Blackadar1
Posts: 18
Joined: 6/1/2007 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Gil R. Blackadar1, As was discussed in another thread, another reason that a-historically large armies can form (in addition to choosing settings that make it possible, such as Greater Population or higher difficulty levels) is that it is up to the USA player to destroy CSA brigades and take over CSA territory. I don't know what your games have been like, but if you've been spending lots of time fighting armies in Fredericksburg and other areas but not taking cities, then you've left the CSA's economy mostly intact, and that means it can keep raising new units from those cities. It is essential that you take cities. If you can't take cities, try to plunder them -- maybe you'll destroy some Camps and remove them as a source of replacement troops. And build more cavalry, which is great at capturing enemy brigades. I think that if you get to know the game better -- after all, you've played through just two campaigns -- you will find ways to keep the CSA on its heels, and prevent its armies from growing so large. As the North, you really need to be aggressive on many fronts. And pray that you get Kentucky... Here's the rub - at the lower difficulty level I'm playing on, even if I left the Confederacy economy totally intact (and I haven't), there's no way it should have the ability to sustain the kind of troop levels I'm seeing. At a higher difficulty level, when artificial bonuses kick in? Sure. But not where I'm playing. So that points to a fundamental problem somewhere in the program. Perhaps the developers and I disagree, but when I see the Confederacy massing these kinds of numbers, it just makes me want to shut off the game. Thanks again for the advice Gil, but I'm shelving it for now. No offense, but the game is becoming a chore of looking for the specific "perfect winning combo", at least when it comes to the union side. I can't say anything about the Rebel side, but to win as the Union seems like it's much more of a formulaic equasion and not a game. After the hours (30, perhaps?) I've already spent on FOF, I don't have the desire to start a new game from scratch yet again trying to find that perfect winning combo. I suspect this is much more of a flaw on the Union side given everything that I've read, and that suspicion prevents me from starting a Confederacy game because if I found that to be true, I'd get even more frustrated with the program. As an aside, perhaps my skills are just rusty, but I'm not new to the genre as I started playing old Avalon Hill games in the early 80s (Squad Leader) and have been an off-and-on wargamer since then. My personal view is after the hours I've spent and my previous experiences in wargaming, I shouldn't have to "get to know the game better" just to have a chance to win on a low difficulty level with the playing field supposedly tilted in my favor already. My experience suggests that if this is happening, perhaps the game is either too difficult, too complex or too formulaic. I think it's probably the latter, at least when it comes to the Union side. So for now it goes on the shelf. Life's too short to keep repeatedly banging my head against this wall. Please understand my frustration is with the game, exacerbated because it's very close to something that I'd really enjoy only for a few flaws that I'm running into that I consider critical or inexcusable. But my frustration is not with the folks here, so thanks again for the help and advice.
< Message edited by Blackadar1 -- 6/18/2007 4:07:21 PM >
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