Civil War On-Line

Strategy & Victory

Purpose.

Strategy in Civil War On-Line (CWOL) integrates all modules of the CWOL game engine: Shot and Shell (SAS) (the land war), General Quarters (GQ) (the war at sea), Rostrum and Bivouacs (RAB) (political role-playing: the war at home), Treaties and Coercion (TAC) (the diplomatic war), and Capitalists, Patriots, and Greed (CPAG) (the economic war). The rules outlined below cause each player-led national government to formulate its national strategy that dictates the course that national government will pursue to win the game.

Contents.

- Summary

- National Strategy Procedures

- Enclosure 1, Player Victory Condition Worksheet (blank)

- Enclosure 2, Map of key geographic locations

- Enclosure 3, Description of key geographic locations

Summary.

Game victory conditions drive the establishment of the national strategy for player national governments. Using this framework, the victory conditions represent a comprehensive integration of all the facets of the game. In the context of CWOL, the three national strategic areas, foreign recognition, economic policy, and military objectives, serve as the basis for national strategy. Victory conditions for each player-led national government are formulated by a series of "customized" choices the national leadership selects during the organization and training phase (should be prior to actual game start in October of each year) of the game.

Each player national government must choose from a list of options (objectives) in the three national strategic areas listed above (foreign recognition, economic policy, military objectives). These options may be petitioned for modification by each player national government within a set of defined guidelines (see procedures below). The baseline procedure (meaning no player-initiated modification) is a selection of 10 national strategic objectives. The player national government assigns weights (indicating their relative importance) to the selected objectives. This player national strategy is then submitted to the Game Administrator Central Committee (GACC) for approval. Once the national strategy for a side is accepted, the GACC applies the strategy objective difficulty multiplier to all objectives, calculates their final weights as part of the national strategy, and records the total for use in victory determination during the game.

At the end of each game year or upon notification by the player national governments, the GACC determines what national strategic objectives have been obtained. Then the GACC calculates the score of each side [the numeric value of the claimed objective(s) (strategic area weight - x - player importance weight - x - difficulty modifier) are added into each side’s numeric total ]. The GACC then calculates a ratio for the victory condition status for each side: losing (1:2 or less), draw (1:1), minor victory (2:1), major victory (3:1), and decisive victory (4:1 or greater). Any side attaining a rating of decisive victory is declared the victor. If this does not occur, then play continues until a decisive victory is achieved or the turn schedule is completed. Then the final victory ratio will be calculated and announced.

Procedures.

The following steps describe the procedures used by the player national governments in formulating their national strategies to be documented on the Victory Condition Worksheet for submission to the GACC.

Step #1: Player national government notifies the GACC via email that they are drafting their Victory Condition Worksheet (VC Worksheet). The player national government reviews the VC Worksheet and determines whether they will submit a petition to modify the VC Worksheet or to use the default set of weights (for the National Strategic Areas) and objectives. {Note: any petition to modify the VC Worksheet is transmitted to the GACC via annotation on the submitted worksheet with a email "cover letter"}.

Step #2: The player national government determines which national objectives they will select within the three National Strategic Areas. The national governments choose 10 objectives as the base for their planning and strategy to win the game. The choices are annotated on the VC Worksheet in column 3 ("Selected")(see example at Enclosure 1).

a. The purpose of the national strategic areas are:

- Foreign Relations: these objectives center around recognition of the Confederacy by the European nations and the focus of the respective national government’s foreign policy.

- Economic Policy: determines the intent of the economic policy of the respective national government. The selected objective defines a measurable outcome of the government’s trade and acquisition program during CWOL besides direct support of the war effort.

- Military Objectives: determines the principle strategic military objectives for winning the war for that respective national government.

b. Within each national strategic area there are five measurable objectives. These objectives are defined as follows:

1. Foreign Relations.

a) Alliance: the player national government will achieve a full alliance with the specified European power - Great Britain, France, Russia.

b) Foreign Recognition (or prevention) of the CSA: the CSA player national government will achieve (via the Diplomacy module) formal recognition by one of the represented European powers { Great Britain, France, Russia}; the USA player national government will prevent any foreign recognition of the CSA.

c) Trade Partnership: the respective player national government will achieve an announced or unannounced trade agreement with the specified European power { Great Britain, France, Russia}.

d) Foreign Neutrality: the respective player national government (via the Diplomacy module) will achieve a neutrality of the specified European power { Great Britain, France, Russia} toward the opposing side during the game.

e) Munitions Exports allowed: the respective player government will establish a continual flow of munitions from the European powers.

