A Divided Nation - Creation Thread

[AGRICOLA]

I'm ending my playtest in Dec '62. London is burning, there are but two Brit cities left in Canada and the Feds hold Lynchburg, Fayetteville and Swansboro as well as everything north and east of these cities. Unquestionably, the scen is too easy.


IMHO, the main problem is that you employ a passive defense scheme where, except in 2 cities the Feds have captured, there was but a single low-grade defender in each city. I would suggest that you take a look at

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164722

and consider using a reactive defence system. It requires but a single event for each city. You have a lot of unused events space.


Also, you might also take a look at events that take place on a specific turn because the massive Reb forces in BOBBY LEE'S REVENGE (see below) magically appeared very far behind Union lines. Not terribly realistic. It might have been better to have the event triggered by the loss of a city.



THE BEST DAMN SURPRISE AI OFFENSIVE I'VE EVER SEEN . . . aka BOBBY LEE'S REVENGE

The Union forces began their first major offensive in midsummer '62. Manassas, Fredericksburg and Winchester were captured against minimal opposition and the Fed attack armies moved up and assembled for the next phase in Winchester and at the Richmond - Fredericksburg - Charlottesville road junction.

The following month the Feds captured Harrisonburg and Charlottesville in the west, Richmond and Petersburg in the center and Williamsburg and Yorktown in the east. In the process, the bulk of Fed forces ended up in central Virginia. There was great celebration north of the Mason-Dixon line and predictions of victory by Christmas. Army intelligence officers had no idea of what had happened to Bobby Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee's riposte was immediate and a thing of beauty. Union garrisons in Harper's Ferry and Sharpsville were overwhelmed, cities throughout northern Virginia and southern Pennsylvania were attacked, Fed units on the move were ambushed and all hell broke loose from Hagerstown to Williamsburg.

This one was one for the books . . . a classic spoiling attack.

By the time the dust had settled on the Feds' next turn and the Reb units had been hunted down one by one, it was obvious that the chastened and scattered Union forces would need until Christmas to recuperate, regroup and again move into attack positions.

You really had to be there to appreciate Lee's genius . . . and the Fed's folly in overextending themselves .


THE AMAZING DISAPPEARING TECH

In Nov '62 as I was selecting the Homestead Act as my last and final tech to research, I noticed that the New York Zouaves tech was on the available list. Somewhat puzzled, I looked at my Operational Summary and, sure enough, I had already discovered the tech in June '62. Backtracking through end-of-turn saves, I found that in July, when I discovered Sharpshooters, the total number of techs did not increase because good 'ol NYZ had gone AWOL. Finally checked EVENTS. Eureka! The following event explained all.

@IF
RECEIVEDTECHNOLOGY
technology=52
receiver=Union
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
whom=Union
technology=52
@ENDIF

Furthermore, it explains GhostOfDisco's surprising ( to me at the time) comment that:

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.

My take on this is that the Union economy that I'm operating can indefinitely discover a tech per turn so it will be no problem to keep rediscovering NYZ every second turn and get 8 more NONE Zouaves. That will certainly allow the Feds to build fewer Inf and more Field Arty.



UPGRADING

@AGRICOLA:
Yes, the Conscription tech should update the Militias, Dragoons and Light Artillery to Infantry, Cavalry and Field Artillery. Maybe I should use the Leonardo Wonder to make sure that they will be updated automatically.

Thanks. I have no problem with upgrading Light Arty as long as it is to Field Arty. However, the scen changed Light Arty to US Inf, which I did not consider to be an upgrade. I saw no need for US Inf at the time and did not start building the first one until a year later.



LARGE MAPS, ROAD MOVEMENT MULTIPLIER AND NAVAL MOVEMENT

I had a Civ2 "WTF" moment when I tried Techumseh's suggestion that ground unit movement might be more realistic if the road multiplier was doubled from 3 to 6. The result was that ground units had their movement doubled but, unexpectedly, naval transports (Mv=40) became immobile. Obviously the road multiplier affects not only ground units but also naval ones. Surprise.

