Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

Just a bit of a question. When the British engaged Washington's Army at Monmouth, after von Steuben had the opportunity to "whip them into shape" so to speak, the British forces were surprised that they had fought so much better than they had previously.

However, I've noticed that the standard quality rating for most colonial troops is the same in both pre and post Valley Forge scenarios, that is to say "C". Is the training/improvement reflected in some other way ingame? Or is this a way of saying that the improvement is a myth? Or am I just looking at the wrong units, and there *is* an upgrade.. it's late, I'm tired, that's possible too <img src=icon_smile_shy.gif border=0 align=middle>

Ensign Gary McClellan
12th Virgina Light Dragoons
CO, Northern Department

I think all Continental line is C throughout the game, which is already a concession in itself, since it puts them on the same level as any British line regiment.

<font color=gold>Lt.Col. D.S. Walter O.S.M.
Commanding 4th Regiment of Foot, "The King's Own"
Aide-de-camp, Royal North American Corps</font id=gold>

It's never easy grading troops, even with a detailed analysis of a unit's battlefield performance over the course of a campaign. However, I do get the impression that many of the scenarios tend to over-rate the Colonials. Perhaps even "D" rating for the average Continental line regiment is rather over-generous, especially before von Steuben improved their training?

Lt.Rich White
28th North Glos Rgt.
Right Wing, British Army

Gary,

I would agree with the other two, before von Steuben our line troops were very poor.

However, I agree with you. The original game took the easy way out in the name of 'play balance', instead of reflecting the overall improvement of our troops throughout the war by rating us as crap early and better later <img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>.

The good new is though the system is very flexible and adaptable. Anyone can undertake a project to create new scenarios modifiying where they feel necessary to grab a more histiorical or accurate feel.

In NIR John had a 'golden morale' bonus that increased the morale of units without increaseing their fighting capabilities. That feature would be very nice in this game. It could be used to show that in some battle the Colonials were really pumped up to fight, but just lacked any training. One example that comes to mind could be Bunker Hill. The Colonial troops could be rated E & F but given a golden morale bonus of 3 or 4. This bonus would keep them from routing right off the bat, but the E & F ratings would prevent them from fighting like Grenadier Guards.

Like I said, John's engines are very flexible and have some very good features to assist in more historically accruate modeling of the different eras, as long as a little imagination is used implementing them <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>.

It would be nice if John would add 'golden morale' to this engine, and reduce the Optional Rifle Fire effect frequency of occurrence probability down to 2 or 3% (just enough to be annoying, but not anything drastic.)

Lt. Col. Al Amos
1st U.S. Dragoons 1812-R

Edited by - Al Amos on 05/13/2002 09:14:07