Auto Replacements or Bug?

[jjw509]

I have noticed there are turns early using when I start an April campaign in May and June my conscript pool, war materials, and money show I can build units but I can't. Is this a bug or is the game not showing the conscripts used for replacements. I keep auto replacement on 10% so I am not sure if the cost is not showing up in conscript pool numbers or if I am just running into a bug.

The turn this seems to happen on is why the Armies appear in VA. I think the game may be putting in massive replacements to catch up with the need from all the new elements added when Beauregard and Jackson are activated. I think the other time might be when Price and the West Army show up. So I am guessing it is likely the game is kicking up reinforcement chit production because the serious lay down of new units.

[Cromagnonman]

That could be it. Can you not build any units at all, or only very few? The force pools start out very small, only a few elements recruitable (a small NY brigade and militia in MO & MD, IIRC)

[jjw509]

The force pool was there but I couldn't build a single unit due to lack of resources I guess but the game was showing I had some conspricts, WS, and plenty of money. I will see if I can get a screenshot.

[jjw509]

ScreenShot 1 Shows enough conscripts to at least get flatboats. Still ending conscripts is not equal to what is shown. Counter shows 30 tooltip shows 16. Build bar shows not enough for a flatboat.
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[jjw509]

Next turn early June conscript pool, WS, and money all match on tool tip and counter. Now late June. Again no builds but counters show resources but resources unequal to tool tips.

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[jjw509]

This seems to only happen these two turns when I max builds on early may and early june. I haven't seen it happen other times so I am not sure if it is a bug or if auto-replacement spending is just extremely heavy in these turns because a large amount of forces appear as states secede and the ANV is formed along with the SV force. Then AOW and Price along with a lot of state militia.

[ArmChairGeneral]

It is highly likely that this is an issue with the auto-replacements. It wants to keep a fixed proportion of replacements relative to the size of your forces. When the size of your forces changes suddenly, it ups the number of replacements it buys on the interturn and you are left without enough resources to build what you ordered.

I never play with Auto-replacements. I do not like the AI spending money that I do not know about, and it does not allocate the replacements as optimally as a human player would on their own. I don't want it buying Heavy Artillery replacements without my say so, for example. Also, the level of replacements it is keeping on hand may not be adequate during heavy fighting, so you will still have to manually purchase the extras to make up the shortfall, something which is easily overlooked by new players. You still need to look at the War Production screen every turn and make some spending decisions, so Auto-replacements don't actually save you any time or effort.

I do, however automate my shipping boxes, as I feel like it cuts down on micro-management in a part of the game that isn't that interesting to me.

[jjw509]

Thanks. At first I thought the % of number of elements was a little hard to figure because I did see the number of elements of each type but this might be something better handled with experience. On one hand I don't need a lot of replacements in May and June of 1861 still I have balance that with I will need them later and I may not be able to completely ignore them either. I think I agree leaving this off at least for the early game so you can concentrate on new units early and there are a bunch needed and concentrate on reinforcements later might be better.

I think this has hampered me as the South with the AI putting those replacements in earlier than I would like. It is a timing issue but when you are building up in 1861 timing is important. It may not even out.

[Cromagnonman]

Yeah, you want full control over replacement purchasing. The first few months get crazy because you spawn a big army that needs a lot of replacements, and it's probably worth fleshing out those brigades before buying new stuff. But maybe that's not optimal for early CSA, who knows.

[ArmChairGeneral]

When your big armies first spawn it will look like you need a lot of replacements because the elements are all red and the replacement screen shows lots of hits needed, but they will build out on their own, just like units that you have purchased. However many of those brigades are missing elements, and once they are unlocked will have white chevrons in the upper left of the unit icons in the unit panel to let you know. If you have appropriate replacements (and as the CSA you start with plenty for this purpose) they will then use a full replacement chit each to add the appropriate elements (you have to be in a depot depending on your attrition settings). It will take a bit of guesswork to figure out what those elements will be, but most are cavalry, a few are infantry and one or two are light artillery.

You need to do the same thing with ships that spawn, as many of them are also missing elements. Naval units must be in a size 4(?) harbor in order to receive replacements.

My initial (CSA) build strategy is to get my armies up to full strength and buy enough new brigades that they can hold Manassas and possibly get to Harper's Ferry. Once the initial battles are done I steadily buy new units but with an eye toward saving up enough to get an Ironworks. In the summer of 61 you need to focus on putting fighting forces in the field so that you can at least win defensive battles if you are attacked. I also go heavy on the artillery when I can afford it; I try to have the NC artillery pool exhausted by the end of summer or mid autumn. 12 lbers are pretty good on defense and are a pretty good deal, so I get those first, while I am still short on WS. I also try to get an HQ unit built and into the biggest stack, but that can be hard to afford....

[Gray Fox]

I vote for doing replacements yourself. I metagame just enough to know how many full strength Divisions I can form with what you get for starters in VA. Then I build enough sharpshooter elements to have one ready for each future Division. Next, I try to have this ready ASAP:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?39245-So-Washington-D-C-is-secure-right

[jjw509]

I have played through sept now with auto replacements off and it has made a huge difference. It looks like you get some free chits and I think the AI was way overbuying for a period where not much combat was occurring and armies were building. I was able to flesh out the 4 divisions of the ANV for when division commanders come. Buy some rangers in the West to harrass Union forts, get a couple of mounted volunteers for sibley and reinforce SE MO. No red numbers for replacement chits. I did buy a lot of replacements when there was not much to build in April. I have noticed I went a lot of those as well. Still I didn't have to buy more when units were available and it I had enough WS to buy what I needed plus Iron works in the coastal cities.

