Managing recruitment, sentries, and turn cycle

[Carrington]

I find that it takes a while to cycle through my own turn, even by the third month of the campaign game -- at my rate -- roughly 1+ hour/turn it'll take 150-200 hours to finish one grand campaign.

What strategies do people have to speed up this cycle?

One of the things that slows me up seems to be switching between recruitment (and schlepping units to the front) and actually giving orders for the front line units. Have people found ways of speeding up this process?

Should I be doing big boluses of recruitment: i.e. letting my cash and war supplies sit in inventory for a quarter, then spending all of it at once -- of course this means a big work-load when all the units muster, but better doing this once a quarter than every turn.

[PJL]

One thing I've found that helps is that once I've done all the units on the front line (east to west), plus the naval units, I then go through all the messages - I find it much more useful in picking up information on when new units are nearly finished, units that have reached their desitnation, etc. Previously I recycled through the units using the E, Y, R & T buttons but they always seem to skip a unit, or you never knew where you were last. By doing that I've found I can do a turn in an litle as 30 minutes (though it's longer when there are major reorganisations). Also CSA turns tend to go faster than USA ones, for obvious reasons.

[dinsdale]

One of the things that slows me up seems to be switching between recruitment (and schlepping units to the front) and actually giving orders for the front line units. Have people found ways of speeding up this process?

I create a "depot" area on each front, a place where every reinforcement is sent, divisions/corps/armies are assembled, and replacements accumulate. Recruiting frmo the area, I go through the message window and simply click on new troops and send them there. Generally, I don't use units immediately, it takes a few turns for enough to accumulate.

I also use the message window to follow the action in each area, typically moving units around the one from the message.

I don't think I ever use the unit cycle keys, the message log and zoom is enough to keep track of everything.

Unless there's a major organization going on, turns really take only 5-10 minutes, depending on time of year.

[Le Ricain]

I create a "depot" area on each front, a place where every reinforcement is sent, divisions/corps/armies are assembled, and replacements accumulate. Recruiting frmo the area, I go through the message window and simply click on new troops and send them there. Generally, I don't use units immediately, it takes a few turns for enough to accumulate.

I also use the message window to follow the action in each area, typically moving units around the one from the message.

I don't think I ever use the unit cycle keys, the message log and zoom is enough to keep track of everything.

Unless there's a major organization going on, turns really take only 5-10 minutes, depending on time of year.

My strategy and resulting turn time is the same as your's. Also, I move long distance units using the 'tab drop' rather than the 'drag and drop method'.

[nilam]

ho w do you do tab & drop.

[Daxil]

My strategy and resulting turn time is the same as your's. Also, I move long distance units using the 'tab drop' rather than the 'drag and drop method'.

What is the tab drop method?

Personally I go through al the messages in chronological order, but generally only touch the units when it's something I moved that has stopped and that I might forget. I just then go back and left to right across the theaters plan the moves. I then re-click on reinforcements and send them where needed and finally do new recruitment etc. It takes considerably longer than 10 mins but is efficient.

[Zebedee]

What is the tab drop method?

If you keep the unit screen open, then you can scroll to the location and then pull the unit there by clicking and dragging the tab of the unit (ie the relevant little brown rectangle type shape which says either the unit name or CSA detachment etc).

On my PC (512 mb ram hehe), this is infinitely faster then trying to drag the unit icon itself half-way across the USA.

(You can also use this method to combine stacks with ease or to target specific stacks to follow etc).