Forge of Freedom Updated and Improved!

[SeanD]

Improved Detailed Battles, a Craftier AI, tweaks, fixes and improvements!!

Matrix Games and Western Civilization Software (www.west-civ.com) are pleased to announce the release of the comprehensive 1.12.2 update for their acclaimed Civil War strategy game, Forge of Freedom! The update comes with a sizeable amount of fixes, rule changes, improvements, and new features and further polishes the gameplay of Forge of Freedom based on player feedback and ongoing game reports.

Specifically for fixes, VPs are now properly assigned only for decisive battles and the National Will bug for capturing empty cities is now fixed. There are also many other improvements and tweaks with detailed battles, especially with the AI and with reinforcements now adding to the Will to Fight. In addition, the US will now lose one additional National Will point if it loses a decisive battle in a US province and the CSA will gain one NW point in the same situation. New features include 10 new special abilities for units, improvements to generals’ statistics, new generals’ biographies (now 300 in total), and much more.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Forge of Freedom has proven to be an enduring classic in the American Civil War strategy genre. Anyone looking for an authentic wargame that truly captures the rich strategic and tactical problems facing a commander of that time period should absolutely give Forge of Freedom a try. Western Civilization Software has polished this gem to a mirror finish with their excellent post-release updates.”

More than seven-score years have passed since the start of this conflict that pitted state against state, brother against brother and broke the chains of slavery. Forge of Freedom gives you a chance to relive history from either side in a work of grand strategy.

As the leader of the Union or the Confederacy, you will be faced with historical decisions on the military, economic and diplomatic strategies to pursue. The diplomatic and economic systems have been streamlined and improved since Crown of Glory to be more user-friendly and also suited to the period. Rather than multiple minor nations, each state has its own Governor and they will make demands on you and shift their attitudes according to events. In addition, you will have to manage diplomacy with the European powers to try to sway them towards or against intervention. Over 1,000 historical generals are included along with an option to know their abilities ahead of time or have to find out the hard way, as happened historically. Railroads, rivers and cities all play important roles, as do elections which occur at both state and national levels. Every effort has been made to bring you as thorough a simulation of the American Civil War as is possible, from 1861 to 1865, from the skirmishes and raids in the West to the pitched in the East and the Naval blockade.

Get the update here. This update is comprehensive and will bring any previous version of Forge of Freedom to version 1.12.2.

[SlickWilhelm]

Sweet! Been waiting for this patch before I purchase. Will be whipping out the plastic today!

[EisenHammer]

Same here....It's time to start downloading.[:)]

[Gil R.]

Here is the patch documentation, for those wondering what's in here. We forgot to include the addition of two new Legendary Units by the late Bill Hawthorne (a.k.a. wzh55), Perry's Saints and Rush's Landers. He prepared them about a year ago, a few weeks before his death, and I posted them as a mod but now they're officially in the game.


FOF V1.12.2 from V1.10.10
-------------------------
Strategic Level
- Improvements to legendary units, and generals' statistics.
- New generals' biographies (300 total): Ambrose E. Burnside, Philip St. George Cooke, Thomas L. Crittenden, Jefferson C. Davis, Alfred Duffié, George W. Getty, John Gibbon, Gordon Granger, Alexander Hays, Philip Kearny, Rufus King, John A. McClernand, Irwin McDowell, Wesley Merritt, James Nagle, Richard J. Oglesby, Peter J. Osterhaus, John A. Rawlins, Phil Sheridan, Charles F. Smith, William F. Smith, George D. Wagner, Lew Wallace, William H.L. Wallace (U.S.A.); George T. Anderson, Robert Houston Anderson, John C. Carter, Philip St. George Cocke (revised bio), Philip Cook, Montgomery D. Corse, Arnold Elzey, Robert S. Garnett, States Rights Gist, Elkanah B. Greer, John B. Grayson, William P. Hardeman, John B. Hood, William Y.C. Humes, Benjamin G. Humphreys, John D. Imboden, Evander M. Law, Lunsford L. Lomax, Armistead L. Long, Dandridge McRae, William McRae, Albert Pike, Gideon J. Pillow, Gabriel J. Rains, Albert Rust, Stand Watie (C.S.A.)
- INTERFACE UPDATE: CTRL+Mousewheel and CTRL+'+' and CTRL+'-' now zoom the map at the strategic level and in detailed battle.
- VP’s are now properly assigned only for decisive battles.
- Removed "attack the fort" option from PBEM.
- FIX: gun problem in special unit file.
- FIX: Artillery strength now set properly from scenario start file.
- RULE CHANGE: Shenandoah is now worth $10 if the controlling player also controls the governor of the state.
- INTERFACE UPDATE: Always Instant Combat option now works in PBEM (so that when this option is chosen, players do not watch combat replay when watching PBEM replay files).
- RULE CHANGE: Gunboats now automatically heal 1 strength per turn.
- RULE CHANGE: National Will. The USA loses 1 additional point of NW if it loses a decisive battle in a US province (both currently and originally owned). The CSA gains 1 additional point of NW for winning a battle under these circumstances.
-FIX: National Will bug for empty city capture
- Added 10 new special abilities:
Thrifty (inf./art. only): Attacks use only 1 point of supply.
Stalwart (inf./cav. only): While unit is Fresh it takes only 1/10th normal morale loss from fire attacks.
Rangers (inf. only): Reduces cost to enter a hex by 1 if the terrain cost is 3 or more.
Cautious (inf./art. only): Reduces damage this unit takes and causes in fire combat by 25%.
Aggressive (inf./art. only): Increases damage this unit takes and causes in fire combat by 25%.
Tenacious (inf. only): When in a pin-position with another unit, both units are automatically pinned.
Hill Defenders (inf. only): Unit takes 10% fewer casualties and loses 33% less morale loss when defending from fire attacks on heights.
Uphill Charger (inf. only): Unit suffers half the normal penalty for charging enemies located on heights.
Efficient Fire (art. only): Unit may ignore the restriction that artillery units cannot fire after moving more than 4 hexes.
Anti-Battery (art. only): Reduces penalty for artillery-vs.-artillery fire attacks from -90% to -70%.

