Next battle

A few things before the next battle.

1. I need to accelerate scenario preparation. I'm send the file to Digby and Mitra for use on Saturday on Wednesday. I'll be gone Thursday and Friday and I may be gone on Saturday as well. Since I can't guarantee I'll be back in time for the Saturday battle, I must build and send the battle on Wednesday.

2. I have 17 participants for 1:00 PST. I'll set the battle for then. A bit late IMHO, but if you're all set and ready to go, you should start on time.

3. I want to use one of the Random Maps. Does anyone know if this is possible? If I don't have a good answer by Wednesday afternoon, I'll assume it is not and default to either a Gettysburg or Pipe Creek map.

-Neal

You should make 20 or so spots so we don't have to turn anyone away, imho.

I have minimal fudge ability. The units that are in the node are it, I have to make do.

I'll stretch as best I can. I think I can get to 19.

Scenario built, pipe Creek map. Not going to mess around with random maps with time being short. There are 21 slots, one is functionally an observer.

I'll get briefings out to each commander tomorrow, scenario will be packaged and sent on Wednesday.

-Neal

May I suggest sending a copy to Palmer as well? I can Take a look at the files and offer advice if there's problems but I can't host, so having 2 hosts set up with the files beforehand makes sense.

Something else I remembered, when positioning the armies, if there are cavalry involved, please place that brigade at the front, so it can set off to scout for the enemy first.

Whilst we're on the subject of cavalry, it's worth thinking about their OOB callisthenic settings, Neal. 

Niall commanded the Union cavalry in the last battle, and I did receive an early report from him that his regiments were tired.  And this was before his men were even engaged.  I would be interested to know if Diggers had a similar experience with the Reb cavalry.

In the past, Type 2 cavalry were set by default to tire very easily - for reasons which were never clear (at least to me). 

CouriersAndMaps improves this to a significant degree, but in my experience callisthenics are still normally best set high.  I use the max setting of 9, unless there is a scenario-specific reason for the horses being worn-down.  The setting in the stock OOBs is lower.  Even at 9, they are only capable of occasional bursts of speed without over-tiring.

Martin (J)

*In patronizing voice*

Aww, were the liddle horsie-warsies tired? Did they get sleepy because of all that loud noise; did that big, bad mean war interrupt their mimis time? Maybe we should make little horsie beds with little bitty horsey blankets and pillows, then horsies can just lay down and rest their tiny heads when they get tired. Would that help? Poor horsies...

WAIT! Sorry, that's the Father General talking, not me. Split personality disorder, it's a real pain and my coworkers still don't know what to make of it. Good thing I'm the boss. LOL

Alright, I'll have a look and make sure the calisthenic ratings are where they need to be. Every time I get into that spreadsheet, I seem to find something I missed. Thanks for the head's up.

-Neal

In fact, how do I tell what type of cavalry I am working with, 1 or 2? Two is more historical, right?

There's not that much cavalry in the game, about 3-4 brigades of it in all. It really should mainly be used for scouting, raiding and harassing broken units, and should be able to delay an advancing enemy or protect and harass flanks. However, I don't expect it to charge a fully formed line or to stand up for an extended duration in battle. Nor should they be galloping all over creation.

Also, I am beginning to sense there was some controversy about scouting? What was that? Do I need to set a guideline or are we okay with how it's playing out?

Next battle will be on Pipe Creek Map 1. Uniontown!

-Neal

The FG wrote

"In fact, how do I tell what type of cavalry I am working with, 1 or 2? Two is more historical, right?

There's not that much cavalry in the game, about 3-4 brigades of it in all. It really should mainly be used for scouting, raiding and harassing broken units, and should be able to delay an advancing enemy or protect and harass flanks. However, I don't expect it to charge a fully formed line or to stand up for an extended duration in battle. Nor should they be galloping all over creation. "

Yes, Type 2 is more historical, and also fits best with what you want. 

Go to your OOB and look for the OOBMOD column.  It's usually column L.  Put a '1' against each of the cavalry regiments.  And don't ask me why you don't put a '2', because I've no idea   

You may find that Mitra has already done that for you, because the cavalry behaved as Type 2 in Saturday's game.

Martin (J)

PS Callisthenics is normally the last column, and that is usually Column AI

Fatigue affects morale. You only need to gallop cavalry a short way to exhaust them. The issue is it would be the *horses* that are blown, not the men, but because the game isn't programmed to rate riders differently from their horses, when they dismount to skirmish the riders are exhausted too and that gives them very poor and short-lived combat effectiveness. In the Napoleonic period when cavalry fought mounted its not such a big deal, but this loophole is something Norb should have forseen for ACW cavalry. Horses and riders in ACW cav need bookeeping separately by the game.

My opinion is that we should restrict scouting by making officers stay within a 100 yards or so of their commands, with a little more leniency for corps and army commands.

The games, to me, are better when there's a little apprehension when moving into the woods or over a hill and wondering if you're walking into an ambush.

I'd be up for that but I'd allow cav commanders a longer range.

Note: I have no idea if I'll be a cav commander again.

I agree with Digby. . . wait. . . yes. . . I was afraid that might start the apocalypse.

I'm fine with cav commanders wandering out front a bit -- within reason.

Holy cow, and I agree with the two of you.

All we need is one more and we have the Four Horsemen right here.

Look no further for your Anti-Christ!

I should start my own religion...I'm good at this sort of thing. There's a lot of Americans who will buy it.

Father General wrote:I should start my own religion...I'm good at this sort of thing. There's a lot of Americans who will buy it.

Most of them live in California

I know! And I'm headed up to San Francisco in a couple weeks.

You know I've met actual hare krishnas there. They're active around the Berkeley campus and in the Haight-Ashbury district (go figure).

Ah California! The land of fruits and nuts.

Just checking.  Is 1.00 PM PST the same as 9.00 PM UK time?

Martin (J)

Yes.

1 PST = 9 pm GMT.

Thanks Neal

m

If I remember well London is now GMT+1, isn't it?

No it should be +8.

Yes, Mitra, UK is GMT+1 at the moment.

I stand corrected.

Also, I'm confused, but that's normal.

Good luck everyone! Try to arrive early to test connections and make sure you don't have a corrupt download of Pipe Creek. I know we've had some issues with corrupt downloads in the past.

-Neal

Another note, all cavalry has been changed to Type 2.

Union Cavalry was all type 2, Confederate was not. This has been fixed.

-N