I am about to reveal perhaps what might be best kept to oneself, but I am told confession is good for the soul. I also am hoping to elicit assistance and ideas.
I must congratulate the designers. I have...*gulp* lost to the AI. And it gets even more dramatic.
As you may see, I have been messing around with AACW since late '08. Sometimes I go long periods of time without playing, but it is a darn good game, in many respects, so it's not a dustbin. It took me quite a while to get supply figured out and not have people starve in the middle of Pennsylvania. I almost always play Union, though I have a very small experience with the CSA.
I am currently playing 1.16rc4a, which is the latest & greatest, apparently. The loss in question was with 1.15, I believe.
The loss was at Very Hard, perhaps a minimal goose to AI Detection, perhaps not, can't recall right now. The start was 1862. Here's what happened: the AI started out by walloping Grant in the neighborhood of Donelson, while I had ordered a movement to take #10. I had my Armies properly organized. I had people all shiny and ready to rock & roll. Nonetheless, A. S. Johnston came boiling up and smacked me silly.
And I never really recovered. All across the map, ungodly huge formations of howling Rebs, 800, 900, 1200 PWR stacks at a time came boiling out of the Southern depths, much like TyrranoSharks up from the depths of a deep ocean. They kicked my epaulets from morn 'til night. I could never stabilize and right the situation. Invasions everywhere.
I must have overlooked something that normally I would have noticed, because in Sept 62, a strong, strong force slipped past my exhausted and bewildered guards and, uh, took Washington, DC.
Game Over. In six months.
I am not a bad player. I think I grasp some subtleties, know the basics and a bit more.
Now for the second act. I d/l'ed RC4a. I noted that Colonel Difficulty explicitly states there are no combat advantages. Fine.
I started anothe 62. Not too bad. Going well enough. Started a 63 start. Fine and dandy. Both are a workout, but not insuperable.
Then I started an April 61 with KY. Now, bear in mind, I try to achieve what the Union did by the late spring of 62 when I play 1861s - possession of Ft. Donelson, Nashville, Island #10, Memphis and New Orleans. Even on a 'regular' Difficulty, even playing field, this is a tall order, at least for me. It's not easy.
But this RC4a on Colonel has me reeling. It is now late 62 and if not at the brink of defeat, I am being pushed to the cliff and fighting for my life. I just now recovered to 80 NM and issued the EP - I had been at 70s NM for about four turns. The Rebs have taken St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Harrisburg, Buffalo, Baltimore, some more than once. Buffalo, fer cryin' out loud! Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Delaware (Delaware!) no longer appear on my Loyalty map. The mobs are howling for the Administration's scalp.
A small glimmer is that I am knocking at Richmond and threaten Nashville. I took N. O., but haven't gotten beyond Iberville parish and the usual CSA Stack O' Doom is frowning next door.
Some observations, at least about RC4a:
* I thought one could not use opposition RRs if MilControl was less than 25%. It seems to me that Johnny Reb gets behind my lines and immediately starts operating my choo-choos with impunity. He just zooms around, always showing up just in time to pull off Victories, sometimes against long odds and seemingly a bit too often.
* Supply questions seem to be affecting him, but not a great deal.
* I am desperately trying to build Brigades and hammer him, gang up, kick him in the knees, but Replacements are consumed like sushi in a sumo's training program - after the usual intital gooses from refreshing Options, I can build but a few Brigades at a time.
* To be clear, I usually don't Fully Mobilize until 63. In this Colonel 61, I chose just Volunteers until 62 and then Partial Mobilization. I went with modest Financials at first, but in 62 went into hock for real.
* 3-1 odds are fast becoming the only hope for a Victory, under any circumstances, even on open ground. Needless to say, getting favorable odds is uncommon, what with entire Corps of mine being destroyed at a time, being bled white, and seeing the ginormous stacks of Rebs that dominate the landscape.
* I seem to be very, very, very slowly re-establishing a ghost of a hope to retrieve this, but man, is this discouraging.
* It could be that going Historical with the Options for Finance & Drafts leaves the North too weak against the highest Difficulty.
The North is cut to ribbons, geographically. Many good Yankees lie still in Northern, not Southern, dust.
HAALLPP!