Beginner's Questions (Full Version)

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tolstoy1812 -> Beginner's Questions (1/24/2009 11:57:14 PM)

Hi,
I have a few questions that are not answered by the game manual, at least I don't think so. The manual is pretty dismal, IMHO, but that isn't anybody's fault, seeing as this game was not programmed or created by English Composition majors/students. (I hope I'm not offending anyone [:)] It would have been a REAL mess if literary folks had been in charge.)

1. I gather it is possible to play a hotseat game, right? And a combination hotseat and AI game? I mean, two human players and five AI countries on one computer? That's our aim.
2. I assume when we start, the hotseat course of play will be self evident. Please tell me I'm not wrong.
3. How do you bid in a hotseat game? Indeed, is bidding even necessary? Or relevant with two humans and five AI's? Is it necessary even? Can't everyone start at zero?
4. We want to play most of the field battles as miniatures battles using the out of game combat option. Is that ever explained in the manual? or can you link me to posts here? I haven't found it in the manual.
5. Am I correct that a SP is roughly 2000 infantry, 2000 cavalry, or 12 heavy artillery pieces? That's my vague recollection from the board game.
6. I've read of a number of bugs, even with the latest 105.03; would any/all of these go away if we played an all-human hotseat game?
7. If we have seven human players in hotseat mode, is there a "host" who can fix things up if some of the humans can't show up, as there would be in email play?

Thanks for your time.



DCWhitworth -> RE: Beginner's Questions (1/25/2009 3:24:05 PM)

1. Yes perfectly possible.
2. You're not wrong. Just set up the human nations at the start and make all the others AI and then you each play your turn when prompted.
3. It's not necessary, it is possible though. On he intial setup screen you can manually type in the bids for each nation.
4. It's not explained in the manual, here is a link http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1705282. Good luck, I've not heard of anyone using this system.
5. The manual says each army factor is equivalent to 2000 men. It doesn't mention cavalry or artillery specifically.
6. There aren't serious bugs left in the game I think (others opinions may differ) I think by far the majority view is that the game is perfectly playable. Information on tracking bugs is here - http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1831790 No doubt some bugs won't apply to FTF play but I suspect not many.
7. I think you're misunderstanding the host function in PBEM, it is not all powerful, but mostly an administrative function they can skip a players turn or get the AI to play but by far the best approach we've found (which would apply to FTF as well) is to get someone else to play your turn.



pzgndr -> RE: Beginner's Questions (1/25/2009 3:25:41 PM)

The manual is updated for v1.06.  I'll try to answer some of these.

1.  Yes, you designate human or AI players for each MP.
2.  Yes.
3.  You can manually insert bids.  The game does not require bids.  It's not clear to me if bidding is necessary for "game balance" or not.  I started a thread to discuss this. 
4.  Good point.  The protocols were explained someplace by Marshall Ellis.  This should be added to the manual. Update: see Third Party Combat Resolution Tutorial stickied above.
5.  Yes, but not sure if cav is 2000 or 1000?
6.  There aren't that many pbem bugs, so playing hotseat would not make the others go away.  With 5 AI players, the AI issues would remain.
7.  I don't believe the Admin Menu features are available in hotseat, but this might be a useful feature to add?



Grognot -> RE: Beginner's Questions (1/25/2009 4:56:03 PM)

For two humans and five AIs, 'fair' bids will depend on whom you're choosing. If one human were playing France and the other Great Britain -- well, a fair part of Great Britain's role is building and maintaining an anti-French alliance since Great Britain's own army, while well-trained, is rather small. When AIs take them over, that's making it much easier on France, so his VP threshold for victory should be increased.

On the other hand, if you're playing Spain and Turkey, perhaps the thresholds need much less adjustment.




tolstoy1812 -> RE: Beginner's Questions (1/25/2009 11:30:14 PM)

Thank you all. I downloaded the "Sample Setup" from Mods & Scenarios, and I'm going to try a few practice turns with that.

As for the miniatures play, I'll try to get a miniatures battle going at my local club based on the sample EIANW game, and let you know how it works out. Right now I'm thinking of having a roster on paper for each corps, with standardized divisions of a maximum size that go into each corps counter in the computer game. Thus the number of regiments of each type (dragoons, etc) will be limited...the French cannot create 30,000 cuirassiers, which would be unreal and impossible in life and in minis. They maxed out at about 10,000 cuirassiers (14 regiments of varying quality spread all over Europe).

I'm also thinking that one SP equals one regiment of infantry (or british brigade of infantry) and that batteries of artillery are assigned proportionally to SP's. Thus, the Austrians would get one battery of 6 pounders per 2 SP of infantry. And each Corps counter would get a "corps artillery reserve," which for Austria would be one 12 pound and 2 6 pound "position" batteries per corps. A cavalry SP would be about 3 cavalry regiments, or 2 depending on type and size historically. Again, individual units woud be rostered. If anyone's interested, I will make these rosters available (Word) as they are done.

Note: sticking to the units actually formed will limit the size of the regular army somewhat. The Austrians will be limited to a maximum of 61 line infantry regiments, though AUSTRIAN SP's are 3000 men in miniature battle. I don't how this will conflict with conduct of the AI battles - are two Frenchmen really equal to three Austrians? And a British infantry brigade is about 1500 men, so are three Brits able to take on four French? I know, I know... be nice! That's simply the easiest way to segue from game to table top.

Militia, on the other hand, don't need to be rostered. They just show up on the day of battle and do their thing.

Also: this May take a lot of minis; in fact, depending on who's willing to show up at the game, we might have to use cardboard counters or blocks or "paper" minis, printouts on card stock. But the number of miniature figures per SP is scalable. It could be 12 or 18 or 24 or 36... whatever fits.  

Thanks for your help. All this will take time.



DCWhitworth -> RE: Beginner's Questions (1/25/2009 11:43:16 PM)

Best of luck. I'd be interested to know how you get on.



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