Two suggestions to improve the PBEM game

[von Beanie]

I'm just finishing another PBEM game where the game barely gets into 1863. There are obvious game balance tweaks needed for PBEM because in competitive PBEM gaming the South doesn't have a chance.

Suggestion 1: There is no major incentive to raid the North. During this current game, at one time or another, I've capture Omaha (x2), Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Springfield IL, Salem IL, Jefferson City (captured from Union control), Evansville IN (x2), at least two or three towns in OH, and a couple of towns in WV including Grafton. Why? To destroy supplies, cut the railroads and try to disrupt the North by having him overreact. What did my opponent do? Build supply wagons and mostly ignore me.

In other words, there's no morale penalty to the North for having their interior regions devastated. Rather, the North gets emergency militia reinforcements that more than makes up for the temporary movement and repair hassles.

During the real war the South made efforts to pillage the North to demoralize the public. Raids at places like Lawrence, KS, had major morale impacts. Yet in this game the South isn't really rewarded for doing the same, or in another light, the North isn't penalized sufficiently for letting it happen.

I'd suggest that the capture of towns in the original Northern states should result in a morale penalty to the North equal to the point value of the town captured, and that penalty should be squared for each additional turn the CSA holds the town. There has to be a major reward for the South to try such tactics, because in my frank opinion they can never win in a conventional war conducted intelligently by the North.

Suggestion 2: the forts aren't working adequately. I made a decent effort to build forts in this game, constructing them at Fredricksburg, Charlottesville, Humboldt, KY, Springfield, MO, and about four other places to try and slow down the North (in addition to the raids listed above). Yet the North eventually attacked each of these locales and took them with far less casualties than I suffered. In fact, every >10,000 casualty battle that I lost in the game was at a fort, and I only recall one time where the North lost an equal or larger force trying to take a fort. I don't have a clue why the forts aren't working for the defender (I put siege artillery and columbiad artillery in them), but they aren't a real asset as the game currently stands.

After hundreds of hours of playing this game I don't know why many of the things that happen in the game happen in the way they do, but it's generally a lot of fun to play. If Ageod could rebalance the game for PBEM to give both sides a real chance at victory it would be nice. These suggestions should go a long way to rebalancing the game for PBEM purposes.

[runyan99]

There are obvious game balance tweaks needed for PBEM because in competitive PBEM gaming the South doesn't have a chance.

Oh? I've played the CSA only twice against two different opponents, and won both games.