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[Forum Game] Southern Steel - American Civil War (SS-ACW)

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Please feel free to chime in with suggestions on what you believe would make this a better game for you.

Ya wanna pick the generals for your units?
Interested in greater player involvement in the actual battles?
Think the South should build a blue water fleet?

Speak up!
What you want might not get included, but if you say nothing, it most certainly won't be a part of the gaming experience.
 
I think all three of those options are viable. Honestly, nothing should be left off of the table IMO. The choosing of generals, I think, should be the first order of business.
 
Preaching to the Choir

Hawkeye1489 said:
I think all three of those options are viable. Honestly, nothing should be left off of the table IMO. The choosing of generals, I think, should be the first order of business.
Click to expand...

Personally, I agree with you.
I would like to have more player involvement; part of the fun of being the GM is watching the interactions of the players.

Having posted that though, I also keep in mind that not all players want a bunch of choices.
Nor do they want to have to spend a lot of time involved with a forum game.
Five minutes every couple of days is about all they wish to invest for this form of entertainment.

Part of the advertisement for this game is that the players just make the big strokes of command,
the details of implementation are the GM's chore.
I would enjoy expanding the player options, but not at the cost of players.
Hence, the request for views from the players, of which you are the first response.

Keeping all this in mind, what are the actual thoughts of the other players?
There are currently four individuals in addition to 'Hawkeye1489'.
Do they want additional features? Do they even care? What is their comfort zone?

I look forward to their thoughts, it they care to share them. I plan on enjoying this either way.
 
Yes. But, as an A-H guy, it is highly unlikely that we can get a blue-water navy, big enough to fight the Union. Commerce Raiders could work. We can always try to use the 'Cotton King' on France and the U.K. to help us, if the Cotton in Egypt and India are butterflied.
 
Lord Dalek said:
Yes. But, as an A-H guy, it is highly unlikely that we can get a blue-water navy, big enough to fight the Union. Commerce Raiders could work. We can always try to use the 'Cotton King' on France and the U.K. to help us, if the Cotton in Egypt and India are butterflied.
Click to expand...

Good points.

Unfortunately, the underlying game does not support commerce raiders, just commerce smugglers.
As for diplomacy, while there are tools for influencing England, France and other European powers, it is primarily a dollar bidding contest between the US and CS.
Outcomes of decisive battles do influence the actions of the Europeans though.
 
Ok. The initial recruiting period ended with six players enrolled. :cool:

What I would like now from each player is a list of which of the starting HQ(s) they wish to control.
Please submit your list to the GM (me) by 2140 hours (CDT) on Friday. I suggest that you send a PM to me for the actual bid.

Each list should indicate the current name of the HQ, and how much of their Influence the player will expend in trying to obtain that HQ.
As an example, if player Bugwar were in the game, his list might look something like:


Influence Bid / HQ
25 / Department of Texas
25 / Department No. One
50 / Army of Pensacola​


Awards of HQ’s go to high bidder for the HQ. In case of ties, the GM will select one of the tied bidders at random.

Players do not have to spend all or any of their Influence on their bid. Players do not have to select multiple HQ’s.

If there are any unassigned HQ’s at the end of the bidding, the GM will assign those to random players.

If you want more time to compose your bid, please let me know.
 
Question. If we bid on an HQ with an attachment already, does the attachment come with the HQ or do we have to bid on the attachment separately?
 
Hawkeye1489 said:
Question. If we bid on an HQ with an attachment already, does the attachment come with the HQ or do we have to bid on the attachment separately?
Click to expand...

Thank you for that question. I thought I had made it clear, but after rereading what I have written, it is obvious that I did not.

SO:

Each HQ is a SEPERATE entity.
Attachment has NOTHING to do with ownership.
So if you bid on a HQ that currently has a lower level unit attached, your bid does NOT include the subordinate unit.
If you want the subordinate unit also, make a separate bid for it.
 
The more you know...

Attributes –
Attributes represent equipment or personnel that travel and assist the brigade in battle.

Examples of Attributes include: Brigade Artillery, Sharpshooters, Medical Corps, Scouts, and Military Band.

Each brigade can have up to two Attributes. Some brigades may start with more than two.

Attributes may be selected more than once, in which case the effect is cumulative (except for Smokeless Powder). A complete list of Attributes, along with their costs, is included in the Ap-pendix.


Fort Attributes – Forts can have attributes that protect them from various aspects of sieges. Players can buy these for forts, just as they buy attributes for other units.

Brigade Artillery / Cavalry Transformation – If a player buys two Brigade Artillery or two Brigade Cavalry attributes for an infantry brigade, then during the next movement phase that infantry brigade will be transformed into an artillery or cavalry unit, respectively. When this hap-pens, however, the unit loses 50% of its Quality level.

