AACW2 wishlist

[soundoff]

If ever there is a AACW version 2 I'll put myself forward for the first Grand Campaign or whatever it will be called.

I have two abiding regrets of AACW version 1. The first being that I was never able to partake in a 'last huzzah' campaign....even without 'presidents'. The second, that I was never able to fight on the same side as Banks6060. In this players extremely humble opinion those two regrets should be taken as a tribute to AGEOD........ for producing a superb game and for gathering such brilliant devotees. In truth I never played a PBEM game against a less than totally honourable opponent. That really does say something about the AGEOD fraternity.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. I wish for you everything that you wish for yourselves......

[Pocus]

Thanks Soundoff!

Andatiep, very good suggestions...

[gchristie]

"- The game should start only with "Call for volunteers" policies. The Conscription policies should become available when the Laws of conscription are displayed in the event reports. This Laws are randomly voted by the congress with a % of chance added by each of this criterious : how many states are invaded/occupated by the enemy, NM situation, how many losses, Foreign Intervention with the enemy, strong defeat on the field (at least 1 NM lost in a battle)..."

Like this idea.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Pocus]

IF there is a future for extra AACW content (beside fixing residual bugs in patches), then I believe the way of doing options will be done the WIA way, i.e must more powerful in the approach... So we will be able to add a plenty of choices, not just the 4 you see.

[AlexanderPrimus]

Chain of Command Chart

I would love to see a menu in the ledger with a command chain/order of battle for all of your forces in the field, down to the brigade level, along with an expended menu with the rank and status of all general officers on both sides (ex. wounded, dead, captured, resigned, etc.).

Persistent Unit/Command Structure & Customizable Succession

I would also like said command chains to be customizable; you could rearrange your command structure "on paper" as it were, without having to try to do it on the battlefield and worry about activation when creating brigades, divisions and corps. If your command structure is set like the Army of Northern Virginia's was at Gettysburg, for example, you could have three corps with three divisions in each. The units would thus continue to exist if their commanders were wounded, killed or replaced, but could suffer penalties if the new commander is inexperienced or too junior in rank. There could also be "natural" succession, where a slain corps commander is replaced by his senior division commander (which is likely to take place during a battle) and succession by fiat, where you specify the replacement (like when John Reynolds was killed at Gettysburg; Abner Doubleday was his immediate successor, until John Newton was assigned to the position).

Customizable Command Structure

I might also recommend the ability to alter the command structure to suit your purposes (perhaps depending on a general's strategic rating?). You should be able to create "Grand Divisions" a la Burnside, or Left/Right/Center Wings consisting of multiple corps. The command structure could thus vary for different situations (as it did in real life). You could also "detach" a part of a larger unit for certain assignments (ex. say Hood's Division is usually part of Longstreet's Corps, but the player detaches it for a special campaign in the Shenandoah by itself, or to reinforce Jackson's Corps there).

It would also be nice to be able to name units yourself, especially armies.

Generals Serving in Different Capacities

I would like to see the ability to assign various generals to an assortment of different duties with actual visible effect on your troops and situation. Such responsibilities could include Quartermaster General (like M. Meigs), Provost Marshal (like M. Patrick), Chief of Engineers (like G. Warren), Chief of Staff (like Rawlins for Grant), Special Military Advisor to the President (like Lee and later Bragg), Seconds-in-Command that function effectively (so Beauregard can actually contribute to A.S. Johnston's army command), and other special assignments.

It would also be good to be able to assign generals to lead the large departments and thus give small modifiers to their subordinate officers within their departments. The same would be true for whoever you appoint as General-in-Chief.

Influence of Other Important Historical Figures

I'd like to see influential people like Frederick Douglass, Horace Greeley and others play in role in the game, whether through politics, special events or something else.

Moreover, I think it would be good to have special non-combatant characters that could move with armies' auxiliary units, like Clara Barton or Dorothea Dix, that could combine with hospital units.

