American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

I'm fairly certain but would like some clarification.

Is it correct to say that all the changes made in v4.03 remain in v4.04 with the main difference being the following one?
"Adjustment to melee modifiers. If there are defending units that have not fired in the current turn, but the units are able to fire on the attacking units and the defender’s strength is >= the attacker’s strength, then 20% is subtracted from the attacking strength. However, if the defender strength is only >= half the attacker strength then only 10% is subtracted."
REPLACED BY
"Adjustment to melee modifiers. If there are defending units that have not fired in the current turn, but the units are able to fire on the attacking units and the defender’s strength is >= the attacker’s strength, then 10% is subtracted from the attacking strength. However, if the defender strength is only >= half the attacker strength then only 5% is subtracted." and

That's how this (https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/cwb-4-04-more) reads to me. However, there are some other minor ones including:
1. A number of bug fixes created by v4.03, namely,
* Fix for Reachable Hexes display problem.
* Fix for bug which allowed units to retreat on to a bridge ignoring stacking restrictions.
* Fix for Fire Modifiers not being applied, issue occurred in 4.03 only.
PLUS
32. Fixing a few other 'bugs', specifically,
* Fix for legacy bug where End Game music would not stop when a New Game was started.
* Fix for legacy bug with captured artillery when the optional rule was not selected.
* Fix for legacy bug that gave a melee bonus to attackers for not firing that were out of ammo.
* Fix for ZOC bug regarding skirmisher deployment.
* Fix for legacy bug where Routed cavalry were exerting a skirmish ZOC.
AND
Some other graphical ('display') things.

Although an improvement, halving the melee change still seems wrong to me. It's just half as wrong as in v4.03.

One odd thing I noticed (which I had overlooked earlier) when watching the video was this:
"Adjusted so that Supply Wagons only have 50% movement points on the turn in which they are captured."
I don't understand this change. If you melee and capture a supply wagon it doesn't matter how many movement points they had on that turn. You are not going to be able to move it after a melee in that turn. It can only be moved on your next turn, when presumably it has full movement.

Another bad change, also from v4.03 (and carried into v4.04) is this one:
"Added Melee Combat Prediction when On Map results and FoW are On."
When I see this applied in the WDS video [not Blake's one which I'll watch very soon] it means that you get to see exactly how many men the enemy has in a hex. Doesn't that detract from the 'fog' of war that FoW is trying to achieve? Does it also occur when the Optional Rule 'Extreme Fog of War' is selected? I think so as you must select FoW in order for Extreme FoW to work properly.

Finally, what does the following change mean? How does it work?
"Adjusted the way Scheduled Reinforcements with FOW are displayed (low/medium/high)."

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

LOL, I should have watched Blake's video rather than the WDS one. Some of the above questions are answered.
I now understand what is happening with scheduled reinforcements and FoW and some other things such as LoS changes. I'm not happy with them, but I understand them better now.

Am I "thrilled" at the changes? No, I am not. My 'takeaways'. I don't love it, it displeases me - greatly. Many changes seem to be a general 'dumbing down' of the games to protect the ignorant and stupid. Other changes greatly affect the attacker and the side with smaller raw numbers of men and material.

For example, the melee changes. Rather than 300 defenders being in a hex (as in Blake's video example) I generally find that the number of Union men in a hex is twice that number. Indeed, in many scenarios the Union has regiments well in excess of 600. The Confederacy simply cannot achieve a two to one advantage in a melee because the game engine limits any attacking force in a melee to 1,000. You only get one chance per turn to melee a hex so it is not possible to launch a wave of attacks during the [usual] twenty to thirty minute turn.
There are plenty of advantages to the defender already. The defender already has a base advantage (before any other factors are considered) of 16.67%. This is because a 'six-sided die' is rolled for each man: if the defender's roll is equal to, or better than, the attacker's roll then the defender wins [100/6 = 16.67].
Terrain, and other factors, can then increase this advantage for the defender. And now the defender will, in most circumstances, get an extra bonus on top of anything else. It's a defender's game, and now even more so. Boring!
It's now harder for the attacker and especially hard for the CSA due to their [usually] lower numbers.
All defender/attacker scenarios will now be unbalanced. This is because no changes have been made to the VP victory levels or VP Objective values so the attacker now a lower chance of victory.

For a specific example, take historical Shiloh which we discussed on another thread in this forum. All the Objective hexes are in Union possession so the CSA must attack to have any hope of victory. The vast majority of the Union regiments have in excess of 500 men so achieving a two to one majority in a melee by a Confederate attacker is largely impossible. The Confederate attacks on Day 1 of that battle cannot now be replicated with any degree of success because of the changes made to the melees. The 'quality' differential incorporated into the design of the scenario are largely meaningless because it is raw numbers that decide the application of the penalty.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Blake's video was AWESOME!

BRO!

Now when I play these games I am going to have your voice in my head when I move around the map. Like The Civil War series from Ken Burns and the narrator there.

I like the changes.

More ranged fire from now on.

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Maj. Gen. Mitch Johnson
ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE COMMANDER

Good presentation.

Comment 1 - I guess that we no longer have to worry about artillery being in a defensive battle line through a town or woods. I understand the woods but not the town as there are open streets where artillery fire could be directed. Artillery in woods, I've always said that artillery costs so much that you shouldn't place them where you can't quickly extract them and now the game engine feels the same way.

Comment 2 - I didn't interpret ADF the same as Blake did. I read that default ADF is the medium range of the weapon, and the plus one is in the sentence where they explain how medium range (not ADF) was determined.

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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

I think a 1 gun unit should be able to unlimber in a town, maybe even a 2 gun section... but a full battery shouldn't be able to be used in a town, in my opinion.

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Respectfully, your obedient servant,

Maj. Gen. L.P. Smith
Division Commander - II Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

well done!

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General Ernie Sands
President ACWGC -Sept 2015- Dec 2020
7th Brigade, 1st Division, XVI Corps, AoT
ACWGC Records Site Admin

"If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there."

I echo your sentiments that Blake did a great job of going over the new update. He pretty much destroyed any doubts I had about the defensive melee benefits. I was taught early on by one of my superiors in the Union army to pour fire into my opponent's infantry and weaken them rather than going at it with cold steel. Given that the CSA units generally have the better morale that is my plan for the games I shall play as the South.

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Optional Rules I Use in WDS ACW Games:
(by column from left to right)
Column 1: All ON except for Man. Def. Fire; Column 2: All ON except for Alt Fixed Unit Rel.; Column 3: All ON except for Art.Capt. & Prop.Op.Fire