On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 2:19:13 PM UTC-8, Louie Landale wrote:
I'm looking for an old PC Civil War game. It is clearly based on Victory Games
"The Civil War 1861-1865" board game.
The board game came out in 1983, and is described well here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2081/civil-war-1861-1865
Don't recall when the computer game came out.
5 turns a year. There are Theatres East, West, and Transmississippi. Each Theatre gets so many "Command Points" per turn or pulse, more the the Union and more for the East. There are a variable number of pulses and the turn might end abruptly or let
the turn's campaign go on and on. After winning at Chancellorsville, the turn in the East might end or Lee might get another pulse to attack up to Gettysburg.
Command points are needed for most troop functions, like deploying reinforcements, moving armies, or building depots.
There are troop "Strength Points" but nothing like named veteran divisions nor experience for troops.
The heart of the game is in the Leader system. They are rated with Initiative, Tactical Combat, and Army Command and have 1-4stars.
Typical weak leaders have an initiative of 3, meaning they use 3 command points to move. Good leaders have a value of 2.
I think you'd add all the Tactical combat ratings of all your leaders in a battle, which influences the outcome.
I think a "combat" is when you compare your die roll with the opponent's die roll, and the differential is looked up in tables, where SP and TC points are represented.
A stack of SPs can have a single leader unless organized into an "Army", which can have one 3-4star Army Commander, more SPs, and multiple subordinate commanders.
Army command is pure genius. IIRC, Army Command is how many combat die rolls you are "allowed". With an AC of 2 and an initial die roll of "2", you probably want to spend your second AC point and re-roll. Bad Army Commanders are "1", the good ones are
2, and Lee the only one that's a 3.
If Chancellorsville occurred in the game: Hooker had Lee outnumbered 2:1 and attacked and rolled a 3 while Lee rolled a 3; a clear loss for his outnumbered Army in spite of his better subordinates. Lee re-rolled and got a 2. But WAIT! he gets a 3rd
roll, sends Jackson out and about and pulled up with a 6 and a clear win, Hooker decided to take his 2nd roll and came up with a 2, and Lee had a huge victory!
You don't have much say when leaders are Promoted; I don't recall exactly but it is mostly the result of combat. Victorious leaders are more likely to get promoted but I think there is some political factor as well. Promotion results in a modified set
of ratings, usually a bit better but for a lot of generals their rating gets worse; Butler and Hood being good examples of that.
A "Cavalry" force is some SPs commanded by a Cavalry Leader; there are no cavalry SPs. They move fast and do other stuff.
In the computer version, the standard game you know the rating of your leaders and what they will be when promoted. Another scenario you know how they are now but don't know how they will be when promoted (Jackson might very well suck at Army command).
In the advanced version, you don't even know the ratings of your current leaders. All you have is some sort of "prestige", which of course goes up when involved in a winning battle and down when lost. This is the most realistic, Lincoln and Davis where
fumbling in the dark when it came to appointing leaders to Armies. The games projects the 4star rating of a few 3stars and 2stars that died; notably Jackson and Lyon.
The computer game had of course more features, of which I recall "Army Fatigue" was one.
I specifically recall this face off in the East, the computer Grant would send Sheridan with I think 5SP attacking Lee with like 20. The results were both sides losing 2-3 points, but Lee's whole Army would get fatigued whereas the surviving SP of
Sheridan would get diffused into Grant's Army. This happened multiple pulses in a row. The Fatigued Army fights much worse of course. Another game Lee managed to get a large TransMississippi Army and proceeded East above the Ohio River winning battle
after battle gaining reinforcements.
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