A Divided Nation - Creation Thread

[civ2units]

I´ve uploaded the scenario files for the Eastern Theater (Union) on the SL League. Feel free to download them and making a first playtest. Please let me know, how everything works, if something isn´t really good and anything else.

You can download it here:

http://sleague.apolyton.net/index.ph...#IV:_Downloads

Btw: I would like to ask if someone would like to make a title graphic for my scenario. I´m looking for something like the title from "La Belle Epoque".

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, I've played it on Deity level and man, can that AI be aggressive!

I spent the good part of four years or so (1861-1864) trying to get to Richmond, and failing every time. There was Lee's scary-looking invasion of the North, but I seemed to wipe it out after it took Harper's Ferry. I finally took Richmond in early 1864 and now, in April 1865 or so, have progressed down to take the SC capital of Columbia, though the Confederates have managed to take some cities back from me (though I can usually taken them back again eventually). Sherman's March to The Sea fizzled out (with Sherman dying early, among other things), but I've got some black infantry and some Iron Brigades moving towards there, so maybe I'll get the Atlanta troops to Savannah someday.

Anyway, the AI does seem to behave (more or less) appropriately, given that it's managed to go on the offensive and succeed at times.

Heck, one Confederate unit took Cleveland (guarded by only one infantry unit) and another threatened to take Philadelphia (I had taken one of the Penn. Inf units to the front lines, so the city was deserted after the Reb had killed the one remaining infantry there)!

One problem though: It seems the blockade runners spawn in one place: Once I saw some Confederate ships outside Atlantic City - they destroyed the unit guarding the town but didn't occupy it. When I finally got some frigates to destroy the fleet (which never moved from off Atlantic City, BTW) , one square had 17 ships!

You do seem to like the NY Zouaves, don't you? They're created by events, and at one point they surpassed the regular US Inf as the most predominant single type of unit in the army (30 NY Zouaves to 25 regular US Inf, with 59 other types of units (Iron Brigades, Black Infantry, Irish and Italian Regiments, other state units (including NY Infantry)) I'd suggest fixing that, unless you want hordes of NY Zouaves in the game.

From what I can tell, the Ironclads are not as good as naval units as the frigates are. That's ... interesting, especially since, as popular history, notes, all wooden warships were technically obsolete once the Virginia/Merrimac and Monitor took to the seas.

(Or maybe because I'm still on the old Monitor class, and not the more advanced one...)

Anyway, that's all for now!

Also, I notice you've got some blank spaces. Are you planning to put some of the notable Confederate generals in the game?

[civ2units]

Thanks for a first playtest, Ghost.

Well, I've played it on Deity level and man, can that AI be aggressive!

Great to hear this.
I´m often afraid when I´m creating a scenario that the AI doesn´t attack cities, only produces useless units or something else.

I spent the good part of four years or so (1861-1864) trying to get to Richmond, and failing every time. There was Lee's scary-looking invasion of the North, but I seemed to wipe it out after it took Harper's Ferry. I finally took Richmond in early 1864 and now, in April 1865 or so, have progressed down to take the SC capital of Columbia, though the Confederates have managed to take some cities back from me (though I can usually taken them back again eventually). Sherman's March to The Sea fizzled out (with Sherman dying early, among other things), but I've got some black infantry and some Iron Brigades moving towards there, so maybe I'll get the Atlanta troops to Savannah someday.

If you conquer important cities you will get reinforcements to continue your campaign. The only two campaigns you can research are the Peninsula and Atlanta campaigns. But the Atlanta campaign begins in 1864, so you have to wait until this date or produce an own invasion army.

It´s good to see that Richmond didn´t fall at the first attack. Later in game, when you have research the appropriate tech you can build Siege Howitzers. Those are very good to destroy Garrison units or Coastal Artillery.

Anyway, the AI does seem to behave (more or less) appropriately, given that it's managed to go on the offensive and succeed at times.

Heck, one Confederate unit took Cleveland (guarded by only one infantry unit) and another threatened to take Philadelphia (I had taken one of the Penn. Inf units to the front lines, so the city was deserted after the Reb had killed the one remaining infantry there)!