A bit of testing produced the following results:

RMM . . . . . . Max Naval Mv
1 . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2 . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3 . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4 . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5 . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6 . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7 . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Evidently, ( RMM x Naval Mv ) cannot exceed 126.

IMHO, designers pay careful attention to assigning ground unit movements for both realism and playability. Naval movements appear to be an afterthought, assigned neither for playability nor realism. This is especially true for large maps such as the one used in this scen. Despite its size ( 159 x 253 ), the map is only ~1600 miles from north to south, half the width of the Atlantic Ocean. Sailing ships regularly crossed the Atlantic in a month or so.

I finally settled on the following ship movements as the best available compromise when the RMM is 3.

Privateers . . . . 40
Frigates . . . . . 35
Warships . . . . 30
Transports . . . 30


P.S.
Because of stout Union defenses, Bobby Lee's Revenge failed to recapture Hagerstown. Consequently, the Feds did not get General Meade. Bummer.

P.P.S.
The Washington - Petersburg RR is almost finished. As 3 more Engineers are added each month, the intention is to extend the RR north to New York and south to keep up with the Union advance.

[curtsibling]

Excellent research there, Agricola - Your work is always very thorough.

[civ2units]

I'm ending my playtest in Dec '62. London is burning, there are but two Brit cities left in Canada and the Feds hold Lynchburg, Fayetteville and Swansboro as well as everything north and east of these cities. Unquestionably, the scen is too easy.

That´s not so good. It should be a little challange and making fun. But I´m working on it and I´m sure that the final version would be more difficult for you and the other players.

IMHO, the main problem is that you employ a passive defense scheme where, except in 2 cities the Feds have captured, there was but a single low-grade defender in each city. I would suggest that you take a look at

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164722

and consider using a reactive defence system. It requires but a single event for each city. You have a lot of unused events space.

Yes, this is one of the great problems. Currently are only two cities defended by Garrison units, that´s too little for a difficult campaign.
Thanks for the link, it makes things now a little bit clearer for me, especially with the events.

Also, you might also take a look at events that take place on a specific turn because the massive Reb forces in BOBBY LEE'S REVENGE (see below) magically appeared very far behind Union lines. Not terribly realistic. It might have been better to have the event triggered by the loss of a city.



THE BEST DAMN SURPRISE AI OFFENSIVE I'VE EVER SEEN . . . aka BOBBY LEE'S REVENGE

The Union forces began their first major offensive in midsummer '62. Manassas, Fredericksburg and Winchester were captured against minimal opposition and the Fed attack armies moved up and assembled for the next phase in Winchester and at the Richmond - Fredericksburg - Charlottesville road junction.

The following month the Feds captured Harrisonburg and Charlottesville in the west, Richmond and Petersburg in the center and Williamsburg and Yorktown in the east. In the process, the bulk of Fed forces ended up in central Virginia. There was great celebration north of the Mason-Dixon line and predictions of victory by Christmas. Army intelligence officers had no idea of what had happened to Bobby Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee's riposte was immediate and a thing of beauty. Union garrisons in Harper's Ferry and Sharpsville were overwhelmed, cities throughout northern Virginia and southern Pennsylvania were attacked, Fed units on the move were ambushed and all hell broke loose from Hagerstown to Williamsburg.

This one was one for the books . . . a classic spoiling attack.

By the time the dust had settled on the Feds' next turn and the Reb units had been hunted down one by one, it was obvious that the chastened and scattered Union forces would need until Christmas to recuperate, regroup and again move into attack positions.

You really had to be there to appreciate Lee's genius . . . and the Fed's folly in overextending themselves .

Very interesting playtest you´ve made.
I totally agree, that it isn´t really realistic to spawn tons of units very far behind enemies lines. I´m working on it. But I also see that scen is really too easy when you have captured all cities above North Carolina.

The Rebels gest more Garrison units and reinforcements when loosing cities!

THE AMAZING DISAPPEARING TECH

In Nov '62 as I was selecting the Homestead Act as my last and final tech to research, I noticed that the New York Zouaves tech was on the available list. Somewhat puzzled, I looked at my Operational Summary and, sure enough, I had already discovered the tech in June '62. Backtracking through end-of-turn saves, I found that in July, when I discovered Sharpshooters, the total number of techs did not increase because good 'ol NYZ had gone AWOL. Finally checked EVENTS. Eureka! The following event explained all.

