Just played demo, I am impressed.

[dgsoles]

The demo merely consists of the first two tutorials, culminating in a division level battle with the player commanding a brigade, right?

I think I did well. Had a final score of 576. I probably could have done better. My brigade didn't even make it past the stone wall just past the bridge. We held off 1 rebel brigade right at the beginning (Archer's brigade is just too easy to beat!), and then immediately afterwards, we had another full strength reb brigade hit us on our right and left flanks, simultaneously.

Luckily, we held them for a while, and the friendly union brigade abandoned their post at captain hall's battery and came in behind the rebels hitting our right flank. Those 2 regiments crumbled to dust between our forces. I'll say that my regiments were holding rather nicely, tucked behind stone-walls, while the rebs were out in the open at the wheat field.

The left flank was a bit more interesting. I never had a unit flee, but the remnants of archer's brigade joined the remnants of the second rebel brigade, and I had to move 2 regiments from my right flank, leaving my most understrength regiment behind, just in case.

We ended up pushing those rebels back hard. Routing them several times in a row. At the end, there were only 2 enemy regiments left, and they were holding up at a farm a good 600 yards away from my position.

I ended up pulling back my forces to resupply. At this point, Captain Hall's battery had been utterly obliterated, and that enemy brigade looked as if they would be heading our way. The other friendly brigade was moving to intercept them. My orders were to hold a hill side, so after resupply, I moved my forces there.

After that, apparently we won. I got the major victory screen. We killed a good 1/4 of rebel forces, and only lost a few hundred. My brigade only lost about 80 of those.

I suppose I could have done things a bit differently, but I had a really, really good time at this!


I'm seriously considering purchasing this game. Is it always this fun and interesting? The enemy AI seemed quite smart, even pulling back when they knew they were outnumbered and outgunned.

Doug

[NefariousKoel]

Yeah it's a fun series. I just discovered it, recently, myself.

Brigade command is the smallest size you can command. The full game also has Division and Corps level command available along with scenarios, a sandbox scenario creator, and multiplayer. I've only played a couple battles in sandbox and not tried multiplayer yet as I'm still getting some practice. It looks like they have some fun multiplayer campaigns around here, too.

[Jack ONeill]

DG,

Understand if you purchase this most fabulous game you will be totally screwed. It IS that much fun and exciting. It is also, the most frustrating game around. You were lucky. The AI is programed to run many different possibilites as far as how it will engage your forces. The AI in this game is absolutely the best in the business and you will have your ass handed to you more often than you will want to admit. Multiplayer is outstanding. Get good fast, because they are.
Look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.

Sic Semper Fidelis

Jack O'Neill B)

[dgsoles]

Alright, I bought it.

Went on to artillery training. Did "meh". Our forces won, but my guns didn't contribute very much to the fight.

Went on to division command. Did well ordering brigades around. I strictly use the courier system, as I really think that's how this game's meant to be played. If you want to boss around (TC) individual regiments, maybe you should be a brigade commander, not division or corps! My brigades did well, we won a major victory.

Finally, I did the corps command mission. Talk about overwhelming at first! The rebs attacked the eleventh corps due North of gettysburg. My corps (2nd corps) was stationed just outside town. I send one division to assist the eleventh corps, along with my artillery battery. Well, that rebel attack was just a diversion! They sent a fair number of forces in from the west/northwest, and a huge force in from the NE. I scrambled my two divisions to meet each force. The eleventh corps was doing so-so at this point, but not great. The diversionary rebel attack on the front was defeated, but with decent losses to the eleventh corps.

My 2nd division contacted the enemy at the NW front, and some nasty fighting ensued. My third division just barely made it to the NE front in time to prevent the rebs from crossing a bridge there. They were to hold at all costs!

My reserve division (1st division, they helped with the front center attack) was called to assist my second division on the NW front. In hindsight, I should have sent them to help 3rd division, as 2nd division was (barely!) holding it's own.

Flash forward a few more minutes, and I have completely crushed the rebels on the NW flank. My 3rd corps on the NE flank is being decimated, but the remnants of the eleventh corps have come in to help, but are doing badly themselves. The right flank is starting to fall apart rather badly.

My first division scrambles and arrives in the nick of time, just as the rebs are overrunning the last of my third division.

We end up annihilating the rest of the rebel forces.

It was a pyrhhic victory, though. I lost well over half of my men. 3rd division only had 500 men left out of nearly 4500 men. The eleventh corps lost about 3/4 of their men. But, my score was about 1101, which was a major victory.

I think I like this game. I know using the courier system doesn't allow as much finesse as some micromanagers would like, but I enjoyed it greatly! I will only use the courier system from now on, unless I'm a brigade commander, that would be a challenge.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

dgsoles wrote:

I strictly use the courier system, as I really think that's how this game's meant to be played.

