I feel stupid playing this game

[Koro]

I really want to get in to this game, play it and like it but every time I start it up I just seem to get bogged down in simply not understanding the game. After trying the first tutorial 5 or 6 times I finally managed to get through the first and then finished the other two but that doesn't have me prepared for the campaign.
I mostly just stared blankly at it for some 20 mins, trying to move my troops around and finding that hardly any of them could move and the game didn't tell me why.
Not sure if I'm asking for advice.. I might be but this game feels so antiuser friendly, I'd also like to know if someone else felt this way initially and somehow managed to get past that feeling.
As it is now, I play for 30 mins., give up and then return only to repeat the cycle.

[TXcavalier]

There are some tutorial videos on YouTube. Once you have the basics down, the turns will move quickly.

My basic turn:

1) Use R+E keys to cycle through active land units
2) Y+T for Ships
3) See if there are any RGD cards I can play on the map
4) F2 for replacements
5) F Keys for Decisions and Purchases

The Grand Campaign doesn't include Divisions and Corps at the start. When those are available, create strong stacks without command point penalties. Afterward, it becomes a basic wargame. Take important objectives. Use terrain, effectively, with mutually supporting units. Raid supply lines. Manage the nation's economy and infrastructure. Create (or evade) a blockade. Crush the enemies morale or survive, to the end, and win by victory points. There are MANY fine details to this game. I'm not going to write pages on Division composition. Experience can lend itself to fleshing out the finer points.

There will be a U.S. Civil War gaming triumvirate soon. AGEOD Civil War 2 for grand strategy. Ultimate General: Civil War for tactical control. And lastly, War of Rights if you want to experience a First Person Shooter perspective.

[Rystar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxa69NxGuC0&list=PLnJCQYk0tWc3GPGOou9ILntl_1sAdqKD8

[Rystar]

Originally posted by TXcavalier:

There will be a U.S. Civil War gaming triumvirate soon. AGEOD Civil War 2 for grand strategy. Ultimate General: Civil War for tactical control. And lastly, War of Rights if you want to experience a First Person Shooter perspective.

Don't forget Scourge of War: Gettysburg!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWM3nz_qGA

Historical Gamer is going to post his 24 hour stream of the Battle of Gettysburg at some point. Epic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiUu2D0yNHg

[GerthQuake]

Just picked this up for myself, hopefully I dont run into any issues. lol

[Koro]

Originally posted by TXcavalier:

There are some tutorial videos on YouTube. Once you have the basics down, the turns will move quickly.

My basic turn:

1) Use R+E keys to cycle through active land units
2) Y+T for Ships
3) See if there are any RGD cards I can play on the map
4) F2 for replacements
5) F Keys for Decisions and Purchases

The Grand Campaign doesn't include Divisions and Corps at the start. When those are available, create strong stacks without command point penalties. Afterward, it becomes a basic wargame. Take important objectives. Use terrain, effectively, with mutually supporting units. Raid supply lines. Manage the nation's economy and infrastructure. Create (or evade) a blockade. Crush the enemies morale or survive, to the end, and win by victory points. There are MANY fine details to this game. I'm not going to write pages on Division composition. Experience can lend itself to fleshing out the finer points.

There will be a U.S. Civil War gaming triumvirate soon. AGEOD Civil War 2 for grand strategy. Ultimate General: Civil War for tactical control. And lastly, War of Rights if you want to experience a First Person Shooter perspective.

This will be very helpful I think. Was frustrated by the corps mechanic, causing figure out why I couldn't make corps.
Do I just engage with huge command penalty then or wait to attack?

[TXcavalier]

I'm assuming you are playing as the Union. I would just take the -10 NM penalty if the enemy has a very strong position. You will naturally recover NM if it drops below 100.

[diam0ndice9]

Hi Koro. Love reading your posts on UG:CW. My thoughts on Civil War II:

I owned this game for several years, trying and failing several times to get into it, before it finally stuck.

Something you might want to consider is turning off the activation rule, especially if you're playing as the Union in the early game. It attempts to replicate the Union having poor leaders who either couldn't or wouldn't follow orders in the early phases of the war. If you leave it on you'll be begging and pleading with your generals to do something, anything, but they'll just sit in there doing nothing for weeks or months on end.

Personally I think it's a frustrating game mechanic and could have been implemented in better ways.

Also, the game gets a lot more interesting and playable once you're able to appropriately build divisions into corps. I think this takes place in mid/late 1862. I remember it felt like a switch was activated in my head when I first realized what the "combine units" button meant with respect to building an effective unit. Figuring out how to compile elements into units, units into divisions, divisions into corps, and corps into armies made almost all the difference in understanding the gameplay functions.

