This is the report of the findings from the War Between the States

This is the report of the findings from the War Between the States (WBTS) Alpha #2 testing. This is the official record for future reference and to be used as part of the foundation for future test plans of WBTS.

Announced Technical Objectives.

Validate the fix for Web Mail & AOL users (for submitting orders).
Select members of the Play-Tester group who use Web mail (Yahoo) and AOL as their primary email client will be asked to use an embedded “cut & paste” procedure to allow unit orders to be submitted in lieu of the WBTS direct-link to MicroSoft Outlook or Outlook Express procedure.

Test and validate the introduction/training scenario for land battle warfare.
Alpha-2 will use a scenario that can be structured for a introductory force-on-force exercise as part of the proposed WBTS Academy for initial training on the WBTS game engine. Determination needs to be made that the scenario has enough flexibility to address all the basic skills and knowledges needed for playing the WBTS land warfare and naval modules.

Initial Alpha Test of the naval and riverine movement and combat system.
Test the suitability of the naval module WBTS interface, test the reliability of the code for naval actions, validate the combat results and activities embedded in the new code, and identify any areas for revision.

Initial Alpha Test of the Blockade Running module.

As a subset of the test of the naval code, this test objective is designed to investigate the complexities of the blockade running component of the naval module. This investigation will include the application of basic commands through the WBTS interface, actions of the vessels on the ocean versus in the harbor approach and within the port area.

Findings

Validate the fix for Web Mail & AOL users (for submitting orders).

The procedure for this corrective technique was not tested. The Test Director will roll this excursion over into the WBTS Alpha-3 Test.

Test and validate the introduction/training scenario for land battle warfare.

In the tested scenario, the Army morale for both sides was set too high. If the program had calculated it the scores would have been much lower.

The Charleston 1865 scenario has been deemed acceptable for the WBTS Academy training exercise. The exercise will concentrate on basic interface commands and knowledge of the basic rules.

	Scenario will have the Battle fort Morris Island for two opposing players and the approach march & assault at 5 Mile by up to four players.
	Additionally, there will be a small Union naval squadron to attack the harbor fortresses opposed by the harbor guns and a small CSA naval squadron.

Initial Alpha Test of the naval and riverine movement and combat system.

The test identified a number of issues that aided in the refinement of the code. The programmer was able to keep pace with the required changes and a number of improvements in the code were made during the test. Below is a summary of the programmer notes issued during the test.

	To move from operational area to operation area move the vessel to a yellow hex and your vessel will automatically move to the next area. There are multiple exits from the sea lanes marked by the yellow-colored hexes.
	Fortress guns are able to fire into three hexes (directly forward and the two hex rows either side) out of six that surround it.
	Guns on naval vessels can be fired at land units as well as enemy vessels & forts.

Naval vessels are treated differently to land units in that they are capable of moving and firing or firing and movement.

There are four types of naval vessels:

1. Ironclad slower then others but with heavy armour protection

2. Steam Frigates/sloops gun complement may vary from 2 through to 10 guns (note the designer realizes that the real frigates carried many more guns but I have scaled it down to fit into the game mechanics)

3. Side-wheeler steam warships. normally less guns and size compared to the Steam frigate class

4. Transports and merchant ships (brown hulled) plus commerce raiders.

The ID of a ship will not be disclosed visually but on the palm map (bottom right of the screen) or by name when you are close enough.

There were many questions about the procedure to transport units on naval vessels. Below is a synopsis of the design procedures.

To load units onto a transport they must be adjacent. You then hit the 'Board train' (to be changed to “transport”) then issue movement orders for the transport/ship.

When you want to disembark your vessel must be adjacent to the land and then hit the offload button under the load button.

To transport a unit:

	the unit must be the one the player is logged on for and selected from the drop-down unit unit must be adjacent to the vessel (or train) it intends to load onto;
	the unit clicks on the Board Train (to be changed to a generic "Transport") button.
	The program will then ask you on what transport or train you wish to board.

To off load from a transport click on the off load button and then move your unit.

There were some shortfalls that occurred too late in the test for code corrections or are still being evaluated. Below is a list of those that affect Technical Objective #3.

When working the trans-Atlantic passage players need to know what map sector they are working. Currently, they don't know which map sector they are working in & the ocean has no distinguishable landmarks. A map sector label on the UCS, the palm map, or the Operational map selection would help.

The final group of player questions involving Technical Objective #3 dealt with clarifications of the basic design for the naval aspect of WBTS.

Question: How do I commerce raid? Answer: The Yankee players will need to trade with the European nations ( who by the way will have units, including ships) moving around our world. To interrupt the Yankee trade the Confederates will need to get their ships out onto the high seas (the Mid Atlantic is an excellent place for intercepting but that goes both ways) and actually hunt down the enemy shipping.

Question: Are there such things as obstructions? Answer: This is not included in the game primarily because the harbor entrances are rather narrow. However, obstructions, “torpedoes”, & submarines are being considered for latter revisions.

Initial Alpha Test of the Blockade Running module.