@IF
RECEIVEDTECHNOLOGY
technology=52
receiver=Union
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
whom=Union
technology=52
@ENDIF

Furthermore, it explains GhostOfDisco's surprising ( to me at the time) comment that:





My take on this is that the Union economy that I'm operating can indefinitely discover a tech per turn so it will be no problem to keep rediscovering NYZ every second turn and get 8 more NONE Zouaves. That will certainly allow the Feds to build fewer Inf and more Field Arty.

I´ve disabled most of the techs because they are not really necessary. Also there are some problems with some techs. For example:

I´m using Ironclads and have set the "trireme floundering" flag on. This means that the clads only should travel near the cost. Unfortunatelly I gave all civs the Navigation and Sailing tech, these are highly reducing the chance of floundering and allows the player to attack London with Ironclads . Together with the Lighthouse wonder the Rebs can use them on the open ocean.
So I now disbanded these techs (and the Lighthouse wonder also). The player shouldn´t be able to use his clads for attacking poor British cities.
The attack points of Warships are also decreased.

Btw, why did you attack London?

UPGRADING




Thanks. I have no problem with upgrading Light Arty as long as it is to Field Arty. However, the scen changed Light Arty to US Inf, which I did not consider to be an upgrade. I saw no need for US Inf at the time and did not start building the first one until a year later.



LARGE MAPS, ROAD MOVEMENT MULTIPLIER AND NAVAL MOVEMENT

I had a Civ2 "WTF" moment when I tried Techumseh's suggestion that ground unit movement might be more realistic if the road multiplier was doubled from 3 to 6. The result was that ground units had their movement doubled but, unexpectedly, naval transports (Mv=40) became immobile. Obviously the road multiplier affects not only ground units but also naval ones. Surprise.

A bit of testing produced the following results:

RMM . . . . . . Max Naval Mv
1 . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2 . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3 . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4 . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5 . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6 . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7 . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Evidently, ( RMM x Naval Mv ) cannot exceed 126.

IMHO, designers pay careful attention to assigning ground unit movements for both realism and playability. Naval movements appear to be an afterthought, assigned neither for playability nor realism. This is especially true for large maps such as the one used in this scen. Despite its size ( 159 x 253 ), the map is only ~1600 miles from north to south, half the width of the Atlantic Ocean. Sailing ships regularly crossed the Atlantic in a month or so.

I finally settled on the following ship movements as the best available compromise when the RMM is 3.

Privateers . . . . 40
Frigates . . . . . 35
Warships . . . . 30
Transports . . . 30


P.S.
Because of stout Union defenses, Bobby Lee's Revenge failed to recapture Hagerstown. Consequently, the Feds did not get General Meade. Bummer.

P.P.S.
The Washington - Petersburg RR is almost finished. As 3 more Engineers are added each month, the intention is to extend the RR north to New York and south to keep up with the Union advance.

Increasing the movements of ships sounds very good for the big scale of the map. But I´m not so happy of increasing the units movements. I´m afraid that it would destroy the balance of the scenario.
RR are now disabled. You can use the Train Station improvement for transporting the units. To assure that the transport could be attacked by enemy troops, many units now have the "shot down airplanes" flag.

[AGRICOLA]

Btw, why did you attack London?

1. To see if it could be done . . . . . in the interest of a thorough playtest. Gotta maintain my reputation for unpredictable, unorthodox play.
2. Fun.
3. Revenge for the torching of Washington 50 years earlier.
4. It was in line with my general philosophy that the only good AI civ is a dead one. I have found that it prevents all kind of nasty things dreamed up by the fevered minds of developers.
5. The expectation that the Brit cities would be a welcome addition to Union productivity, although I admit that I had expected London to be more productive.

[techumseh]

AGGIE's experience with Lee's offensive underlines the problem with trying to recreate actual historical battles and campaigns with timed events. Often, the game will have taken a different course, and the units pop up far behind the lines, or away from the action. In AGGIE's case, it provided a challenging surprise, but in reality, Lee's troops could never have reached those positions, and Lee would certainly have launched the attack before Richmond was captured.

