Added Military Academies but left out West Point?

[ArcWolf]

I realize 1.7 has been released, but i have not played since early in the 1.7 beta. Just started up a new spring 61 campaign and noticed that the USMA at West Point is not included. Was this a balance decision?

[Gorilla]

Not sure about balance. CSA starts with the Citadel and VMI I think

[Stale Baguette Police]

Could be an oversight, but I think you might be right about balance. New York provides a disproportionate number of the Union troops, so I guess all of those NY officers would get buffs, making the Union that much more powerful.

But I do think it should be represented in game.

[Bramborough]

Not saying this makes perfect sense mechanics-wise or is the devs' rationale, just speculation. But I guess one might say that the USMA is a national academy...and both sides benefited, from officers who had graduated prior to 1861. From that perspective, the effect of USMA is perhaps already baked into the base military experience for both USA and CSA? Whereas VMI, Citadel, and Norwich (Union) were state-specific (or at least, "regional"). I'd suspect there were probably very few VMI/Citadel grads in Union armies and likewise Norwich grads in the South. [insert someone gleefully pointing out the inevitable few exceptions here].

[Stale Baguette Police]

Unrelated to game mechanics, but I found an interesting article on West Point during the Civil War. Sounds like the dropout rate was insane...about 50% due to lack of instructors, and many good students were poached before graduating to serve as officers.

https://www.clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/west-point-in-the-civil-war/

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

Are there any raw stats on what the academies actually provide?

[ArcWolf]

Originally posted by Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ:

Are there any raw stats on what the academies actually provide?

yes, In-game tool tip reads:
3.5% military experience per year
5.5% less experience lost for promotion for officers from that state
3% increase to officer attributes per year for officers from that state
20% less support lost from drafting in that state

[Stale Baguette Police]

3% officer attribute increase / yr is pretty low. I'd hope for something more substantial

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

Hm, yeah, there's really no reason to build them, then. The benefits are simply too low, especially in a game that only lasts a few years.

[Stale Baguette Police]

The draft support thing is the biggest benefit, since loss of state support in the mid to late game can be crippling.

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

Originally posted by Stale Baguette Police:

The draft support thing is the biggest benefit, since loss of state support in the mid to late game can be crippling.

What loss? I'm able to keep 95+ state support in all states as the Confederacy throughout the game. I figured something was wrong with that mechanic.

[Stale Baguette Police]

Originally posted by Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ:

Originally posted by Stale Baguette Police:

The draft support thing is the biggest benefit, since loss of state support in the mid to late game can be crippling.

What loss? I'm able to keep 95+ state support in all states as the Confederacy throughout the game. I figured something was wrong with that mechanic.

I'd have to test this out. Depends on your settings and how much you need to use the draft. Sometimes the ene.y AI will massively put recruit you for ing you do pull in drafts en masse.

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

Originally posted by Stale Baguette Police:

Originally posted by Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ:

What loss? I'm able to keep 95+ state support in all states as the Confederacy throughout the game. I figured something was wrong with that mechanic.

I'd have to test this out. Depends on your settings and how much you need to use the draft. Sometimes the ene.y AI will massively put recruit you for ing you do pull in drafts en masse.

I've never once had to use the draft.

[Stale Baguette Police]

Originally posted by Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ:

Originally posted by Stale Baguette Police:

I'd have to test this out. Depends on your settings and how much you need to use the draft. Sometimes the ene.y AI will massively put recruit you for ing you do pull in drafts en masse.

I've never once had to use the draft.

If you play against a hard or very hard AI, they get huge buffs to manpower and resources so they can easily outrecruit the player. In my first campaign as the Union the CSA towards the end was fielding near half a million men. As the Union, you can match and surpass that but you need to draft. I had entire drafted armies of 60,000 men by the end. I won eventually, because I think the CSA bankrupted themselves, but I had basically no state support by the end because I had basically impressed every able bodied man into service.

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

I play on both hardest difficulties; I find the AI's numerical advantage worthless compared to my entire army fielding prussian needleguns, British sniper rifles, and the eventual Sharp spam. Fully blockading them does not aid them in the slightest, either.