Posted - Aug 25 2006 : 6:01:23 PM
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>How does recruiting work in a game that large?</i>
Fld. Lt. Bryan Gentry ANV<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Basically, you go to the A Call TO ARMS! thread on the Open FTW Forum on the FTW website and register your name, your email address and which side you wish to fight for.
Then on September 15th someone will send you a notification email that you have been granted access to one of the closed FTW site forums. (There's one for the USA and one for the CSA.)
When you log onto one of these forums, you will be in private communication with the other players on your side, who will be responsible for establishing some sort of Chain of Command. This can be accomplished through free and fair elections, or you can wrassle for it. It's really up to the players themselves.
Once a "Top Dog" has been selected, he will be responsible for
<ul><li> Creating some sort of command structure </li><li> Assigning Individual Commands </li><li> Distributing the men and material earned during the previous turn </li><li> Generating some consensus among the players about the future conduct of the war </li><li> Settling disputes </li><li> Soothing hurt feelings </li><li> Smoothing ruffled feathers </li></ul>
Then on September 30th, El Presidente will take everything he's gathered over the past two weeks and condense it into a series of General Orders, which he will issue to his officers through the good offices of Mssrs. Quick and Smith, who will distribute the information to the Officers in the field and determine who will fight where.
If it's determined that you will be in a fight during the upcoming battle phase, you will receive a notification along with an accompanying scenario, and the shooting will commence, with all turns and accompanying email routed through the aforementioned Quick and Smith, who will keep a careful record of your battlefield wins and losses on the Abacus3000 OOB calculator.
As to your individual play, this remains entirely up to you. Certainly you will have your orders, but are you passive or aggressive player, experienced or inexperienced, willing to patiently follow orders, or are you a "Damn the torpedoes" adventurer? How will you behave on unfamiliar ground, against an unknown opponent?
Your success or failure on one battlefield will be carried over to the next, so whereas success on the battlefield might win you more resources from Washington or Richmond, failure could eventually relegate you to an distant outpost in the Indian Territories.
And there's the element of personal danger to consider also. In this game you can be captured, and sent off to languish in some filthy, disease-ridden prison to await release, rescue or the end of the war. You can be wounded, and sent to the "hospital" for several turns while some hotshot takes over your command. You can even be killed, and spend the rest of the war reading dispatches about the daring exploits of others.
There's also no time limit on this war. It could last two more turns, or 200. Its length depends entirely on the choices made in the respective capitals and the victories claimed on the field. It is this measure of uncertainty that makes the FTW Campaign such an interesting and worthwhile project.
So what are you waiting for? The drums are beating.
Carry On Gentlemen,
Formerly
Col. Charles S. Hayes
Copperheads Brigade
2nd Division
1st Corps
AoA
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