Rules, Features and Game Play

Certain features and rules of the simulation definitely affect engagements, which are run under AI. Here are a few:

1. Unit Quality: Units come into the army green and can either gain experience through time served and combat experience or undergo extensive training to increase their unit quality. Is there much difference between a green unit and a trained unit? There are some important factors. When a unit has gone through basic training, it reaches a "trained" experience level. The formation attribute is set the same as the experience level. Green units spend a lot of time floundering under fire at the start of an engagement as they try to form and wheel into position to engage. More experienced units spend less time doing this.

2. Remote Engagements: Players have little to no control over engagements in remote locations away from their headquarters.  If the force engaging the enemy is greater than 2,000 men, a player will be contacted prior to the engagement and has the opportunity to set an acceptable casualty threshold. The default threshold is about 5%, but a player can increase this and allow his men to stay on the field up to 10% or greater losses. This can give one side (taking 10% losses) the strength to take the field from a unit whose threshold is at 5% losses, even if the victorious force has taken more losses on the field.

3. Weapons: Weapons are randomly assigned when a unit takes the field, but can be upgraded later. The Federals have some really poor weapons at the start of the campaign, which has decreased their range and effectiveness of fire in some cases.

These three factors have definitely affected the outcomes of  some engagements so far in the simulation.