New alternate-history scenarios?

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Gil R.
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New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Gil R. »

I'm right now working on an alt-hist scenario that has the Union not bothering with a flanking march, and attacking at Stone Bridge and other points to the southeast. I have several other ideas, but I thought I might take requests -- any ideas that you would especially like to see?
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Rosseau
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Rosseau »

No responses yet? Where are our knowledgeable people? This isn't the Steam forum, you know [;)]

Anyway, Bull Run is not my forte, but let's give the man some suggestions while we can.
Clinchrifles
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Clinchrifles »

I like the idea. I think I have enough scenarios to keep myself busy atm but think it would make for a good scenario.
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Gil R.
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Gil R. »

So I've been trying to think of a two-player scenario for Williamsburg in which the units aren't pre-positioned, but there is no historical way of doing that: by the afternoon of May 4 a large portion of the next day's Union combatants were already in the area, while the Confederate army was partly defending the redoubts. So would people enjoy a clearly ahistorical scenario in which, say, the Union didn't arrive in the area until after dark, giving the Union player a choice of roads and attack routes while the Confederate player must anticipate them? I think this might be the best way of taking advantage of all the terrain and fortifications present on that map.
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oldspec4
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by oldspec4 »

I am a solo player so can't provide a good response from a two player viewpoint.

As a solo player, I do like some randomness in scenario set-ups but I primarily play historical as much as possible. This is due to my study of battles and actually walking the battlefields. The scenario selections currently available in the game hit the "variability and randomness" sweet spot for me.

Btw, I attempted to walk as much of the Williamsburg site as possible last week. Very difficult to visualize with all the modern development. Kudos to you and your team creating the excellent game battle maps and gameplay[&o].
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Gil R.
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Gil R. »

ORIGINAL: oldspec4

I am a solo player so can't provide a good response from a two player viewpoint.

As a solo player, I do like some randomness in scenario set-ups but I primarily play historical as much as possible. This is due to my study of battles and actually walking the battlefields. The scenario selections currently available in the game hit the "variability and randomness" sweet spot for me.

Btw, I attempted to walk as much of the Williamsburg site as possible last week. Very difficult to visualize with all the modern development. Kudos to you and your team creating the excellent game battle maps and gameplay[&o].

Thanks for your comments. I'm curious, was Williamsburg a special trip or do you live reasonably close by? I'm curious which parts you saw. Fort Magruder is easy enough to find, as are some of the redoubts, but part of one redoubt is behind a hotel, another redoubt is in the woods in a park near some softball fields, etc. But I was last there about five years ago and know that work was done to make the surviving battlefield remains more accessible, so perhaps things are easier.

I do have a historical Williamsburg scenario starting at 2:00 about 80% finished, but the hold-up is that I can't find a good source for where several key brigades were then, and need to spend more time with it. There is not a single reliable troop movements map that solves the problem. But 2:00 is clearly the best time for another historical scenario to begin.
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oldspec4
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by oldspec4 »

I live in Arizona and the Williamsburg visit was part of a trip to the Norfolk area. I believe that only about 70 acres of the original 10,000 acres plus? battlefield area are somewhat preserved. Redoubt #1 (Redoubt Park) and Ft. Magruder remains were not too hard to find but remaining areas were difficult without spending beaucoup time tracking them down.

The Williamsburg battle is fascinating to me because of the limited available battle info, limited battlefield preservation, and general historical obscurity. Mill Springs is somewhat similar.

Good luck with the historical scenario.
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Gil R.
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Gil R. »

I know you mean about spending a lot of time at Williamsburg -- not only is it hard to find everything, but the traffic from all the tourists and simply the way roads and highways connect (or don't) can cost a lot of time. I ended up spending the bulk of a day there and not seeing everything I wanted to.

At some point this summer -- sadly, no time before the battle's anniversary on May 5 -- I plan to write up a detailed discussion of the challenges involved in mapping the Williamsburg battlefield. It's really a series of interconnected problems, with lots of sources that do not provide all the information one might wish for. One of the discoveries of which I am most proud is that there is a highly detailed map online (Library of Congress, I think) from the Revolutionary War (!) that filled in a lot of gaps, while serving as an excellent means of determining the accuracy of the Civil War-era maps, since it is a clearly superior work. My piece will be too big for this forum, but I'll certainly link to it when the time comes.
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zakblood
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by zakblood »

i haven't replied as i'll play anything from this game, as i know it will be good and fun, so make it, i'll play it[:D][;)]

then thank you for it[&o][&o][&o]
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kennonlightfoot
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by kennonlightfoot »

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

I'm right now working on an alt-hist scenario that has the Union not bothering with a flanking march, and attacking at Stone Bridge and other points to the southeast. I have several other ideas, but I thought I might take requests -- any ideas that you would especially like to see?

How will this be different from the "2 Player" scenario?
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Yogi the Great
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Yogi the Great »

ORIGINAL: kwhitehead

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

I'm right now working on an alt-hist scenario that has the Union not bothering with a flanking march, and attacking at Stone Bridge and other points to the southeast. I have several other ideas, but I thought I might take requests -- any ideas that you would especially like to see?

How will this be different from the "2 Player" scenario?

When I first saw this I wondered the same thing.

Looks like the USA start of "2 player" could be considered several turns before the start of this one. You have more flexibility in 2 player as you haven't divided up yet so to speak and can send all where you want toward several or just one main point of attack.

On this one some of your troops have already been split off and headed toward several of the crossings/fords. Sort of making the decision of how many and where the prongs of attack will go.


Similar for CSA as some of the start positions have already been set up as if you had decided where to send troops defend already.

zakblood probably could give a better description, I just looked at his AAR,
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Gil R.
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RE: New alternate-history scenarios?

Post by Gil R. »

Exactly -- the 2-player one begins at 2:00 a.m., when the Union began to get rolling, and therefore all possibilities are still open to the USA player, while the CSA player has the option of doing what Beauregard considered and attacking across the Bull Run. This new alt-hist scenario, starting at 6:00 a.m., has the Union committed to there being no flanking march (well, none that would arrive until later in the day, which actually is not a bad strategy to try, especially in PBEM).

But the main thing is that the alt-hist scenario has a carefully scripted AI, whereas the 2-player one has no attempt at an AI (though the scripting from the standard scenario is still in there, not that I would recommend trying it, since about half the units are in different starting locations).
Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I torment eager potential customers by not sharing screenshots of "Brother Against Brother." Everyone has a talent.
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