NOTE: Players may skip over this post, it is primarily for those players that desire more immersion into the underlying game.
 
First Turn

Everyone has HQ’s. Now what?

First off, if you would like to rename the ones you control, please let me know. Many headquarters started out with names that were bad. You can pretty much rename them to suit you; just let me know so I can update the records.

Next, due to the blind bidding, not all HQ’s received bids from players, and were dealt out in a fairly random order. The players now control these units, and if you want to exchange HQ’s among yourselves, that is your prerogative. Just let me know for record purposes.

In addition, if you want to move your brigades between HQ’s that are in the same province, again let me know.

1. With the assignments, the game begins. What I would like to have from each player are the orders for their HQs submitted by 1901 hours CDT on Sunday (sooner is better, but that is your choice).

2. If you do not intend to move your units, send me orders to that effect. That way I know you are still taking part in the game.

3. If you do move your units, please let me know the unit and the final destination at a minimum.
If you want to provide the route as part of your detailed instructions, that is fine, just let me know.

4. What the orders can contain, and the format.
I would like the instructions for each HQ to be separate. Either as separate posts, or at least separate sections clearly identified.
Items in the Orders:
a. Movement -
- Support: You can order your unit to not move into a destination unless there are friendly units there already.
- Force march: You can increase the chances of getting to the destination by force-marching. The price is an attrition increase, and a combat penalty.
- Rail move: If you have the rail capacity, move the HQ by rail. If you for some reason do not have the capacity, specify whether to move by foot or not.​

b. Combat - You can order the HQ to avoid combat. With this order there is a chance that your forces will be able to either skip fighting enemies (not likely, but it does happen from time to time) or at least delay the fight till your reinforcements show up from another location (which is what I use it for most of the time).
c. Organization - You can order your units to attach/detach from a superior HQ, and if you control a higher HQ, order the detachment/attachment of lower level HQ. Keep in mind that unless you control both the attaching unit and the unit it attaches to, you need the permission of the missing HQ. Detachments are easier; either can dump the other, no coordination needed.
d. Other - If you think of something, please let me know, I will see if the game supports the action.​


5. Bidding - With the start of the new turn, everyone gets an additional 100 Influence. You can save it, spend it, or do a bit of both.
What you can bid on is listed here.


6. Finally, if you have questions or comments, please ASK!
 
Example of Turn Orders

Example of Turn Orders
Let us assume that player Bugwar controls the “Army of Wrath” and the attached “11th Division”, both located at the start of the turn in Greensborough province.
In addition, note that the Yankee 7th Division is in Georgetown, to which Bugwar takes offense.
What kind of orders could Bugwar write to express his displeasure with the Union forces?

The simplest is something along the lines of:

Army of Wrath moves to Camden.

There. That is all that is needed.
The GM will take those orders and implement them.
I hope that the AoWrath will move, and make it closer to the Union forces.

If Bugwar wanted to, he could also write:

Army of Wrath moves to Camden by rail.

In this case, the GM will try to move the unit by rail, saving on attrition.
However, the GM will only use whatever rail capacity that remains after other players have bid for.


Involved Orders
Let us now suppose that Bugwar wants to do more this turn than just move troops south to meet the Federals.
Let us assume that Bugwar wants to reinforce the Unit, and move a part of that force towards the Blue Bellies.
Furthermore, let us assume that there is an additional, larger Confederate force headed to Camden, sent by another player.
Bugwar wants to join up with that force there, but not move if the other command doesn’t make it there first.

The orders might now look like:
Bid:
40 Influence for 15 rail capacity.
40 Influence for control of the 12k troops in the Meuse River province.
20 Influence for control of the 6k troops in New Berne Province.​
Orders:
1. Detach 6k troops from AoWrath, attach them to 11th Div.
2. Detach 11Div, Support move it by rail to Camden province. If insufficient rail, Support Force-March to Camden.
3. March all newly controlled troops from the Meuse River and New Berne Provinces to Greensborough province and attach them to the “Army of Wrath”.​


Commentary:
Bugwar first bids for the items needed to carry out his plan, namely rail capacity for moving the division south, as well as some replacement troops to join the now empty Corps HQ.
In his orders, he first moves existing troops from the Corps HQ to the Division.
Only then does he move the Division, preferably by rail, but force-marching it if not enough capacity available.
In addition, note the use of the “Support” instruction, telling the GM that these troops only move IF there are friendly soldiers in the destination province.
Finally, Bugwar instructs the replacement troops to move to the Corps HQ and attach themselves to it.
 
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Unit FYI stuff

The Components section of the first page of the thread has a new topic, “Detailed Status of Confederate Forces”.
It contains a spoiler with brigade level information on the various HQ’s.
It is nice to know data, which you do NOT have to deal with if you don’t want to.
 
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