AGEOD Civil war 2 battle planner

[devoncop]

Hi SOM,

Just from the point of view of a Paradox EUIV loving wargamer who totally failed to engage with the Ageod systems until now I find it MUCH better and definitely fun. The tutorials I think are the reason along with the Regional desicions. The battle Planner is a great concept but I think is still a work in progress.

The map and larger unit cards I love incidently but I am not as much a veteran as many on here on that subject so my view is not one you want to take as gospel !

Hi to everyone by the way as I FINALLY joined !

[Toonces]

I was all ready to disagree with you guys re: the artwork until I saw the contrasting screenshots of the Rome game.  Ok, I see what you mean.

Still, the new game looks very functional, I certainly don't HATE the graphics, and honestly, since when is wargaming about graphics?  Let's get a little bit real, here.  $40 isn't break the bank money, and the graphics are very nice even if maybe not as awesome as previous versions of their games.

C'mon, now!

[Nefaro]

I was all ready to disagree with you guys re: the artwork until I saw the contrasting screenshots of the Rome game.  Ok, I see what you mean.

Still, the new game looks very functional, I certainly don't HATE the graphics, and honestly, since when is wargaming about graphics?  Let's get a little bit real, here.  $40 isn't break the bank money, and the graphics are very nice even if maybe not as awesome as previous versions of their games.

C'mon, now!

I find the new UI Frames rather immersion breaking.  As W8taminute mentioned, it looks like you're playing the American Civil War within MS Office XP. 

I'm definitely not a graphics whore when it comes to strategy games, but I prefer my purely historical wargames to not look like they're set in 2002.  Escapism fail.


Here's something it kinda reminds us of:





I also really miss the period-specific art embellishments around the edges, including the ones missing around the bottom and top corner bars.  It all looks comparatively sterile and lifeless now.  :-[

[tgb]

So... aside from all this UI/map/art discussion...

Is the game fun?  ;)

Also, is it a bit more user-friendly and intuitive than the first one?

I guess you didn't see the impressions I posted over at OO.   :)

So far I've played the tutorials, Bull Run, and Shiloh battles, and just started the small Western Theater campaign. 

The game clearly benefits from lessons learned in Pride of Nations and Alea Jacta Est. The influence of PrON on the map and interface is obvious. People are complaining about the new look and interface, but I like it. This may be Ageod's most newbie-friendly game yet, with lots of tootips, tutorials that are actually useful, and the ability to automate both recruitment of replacements (something I never did get a handle on) and an optional simplified supply system. Recruitment is handled similarly to the last couple of titles, with a menu at the bottom of the screen of all recruitable units. Selecting one highlights the areas in which it may be recruited. Like AJE, there are plenty of decisions that can be made on the global level that increase conscription, production, the chance of foreign intervention, etc. There are also decision "cards" that can be played on the map and only affect one territory. These are similar to the colonial decisions in PrON, but take effect almost immediately and only last a turn or two. There are only one or two of each, but once one is "finished", it is returned to the deck to be played somewhere else.

Army organization and combat are virtually unchanged from the first ACW. Units are still recruited at the brigade level, and need to be combined into divisions, corps, and armies to fight effectively, all restricted by command points. What has been added is a "battle planner" that allows you to set a stance for your fighting men prior to the start of battle and a single order or engagement.  I've used it two or three times (you only see it in bigger battles), and while it's pretty clear what the different stances do, the battle results screen doesn't indicate how they affected the fighting.

My only complaint so far is that map scrolling is sometimes too fast, and when combining stacks I have a tendency to scroll the map instead. I had to make a change to one of the config files in order to slow it down, and it's a lot easier to work with, now.

The game ships with 8 scenarios - 3 tutorials, Bull Run, Shiloh, a Western Theater (NM and TX) campaign, and 2 grand campaigns, starting in April '61 and July '61. I'm sure there will be more available as DLC before too long.

[W8taminute]

Had ACW2 not been a sequel I would not have been so hard on it's graphics.  But after spending 10s of thousands of currency units on games in my lifetime, I do expect a certain degree of immersion and escapism from my games.  A sequel should be better than it's predecessor or why make it at all?  The window dressing and period graphics is not too much to ask for imo.

I know the old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I'm looking at this from a consumer point of view.  ACW2 might have an ai so intelligent that it can cook my dinner and take me to the movies but if you asked me to kiss it I'd say no because she's an ugly pig. 

