American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

ACWGC Forums

* ACWGC    * Dpt. of Records (DoR)    *Club Recruiting Office     ACWGC Memorial

* CSA HQ    * VMI   * Join CSA    

* Union HQ   * UMA   * Join Union    

CSA Armies:   ANV   AoT

Union Armies:   AotP    AotT

Link Express

Club Forums:     NWC    CCC     Home Pages:     NWC    CCC    ACWGC
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:53 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 10 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Fixed Units and officers
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:15 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 8:05 pm
Posts: 887
Location: Panhandle of Texas
Playing a Battle of Shiloh battle in a campaign and of course as the Union player I'm stuck with everyone being fixed until the Rebels get around to shooting them. However I've got several cases where the brigade commanders are fixed in place and in order to make some sort of line I've had to abandon them to their fate. Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with officers being fixed? I've got two BC's who have every regiment freed up but because of their initial positioning they have not been affected and are still fixed until some Reb regiment wanders by or the next morning arrives. I find it hard to believe that even the most incompetent officer would hold his position in complete obscurity while his entire brigade retreats under enemy fire. Could it be possible to fix the units (which I'm going to hate until my dying breath also) while leaving the officers free to move?? I mean we are talking about one guy with a staff all on horseback.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:53 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:32 am
Posts: 1737
Location: USA
I agree the Fixed Unit system works very poorly. The only time it works as intended is to keep troops well behind the lines that should act more as reinforcements but aren't far enough away to be off map from joining the fight to soon. The present system allows to many gamey tactics trying to avoid activation of them while troops surround them for it to be used on front line troops.

The officer problem could be fixed though if HPS just didn't fix officers in position. The activation of fixed regiments needs some significant improvements in game mechanics. My suggestions for fixes are:

When any regiment in a brigade is fired on then all regiments in that brigade are activated on the next command phase.

For Shiloh, I believe it was in the game "Bloody April", they had a nice system of "Aides" who were activated at the point of first contact. These "Aides" could move to nearby regiments and activate them. This resulted in an expanding area of activations from the point of contact. This forced the CSA player to push forward rapidly once contact was made or loose his advantage of surprise.

And, as I mentioned earlier, don't fix officers.

BG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
III Corps, AoM (CSA)


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:58 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 10:10 pm
Posts: 1035
Location: USA
Having fooled with the scenario editor I don't see any reason why the officers could not be released seperately. When units are fixed they are fixed individually, that is you have to fix each unit seperately although you can fix all the units in a hex at once. However creating timed releases is done under the Units, Add Release pull down. You can then set up release times for commands from Army to individual counter level. More than likely the designer set up a release time for the whole brigade because it was easier to do.

Gen. Ken Miller

Image

Army of the Shenandoah


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:52 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:49 am
Posts: 419
Location: USA
I find it very hard to be pleased with a scenario in which my units are surrounded and suffering isolation before they're unfixed. I have had Shiloh units ROUTED before I was free to move them.

Col Dwight McBride
1st Brigade ("The Regulars")
2nd Division/V Corps/AOP


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:36 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 12:44 pm
Posts: 1200
Location: USA
Nothing like giving up a commander to the wandering Reb unit that runs them over...Bring on Colonel Anon!

Image
General Jeff Laub
Union Chief of the Army
ACWGC Cabinet Member
http://www.geocities.com/laubster22/UnionHQ/


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:05 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 8:05 pm
Posts: 887
Location: Panhandle of Texas
I haven't checked to see which version of the Batte of Shiloh this might be but I'm beginning to think I made a mistake purchasing Shiloh if is the case with all of them. I'm getting closer to a thousand casualties and have already lost 4 guns and still the majority of my units sit fixed. I've got whole brigades activated except for a lone regiment who sits there wondering what all that screaming and shooting is 300 yards away. Have lost one fixed officer so far and I'm probably going to lose a division commander who is stuck fixed in another few turns. I mean there is surprise but there reaches a point where it becomes ridiculous to leave units fixed. Don't you think that the commanding General just might wake up to the fact that there is a Reb force out there when he sees the number of wounded streaming by that would be associated with a 1000 casualites. I've already seen one Reb brigade sneaking around my flank and will be able to surround at least another regiment and a gun section after all this time. I think that there should be some sort of casualty level that would trigger activation of fixed units. As it stands I consider this scenario unplayable.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:41 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2001 2:39 am
Posts: 297
Location: USA
I drew that battle in a recent campaign game. It was horrible. I didn't even make it to the early evening. I lost most of my brigade and some commaders early on because they remained fixed even after their units released due to be fired on or meleed. The units would routed leaving their fixed unhappy commanders there to be overrun next turn..

It definetly needs to be looked at. There is another variant where all the Union forces are free at the start. This is much more balanced IMHO (although Reb players may not agree).

I have stopped playing Shiloh for now.



Lt. Gen. Ed Blackburn
II/VI/AoS
Image
"Forward Bucktails"


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:37 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 10:10 pm
Posts: 1035
Location: USA
I just remembered something, back in December 2005 I discovered a problem with the campaign scenarios #172 Sh_without Buell and 173. These scenarios have the battle start a day earlier on April 5 and it seems the union army did not release until April 6 which is the first day of the historical battle but the second day of this variant.

I posted on the ACG-SZC forum and Rich Hamilton got a hold of Rich Walker and according to him the free standing scenarios were fixed in the 1.02 patch but the campaign scenarios were not. Rich W. corrected the scn file and sent me a copy of the new one so my opponent and I restarted our campaign from the point of the previous battle since I had the files to do so. The corrected scn file will be in the next patch. Any chance this is the scenario you are playing ? If the battle started on April 5 it very well could be.

Gen. Ken Miller

Image

Army of the Shenandoah


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:16 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:45 pm
Posts: 817
Location: USA
Hey General Mark, Suh

A few months back I played General Dale Lastowicka in a stand alone scenario, it was the two day battle Apr. 6 and 7th and he told me that most of his units started out disrupted but not fixed I think.

Respectfully,

Col. Gery Bastiani
26th NC Inf. Regt.
II/2/4 AotM

"Let us pass over the river and rest under the shade of the trees" -Stonewall Jackson


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:18 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 8:05 pm
Posts: 887
Location: Panhandle of Texas
Yep, this would be one of those scenarios. It starts on April 5 and the Union doesn't release until April 6 at 5:20 am. Could you send me the files that you have?


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by krmiller</i>
<br />I just remembered something, back in December 2005 I discovered a problem with the campaign scenarios #172 Sh_without Buell and 173. These scenarios have the battle start a day earlier on April 5 and it seems the union army did not release until April 6 which is the first day of the historical battle but the second day of this variant.

I posted on the ACG-SZC forum and Rich Hamilton got a hold of Rich Walker and according to him the free standing scenarios were fixed in the 1.02 patch but the campaign scenarios were not. Rich W. corrected the scn file and sent me a copy of the new one so my opponent and I restarted our campaign from the point of the previous battle since I had the files to do so. The corrected scn file will be in the next patch. Any chance this is the scenario you are playing ? If the battle started on April 5 it very well could be.

Gen. Ken Miller

Image

Army of the Shenandoah
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"


Top
 Profile Send private message  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 10 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 84 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group