From: James Cobb <bismarck@inxpress.net>
Subject: ACW FAQ

Interactive Magic's  American Civil War
Walkthrough/FAQ

by James Cobb

This document is to amplify and correct the manual to Interactive
Magic's American Civil War game, designed by Frank Hunter, as well as to
explain  features added in patches.  The format will not be the usual
Q/A of a FAQ as many of the questions are best answered within the
context of a real game situation.  

The version used will be ver.1.21 and the map patch.  Conventions in
this article will be: LC = left click, RC = right click , "spinner = the
little box with the up/down arrows where numerical values are changed.

The game chosen for this is the 1861 campaign with all historical
options on.  The Union side will be played because there's so much more
available for the North (some hints for the South will be thrown in into
make points,)  The strategy will be the "Anaconda" plan of blockade,
grab the Mississippi and maintain pressure on the northern borders.  I
will also make mistakes: sometimes to make a point, sometimes because
I'm not the greatest of players 

On June 30, 1861, every feature on the menu bar should be checked out.
Remember that you can change your screen resolution in the Game menu.
For the big picture, use 1024x768.  I LC on the National topic and see
that my domestic rating is 52%.  This is close so I can't afford to lose
a lot.  European intervention pay appear to be high but don't sweat it.
Wars cannot be won without men. so go to the Manpower Settings under
National and adjust recruitment.  I set the bounty level to 5 which will
multiply t he states' manpower potential while not straining the
economy.  I will not institute a presidential appeal or an emancipation
proclamation yet because my domestic prestige is low.  Since I use quick
naval action, I dial the infantry manpower spinner down to 60% and the
navy up to 15%. I give the remaining 5% to artillery because,
eventually, guns will be tactically decisive.  I don't increase cavalry
because I have no cavalry leaders,

Under the same topic, I go to state statistics to set production for
off-map states..  The North will replace muskets and smoothbores as soon
as possible.  The cost of weapons is shown below:

	Weapon			number/supply points

	Springfield Rifles		50/10
        Sharps Carbine                  50/18
	Spencer Rifles			50/44
        Parrott Cannon                  2/144
	Whitworth Cannon		2/224

Since the "Mississippi" theater (everything west of the Big Muddy) has
the least resources,  these states only create a few hundred
Springfields each by highlighting states and LC on the Springfield
spinner.  The "West" (states between the Mississippi and the
Alleghenies) are better off so they create several hundred Springfields
and a few Parrots.  The industrialized "Seaboard" has wealth and is
already making some Springfields.  They make many Springfields and
Parrotts as well as a few Whitworths.  

The above description is about setting the initial production of
weapons, rather liking building factories.  The costs to maintain this
production is:

	Weapon			number/supply points

        Muskets                         50/1
	Shotguns			50/3
	Springfield Rifles		50/3
        Sharp Carbines                  12/50
	Spencer Rifles			20/50
	Smoothbores			1/90
	Parrotts			1/140
	Whitworths			1/220

Thus, if a city produces 500 Springfields, they cost 1500 points a month.

On-map state production is done through the city production item on the
National item.  The procedure is exactly as in off-map production,
including the decrease in theater supply.  Everywhere I pulled
musket/shotgun production down to 0 (not recommended for the South),
increasing supply a bit.  I leave smoothbore production alone for the
moment as a battery may have to be armed before enough Parrotts are
ready.

Given the wealth of the North, some readers may ask why I didn't produce
more. The reason is not only the costs mentioned above but the cost of
maintaining troops in the field.  Given Standard supply, each brigade
costs one point.  It gets more interesting when the modifiers are
applied.  Ample unit supply doubles these costs and high triples them.
These values are quadruples for the North and doubled for the South.
Encampment can ameliorate this problem by halving the final costs but a
player must move s ometime.  Also, June to November is the highest
producing months with a production modifier of 6.  It's necessary to
save for the lean December to February modifier of 2 until March brings
some relief with a modifier of 3.  For the accountants among us, the
production algorithm for non-cotton states is (10 x seasonal modifier x
men in state) minus sacked cities (don't sweat the sack ratio too much;
you lose a big city, you're in trouble; sacking a city late in the game
can hurt Confederat e production more t han any foreign anger will hurt
the Union cause.)  Cotton values are handled the same but are added
separately so the first value is less than 10.

A glance at the General Force Status topic on National shows that most
of my men are in the East, armed with muskets, but have many
Springfields on the  way.  My ports can only produce 2 ironclads and 13
wooden vessels.  That, too, must change.

The next stop on the menu is Overviews.  Here, I see that all Union
armies are on subsistence supply.  Since this is bad for morale and
fatigue, I'll change it soon. There's also three Union fleets which I'll
deal with presently. LC on an army or fleet to go to it on the map.

