Brother against brother

[panzerde]

panzerde...you're not helping me resist buying this one...stop!  :(

Rayfer, you want this one man! Then we can play PBEM!  :D

[panzerde]

wish you guys would just be quiet  already..blahblah...greatmaps, blahblah...plays great....blahblahblah. Enough already. But just in case your gonna post more how about some bigger battles,  Pictures and impressions please. ::)

That's a fair cop.  :)

I'll try 1st Manassas next and try and remember to grab some screenies.

[spelk]

If you want darker victory hexes, Eric Babe knocked up a replacement file.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3843519

Try this file:

www.west-civ.com/BaB/BrighterVicHexes_PutInGfx.Hexwar.zip

You should be able to unzip this and put the HW_DirectionArrows.pcx file in the Gfx/Hexwar/ directory. This should increase the visibility of the victory hexes. I just whipped it up and haven't tested it yet, so hopefully it will work OK.

This file controls the opacity for most of the map overlay graphics. If anyone would like to try his hand at modding this file, you can select elements on this sheet and use the Image|Adjustments|Shadows/Highlights tool in Photoshop to tweak the opacity of graphics up and down. I'm sure GIMP and other similar image editing programs must have similar tools.

[JudgeDredd]

I really wish someone besides tiller would do some of the western battles: Shiloh, Chickamauga and Chatanooga in particular. Oh well. Don't get me wrong, I like to play smaller obscure battles too...just not exclusively. But then I'm not the one making the game. To each their own

JD...if you are now just starting to get interested in the ACW, I recommend Shelby Footed 3 volumn narrative. T about 3000 pages all told but it is a great read and truly a "narrative" instead of a "1st Regiment went here and 3rd division went there"

Noted

[spelk]

Historical Gamer does more on BAB

https://youtu.be/XBgWfnYkVQE

[ERutins]

Wow, I have never seen so many leader casualties in that scenario.  Just his luck to lose his favorite generals!  He was playing with them fairly aggressively, but that was extraordinarily bad luck.

[ERutins]

On another note, will this ever come out in steam? Ide love to have "workshop" access to download future scenarios and such

No plans at this time, but if we do, everyone who purchased from our store already will get a free Steam key.

Regards,

- Erik

[JudgeDredd]

I had a stab at the Mills Creek scenario on Lt Col difficulty, and boy it was a dis-organised learning experiment. It seemed like i just couldn't get the right units in place, before the Rebs were all over me. I tried to take and hold that hillock, near The Sag, that Robear (from GamersWithJobs said he had an enemy unit popping back and forth on. It seemed like the key set of heights to take and hold, if I could. So that was my simple aim. I never seemed to have enough lines at the front, and my arty always seemed to be hampered by the "hot gates" style landscape.

Anyway, I struggled onwards with it all, and here is the lie of the land at the end of the game. I got a win, but only 1 star. I lost a unit to routing (all the way off the map!!).



The AI seemed to do a decent job of rotating fresh troops in and taking battered troops out for a rest, all under the cover of the dreaded fog of war. Holding that area didn't seem to give me any intel beyond the edge of it. Also, I couldn't get my cav round either side, for rebs blocking the movement with their Zones of Control.

The scores on the doors



The shameful Morale graph



The vicarious Casualty graph



And finally, just because I'm so proud of them, the 10th Indiana Infantry unit that simply held the line whilst all the other troops where on their way. They eventually routed, but they held for so long and they clocked up the most inflicted casualties, they need to be recognised for their efforts!  They were stationed at the crux of the road and the hillock. In Hold orders, with lots of urging.



Game crashed two times, so the smoke was reset in between autosaves. Enjoyed it immensely, but I'm going to have to spend hours in the manual to become a lot better and mass movement, and keeping Brigades together properly.

A problem with the chits view is that you can't tell which units are generals. In the sprites view the coloured emblem is circular for generals, but the chits everyones colours are rectangle.

Good write up. Whet my appetite!

[mikeck]

Can you switch between icon and sprite units at any zoom level?

[spelk]

Can you switch between icon and sprite units at any zoom level?

Yep. Toggle is the 'v' key.

[panzerde]

For those wanting to see a larger battle, the early turns of 1st Manassas...



Hunter's Division at Sudley Springs, 10AM. Burnside's Brigade is in the lead.



