Specialty Units

[gmenallday521]

I'm wondering if the specialty units will have any sort of bonus abilities when put into battle. For example the Stonewall Brigade and Iron Brigade having increased damage. Or the 1st Minnesota and 20th Maine having more possibility of success when issuing a charge. I think this would be a unique and fun feature to the game.

[Brutus]

I disagree.  Such units will already be inherently better/stronger based on their attributes (more experience, higher morale, or however else it's modeled).  Think back to SMG... a crack brigade was already quite strong on its own without needing unique bonuses.  This would make the game feel too "arcadey", in my opinion.  Maybe if it's an option, but I can't say I'd probably ever use it.

[HAZBONES]

Specialty units like engineers, supply wagons, sharpshooters, scouts, etc. would be the type of specialty units I'd like to see.

 

I hope this game will be moddable so we can go in and change stats of specific units on our own.

[Remise]

The First Minnesota was not all that successful, from a tactical point of view. It was almost completely destroyed, but the sacrifice bought time for additional units to plug the gap it had occupied.

[N.C.rebel]

Even the Iron Brigade was roughed up and took a huge loss on men

[gmenallday521]

Oh absolutely but they drove back Archer's brigade, captured Archer himself, and it was their men that successfully charged the Railroad cut.

[Remise]

Even the Iron Brigade was roughed up and took a huge loss on men

Yes. I remember reading that when some of the survivors went back to camp that night, they asked where was the rest of the brigade. They were shocked to be told that there was no "rest of the brigade."

[David Fair]

Personally I'd give 100 specialty units for a bit more fog of war and better metrics of victory.  The victory point format is both stale and annoying.  Holding an entire brigade on Oak Hill or Herr Ridge to prevent 200 cavalry from capturing victory points is not strategically interesting or militarily relevant.  

 

But victory points are victory points so damn the strategy and hold those victory point locations!

 

The precision of information in the game is already way too high and scouts etc. would only increase this precision.  Units in battle seldom knew how many men were still in the ranks; let alone how many enemy they'd killed.  If units in the field had this much precision why would the Iron Brigade need to ask for the "rest of the brigade" when they reached camp?  Usually the side that held the field had a better understanding of who won/lost in terms of body count.  I've read a quote something like, you knew you won a battle by the stench of holding the field.

 

III Corps includes two sharpshooter units; but, they are militarily irrelevant.  Should sharpshooters have an increased chance of killing leaders?  How would you satisfy players that these units are realistic.  100 players = >100 different opinions.  Further how would you prevent these specialists from becoming mythological gods in their implementation.  Remise and I have had to deal with more than a double dose of "Super Videttes".

 

There were more than 40 miles of combined wagons supporting the armies at Gettysburg.  Where would you put all these supply wagons?  I guess if you had the wagons on the field then you'd need to protect them which might give the cavalry something more realistic to do.  But I'd be hard pressed to believe this is a good thing.

 

If you had engineer units would they be cutting paths through the forest for guns to move?  What else do you have in mind?  The creeks at Gettysburg can be crossed at almost all points - often without getting your feet wet.  So engineers wouldn't need to be building bridges would they?  Breastworks were mainly accomplished by the rank and file (i.e., Culp's Hill).  So would engineers be building breastworks?  Building the Shevardino Redoubt?  Train tracks?  Telegraph lines?

 

What about a couple of Signal Corps stations?  Ambulance Corps?  Commissary? Camp Followers?

 

Are you certain in a game at this scale and speed you want more to do?

 

The entire battlefield is only 5 miles by 3 miles.  What do specialists add strategically?