A man after my own heart. Yes indeed, the game is very different when played this way. The AI suddenly becomes a very dangerous opponent. For a real 19th century experience, try pressing the 'F' key twice. Now you'll be stuck in the saddle. You'll still be able to move up and down, but not sideways. You'll also be able to jump to the saddle of your subordinates by using the arrow keys to view the battle at their location. And when you're ready, there is a courier mod for sandbox play. It gives you many more commands and locations to send your troops.

By the way, congrats on your victory. It sounds like a well fought battle. Fair warning: in courier play, most victories are pyrhhic.

[dgsoles]

Hey, that's what turned me onto this game in the first place! I remember reading a book about a certain regiment (some Southern calvary, I think, they did some very daring things!), and thinking, wow, how awesome would a game like this be, set in the civil war, leading troops, but only seeing things from YOUR perspective, and only being able to order your troops via courier.

I love SM Gettysburg, but it won't run on my computer anymore...plus, this seems a whole lot more realistic.

And, now, 6 years later, I've found the game I've been wanting! (I didn't know about the Take Command series!)

I actually used your little AAR courier-battle to help me out with getting some commanders to do things. Of course, half the fun is when one flank is crumbling, and one is doing well. You try to pull some men off of the flank that's doing well, but they don't want to move because they're engaged (or they just like winning....). It was a very, very interesting battle. The battlefield was just blanketed with dead bodies. Thousands and thousands. We both had about 25,000 men. At the end, the Union had about 8,000 left, and the Rebels had about 2,000 (almost all of those were cannon crews). And my graphic settings are set to keep all dead bodies.

Does anyone play any MP games using strictly courier? I'm very new to this game, but I've found the courier system very easy to get the hang of. I think a MP game with, say 4 on 4 doing only courier play would be amazing. No chatting, no teamspeak. If you need to communicate, send out a courier and hope he isn't intercepted!

I'll be downloading your courier and mini-map mod, if that does help to make things easier. I still don't have all of the map locations memorized, so there's a lot of moving myself around, and then having a brigade or division move to my rear or front center.

Georgia, what do you do about those pesky trees?

[SouthernSteel]

If you hit T it reduces the amount of terrain (or trees, most visibly) being shown. You can hit it up to 3 times, which will remove all trees and other terrain features (stone walls, etc) progressively. Hitting it a 4th time will return it to normal.

Usually in MP we play courier by side. There was some talk for a while of trying to run a campaign using only couriers, but that has not yet come to fruition (and I don't expect it to any time soon). Still, I have little doubt you could find players willing to play courier-only MP games with you. Keep in mind that most of us use TeamSpeak when playing MP to communicate, which sort of overrides couriers in terms of ease and clarity.

[dgsoles]

Alright, I kinda gathered that. Courier by side means what exactly?

I would just LOVE to play a courier only MP game. Half the fun would be interpreting orders, or, if you're the commander, seeing your subordinates misinterpret your orders (and not being able to do anything about it except try to send more clear orders to them! Of course, this all assumes that the courier lives to give his message!).

I'd also love the idea of subordinate players reporting back to superior officers in MP, kind of like reporting in, requesting support, spotting enemy, etc.

I play games for fun, not to win. I think it would be a blast to get your arse handed to you by another side, if both of you are using courier only. But, not many people play that way?

[SouthernSteel]

Ah, sorry. Courier by side is basically instant orders, a more user-friendly style that seems to suit most for MP games, just to make it easier and more enjoyable to play.

What you're referring to is courier by division or courier by brigade. The die-hard junkie we had for that style hasn't been on in quite a while now, but I know there are still several players who would enjoy playing that way (I believe Hays is one of them, and I can't think of others off the top of my head).

When we played our first (and really only) full campaign in MP, we also observed strict TS discipline. That meant that you could only speak to someone when your commander (sprite) was next to theirs on the field. otherwise it was couriers, but still courier by side so that your units would respond to your orders instantly.

[dgsoles]

Gosh, here I am blabbing about multiplayer, and the only battles I've won in singleplayer have been at horrendous loss to my own forces! They claim major victories, but in reality, whatever forces I used to fight that battle were all used up by the end! No more fighting with those units until fresh recruits were brought in.

I like the idea of teamspeak discipline. So, courier by side means you just TC the commanders beneath you so you can move their forces by yourself?

Part of the challenge to the courier system it seems is the whole placing of units. I usually resort to moving myself to where I want my first brigade or division, and then setting my force up that way, have one go to my front center, one to my front left, front right, rear, etc. Then I let the subordinates work out their more detailed spacing by themselves. Sometimes they do very well, sometimes I want to punch them in the face. But, I strictly adhere to the chain of command. So, I don't go over and boss a brigade commander's regiments around, or a division commander's brigade commanders around.

This really makes the game pretty fun and unpredictable. Maybe I just love chaos too much.

If I stick around, you guys may have another die-hard courier user on your hands! Maybe Georgia would be up for a courier only game!

Thank you for the info, Southern Steel. You've been most kind.