Ampen
Posts: 5
Joined: 3/21/2008 From: Sweden Status: offline
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Bear with me, this might be a long post, but I hope you will find it interesting. First things first, I'm an old school wargamer, started with boardgames ages ago (a favourite was 'Civil War' by VG ). Finding a good game that covers the civil war has been hard, so I was really eager to try out Forge of Freedom. I've done some extensive gaming now, and overall I find it a good game, with lots of aspects from the time taken in consideration. It is a massive game though, so I suppose it will take some time to master. When I play I usually try to get as close to a simulation as possible, so it's pretty much most options turned on. I've always played the Fury scenario, but not the one with balanced economy, and I play the confederacy for the challange of it. I seldom post in forums, but I do enjoy to read them, and I've read alot of posts here, very helpful. Those of you who read here from time to time might recognize subjects, but I think my post will give a new angle. Now to the different issues. Subject line on this post says the first: Artillery. Sure, artillery was effective at this time, relatively fast to load, high firepower, and shrapnelrounds for short range fire made each artillery piece a huge shotgun, literally. But when I hunted down a US corps in Kentucky, with the goal to really disintegrate it, it was the first time I came across four batteries. Until then, it had only been one or maybe two units, this is 1862. On this corps I converged the Army of the West and the Army of the Shenandoah, a total of 114.000 men, under command of General Polk and General Beauregaurd. The US corps was under command of General Sheridan and numbered 44.000 men. I also was able to make a surprise attack, so in the start of the battle I almost had them encirled. The screenshot shows positions after a few rounds. So far one US cavalry unit has given up. You may also notice on the mini-map the high concentration of troops moving to complete the encirclement. A few turns later the entire US corps is closed in. [image][/image] That's when they start to blast my boys away. Sure, since I was going for really destroy the entire corps, I thought there might be casualties, but when night falls, General Sheridan and his corps are victorious. 114.000 confederate troops have been routed. Now, I'm not stupid enough to charge artillery (even though units seem to find it a good idea to on their own initiative march straight infront of a set of guns, and expose their flank to them, that's the story behind the unit infront of the guns in the upper center), instead I tried to focus on the infantry to create a rout, wich would render me a massive amount of surrendering units. It's just that while I hammer away on the infantry, the US guns really blast my brigades apart. And I don't mean that they create some damage, I'm telling you they really ripped them apart. Placing skirmishers I ended up getting three of them to surrender, but not only was a couple of my divisions routed at that time, I also noticed that the mere presence of a US artillery unit could rout one of my brigades. All in all, even if I'm a somewhat lousy gamer and tactician, a situation like this...? 44.000 US vs 114.000 CSA, and with the positioning I achieved. I've had my suspicions earlier, but now I'm almost certain that arty units are to powerful. Thing is, they can be in the frontline. That's actually very stupid. An artillery unit right in the frontline would fire a few rounds, but would be overrunned by the infantry. They would after that take the guns and turn them against their opponents. Happend alot of times, even at Gettysburg, during Pickett's charge, a few guns where overrun, but instantly lost again. My point still is that artillery units isn't a frontline unit. Some rule that would make them surrender if they don't rout an enemy unit next to them would not only be more realistic, it would also balance the power of the artillery. Further more, it would make the AI and the player to use artillery as they where used, as a range weapon. In this battle, when I moved my units away to create some space, so they wouldn't be blasted away at point-blank range, the artillery units moved after... I then fired upon them, got a return salvo, and when that was handled, during the next round they started blasting away again. So, make artillery units as vulnerable to enemy close presence as they where. Secondly, about the rout: I've read here certain reasons why there's only a three round rout and such. While taking apart the US eastcoast army I encirled it a few times, split the forces of it a few times, and so forth. Now, this would leave me with US units surrounded, but if they don't rout completly, and after the routing is over, they just disappear. And they still exists in the US army as it seems. How can this be? As one of the reasons for the limited time to pick of a routed army I read that it wasn't common in the Civil War that an army pursued a victory, and therefore... Now, I'm not interested in standing and cheering after creating a rout, I'm interested in completing my victory. And IF I have them incirled, I really don't want them to just disappear after a certain number of turns to re-appear in the US armies. And, during the 44.000 win over the 114.000, God knows the US did run all over the place charging into all units they could, so I'd say at least the AI does not really stand by and cheer. A long post, but I hope you find it interesting. This is generally a good game, still, events like the one I described above really takes the joy away from playing it. Note: don't know if I managed to get the picture up, but I'll have to come back with that if I didn't. /Ampen
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