One problem though: It seems the blockade runners spawn in one place: Once I saw some Confederate ships outside Atlantic City - they destroyed the unit guarding the town but didn't occupy it. When I finally got some frigates to destroy the fleet (which never moved from off Atlantic City, BTW) , one square had 17 ships!

Hm, this is a interesting point with the ships. But these aren´t Blockade Runners, they should represent privateers. I will have a look what I can do to avoid something like this.

You do seem to like the NY Zouaves, don't you? They're created by events, and at one point they surpassed the regular US Inf as the most predominant single type of unit in the army (30 NY Zouaves to 25 regular US Inf, with 59 other types of units (Iron Brigades, Black Infantry, Irish and Italian Regiments, other state units (including NY Infantry)) I'd suggest fixing that, unless you want hordes of NY Zouaves in the game.

I found these unit type funny but I should decrease the amount when reseaching the Zouave tech. It isn´t historical correct if there where more Zouaves than regular units.

From what I can tell, the Ironclads are not as good as naval units as the frigates are. That's ... interesting, especially since, as popular history, notes, all wooden warships were technically obsolete once the Virginia/Merrimac and Monitor took to the seas.

(Or maybe because I'm still on the old Monitor class, and not the more advanced one...)

Are you thinking I should increase the attack points of the Ironclads?

Anyway, that's all for now!

Thanks for the playtest.

Also, I notice you've got some blank spaces. Are you planning to put some of the notable Confederate generals in the game?

No, I don´t planning to include the Confederate leaders in the Union campaign because the AI doesn´t know how to use them. But in the Rebel campaign you can play with them.

[McMonkey]

Excellent. I will give it a go tonight

[McMonkey]

Just begun the scenario and it looks great! The map, the units, the tech tree all look well done. I look forward to getting stuck into it properly. I don't know when I will get a chance before the weekend but I am looking forward to formulating my plan for conquest.

Just some very minor criticisms. I am aware this is a test and not the final version:

- The unit graphics for the Engineer and Fort Sumter appear to be the vanilla animated ToT ones still.

- I'm sure there is a set of ACW People floating around somewhere, possibly in Petit's update of Nemo's ACW scenario.

- If I were you I would change the pollution icon in the city screen. The toxic sign looks wrong for this era.

- Was capitalization a known term in this period?

- Some of the opening text could do with having its grammar checked. I would be happy to help with that.

These are only very minor points which I'm sure are on your list of things to do anyway. The scenario looks great

EDIT: I like the fact that there is not an overwhelming number of units from the start. It will take a little time to formulate a plan and build up for the first campaign which I guess is assisted by tech/events. Scenarios with hundreds of units to move from the start can sometimes be a bit off-putting!

[techumseh]

Nice work, Civ2units. This one looks like it will be a lot of fun. So far, I've played up to September 1862. I was surprised by barbarians appearing outside New York on the 2nd turn. It took half my money to make them go away. What's that about?

The map is very good. The scale is perfect for portraying the manouvering of armies on campaign. Minor quibbles: Did you mean for ocean-going vessels to be able to travel upriver past Philadelphia all the way to Ithaca? Also, the Hudson River is west of New York.

The units are great, I like the variation in the mix. Ditto the terrain, city and icon art. Nice look overall. Unit specs seem appropriate, as do costs.

So far, I've advanced to the line Winchester-Charlottesville-Fredericksburg, and I've captured the ports of Williamsburg, Yorktown and Norfolk. With the large reinforcements that the Union receives in some of these cities when they're captured, the offensive just gets stronger as it moves along. The capture of the ports is very easy, as each one was only defended by one unit which was easily dispatched by a frigate's shore bombardment.

With my reinforcements from capturing Confederate cities, I should have Richmond surrounded in a turn or two, and will take it in 3 or 4, as I have several Siege Howitzers on the way.

I'm no AGRICOLA, but I do think this far too easy for the Union player. Historically, it took the Union a couple of years to build up an army with the training and leadership needed to sucessfully invade the south. The Confederate army initially had far better leadership, and Lincoln went through a number of generals before he found one capable of of taking on Lee.

