Manual:Orders

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Contents 1 Overview 2 Movement 2.1 Resting 3 Blocking movement 3.1 Patrol value 3.2 Evasion value 3.3 Finding the enemy at sea 4 Interception & combination 5 Special orders 5.1 Rail & river movement 5.2 Regular sea movement 5.3 Embark and disembark to port 5.4 Amphibious landing 6 Postures 7 Raids

Overview

The game is played in simultaneous turn mode. This means both sides simultaneously plan their orders for the upcoming two week turn. This is called the “planning phase”. Then, the turn’s orders are simultaneously resolved during the “resolution phase”. As a consequence, you cannot accurately predict what is going to happen during the resolution phase.

Basically, you can plan your forces’ movement and general behavior (see postures), but you will have to trust your general’s judgement to carry out your orders as well as possible during the turn resolution. Please note however that your forces have a limited ability to dynamically adjust to the enemy’s movements in the form of interception orders.

In between turns (i.e. after the resolution phase of a turn, but before the planning phase of the next turn), a number of activities are automatically carried out in the “hosting phase”, notably supply distribution and weather-related attrition.

Note: A force will not blindly follow your orders. For instance, if a force in offensive posture comes across a larger enemy force, it will try to engage him as ordered, but will then attempt to retreat once it realizes it is facing a superior enemy.

Movement

The default order you issue to your land forces is to move by land. You can however combine this type of movement with river and rail movement. Note that movement is severely restricted by the presence of enemy units.

Naval units face limitations depending on their type: some can enter ocean regions while others are limited to coastal regions. Shallow draft vessels are the only ones allowed to move along rivers.

Historical note: The Union’s naval capacity was far superior to the Confederate's.

The speed of movement is based on cohesion, as exhausted and disorganized units will travel much slower than fully rested ones. Movement also entails a cohesion cost, which varies greatly depending on the enemy military presence in the region, as well as the type of terrain crossed and the type of transport (as indicated below):

Regular land unit movement is affected by weather, terrain type and the level of road infrastructure. Forced march greatly increases the cohesion cost of movement. Posture also has an influence, with offensive posture units incurring increased cohesion loss and passive posture units incurring reduced loss. Without any others modifications, a force moving one day will spend one cohesion point in doing so.

• Rail and river movement costs only a minimal amount of cohesion and is very fast.
• Naval transport costs only a minimal amount of cohesion, except in harsh weather.
• Ships lose cohesion depending on the weather and the ship type.

Procedure: Use drag and drop to move each force. The estimated number of days required to move from a region to another is indicated for each leg of the movement path. In order to cancel the last leg of a move, press the delete key. To cancel the whole movement, drag and drop the force on its original region. To add another leg to an existing movement path drag and drop the copy of the unit icon which is shown at its current destination to the next destination in its movement path. The tutorial explains in full detail how to manipulate stacks.

In addition, units will take a number of hits proportional to this cohesion loss each time they move.

Note: This simulates the inevitable losses incurred by moving units (deserters, disease, etc.), especially in inhospitable regions.

Resting

Units can recover cohesion if they don’t move.

The base daily rate for land units is 0.75 cohesion point, modified by:

• Entrenched and outside of a structure: +0.5
• Inside a structure: +0.75
• In a loyal region: up to +0.5
• Besieged land unit: -1.5
• Besieger (unless in passive posture): -0.5
• Land unit transported aboard a ship: -0.5
• Offensive posture: -0.5
• Land unit in passive posture: +1
• Irregular: +0.5

The base daily rate for naval units is two and provided the fleet is in a port (modifiers above are not applicable).

This rate is further modified by NM. Resting also allows a unit to gradually fill in its ranks with replacements if you have some available.

Blocking movement

Enemy presence (especially forts) inhibits movement in a land region. If this presence is strong enough, your units won’t be able to bypass the defender to penetrate further into the enemy’s rear areas unless they battle and push the enemy back. However, some troops are particularly stealthy and can more easily manage to sneak into the enemy’s rear. This is represented by the patrol and evasion values of the moving and blocking forces, as well as by the military control exerted over the region.

You cannot enter a land region if the enemy’s patrol value divided by your evasion value is greater than your military control of the region.

Play note: This basically means you can fall back on friendly regions but are usually prohibited from moving further into enemy territory, unless your fForce is particularly stealthy and/or the enemy is lacking proper reconnaissance units.

Patrol and evasion values also play a role to avoid combat, if your force is on passive posture or if you have the ‘evade fight’ special order enabled.

