Gen’l,
While the Grand Tactician’s Early Access Road map has been stopped in front of Petersburg for the summer, preparations on other fronts have been ongoing and the game has seen many major updates. In this Dev Blog we’ll take a look at some of the new features. We’ll also give you an update about the next steps on our Early Access campaign path.
Map Pack #2 is ready.
Randomly Picked Maps.
In Grand Tactician you will fight huge real time battles across America. When armies engage on the campaign map, and you choose to fight the battle manually, if a historical battle field is located nearby, the forces will clash there. In case no historical maps are found, then the game will use nearest Randomly Picked Map Set. These sets are distributed across the campaign map, depending on terrain type. There are multiple maps in each Set, so outcome of fighting in the same area may be a different map each time.
The Randomly Picked Maps are designed and drawn by our historical map artist Wasel Arar. The maps are:
- Midland Railroad
- Swampy Creek
- Danville
- Midwest & Eastern Railroad
- Springfield
- Copperton
- Western Plains
- Buffalo Plains
- Cobb Town
- Soggy Bottom
- Willow Garden
- Deweyville
The destroyed railroad bridge and pontoon bridge sites near Danville.
In addition to the Randomly Picked Maps, two more historical maps have been added lately, both with a historical battle available as well.
The map of Appomattox covers Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, where the Army of Northern Virginia fought its last battles in 1865, before surrendering to Grant. In the historical battle Union cavalry under general Custer has reached the Appomattox Station and is threatening Lee’s retreat route Westwards, where he plans on linking up with Joseph E. Johnston’s army. If Lee cannot repel Union attacks and keep the road open, the exhausted and depleted army has no other choice but to surrender.
The second map & battle is that of Glorieta Pass. Here, in spring 1862, Confederate New Mexico campaign was effectively stopped by Union reinforcements from Colorado territory. While successful at Pigeon’s Ranch, the Confederate Army of New Mexico was forced to withdraw when its supply train was ambushed by a Union flanking force.
Confederate Army of New Mexico engaging Union reinforcements along Santa Fe Trail, near Pigeon’s Ranch.
Improved Information & the Field Book.
To help players understand how the game works, we have included a bunch of new information within the game. First of all the in game quick guide, Field Book, has been completely overhauled and is now also expanded to cover battle game play. In addition we have expanded information in the game’s UI. For example information about armies’ supply situation and battle morale has been added in the UI panels and tooltips.
Tutorial Videos have been delayed so far due to the game constantly evolving. The videos would become obsolete after a few patches. For this reason we decided to wait a bit longer before creating them. Hopefully the Field Book and the improved in-game information helps players in the meanwhile!
The in-game quick guide, Field Book, has been updated to cover most of the game’s main controls and mechanics in both campaigns and battles.
Remaining Road map Leg.
As can be seen in the Early Access Road map, the march is nearing its final leg. The work on the game’s overall balance and AI in both battles and campaigns has been ongoing from the start of the Early Access, and while not yet finished, we’re happy to see that the Early Access players have noticed the increased challenge the game’s AI provides.
Most recent balancing topics have been the game’s economy system and morale in battles (version 0.92 -branch). As the economic system now works better than before, weapons production has finally picked up and is working as intended. In battles morale will be much more fragile during the early war, when commanders and troops alike are green. With experience and proper leadership, the units will resist morale shocks and casualties better. Skirmishers on the other hand will no longer bear high casualties at all, but will return to parent unit after only light casualties.
Information and help provided to the player was enhanced with the Field Book, but there are still more work in progress in this department.
Morale information and loss resilience is now shown in the unit panel. Skirmishers, especially early in the war, will tolerate only very light casualties before falling back to their parent unit.
Next Steps.
August 21, 2021, marks a full year of Early Access to Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865). On that date we will have an important announcement to make. But, like before, the game continues to receive new updates in a steady flow.
Most Respy,
Gen’l. Ilja Varha,
Chief Designer, &c.,
The Grand Tactician -Team
Comments
Gavin #
Fantastic game!
What a detailed and exciting civil war game experience.I am super excited for the announcement for the 21st of August.
Thanks for the effort and keep up the solid work!
Cheers,
G
Orkin #
Hi! I wrote a rather critical if catiously enthusiastic comment in January and only returned to the game yesterday. And I am really pleasantly surprised! Almost everything I disliked is fixed now – the smoke-related performance drops, the zooming speed, many new tooltips were added, some specific bugs removed… I’m glad I bought the game, even if a bit of clunkiness is still there and I have to keep searching for many little things (for example my confederate campaign ended today, because I didn’t know I should be in an offensive stance to get winter quarters and my entire army just decided to become incapacitated). The only thing I don’t like is the concept of random (and tediously repeating) battle maps. Ideally, I think the entire campaign map should be composed of “tiles” like in old Rome Total War for example. I’d sacrifice detail for seeing correspondence between the campaign area I’m playing in and the battles, random Springfield maps absolutely kill immersion in the game that is built on immersion. Well, that and the AI, because when I leave one of my divisions to the AI commanders, I often feel the need to demote its commander with a revolver, but I get you are working on that all the time. Good luck going forward!
Łukasz #
hello,
good job. I bought the game for fall 2020, when I see what it looks like now, it is a great adventure. Of course, everything would be perfect. Each new patch brings us closer to the ideal. I’m glad we have such a dedicated community that helps the developer keep the game better.
Greetings from Poland
Richard McCoy #
I have left extensive comments on the Facebook page. After playing over 700 hours, I have some strong opinions about how to make the game simulate how an army general would behave and react. Ty he e bottom line is that I believe the paper maps are the key to the entire game and they are too small. Most of the great battles in the CW were part of larger campaigns and the movements/decisions leading to the battle had much to do w the outcome. Consider the various movement of Lee prior to Antietam. He used south mountain to delay the Federals to give Jackson a chance to take harpers ferry. And if French had been smart, he could have block Mc claws from Antidiem after taking Cramptons gap….this is an example of what the game is missing which is the paper map movements at the campaign level. Hand in hand with this notion is gathering and/or destroying supplies. In both 62 and 63, the invading confederates were motivated by re-supply….they brought hundreds of wagons to be filled with food and forage. They gathered herds of livestock. I swear, I am thinking of quitting my job and join your team to bring this game into a realm never dreamed…just look inside Lee’s mind …into Sherman and Sheridans mind. This war was as much about supply and the means to make war than it was over winning any particular battle. And here is the magic, make raiding, burning, destroying, capturing supplies as compelling as fighting the battle. Show the trains and farms and herds on the paper map. Add the dimension of protecting trains, communication lines and supply lines on the paper map. …doing these things will give Calvary more realistic significance and take the whole thing to the next level.
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