When You'd Rather Trust a Tree than a Timer



Ultimate General: Gettysburg

When considering one's tactical positioning in Ultimate General, there not a more critical feature than cover. In both Gettysburg and Civil War, every possible location is assigned a cover value based on its features, whether a farmhouse or an orchard. When a brigade stands at rest or passes through, Ultimate General awards it a temporary cover value. Rated 0 to 100, copious cover will allow a brigade to withstand ferocious enemy fire, shielding the unit's morale and men from depletion, while minimal cover risks lives and material.

In Ultimate General: Gettysburg, cover is based on features like houses, towns, forests, walls, wheat fields, and rock formations. The cover values assigned to these locales reflect the common sense results a player would expect. Sometimes the player might encounter difficulty positioning their forces just so on a feature (especially narrow stone walls) to acquire the benefit of the cover, but overall the system works well.

Ultimate General: Civil War took the same mechanic and tries to improve it. The developer added two new features, fortifications and deployment areas. Fortifications come in two varieties, raised forts and makeshift walls at key junctures. Both, one assumes, provide the best protection to defending forces. Yet, this is not so. In Civil War forests offer a cover value between 50 to 100 depending on how a brigade is positioned and how dense the forest is. Yet, forts are not guaranteed to provide this quality of protection. Fortifications never provide as little as 50 cover, but rarely do they ensure 100. Instead, a value of 85 to 90 can be expected, though there are forts with a value as low as 72. Nor do massive raised earth, wood, and dirt forts provide the protection they deserve. These behemoths don't seem to offer any additional shelter against rifles, artillery or bayonet charges. A particularly egregious example which combines both these flaws was evident in a raised artillery fortification. Not only did the fort provide a unremarkable 87 cover (remember: forests with 100), but it was overrun by a frontal cavalry charge. The enemy rode right up the sheer embankments and over the wooden palisade, men, horses, carbines and all.
In a curious case, halfway through Civil War, buildings began to lose their passive cover bonus. Instead, Civil War introduces a new mechanic which applies to fortifications, walls, buildings, and farmyards: the deployed position. Seeking to address the fiddly aspect of perfect positioning required in Gettysburg, Civil War eased the uncertainty of deployment. To deploy a brigade into a locale, the player needs to select the brigade and then click the location button which appears. While this solves one problem, it spawned another.

While flanking fire was an effect tactic in Gettysburg, the impact on morale was intensified in Civil War. Any brigade which receives a single round of fire on its flank is devastated: liable to break and run. Unfortunately fortifications seem to make a brigade more susceptible to flanking. The worst case of this was a raised fort with a deployment zone for each of its four sides. A player might assume a fully garrisoned defense would be immune to flanking. One could even imagine that a single brigade defending such a fort couldn't be flanked unless the enemy was inside. But, in the following image one can see an example. Union forces have surrounded the north and eastern sides of the fort. In spite of Confederate brigades occupying the only four deployment zones, the eastern most brigade is flanked by the Union fire originating from outside. While I don't have a screenshot of this event, I assure you, reader, that this occurred as pictured.
Overall, fortifications (and other forms of deployment locations), whether massive raised constructions or hastily erected walls, are inferior to the safety of the woods. The forts rarely provide a better cover bonus than a forest, and though they do not require fussy micromanagement, they are unreasonably easy to flank. Though one must use forts in desperation if there is no other available cover, a nice grove of pines is preferable to the sturdiest wall.

Two other issues relating to cover in Civil War deserve notification as well, though discussion of their failures must be passed over. One: cavalry can charge a fortification, rout to the other side, regroup, and charge the enemy from the rear!
In the final Battle of Richmond, some buildings no longer provide a cover bonus, nor offer the option to deploy into their protection.

Aside from the issue of cover, the differences in combat between Gettysburg and Civil War are minor with the latter having faster action, less loss of morale and stamina, and a large variety of weapons. Yet, victory isn't all about the fighting, but how a battle is fought.

Both games use a timer to impart practical information to the player. Battles are broken into sections, and Gettysburg includes a timer for each. In every instance, a section is concluded when the timer expires. The only method to extend a section is to contest a victory location by assaulting it. Then the timer extends into a clearly defined overtime, after which, no matter the state of the battlefield, the combat concludes.
In contrast, Civil War doesn't know what to do with its timer. An untrustworthy, deceitful, and inconsistent timepiece, one can't predict its conclusion. When time expires in Civil War the player is rewarded with one of four possible outcomes, none of which are displayed in advance. Sometimes the entire battle ends and the results are displayed. Occasionally, the player (or the enemy) receives reinforcements. If the battle is expansive enough, Civil War may redirect the player to a different part of the battlefield, leaving the prior section in a sort of unresolved limbo. If the battle does not end, the player is awarded a new timer, which upon its conclusion returns the player to the prior aspect, or ceases immediately. In any case, the ability to contest a location for overtime has vanished, eliminating the option to launch a desperate last contest, and reducing tension as a result.

One improvement Civil War implements is it allows the player to toggle between one of three speeds; normal, fast, and faster. But this is not really a refinement. One never needs to increase the speed in Gettysburg: the entire experience is tense and facepaced. On the other hand, Civil War's contains numerous battles where the enemy is routed, but the game continues needlessly. For these situations the fastest speed is a boon beyond measure.

Reader you might be wondering what else there is to relate of this disappointment, which I failed to anticipate as Stonewall Jackson's men failed to anticipate his return after the battle of Chancellorsville. Certainly, there is more to tell. Next week, a dispatch.

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