Brother against brother

[spelk]

I'm having a hell of a time trying to make any progress on Blackburn's ford. Playing as the Union, I've not managed to get anywhere with it, if I push over the ford, I flounder with my back at the bridge, if I try and push my initial forces past the ford, and round the other bridge far South, I get bogged down just getting them across that. I wanted to sweep under, and lay the reinforcements across the original bridge, again they hit the choke point and start to rout.

I think I must be doing something fundamentally wrong. Would be interesting to hear other folks attempts and just what is the key to performing an effective line advance, with artillery support. In defensive positions, I'm ok. But pushing hard forward, covering distance, and getting across bridge chokepoints in tact, I suck the big one!

P.S. Anglo Zulu War for the engine.

Are there any other wargames, that rely totally on positioning to play out AI fire? I suppose the only other one I can think of is the Command Ops stuff (oh and Scourge of War, and maybe Total War - hmmm more than I imagined).

[vyshka]

Gil,

Any plans for this to make its way to Steam? Or is there a reason they decided to not put this release on Steam?

[tgb]

Spelk -

At what level are you playing?

Having won the intro scenario at the sergeant level today, my next plan is to re-read the manual now that I have a better understanding of the game systems, and tackling Blackburn's Ford at the First Sergeant difficulty level.

I'm trying to avoid the larger scenarios until I feel a lot more confident.

[spelk]

Gil,

Any plans for this to make its way to Steam? Or is there a reason they decided to not put this release on Steam?

Erik Rutins said:
"There are no current plans for a Steam release, however if we do one in the future, purchasing from our store now will still get you a free Steam key in the future. "

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3843173

[spelk]

Spelk -

At what level are you playing?

Lt. Col. difficulty.

Having won the intro scenario at the sergeant level today, my next plan is to re-read the manual now that I have a better understanding of the game systems, and tackling Blackburn's Ford at the First Sergeant difficulty level.

I'm trying to avoid the larger scenarios until I feel a lot more confident.

Yeah, I'm the same, I like to get a handle on the mechanics and see the nuances play out with a small number of units in a terrain I can become familiar with easily.

I notched it up to Lt.Col difficulty because certain historical aspects of the game come into play at that level. Things like order misinterpretation. I've played the Mill Springs (must stop calling it Mills Creek for some reason) scenario on this difficulty and I managed to secure a victory with my current knowledge and interpretation of the mechanics (also with a little help from other forum members).

This Blackburn's Ford scenario is quite a small one, but I just seem to struggle with putting enough clout across the bridge in good time. Once they get onto the other side, they're out of command, and are being pelted from established Rebel units, when they take sustained fire, a number of units just rout. It seems a bridge (either Blackburn's ford, or the one in the South) becomes a serious barrier that can be held by one or two enemy units, no matter how much I push at it.

Once routing I don't really know how to rally them back, short of setting the Brigade orders to Rally. But when I have other units engaged in Assaulting, I don't really want to toggle them back to Rally and incur penalties. I've tried urging the routing units, but that doesn't seem to make a significant morale shift, to stop them routing. I've tried putting commander units near them, again that doesn't seem to have any effect. Independant routing units, I've been able to put into Rally orders and they usually pull out of it, but if they're part of an assaulting Brigade thats it, I've more or less lost them.

I'm currently scouring the manual for inspiration. :)

[panzerde]

Sound like you're getting a very historical result. The Union historically got a bloody nose at Blackburn's Ford with some serious routing just as you (and I) have experienced. I suspect given the fidelity of BABs simulation that a historical scenario of Blackburn's Ford as the Union is pretty tough to win at higher difficulty levels. I'll never say "impossible" but it'd be damn tough.

Blackburn's Ford is deceptive in that it looks like a nice, small scenario - but you're putting outnumbered and mediocre Union troops against twice as many well-led Confederates. Tyler is a complete loser and he's up against the likes of Longstreet and Early here. It is no easy task as the Union. Different story playing as the CSA - then it's not a bad learning scenario and you're unlikely to lose unless you just have no idea how to defend.

