Civil War Strategy – 5. Options

 5                   O P T I O N S

 5.1   Options Submenu

 

Commands

  • Cancel
  • Fortify
  • Join
  • Supply
  • Capital
  • Detach
  • Army Drill
  • Relieve
  • MAIN MENU

 5.2   Cancel

Allows the move orders for the unit selected (menu with eligible units will be displayed) to be canceled – in case you change your mind before you go to the next turn.

 5.3   Fortify

If ALL the following conditions are met, you may fortify a city:

  1. City is occupied by a friendly army
  2. City is not already at DOUBLE FORTIFIED ++ level
  3. You have at least 200 money units

All cities meeting these conditions, will appear in a menu of candidates. Selecting a city to fortify will cause the city icon to be updated on the game display. The army occupying a city that is fortified loses its turn (it is presumably busy building fortifications) and will be shown as ‘Resting’ in the Army report.

An army may increase a given city’s fortifications by 1 level per turn. If there are 2 units in a city, each army may add 1 level of fortification in a turn, thereby double fortifying the city.

 5.4   Join (Combine)

Up to a certain level, friendly armies may be combined to create larger and more powerful forces. In order to combine, armies must start the turn stacked in the same city. Stacked armies are indicated by a small gold circle on the flag icon. Selecting ‘Combine’ will result in a menu of candidate cities in which armies are stacked. Selecting a city will cause all armies in that city to attempt to combine, up to a maximum level of 125,000 men. Army attributes for combined armies are averaged, and the best commander of the armies combined will assume leadership of the combined forces. (His leadership ability will be reduced slightly to account for the increased difficulty of commanding the larger forces.)

 5.5   Supply

On occasion, you may need to manually allocate additional provisions to units that are out of supply. These units may be seen on the map marked with an “S” to make them easier to locate. At the end of the move and update phase, units will automatically receive 1 unit of supply, assuming enough money is available. Automatic update of supply costs .002 money units per 1,000 men in the army unit. (For instance, a 22,000 man unit would require 44 money units to resupply). This automatic resupply is done in numerical unit sequence, so that higher numbered units are supplied last. If there is not enough money to supply all units, or if the unit expends more than expected supplies, or is blockaded in a port, some will eventually get out of supply. Note that in the months of July and September, units are resupplied without cost (except for blockaded units).

To manually resupply, you must have enough money to provide the supplies, which depends on the size of the army being resupplied. Each unit of supply requires .001 money units 1,000 men (cheaper that automatic resupply). However, the computer will attempt to allocate as much supply as possible to the unit selected, up to a maximum of 5 units of supply. If you do not have enough money to allocate at least 1 unit of supply, none will be provided.

 5.6   Move Capital – ADVANCED FEATURE

 

You may move your capital (if it has not yet been captured) for a cost of 500 money units. Moving the capital also results in awarding your enemy 50 victory points. However, it may help keep the enemy from capturing the capital, which normally will end the game. Use the up/down arrow keys until the desired city is shown for the new capital location (only the current candidate city is shown in the  menu). When the desired city for the new capital appears, press Enter.

 5.7   Detach – ADVANCED FEATURE

The Rebel player ONLY may detach a unit from an existing army, provided the original army is large enough (6,500 men or more) and there is an available Rebel commander for the detached unit. 30% of the original force is split into the new unit, along with 30% of the supplies.

 5.8   Drill – ADVANCED FEATURE

Both sides may drill armies to increase their experience level. Drilling requires one turn in which the army cannot move. Experience gained in this manner cannot exceed the leader’s command rating, and is limited to a maximum of 5 in any case.

[Note: I am not sure this is true, I feel like there are some commanders who can get 6 or 7.]

 5.9   Relieve – ADVANCED FEATURE

The Relieve option allows you to replace generals, thereby removing them from their command. (This is, of course, quite historical as Lincoln and Davis both exercised this option several times). To be RELIEVED, a unit cannot have already used its turn (e.g., cannot have move orders). When a general is relieved, you are allowed to replace him with another general from the list of available commanders. When a general is relieved, the unit uses its turn, and suffers two additional penalties. Both the EXPERIENCE level and the LEADERSHIP level of the unit are decreased by 1 because of confusion about the new leader’s style of command. The relieved general is placed on the list of available commanders, awaiting possible future service.

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