is heavily tied to the concept of zones of control. This feature represents how tightly an army asserts its control in a region, in case of enemy presence. Each of your stacks generate ZOC points in the region they are in (and not to adjacents regions, contrary to boardgames). This ZOC rating will lock enemy into place, preventing them from bypassing your army to wreck havoc in your rear (but cavalries and irregulars are adept at bypassing ZOCs!). See the screenshot below for a example of this feature.
On this screenshot, the AI sent Magruder's Division to push back the Peninsula Army. After a short fight, the Union detachment (not a real army as you see) breaks battle and retreats into the town, still in the same region. Now if you select the Union stack, you see that the region behind the CSA force is in red... why? because Magruder is preventing the yanks from moving past him towards Richmond. If you want more details, a tooltip also provides you with more information.
Feature #27 : Structures
AACW has different structures, each of which has a special role. They can be grouped into the 'cityscape' which is the standard place where most structures are placed. Some can be independent, an old pre-war fortifications along the coast for example.
Cities and towns: These structures are defined by a level between 1 and 20. Cities can produce many assets such as general supply (aka food&water but also shoes, uniforms and such), ammunition, war supplies (mainly used to build cannons and ships but also required for infantry units), money (mainly derived from the financial or political screens, or from a region well known for it's mines), Conscripts (very few cities produce them regularly, most are acquired though the Draft Options). Cities are also the places where new units appears (with the exception of partisans and irregulars units).
A town is basically a city, but of level 1 to 3. The main difference is that town can't send supply forward during the Supply distribution phase, you will need to add a depot to the settlement if you want supply to be 'pushed' further.
Forts: Forts can be either pre-war forts, which can't be built and are outside cities, and new permanents fortifications made mostly of earthworks, ACW-style. Forts in cities provide very big defensive benefits but are costly. On the other hand, cities are not able to provide a good defensive bonus so you are better to defend outside a city most of the time (you can at least benefit from the terrain and you are not besieged). Both structures allow units to build a network of trenches so if you manage to build permanent forts and have a high level network of trenches (like around Washington), the enemy will have to pay extremely dearly to get to the capitol!
Depots: Another very important structure, depots are able to stockpile and then push forward the supply during the Supply Phase. A good network of depots (every 5 regions or so) is mandatory if you want to have your supply (produced in the rear areas) moved towards the front. This is true for the Union, which produce a massive amount of supplies in his northern cities, but the Confederate also needs this to a lesser extent. States such as Virginia and Tennessee just can't sustain all Confederates armies by themselves.
Harbors: harbors, as you can guess, are to shelter ships so that they can be built and repaired.
Feature #28 : Industrialization
Although AGEod's American Civil War is not a civilization-like game, we felt it necessary to give some tools to the players so that they could experience some of the problems that faced Davis and Lincoln, relative to sustaining the war effort. The challenge was far more daunting for the Confederates, who started the war with less than 10% of the industrial potential of the North. The industrial output of the South in war materials amounted to nearly nothing in the summer 1861, with the Tredegar Ironworks (the most famous foundry in the South) unable to mount even a single gun at the start of the war. Still, four years later, their total production was above 1000 rifle guns (out of 2200-2500 actually produced in the South). Other famous accounts include stories of how the Southerners managed to grab every piece of metal available to be melted in rifles and gun (from bells and such), or how they managed to produce enough black power for their armies from basically nothing to start with.
In AACW you act at the State level to industrialize your country. Each state where you own at least a strategic city can have its output improved in supply, ammunition and war supplies (heavy materials). You just have to request the desired level of industrialization and as time passes you will get new factories, magazines and ironworks (simulated through the increased production of these 3 assets) in some chosen regions of the state. It is generally better to develop continuously, even at a slow pace, the industry in a given State but the North can afford to spend much more in this area and can engage in a heavy and fast industrialization process if this is the priority of the player (but the return on investement will be lower, for the same level of spending, compared to a slower pace).
Also to be considered is how fit is the choosen State for industrialization. Some were very biased towards agriculture with poor possibilities of sudden industrial expansion and this is also taken into account. As you can guess, some Union States have a very good potential and, on the other side, some Confederate States (Texas, Florida etc) won't give a good return on investment even with large investments (not that the CSA has the resources to spend anyway!).