Having exhausted the menu, I go to the map.  Since I know the South
cannot be aggressive early, I see no reason to garrison Union cities in
the rear. I RC on Indianapolis and see two regiments.  I LC on them and
send them to the force pool at a cost of 50 supply points each.  I do
the same with Columbus.  Having four regiments free, I go to the Build
Force menu and click on New Brigades.  I LC on a regiment, LC on
Cincinnati and LC on the musket option.  I do this three more times.
Counting the garrison al ready there, I have six regiments in
Cincinnati, enough for a couple of divisions.  From the Build Forces
menu, I choose New Divisions/Corps.  The next box asks if I want
Infantry or Divisions.  Picking Division (so as to find acceptable Corps
leaders later on), the available Division commanders are listed. I pick
Corps Sherman and LC and drag four regiments, his max.  I could give him
all six but this could be detrimental to his command abilities.  I give
Keyes the other two by the same procedure.

Going to Cairo, I RC and create a port capable of building 2 wooden
vessels for 250 points per ship and build a fort at the cost of 50
supply points by using the appropriate spinners.  I RC on Springfield,
Ill. and then on Lyons in the selection box. On the unit screen for
Lyons I click on "Transfer Brigades from Springfield" and LC and drag on
the regiments listed.  I also go to the "Railroad Destination" box and
scroll to Cairo; Lyon will now move there. While I'm in the
neighborhood, I RC on Springfield, Mo., and RC on Fremont and give him
standard, encamped supply.  Evansville gets capacity to build 2
ironclads (500 points per ship) and Cincinnati 2 wooden vessels as
described above.

It's time to move East.  I bring up the Overview Map by clicking on the
MAP button in the lower-right border. I click near Maryland and - poof!
- I'm in the cockpit of the war.  I RC on Washington and give it another
level of fortification.  I RC on Annapolis and then its name to increase
its port capacity by 2 wooden vessels.  Baltimore gets capacity for 2
ironclads and 2 wooden vessels while Dover can build 2 ironclads.

Short term naval strategy comes next.  The North needs to cover three
ports, Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans.  However, there's only 2
combat fleets of 6 wooden vessels each; one at Annapolis and one at
Philadelphia.  I'll make three fleets of 4 vessels.  I RC on Annapolis
and RC on Fleet #1 at the selection box. The click on the Split box
which brings up the transfer screen. There's a spinner for each type of
vessel, I click 2 from the 6 wooden vessels and then close all the way
out to the map. There' s now a Fleet #4 at Annapolis.  I do the same at
Philadelphia.  After creating Fleet #5 there, I go back and RC on Fleet
#2 and give it patrol orders.  I choose Savannah since it's closer and
increase the supplies by spinner so it can remain on station longer. I
close back to the selection box and RC on Fleet #5 and give it movement
orders with Annapolis as objective, while clicking on the Home port and
choosing Annapolis again.  (Confederate blockade runners will want to
change home ports when objectives a re chosen, also; confuses the Yanks
something fierce.)  I send Fleet #3 to Charleston.  Fleet #1 has only 1
transport with the capacity of moving 350 load points (1250 men, 28 guns
or a mix).   More transports are needed to move a significant force.

At last, we can do something with the army.  I RC on Washington, RC on
AoP under McDowell, and give Training orders. The corps under Hunter,
Tyler and Heintzelman are in standard supply because the parent army,
Potomac (AoP), is also supplied that way.  I want to change every
independent unit to standard supply but forget Butler in Ft. Monroe.  I
LC on Sherman and drag the mouse over to Frankfurt, KY under normal
march orders.

Before executing the turn, I check Supply/Transfer Statistics under the
National menu. I note that supplies are Seaboard-1286, West - 890,
Mississippi - 990; not bad.  I choose not to use the Railroad Capacity
spinner to increase the ability to move troops.

The long, first turn is over.  I LC on Execute from the Game menu and
watch the action.