[spelk]

Thanks for the reassurance panzerde, I tried it on Sergeant level and managed to secure a Union win, just by forcing a line through the corn field beyond the ford. I didn't have to chase any other Victory Hexes, just push through and hold the two just behind the ford.

[spelk]

New beta patch out


http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3848446&mpage=1&#3852865

Our newest Brother against Brother patch is available for testing here. Below is the change list for this update.


V1.0.3beta – March 1, 2015
Fixes
• Add PBEM challenge password support
• Add an option not to zoom out during combat resolution
• Add a small flag representing the side the unit is on right before the unit's name in combat
reports.
• Allow OOB and game to be active at the same time; highlight selected unit in OOB
• Add cycle to next unit buttons.
• Chit graphics now show line/column and skirmishers. Chits also show units that are
disordered, routing, or below -2 morale.
• Combat arrow graphic now has multiple heads along its length to show direction of attack
better
• Don't allow commanders to change formation - don't display their formation along with
brigade orders.
• Includes new 1st Manassas alternate history scenario (#3)
• Various scenario tweaks
Fixes
Fix no smoke on save file load issue
Fix 1366 resolution issues
Fix remaining odd issues related to PBEM and window focus (try resigning a game and issuing a challenge with 1.01, on my Windows 7 system that causes some very bizarre issues with which dialog is in front, etc.)
Change: Turn off weather sound when weather graphic is turned off
Reduced chance of finding a leader casualty from 5% to 3% and added requirement that at least 10 casualties have been caused on both sides during the combat phase.
Change to AI to increase aggression (should help w/ Blackburn's Ford)
Fix music playing bug
Change:  misinterpret orders rule is now always in effect for pbem games
Now using star chit for commanders
Now showing echelon colors in hierarchy box
Increased the frame rate
Fix: From <http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3844971>
Change: Select higher echelons in OOB with click; show selected unit/echelons in OOB
Change: Longrange move sd be possible even inside move area
Possible fix:  History graph buttons being interfered by unit buttons in short resolutions

[panzerde]

Oh excellent. Grabbing now to give this a try.

[Gil R.]

FYI, the first official post-release patch, 1.02, was released today.  See here:  http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3854720

If you have already installed the 1.03 public-beta then do not install this, though.

[panzerde]

FYI, the first official post-release patch, 1.02, was released today.  See here:  http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3854720

If you have already installed the 1.03 public-beta then do not install this, though.

I'm really liking the 1.03 beta patch, btw. The formation indicators on the chits is very helpful and I like being able to keep the zoom level constant during combat resolution. I haven't had much chance to play the past couple of evenings (client firewall issues in NC, grr) but this patch seems to have put a lot of the final polish on. I really want to see this system for battles like Antietam and Chancellorsville, as well as some of the more underrepresented actions like South Mountain.

The brigade focus while still using regiments and battalions as individual units really creates a nice feel for the command systems of the day. Question: is their any sort of brigade-wide morale effects at play?  One of the downfalls of the Tiller system is the lack of morale effects across high echelon formations, meaning that you can route a battalion or regiment and usually not have much impact on the sister units right adjacent in line. It'd be nice to see overall brigade or even division morale impacted by subunit morale.

[Gil R.]

Thanks.  And those are certainly battles we'd like to do.

In answer to your question, upper echelons (including brigades) break when a majority of their units are broken (with "majority" determined by strength/quality considerations).

[panzerde]

Thanks Gil. That was my impression on the morale, but it's good to have it verified.

[spelk]

I start my Video AAR of BAB, going through the Blackburn's Ford scenario on Sergeant difficulty.

http://sugarfreegamer.com/brother-against-brother-video-aar-part-1/

Took me 40 minutes to get to Turn 1, and there wasn't a shot fired... but next one, I think things will kick off! :)

I can certainly babble and waffle on, without actually doing anything in game!

I've got a decent headset now, so there shouldn't be as many farts and whistles as before.

[Rayfer]

Well done spelk...!  I appreciate the effort in putting together these video aar's and reviews. They assist in making game buying decisions; both for and against a purchase.  Thanks.