Flavor Brigades comments

[tripax]

Hello all,

While working on my mod, I am trying to make sure that regiments don't appear twice, which means I need to look at the flavor brigades and do some cleaning. I'll have some requests for suggestions about the existing brigades as I go, but I wanted to bring up Gray Fox's suggestion for a balloon brigade. I'm interested in adding a couple flavor brigades (and maybe removing some), but I wanted to ask what people thought. By the way, there are a lot of old discussions about this, including here, so feel free to post links to old discussions, too!

[tripax]

Here are my thoughts about special brigades (and how I'll do my mod). Please let me know what you think:

Union:
Western Brigade: seems to be a version of the Iron Brigade, and could be removed or replaced. If replaced, I think the 20th Maine and 83rd Pennsylvania are a good 2 regiment replacement.

Bull Run Brigade: This refers to the 12th Ohio's stand at Bull Run Bridge, I'm ok with this, but will change the name slightly to make it clearer that 2nd Bull Run/Bull Run Bridge is meant.

The Eagle Brigade: I'm not sure what this is. My vote is to go with a brigade centered on the 8th Wisconsin and their Bald Eagle mascot, "Old Abe". At 2nd Corinth, this brigade was: 26th Illinois|47th Illinois|5th Minnesota|11th Missouri|8th Wisconsin. Iowa Light Artillery, 2nd Battery was later attached, but I'll leave them off. Since the current Eagle Brigade has a sharpshooters, I'll give this "French's sharpshooter battalion" named after Capt. A. P. French of the 5th Minnesota who led a battalion of sharpshooters from this brigade at Spanish Fort during the Mobile Campaign. I'm not sure how organized this brigade's sharpshooters were earlier in the war, but I am ok with this.

These changes mean renaming the Western Brigade to "Little Round Top Brigade" changing its units, and moving it east. Changing the name of Bull Run Brigade to Bull Run Bridge Brigade. Changing the units of the Eagle Brigade and moving it West.

For the CSA:
Everything seems ok. I'm going to try to add an extra unit to the Missouri Brigade reinforcements. I'd like to add the Barksdale Brigade, but won't do it right away.

[tripax]

The Eagle Brigade: I'm not sure what this is. My vote is to go with a brigade centered on the 8th Wisconsin and their Bald Eagle mascot, "Old Abe". At 2nd Corinth, this brigade was: 26th Illinois|47th Illinois|5th Minnesota|11th Missouri|8th Wisconsin. Iowa Light Artillery, 2nd Battery was later attached, but I'll leave them off. Since the current Eagle Brigade has a sharpshooters, I'll give this "French's sharpshooter battalion" named after Capt. A. P. French of the 5th Minnesota who led a battalion of sharpshooters from this brigade at Spanish Fort during the Mobile Campaign. I'm not sure how organized this brigade's sharpshooters were earlier in the war, but I am ok with this.

I guess the Eagle Brigade comes from a group of four regiments that were supposed to be organized in Buffalo but which was only partially organized. The story is here. I think this is a bit silly, perhaps "Old Abe the Eagle's Brigade" is better.

[GlobalExplorer]

In AACW couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but my feeling is that some brigades appear twice or even thrice (?). I have no hard data, but perhaps a little pruning would be justified.

Also, there are so many Elite Brigades for the Union, it does not feel fair to CSA which also had many tough units.

But all in all the brigades are a great feature of both games, especially with CP bonus. Some have 0 CP, and using brigades in the correct way (i.e. not putting them in Divisions) is still giving me great satisfaction. A good brigade with a General and some extra units (Cavalry, Artillery ot Sharpshooter) can work as small independent divisions, with strength 300 and sometimes over 400. Or two such brigades in 1 stack with 2 generals, up to 600-800 strength, a good way to get promotions and give support to Corps size stacks.

Perfect would be if the elite status was awarded through combat experience, but that's probably a limitation of the engine. I can live with it as it is.

[tripax]

In AACW couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but my feeling is that some brigades appear twice or even thrice (?). I have no hard data, but perhaps a little pruning would be justified.

I've never seen this and the code seems ok, let me know (actually, just report it to the forums) if you ever do see it (in AACW or CW2) and which brigade, at what date, and where it appears (both the region and what other units are in that region).

Also, there are so many Elite Brigades for the Union, it does not feel fair to CSA which also had many tough units.

But all in all the brigades are a great feature of both games, especially with CP bonus. Some have 0 CP, and using brigades in the correct way (i.e. not putting them in Divisions) is still giving me great satisfaction. A good brigade with a General and some extra units (Cavalry, Artillery ot Sharpshooter) can work as small independent divisions, with strength 300 and sometimes over 400. Or two such brigades in 1 stack with 2 generals, up to 600-800 strength, a good way to get promotions and give support to Corps size stacks.

I agree on both counts. For instance, Barksdale's Brigade was a scarier foe to the Union than the Eagle Brigade (or "Old Abe the Eagle's Brigade" for that matter). I'd be happy to redo many/most of the special brigades, but only if I had help.

Perfect would be if the elite status was awarded through combat experience, but that's probably a limitation of the engine. I can live with it as it is.

The game does have experience for units, which partially covers this. To change the type of unit there are two mechanisms, tech upgrades (like 6lb artillery which have a probability of upgrading each turn which goes up as the game goes on) and training upgrades (conscript to regular which can occur when a unit is led by certain generals, and I think can also happen randomly as experience goes up). I don't think either would fit for elite. I kind of like having elite units be historical, though; experience can only get you so far after all, and some groups of soldiers are special because God made them that way.

[tripax]

A couple more notes:
The 164th New York is in both the Empire Brigade and the Irish Legion. The 10th New Jersey fought with the Irish Legion at Suffolk, so I'm switching in that unit.

The "Old Abe the Eagle's Brigade" I mention above is called the Eagle Brigade in Fox's regimental losses book, so I'm going with it. There were two NY regiments that were jointly called the Eagle Brigade in Dyer's book, I think, but I like this switch.

I'm going to let the California and Pennsylvania brigade coexist for now. It frustrates me a bit, but both are fun. I didn't notice, but powloon1 points out that the California brigade event is set to never fire.

Also, I'm going to give the Gamecock Brigade to Beauregard's Army of the Potomac since it is basically the same as Cocke's Brigade. To make this happen, I'm setting the artillery and cavalry units in Cocke's Brigade as standalone brigades in that army.