Anyway, just some ideas.

[PhilThib]

Excellent suggestions

[andatiep]

Well synchronized : AlexanderPrimus spoke on Sanitary services' famous people just before i finished and post the following contribution on the same topic :

---------------------------------------
Sanitary services & Hospitals

Tell me if i'm wrong, but the public and private sanitary services of the USA and CSA were globally organized, coordinated and efficient not before the late year of 1862.
Maybe the Hospital units shouldn't be available to be build by players before the proper events appear which could display historical credit to the politics & laws and the private initiative who realized it.
It doesn't means that bonus Hospital units can't locally pop up before with special events.


---------------------------------------------------------
Diseases & local epidemics

The diseases are already well simulated in the game, but their effect seems to be too soft (in comparison to the historical situation) and not localized enough time.
Events like the Corinth evacuation should be simulated because they really had impact on the strategical situation.

I suggest that :
- If staying more than 2 turns in the wrong season in the wrong place (this seasons and places should be defined and displayed in the manual, BTW) big concentrations of troops should have a lot's of chance to get strong epidemics (few losses, -30% of cohesion)
- If epidemics appear in a region, it should stay there for few turns (displayed like a pillage icon, for example) and enemy forces should also be victim of it if they choose to stay in such a place.
- Hospital units could get a new ability like reducing the chances that a force with such a unit get epidemics.
- As already proposed in this thread, generals should also sometimes be desactivated during a turn or even "wounded" and locked few turns because of epidemics (generic generals should pop up and take automatically their place if they lead a brigade or a division).

[AlexanderPrimus]

Another idea: Presidential Mode.

You take the role of Lincoln or Davis and their respective cabinets, or perhaps the role of a general-in-chief. You give your generals basic objectives like "Take Richmond" and they propose strategies for you to approve.

For example, you're playing Lincoln, and your general is McClellan. You tell him that his objective is to take Richmond by the end of 1862, and he responds by proposing his Peninsular Campaign. You can either approve or reject his plan; in the latter case, he may propose a new strategy or maybe grow sullen and expect you to tell him what to do, if you're so smart.

You would have a rating with each commander to measure your mutual satisfaction with your relationship, which would depend on several factors.

Basically, you give them orders and then watch and see if they can carry them out. It would only be a special game mode, since not everyone would want to play this way.

The political side of the game would also have to be expanded, in order to give a presidential player a bit more to do.

While we're at it, here's yet another idea: Cabinet Members.
You should be able to appoint, promote and sack cabinet members according to your will, albeit there should be very strong political factors involved, that could potentially mess you up a lot if you are too whimsical. Each potential cabinet member should have their own bonuses and detriments, requiring you to pick and choose.

Some decisions should be obvious though, like Lincoln replacing Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton, or Davis promoting Judah Benjamin. Still, you should be able to get away with retaining alternate cabinet members if you feel like it.

There would be a Cabinet page in the ledger, or perhaps a briefing room with all of their portraits. Maybe they could give you advice or suggestions or recommendations about how to play?

[Pocus]

Hehe, I see that the good ideas are flowing! I promise that we will reread this entire thread if there is something decided officially about an AACW Gold or AACW II. But for now, there is not, I don't want to give false hopes

[gchristie]

IF there is ever an AACW gold or II, I will happily pay for it. Just sayin'....

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a joyous season to those that do not.

[enf91]

The Chain of Command thing sounds like Forge of Freedom ($35 I want back).
The thing with Presidential Mode sounds a little like Warplans in WWI.
Oh, and I saw on another thread something about generals' ratings being variable and needing several battles to confirm.

[runyan99]

I've started playing Grigsby's War Between the States via PBEM, and it seems to work really well. I really like their command system and the reaction move phase concept, which capture the particular feel of the Civil War quite well in my opinion.