The South won't be able to keep pace with the North here but significant progress can still be made during the war, and this will be needed as losses can be extremely costly to replace. You will have many guns or butter choices presented to you, between developping your industry, equiping your conscripts, replacing your rolling stock, forging new guns and mortars or perhaps even constructing some ironclads?
And let's not forget one of the wild cards of the South: Blockade Runners and Commerce Raiders... more later!
Feature # 29 : Special Orders
Specials Orders in AACW is the tool provided to the player in order to adjust finely how you want your armies and fleets to interact with the map or your enemy. Not all are available at a given time, as many are contextual to the place where is your army (build something eg), how able is your commander (if he is activated eg), or need to be triggered by a special unit or a specific condition (promoting a general eg).
Here is the list of orders which will be available. Don't hesitate to ask questions!
Ambush: Irregular units, like partisans, indians, rangers and raiders can try to set an ambush in wild, hilly or forrested regions. If they succeed they will have great combat benefits against an enemy entering the region, including first fire and the possibility to retreat easily.
Forced March: Forced march allows the force to move at a faster pace, but stragglers will result in a loss of combat potential. Good leaders and light units are more able to succeed.
Shelter in cityscape (when movement end): The force will enter the cityscape (city or fort) in the region they end their move. Useful when you want to garrison a structure with a force away from it at the start of the turn.
Make a (conditional) sortie: Your force is currently within a besieged fort or city. By ordering a sortie, it will join any combat initiated by a relief force outside the structure.
Naval Bombardment: Your fleet has some bombardment capacity and will bombard the first coastal structure or entranched position they encounter, provided you also have a force in the target region (support bombardment only). The enemy can retaliate in force if he has emplaced batteries (beware entrenched guns!).
Build a depot: The force will build a depot, by expanding 2 supply units.
Build a Fortification: The force will build a fortification network, by expanding 2 supply units and 2 artilleries units.
Build rail network/repair rail network: The force will build or repair the rail network in the region. Repairing is far faster and less costlier than building.
Destroy Rail network: The force will destroy the rail network in the region.
Destroy Fortification: The force will destroy the fortification in the region.
Move by River: The force can now benefit from the Riverine privileged Movement, and can travel much more quickly accross rivers during the turn.
Move by Rail: The force can now benefit from the Rail privileged Movement, allowing it to spend one day only for each region traveled, without significant fatigue for the soldiers.
Synchronized Move: The Army HQ and subordinates corps in the same region will move together, at the pace of the slowest corps.
Promote a leader: The leader has gained enough seniority to be eligible for promotion to a new rank.
Combine Units: The selected units can be combined into a single one. If a division HQ is in the selection, you will be able to detach them later, if not the combined units return to the force pool and fill up the rank of the first selected unit.
Detach from unit: The unit is made of several, agregated units and will be split.
Form up an army: You form an army by combining a GHQ unit with a leader of rank 3. The stack is now acting as an Army HQ and corps can be attached to it.
Dismiss an army: The army is dismissed, thus reverting to independent force status. All corps are dismissed too and revert to independent force status.
Attach corps to army: A stack containing a 3 or 2 -stars leader is declared as a corps of an army nearby.
Detach corps from army: The corps is detached from its parent army and revert to independent force status.
Evade fight (land or naval): the force is trying to escape fight in traveled regions. The chances are based on the Evasion value you have compared to the Patrol value your enemy has in the regions.
Early board of the special orders planned. Some are deprecated, some are not shown.
Feature # 30 : Recruiting and building units
AGEod's American Civil War let you recruit units (or build in case of ships) of various types. Each has a cost in money, conscripts and heavy war materials (aka War Supplies), but as you can expect the cost vary enormously between the units types. These 'assets' (money, conscripts, War Supplies) are stocked at the national level, and are produced either via historical options that you can trigger yourself (taxes, drafting) or are produced continuously (war supplies in the fabrics and magazines you possess in cities).
Most units have a force pool, either for a given state, of a given Department (several states together). So you can recruit (if you have the assets) with some liberty many units, but you just can't do very ahistorical things, like having Florida fielding 40 brigades, or having an army only made of horse-drawn artillery and cavalry brigades escorted by an hord of gatling guns!
The screen below should let you understand the underlying principles of the system. We hope you will enjoy the look of them too!
Disclaimer: some little things are yet to be finished, like a better choice of colors for the NATO symbols and States, size of the minimap should be expanded by +50% and the exact name of the unit will be reviewed.