Procedure: Regions your Force is prohibited from entering will pulsate in red. An icon on the unit panel provides you with detailed information.

Patrol value

This value represents your troops’ ability to block the enemy’s movement. The sum of your units’ patrol values is added to any fort’s patrol value, if present. The level of military control you exert over the region also comes into play in this calculation. Note that each unit type has different patrol values depending on its mobility and size.

Play note: Forts greatly enhance your Patrol Value. Large numbers of troops, especially mobile units (such as cavalry) also help stop the enemy infiltrating your territory.

Evasion value

This value represents your troops’ ability to infiltrate rear areas and to avoid contact with the enemy. Here too, each unit type has different evasion values according to mobility and size. Small forces have better evasion values. Similarly, large forces suffer a penalty. Harsh weather and terrain which provides cover also increase your evasion value.

Play note: These ‘cat and mouse‘ rules allow you to attempt cavalry raids, or prevent the enemy from reaching an important city, if you are in front of him with enough troops.

Finding the enemy at sea

You cannot directly stop an enemy’s movement through a sea region (or river), but evasion and patrol values will determine the probability of a naval engagement occurring.

Examples:

1. A raider (high evasion value) can reasonably attempt to reach the open sea by outrunning opposing ships.
2. Frigates (high patrol value) are fast units which help their force locate and engage any enemy trying to sneak around them.
3. Sailing past enemy forts is always a risky proposition.

Interception & combination

There are cases where you don’t want to move to a specific region but rather intercept a moving enemy force wherever it goes. You may also need to join and merge with a friendly force. Both are handled similarly.

Procedure: Drag and drop your force onto an enemy or friendly force and your army/fleet will adjust its movement path during the upcoming turn in an attempt to intercept the enemy or join the friendly force.

If your intercepting force cannot locate the enemy force, the intercepting force will stop its movement. An enemy force you are following may also split, in which case the intercepting force will usually go after the larger enemy formation.

Special orders

Specials orders allow you to fine tune how your forces move and react to the enemy during the upcoming turn and to issue all types of non-movement related orders. The special orders available to a force are listed next to the unit panel and can be influenced by current conditions. Note that leaders who are inactive cannot perform all the available orders.

Example: Only irregulars in difficult terrain will have the “ambush” special order active.

Unless noted otherwise, special orders require some kind of check (mostly related to leader and unit attributes) before they occur in order to determine the extent of success/failure. Special orders needing days to be completed are always executed first during a turn. If there is any remaining time, your unit will then carry out its movement order (if any).

• Ambush: Non-moving irregular units (Indians, rangers, etc.) can try to set an ambush in wild, swampy, hilly or forested regions. If they succeed they will have enhanced combat benefits against an enemy entering the region, including first fire and the possibility to retreat easily.
• Forced march: Forced march allows the force to move at a faster pace but at a loss in cohesion due to stragglers. Light units get a bonus.
• Seek shelter: The force will enter the city/fort in the region where it ends its move. Success is automatic. This will also force your units to move into a nearby city (located in the same region) if they suffer from a retreat in battle.
• Sortie: Your force is currently within a besieged fort/city. It will join any combat initiated by a relief force. If a leader is present, he must be active.
• Naval bombardment: Your fleet will bombard the first coastal structure or entrenched position it meets, provided you have a land force in the target region. The enemy can retaliate if he has emplaced batteries (trench level 5+) or a fort. A structure under bombardment will display this icon on the map.
• Build depot: The force will expend two supply units and build the depot.
• Destroy Depot: The force will destroy any depot present.
• Build fortification: The force will expend two supply units and four artillery batteries to build a field fortification.
• Destroy fortification: The force will destroy any low-level fort in the region.
• Build/repair rail network: The force will build or repair the rail network in its region. Repairing is far faster and cheaper than building.
• Destroy rail network: The force will destroy the rail network in its region.
• Move by river: The force can now benefit from river movement during the turn.
• Move by rail: The force can now benefit from rail movement during the turn.
• Synchronized move: If in the same region, the army HQ and all subordinate corps will move together (at the pace of the slowest corps). Note: This is selected by default. In addition, when the army HQ moves, all subordinate corps in the region will automatically synchronize without needing to use this special order.
• Promote leader: The leader is eligible for promotion to the next rank, though at a possible political cost.
• Combine units: The selected units can be combined into a single one. This is used to put together a division, if a general designated to be a division commander is among the units being combined. It is also used to merge weakened units into a stronger one. The unit selected first will absorb the other unit, which returns to the force pool.
• Detach from division: The selected unit will leave its division.
• Create an army
• Dismiss army
• Attach corps to army
• Detach corps from army
• Enable divisional command
• Evade fight: The moving land or naval force will try to avoid contact during movement and will also enter raid mode.

