Either way, time well spent.
Newly acquired AACW, since I loved NCP.
Small problem though is the geography.
Being european I know bugger-all about US geography, and even less about the ACW. Asking me to find say Springfield in this game is about equivalent to asking an american to locate Bucharest.
So while it's all very well to read advice and AARs, if you have no idea what is going on, revelation comes hard.
So what does one do?
Well, I started out doing what I suspect most others do. Just start the game, and let it run a few months of gametime, just figuring out where all these pesky troopers have decided to join their respective armies.
No good. The start of the war seems to be dominated by small trickles of guys showing up with muskets (or possibly pitchforks if it's militia) in odd places.
Trying to keep track of them all turned out to be an exercise in futility.
Okay, time to get serious.
So I found a map here:
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/maps/1800s/1862magnus3200.jpg
and printed it out, split onto four pages. A little glue, a few sticky fingers, and a fair bit of cursing later, I ended up with this:
White pins being objectives, black pins strategic cities.
Now, it's not perfect, since the map also shows *planned* railroads, and the black/white print has made the rivers unrecognizable, but still....
This is a HUGE help.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still struggling with all the other things that everyone else is when starting out.
Namely getting these electronic armies to do what you actually intended:
"Look. LOOK! You have 40,000 men, they have 200 cavalry trying to blow up your railroad. What do you mean you're *inactive*??!"
Figuring out what to build and where, and so on and so forth....
In short, I'm still getting my ass handed to me, but now I at least know where it was heading in the first place.
So, if other noobs are reading this:
Yes, there's a steep learning curve.
Strike that, there's a learning cliff.
But if you're as smart as me (that is, able to read and write), every time you play, even if only for a few turns, a small glimmer of understanding will unveil itself.
CheerfullyInsane
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you."
