AGEOD is developing a new Civil War game based on their excellent “Birth of America” engine. Lead developer Pocus has been slowly unveiling various features of the new game over at the AGEOD Forums.
Feature #22 : Traits & Abilities
Many elements and leaders have abilities and traits in AACW. It helps increase the historicity of the game while augmenting even more the fun of the player. Some examples:
Leader traits –
Cavalryman: 25% combat bonus when leading cavalry units in clear, desert or plain terrain.
Fast Mover: 25% move bonus to the whole stack.
Master Driller: Regularly improves training of the units under his command.
American-Indian: Leader may command Indian units without a command penalty.
Reckless: Commander is less likely to retreat from battle.
Railroad Expert: No minimum % of control required to use railroad.s Railroad repair time reduced by 50%.
Poor scouting: The fog of war is increased throughout the area the leader is present. Increase Hide value of all enemy stacks by 1 if the Commander in Chief of the Department.
Elements abilities –
Engineer: Reduce the time needed by the parent stack to build trenches.
Ranger Survival: The parent unit uses less food in wild terrain.
Pontoneer: Reduce the time needed by the parent stack to cross rivers.
Damage Shielding: The element can negate some losses during rout.
Sharpshooter: The parent unit gains +1 initiative in combat.
Now this sounds good, but we would like to draw the attention on two other points illustrated here which are perhaps not blatantly evident, but are very cool!
Traits and abilities will apply conditionaly. The perfect example being the Cavalryman trait. It will only work if the cavalry fight in unconstrained terrain. Trying to make horses charge in mountains won’t give you much benefit! The Ranger trait also illustrates that. Because the element is made at least partially of hunters, the parent unit can reduce how much food is used in woods and forests. But forget the bonus if you are camping in a city!
The second point of interest is that we are speaking of leaders or elements abilities. But elements are able to provide their bonus to the parent unit, or even the whole stack. So what is a stack, a unit or an element?
Glossary:
Element: The smallest fighting component in AACW. For example a regiment, an artillery battery or a special company.
Unit: A collection of elements. A division or a brigade is made of regiments (= elements).
Stack: A collection of units. A corps is made of divisions and brigades.
So back to the point. You have a sharpshooter company in your brigade. Because they help suppress the enemy reactivity (lieutnant’s take cover when there are sharpshooters around!), the whole brigade (yours!) can fire first more often and not just the sharpshooter company.
Or the pontoneer element. It’s just a company of sappers… but they will help several divisions move faster by laying a pontoon bridge across a river.
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