Manual:The war economy

From AACWWiki

Introduction

To raise units, you will need men, money and supplies: this is what your war economy is about. However, you are limited in the numbers and locations of your newly raised units since each state can only provide a limited share of its resources to your war effort.

Men

Except for a very few places which raise a minimal amount of recruits every turn, the only ways of recruiting fresh troops are:

Call for volunteers

This can be done every six months. The number of recruits depends on your current NM, meaning this method is usually more efficient at the start of the war, when NM is high. You can offer a bounty as an incentive to attract more recruits, however there is a monetary cost as well as a slight cost in NM (some recruiting officers tended to resort to questionable measures to press young men into service).

Mobilization

This can be done once a year. You can toggle the level of your mobilization effort between partial and full. This costs no money and your press gangs will bring in large numbers of new recruits, willing or not. The downside being that such an unpopular measure will obviously cost lots of NM, as well as VP’s (i.e. long-term loss of trust in the government).

Procedure: Go to the “draft” screen of the ledger (shortcut: F4). Call for volunteers is handled on the left-hand side and mobilization on the right-hand side. You can switch between the different options within each category (bounty amount and partial/full mobilization) by clicking on the text. Click “Sign here” to confirm your orders.

Usage

Men are needed in order to raise new units and to replace losses for units on the field.

Money

Money is produced each turn in a few places such as your national capital, financial centers and in California’s gold mines, but those sources of income are marginal. The great bulk of your income will proceed from exceptional measures you can periodically take.

Once a year, you can:

Issue war bonds (several interest rates available)

People are encouraged to loan money to your government at exceptional interest rates. The higher the rate, the more money you will be able to raise. The burden you are willing to carry repaying the debt when the war is over will have a cost in VP’s at the end of the game. This measure will slightly increase inflation (i.e. all your units and investments will cost a little bit more).

Raise exceptional taxes

Contrary to war bonds, taxes are not optional: they are enforced by your administration. It is understandably not a popular measure and will cost you some NM. The amount collected is based on your population and will increase as time passes. This measure will slightly increase inflation (i.e. all your units and investments will cost a little bit more).

You can also resort to:

Printing paper money

You can use this option at will, but remember it is a desperate measure. With all the new money circulating, inflation will dramatically increase and your economy will dearly suffer in the long run. NM is also adversely affected.

Procedure: Go to the “financials” screen of the ledger (shortcut: F5). You can switch between the different options within each category by clicking on the text. Click “Sign here” to confirm your orders.

Usage

In addition to men and war supplies, every unit and replacement has a cost in money, as do most of the domestic policy options (conscription or economic development, for example).

Supplies

Supplies come in three varieties in AACW. Cities will produce these three kinds of supplies each turn depending on their size.

War supplies

This is a general term representing the equipment needed by your troops. Heavy ships and artillery cost lots of war supplies, as they require industrial capacity and raw materials. Infantry, on the other hand, costs fewer supplies, as rifles and other light equipment are easier to manufacture.

Confederate blockade runners may provide some imported war supplies to the South after selling their cotton cargoes overseas. Confederate naval raiders may also slightly disrupt Union war supplies production (but won’t bring back their prizes to the South).

General Supply

Armies and fleets need food, clothing, and other basic supplies to keep on moving and fighting. These are all grouped into the term “general supply” (as opposed to “war supplies”) and are distributed to your depots and your troops every turn.

Ammunition

Finally, another commodity you will need to keep your troops battle ready is ammunition, which is tracked separately from general supply but otherwise follows the same production and distribution mechanisms.

The economic summary is updated each time you plan an income or an expense for the upcoming turn.

Economy Overview

Among other things, the finances section of the ledger allows you to adjust your income, as explained in the section on money.. It also boasts a handy economic summary chart showing you how much of each resource you have on hand as well as how much you are going to spend and produce during the upcoming turn, given your current orders. The current inflation rate is also indicated here.

Blockade & Raiding Commerce

The USA, with their mighty navy, will strive to block Southern commerce with the rest of the world in order to ruin their export-oriented economy. There are two ways to do so with the effects being cumulative:

• The first one, referred to as “brown water blockade” represents tactical blockading of harbors. Assigning enough warships to blockade a specific port will result in a 50% loss of production for the blockaded port. In addition, enemy units are severely limited in their ability to enter or leave such a port.