Also, an AACW pet peeve of mine, random retreat directions, is solved by pre-determined retreat locations for every region which are side specific, and communicated to the player before hand, so you know where your forces will go.

Cavalry raids and scouts can only go as far as their move allowance, and are forced to return to friendly territory at the end of a turn. Bingo!

[Pdubya64]

Yeah, I kind of like those solutions too Runyan.

My "wishes" have more to do with the technical side of a future AACW game than features (not that I don't have a few of those in my other pocket!).

I wonder if there is a better database approach with the newer games AGEOD has released compared to AACW. I found it very frustrating that essentially, there was a "right way" to mod that made sure data was propogated correctly, and a "quick way" that while workable, allowed errors to creep into the game and cause harm.

I would like to enjoy mods, but I don't want them screwing up my whole install or corrupting the game data. Maybe this is something out of reach, but it would be nice if we could avoid the whole mud-slinging episodes of AACW1.

Just sayin'...

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[FortyEighter]

I would like an option to reorganize brigades and the possibility to rename them.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[gchristie]

Just bought Military History Commander: Europe at War gold and when I was reading documentation for downloading the expansion I came across this and wonder if AGEOD could adopt something similar to make switching between versions of AACW easier?

"The Grand Strategy expansion sits alongside your existing install so after installing you either have the choice to run the original game or the Grand Strategy expansion. You can uninstall the Grand Strategy expansion at any time and will still have a fully working version of the original game. If you already have a previous Grand Strategy Expansion installed, just install this over the top. You will be able to continue any saved games from previous versions of the Grand Strategy expansion. "

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[andatiep]

I would like an option to reorganize brigades and the possibility to rename them.

Presuming the next AACW2 to be an upgrade/extension of the same game engine being used in all the BOA/AACW/NCP games, this will probably not be possible due to game design limitations.

In other words they would probably have to completely redesign the game engine to accomodate such a feature and since these particular games are all built on the same game engine, even the upgraded version of BOA2 a.k.a WIA vs BOA1, this would take far to much time to reprogram for an AACW2.

The game engine commonality is a deliberate feature of Pocus' game designs to enable the backfitting of new features to be easily accomodated into past designs. It also allows a good headstart into the next game's programming design. To redesign the game engine would eliminate this backfitting capability and also severely slow down the new program (AACW2) design.

Well, now we know we have to give up with all the proposals in this thread about creating a mini-division "box" with one star generals to gather in 1 such unit around 9 elements in order that players build their own brigades...

Anyway, personnally, i changed my opinion on that. It had to be re-worked. I just read a note in J.M. MacPherson's main ACW book about the organisation of the armies (both sides) during all the war. Here is a list of the "facts" and ways to simulate them in the game :

- a brigade was made up with 4 or 5 infantry regiments. Sometimes with one artillery regiment. So in the game it could never be more than 6 elements per brigade and less than 4 (infantry) elements. Obviously, cavalry regiments was independant units or attached at the division level, not at the brigade level.
=> If it's too hard to re-design the game by creating a brigade "box" like the current division "box", then each State should propose this few kind of brigade's type (few light or heavy infantry + 1 light or basic artillery) and that's all. It's a pitty that players can't build their own brigade like the division but it is also a fact that the central governments didn't really control the internal States' wishes at this level of production.

- a division was made up with 3 brigades. At this level were attached cavalry & Sharpshooters units. This formation was organized only in late summer 1861.
=> This is already well simulated in the game (max. of 18 elements per brigade, etc.).