All in all, there's a good game somewhere deep in Civil War II but to be brutally honest it's a lazy and half-finished attempt by the devs to cram a Civil War strategy game into their engine. Unfortunately there aren't many more Civil War grand strategy games readily available.

[Koro]

Originally posted by diam0ndice9:

Hi Koro. Love reading your posts on UG:CW. My thoughts on Civil War II:

I owned this game for several years, trying and failing several times to get into it, before it finally stuck.

Something you might want to consider is turning off the activation rule, especially if you're playing as the Union in the early game. It attempts to replicate the Union having poor leaders who either couldn't or wouldn't follow orders in the early phases of the war. If you leave it on you'll be begging and pleading with your generals to do something, anything, but they'll just sit in there doing nothing for weeks or months on end.

Personally I think it's a frustrating game mechanic and could have been implemented in better ways.

Also, the game gets a lot more interesting and playable once you're able to appropriately build divisions into corps. I think this takes place in mid/late 1862. I remember it felt like a switch was activated in my head when I first realized what the "combine units" button meant with respect to building an effective unit. Figuring out how to compile elements into units, units into divisions, divisions into corps, and corps into armies made almost all the difference in understanding the gameplay functions.

All in all, there's a good game somewhere deep in Civil War II but to be brutally honest it's a lazy and half-finished attempt by the devs to cram a Civil War strategy game into their engine. Unfortunately there aren't many more Civil War grand strategy games readily available.

Hey, thanks for your kind words :)
I'm still having a difficult time.. it just seems like so much work to move new recruits in to position and keep track of the new armies you are trying to form, while keeping enemy cavalry out etc. etc.
No idea what I am doing still really.
It seems you can't make divisions either until 1862, which I spent a mindboggling amount of time trying to work out what I was doing wrong.
How do you get the messages back if you cancel them?
Also, I have no idea how to operate the fleet.. No perspective on if I have enough ships, where or how fighting takes place against the Confederates and if there are any reasons to keep ships near the shore rather than in the blockade positions..
It all seems very user unfriendly to me.
Still trying really hard to like the game but it's just not working for me as of yet

[diam0ndice9]

Originally posted by Koro *T*R*Y*:

it just seems like so much work to move new recruits in to position and keep track of the new armies you are trying to form

Yes, this is one drawback of many in the game. Instead of recruiting new units in a straightforward manner, you have to drag their playing cards to the region you want to recruit them from. Further, many of the cards - especially some naval cards - are region specific without specifying which region they're specific too.

To help you keep track of exactly how many units you have in the queue and where they're being recruited from, click on the little book icon in the top left (strategic atlas) and then click 'War Production' on the bottom left once your atlas opens. This will show you your forces in the queue. Now time for some full disclosure: this screen has always been bugged for me and offers very little help, but hopefully it's exclusive to me and might not effect you.

Once your new recruits are on the map, my best advice is to move them by rail either directly to the unit that needs to be reinforced or to move them to a rally point region close to the front to create a new division/corps/whatever.

Also keep in mind that in the War Production tab you must keep account of your reinforcements. This is where your replacements come in. If any of the numbers on the right side are red then you have units that have been depleted and you need to recruit replacements.

while keeping enemy cavalry out etc. etc.

The AI is really good at sending cavalry raids behind your lines to disrupt your supply system and destroy railroads if you're not careful. 1) Do the same thing to them. 2) Have some cavalry units in your rear ready to counterattack the enemy cavalry raiding behind your lines.

Enemy cavalry raids in this game are frustrating to no end but historically it happened all the time and had to be dealt with.

No idea what I am doing still really.

Don't worry. Like I said, it took me several years of coming back to this game every so often thinking to myself, "There's something not clicking here but I just have this strange feeling that if I try again I'll get it this time."

It seems you can't make divisions either until 1862, which I spent a mindboggling amount of time trying to work out what I was doing wrong.

The game does a very poor job of presenting information to the player. I would download the manual and skim through it to get a better understanding of the mechanics of gameplay and the quirky eccentricities the devs put into the game.

How do you get the messages back if you cancel them?

At the bottom right you can review all your messages from the previous turn. Most are mundane, "This unit has arrived at X region," but eventually you'll be able figure out which ones are important.

Also, I have no idea how to operate the fleet.. No perspective on if I have enough ships, where or how fighting takes place against the Confederates and if there are any reasons to keep ships near the shore rather than in the blockade positions..

Edit: Missed this part. You want blockade ships in the blockade box if you're the Union, and then an assortment of brigs or ironclads along the coast blockading their major ports as well. I've never been able to get my blockade efficiency above 30% or so but I've read acounts of it getting up to 50%.

Generally speaking the game is historically accurate in that the Confederacy has almost zero blue water navy. Be aware of blockade runners, however. Your ships in the blockade box have to return to port occasionally or risk low cohesion if they're out for too long. I would rotate my blockade fleet every other month or so.

