Doc o War
Posts: 345
Joined: 8/14/2008
From: Northern California
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As stated above- while sieges in the classic boardgame sense in a specific region don't happen in this game as you envisage them from other games- units sitting parked turn after turn in the same region on top of the enemy position. The effect- of two forces holding oppossing regions and then lashing out with power and force to attempt to wrest control of the neighboring region, is more of what this game shows. The effect of oppossing armies on each others ability to control a region. Only one side can be fortified in a region, the owning player- the other side has to come in and kick him out- or not.
The Union Is basically laying seige to the entire Confederacy throughout the game- eventually the amount of power you put into a region will have a result- loose and you are thrown back- as happened in many sieges. Win and the target area falls. - Grant came at Vicksburg for nearly a year- stabbing at Chickasaw Bluffs, and trying to go around it- and several direct and bloody assaults that failed. Before Finally manuvering around it and cutting them off from Supply, even then he made several more bloody assaults. The Important battles for Vicksburg were fought well to the East of the City when Grant Manuvered to cut the city off. Once cut off- without relief fighting its way in from another region, the men were quickly driven by starvation to collapse and surrender.
This game shows the combat effects in an operational sense, not as a tactical combat situation- though we do get to see the application of the combat happening between opposing formations, and feel the results. But if you are looking for a Tactical combat game you should look to a different scale of combat- individual tactical battles like the classic John Tiller's Civ War Battleground series that Matrix also has the rights too. That is tactical combat- regiment to regiment-head to head on a specific battlefield.
WBTSs is an operational and strategic level game fought across a continent- the desperate fighting of a months time in a region is shown as the results in lost men and supplies- almost more a war of attrition. While we might think the battle results of the month were supposed to represent one named battle- something large, like Gettysburg , perhaps one that went on for days- it could also represent several battles and skirmishes- large and small- going on all around the contested region. They could be just one day battles- but could also be fought in several locations on different days, or different weeks- all we see is the end results for the month- X Combat factors damaged or destroyed- and occasional leader hit. Etc.
True sieges were actually rather rare. While we can call Petersbrug "a siege"- it really was more like a WW 1 campaign- (in its infant form)- miles of Trenches from Richmond to Petersburg to the Bermuda Hundred. More like Verdun, the Somme or Ypres than the same war as Bull Run- or even Antietam. It had No man's land, obsticles, mines, modern artillery, repeating weapons, observation balloons, telegraphs, rail lines bringing up troops and supplies, the endless routine in the trenches. The mud and blood. The over the top assaults- Trench raids. All that. And on a scale of miles of trenches not seen before- If one Discounts some aspects of the Crimean War Siege at Sebastopol.
The Vickburg/Baton Rouge Sieges in 63, and the 63 Charleston, and Fort Fisher in 64, and Mobile Investments in 65 had all the aspects of a siege- But since there were usually great defense systems keeping one side outside of some specific target in a region the game works just fine in showing that dynamic. Again- in the main picture of things- for most of the war- he who controled the most important feature in each region controled the region- in most periods of the Civ War.
Also on a practicle level- this game is already coded this way. It would be a huge change in coding to allow both sides to co exist in a region at the end of the turn. It would dramatically change many coded interactions and dynamics and would just not be possible- unless you want to spend a whole lot of money hiring new programers to write new code- and developers to write the code for them- the cost just quickly becomes impossible- at this time..
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Tell me the story of the common foot soldier, and I will tell you the story of all wars.
... Heroditus.
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