- a corps was never made up with more than 3 divisions. This formation was organized only in summer 1862. There were almost always cavalry, pontonneers and artillery units at the Corps level.
=> Since the players can and do always try to fit 4 or 5 divisions in a corps, there is not anymore places in CP for this little units (which make the corp's artillery support function useless). All this makes that the current corps's composition are unrealistic in the game, it could be nice to find a way to limit the number of divisions in a corp to a maximum of 3, then players would complete the corps CP capacity with artillery, pontoneer infantry and other little units.
=> If corps was never made up with more than 3 divisions, the Army HQ unit in the game should not be able to welcome more than that. Actually, it should not welcome any division units at all but only supports units like artilleries and elements with abilities which concern the whole region, if we want to simulate well the function of the Army's reserve artillery support. If not most of the player don't put many artillery in the Army's HQ force and use it like a corps with 5 or 6 divisions, which is not the proper way and which also allow them to create few huge corps-like forces without command penalties one year before it is allowed to create corps...

[Clovis]

Well, now we know we have to give up with all the proposals in this thread about creating a mini-division "box" with one star generals to gather in 1 such unit around 9 elements in order that players build their own brigades...

Anyway, personnally, i changed my opinion on that. It had to be re-worked. I just read a note in J.M. MacPherson's main ACW book about the organisation of the armies (both sides) during all the war. Here is a list of the "facts" and ways to simulate them in the game :

- a brigade was made up with 4 or 5 infantry regiments. Sometimes with one artillery regiment. So in the game it could never be more than 6 elements per brigade and less than 4 (infantry) elements. Obviously, cavalry regiments was independant units or attached at the division level, not at the brigade level.
=> If it's too hard to re-design the game by creating a brigade "box" like the current division "box", then each State should propose this few kind of brigade's type (few light or heavy infantry + 1 light or basic artillery) and that's all. It's a pitty that players can't build their own brigade like the division but it is also a fact that the central governments didn't really control the internal States' wishes at this level of production.

- a division was made up with 3 brigades. At this level were attached cavalry & Sharpshooters units. This formation was organized only in late summer 1861.
=> This is already well simulated in the game (max. of 18 elements per brigade, etc.).

- a corps was never made up with more than 3 divisions. This formation was organized only in summer 1862. There were almost always cavalry, pontonneers and artillery units at the Corps level.
=> Since the players can and do always try to fit 4 or 5 divisions in a corps, there is not anymore places in CP for this little units (which make the corp's artillery support function useless). All this makes that the current corps's composition are unrealistic in the game, it could be nice to find a way to limit the number of divisions in a corp to a maximum of 3, then players would complete the corps CP capacity with artillery, pontoneer infantry and other little units.
=> If corps was never made up with more than 3 divisions, the Army HQ unit in the game should not be able to welcome more than that. Actually, it should not welcome any division units at all but only supports units like artilleries and elements with abilities which concern the whole region, if we want to simulate well the function of the Army's reserve artillery support. If not most of the player don't put many artillery in the Army's HQ force and use it like a corps with 5 or 6 divisions, which is not the proper way and which also allow them to create few huge corps-like forces without command penalties one year before it is allowed to create corps...

Sorry but McPherson's book is a superb introductory to the Civil War but it's just too oversimplyfying a bit military matter. Brigades were just of so many sizes, some divisions had 2 or 4 brigades, and the corps subject is too to be discussed further.

Take a look to the OOB at Chickamauga for both sides or Petersburg to get a real idea. AACW is currently much more closer to the reality than your schem.

[caranorn]

Sorry but McPherson's book is a superb introductory to the Civil War but it's just too oversimplyfying a bit military matter. Brigades were just of so many sizes, some divisions had 2 or 4 brigades, and the corps subject is too to be discussed further.

Take a look to the OOB at Chickamauga for both sides or Petersburg to get a real idea. AACW is currently much more closer to the reality than your schem.

Agreed...

[andatiep]

Sorry but McPherson's book is a superb introductory to the Civil War but it's just too oversimplyfying a bit military matter. Brigades were just of so many sizes, some divisions had 2 or 4 brigades, and the corps subject is too to be discussed further.

