'Turbo charge' your initial army!

[WillisNYC]

I posted this initially in reply to a newbie seeking help getting started but I want it to get a wider view and comments.

First off I must say that I really enjoy this wonderful game. It is complex, deep and strategic in a manner that I love.

However there are some basics that beginners can easily miss! I have been playing at least 200 hours of this game over the last month and just discovered yesterday that MANY of the options in the Draft, Financials and Politics Tabs are right clickable! Not only are they right clickable, but the changes that you can make here are DRAMATIC. I am sure this is old news to those of you who have been playing this game and perusing these forums for months, but this was astonishing to me.

I am no newbie to wargames like this, but if I had not read a passing reference to the right click on one of the posts here, I would still be ignorantly plodding along with minimal size armies because of the limitaions imposed when you right click. Let me explain to the other newbs:

For the Union, the amount of soldiers that you can draft in the first year is your limiting factor if you don't right click. Your initial Call for volunteers will net you 138 companies if do it on turn one with no right click. Right click and you discover that you can pay $3k per company and 2 NM points and get up to 433 companies! Thats a nearly 300% improvement that can make a huge difference. Partial Mobilization yields 532 companies, but right click and Full Mobilization appears and you can get 729 companies for an additional 50 VPs and 1 more NM point. You will quickly discover that you don't have enough money to pay for these additional companies to make them into units.

Onto the Financial screen where low and behold right click and you can raise more money at a faster clip too! 8% bonds are available to raise 311K right away and creat 2% inflation. Exceptional Taxes are available raising 373K instead of 117k. It costs you 1 more NM and 1% inflation but you need the money if you have the extra companies. Both of these measures have a middle setting for a little less money and cost, but the improvements add up to raising $684k instead of a piddling $221k which will enable you to start building out some of these additional companies that you now raised. Print some money and get inflation started cause you are going to need the money to convert all those extra companies into units!

All of this revelation leads a player to see the possibilities available during 1861 now! You can't build armies during the first two turns, so no need to draft soldiers. However you can raise money and you are damn well gonna need it once you bring in the drafts and mobilization on turn 3. So raise as much money as you can in the first two turns and then begin to mobilize and put together your now greatly expanded army on turn three. Don't forget to raise reinforcements and invest in your economy and infrastructure. (railways and transport ships) Lots of units are needed to man the borders, so huge numbers of militia should be raised in addition to planning on building out divisions as advised elsewhere in this discussion. The militia eventually convert to line troops, so raising most of your troops as militia is the cheapest option. Most of the time the troops stand around doing little fighting during much of 1861 anyway! The game converts roughly 10% of your militia troops to line troops every turn, so get them into the game where they can stand around, get trained up and become line troops!

Lastly, the options on the Politics tab are also right clickable! Other options besides the blockade are available for you to explore! The rebels have the same 'right clickable' options available to them so they can expand their initial armies also.

Being able to raise these huge numbers of troops in 1861 is the reason I am guessing that many of the more experienced players here are playing the mods that I am learning limit your ability to raise these huge early armies. I would appreciate if one of the oldtimers would comment on this and let me know if I should abandon playing without the mods if I wish to PBEM?

[arsan]

Hi!
You are not the first "veteran" player i heard of having this problem with the right clicking on the options
But i find it pretty astonishing!
There is a tooltip over each of this options that tells you to to right click for changing it!!!
Besides the explanation o the manual...
I'm sure you will enjoy the game a lot more now!
Regards

[Heldenkaiser]

Actually left clicking seems to work for me as well.

[Brochgale]

Actually left clicking seems to work for me as well.

I think left clicking is okay if signing for conscipt ponts and for partial mobilizations. However to change partial mobilzation to full mobilzation I have to right click to do that. Perhaps it has something to do with mouse settings? I dont know?

I am sure I read a previous thread about options on finnace/mobilzation/conscript screens and it does seem to confuse many new players.

I did not notice that one time I changed from partial to full mobilzation - only noticed after when I seen I had lost some points.

[MkollCSA]

thats wierd, i can left or right click to bring up the options....its okay i didnt figure that out until like week 3 after i bought the game......i only noticed it cause it kept saying "the USA has furthered its cause by enacting: 8% war bonds" and i was like "hey why cant i do that?" and i looked into some more...i dont know how many times i read over the book and still missed it....now i keep the good book beside me when i play so i can refer to it when i have questions on certain situations

[WillisNYC]

Arsan,
Nice to meet you sir and I must tell you that I love this wonderful game. However, I would like to share my experience of learning this game since I am certain that it illustrates the problems that other newbs may have and may prove enlightening to them if they read this thread. Also, please have the patience to read my sad story as I think it will help enlighten you as to why we poor users find learning this wonderful game to be such an amazingly frustrating experience. I hate to think how many newbs gave up in frustration because they lacked the faith to learn and know that a great game is hidden behind all the complexity and dare I say it, frustrationixity.