My suggestion is to eliminate the reinforcements the Union player gets for capturing Confederate cities. It's not realistic, and it makes the Union army almost unstoppable in the early part of the game. It's not like the Union is short of units after a few turns, anyway. However, if the human player was the Confederates, these events would be very useful for playbalance.

Put some garrison units in the Confederate ports at the start, and give them coastal batteries too. The Union navy should have to work hard to capture Confederate ports.

I got Lee's offensive at Harper's Ferry, when it was well behind Union lines. It is possible to fashion the events so that the Confederate units appear on their own side of the lines. Have the new units appear in Confederate cities. Set the coordinates so that the reinforcements appear first in the most northerly city, followed by the next most northerly, and so on. If Harper's Ferry is Union-occupied, the units then appear in Winchester, and if it's occupied, then Harrisonburg, and so on. Use a MOVEUNIT event with the same trigger to get them going in the right direction.

A couple of misc. suggestions:

When US Infantry is researched, there is the popup message about paratroops. You can edit this message to refer to the actual unit becoming available. It's in the Game Text file.

I disbanded Abraham Lincoln so I didn't have to worry about him being captured. You can make him undisbandable in the UNITS_ADVANCED section of the Rules file (field 'G').

This scenario looks like it could be a real winner. Thanks for your hard work!

[techumseh]

I guess I was a little optimistic when I talked about taking Richmond in 3 or 4 turns. It actually took me until July 1863, or ten turns. A lot of the delay had to do with my own disorganization and mistakes, however. I still think the Union player gets too many new units from events. Combined with the large number of built units, a reasonably competent Union player will have amassed an unstoppable army by mid-1863. Still, great fun!

[barthi]

I hope the scenario is as good as it looks. I have looked at the Test of Time recently purchased.

[AGRICOLA]

I concur with all the previous playtest posts that it is a very interesting treatment of the ACW! Nice work.


POSSIBLE CHANGES

I found the scen extremely slow moving and ponderous because of unrealistically slow unit movement.

Historically, by 1860, the eastern US had a well-developed RR system:

http://www.csnworldglobes.com/Universal-Map-30095-ZO1256.html

I'm suggesting that, for playing the Union, the northern states should have a reasonable RR network and the Rebs have none. The idea is that if Union forces advance into Reb territory, the defenders would pillage RR's to delay the enemy. When I made this change in April 1862 the scen became much more fun to play because it no longer took months to get units to the front

The above would be reversed for playing the Confederates.

A consequence of this is that the Union has to be very careful not to let Reb units get loose behind Union lines.



At the start of the scen, I multiplied the Mv of most ships by x4. The less than seaworthy Monitor, Merrimac and US Ironclads were not modified.

A sailing ship in the 1860's did not need 10 months to sail from from Boston to the Caribbean. Even if crawling along at 2 knots, a ship from Boston would reach Nassau in 24 days and 20 hours. As far as I know, the Union traded with both Britain and the Caribbean throughout the ACW.


Changed the icons for Ft Sumter (modified from the CITIES file in Techumseh's FREDERIC THE GREAT) and Engineers (modified from the UNITS file in Our Man's HOW FEW REMAIN).



DEFINITE PROBLEMS

I found Government names and their descriptions to be mismatched. It took me a while to figure out that Union really does have a communist government. The scen definitely needs a modified Pedia file.


I had a lot of problems with the discovery of the Conscription tech.

Should US Light Artillery, Dragoons and Militia become obsolete when the Union discovers Conscription? On turn 3, July 1861, 37 cities were building Lt Arty as placeholders until the techs for Field and Heavy Arty could be discovered. In July, when Conscription was discovered, 5 cities built completely unwanted US Inf and the rest of the cities changed to producing the unwanted unit. I had to backtrack to the June save and change Light Arty production to Field Arty.

Discovery of Conscription produces an anachronistic paradrop popup.

The discovery of Conscription also triggers draft riots. Why do the July 1863 draft riots take place in July 1861? In July 1861, everybody was figuring on a quick and easy war and there was more than enough patriotic fervor on both sides. No one had any idea of how long and brutal the war would be.