The main areas involving Technical Objective #4 were clarifications in the handling of cargo once a blockade runner had made the passage. Below are the notes taken in this area.

Cargo currently being transported by the selected vessel appears in a box under the ships damage display diagram. The maximum any ship can carry is three cargo points. When a vessel runs into a harbor hex the Cargo button will become active. Players clicking on this cargo button will have the 'Cargo Sale & Purchase' panel appear. If the cargo hold is full (i.e. it has three points) you need to sell the cargo prior to purchase. To sell the cargo click on the 'Sell Cargo' button at the bottom of the panel. The cargo if being sold in either a US or CS port will be added to the relevant states stockpiles. If they are being sold in Europe or the Bahamas then the money for the sale will be credited to the ships owners state.

Ensure when you exit the commodities panel that you shut it down via the command button marked with 'X'. This saves your economic data information to the datafile prior to its conversion to email orders.

The other main area of interest was the instituting of controls so that players could behave outside the main historical trends of the ACW era.

	“hot hexes” -- The program will check to see if certain hexes have been entered against certain political options. One of these would be Kentucky in 1861. The Bahamas will be added to deter war ships from either side approaching those ports. This prohibition will not affect blockade runners.
	That the fortress guns at Charleston, Ft Fisher NC, and Mobile Bay (the main blockade running ports in the CSA) be tested to ensure they can prevent Union vessels from physically blocking the main channels into the port.

Areas of additional interest.

During the course of the test there were several areas that players required clarification. Below are the notes made of these areas.

Units Attributes –

	Recommendation: that loss of HQs have a 2x or 3x effect (depending on level of the leader) on team morale
	Recommendation: that cav units have their ability to view terrain & enemy units increased by one hex over other units (primarily infantry)
	Recommendation: Investigate during Alpha-3, the option of equipping units with rifled-muskets with an increased range to 2 hexes.
	Enemy unit retreats because of that fire, I have noticed that the enemy unit still is able to return fire. I'd have thought that once it retreats and is no longer adjacent, no longer have the range? All units are assumed to possess smoothbores, yes? Is it possible to split the effect of each volley?
	Currently, all artillery has three hexes. All small arms has one hex (ie adjacent).

Supply –

	If naval vessels also had a movement order issued then they will not have resupplied.
	Wagons can be filled from any state. Any adjacent unit can resupply from an adjacent wagon this includes the enemy units (you can class this as looting and it was purposely built in so that players will protect their wagon units).

	Difference between ammunition and general supply. Ammunition is resupplied via wagons. Wagons must return to a factory or depot to resupply during Campaign Mode (CM). During the PEP phase the software will automatically top up and unit up to the states stockpiles of ammunition. During the PEP all units will consume rations (general supply). This general supply does not need to be transported to units but will simply be deducted from the states stockpile. This is done because the Campaign Mode only represents the critical week or less of the campaign and general supply can not be affected in this short time span. However, ammunition shortages can be a factor on a daily basis.
	Governors of each state will control the amounts of general supply and the amount of ammunition manufactured by their states.
	Wagons will resupply from either a train depot hex (yet to be created) or factory hex. During the PEP (the segment between campaigns) all units will be topped up automatically as long as the states have supplies available in their state warehouses. This will occur regardless of wagons as it is deemed that the wagons have got the time to move around during the down time.
	The amount of supplies going into these state warehouses will be determined by the governor of each state who through his choices on the state capital screen will be determining things such as what the factory hexes are building ie. muskets, wagons, ammunition, general supplies plus others. The amounts of these are constricted by the commodities available to the states factories.
	If units do not have general supplies available (ie the state warehouses do not have any left) then they will suffer attrition.
	A supply unit may resupply as many units that can be adjacent to it in the one turn. All that needs to happen is that the units that are adjacent each hits resupply.
	It is the unit to be supplied that needs to hit the button.
	The unit to be resupplied hits the button.
	Note that when ever a unit is transported their supply level is also topped up to 5.

Installation, player setup & orders submission –

	Be careful about logging back into a unit that you have already issued orders for. If you go back in either by accident or design then your previous orders become defunct.
	The terrain data base holds the game setup info. So whenever I send out a terrain update you just need to reconfirm the personal info, i.e. email client.
	Any hope for getting WBTS to run on ME? – No.
	State governors will be the only players able to re-allocate troops from one commander to another (hey states rights needs to be in the game).
	One of the players mucked around with the spelling of one of their units and it crashed the turn.
	I'm running on Windows 98. In analyzing the problem, I'm coming to the conclusion that the DLL that was replaced was required by both my PC-cillin version (2005) and Internet Explorer applications, and that the newer DLL is not recognized. If true, this is Microsoft's "bad" -- DLLs are supposed to be backward compatible.
	The WBTS world is made up of Operational Area maps. These are bordered by red border hexes which units can not cross. I prominent places around this border you will come across yellow hexes (when looking on the operational map these are red hexes bordered by a yellow line). These yellow hexes (link hexes) will take you to the next operational map

Current WBTS version –

WBTS ver 2.0.4

For problems or questions regarding this web contact operations@holf.org.

Last updated: 10/17/05.