It all seems very user unfriendly to me.

Because it is. The devs did a piss-poor job at presenting a user friendly game for the end-user. And I've read that they're not overly concerned with fixing it because it's for "Hardcore Historical Gamers" and that if you're complaining you should go play Total War or something.

Still trying really hard to like the game but it's just not working for me as of yet

I feel you. I kept coming back after all those years of frustration simply because of the dearth of Civil War grand strategy games on the market. If there were more available I wouldn't have tried so hard to like this game. Ultimately I'm glad I put the effort in because it can at times be a rewarding experience but I really can't credit the devs since there are so many flaws and drawbacks it can only be described as lazy and half-assed. There's a great game in there somewhere, you just have to look really hard to find it.

[diam0ndice9]

Another tip I have: in the strategic atlas click on 'Map' and then in the top right click on 'Hide fix or locked units' to get a clearer picture of what units you can move around. Many of the units in the game are locked to their region either permanently or until triggered. The little UI map on the bottom left is next to worthless without differentiating between the two.

Heads up though: You might have to do this at the beginning of every turn. I do, and I think it's another bug.

[Mr Glenn Apples]

Koro, I'm fairly new to this game but I play a lot of ageod games so I'm familiar with the system.
If you want to add me on steam I'd be happy to play a multiplayer game where we can just try stuff out and talk through things that don't work. I'm no expert by any means but I have a basic understanding of the system. I see you've done it a bit on your youtube but when I was learning I found multiplayer good for learning because I could ask my opponent about what I did wrong each turn.

Otherwise, like others said, I'd check out some let's plays and also have a look at the ageod forums.

Also, having some historical knowledge of the Civl War helps a lot.


AGEOD games can be clunky and difficult to understand (esp cos the manual leaves so much out) but once you get into them they are great.

[Mr Glenn Apples]

As an addendum some basic tips which work for me.


- Recruit armies by location and type and have a mustering point. So, for example, I recruit all my East Coast forces in NY and NJ, and railroad everything to Washington DC where my spare Generals are, then I form them up before I send them out. I tend to build the brigades and the backbone then supplement depending on what I have in mind, e.g. types of artillery, pontoons, signals, cavalry support.

- I do the same for other key fronts- Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas. Zoom out and check the different map filters, as they can help you conceptualise the different fronts.

- Don't worry about countering every single deep raid the enemy makes, but you need a stock of cavalry. Move them around your forts to push back or cut off supply. Think of the old 'inkblot' counter-insurgency tactic.

-Don't sweat too much about the naval war at the start if you're the Union. It helps but it won't lose or win the war. Basically, build blockade flotillas and send them to the blockade boxes, and form up 2 or 3 other fleets and send them to protect your shipping and hunt Confederate ships.

- Check the options. Like others said, if it's tricky, turn activation rule off, set naval supply to easy, turn off realistic supply, turn off historical attrition and have the AI do replacements. This means you have less to think about.

- Always read the message logs after each turn. A lot of important information can be hiding there.

- Enjoy defeat as much as victory :p

Good luck, sir.

[Koro]

@diam0ndice9 - thanks again for your tips. It's nice to get some help. I've had more success but I am still almost rage quitting after playing for some 20 mins each time and it is getting harder and harder to return to.
One thing I would have liked to see, is instead of 20 identical units being available in different states, just have 1 unit and all of the states it can be recruited in. This just extends the recruiting options so much, like 140 different options to scroll through. How do I decide on snipers, rangers, etc. when it is even hard to get an overview of all of them?

Thanks to WGD too. When I move forwards I'll try taking some of your advice in to account.
I don't mind losing, I think it's cool games can have you lose too without destroying your opportunies to win in the end, but I feel like I am losing to the game functions more than anything.
Regarding forming up before sending them out, don't the divisions and corps attach to the closest army you form them to? Can you switch who they belong to or do they just belong to the closest army.
MP campaign is a bit extensive for me I think. It would require dedication I just don't have atm.

[Cardinal Ape]

Man, jumping into the grand CW campaign without any prior ageod experience is quite the tall order... Well, if you make it through you'll be able to play any ageod game.

There are quite a few poeple on the ageod forums that recomend starting with the 1862 Shiloh scenario first. It gives you the ability to play with armies and corps from the start. Once you get a decent idea of how and what armies are made of, the building of units seems to fall more into place when you know what your goal is.

For me the ideal corps of five divisions would be: 4 divisions made of 1 general, 1 sharpshooter, 1 marine, 2 cavalry, and 13 infantry. The fifth division would be all artillery.

Adding in an elite brigade to the infantry divisions would be even better.

[Mr Glenn Apples]

I just wondered, when you upgrade a general to a divisional commander their stats go to 1-0-0. I assume this improves with experience?