First off, let me preface everything by saying that I am not a novice around computers. I probably know more about computers and gaming on them than ANYONE I know except for my couple of computer progamming friends. I have logged COUNTLESS hours playing many different computer games especially CIV, Starcraft, Civil War Generals 2 (CWG2), Railroads, Panzer Generals and all its variants, as well as many other games. I play poker on the internet for a living and a lifetime ago I played nearly every Avalon Hill gaming title worth playing. (Russian Campaign, Third Reich, The Longest Day, Battle of the Bulge, Midway and MANY others they made!) Long story short, I love the complex games, but hate trying to learn new features when they are not literally easy to intuitively figure out. And AACW is has many features that are NOT intuitive. I am a literal person and literal explanation would help the author of the AM mightily!

I logged at least TWO HUNDRED hours playing this game before I found out about the right clicking you referred to! I went back and reread the almighty manual (AM) as I have many times while trying to learn this lovely game. The AM says : Procedure: Go to the "Draft" screen of the ledger...You can switch between the different options...by clicking on the text. Clicking did nothing to change my options! If the AM had said 'right' clicking on the text I would have been saved much frustration! Why I never read the last part of the pop up text that appears when your mouse hovers, I DO NOT KNOW. Call me an idiot but as you said above, I am not the only one that couldn't figure out that feature.

I am a literal person by nature and literalness would help greatly! Early on, I could not figure out how to create divisions. Of course I went to the AM in order to figure this process out. The AM must have been written by gremlins who wished to frustrate those of us who seek learning and functionality by perusing its contents. The AM says the following about creating divisions:
Procedure: To form a division, first select a General and press the 'Enable divisional command' button. Then select the units and the general to be included in the division and click the 'Create Division' Special Order. You can break down a division into its constituent units at any time and without any penalty.

I group the units and general in question together, the general is active (necessary but not mentioned in the text in this place) as I found out was necessary. When active the appropriate 'Enable Divisional Command' button is highlighted and I press it. All the other buttons remain greyed out so I wonder where is the 'Create Division' button referred to in the AM? I refer to the AM and finally find the list of buttons 12 pages away on page 39. I go down the list looking for a ' Create Division' button. If you look on pages 39 and 40 of the AM you will not find such a button and neither did I! A 'combine units' button mysteriously looks to be appropriate, but alas it is not highlighted after pushing the 'enable divisional command' button.

I did see the tutorial about Command Structure and thought, gee, maybe I will learn to create divisions here! I play the tutorial and learn all about Corps and Armies and Independent Corps. The divisions are already neatly made for me and I hope they appear that way in the game. So on to the game I go. I play Shiloh and happily win.

I then go on to the wonderful April Full Campaign. Almost immediately I am overwhelmed by the complexity of options and alas I find I am mightily hindered by my lack of being able to create divisions. I soldier on and learn most of the game aspects but not the elusive division creation process.

In frustration I think to look online for a forum about the game and come here. Wonderful I think, others will have written about this same problem. I read volumes of wonderful information helping me to learn more about this complex beast. I see that others are also affected by the complexity. No mention seemingly of anyone else trying to create divisions. After many hours, I finally stumbled across someone I wish I could now kiss. They mentioned that selecting units and a general while holding down the Ctrl button on the computer was an easy way to make divisions or something to that affect!!!! HOLY MOTHER of all PROGRAMMING GENIUSES! WHY on earth could not the author of the ALMIGHTY MANUAL have written about the damn CTRL button? I immediately open my game and proceed to create my first division at least 200 hours after I started playing this wonderful game! A simple sentence saying to select multiple units and commander while holding the CTRL button will enable the 'Combine Units' button to be highlighted and pressed! But wait, the AM didn't say 'Combine Units' it referred to a still mysterious 'Create Division' button. Alas the plus sign button titled the 'Combine Units' button in the AM works to create divisions just fine and I was once again satisfied with this beast aka AACW!

After your helpful reply above, I went to the AM once again and perused the above mentioned paragraph in detail. I verified that yes everything I claim above is true. Gremlins must have written this procedure, not the all knowing author of the AM!

I also want to protest why the sentence that says: (You can break down a division into its constituent units at any time and without any penalty.) is added to this procedure. Oh author of the AM when I break down a division (using the nifty '-' button), there is no apparent penalty. Not until the next turn when my leader is no longer activated and I cannot reform my division. Not until many turns later when my CO is finally once again activated and I have to pay the costs imposed when I create a division using my new nifty '+' sign button! So why almighty author of the greatly cherished AM, why is this silly sentence appended to an otherwise misleading section of text that leads me to try to find a button that is improperly named or otherwise hidden by the almighty creators of AACW?