More appropriate triggers might be the capture of a group of cities, say Winchester, Manassas and Fredericksburg. Or any 2 of the 3. You can set this type of trigger up with the flag system in the events language.

[GhostOfDisco]

AGGIE's experience with Lee's offensive underlines the problem with trying to recreate actual historical battles and campaigns with timed events. Often, the game will have taken a different course, and the units pop up far behind the lines, or away from the action. In AGGIE's case, it provided a challenging surprise, but in reality, Lee's troops could never have reached those positions, and Lee would certainly have launched the attack before Richmond was captured.

Well, I for one favor the "challenging surprise" aspect of said timed events, though I do note that said events can seem a bit out-of-place when the historical situation is not there at the proper time (such as Red Front, where the Germans bridge the Don (I think) even if the front lines are far west of that river). Perhaps an alternate troop gathering/invasion for a different situation...

[civ2units]

Is it possible to make barb controled units invisible? I´ve tried to use the submarine flag but it only works on the AI, not for the barbs.

To represent the bandid raids in the Western states during the Civilwar I would like to use the Bushwhackers. I´m using Aggies unit stat he mentioned for the Armed citizens, they can attack cities but not conquer them. I gave them the submarine flag in order that the other units don´t see them. Only Dectective units will see them.

Unfortunatelly it doesn´t work for the barb units.

[techumseh]

Use the 'UNITS_ADVANCED' section of the ToT Rules, section 'G':

; G) General flags
; 00000001 invisible except during combat:.............1 - invisible
; 00000010 non-disbandable (human players only):...1 - cannot disband
; 00000100 0-range-air-unit damage override:.........1 - override damage
; 00001000 barbarian units can't be bought off:.......1 - can't buy off
; 00010000 unit may enter impassable terrain:.........1 - may enter
; 00100000 unit acquires engineering abilities:.........1 - engineer
; 01000000 barbarian unit will not expire:................1 - no expire
; 10000000 override .SPR file for this unit:..............1 - don't use .SPR

The first flag makes any unit, even a barbarian, totally invisible to a human player (except the owner). Unlike the sub flag, the unit will be able to attack normally on land. Also unlike units with the sub flag, units running into an enemy invisible unit do not get a chance to see it before attacking.

The engineer line is missing from most Rules files, so you may have to add it. This flag bestows the superior abilities of an engineer on any settler unit.

[Elensar]

Ideally, speaking as a history fan of the period, it should take three (game) years for a competent human player to win as the Union.

Two is not inappropriate for better players, one should not be possible (too much to accomplish). Historically, the Union was mostly done by 1864.


Also, as a compulsive nitpicker:

Joe Johnston's invasion of Tennessee as a means of disrupting Sherman's march across Georgia. Just have events create Joe Johnston's army and a MOVEUNIT event toward Nashville with the capture of Atlanta. (Also, I have no qualms with having an invasion force generated with the Atlanta Campaign tech. How else will the player get Sherman in the area?

John Bell Hood, not Joeseph Johnston.

Can't argue with the concept just because the name is off, though.

[civ2units]

Use the 'UNITS_ADVANCED' section of the ToT Rules, section 'G':

; G) General flags
; 00000001 invisible except during combat:.............1 - invisible
; 00000010 non-disbandable (human players only):...1 - cannot disband
; 00000100 0-range-air-unit damage override:.........1 - override damage
; 00001000 barbarian units can't be bought off:.......1 - can't buy off
; 00010000 unit may enter impassable terrain:.........1 - may enter
; 00100000 unit acquires engineering abilities:.........1 - engineer
; 01000000 barbarian unit will not expire:................1 - no expire
; 10000000 override .SPR file for this unit:..............1 - don't use .SPR

The first flag makes any unit, even a barbarian, totally invisible to a human player (except the owner). Unlike the sub flag, the unit will be able to attack normally on land. Also unlike units with the sub flag, units running into an enemy invisible unit do not get a chance to see it before attacking.

The engineer line is missing from most Rules files, so you may have to add it. This flag bestows the superior abilities of an engineer on any settler unit.

