Gentlemen,
I have another idea for your consideration. (I had intended to bring this up during the ACW discussion at the convention but it slipped my mind.)
My idea is to add two additional Termination Bid options: Rebel Surrender and Union Surrender. These would result in the same campaign branch as the matching 'Major Victory', with the exception that any units still on the board of the surrending side would be considered 'captured'.
Reasoning: Sometimes a game becomes totally lopsided and either one or both of the players want to end it and go on. This is what the Termination Bids are for. When HPS first came out with the campaign series, it was suggested that the Termination Bid only be used in situations where contact between the forces had broken off and both sides agreed further action was unnecessary. However, I've been involved in games where I had totally surrounded many of my opponent's forces and would logically have eliminated them long before the end of the game. My opponent acknowledged he was beaten and offered me a Termination Bid of a Major Victory so we could move on to the next scenario. Knowing all of those forces could be available to my opponent later, I was less than eager about accepting the offer. On the other hand, I didn't want to force my opponent to have to play through what could be many more turns of a hopeless situation just so I could enjoy the fruits of my success. These two additional Termination Bid options would solve this problem.
Personally, I tend to play a scenario to the end until my opponent submits a termination bid. If (I said 'IF' [:)]!) I were ever in the situation where my force was encircled by a much larger force and in danger of annihilation, I would try to fight my way out and escape with as many men as I could, inflicting as much damage to my opponent on the way as I could. As I said, however, there are others who just want to move on. The addition of these two options would allow that.
What do the rest of you think? If this is an easy program change, would it be worth implementing?
Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory
David W. Mallory
ACW - General, 3/2/I/AotM (Club President & Cabinet Member)
CCC - Lieutenant, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Department, Colonial American Army