[Coregonas]

I agree the game manual gives you not all the explanations, just the basics.

Seems strange however, but part of the fun I am having with most of the good games in the last few years (Ageod or Paradox for instance) is finding how the game works (both the math and all the options).

I dont know if this is intended, I suspect yes!

But for sure, part of the reason is than the game changes TOO FAST, and seems ageod team prefers to change the "code" instead of losing their time writing all those boring manuals, just to change them a week later to a new change.

Those Forums seem to do that boring work for them...

[pepe4158]

k Im right clicking everything I can see....where you said in the draft roster, aint nuthin happening...so either my rt. mouse button is broken, or my games bugged?

[Coregonas]

k Im right clicking everything I can see....where you said in the draft roster, aint nuthin happening...so either my rt. mouse button is broken, or my games bugged?

Go to some option click in the "explanation of the option area", there is no button.

[pepe4158]

ahhh yes I see now....you can do that lots of places too I hadnt noticed before!

[Timothy Kroll]

I concur with a couple of statements by WillisNYC. As someone with a similiar gaming background it took me awhile to finally figure out how to form divisions. That is what drove me to this forum in the first place, reading posts to figure out what I was doing wrong. From reading many of the excellent threads I discovered the choices that I didn't know about (ie paying some $$ for more conscripts). The manual isn't easy to read for me, but this forum more than makes up for it.

[pepe4158]

dang even taxes too!

[tagwyn]

WilllisNYC!!! LOL Man!!! You are THE MAN!! apy:

[arsan]

Hi!

WillisNYC,

First of all, some sort of disclaimer: by reading your long post it seems to me that you think i´m part of the AGEOD development team.
Well, I’m not. I´m just a player, like you.
That “Ambassador” title mainly means that i collaborate with AGEOD on “managing” the Spanish sub forum, as they don’t speak Spanish and many Spanish players don’t speak English. So as a veteran player my main mission is to solve some of the problems and doubts posted there and translate to the team the ones i cannot solve.
So, when I post here, on the English forums, I post just as a player.
With all this said, as a AACW player i agree with you that the manual is far for perfect. It’s not one of the worst I have read, but certainly it could use some updating and clarification on the more complex play mechanisms.

On the positive side I think the tooltips of the game are one of the best, more useful and informative ones I have found on any game. I highly recommend you to read them as probably you will find lots of cool info on them.
For example, AGEOD’s games are the only ones I know of where the tooltips not only tell you what a button does. If the button it’s not light up, they also tell you the possible causes for this. Pretty useful IMHO.

Another very good place (besides this forums) to supplement the info of the manual is the AACW wiki:

http://ageod.nsen.ch/aacwwiki/Main_Page

There you have an online, and somewhat updated and expanded version of the manual where you can search for any game concepts easily.
Besides, there is a lot more cool info: strategies, in-depth explanations of game mechanism… Check it out.

Regards!

[saintsup]

However there are some basics that beginners can easily miss! I have been playing at least 200 hours of this game over the last month and just discovered yesterday that MANY of the options in the Draft, Financials and Politics Tabs are right clickable! Not only are they right clickable, but the changes that you can make here are DRAMATIC. I am sure this is old news to those of you who have been playing this game and perusing these forums for months, but this was astonishing to me.

Took me a whole f*$^% month too. Always left-clicking on the option and thinking that for some unkown reasons the other options were not activated ...

[jackfox]

However there are some basics that beginners can easily miss! I have been playing at least 200 hours of this game over the last month and just discovered yesterday that MANY of the options in the Draft, Financials and Politics Tabs are right clickable!

Is it really possible that I've been playing this game for a whole year without knowing this?

Yes it is. leure:

[WillisNYC]

Hi Arsan,
Thanks for responding. I realized that you were not part of the development team, but I figured you being an official representative would respond on behalf of the author of the Almighty Manual. My post was an attempt to display my frustration with the learning curve, especially when basic game features are not easily and obviously activated. Despite my frustrations, I REALLY like this game and look forward to playing many of the folks here PBEM!

It is also readily apparent from other posters in this thread that I am far from the only one that discovered some of these things LONG after starting to play the game! Thus the post ends up being educational and I hope humerous despite its length. Thank god for this forum as it does serve as the best place to get answers to the many complexities of this game. I have been reading the Wiki references as well as many of the posts in this forum as I can manage for the last month or so and I am just now feeling like I have a good grasp of the operational mechanics of the game and now can begin the real work of developing workable strategies to challenge the other generals here.

[PJL]

Heh, it probably took me 6 months of playing the game to figure out that you had to right click on the political / economic ledger options to change them.

[Heldenkaiser]

A source of useful info (partially not also in the manual) that one shouldn't miss is this ...

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4213

That's where I got the info from about clicking to change the options.

[GrudgeBringer]

WillisNYC...

