AGEOD Forums

Hello,

As I have mostly played BoA2 - WIA, trying to understand how replacements and Reinforcements work.

Obviously they both cost money.

Replacements - this puts a letter in a mail box. I assume this is like WIA and this means when a unit loses a strength, this is used to replace it. Correct?

Reinforcements - Okay, I pick what I want from States I want. Do these come immediately? Do they take a bit to organize? I am pretty fuzzy in this area.

PAW

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Replacements are used mainly to recover losses, and I think to add regiments to some brigades or fortress garrisons when they start under strength in some scenarios. There are some rather obscure rules as to how this actually works - putting a stack in passive posture (green flag on the top row of the red-orange-blue-green display for the stack) gives it priority in receiving replacements, though this may not be a good thing to do in a battle area.

Reinforcements are entirely new units, appearing on the turns after they are paid for...

Union:

+1 Militia, supply wagons.

+2 Infantry, sharpshooters, cavalry, mixed brigades containing these, sailors.

+3 Field artillery (all weights), marines, zouaves, mixed brigades containing artillery. Brigs, transports, river transports, steam frigates.

+4 Siege and coastal artillery. Support (signallers, engineers, hospitals etc). All other ship types.

CSA:

+1 Milita, supply wagons.

+2 Infantry, cavalry, zouaves, mixed brigades containing these.

+3 Artillery, mixed brigades with artillery, marines, sharpshooters, TX Rangers, support units except naval engineers, Army HQs, ships except frigates.

+4 Naval engineers, frigates.

Caveat: these numbers are a bit provisional as they vary by what and how many units are being built in which cities.

Militia cost resources to build and extra when they randomly convert in time to regulars, though rather poor quality regulars. I believe the next game upgrade will add to the conversion cost, which will make building masses of militia a risky option .

Chertio wrote:Militia cost resources to build and extra when they randomly convert in time to regulars, though rather poor quality regulars. I believe the next game upgrade will add to the conversion cost, which will make building masses of militia a risky option .

They do not convert to poor quality regulars. They convert to conscripts, ie the same quality you could "buy" as reinforcements. Also, there is no risk involved as far as I can see, altough under the new system militias won't be usually the smart thing to purchase (they are more expensive than conscripts when you factor in the cost of the conversion cost too) except in the rare situations when you *absolutely* need the regiment available next turn (and even then luck might not smile on you, and you won't get the regiment available next turn).

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They do not convert to poor quality regulars.

Hm. I got the impression looking at Union units in the middle of an 1861-65 full campaign game that the upgraded militia tended to have a lower maximum cohesion than regulars... maybe because the regulars had gained combat experience and improved that way, maybe just a random impression.

The risk as I understood it being that building stacks of militia will start to blot up resource as they upgrade in future turns.

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Gray_Lensman wrote:cost of $8.25, 8.25 conscripts, and 1.125 War Supply is just as cheap as an outright purchase of a conscript which cost $8, 10 conscripts, and 1 War Supply

I (obviously ) disagree with that Money and WSu is needed for artillery, manpower isn't (well ok, there is a nominal manpower cost, but you get the point I am sure). You need enough meat to protect artillery (what is "enough" is of course debatable ), but the real killer in this game is artillery. And for artillery you need to worry only about money and WSu. Limiting money printing even further makes it apparent for players to stay clear of militia: If the crappier troops become relatively even more expensive, it *will* (I thnik) drive the message through


Personally I don't think it is worthwhile to purchase militias under the new system. In fact, as they are so expensive now, I would much rather see militias to not be available for purchase at all (neither as reinforcements or replacements, because the events generate enough replacements for militia anyway) but to only become available through events. But I guess that would be too far on the fantasy lane

No I think the new "1 WS cost per militia" is a very sound one. The exploit of spamming a whole bunch of cheap militia isn't something I use in the first place...but I know several players do.

It's VERY gamey since you're basically paying almost nothing in WS for you infantry (except through conversion). So I like the change.

I am overwhelmed. Need to play more...

Reinforcements are entirely new units, appearing on the turns after they are paid for...

+1 Militia, supply wagons.

+2 Infantry, sharpshooters, cavalry, mixed brigades containing these, sailors.

+3 Field artillery (all weights), marines, zouaves, mixed brigades containing artillery. Brigs, transports, river transports.

+4 Siege and coastal artillery. Support (signallers, engineers, hospitals etc). All other ship types.

This is for the Union, CSA sharpshooters appear on a quick test to be ready on turn +3, and it seems to vary also by the number of units being built in a city.

Is this in the rules booklet? I read it, but a lot to take in. Still learning...

It is a bit overwhelming at first but after a couple of games...

These are some links I found very useful while learning, if you haven't found them already, to
AACWWiki which has good explanations of a lot of the game concepts.
What's not in the Manual
AACW FAQ

The build rates aren't in the manual, I think.

I also found it useful sometimes to switch off the Options/AI "Activate AI" and try out things like division and corps formation without any interference from the enemy.