I found that in July 1861, there is a good chance that the Union has to pay a huge bribe to rioters in order to keep barbs from capturing the New York. Subsequently, the same could occur in other cities. That seems a somewhat extreme result from mere riots. If trouble is needed in some cities, let the rioters kill defenders but nothing more. Barbs capturing cities seems a major departure from history.

If you give Armed Citizens ( barbs) the following parameters, they can kill defenders; cannot capture cities; and can be killed by any Union unit with a decent A value.

Armed Citizens, nil, 1, 1.,0, 16a,1d, 1h,2f, 4,0, 0, X3, 000000001000011

This unit will function correctly only for AI civs.

After the unexpected and unpleasant consequences of discovering Conscription, I became very leery of researching techs whose names give no indication of their purpose. Consequently, after researching the various unit techs as well as Army of the Potomac and Anaconda Plan, I stopped all science. With trade between New York and Nassau under way, the Union has more than enough resources to build the units that it needs without relying on EVENTS.


MISCELLANY

When the Union captures a Reb city, the production unit reverts to Engineers. This means that the slow acquisition of Engineers via EVENTS can easily be circumvented by players who can produce Engineers at will once they start capturing Reb cities. I LOVE Engineers and can never have enough. Getting a few RR's will be most helpful.

Do you really want to include the Naval Drydocks wonder in the scen. Among other things it allows ships with the trireme flag to cross oceans. I captured Norfolk in March 1862 . . . purposely the very first offensive action by the Union. I expect that the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace will be burning and the Brit civ will be history by the end of the year. Consider it revenge for 1812, or fulfilling the Manifest Destiny of the US in North America, or just testing to see how far the scen can be pushed.


ERRATA

Poastal Service
Monitor/Merrimac events occur twice in EVENTS.

[civ2units]

Thanks to all for your first great playtests.

They helps me to make the scenario much better because I can see that some things are not really clear.
For me it´s sometimes very hard to find a good balance between historical correct events and a little freedom for the player to play his own history.

With the different techs it was for me to see how you like it or how you work with it. Most of the techs allows to build new units, like the Sharpshooter Regiments => Sharpshooters, Iron Brigade => the Iron Brigade and so on. But it´s a war scenario, so maybe I will delete some of the techs.

The draft riots should be occur after researching the Conscription tech. But historically there happened in summer 1863. Interesting thing with the barb unit stat, i didn´t know that. I will use it in my scenario.

With the Union reinforcements in occupied Southern cities could be really a little problem, making the game too easy for the player. I will decrease the amount or complete delete it.

Abraham Lincoln must be undisbandable, it´s a mistake from me. I will have to fix it.

@McMonkey:
I would be very happy if you could have a look at the final event popup texts for checking grammar and mistakes.

[techumseh]

It's now May 1864, and the Union has advanced to a line La Grange-Atlanta-Athens -Augusta-Savanna, with Charleston under siege. I'm declaring victory and won't play anymore turns in this particular playtest game.

Once Richmond was taken, it was pretty much a Union blitzkrieg, the advance being mostly limited by the movement of the units/roads, as AGRICOLA says. There was a fun battle caused by a Confederate counter attack at Atlanta, but the extra reinfocements I got from capturing the city made it easy to win. It took me a while to get seige mortars and heavy artillery organized onto transports, but once I did, the coastal cities fell relatively easily, the main problem being those "turret ships".

I agree with Aggie about movement being to slow. The challenge is that you have a very large map and monthly turns. Please don't use real railroads! They have ruined more than one otherwise great scenario by allowing the human player to whip masses of units from one end of the map to the other in a totally unhistoric and play-balance destroying way. Some designers have used railroads to represent suburbs or industry around large cities, and do not allow them to be built.

You might want to consider using roads as railways, and give a higher movement advantage, say X6. You could assume that all grassland squares have roads, and double the MF of ground units, while also doubling the movecost for non-grassland terrain. There was a pretty good rail network east of the Mississippi, even in the south.

While I appreciate the challenge posed by the "turret ships", I don't think they are historical. The Confederate navy had a few ironclads and privateers, otherwise just blockade runners, I think.

