ACW fight next Sunday

Hi all

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place for a note like this.

I’m relatively new here, and have the disadvantage of being primarily interested in the Civil War. Add to that my friend Jim, with whom I learned the game and fought most of the battles so far, has decided to move on to other war game endeavors.

I’ve had long associations with other clubs, and forums. As a result I am well and thoroughly burned out by the experience. Not to speak Ill of KS which I’ve found refreshing. I’ve had my fill of the verbiage created by ladders, ranks, points and sides. I would much prefer some one else do the talking and I just show up to fight. Alas in this case that person was the departed and much lamented Jim.  

Still I’d like to soldier and restart the Sunday ACW fights again. They drew some interest before, as we played them early enough not to interfere with the Sunday Napoleonic battle.

Now (forgive me) some thoughts on SOW play as I’ve learned it and experienced it here so far. The primary impression I have is LACK OF CONTROL once the shooting starts. We, the players, mostly stand around, issue orders which don’t accomplish much. Then virtually locked in combat fight to exhaustion, or annihilation, whichever comes first.

It seems to me that the AI, while wonderful in most respects, does not work well with humans. Thus a human Division Commander has little control over his AI brigades, a Corp commander his AI divisions, and so on. While no one seems to have any control of artillery at all.

The best control and the most fun seem to be had by the Brigade Commander. Which players climbing the learning curve, and a desire for bigger battles, leave behind in favor of playing Division Commanders.

What I would like to do instead is to try and take a small segment of the army in battle and assign it a human chain of command from top to bottom. Then try to recreate the  historical tactical problem it had in that battle with a chance to practice tactics in a situation more human and less AI.

I know you guys have been doing this for years while I am an opinionated newcomer. However, I much prefer the historical battles which the guiding lights of KS appear to hate. To me they offer endless possibilities for tactical problems during unusual and unbalanced situations. Tactical problems the scratch built scenarios I’ve played in struggle to create.


What I propose this coming Sunday is to try scenario GBMP 02 July 1-Oak Hill. In this fight the Union 1st Corp is trying to stretch and refuse the right in order to defend its flank and cover an  11th Corp battery in action North of Gettysburg.

I want to fight this with Robinson’s Division, and Dilger’s Battery, all with human leaders. That would be me and hopefully 3 other players interested enough in this concept.  The assignments then would be Robinson, (the best tactician, not me,   ), his two Brigadiers, Paul and Baxter, plus the battery commander Dilger.

Robinson’s Division must move from left to right across the front of an ever increasing Rebel horde hoping they won’t attack while he is in the middle of a maneuver. Then he must handle his division so it that it survives to fight another day. He must also support and eventually save Dilger’s guns. In a way this will be like the retreat of Crook a couple of LBH battles ago. Except this one will be under fire.

If more then 4 players arrive they will take the Commands of the rest of Union 1st Corp starting with Cutlers Brigade and broaden the fight to the whole of Doubleday’s fight for McPherson’s ridge. Which would be cool!

The scenario lasts 2 hours, but likely will end sooner. I’ll be up in TS at 0900 my time (Pacific). I can shift that one hour to the left (0800) if need be. The attempt here is to maintain control as long as possible. To use tactics to get the job done and survive, not just all die gloriously. Plus (fingers crossed) to rekindle some interest in historical scenarios by taking a different view of them.

Well I’ve talked long enough. That’s the plan, hopefully someone is interested.

Regards Jess

No need to apologise for anything. Its a shame about Jim, he seemed really fired up over SoW. The problem really is that most of our group is focussed on Napoleonics now and with 4 sessions a week that's about my limit. The Tuesday morning sessions started well but interest quickly waned.

Its a great shame you have little interest in Napoleonics. It really is a colourful and subtle era of warfare and what's called the "rock, paper, scissors" tactical dilemma of combat by wargamers really shines well with the KS Mod. Your brain and wits get an intense work-out in SoW nap games that for me is simply lacking in ACW fights due to the lack of cavalry. With Kevin's most recent adjustments to the AI.dll file the AI is now a pretty demanding opponent.

Jess I am in agreement with Digby's above statement. Any morning is tough for me but during the week is better.

You really should join us and try Waterloo since you have already purchased it, then see how the master cook makes his mods and then you will probably get addicted to it. We have some real good times.

Hope to see you soon.

Hi Jess

Sorry but I cannot do this weekend either.  Most of my free time is earmarked for finishing the Little Bighorn Mod.

On a more positive note, I still love SOW:GB, and later this year will publish an update to my ACW mod.  Among other things, this will include:

• a set of scenarios covering the ACW in the Indian Territory, including a terrific bespoke map of the Honey Springs battle from Mark T
  

• a large range of new and very fine unit sprites from Pom
  

Hope that helps

Martin (J)

Thanks all for the replies

I will still be up tomorrow at 0900 Pacific in case there are some lurkers out there to shy to speak, but wishing to play.

I know this is a Napoleonic centric club, and to try for much Civil War action is probably futile.

While I was never much good at Napoleonic warfare. I would try SOW Waterloo except I can't so far get mine to work?!

I can't even get the latest update loaded?

Still working on it. Will probably have to ask some of you experts how to get it set up for KS play.

Regards Jess

You are welcome to get online with any of us in TS and we can try to help you out.

What errors are you getting? Or if no errors, what is happening? What OS do you use, are you Win10?

I keep getting an error message that says trying to open and FTP file?

Not a clue what that means, but so far it has stopped me from downloading the latest upgrade.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Jess

Jess,

Let me know when you can get on TS and we can try and figure it out.

But let's do that after Kevin gives his thoughts on the problem he is the man when it comes to these things after that we will Get r Done.

If you are talking about installing the KS mod, then it's likely you don't have the 7zip program installed. Here's the link: 7Zip Installer
If you are having problems with basic downloading and installation procedures, you might try to get one of your family members to help you, such as a child or grandchild.

Jess pick a time and we can get it figured out. Morning are good and we should not need to be on to long.