American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

First question: Always wondered, never asked, don't recall seeing it in the manuals - what is the difference between a unit with a white quality rating and a unit with a gold/yellow quality rating? I've seen both, on units with the same grade, from the same brigades, etc. What's the difference? [?]

Second question: Why do we get to know enemy quality ratings? Outside of those few units that possessed some distinguishing characteristic on their uniforms (Black Hats, Bucktails, Zuaves, etc) there would be no way to tell who you were fighting on a smoky battlefield until you captured some enemy soldiers and interrogated them to find out their units, etc. So why in the games do we automatically know that "Hey, this here unit in front of us is only an E graded unit, but the one next to them is an A... let's stay here..." [?]

Regards,

Col. Alan Lynn
2nd Div, II Corps, AoA

Signal Corps, Assistant Editor

"The only accurate news is well researched history."

God Bless <><

1. From the help file: "If the Quality level is displayed in Yellow, it indicates that the unit’s morale is reduced for some reason such as fatigue or ammo level." For leaders it means they failed their command check.

2. I guess you might know the quality of an identified regiment/brigade by its reputation. Presumably leaders higher up would have some idea which corps they faced (from scouts and personal observations before the smoke obstructed visibility) and then work out which divisions, brigades and regiments from that by their flags, and the information might be passed down even to regiments, who would be looking for regimental flags to try to work out what they were facing, once the enemy was close. Also you might be able to guage their quality to an extent by their apparent cohesion and 'steadiness', formation integrity, it's apparent eagerness to close with the enemy while under fire, or the number of soldiers apparently wavering or drifting to the rear. Or perhaps by the noise they make[:D]

[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/acw/acw.htm"]General Antony Barlow[/url]
[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/aoc/XXAoC.htm"]Army of the Cumberland[/url]

It just might be 'them black hat fellars'[:D]

Brig. Gen. Phil Driscoll
1st Brigade/1st Division/VCorps/AoP

I think the game affords too much information of this kind all the way around. Foote noted that Hays distinguished the trefoil insignia on top of the forage caps worn by Carroll's brigade which Hancock sent to Cemetery Hill the evening of the second day. I haven't read that reference anywhere else (not sure where Foote got it from--I'd have to go back and check to see if anyone else footnotes something similar, but I don't think so), and I have to wonder about that. After all, it was dark by then. Indeed, Carroll's men loosed more than one volley before Hay's determined they were in fact the enemy and not friendlies and ordered his men to return fire. It's possible Hays got this information from a captured II Corps soldier afterward, say, though I hadn't heard of any Union prisoners taken up there except for the boys from IX Corps who were found cowering in their trenches, and perhaps a gunner or two as the batteries were overrun.

Flags were easy enough to distinguish up close in daylight--most especially the Union corps flags were well known, and regiments usually carried their state flags with all sorts of information on them--not that anyone studiously read those in the heat of battle. Still, Coddington made a few references to particular units recognized in the field by the enemy for one reason or another. The black dress hats that many members of the Iron Brigade still wore has already been mentioned and is a famous case. On the other hand, I doubt anyone in Wright's command knew who suicidally charged them (the 1st Minnesota as it turned out, and the precious few survivors of that gallant regiment did <i>not</i> lose their state flag) as the Confederates made their charge up Cemetery Ridge July 2, for example.

I don't know, but to denote that a particular regiment's morale might be fading due to lack of ammo or whatever seems a stretch. Were the soldiers under A. A. Humphrey (undoubtedly the best commander in Sickles's corps, probably one of the finest division leaders on the field) "bad" or possessed of "low morale" because they finally gave way to irresistible pressure along the Emmittsburg Road? Were these soldiers any different of character a few minutes later when they rallied on the ridge and helped turn back the Southern surge at that juncture of the battle the second day? Should their morale rating in the game have turned from white to gold and back to white again?

I agree, game gives entirely to much information about enemy units. For that matter the combat dialog displace to much information (shows the enemy unit's modifiers). I think the information on an enemy unit should be restricted to maybe its brigade and its approximate strength if in contact (current system of rounding down to nearest hundreds gives away to much too). The combat results should be limited to what the "On Board" option displays.

BG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
III Corps, AoM (CSA)