I ran into a couple of these on rivers. Savannah and Georgetown allow naval ships to access rivers, as does Philadelphia. I don't think you intended this. (There's a trick for adding river terrain to scenarios, if you want to know it.)

I'm curious as to how you will link the eastern map to the western. Do you intend to have someone play both together, or will they be two separate scenarios?

You've obviously put a lot of work into this, and it looks like an excellent scenario. I'm looking forward to the western theatre. Vicksburg or Bust!

[civ2units]

It's now May 1864, and the Union has advanced to a line La Grange-Atlanta-Athens -Augusta-Savanna, with Charleston under siege. I'm declaring victory and won't play anymore turns in this particular playtest game.

Accepted. Even though you should conquer all cities, I don´t think that the AI is able to make a counter attack.

Btw. Do you know how the victory points work which you can give several cities?

Once Richmond was taken, it was pretty much a Union blitzkrieg, the advance being mostly limited by the movement of the units/roads, as AGRICOLA says. There was a fun battle caused by a Confederate counter attack at Atlanta, but the extra reinfocements I got from capturing the city made it easy to win. It took me a while to get seige mortars and heavy artillery organized onto transports, but once I did, the coastal cities fell relatively easily, the main problem being those "turret ships".

I see the Union reinforcements seems to be a problem, it´s making the game too easy. I will fix this and have wrote it on my to-do list.
The Turret Ships are only via event for the Confederacy availabe. Maybe they are spawned too often via events.

I agree with Aggie about movement being to slow. The challenge is that you have a very large map and monthly turns. Please don't use real railroads! They have ruined more than one otherwise great scenario by allowing the human player to whip masses of units from one end of the map to the other in a totally unhistoric and play-balance destroying way. Some designers have used railroads to represent suburbs or industry around large cities, and do not allow them to be built.

That´s why I increased the movements from the units. RR made the scenario for mee too unrealistic because of unlimeted movements on RR´s. I like the idea of the suburbs. I think the map is great enough to use RR´s for it.

You might want to consider using roads as railways, and give a higher movement advantage, say X6. You could assume that all grassland squares have roads, and double the MF of ground units, while also doubling the movecost for non-grassland terrain. There was a pretty good rail network east of the Mississippi, even in the south.

Interesting thing, is it right, that I can give roads more movements? If so, how does it work? Giving grasland a higher movement and increasing the movecosts of all other terrains looks like a good idea. It´s now on my to-do list.

While I appreciate the challenge posed by the "turret ships", I don't think they are historical. The Confederate navy had a few ironclads and privateers, otherwise just blockade runners, I think.

I´ve read something about the turret ships on wikipedia, that the Confederacy used them. So I decided to use them in the scenario. But I can remove them, also I think thaey are a little bit too strong.

I ran into a couple of these on rivers. Savannah and Georgetown allow naval ships to access rivers, as does Philadelphia. I don't think you intended this. (There's a trick for adding river terrain to scenarios, if you want to know it.)

No, it wasn´t in my intend to use ships on the rivers. Please let me know how I can fix it.

I'm curious as to how you will link the eastern map to the western. Do you intend to have someone play both together, or will they be two separate scenarios?

The Eastern and Western Theater will be two seperate scenarios.

You've obviously put a lot of work into this, and it looks like an excellent scenario. I'm looking forward to the western theatre. Vicksburg or Bust!

Thanks very much.

[techumseh]

Adding rivers can be done by following this tip: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...rivers%2C+coal

To change the movement multiplier of roads (and rivers), just change the value in the first line of the @COSMIC section of the Rules Text file.

@COSMIC
3 ; Road movement multiplier

[McMonkey]

@McMonkey:I would be very happy if you could have a look at the final event popup texts for checking grammar and mistakes.

Will do!

Good work with the playtesting guys! With a little tweaking this scenario sounds like a classic in the making. After a few quiet months its good to see a few projects nearing completion!

[techumseh]

Btw: I would like to ask if someone would like to make a title graphic for my scenario. I´m looking for something like the title from "La Belle Epoque".

Let me know what you want visually, plus any names, etc. that you want to see on the Title page. Here's an example - do you want a style along that line, or something completely different?