American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I am interested in what club members would like to see in regards to improvements to the Civil War Battle Series. I will go first and share an improvement I would like to see and the reasons why. If you are like me then you probably have a longer list then an eight years old at Christmas. I won't bore you with my whole list now, just one thing then I will share some other ideas after other club members have had a chance to post their preferred improvements.

The first thing I would like to see is have captured artillery (when the optional rule is on) act much like a VP hex. The last person to occupy the arty section owns it until another player recaptures it. I don't play with this option checked because I hate how captured arty reverts from my control if I do not garrison the hex. I once played a large scenario against the AI. There were captured guns all over the map, that I no longer owned because I wasn't leaving a garrison. It simply didn't feel right to me.

This could be simply another optional rule in case some players like how it is now. I would think it would be a relatively easy feature to implement, but I am not a programmer so I don't know.

What improvements would you like to see?

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Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

Have a long list indeed but my number one would be to finally make the phased gameplay standard by adding "filters" so the defensive fire can be set the way the players want it. Currently most won't play that way because it takes too much time but if the defensive fire can be "programmed" by the players so that it's conducted by the AI but in the way the players want it we would have phased gameplay with the speed of turn gamplay.

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Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

What form would the filters take and would it apply to the whole force, individual units, etc?

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Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

The games WinSPWW2 & WinSPMBT give a good example how filters can work and how extensive they can be, for example you can set a range and min & max armor values, that makes sure that an anti-tank team let a jeep or other unarmored vehicles pass but fires if a tank comes into range that has an armor value within the min-max settings. The HPS/JTS games are far less complicated with just 3 types of units and would make filters likely be much easier. Still the form is hard to tell if one doesn't know how complicated the programming would be.
The goal would be to make sure that defensive fire lands where it should land, that usually means fire is put on the most dangerous units and so these have to be determine based in each individual target unit because what is dangerous for one unit might not be dangerous for another unit.
What is mandatory is a range setting based on hexes to make sure that fire is done not to the maximum range but to a range that the player sees a good effect of his fire.
And a setting on brigade, division or even army level that overrides individual settings would surely be handy.

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Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

Christian - I could see how a defensive fire filter might work with a 'no fire', 'whites of their eyes' (fire only at effective range), or 'always fire'.

I'd like to see a capability to replay the enemy turn video (maybe it exists and I don't know). Also, I'd like to be able to replay my starting screen (reinforcements, routs, etc.); again maybe it exists and I just don't know.

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Field Lieutenant
4th Infantry Brigade
2nd Division (Corcoran's Legion)
VIII Corps

Yes some rough settings could already be a big improvement. One would have to see if they would be enough or if improvements are still needed.


No there is no way to get that. For now I recommend to try some recording software, FRAPS worked for me but I'm sure there are better programs out there. Once recorded you can watch it over and over again and if you let the recording run till you get the command report you can see it again too. That is really handy for large scenarios because at some point it gets damned annoying to watch the replay like a hawk just because you don't want to miss the one important action that gives you a clue to the enemies intentions.

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Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

(1). Would like to see the ability to make squadron or troop detachments from a cavalry regiment to more realistically reflect scouting activities, and then re-attach the same to the parent unit.

(2). Would like to see the installation of double-time march fatigue.

(3). Would like to see installation of Column-of-Companies formation for infantry.

(4). Would like to see a greater amount of casualties inflicted by line infantry upon mounted cavalry.

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General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)

1. Supply wagons in singular file on a road should follow the road instead of jumping across adjacent hexes when a sharp curve is encountered and more than two supply wagons are in line (they should behave in singular file on a road just as infantry, cavalry, and artillery do).
2. The options that I choose for viewing the game (e.g. leaders on top and/or map contours) should be retained so that they don't have to be reselected every time that the game is opened.
3. Roads and trails should be more visible.
4. Movement allowances for all units and point values for casualties (all types including supply, etc) should be consistent throughout the ACW series. If there is a difference required for a scenario, then that difference should be spelled out in the scenario description.
5. I want a nuclear or at least an A-10 fighter aircraft option for when I fight some of these guys.

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Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

AI controlled fire of any kind (phased or Turn) should have more granular settings.

More range trigger controls than just minimum, random and maximum for both rifle and artillery.
Artillery could have cannister (3 hex), short(<6), medium(<10), full.
Rifled weapons should have a max hex setting rather than range.
Muskets should have 1 or 2 hex choices.
Infantry and artillery should have modifiers for degree of threat in choosing targets.

In Turn play any fire at adjacent enemy should be full strength and automatic(shouldn't require movement to trigger).

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

It seems as if these features would be easy to add.
They already have the video that plays. Just add a reverse, pause/play, fast forward buttons to it. And have the option to go back to it, maybe in a different window.

The Command Report seems even easier to add as something you can go back to. It may be in there somewhere and I haven't seen it yet.

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Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

As I have said before, I wish someone would go back and look at some of the features in the old SSI games.

http://www.old-games.com/download/5271/ ... ning-point

1) They used an action point system, somewhat similar to JT's Panzer Campaigns system. The number of action points you got depended on morale, leadership, and a random factor.
I think max was 15 and minimum was 6. All fire, movement and melee depended on cost in action points.

2) In addition to accumulating random fatigue from marching, you could gain extra action points, but at a cost in fatigue. Forced march, if you will.

3) It was demi-brigade level and all leaders had to be with a unit, so the brigade commander couldn't command by himself from the other side of the hill.

4) They factored in smoke by making repeated fire turn after turn less effective.

I certainly don't advocate going back to the SSI games, but maybe borrow some of the concepts from this 30+ year old system designed when computers had a tiny fraction of the capability they have now.

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MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA

This has been something I have wanted to see.

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Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

I've got another issue - it's somewhat of a pet peeve of mine - I can't always tell if I've built breastworks in a hex, especially the top / north side of a hex. I can zoom to 3D and it doesn't help. There's no way to rotate the screen as far as I know, or have the breastworks show up on the hex terrain dialog.

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Field Lieutenant
4th Infantry Brigade
2nd Division (Corcoran's Legion)
VIII Corps

Yea that is sometimes hard, as current workaround it may help if you turn off the units & hex outlines, in the top bar there is the function "Toggle Units" and under the "Settings" menu you find "Hex Outlines" for this.
Only other way would be to modify the graphic so it stands more out.

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Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

Me, I'd still like pausable playback.....

Also, a recon function for Cavalry, something like that for recon units in Panzer Campaigns -- use 1/3 of your MP and see all units in range. I am sick and tired of watching my Cavalry units get surrounded by Infantry and destroyed just because they crested a ridge and therefore can't see the mass of Infantry 3 hexes away....