[Tuna]

To me one of the best immersion factors of the first version was the music.. I loved it!!

lol... definitely not one of those games where first thing I do is shut the music off!.. FoF was like that.. music went off immediately..

I do agree with people that the rustic wood border does increase immersion, but on the other hand, it does look like you're seeing a heck of a lot more with the new map!

[mikeck]

I think the map is good looking and certainly the icons pictures are. The UI is sterile but I suspect some young college student with time to spare will mod it.

[mikeck]

To me one of the best immersion factors of the first version was the music.. I loved it!!

lol... definitely not one of those games where first thing I do is shut the music off!.. FoF was like that.. music went off immediately..

I do agree with people that the rustic wood border does increase immersion, but on the other hand, it does look like you're seeing a heck of a lot more with the new map!

Some of the songs are the same. I'm sure you could go into the ACW song file and cut n paste those into the ACW 2 file?

[Nefaro]

To me one of the best immersion factors of the first version was the music.. I loved it!!

lol... definitely not one of those games where first thing I do is shut the music off!.. FoF was like that.. music went off immediately..

I do agree with people that the rustic wood border does increase immersion, but on the other hand, it does look like you're seeing a heck of a lot more with the new map!

Some of the songs are the same. I'm sure you could go into the ACW song file and cut n paste those into the ACW 2 file?

You have to add each song's name to a text file playlist.  Pretty sure it's the same as the other AGE games, as that's how they worked and I recently saw someone ask this exact question.

[mikeck]

Just installed the new IOS 7 for my iPhone. There is an app called "Iradio". If you search for "civil war music" you will find a lot...including an actual radio station that plays civil war music. I just play that.

[ComradeP]

As much as I'd like to play a modern Civil War game, I just don't think AGEOD's combat system is my cup of tea. A large number of their games look interesting, but the combat system has prevented me from buying any (as well as fearing the AI might not be too great in some of them, but that's a lesser issue as it seems to work fairly well).

Ah well, back to the Union CWG 2 campaign for now.

[W8taminute]

Just installed the new IOS 7 for my iPhone. There is an app called "Iradio". If you search for "civil war music" you will find a lot...including an actual radio station that plays civil war music. I just play that.

Cool!  Thanks for this tip mike.  I've got to upgrade sooner rather than later now. 


There is no doubt that I will pick up ACW2 in time.  I do want to play it despite it's graphics but I'm not willing to plop down 40 on it.  When the price drops I get my wallet out and use it.  Keep in mind, while 40 is not a very large amount, I have lately become quite strict with buying low and playing high.  Unless of course the game hits a home run right out of the gate, then I buy at full price on launch day. 

[Grim.Reaper]

Just installed the new IOS 7 for my iPhone. There is an app called "Iradio". If you search for "civil war music" you will find a lot...including an actual radio station that plays civil war music. I just play that.

Cool!  Thanks for this tip mike.  I've got to upgrade sooner rather than later now. 


There is no doubt that I will pick up ACW2 in time.  I do want to play it despite it's graphics but I'm not willing to plop down 40 on it.  When the price drops I get my wallet out and use it.  Keep in mind, while 40 is not a very large amount, I have lately become quite strict with buying low and playing high.  Unless of course the game hits a home run right out of the gate, then I buy at full price on launch day.

Since this is now being sold from Matrix and with Matrix pricing, not sure we can expect to see a price drop anytime soon, if ever....we might get lucky and it be part of a future xmas/summer sale where it is 20-30% off, but if memory serves me correct first year games typically don't make the list.

[Tuna]

Well, this is a niche game, which a lot of people can't get into (forming armies, supply etc.. btw, I think it's great once you learn it). So the higher the price, the more someone who is unsure whether or not they will like it, is going to hestitate.

[sandman2575]

The major obstacle for me getting into AGEOD games has been the (to me) completely baffling way battles get resolved.  Thinking mostly of Napoleon's Campaigns here, but I just could never manage to decipher the combat summaries.  They gave absolutely no sense of cause and effect, or the sequence of events, just:  here's who won, and here are four dozen tiny, impossible to read icons representing the four dozen variables that, somehow, affected the outcome.   ??? ???

Has Civil War 2 improved on this (or AJE for that matter)? 

World War One Gold is the only AGEOD game that holds my attention, because the representation of the battles is interactive and dynamic.  I don't necessarily need interactive, but I do need dynamic, not just, 'bam, you lost, now get out your decoder ring and try to figure out why.'