Rail & river movement

A force with “move by rail” and/or “move by river” special order(s) will use existing rail lines and/or rivers on its movement path, possibly resulting in a much faster movement rate and vastly reduced cohesion cost. You must have at least 25% military control in a region to use its rail network. This icon shows that a region’s rail lines have been cut and are unusable until repaired.

Both types of movement draw upon national pools of trains and steamboats depending on the size of the force to be transported, which limit the number of forces that can simultaneously move this way. Your transport capacity is displayed on the transport assets panel at the top of the map. Rail and river transport assets are also used to transport supply down rivers and railroads. As a consequence, only the transport capacity not assigned to move units will be available for supply distribution.

Both pools are gradually decreased through wear and tear (1%/turn for steamboats, 3% for trains), but you can buy additional transport assets to make up for this or increase your transport capacity. Also you can lay waste to your opponent’s rail network by destroying them!

Important! Moving by river can be quite hazardous if there is an enemy fort, artillery, or fleet in your way. Using individual riverine transport units with appropriate escorts is highly recommended in this case.

Individual riverine transport units are also available. They are used similarly as seagoing transport units (see below). Units aboard these transports are less vulnerable to enemy forts, artillery, and fleets along the way, especially if a commander with the “fort runner” special ability leads the expedition and/or they have escorting vessels.

In addition, individual riverine transport units can transport supply and distribute it to nearby units just like supply wagons. They can also be converted into a depot in a port.

Regular sea movement

You must use individual transport ships to transport troops by sea. The first type of seaborne (or riverine) movement is to transport units from one friendly port to another. In this case the units automatically disembark when they reach their destination port.

Procedure: First, merge the transporting fleet and the units to be transported in the port of departure, then order the combined force to move to the destination port.

Note that the transporting fleet needs to have enough transport capacity to do so.

Embark and disembark to port

A land unit contained on a naval transport unit can disembark upon reaching a port and will automatically do so upon reaching the port. You can embark units by combining them into the transport units “tab” and they will sail away after they finish loading.

Amphibious landing

Landing in an enemy region or a region without a port (even if friendly) is a two-step process:

1. Move the transport fleet and its cargo to a water zone adjacent to the landing spot as you would for a regular transport.
2. The turn after your fleet reaches its destination, split the force and order the land units to move ashore. The fleet disembarking units this way can be given a move order and will sail away after disembarking is complete.

You can reverse the procedure to embark units from coastal regions unto naval transports in an adjacent water zone and the transport will sail away when the loading is complete.

Postures

The offensive or defensive stance of a force is called its “posture”. Four buttons represent the different postures. Once a posture is selected, a corresponding icon is displayed over the piece as a reminder.

The possible postures are:

• Assault: Your force will attack any detected opponent it comes across. During a siege, your force will attempt to storm the fort/city. Expect heavy casualties unless the defenses have been breached.
• Offensive: Same as assault, except during a siege your force will not attempt to storm a fort/city (it will continue the siege).
• Defensive: Your force won’t engage enemy units. If attacked, it will defend with the benefit of the region’s terrain bonus, if any.
• Passive: This is the same as defensive Posture but with combat penalties if you are attacked. However your chance of withdrawing from combat is increased. Passive units also won’t increase the military control of a region that they are in.

Raids

Cutting the enemy’s supply lines and destroying his infrastructure is an important part of military operations.

You can set the desired behavior of your forces as follows:

• Your forces will automatically capture any supply stockpiles from enemy structures which fell into their hands during movement. They will first replenish their own supply reserves, the remaining supplies stay on map and change ownership. Structures also remain intact and change hands.
• Forces assigned the “evade fight” special order will burn all supply stockpiles in their path except in their destination region. Structures remain unharmed and simply change hands.
• To destroy a depot or fort, a force must start its move in the target region and use the “destroy depot” and/or “destroy fort” special order. This will take some time and will be resolved before any planned movement.
• Indians and raiders are special units identified by their “pillage” special ability icon. They destroy all supply, depots and forts they come across.

The probability of successfully carrying out such operations depends on the pillage value of the force.

Last but not least, marauding raiders block supply transport through the region they are located in. Also, don’t forget that one needs at least 25% military control in a region to let supplies pass through it.

Note: If left unopposed, skillful raiders can ruin a supply network. Significant forces can be tied up defending overextended supply lines.