I also had the most terrible time I have EVER had trying to figure out Divisions.

I still don't know (after about 300 hours on this game) why only SOMETIMES the red + sign will come on on a Division Commander when you hit the Cntrl button but will not allow you to add anyone to that Commander unless you take him outside
whatever group he is in and add troops there.

I just live with it.....

BTW...you said you played CWG2....did you play that online?

I was GrudgeBringer (a redshirt moderator) on there from start till they took it off.

[Coregonas]

I still don't know (after about 300 hours on this game) why only SOMETIMES the red + sign will come on on a Division Commander when you hit the Cntrl button but will not allow you to add anyone to that Commander unless you take him outside whatever group he is in and add troops there.

I just live with it.....

Oh we must solve this asap.

The only posible cause I can remember for this is having a LOCKED or a STATIC unit in the same STACK as the DIVISION commander. (I am assuming the division comander has yet a division)

LOCKED units are clearly shown with a mark (lock, paclock? dont know exact word in english).
However, STATIC units arent, you can only see it by moving the mouse cursor over the unit.

I believe STATIC units arent LOCKED because they are ALWAYS (perhaps 95%) militia type units, than once turn to regular, they lose STATIC status, and can be freely moved.

Perhaps some other player can find another cause, but i dont know

[GrudgeBringer]

No...Honestly, I am talking about the 2 main armies when (I merge them on hard setting or I get run over at winchester) I merge them and SOMETIMES (only sometimes) I give the Commander a division (or he has one) and then try and say pick Longstreets Brigade (now this is AFTER they become unlocked or I couldn't use them anyway) and the red + comes on but will NOT push.

I then take the commander OUT of the stack take away units (If any) and try it agian and it WORKS.

This isn't some padlocked Militia in Richmond (as the only padlocked units are the 3 Reserve Brigades That become unlocked) and the 4 units that NEVER (as far as I can tell become unlocked as they protect Richmond).

Maybe its just MY game because I promise you....If it CAN happen to someone , it WILL happen to meeeeeeeeeee!!!

[Coregonas]

No...Honestly, I am talking about the 2 main armies when (I merge them on hard setting or I get run over at winchester) I merge them and SOMETIMES (only sometimes) I give the Commander a division (or he has one) and then try and say pick Longstreets Brigade (now this is AFTER they become unlocked or I couldn't use them anyway) and the red + comes on but will NOT push.

I then take the commander OUT of the stack take away units (If any) and try it agian and it WORKS.

This isn't some padlocked Militia in Richmond (as the only padlocked units are the 3 Reserve Brigades That become unlocked) and the 4 units that NEVER (as far as I can tell become unlocked as they protect Richmond).

Maybe its just MY game because I promise you....If it CAN happen to someone , it WILL happen to meeeeeeeeeee!!!

I m not sure but do remember in Richmond there are a couple militias wich SEEM not LOCKED but they are.
I call these STATIC, as have no "padlock symbol" but there is some reading in the unit explaining ("""this is a static unit wont move of the region until attacked""")

Those STATIC militias can avoid you to use the + button for division.

There are lots of these STATIC, and mostly in the important cities.

[WillisNYC]

Grudgebringer,
I am very disappointed that you don't remember me from CWG2. I remember you well and we played a few times. I was a latecomer to the game, but played it for at least a year befoe it migrated to kali and at least a year afterward. I also attended one of the CWG2 'meetups' in Gettysburg. Sadly you were not there. I wrote an online strategy manual for CWG2 that all the active sites still point to. If you google CWG2 strategy manual, my site comes up first http://willisnyc.tripod.com/ Ask any oldtimers for CWG2 that still play at kali and they remember me fondly. hehe

[WillisNYC]

A source of useful info (partially not also in the manual) that one shouldn't miss is this ...

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4213

That's where I got the info from about clicking to change the options.

I read this in that thread, went back to the screens in question and STILL did not think to right click! Finally I found another thread MUCH later that mentioned right clicking and

[AndrewKurtz]

No...Honestly, I am talking about the 2 main armies when (I merge them on hard setting or I get run over at winchester) I merge them and SOMETIMES (only sometimes) I give the Commander a division (or he has one) and then try and say pick Longstreets Brigade (now this is AFTER they become unlocked or I couldn't use them anyway) and the red + comes on but will NOT push.

I then take the commander OUT of the stack take away units (If any) and try it agian and it WORKS.

This isn't some padlocked Militia in Richmond (as the only padlocked units are the 3 Reserve Brigades That become unlocked) and the 4 units that NEVER (as far as I can tell become unlocked as they protect Richmond).

Maybe its just MY game because I promise you....If it CAN happen to someone , it WILL happen to meeeeeeeeeee!!!

When that happens, zip up the files and send them to Pocus, letting him know what you're trying to do and what you're seeing. That way there will either be an explanation or a fix.