American Civil War

[jrbrockm]

Wow, great scenario! I just won as the South, and thought I'd share how I did it. First of all, if you don't find any iron, you're screwed, because you have to rely on the weapons and ammo coming from the Wilmington port which is not NEARLY enough. I exclusively searched in Alabama for iron with success almost every time. Montgomery is an excellent place to produce your weapons and ammo as it is right down river from your iron mines (all of them you should own). Before the barracks start popping up, I was making bank sending weapons and ammo from Montgomery down to Mobile and then on to New Orleans (double track). This made it fairly easy to save Louisiana in 1862 with four trains running. As 1862 drew to a close, I built a double track straight shot from Montgomery through Meridian to Jackson (where the barracks is). Before the year was up, I redirected my weapons/ammo trains to carry to Jackson instead of New Orleans (after I met the quota). Just in time, since the value of weapons and ammo in Montgomery starts to equal that of New Orleans, and your trains won't haul those goods anymore. The next year, do the same thing, except route your four trains to Atlanta instead. Also, have a train prepared to run from Wilmington to Atlanta right at the start of the year, as that distance takes awhile. Since Montgomery is pretty close to Atlanta, that one is the easiest.

One suggestion. It would be fun to be more specific with the troops, i.e. (send enough troops to Richmond for Lee's northern invasion of 1963, or to Atlanta to defend against Sherman's march, Grant in Vicksburg, etc.)

Great Fun!

[jrbrockm]

Just won as the North, thought I would do the same review that I did for the south.

Starting off in New England proved to be fairly lucrative early on especially hauling passengers. Hook up New York, Philly, Baltimore and DC, but no more than that to begin with. You may want to grab the Chicago and connect it to Rockford, just to keep the Windy City out of a competitor's hands. Next, I wanted to grab a central hub for my future weapons/ammo production center, so I hooked up Cincinnati to Dayton. I was able to do all that with my starting funds, before I started the game.

Now work your way north from Dayton to Lima and Toledo (a competitor may grab Toledo, but that's ok) This was my central corridor which I later used going south into Lexington, than Nashville, and finally Atlanta. I set up my Munitions factory in Cincinnati since there was plenty of iron floating on the Ohio River, and it seems to stay consistent. Weapons, however, I set up in Lima, as the lumber supply is much more reliable there, and you can get Iron from the Great Lakes ports up that way. While you're doing all of this, work your way south from Chicago to Peoria and St. Louis. The Chicago port will supply logs for a lumber mill (I built one in Rockford) as well as iron for your war materials (both of which I built in Peoria). Saving Missouri is easy this way, just make sure you don't ship TOO much stuff to St. Louis before the war, and thus decrease it's value.

You may want to prepare for troop haulage by connecting Chicago east to Fort Wayne and Lima, and connecting Cincy west to Indianapolis, Terra Haute, and St. Louis. This way you have a complete circle to haul troops on several trains during the war. One tip for just before the war breaks out: If you have purchased ANY industries in the south that need to remain there (i.e. iron mines in Kentucky) SELL THEM! Otherwise, not only will they be confiscated, they will disappear completely!

When the war breaks out, rush the weapons/ammo from Peoria to St. Louis, and down the central corridor to Lexington, KY. Cake. Connect to Nashville ASAP so you can run supplies down there during the next year (don't even think about Louisiana, you don't need to). If you can, send down as many weapons and ammo as your trains will allow, because after you fulfill the quota in Nashville at the end of 1862, wait for Jan 1863, and all of those supplies can then be used again!

You don't have to win Mississippi to win the war, but I went ahead and ran a straight shot from Nashville to Clarksdale, MS and ran one train with 3 weapons/3 ammo to save that state as well. During that year, prepare to send every last weapon/ammo shipment you've got from Chicago, Fort Wayne, Lima, Cincy, Lexington, and Nashville down to Atlanta by the end of 1864 and you've won!

I wasn't able to send enough grain up to Albany, but it turned out to not really be a big deal.

Have Fun!

[EPH]

I'm glad you enjoyed the scenario! Those are some great tips, and it sounds to me like you've got the elements of victory down pat. Like you, when I play as the South I focus on the iron in Alabama (there is a reason why Birmingham, Alabama became a major steel-producing town post-war). I have had problems with placing my weapons and ammo factories in the same town - one steals all the iron or steel from the other.

As you note, you don't have to win every year's campaign to win the game, but it is fun to do . As for hauling troops to specific destinations, I have found the game sometimes produces lots of troops and sometimes not... I don't usually have a problem moving 4 to 6 troops per year but I'm not sure the production and demand levels would allow you to move, say, six troops to Richmond.

Thank you for the replays! I'll have to look into that Lima-Dayton routing; I usually go Cleveland-Toledo-Chicago and Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati.

[Mastodon 229]

Oh you teases... XD Link and Link.

[RBMNfan]

I know this is an old post but I have a question for modifying the ACW map. I would like to have the ai have the same conditions as the player (ie, when their state surrenders, their tracks inside it are destroyed, property on the other side is destroyed when the choice is made). Is there an easy way to do this?

[EPH]

I don't have the scenario in front of me - in fact I don't have RRT3 installed on my laptop - but I can answer that in a general way.

The event needs to know which company to 'test' against, since the destruction of track should only occur if a particular company - yours - owns track in what is now enemy territory. The event uses the same test to determine whose track to destroy. You would need to copy the human events and adapt them for each AI company, adding a test for 'if company exists'. You would also need to add events to modify a company variable to track whether an Ai company 'goes South' or stays with the Union.

American Civil War already has a large number of events. You can certainly try adding all these additional events, but I am thinking the game may bog down under the load.

I'll be home in three weeks and I can take a look at it then. Perhaps some kindhearted tycooner here could help you quicker?

[UnknownTycoon]

I keep failing because the barracks in my important towns where I have the munitions and weapons factories keep helping themselves to the shipments...

[EPH]

I've found that a good strategy is to set up weapons and munitions plants in the middle of nowhere - like outside Cincinnati, for a Northern example - and put my steel industry in Pittsburgh or someplace like Cincinnati. Remember that the weapons and munitions plants can also run off of iron ore. For the South, a logical place to put a steel mill is near Birmingham, AL (north of Montgomery and south of Huntsville).

At your weapons and munitions plants, set up a weapons train (custom consist of all weapons cars, minimum 3) and an ammo train (same setup but for ammo). When it fills, drive it down the track a ways and halt it. That takes care of your needs for 1861 and you can set it up years in advance - just leave it parked. Then create two more trains, increasing the number of cars by one for each year. You should be able to have most or all of your weapons and ammo needs taken care of before the war even starts.

If you have any spare capacity you can ship some weapons and ammo to where they are needed, but first you should make certain you have loaded trains.

I hope this is helpful; let me know if I'm not being clear.