Things go as expected. The fleets move, Lyon arrives in Cairo, Sherman
enters Kentucky and causes it to join the Confederacy and Magruder moves
against Butler at Ft. Monroe.  This causes a screen to pop up asking
what level the Union should fight the battle.  The fact that only the
"skirmish" and "low" options indicate that Butler is not the best of
generals.  I select skirmish to minimize damage.  The bad news is the
Confederates win and get 102 weapons.  The good news is Butler is
wounded and needs to be replaced.  The list of available corps
commanders contains Grant; let's see what Bobby Lee will do with Grant
in the East early.  To see how battles are lost, I look at analysis.
The upper half the screen shows the battle elements with variables
versus constants as variables x constants.  The elements and constants
are:

		Battleground		2
		Fatigue			5
		Morale			10
		Leadership		25
		Experience		20
                Weapons                 7

In this battle, 9,000 Confederates with 8 guns attacked 6,000 fortified
Federals with 12 guns and won. The variables were:

				Union			Confederate

Battleground			26			2
Fatigue				2			1
Morale				18			18
Leadership			4			6
Experience			1			1
Weapons                         37                      30

It is apparent that the Confederate values in Fatigue and Leadership
outweighs the Union's advantages in Battleground, and Weapons.  Butler's
replacements takes care of one element and better supply will help the
other. (I saved this battle and fought it again for an Union victory.
One of the differences could have been the randomizer which is important
determining how a leader will perform in a given battle and in
determining casualties)

The actual combat algorithm for combat takes 3 single-spaced pages to
describe.  All values of each unit are computed, compared and weighted
in a very historical manner.  To play the game, it is enough to know to
keep your troops well-fed, well-armed and well-led.  Hidden commander
attributes are, without a doubt, key to a suspenseful game.  Keeping
good leaders alive is crucial to victory. 

However, here we should talk about that pervasive, bug-a-boo, attrition.
Attrition happens when forces get tired and hungry.  Attrition levels
can be determined by the colored sliding bar under unit counters and LC
on the unit and the Status menu.  The Fatigue factor in the Status box
is the most accurate indicator.  Men begin to perform sub-par at Level 5
and begin to desert at 0.5% per level at level 1.  Supply is important
to attrition as Encampment assures level 1 and Depot, if the supply is
unbroken ( a depot line can be no longer than  5 or less if the
weather's bad), assures level 2.  Foraging makes things variable.
Unmodified, it causes level 8 attrition but cities drop this by 2 while
mountains raise it by 14 and woods by 10.  All of these levels are
halved in its home territory.  Then, the march mode is figured in;
forced march adds 5 and cautious halves attrition.  Weather modifiers
range from 0 for clear to 8 for snow.  When an unit is routed, attrition
levels are raised by twice the r out factor.

During the first move, Confederates have moved to Strasburg and
Fredricksburg in Virginia with some movement near Fort Donelson in the
West.  Most ominous, Lee has been put in command of the Army of Northern
Virginia.

July 7, 1861 brings me more supplies and manpower.  I have 9704 supply
points in the East, 6502 in the West and 2759 in the Mississippi. I
produced 6150 Springfields, 30 Parrotts, 3 infantry regiments and a
artillery battery.

I start building my navy by LC on New Fleet in the Building Forces menu.
The New Fleet box prompts for river or ocean goings vessels; I LC on
river. Prompted for type, I click on transport, which brings up a list
of ports capable of building these.  Since I'm going to use Cairo as the
jumping off point for going down the Mississippi, I highlight it and
bring the spinner up to Cairo's maximum of two.  I build several fleets
using the same procedure, close out of Build Forces and open Navy
overview, (Manpowe r and Supply costs for all ships are listed in the
New Fleet box)  Here I see that I'm building:

Port			Ships			Turns Until Construction

Cincinnati              2 River Wooden Vessels                  6
Cairo			2 River Transports			6
Evansville		2 River Ironclads			24
Annapolis               4 Ocean Wooden Vessels                  12
Baltimore		4 Ocean Transports			8
Dover			4 Ocean Ironclads			24

The number of ships has nothing to do with time of construction so I'd
have to wait 24 turns for an ironclad, anyway.  Now, I'll have 4
ironclads to get the earlier-produced Merrimac.  I have 1950 sailors
left so I dial the Naval Manpower down to 5% and raise Infantry and
Artillery to 65% and 10% respectively.

Using the Build New Forces-New Divisions/Corps box, I see that two
regiments are Ohio infantry and so I can only place them in the West;
I'd have to transfer them to an Army to get them East.  I give the Ohio
boys Springfields, put them in Cincinnati and place them under Curtis.
With two divisions, I need a new army so that I need only to give one
set of objective, march and supply orders (although these can be
overridden for individual units by the method described earlier).  I
open the Leader Status box under National and LC on Available Corps
Commanders and see 3 non-entities.  Since McClellan has the most
support, I promote him and close out.  I then go to Build Forces/New
Army and select him again, click on Cincinnati and notice the army name
is Ohio - fine.  From the force list, I highlight Keyes and Custis and
close.  An army appears at Cincinnati; I RC on it and RC on  Ohio. From
the Army Orders box, I give it standard supply and Training orders.