Hmm , you're certainly right about the limits of this "global" historical book. But finally, even if i was wrong about the brigades or divisions comments, i'm here anyway for a statu quo on the game.
The corps are the subject of possible changes, so please discuss further :
- Does corps have to get up to 5 divisions during all the game ?
- How to push the players to place some single artillery units at the corps level instead of only divisions in order to allow the artillery corps feature in the game (those artillery shooting the best enemy units if placed at the corps level and not inside a division unit).
- Does Army's HQ units have to welcome divisions and thus :
1) allow the players to create few huge corps-like forces without command penalties one year before it is allowed to create corps.
2) allow the players to use the CP provided mostly with divisions instead of placing many single artillery units at the army level to allow the simulation of the reserve artillery army support feature in the game (as far as i understood from this feature described here : http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=125580#post125580).

Take a look to the OOB at Chickamauga for both sides or Petersburg to get a real idea. AACW is currently much more closer to the reality than your schem.

Miam miam, interesting, could you let know here some links where to find this OOB. I'm curious to learn more about, please .
Are you sure there is not much differencies between 1861 OOB and 1863-64 and then 65 ? Because if corps start at 3 divisions and finished the war at 5 divisions, it could also be simulated. I mean, if it was like that, it should be really simulated because it make a big difference on the battlefield...

[Clovis]

Miam miam, interesting, could you let know here some links where to find this OOB. I'm curious to learn more about, please .
Are you sure there is not much differencies between 1861 OOB and 1863-64 and then 65 ? Because if corps start at 3 divisions and finished the war at 5 divisions, it could also be simulated. I mean, if it was like that, it should be really simulated because it make a big difference on the battlefield...

http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/regimental-level-orders-of-battle/

For Chickamauga, I've taken from this book

http://www.amazon.com/MAPS-CHICKAMAUGA-Chickamauga-Including-Operations/dp/1932714723

For the rest, i'm using this:


A History of Ironclads: The Power of Iron over Wood
By: John V. Quarstein (Author)

The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth (Civil War America)
By: Peter Cozzens (Author)


Ersatz in the Confederacy: Shortages and Substitutes on the Southern Homefront (Southern Classics Series)
By: Mary Elizabeth Massey (Author)

Now for the Contest: Coastal and Oceanic Naval Operations in the Civil War (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: William H. Roberts (Author)


The Wilmington Campaign: Last Departing Rays of Hope
By: Chris E., Jr. Fonvielle (Author)

Success Is All That Was Expected: The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron During
By: Robert M. Browning (Author)

Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
By: Stephen W. Sears (Author)


To The Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign
By: Stephen W. Sears (Author)

The Battles For Spotsylvania Court House And The Road To Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864
By: Gordon C. Rhea (Author)


To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13-25, 1864
By: Gordon C. Rhea (Author)

The Battle Of The Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864
By: Gordon C. Rhea (Author)

Confederates and Federals at War
By: H. C. B. Rogers (Author)

The War Within the Union High Command: Politics and Generalship During the Civil War (Modern War Studies)
By: Thomas Joseph Goss (Author)


Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign (Civil War America)
By: Kent Masterson Brown (Author)

Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862
By: Joseph L. Harsh (Author)


Confederate Tide Rising: Robert E. Lee and the Making of Southern Strategy, 1861-1862
By: Joseph L. Harsh (Author)

review :http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2...e-tide-rising/

Sounding the Shallows: A Confederate Companion for the Maryland Campaign of 1862
By: Joseph L. Harsh (Author)

Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign (Civil War America)
By: Peter Cozzens

Battle: The Nature and Consequences of Civil War Combat
By: Kent Gramm (Author)

The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth (Modern War Studies)
By: Earl J. Hess (Author)

ONE CONTINUOUS FIGHT: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863
By: Eric J. Wittenberg (Author), et al

The Civil War in Kentucky
By: Kent Masterton Brown (Author), Kent Masterson edited by Brown (Author)

Confederate Struggle For Command: General James Longstreet and the First Corps in the West (Texas A&M University Military History Series)
By: Alexander Mendoza (Author)

Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865 (The American Crisis Series Books on the Civil War Era)
By: Ethan Rafuse (Author)

President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman
By: William Lee Miller (Author)

The Stonewall Brigade in the Civil War (Spearhead)
By: Steve Smith (Author)


Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War
By: David Williams (Author)

Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution
By: James M. McPherson (Author)

Like Men of War
By: Noah Andre Trudeau (Author)

General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West
By: Albert Castel (Author)

Kirby Smith's Confederacy: The TransMississippi South, 1863-1865
By: Robert Kerby (Author)


Chronology of the American Revolution: Military and Political Actions Day by Day
By: Bud Hannings (Author)

Fort Donelson's Legacy: War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee, 1862-1863
By: Benjamin Franklin Cooling (Author)

From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War
By: Jr, Robert M. Browning (Author)


Grant's Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox (Modern War Studies)
By: Steven E. Woodworth (Editor)


America's Civil War: The Operational Battlefield, 1861-1863
By: Brian Holden Reid (Author)

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
By: James McPherson (Author)

review on TOCWOC here: http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2...nder-in-chief/

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Castel, Albert E.
By: Albert E. Castel (Author)


A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas (The American Crisis Series, Book 7)
By: Ethan S. Rafuse (Author)

The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization...
By: Edward Hagerman (Author)

Gettysburg
By: Stephen W. Sears (Author)

Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Spring 1862
By: Robert G. Tanner (Author)

Counter-Thrust: From the Peninsula to the Antietam (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: Benjamin Franklin Cooling (Author)

The Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War Per the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
By: Ronald A. Mosocco (Author)


One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864 (American Crisis Series)
By: Gary Dillard Joiner (Author)

Lee's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of Northern...
By: Edward G. Longacre (Author)

The Confederate Order of Battle: The Army of Northern Virginia
By: F. Ray Sibley (Author)


McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union
By: Ethan Sepp Rafuse (Author)

Training, Tactics and Leadership in the Confederate Army of Tennessee: Seeds of
By: Andrew Haughton (Author)


Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War by...
By: David G. Surdam (Author)

Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865
By: Edward G. Longacre (Author)

The Confederate War by Gallagher, Gary W.
By: Gary W. Gallagher (Author)

Chancellorsville
By: Stephen W. Sears (Author)

Davis and Lee at War (Modern War Studies)
By: Steven E. Woodworth (Author)


Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (Reflections on the Civil War Era)
By: Steven E. Woodworth (Author)


Why the Confederacy Lost (Gettysburg Civil War Instutute Books)
By: Gabor S. Boritt (Editor)

Six Years of Hell: Harpers Ferry During the Civil War
By: Chester G. Hearn (Author)

Trial by Fire: Science Technology and the Civil War
By: Charles D. Ross (Author)


Command and Communication Frictions in the Gettysburg Campaign
By: Philip, M. Cole (Author)

Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War
By: Gerald Linderman (Author)


Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy : The Journal and Letters of John M. Brooke (Studies in Maritime History)
By: George M. Brooke Jr. (Editor)

The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat
By: Earl J. Hess (Author)

Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg
By: Timothy B. Smith (Author)

CAPITAL NAVY: The Men, Ships, and Operations of the James River Squadron
By: John Coski (Author)


Lincoln's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861-65
By: Donald L. Canney (Author)

Ships Versus Shore: Civil War Engagements Along Southern Shores and Rivers
By: Dave Page (Author)


Campaign for Corinth: Blood in Mississippi (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series)
By: Steven Nathaniel Dossman (Author)

General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse
By: Joseph Glatthaar (Author)

nd Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May-June 1864 (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: Mark Grimsley (Author)

: Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg (Modern War Studies)
By: Steven E. Woodworth (Editor)

The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare In The Upper South, 1861-1865 (Campaigns and Commanders)
By: Robert R. Mackey (Author)

Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders

Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West
By: William L. Shea (Author), Earl J. Hess (Author)

