March to the Sound of the Guns (MTSG)

[Longshanks]

One of my current tourney players is asking about the "rules" for MTSG. This is a good topic for new players and for veterans alike, as his questions have gotten into some areas I've never thought about.

Feel free to add your knowledge on these matters!

1. Is the Stance of Target Corps important?

2. Does a MTSG Corps with offensive stance have a better chance to MTSG?

3. Am I correct that distance does matter - further away lower the chance?

4. Am I correct that rivers impede MTSG move and Bridges can assist MTSG move?

5. Am I correct that target and MTSG must be in same Army.

6. If the Target corps moved before the battle is MTSG still possible?

7. If the reinforcing MTSG Corps moves before the battle is MTSG still possible?

8. If the opposing side has a commander with surpriser ability could this prevent MTSG?

9. What else is pertinent that I have forgotten to ask about?

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

1. Is the Stance of Target Corps important?

2. Does a MTSG Corps with offensive stance have a better chance to MTSG?

3. Am I correct that distance does matter - further away lower the chance?

4. Am I correct that rivers impede MTSG move and Bridges can assist MTSG move?

5. Am I correct that target and MTSG must be in same Army.

6. If the Target corps moved before the battle is MTSG still possible?

7. If the reinforcing MTSG Corps moves before the battle is MTSG still possible?

8. If the opposing side has a commander with surpriser ability could this prevent MTSG?

9. What else is pertinent that I have forgotten to ask about?

1. Yes. No MTSG on green. Lower chance on blue. Higher chance on orange/red.
2. see above
3. yes. Every day it takes to move to the target region lowers the chance by some %. (I wanna say 5-10%)
4. yes. Rivers make it take longer to get to the region, so that lowers the chance.
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. Don't know but I doubt it.
9. If you have 2 corps seperated by some regions but connected by rail with the rail button active, it can make MTSG possible over long distances. I've actually never tried it, but it should work in theory. Note: you'd also have to have rail control of the intervening and target regions.

[lodilefty]

3. It's not distance in regions, but rather days to move. Having RR move turned on drastically increases chance to MSTTG, and the force will arrive with more cohesion...

8. No. You just get 20% increased chance of 'first fire'

9. The Army HQ stack has a higher probability [lower penalty] of moving to support. Thus Army HQ is best 'reserve' force.
Note: remember that Army Stack cannot initiate combat if any other friendly unit is in region [yes, even a 'naked' supply unit]

[gchristie]

Having RR move turned on drastically increases chance to MSTG, and the force will arrive with more cohesion...

I do declare, after three years of playing this game I'm continually learning something new...or else my memory needs an upgrade. So forces that you think might need to MTSG should have the rail option selected even if they aren't ordered to move. I guess they just move the rail cars into the trenches

Seriously, does having the force on hold at all costs blue/red make the force more likely to MTSG, or do just the top ROE buttons matter?

[Jim-NC]

There had been some beautiful posts about this a while back.
try this one
or
maybe this one

[Captain_Orso]

How convenient of you to start this thread right when I need it. Thx Longshanks

In my current PBEM game a rather odd MTSG occurred. Jackson was between Memphis and Corinth. He started moving towards the Mississippi at the same time that I attacked Corinth from the north. The battle occurred on day 4 and maybe Jackson was already in Tipton (Covington) on day 4 or not, but he was on his way, but still managed to arrive in Corinth by crossing a river to take part in the battle.

Then he continued on his merry way, when on day 6 Sherman attacked Memphis. However Jackson, now closer to Memphis than he was to Corinth when he MTSG, did not MTSG for Memphis. This screen shot if from during the battle of Corinth and taken from the replay. Obviously the unit placement is not completely coordinated with the day, because Ord and Grant (behind the battle report) are both both back in their starting locations, and Jackson appears to have never gone back to Corinth, because he would have had that much more ground to cover, nor while playing the replay does he more than just pause a moment during the battle and then slides along again toward the Mississippi.



It seems to me therefore that how far along a corp is with it's move away from the battle, it just teleports to the battle and then teleports back to where he was before the battle stated. If it takes 6 days for the attacker to enter the region and the battle starts on day 4, that leaves little time for Jackson, moving in the other direction, to counter-march, cross a river and arrive on time to take part in the the battle. Just when the heck did those guns start booming that Jackson could hear them and counter-march?

[Longshanks]

Heh, Orso! I live to serve. Plus, some topics just never seem to have an end to their subtleties.

[Captain_Orso]

Longshanks You may not, as you say, be the master of the battlefield, but you are the master of organization. Without threads like this we would have no idea where all the information is .

Jim I followed your links and the links in those links and the links in the links in those links and ... I learned a lot. There's a lot of goings-on from when AACW was still having a lot of dents hammered out and from the heroes of day-one.

Pat Knew every answer, save one. This is why Pat has earned the greatest respect as an opponent and as a contributor to this forum, plus his avatar is really handsom .

Lodilefty You always seem to be there to fill in the blanks, put things into perspective, set things on the right path ... is there anything you don't do to make this game and this forum all that much greater? I wonder some times where you find the time and energy.

Were this not an historical game I would suggest that your names be honorarily be given to generals and... oh wait, Pat already has one .

Okay, enough of the laudatory.

To answer my own questions, MTSG is an abstract of the Real-World™ military action of one force coming to the aid of another. The game calculates whether the marching force would arrive on time to partake in a battle, taking stance, distance, obstacles, leadership traits and everything affecting movement into account to calculate the percentage of success, and makes a percentage Die Role to determine success or failure.

If the DR is successful, that force takes part in the battle.

If not, it doesn't.

Once the battle is over, there is a small chance that the marching force cannot return on time to its original location (depending on the distance and length of the battle and when the battle actually took place from my experience), in which case it remains in the battle region.

Because this concept is an abstract, the actual movement does not take place in game turns other than the marching force 'being' in the battle location, a force can MTSG to different battles in the same turn, which actually take place on or near the same day. It is abstract.

This is the reason that Jackson's Corp didn't seem to do more than just pause for the day of the battle in Corinth, because that's what it actually did.

Why he didn't partake in the Memphis battle I will have to assume lays with fate. Jackson having fought in Corinth would have lost some cohesion and probably having finally reached Tipton, in game terms, lost some there too. These would contribute to the DR to determine Jackson's ability to MTSG again. As stated, unless the percentage chance of a force to MTSG is 100%, there is still a chance that it won't. My luck in that case.

Ergo WAD.

[Jim-NC]

Jim I followed your links and the links in those links and the links in the links in those links and ... I learned a lot. There's a lot of goings-on from when AACW was still having a lot of dents hammered out and from the heroes of day-one.

To answer my own questions, MTSG is an abstract of the Real-World™ military action of one force coming to the aid of another. The game calculates whether the marching force would arrive on time to partake in a battle, taking stance, distance, obstacles, leadership traits and everything affecting movement into account to calculate the percentage of success, and makes a percentage Die Role to determine success or failure.

If the DR is successful, that force takes part in the battle.

If not, it doesn't.

Once the battle is over, there is a small chance that the marching force cannot return on time to its original location (depending on the distance and length of the battle and when the battle actually took place from my experience), in which case it remains in the battle region.

The threads I indicated looked better before someone deleted their posts. There are some gaps from what I remember (unfortunately I can't remember what was discussed in said missing posts).

The chance to not return appears to be calculated by time left in turn. I have had several corps fail to arrive back in their original positions when the battle is on day 14 or 15, but never on day 3. So the game engine must make some sort of calculation based on days to return vs days left.