Procedure: Station enough warships in the sea zone(s) or river stretch (if an inland port) connecting a harbor to the open sea and you will see a “blockade” icon on the map.

• “Blue water blockade”, on the other hand, represents patrolling the CSA’s trade routes in order to catch their merchant ships and blockade runners. The number of US ships assigned to this type of blockade will have an impact on the production of all CSA ports in the blockaded zone. In addition, these ships will try to catch and sink Confederate blockade runners. Blue water blockade, as opposed to brown water blockade, won’t prevent enemy movement to/from CSA ports.

Procedure: To assign warships to blue water blockade, move them to the Atlantic and/or Gulf of Mexico blockade boxes.

The Confederates can try to slip out of their ports with “blockade runners” loaded with trade goods (mostly cotton, but abstracted, you don’t have to actually load anything) in order to bring in much needed imported goods for the South. Each active blockade runner will provide up to one money and one war supply per turn to the CSA until it is sunk. The chances of sinking blockade runners depends on the number, speed and combat value of the USA ships assigned to blue water blockade in the corresponding box.

Procedure: Move your blockade runner to the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico blockade box. Using the “evade fight” special order is highly recommended. If the blockade runner manages to sail past USA patrols and reach the blockade box, it becomes active until sunk or you decide to return it to port (for repairs, for example).

Finally, the CSA can try to disrupt Northern trade by sending out commerce raiders to sink US merchantmen. Each active commerce raider will disrupt USA war supply production. The US can assign warships to the Union shipping box as escorts to decrease the effectiveness of CSA raiders and maybe sink them.

Procedure: Move your commerce raider to the Union shipping box. Using the “evade fight” Special Order is highly recommended. If the raider manages to sail past USA patrols and reach the Shipping box it becomes active until sunk or you decide to return it to port (to repair damage, for example).

Raising Units

Each state can only field a limited number of troops at any time. If all of a state’s units are in play, the state can’t field more units until some are eliminated.

Click on the reinforcements drawer to display this chart. Each tab indicates how many units in this category you ordered to be raised this turn (in parenthesis). Units are color-coded by their State.

You don’t get to decide where exactly a unit is raised, but they will usually be raised in the biggest population centers in their state. Units appear the turn after you request them, but they start completely depleted (i.e. with one strength and one cohesion point only), as they are gathering men and training them, collecting supplies, etc. Such units cannot be moved and are basically defenseless. Their status is indicated by a red label. After a while, they lose this special status and can be moved, but rushing those green units into combat should best be avoided. Ideally, you should wait until they have completed their training before issuing them orders.

The build rate is the time needed for a unit to reach its full strength and cohesion and depends on unit type as well as the NM level.

Example: Militia are low-quality troops but have a good build rate while ironclads take quite a while to complete.

Naval units are treated the same way, with the added risk that any ships under construction are captured or destroyed if the port they are being built in falls into enemy hands. Ships with the “hull” built may move away to avoid capture.

Procedure: All units available for recruitment are displayed in the “reinforcements” page of the ledger (shortcut: F2). You can switch between the various unit types by clicking on the corresponding tab. Unit type, combat strength and three numbers are displayed. These numbers indicate (from top to bottom) a.) How many are in the Force pool?, i.e. not yet built, b.) How many are on the map?, and c.) How many you have already requested to be raised this turn? Additional info is displayed at the bottom of the screen when you pass the mouse over a unit, such as its elements and most importantly its cost; expressed in terms of money, men (conscripts) and war supplies.

Partisans

Partisans can appear in states where they were historically active. They appear when the enemy controls most of the territory but with too few troops. These partisan units are automatically generated in the wildest regions of the State.

These units – despite their poor combat capacity – are fast, difficult to locate, can lay ambushes and don’t need leaders to operate. If they leave their home state they are severely penalized.

Example: Partisans are typically used to disrupt enemy supply.

When faced by partisans, you will have to guard important locations and generally patrol the area and attempt to engage them. However, they will often escape unless your units are very mobile.