All for the Regiment: The Army of the Ohio, 1861-1862 (Civil War America)
By: Gerald J. Prokopowicz (Author)

: Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War (Modern War Studies)
By: Craig L. Symonds (Author)

Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Battalions (American Crisis Series, No. 3)
By: Stephen Davis


Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance (Texas a & M University Military History Series, No 36)
By: Frank E. Vandiver

Guns for Cotton: England Arms the Confederacy
By: Thomas Boaz

Glory Enough for All: Sheridan's Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station
By: Eric J. Wittenberg

Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (The American Crisis:Books on the Civil War Era, 15)
By: Robert B. Ekelund Jr.

The Chessboard of War: Sherman and Hood in the Autumn Campaigns of 1864 (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: Anne J. Bailey


Lost for the Cause: The Confederate Army in 1864
By: Steven H. Newton


Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War (Studies in Maritime History Series)
By: Stephen R. Wise

Cannon Blasts: Civil War Artillery in the Eastern Armies
By: L. Vanloan Naisawald


The Civil War Source Book
By: Philip R. N. Katcher


A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles (Weapons in History)
By: Joseph G. Bilby


Cannoneers in Gray: The Field Artillery of the Army of Tennessee
By: Larry J. Daniel


Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg
By: Bradley M. Gottfried

More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army
By: Mark A. Weitz


Arms and Equipment of the Civil War
By: Jack Coggins


Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864 (Civil War America)
By: Earl J. Hess


Shock Troops of the Confederacy
By: Fred L. Ray

review: http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2...y-by-fred-ray/

Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America)
By: Earl J. Hess


The Union Cavalry in the Civil War: The War in the West, 1861-1865 (Jules and Frances Landry Award)
By: Stephen Z. Starr


The Union Cavalry in the Civil War: From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 1861-1863 (Jules and Frances Landry Award)
By: Stephen Z. Starr


The Union Cavalry in the Civil War: The War in the East from Gettysburg to Appomattox, 1863-1865 (Jules and Frances Landry Award)
By: Stephen Z. Starr

Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery
By: Dean S. Thomas



Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism
By: Jay W. Simson


Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West (Modern War Studies)
By: Steven E. Woodworth


The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War
By: Brent Nosworthy

The Antietam Campaign (Military Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: Gary W. Gallagher

Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
By: Steven E. Woodworth

Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders
By: Ezra J. Warner


The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865 (Da Capo Paperback)
By: E. B. Long (Author), Barbara Long (Author)


The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861--1865 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)
By: Mark R. Wilson

Civil War Artillery At Gettysburg
By: Philip , M. Cole


Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862
By: Edward Cunningham (Editor), Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith (Editor)


Nathan Bedford Forrest: In Search of the Enigma
By: Eddy W. Davison (Author)


The Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 - July 13, 1863
By: Bradley Gottfried

Cavalry Raids of the Civil War (Stackpole Military History Series)
By: Robert W. Black


How the North Won: A MILITARY HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR
By: Herman Hattaway (Author), Archer Jones (Author)


Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military History of the Civil War
By: Herman Hattaway



Sharpshooters of the American Civil War 1861-65 (Warrior)
By: Philip Katcher (Author), Steve Walsh (Illustrator)


The Northern Railroads in the Civil War, 1861-1865
By: Thomas Weber

Why the North Won the Civil War
By: David Herbert Donald

Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War, revised edition
By: James C. Hazlett

Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865
By: Steven E. Woodworth

Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History
By: David Stephen Heidler


Civil War High Commands
By: John Eicher (Author), David Eicher


Commanding the Army of the Potomac (Modern War Studies)
By: Stephen R. Taaffe


Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History
By: Richard M. McMurry


Lee and His Army in Confederate History (Civil War America)
By: Gary W. Gallagher

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Clovis]

- Does corps have to get up to 5 divisions during all the game ?
- How to push the players to place some single artillery units at the corps level instead of only divisions in order to allow the artillery corps feature in the game (those artillery shooting the best enemy units if placed at the corps level and not inside a division unit).
- Does Army's HQ units have to welcome divisions and thus :
1) allow the players to create few huge corps-like forces without command penalties one year before it is allowed to create corps.
2) allow the players to use the CP provided mostly with divisions instead of placing many single artillery units at the army level to allow the simulation of the reserve artillery army support feature in the game (as far as i understood from this feature described here : http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=125580#post125580).

