Jagger2013
General of the Army
Posts: 641
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:14 am

French and Indian Campaign Max Campaign Activation Penalties

Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:58 am

I just started playing WIA/BOA2 again after a long haitus from the original BOA. I noticed the default setting for Command Activation was set at max penalties. If a stack commander fails his command activation, there is a strong chance that the entire stack is locked down. I haven't quite worked out exactly how it works but sometimes an entire stack is locked up while sometimes a stack will fail activation but can still move with penalties. Either way, failing command activation is a pain in the tail but seems to reflect that 17th century lack of urgency incompetence very well.

So I decided to play out the French Indian Campaign as the English. Wow! Max command activation really makes a difference. I think the French Indian campaign may be perfect for max command activation penalties. The English have a huge army but really poor commanders for the first couple years while the French have excellent leaders and a small but good army. As the English, I have had a real battle against the French AI simply because of the command penalties. While the french leaders can run rings around my much larger army until I finally get good commanders. I definitely have to think differently with the realization that I never know when a commander and his stack might just end up locked and totally immobile for an unknown timeframe.

If you haven't tried max command penalties against the AI with the French and Indian campaign, I highly recommend it. I also strongly suspect max command penalties would also work very well in a PBEM game of the French and Indian campaign. I may try it out not too far down the line.

I wonder how max command penalties would work in the AWI campaign? Anybody tried it?

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FroBodine
Corporal
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Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:30 am
Location: Brentwood, CA (not the OJ one)

Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:07 am

Excellent. I am brand new to AGEOD games, but I have heard from others to start learning with max activation penalties on, to get used to the real deal.

Do you think all scenarios should use this option?

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ArmChairGeneral
AGEod Grognard
Posts: 997
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:00 am
Location: Austin, TX, USA

Thu Feb 20, 2014 8:06 am

Jagger2013,

Welcome back! Max or "Hard" Activation is my preferred setting also, and you will have a similar experience to what you have had so far in pretty much any scenario you play. It really clarifies decision making and makes leadership quality meaningful. I definitely recommend it for AWI. (For similar reasons I also recommend Historical Attrition for every scenario, in every AGEOD game.) For a very short scenario (the short ones in WIA are really good, some of the best AGEOD has made BTW) I might turn it down a notch though; being fixed for 2 out of 8 turns makes some of the scenarios impossible to win.

Every turn, a leader makes a roll for activation which is modified by his strategic rating. If he fails (under hard activation) he then makes another roll to see if he becomes fixed for the turn. Sometimes they are just inactive but can still move, sometimes they are stuck in place for a turn. Leaders who are currently inactive (fixed or not) suffer a small penalty to their next activation check, so "brownies" (as AGEODers often call them because of the color of the envelope in AACW) staying inactive and sometimes fixed for several turns in a row is common, especially if they have a low strategic rating. All leaders roll for activation separately, but only the commander's activation status counts for movement and combat penalties and for whether or not the stack is fixed. If the commander is inactive but not fixed, subordinates who ARE active can be put in command of a separate stack and go about their activated business. If the commander is fixed, however, all units in the stack are fixed, even if it is an activated leader.

Jagger2013
General of the Army
Posts: 641
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:14 am

Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:35 pm

FroBodine, looks like ArmChair General has your answer. Myself, I have only played the FIW scenario so far with the new BOA2. So I can't really give a recommendation.

Jagger2013
General of the Army
Posts: 641
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:14 am

Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:16 am

PS: One other benefit of max command penalty is that it discourages the killer superstack unless you have a really good senior commander.

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ArmChairGeneral
AGEod Grognard
Posts: 997
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:00 am
Location: Austin, TX, USA

Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:31 am

Nice, Jagger2013!

That's a perfect example of what I was getting at when I said hard activation and attrition settings make the game feel more "natural."

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