Union Manpower Issues

[Micah Goodman]

I am playing a GC game and it is the spring of 1862. In every theater I am outnumbered by the Confederates. The only thing saving me is two succesive vitories over the South where there losses were 10,000 to 25,000 more than mine. I currently hold all of Kentucky and Missouri but I have a feeling this is about to change. The rebel army in Nashville is approximately 5,000 men more than mine, a confederate army in Arkansas is about 10,000 more than my army in Missouri and I have another weak (10,000 man or so army just south of Cairo Illinois. The confederate army in Virginia before the battles at Fredicksburg was about 20,000 men more than mine. Aside, from some initial militia builds to garrison cities I have built mostly regular units. Because of the heavy fighting from east to west I have spent the past month just buying replacement units and my armies are still weak throughout. What am I doing wrong here?

The most I can hope for all along the front is to sit still for the summer while I rebuild. A few probing attacks have resulted in losses or draws for me. Should I be building more militia units for my armies? Oh I forgot to add I have no reserves left. Aside form a few militia units in key cities everything is located on the front line.

[arsan]

Hi Micah!

Are you using the options on the ledger to get more conscripst?
I mean the different pay for volunteers and the conscription options.
Do you know you can cycle through different version for each ledger option if you clic over the texts on the ledger?
Your monthly 30 or so conscripts companies you receive are just a little help. You must use these ledger options (usable two times a year, they reset at June and December if I'm not wrong) as yur main sources of men.
Depending of you NM, you can get more than 700 conscript companies at once with some or the more costly ones.
Of course you should balance this with the $, VP and NM cost of the different recruiting options.

Do a search on the forum with terms like "conscription" and you will finds lots of comments and strategies about this.
Hope it helps!
Regards

[Micah Goodman]

I have done both the manpower options call for volunteers and partial mobilization. I have noticed that the south can call for full mobilization while I have been only able to do a partial mobilization. Is there a reason for this?

[arsan]

I have done both the manpower options call for volunteers and partial mobilization. I have noticed that the south can call for full mobilization while I have been only able to do a partial mobilization. Is there a reason for this?

Hi Micah
As i explained above, try clicking with the mouse over the partial mobilization option and it will become full mobilization. USA can do it too
By clicking on every text option you access to different version of the option.
Regarding volunteers, for example, you can offer different sums of $ to the volunteers to get more.
The same happens with economical and diplomatic options. On all you can click to cycle.
Regards!

[ohms_law]

There really should be buttons or something drawn on the ledger screens. This is something that I had trouble with as well, when I was getting started. I had to read a post here before I figured it out, myself.

[arsan]

There really should be buttons or something drawn on the ledger screens. This is something that I had trouble with as well, when I was getting started. I had to read a post here before I figured it out, myself.

Yes, many people have problems noticing this. But i cannot understand why.
As soon as you pass the mouse over the options texts a tool tip appears telling you to click to rotate between options
It seems people don't like to read tooltips

[Coregonas]

Dont forget you can also PAY for volunteers (specially if you are a Rich Federal government).

Also... dont forget to buy low quality troops... Buying all your army with Elites and wonderful brigades is helping the enemy in balancing the odds.

[Zebedee]

It depends on how long the tooltip setting is put for, whether or not you'll see the tooltip

Got to confess I only realised you could do this when someone posted about right-clicking to change financial options about a week after I had the game, or I'd never have known

[ohms_law]

Yes, many people have problems noticing this. But i cannot understand why.
As soon as you pass the mouse over the options texts a tool tip appears telling you to click to rotate between options
It seems people don't like to read tooltips

It's obvious once you get used to it. Once you understand the AGEod interface, it quickly becomes second nature to look for and read the tool tips.

However... the problem is that Windows is generally not designed that way. The standard "look and feel" of Windows itself and most apps designed for it limits the use of tool tips. Indeed, The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design specifically recommends that tool tips not be used for immediately important information. This is a great example of why not.

The decision was made a long time ago to rely on tool tips though, so I don't see a reason to change that. For the ledgers though, I think it's probably important to put some sort of visual clue there that you should be looking for a tool tip. At the very least, a question mark graphic could be added or something really simple like that.

[Pocus]

Tooltips are great because you can put a lot of information in zero-space, until the person move the mouse over the right area. This save really a lot of space that would not be found anyway. That said, another problem is that DirectX applications are a PITA when it comes to GUI making, and tooltips are made in no time compared to justifying texts on a window (if you ever have the room to put it) or adding buttons or visual components.

[ohms_law]

Oh, beleive me, you won't get any argument from me about any of that... like I said above, I don't think that anything fundamental should be changed. It's just that, as a new player, the tool tips in the ledger are extremely easy to miss. Once you're used to the interface it's obvious to look for them, but remember that we're talking about people that aren't at all used to the interface in these last few posts.
Just for those ledger screens, all that I'm suggesting is adding some sort of visual cue so that the new user knows to look for the tool tip. It doesn't need to be an actual button, or anything truly functional, just simply some sort of visual cue.

Looking for the tool tips is more natural on the main game screen, since you're going to be mousing over everything of interest anyway. What makes the ledger so different is simply that it's text, and I know from my own experience and from reading usability studies that people naturally will move the mouse cursor away from text. That's the real root of the problem with tool tip usage in the ledger.

[Coregonas]

Perhaps a solution would be to Configure a 0 second DELAY tooltip as DEFAULT (i.e. once you install the game), instead of a few seconds.

[arsan]

Perhaps a solution would be to Configure a 0 second DELAY tooltip as DEFAULT (i.e. once you install the game), instead of a few seconds.

The default delay option is 0 already. I know it because the first thing i do after installing or reinstalling a game is setting some delay on the tooltips (0 delay tooltips get on my nerves ).

But Ohmns_law may have a good point.
Maybe its not needed any button or any graphic. Just adding a line to all the ledger options texts that say "Click for more options" or something like that.

By the way, we still don't even know if Micah problems were related to this
Regards!

[Franciscus]

(...) Maybe its not needed any button or any graphic. Just adding a line to all the ledger options texts that say "Click for more options" or something like that. (...)

I agree.

And I confess that last year I spent probably more than a month playing (arduosly but bravely :neener as CSA without ever noticing I could change the ledger options...

[tagwyn]

Me Too!! apy:

[Micah Goodman]

Hi all,
yes my problem was not knowing I had other options. I kept moving my mouse button on the edge of those screens because I was used to interfaces that used an arrow button or something similar. I like the way the game deals with the interface when I figured out what I was missing. (I also let out a loud and auidable DOH!) I felt like I needed a helmet and a ride on the short bus. It also explained why the south outnumbered me so much in all of my battles! Heck it took arsan to post the answer twice before I got it!

But it has made a huge difference in my games! Thanks all for the help!

[Moriety]

Wow!

Glad I read this I've learnt of this one early- new toys!