WIP: How Few Remain

[Jimmywax]

So is there any hope of seeing this?

[our_man]

Yup, the wait will soon be over. I finished my final exam on Thursday; provisional results gave me a 2H1. I can now put BSc after my name and get on with my life!

There has been some extremely heavy partying these past two days which will continue... oooh I'd say about until the middle of next week. I'll then go home and start working on it again. Playtesters so far have reported no major bugs; I'll soon be asking them for their final thoughts. I estimate that it should be finished within the next ten days.

[Jimmywax]

Sweet

[our_man]

Right, back home, ready to finish this one off. Could the playtesters please let me know what you thought of the last version. I'm going to try and play it through myself over the next few days and see if things are running smoothly.

[Sarsstock]

Well, one thought I have is to include these fairline style mexican units I made for Kruger and my "The Blue and the Grey" scenario. I think they'd be just perfect to use in this scenario!!

Hope you like them.

[our_man]

I'll use one of those guys instead of the current Mexican unit, thanks Sarsstock.

I've played it through once with both the Conferates and Union, and I must admit it is a bit too easy (that could be because I designed it though).

Besides that my only gripe is that the barbarians are not working properly. I have read through the Barbarian Paper again and again and there should be no problem; Indian Braves and Cavalry are in the designated slots for the appropriate Barbarian technology level, so why the hell are Union Infantry and Cavalry appearing when I pop a goody hut!?

So, any suggestions from the playtesters? Should I leave goody huts in or take them out?

How about barbarian uprisings? These worked OK for me (as in appropriate units were created - Braves, Cavalry, Militia and Artillery); if anyone experienced a bug with this let me know.

[Sarsstock]

This is just my opinion, but I say axe the goody huts. It was an interesting idea to incorperate them into the scenario but they clearly aren't worth the trouble they're causing.

Also, I found too the game was a tad too easy and quick. Perhaps you'd be interested in making it a gigamap scenario, which allows for more room for strategy, more room for combat at sea plus you'd have a real frontier feel for the game, which was very important in the book. If your interested in making this a gigamap scenario, I'd be glad to help if I can.

Like I said though, thats just one man's opinion. Also, if your interested, I have a couple more fairline style units you might be interested in.

[fairline]

Did you get my e-mail Our_man?

I like the second Mexican a lot Sarsstock

[our_man]

Sorry fairline, I didn't get it. It must have been caught by the spam filter and placed in the junk e-mail folder. If possible could you send it again and I'll look out for it this time. Sorry again.

Sarsstock, if you've any other units in mind to replace some of the ones I'm using, please post them and I'll take a look.

A gigamap version of this scenario would be a huge undertaking... I'm not too sure I'd be up to the task. I designed this scenario so that it could be played within a week; I simply don't have the time anymore to play (or design) epic scenarios that can take several weeks to finish.

I think the general consensus is that it is too easy with the AI. I wonder how it would work out in a PBEM...

[Sarsstock]

Okay then, no gigamap. I realize that just because its a gigamap doesn't guarentee it will be a better scenario. Anyways, these are the other units I was mentioning.

First, the Canadian Infantry dressed in the same colours you had. Second we have the generic militia unit again using your colour scheme. Then the beloved bearded Mormon Insurgent, and finally an army corps engineer wearing a frontier style helmet.

[our_man]

Excellent Sarsstock. I'll be incorporating all of them into the scenario. Thanks again for all the fantastic work!

[Sarsstock]

The only suggestion I can think of for that barbarian "union infantry" bug is to maybe switch around the indian rider unit with the union infantry in the units.gif and in the rules.txt. That way you can be sure its the indians featured in the uprisings and not the union soliders.

[our_man]

A good idea Sarsstock, but I don't think it would be workable. For the barbarian uprisings the correct units are being created; if I switched the Indian slots this might be affected.

I have plenty of spare unit places, so it would be possible with enough trial and error to move the units to the correct slots, but I really can't bring myself to do this. As well as the time involved in identifying OK slots, I would then have to delete all the Union infantry/cavalry units. I guess I'm just trying to finish this off as quickly as possible, my enthusiasm having waned. I'm going to get rid of the goody huts.

It's something I will consider however if I decide to do an update someday.

[Sarsstock]

I have another suggestion, this one in regards to the Mormons and the Mexicans. I realize neither are intended for human play, but they can be really entertaining.

For instance, the Mormoms can try to fight their way into Colorado and expand the state of Deseret eastward. And Maximillian can try to reclaim California for the Empire of Mexico. My suggestion is to give those civ's more units to play around with, like say a Mexican and Mormon Cavalry units.

Just a thought.

[JamesJKirk]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
For instance, the Mormoms can try to fight their way into Colorado and expand the state of Deseret eastward. And Maximillian can try to reclaim California for the Empire of Mexico. My suggestion is to give those civ's more units to play around with, like say a Mexican and Mormon Cavalry units.

I don't know about this. Nothing like this happened in the book at all. And it wouldn't make much sense for either group. Like if Mexico were in a position to invade CA, I doubt they'd need to sell two provinces to the CSA. And the Mormons just wanted to defend "Deseret". However, that is the right sort of attitude, since staying wholly loyal to the book would be rather dull. For instance, the US should be able to take Baja California, which would largely negate CSA advantages, and they should be able to use Gatlings in Louisville (or wherever) And maybe even have each side be able to get black troops (CSA through defeat, USA through victory) Stuff like that.

I just reread How Few Remain a few weeks ago, to go through the series again before the new book comes out, so I'm really looking forward to this