The missing engineer line, does it mean that the unit builds irregations, roads, etc. faster than the normal settler unit?

I thought about using an additional civ (hostile to all others) for using the Bushwhackers but it seems that the Submarine flag only works on ocean terrain. Using the invisible flag makes the Detective unit needless.

[civ2units]

Another idea for using the Detective unit:

I´m giving it the Diplomat flag and also attacking points. If there is enough money you can bribe the Bushwhackers and using for yourselves (making sense because they fought on both sides) or destroying it.
Is it possible that units with diplomat flag also can attacking enemy troops?

Btw, the Bushwhacker unit will be the only bribable unit.

EDIT: I´ve changed the rules and the Detective can only bribe the unit
When do we get the source code for Civ2?

[civ2units]

Where can I change the abilities for the Diplomat/Spy units?

[AGRICOLA]

In GAME file.

@SPYOPTIONS
Establish Embassy
Investigate city
Steal Technology
Industrial Sabotage
Poison Water Supply
Plant Nuclear Device
Incite a Revolt


To disable any option, replace it with a blank line.

[fairline]

Here's most of the units you requested Sebastian, plus lots of tweaks to the other units. I have not included the native americans you asked for, as I can't see why you need them for an Eastern ACW campaign!

I've playtested the version you linked me to, and I've enjoyed playing it, with a few reservations listed below. I like the map (McMonkey?), although it could probably be zoomed in even further, missing out most of Florida and the W Indies. If you need trade cities, dot some around in the remaining ocean. I like the variety of units, especially the State units which give lots of variety and colour.

Random thoughts:

- It's too easy. give the CSA AI higher stat units than the player. Give it lots of events units. Give the player far fewer events-generated units when capturing cities. Give the rebs respawning General units with high stats (Lee, Jackson etc)

- The US Sharpshooters constituted 2 regiments. Don't make them buildable. These plus all the other elite units should be awarded by events/ research only. Make the US SS stats reflect their role; they were elite infantry which should have higher def than regulars.

- Only allow the player to build regular infantry / cavalry / arty. Make him research batter troops which are spawned once when the research is competed.

- Richmond is far too easy to take. Give the CSA fortified garrison very high def stats and place more in and around Richmond. The only unit which should be successful against it should be the siege mortar. Give the mortar high att and the missile flag (1 shot and then destroyed), and make it unbuildable. Award it after various levels of research and force the player to think where and when to use it.

- I have changed the elite infantry icons from the cluttered flag-bearer + kneeling rifleman, and I've de-cluttered the 3 fortified garrison multi-units. All elite infantry now have an authentic icon and regimental flag. BTW, the Garribaldi Guard were far from elite unit; their officers were charged with corruption! Again, only spawn elite units either through events or research, and don't make them buildable.

I enjoyed playing the scenario, but with a few changes it could become a real challenge

[civ2units]

Thanks very much for the missing units, Gareth.
They looks great. Especially the regimental flags for the Elite troops.

I know, the scenario is much too easy and not a really challenge. For example, everything behind Richmond is easy to conquer.

I´ve changed many things (like higher stats for the AI, more event created units, different campaigns starting when conquered strategic cities, etc...) also I´ve reduced the available wonders and improvements (now only buildable for the player). The tech tree is also reduced a little bit.

At the beginning I was thinking about using two maps for representing boths Theaters (Western and Eastern). Due to much work (I have to make four scenarios) I decided to cut of the map from McMonkey a little bit. I´ve now only one map with both Theaters included.

For me it makes more sense to use one map. Playing with the Union means to attack on both fronts, playing with the Rebels means defending on the Mississippi and the Eastern coast. Railroads are not allowed but Train Stations (Airports) are buildable to simulate the train transports of several troops.

I´ve cut off Southern Florida to avoid using Warships and Frigates travelling on the Mississippi River. For the Mississippi you get Riverclads spawned by events, which can be also only used on the rivers.

The Native units were for the Western Theater, but I don´t need them anymore. It doesn´t make a sense, because native Indians didn´t play a main or strategic role during the Civil War.

Here you can see how the map looks like.