Feelings, post American campaign

[ZenTeapot]

First of all, not a bad game, but having played the previous Civil War game, this didn't reach my expectation either.

Played normal on the British campaign, didn't finish it. Having to learn all the gimmicks and bad UX, not (well) explained units, research and other stuff, I had to stop at the fifth mission due to losing too much stuff.

Then restarted with the American campaign normal difficulty and finished with no problem. The American campaign seems to provide a much better introduction to the game, due to it gradually builds up your army, instead of just throwing a bunch of stuff at you like in the British campaign.

The Good
Interesting naval combat. This game got me interested in the age of sail frigate and ship-of-the-line stuff. I've only watched it in Black Sails, though it was interesting, it never interested me enough to think of playing it. The naval simulation part of the game is definitely well executed, and the pillar of the game holds. That's why it's not a bad game, despite its many flaws.

The Bad
Land combat is lackluster, especially when compared to the previous Civil War game. I expected something much better, since it came from the same developer, but instead I see units routinely get stuck behind buildings and extremely dumb path finding. The controls feel unintuitive, for example when I drag a line accidentally across a unit, it would cancel the drag. Honestly, since this game is series is so much inspired by the total war games, the developer could just copy the total war controls wholesale and be done with it, but a lot of tiny QoL stuff are missing or implemented without enough attention to detail.

The AI can be very broken in occasions too. If I leave ships on auto control they could routinely get stuck on beaches, or just stay stationary against the wind. The Civil War game had really good AI, but this game's AI just feels weird and sluggish, maybe because of upgrading to 3D and introduction of real collisions? I have to say production value doesn't not always triumph over gameplay clarity.

The retreat area for ships is also sometimes incredibly frustrating, due to wind direction and slow ship rotation. And rowing boats can get very funny if I don't individually tell each unit where to land.

Off-battle UX also feels clunky, maybe allow better weapon and cannon comparisons? Also better weapon filters and really need some UX fixes in small places. Naval combat also need further zoom out to allow for better control of two separate combat groups.

The Confused
0. Why so much stuff left unexplained?
1. The marines, is it better? Can I believe the description?
2. The weapon stats, how do they add to the unit? How do I evaluate the actual weapon effectiveness?
3. When I finish a land game, why do my land units show up as transport ships and not show the individual unit performance?
4. Why's my better equipped, 2-vet unit can't win over 0-vet enemy fusiliers? Are there hidden stats?
5. Why don't allow inspecting enemy stats and equipment for better tactics? Why can't I see enemy weapon range?
6. When I switch to vision mode, why not show the combined vision of all my units?
7. Why's artillery firing not reveal the firing unit? Maybe at least lower its stealth for a while to allow counter artillery?
8. Why's the change of wind direction so abrupt? Maybe a smoother transition and some back and forth to prepare for a direction change?

and many more that I just can't remember or have picked up due to trial and error.

[[〼]シ]

Hi, I also noticed (4) the beefed up ***veterans did not butter their sandwich.
I created small regiments with around 100 men each (and crappy muskets) and made them reserve, so that they could buffer navy losses in case. (6) could prove a viable improvement
to vision mode, as I rarely use it for now (even with dedicated skirmishers). (7) SlowMo support your idea as well (vision is always nice to have). (8) One cannot direct winds.
I'd like to add that I from the start of my BC felt afraid of dying short when
I had to add S.O.L. into my fleet and not being able to support each with the crew to make them have almost two star level. Was anxious of Officer shortage before I noticed that they don't sawp off when progressing through chapters. I can't confirm they gain in stats just from being in reserve though (which would make it nice to recruit them aeap).
I am going to play the AC definetly now, thanks.

[[HAN]falcofyc]

4. Shooting at max distance have like 15% accuracy so your vet wont be much better than green troop.

For me I always use grenadiers and then go full melee with equipment and perks

[[〼]シ]

Thank you [HAN]falcofyc, I am going to consider chaff regiments to hold, and Veterans to rush the enemys flank in support. Good find i suppose.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by HANfalcofyc:

4. Shooting at max distance have like 15% accuracy so your vet wont be much better than green troop.

For me I always use grenadiers and then go full melee with equipment and perks

Maximum accuracy perk veterans with mid- to high- tier muskets are brutal, even at maximum range. They even do well with crappy muskets at maximum range.

Since all other perk benefits can be gained through officer and regiment growth, there's zero reason to do anything but Morale → Accuracy → Accuracy.

As for the rest:

1.) Marines are a bit faster and have a bit less melee skill than fusiliers. Grenadiers and skirmishers are the go-to late-game infantry for a large number of reasons.

2.) Musket stats are their own thing. The graph provides an (often inaccurate, but close enough) representation of their efficiency (accuracy) at various ranges. For reload, smaller numbers are better, and skills/perks modify the duration (by how much is unknown). For melee damage, higher numbers are better and it is improved by the melee skill by an unknown amount.

3.) That's odd. It's been a while, but I distinctly recall being able to review the performance of individual regiments.

5.) Because then you would realize that the enemy gets speed cheats for skirmishers and supply regiments. All musket range fans are the same. If you can shoot your enemy, they can shoot you.

6.) Select them all. Vision mode shows vision for selected units. Yes, it's bad UX. No, the dev doesn't seem to care.

7.) Because reasons. Use skirmishers or skirmisher detachments (regimental ability) to spot artillery. Having the high ground helps with LOS, but skirmishers are typically the only troops with enough scouting to find hidden artillery further away than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ distance.

Besides all of that, you can do the same exact thing to the enemy to the point where it's possible to beat most land battles with nothing but two regiments of skirmishers and as much artillery as you can get your grubby mitts on. The only drawback is you can't capture guns if you use artillery to kill the crew. Mortars work better for this in most missions due to their reload speed and effectiveness against infantry.

8.) Because reasons. Wind changes will only happen a couple of times per naval battle and always occur at certain time intervals. If you've done the battle once, it's easy to plan for in the future.

[smileyill]

Actually, I've had the wind change 7-8 times in one naval battle...