Detailed Battles
- Tweak AI use of charges
- Increased AI aggressiveness under particular situations.
- FIX: Weather report/damage bug
- FIX: Save game bug for casualty levels.
- AI now varies aggression level and "frenzies" to attack more aggressively
- Tweaked other AI attack calculations
- FIX: Targets now do not return fire on artillery units firing indirectly.
- FIX: Avoid battle bug.
- AI has extra chance to entrench before battles.
- INTERFACE UPDATE: game now shows supply info for units in chit view mode.
- RULE CHANGE: Bonus caissons now show up with reinforcements if any of the following apply:
1) Division has high supply priority
2) Division has Logistical Staff of Great or better and supply priority at least normal
3) Division has Logistical Staff of Superb and supply priority at least low
- RULE CHANGE: Reinforcing troops now are affected by all the morale modifiers of troops that begin the battle in a province.
- FIX: casualty report for weather
- RULE CHANGE: artillery now cannot move within 2 hexes of infantry.
- RULE CHANGE: WTF is now modified by reinforcements.
- INTERFACE UPDATE: For hotseat games, added transition screen between players' turns.

[Gil R.]

And see this thread for specific changes made to generals and LU's:

tm.asp?m=2089578

[Gil R.]

By the way, I know it's been discussed many times before in various threads, but we should state it somewhere "official": this new patch will break your saves. So only install if you're not too attached to your current game (or don't have a current game).

[moose1999]

Great to have it at last!
Unfortunately I have no time to play untill next week, but just downloading it feels good...

[Reiryc]

RULE CHANGE: WTF is now modified by reinforcements.

My favorite rule change... [:D][;)]

[Gil R.]

I just noticed that when I pasted in the text from the patch documentation I didn't include the following: "There is an additional updated appendix with this patch that highlights the changes from the original appendix and can be found in the “Manuals” folder in your Forge of Freedom game folder." Those of you who just relied on this post instead of opening the file would not have known that we've updated the appendix to reflect all of the changes made since FOF was released.

[Graycompany]

Well Done, Sir

[dolphinsfan9910]

Plays well and I like the WTF changes.

[guctony]

Hello everyone

I am a newbee

I have a problem downloading the pach. ýn matrx server it is slow as a matter of fact it is slow everywhere is there an alternative download location

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: guctony

Hello everyone

I am a newbee

I have a problem downloading the pach. ýn matrx server it is slow as a matter of fact it is slow everywhere is there an alternative download location

If this is still an issue for you -- and the Matrix server wasn't just being temporarily slow -- you might want to post in the "General Discussion" forum, since your question can be easily overlooked in this thread. (I myself have no suggestions, unfortunately.)

[cesteman]

Try late at night when everyone is asleep. If it's still slow, then the problem might be on your end. Try doing a speed test on your line to see how fast your internet connection is. If it's not on your end, then maybe wait a day and see if the Matrix site is just overloaded. Happens from time to time. Hope this helps.