.

1) no. Problem in vanilla is the easiness to build large and unhistorical armies. Less troops means smaller corps.

2) No idea. The point is howewer to let artillery both in division and corps, because until the end of the war, some artillery remained at divisional level in game terms, especially in coastal operations where operated division-sized units and not corps.

3) the same than one. Reduce the WSU production at start and you will have less HQ built.

4) The same as 2). Incidentally, Western armies never had real artillery reserves, simply because broken terrain made artillery concentration rather irrelevant. And Grant dissolved such organization in the Potomac Army in 1864.

[andatiep]

Saperlipopette !

You Clovis really know how to feed a historian fan...

Thank you very much...

Thank you Gray too.

Your advices will be helpfull to set House rules on the topic for my 1.15 PBEM games... (ref : http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=15713)

[andatiep]

Here is a way to reform the last topic. It's the final House Rule i plane to use in PBEM.
Maybe it could be implemented in AACW2 if you find it interesting :


It can never be more than 1 Division unit in a force if this force is not an Army Corps.
It can never be more than 3 Division units in an Army Corps force.
The Army's units can not welcome any Division unit in their force.

This is :
- to reduce the size of the corps in the game, which don't fit to the historical situation and to show the real purpose of the Corps : beeing able to move many Divisions as one force.
- to not allow the players to use Army's HQ to create few huge corps-like forces without command penalties one year before it is allowed to create corps.
- to oblige at the start the USA to use on the front, like historically, its bad 3 stars generals to command corps and armies. Now players will have to create more (little) corps to place in it all their divisions, and all the 2 and 3 stars generals will be usefull, even if they are bad. The good 2 stars generals will now have to be subordinated in a Corps to move enormous forces (e. g. it will not be so easy for Grant to avoid a period were he's Corps leaders of Hallek's Army if he want to command a major force in the West...).

[caranorn]

Here is a way to reform the last topic. It's the final House Rule i plane to use in PBEM.
Maybe it could be implemented in AACW2 if you find it interesting :


It can never be more than 1 Division unit in a force if this force is not an Army Corps.
It can never be more than 3 Division units in an Army Corps force.
The Army's units can not welcome any Division unit in their force.

I strongly disagree. Lets look at the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. All three corps (Longstreet, A.P. Hill, Ewell) had 4 divisions plus support units. A number of additional units were left behind in Virginia too which could have been added to those corps. Before that (before Jackson's death), that same army was usually organised in two wings plus D.H. Hill's force, those wings were even larger, with 5 and more divisions (some like A.P. Hill's division were huge). Yes, Union corps usually had no more than 2 or three divisions, but for the Confederates that was not the case...

[andatiep]

I strongly disagree. Lets look at the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. All three corps (Longstreet, A.P. Hill, Ewell) had 4 divisions plus support units. A number of additional units were left behind in Virginia too which could have been added to those corps. Before that (before Jackson's death), that same army was usually organised in two wings plus D.H. Hill's force, those wings were even larger, with 5 and more divisions (some like A.P. Hill's division were huge). Yes, Union corps usually had no more than 2 or three divisions, but for the Confederates that was not the case...

Maybe, but this 3 rules solve problems in the game. Respecting exactly the OOB of one battle will not help. After all, many people say the Divisions and Regiments could be half empty most of the time.

Anyway you can also decide that this number of Division per force can evolve during the war and/or that the South have the right to put one or two Division more in a Corps if commanded by geniuses .