I was also able to order the arty for forts in Mobile and New Orleans. Not sure if it was a bit early but the AI hasn't done much in VA just moving into Harper's Ferry and occupying WVA while I head Floyd and Wise toward Kentucky. I also built a bde in FL and an arty in Montgomery with the aims of besieging Ft. Pickens.

The game is much different and much better early with auto replacements off. The game wants to keep replacement chits at 10% so when you have the big free armies come in it chokes your resources for building. I would rather build armies first then replacements closer to when they are needed. Maybe in 1862 I might switch it back on since it is more likely battles will be occurring and a buffer of chits for replacements will be needed.

[ArmChairGeneral]

The game wants to keep replacement chits at 10% so when you have the big free armies come in it chokes your resources for building. I would rather build armies first then replacements closer to when they are needed. Maybe in 1862 I might switch it back on since it is more likely battles will be occurring and a buffer of chits for replacements will be needed.

That's hitting the nail on the head. It's important to note that you don't actually get any free replacements from auto, it just automates buying them for you. Since you have to check that screen every turn anyway it doesn't help at all to automate them and often interferes with your other priorities. Once the fighting gets hot and heavy you WILL have turns where you spend everything on replacements, especially as the Confederates.

Replacements are available immediately, so once you hit the turn button your troops can start drawing from any replacements you just purchased. So, if you have zero replacements of a particular type and purchase some, you will not have to wait another turn before they start working. It is usually only necessary to keep a small buffer of replacements on hand, unless you expect the fighting to be so intense that you will use more replacements than you can afford to buy with a single turn's resources, which does sometimes happen but is the exception not the rule.

As the Union you need even less of a buffer, since you draw replacements so slowly that you are rarely able to actually use all the chits you have on hand in a single turn. You still need the same amount of chits in the end, but since you won't be able to use them all at once you can spread the purchases out over a couple of turns.

As the CSA I only rarely buy heavy artillery chits, since they are really expensive and get burned up filling out Coastal Artillery in all your forts.

[jjw509]

As the CSA I only rarely buy heavy artillery chits, since they are really expensive and get burned up filling out Coastal Artillery in all your forts.

I haven't played enough to obverse fully if the coastal arty is effective. Historically it couldn't hit the faster moving steam ships and often did nothing to the ironclads. It could still be effective against sailing ships though. So I am not sure if the chits are worth producing. If the coastal arty is ineffective as historically it is a waste. The wanting to only use the knowledge you would have on hand at the time does make me want to invest some in until it has been shown they are not effective. One of the caveats of playing with historical knowledge. You know how somethings didn't work for the historical experience but as a commander at the time you would have known that yet.

[Cromagnonman]

I'm really not sure what the pint is of having coastal artillery AND fort batteries AND Rodman/Columbiad artillery, other than that somebody thought there should be some kind of massive slow-moving killer cannons. Third-system forts like Forts Pickens & Monroe mounted dozens of large (32-lb and up, including Columbiads & Rodmans) guns facing seaward, along with lighter guns for land work. Those big guns were really far too immobile for field use, and siege artillerynis plenty representative of the heavier guns used on land. Places like Forts Clark or Henry were small improvised earthworks with a smattering of largely field guns that were easily outgunner by the more numerous and weighty guns afloat. Re-examination of the historical basis for many of the CSA's forts would likely reveal they are already too capable even without coastal artillery

[Cardinal Ape]

I really do wish it was more practical to to maintain the CSA columbiads. They are so precious, but so expensive when all those half-strength coastal batteries steal their replacement chits.

Sadly, disbanding the coastal artillery isn't really an option.

[ArmChairGeneral]

jjw509,
I totally agree with your general points on using historical knowledge in game, but in this case I am relying on in-game experience rather than history. I have no idea how effective the guns were in real life, but I know from playing experience that opportunities to bombard passing fleets, especially with coastal rather than river forts, are pretty rare. So it makes more sense to use that brigade's worth of $$ and WS to actually buy a combat brigade that will see action many times and help win battles rather than a Heavy Artillery chit which gets wasted adding one hit to guns in a bunch of irrelevant coastal forts that will be lucky to bombard an enemy fleet once in a game.

Cardinal Ape:
Couldn't agree more, this is the one thing that players have complained about over and over that has not been addressed in patches, despite the fact that it would be a simple fix to just start the Coastal Artillery at full strength and reduce the number of free replacements for other units types to balance things out. (Or reduce the firepower of CSA Coastals and start them at full strength if you are trying to represent a disparity in fort strength between the two sides.) Take a hit to your expensive 20 lber or Columbiad, and you have to buy like 4 or 5 Heavy replacements before that one hit finally gets distributed to where you actually need it.

A workaround of course is to set all the Coastal Artillery to Defensive posture and put the gun you want repaired in Passive inside a depot, but that requires WAY more micromanagement than is warranted, and isn't guaranteed effective since that only increases the likelihood that the Coumbiad gets chosen to receive the replacement rather than ensuring it. Fortunately field artillery don't take a lot of hits, but it is still really annoying not to be able to repair them effectively when they do. (For new players, the Union does not suffer from this issue, since their emplaced artillery starts at full strength.) In some ways this is realistic because of the South's meager industrial capacity, but that is already modeled in several other game mechanics. As it is I just (grudgingly) accept the fact that over time my really big guns degrade in effectiveness since I can't afford the (excessive) replacements needed.

Cromagnonman,
I am just a video-game junkie and not a military historian, but many many knowledgeable posters have made the exact arguments you are making about Columbiads and CSA forts.

Edit: Ooops, 20 lbers draw Medium Artillery replacements.