You are looking over a Civil War battlefield from a bird's eye point of view. The game starts and your forces are arrayed in front of you. You click on your artillery unit card and click on a nearby hillock with the intention of setting them up on the high ground, and a blue way-point icon appears. Satisfied, you then split your infantry forces evenly into two groups and send them to either side of your guns, in line with each other. (Sound familiar yet?) The enemy army is suddenly seen cresting a large ridge to your northeast. You quickly order your guns to start shelling the ridge, and mobilize your two corps, moving the second down the middle while sending the first around the the right.
Seeing that you had broken up your forces, your enemy moves the vast majority of infantry onto your right flank to overwhelm your 1st corp. You focus your artillery fire on the advancing enemy infantry and swing your 2nd corp on top of a small hill to poise them to flank the enemy, where unfortunately they are driven back by the enemy artillery. In a last ditch effort to save your chances of victory, you set up your 1st corp in their tracks and dish out devastating point blank volleys. You order your 2nd forward as well, and they bravely charge through a hail of shells. In the center of the map, all three infantry forces crash into hectic melee. Shots are fired from meters away, Confederate war cries fill the air; in the blinding smoke, bayonets and muskets are blurs as they hit back and forth, stabbing and swinging and chambering and...wait, what?
Oddly enough you were so mesmerized by the battle, you forgot you weren't playing the North and South mod for Napoleon Total War; you are playing Battle Cry of Freedom in the newly introduced Grand Commander gamemode! How silly you are!
Yes, my latest fantasy for Battle Cry of Freedom is the addition of a completely revolutionary game mode called Grand Commander to be used in direct correlation with the BCoF network, battle, and regiment systems. Very much like in the Total War series, there is a singular, overlooking commander with full access to the whole battlefield. This commander has control of every unit on his team, and can move them to any position on the map, in any formation he wishes.
First of all, let me explain how the basis of this game mode (the regiments) would work.
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Disclaimer: I may very well be blinded by lust and not have any idea on how the future in-game systems will work. All here is speculation.**
In NW, we don't have a chance in hell to make a game mode like I will describe. What I'm describing is a fully functional commander interface where one person can select each registered regiment of real individuals, give them movement orders, group regiments together, have them make formations, and give general orders like firing permissions, crouching/laying down (if it's included), and withdrawing, to name a few. I say "registered regiments" because
with the new Regiment system made by FSE, the identities of each singular regiment and members will be registered in the actual game. Perhaps this means we can make it possible, in this game mode, to have those identities be selectable units able to be ordered in-game.
Now to get to the specifics. Unlike in Total War, each unit will not be immediately required to execute whichever order is given, pretty much because they are AI, while in this game mode you will be ordering actual humans. Each regiment commander (these will be encoded and registered in the game as well) will be able to execute each order on their own time, but within reason of course. When each order is given, the regiment commander will receive an indication of said order in the form of a movement way-point or a text notification on his screen. The type of formation will also be indicated. When the order is received, the regiment commander can follow it immediately, wait for support, or in the execution, override it personally if unexpected or hostile actions make the given order impossible or impractical. The choice of this action is, of course, on the regiment commander's own judgement.
The "unit cards" of each registered regiment will work much like they do in Total War. They will be placed on some part of the Grand Commander's interface and will show a picture of the type of unit that regiment is, the number of men currently alive, and their current orders. The Grand Commander can select one of them, or multiple unit cards, and order them using methods not unlike Total War methods. When each regiment completes their orders (perhaps each regiment commander can press a button that confirms their completion of orders...?) an icon will pop up on their unit card, replacing their order icons. I think to minimize the amount of stuff going on and maximize performance, the Grand Commander will have to physically see any personal order overrides, as the icons on the unit cards will not change.
The rest of the game mode mechanics will work like the regular battle mode in BCoF. One team will do their best to eliminate the other, and when all on one team are dead, the next round begins. This system will, I think, do much more to immerse individuals and regiments as a whole into to game, as each commander will not have to worry about the overall tactics of the battle, but only the execution and effectiveness of his orders. And not only will the battles go more smoothly, as the coordination will be streamlined and centralized by the Grand Commander, but each battle will be a different experience, as each Grand Commander has his own tactic, traits, and way of playing the game.
In conclusion (finally
) I think this type of game mode will add
so much to the quality and immersion of the game, especially in events. I know the game is still in very early development, and the developers do not know the extent or potential of capabilities their systems have. If this is at all possible, I would love some feedback, and some ideas from the rest of you wouldn't hurt.
Hope you enjoyed reading! I'll be thinking on this subject; I hope you guys will be as well.