Grant can use some help in Fort Monroe.  I don't have enough
Springfields to re-equip the infantry but I can reinforce and upgrade
his artillery to 22 Parrotts by LC on View Brigades in the Corps and
Division Orders box and LC on Reinforcements for the battery and LC on
Smoothbores and selecting Parrotts..  I give him standard supply.  Lyon
has his supply base changed by RC on his box and highlighting Cairo.  I
also give him Advance orders so he'll attack anything he sees.  I close
out and LC and drag him t o Columbus, KY.

The second turn sees the fleets continue to move, McClellan train,
McDowell do nothing and Lyon move out.  Grant is attacked with Lee using
his values with Magruder's forces.  Grant can choose from all for battle
intensity choices, skirmish, low, moderate, high and all-out.  I choose
low because of the numerical inferiority.  The battle is a draw with the
following analysis:

				Union			Confederate

Battleground			26			2
Fatigue				8			2
Morale				16			6
Leadership			7			6
Experience			1			1
Weapons                         45                      30

If Grant's fatigue can be remedied, he'll pose a thorn in the
Confederate flank.

The July 14 turn is simply setting things in motion.  Sherman is moving
fast enough so I order him to force march via the Corps and Division
Orders Box..  I give the AoP orders to Advance and give it Strasburg as
its objective.  I assign Patterson in Harpers Ferry to this army by RC
on him and changing his Army Status from Independent to Potomac. 

The execution of this turn has Grant routing Magruder with better
fatigue, leadership and weapons. However, McDowell's 3 corps are beaten
by Beauregard near Strasburg for the same reasons and Johnston crushes
Patterson at Strasburg through fortifications, twice the leadership and
one-fifth the fatigue.  ( A re-run of these battles, using a saved file,
shows draws, indicating the power of the randomizer)  Sherman captures
Frankfurt, returning Kentucky to the Union and Lyon occupies Columbus.
Neither town is worth sacking.

Patterson has to go so I RC and select Halleck from the Corps leader
list .  I adjust Lyon's and Sherman's supply cities and rest them.  The
strategy for the AoP is to withdraw.  I send Halleck back to Harper's
Ferry.

Fast forwarding, August sees draws in northern Virginia, Grant routing
Magruder, the AoP receiving a division under Franklin who marches toward
the sounds of the guns two hexes away and the Army of Ohio occupying
Kentucky.  McClellan is made to move by first, making Frankfurt supply
city, then sending the troops to Bowling Green and again moving the base
there.  In a surprise, Lyon rips the heart out of Polk's Army of
Tennessee in two battles.  Emboldened, McClellan, now commanding
Sherman, takes and sacks Nashville to hinder Confederate production and
bring Tennesee back into the Union. Outside Charleston, 4 Union ships
sink 2 out of 8 blockade runners, while another 4 Yankee vessels sink 2
out of the 6 that got away.  My domestic prestige is up 3%.

On September 1, I promote Grant by opening Leader Status, LC Active and
Corps and Promote even though it's without support (his units go into
the Ft. Monroe garrison.  I then RC on the AoP and select Grant over
McDowell, taking my chances on losing prestige.  Had I not wanted to
risk prestige, I could have gone to Leaderstaus in National, LC on
Active Army, highlighted McDowell, LC on Temp Remove, closed out and
given him command of another corps, provided it was in that same turn.
I reinforce this army an d Lyon and begin to move on Donelson.  Another
interesting was to reduce the importance of a bad commander is to do the
"garrison shuffle".  Move an unit with a bad leader and one with a good
one into the same town.  Transfer all but one units from the bad leader
into garrison, then RC on the good commanders unit and transfer them
from the garrison.

The next 3 weeks show the the AoP can't beat the Confederates,
regardless of its leader; it begins to fall back on D.C.  Donelson
falls. On September 22, I merge the transports of Fleets #3 and #7 (only
same vessel types can merge) by RC on Fleet #3, LC on Merge and then LC
on Fleet #7. Since #3 has only one ship, I do not touch the spinner.  If
it had more, I could spin down to how many I wanted left in #3.  I then
close and RC on Fleet #7, LC on Amphibious, LC on Banks in the capacity
list, and pick Norfo lk as the objective.  On the execution phase, Banks
takes Norfolk and scuttles the Reb navy, even though the fleet is
destroyed by coastal guns.

The naval war turned in October with a Confederate battle fleet of 1
ironclad and 2 wooden vessels sink 6 Union boats.  The Navy is being
rebuilt.  Meanwhile, Ft. Monroe and Norfolk are besieged but hold well.

This may seem an odd time to leave the fate of the Union in the balance
but now you know the mechanics of this fascinating game.  When you play
by e-mail, remember that there are four files to be sent, .acw, .acm,
.btl, .txt.  Have fun!

