ACW Supply

[2-81 Armor]

Lots in here, and it's fairly complex.

I'm not privy to the sales numbers, but my understanding has always been that the Panzer Campaigns games have always led the way in terms of sheer sales and popularity.  I have no real sense of the newer Panzer Battles, or Modern Campaigns games, and how they fit into that.

I think one source of your frustration is that there is a certain disagreement between people of what the blackpowder games are.  Are they simply a tactical game, or are they operational/tactical?  That really does make a great deal of difference, and many of your frustrations (like replacements and supply system) are born of that.  Those are considerations that really come into play as the engine gets pushed further and further into being operational games.

One thing I noticed working with John over the years, is that he always very much had his idea of what the game was, and in the end, he made the final call.  I could request something, but if it didn't meet his vision, it didn't happen.  Now, I never worked on NAP/ACW, and there weren't really any 2 day battles in the Seven Years War, so I never pushed into that aspect of things, so I'm not sure if that preference for tactical vs operational/tactical was something that came from John, or just a reflection of the specific pushes and requests from the designers of those games.

I do think that for a whole raft of reasons, the core blackpowder engine (M&P, EAW, NAP, ACW) really struggles as you try to push into operational concepts, and I'd rather see new games with a truly operational focus than trying to expand into a blended Operational/Tactical approach.

There's a lot to think about here but I do believe you are right. The longest ACW scenarios that I've either played or heard discussed were anywhere from 2-3 days in length. Ones that seem to work well anyway.

Anything longer is going to probably need things that just aren't provided or intended. I'm wondering if even the full Seven Days scenario in Campaign Peninsula isn't close to breaking things?

Time to stop the grand projects and get back to earth. The upside is that I've learned a lot about how things work even under the hood.

The Black Powder games do seem like a hybrid mix of tactical and operational. HPS has a series called Marching Eagles that I may look into. It seems to be more geared towards what I desire for longer, ongoing battles. I should stick to the JTS titles for a more tactical fix, and stop trying to push the editor that does exist into doing things it can't

Now, if Marching Eagles could someday expand to the Civil War.......