Athena Help

[donagel]

I do really enjoy the game, but for the second straight time (and I have seen it before) its Jan 1862 and it looks like Athena is giving me Richmond. The rebs largely abandoned manssass and seem to be concetrating on the Shenandoah Valley with a 1300 pwr Army and several smaller units. Meanwhile, the Union has a 1700 power Army in Manassas, flanked by 400 pwr divisions on either side. (I also have a 800pwr division in Harpers Ferry. Not seeing any resistance to my front, I loaded the game as the Rebs to see that my intelligence was correct; other than locked garrisons, there is nothing between me and Richmond.

I am playing on Lieutenant with a bonus to activation and the ability for the Ai take longer. Are there some more optimal settings to prevent such neglect.

One issue I see is the attention the Rebs pay to W.VA. They sometime shoot whole armies out in places that, or at least send them one mountain range into the area then move back to the valley. I know from driving through the area occatiionaly that an army would be hard pressed to move through that terrain. Its also not worth the effort VP/NM wise.


Thanks

[Gray Fox]

I play on Colonel, so you might try that. Also, you may consider playing a human opponent. Pbem is quite simple and gives you a better challenge. This makes the game really come alive. Finally, while you have the CSA side loaded, you can move the Confederate capital away from Richmond. Good luck!

[DrPostman]

My last 2 games as the union (RC8 and RC9) I've taken Richmond by early 63.
I wonder if beefing up the garrison would help, at least a little bit. Bigger in
Fredricksburg and Manassas too. Just to make all 3 tougher to take because
Athena has a tendency to make moves for DC and totally abandon Manassas.
I destroyed her army that way in the previous game because she sent most
of it to DC with the AoS going into West VA.

[Rod Smart]

I play on Colonel, so you might try that. Also, you may consider playing a human opponent. Pbem is quite simple and gives you a better challenge. This makes the game really come alive. Finally, while you have the CSA side loaded, you can move the Confederate capital away from Richmond. Good luck!

I'm playing my first game on Colonel, and Athena is worse than ever at this. Its the spring of '62, and I [the Union] have a 1,500 army in the south of the Shenandoah valley and a 850 division in Fredricksburg. They are facing zero opposition. There is nothing larger than a brigade anywhere near them.

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as to charging through West Virginia, try turning Athena's vision down. When they see that you aren't garrisoning Ohio and Western PA, they'll go all out trying to take those unguarded areas, meaning they'll force march through the mountains in the winter. Turn down the AIs ability to see behind your lines, and that should help a bit.

[Gray Fox]

At less than Colonel, I took Richmond in '62. At Colonel, Lee commanded a 12k power stack in Richmond when I took the capital in '63.

[enf91]

For whatever reason, Athena refuses to play defense in this game, instead attacking meaningless territories (Fort Monroe) instead of defending crucial objectives. To the extent that she does, she defends the province itself instead of defending in front.