Three brigades of Tyler's Division east of the Stone Bridge, also 10AM. This division include Sherman as a brigade commander.



Tyler's remaining brigade (Richardson) near Blackburn's Ford, to threaten the Confederate right.



10:20, and I have a traffic jam at Sudley Springs ford. Porter's brigade is out of command (note the black stars on the units) and under brigade orders to Advance, meaning they can't make good use of the ford. I need to move Porter back closer to them and change their orders to March. When I try this, the green Union troops proceed to trip on their shoelaces and wander off the road to pick blackberries. I am beginning to empathise with McDowell.

Heintzelman's Division is stacked up behind Hunter. I've neatly managed to replicate history.



Burnside however has had enough waiting around and places his brigade in line on Matthews Hill. We are getting indications that there are Rebs just down the slope!



The bulk of Tyler's Division consolidates and begins to fire artillery at the Confederates on the other side of the Stone Bridge. 10:20 AM



By 10:40 Porter has sorted himself out and Hunter's Division is again movign across the ford and down the road to Matthews Hill.

Sorry, not much combat yet but you can get an idea of what maneuver is like and what can happen if your troops are out of command and have the wrong brigade stance. Annoying on the march and potentially a disaster in battle!

This is a BIG map. I have pretty respectable rig, but map scrolling with this map is a bit choppy - though that may be the shift-mouse map scrolling system in the game, which feels very odd to me.

I'll post more once things get interesting.

[jomni]

Intersting. I see some commander perks.

[Philippe]

How does the treatment and maneuvering compare to HPS Antietam (which includes the two Bull Run battles) and HPS Ozark (Wilson's Creek et al.).

And in particular, how does the AI compare, especially in its use (or non-use) of combined arms?

[panzerde]

How does the treatment and maneuvering compare to HPS Antietam (which includes the two Bull Run battles) and HPS Ozark (Wilson's Creek et al.).

And in particular, how does the AI compare, especially in its use (or non-use) of combined arms?

As I'm sure you know, I'm a long-time HPS/JTS fanboi and lover of those games (as well as your mods). Having said that, this system feels like it plays better that the Tiller ACW games. C&C and maneuver seem closer to how units are portrayed in campaign histories and games like Scourge of War. Multi-level command is much more important than it is in the Tiller games. I'm still coming to grips with the various commander abilities that are available at the different levels of the hierarchy, but I can say that the Brigade Orders approach seems a lot more realistic.

The AI is definitely better, not suicidal, and capable of beating me - which the Tiller ACW AI hasn't really ever been. The jury is still out on effective combined arms use. Yes, it does seem to intelligently use artillery and infantry at times, but other times it seems like the artillery will fire on whatever is closest rather than in direct support. The CSA AI fired on some supply wagons, for example, while a Union brigade was trying to force Blackburn's Ford, for example. It may honestly not have been able to fire on anything else - I need to watch it some more and see.

The major difference in combat is that in Brother Against Brother you don't designate targets, the AI does that. Your job is to maneuver your troops into an advantageous position, and then let the AI fire on each other. So, there are AI targeting routines in this game that are almost certainly better than in the Tiller ACW games, because they really, really need to be - it's central to the game.

I also like the morale system in Brother Against Brother - which isn't surprising, since it's really pretty close to how fatigue works in Tiller's games. Beyond the unit level, though, there are morale effects on the army as a whole and that's something I think that's sorely missing from the Tiller engine. I need to dig into the morale system more and see if there are brigade/division/corps effects, which would be very cool. It frustrates me not to be able to rout a brigade or division in the HPS/JTS games.

[spelk]

I revisited Mill Springs, only this time took some positioning advice from RoBear (from GWJ)..

@Robear, I followed your plan as best I could, with cav holding the treeline, with the 10th Indiana, and brought my Arty up into the corn fields, and one of top of the hill, and I did really quite well. On Lt Col difficulty, I managed to knock the Reb's morale down past breaking point just past 10am in the morning! With a 5 star victory!!!

Here's the lie of the land at the end of the game..



And here's the scores on the doors.



Amazing just how effective a few key units, in cover, holding with skirmishers can be, backed up by Arty. I had to pull the Cav back a little, they started to take too much punishment early on, but I swapped a line infantry unit in its place when I could, and we held the line. The AI seemed to be lining them up a little on the right hand side this time.