2. Economic Policy.

a) Increase the Gross National Product: the respective national government achieves an actual increase in the gross national product as evidenced by its increased intake of Economic Points (EPs) by xx % (player selection / must be greater than 10%).

b) Expand the heavy industry base: the respective national government achieves an actual increase in its capacity of heavy industry generated EPs through its acquisitions (via the ESS) and economic infra-structure improvement program by xx% (player selection / must be greater than 15%).

c) Enlarge Merchant Marine: the respective national government achieves an actual increase in its merchant marine capacity through its acquisitions (via the CAAM) domestic and/or foreign. The respective national government must increase the physical size of its Merchant Marine by xx% (player selection / must be greater than 20%).

d) Increase exports: the respective national government achieves an actual increase in the export of commodities. The respective government must physically increase the volume of exports it sends to the various European and Caribbean markets by xx % (player selection / must be greater than 25%).

e) Sustain support of national wartime economic policy: the respective national government demonstrates support of its wartime economic policy by its re-election into the majority of previous offices held at the state level by the national political party in power (there can not be a shift of greater than 20% in state political positions at the CWOL mid-game elections).

3. Military Objectives.

a) Destruction of enemy economic infrastructure: the respective national government achieves a clear battlefield victory by its seizure of the opposing side’s ESS Economic Point (EP) generating base. This victory is determined by the opposing side’s losing the Resource Areas (RAs) for 2 of its 3 theater commands (see listing of RAs at enclosure 3).

b) Destruction of trade infra-structure (naval): the respective national government achieves a clear battlefield victory by its elimination of the ability of the opposing side’s merchant marine to operate in the GQ module. This victory is determined by the opposing side’s inability to maintain more than 39% of its game start merchant marine capability to include foreign-flagged vessels (blockade runners) or the seizure of 61% of its sea ports.

c) Seizure of key geographic objectives: the respective national government achieves a clear battlefield victory by its seizure, and elimination from the control of the opposing side, of the selected strategic targets from the list at Enclosure 3 (Description of Key Geographic Locations) to this document. Each target will be treated as a separate objective. Targets must be capitol cities or the locations of all assets in the specified Resource Area (RA).

d) Seizure of enemy national capitol: the respective national government achieves a clear battlefield victory by its seizure and elimination from control of the opposing side of its initial national capitol.

e) Denial of key geographic regions to enemy: the respective national government achieves a clear battlefield victory by its successful defense, as evidenced by the enemy’s inability to maintain control, of the selected strategic targets from the list at Enclosure 3 (Description of Key Geographic Locations) to this document. Each target will be treated as a separate objective. Specify the capitol city or RA to be protected. USA is limited to 25% of its Military Objectives in this category; CSA is limited to 50% or less.

Step #3: All Military Objectives have a default player weight of 1. The player national governments have an additional 6 points which they can use to weigh the importance of specify objectives (optional). These additional weighing are distributed in values of 1 to 3. The total of all weights cannot exceed a value of 16. These assigned weights are recorded on the VC Worksheet in column #4 ("Weight assigned by Player") with any explanation or annotation explaining them that is required in column 2 ("Objectives")(see example at Enclosure 1). Players are not obligated to use all of their optional weights. NOTE: the selection and assignment of player value weightings with the default value establishes the BASE point value for each selected Victory Condition objective(s).

Step #4: The player national government submits the completed worksheet with a cover letter email relating any explanations of options and the request for review/approval to the GACC.

Step #5: The GACC reviews the submitted VC Worksheet and approves it or returns it with comments for further revision. Once approved, the GACC applies the difficulty multiplier to each selected Victory Condition objective. This multiplier will be a rate of 1.0 to 5.9 depending upon the objective selected. The difficulty multiplier rate parallels the order of the listing of the objectives within each National Strategic Area (see Step #2b. above). The rating for objective # a) [difficulty rate 5] is higher because it is considered more difficult than objective # e)[difficulty rate 1]. The fractional portion of the multiplier rating is a subjective award made by the GACC based on the logic of the supporting rationale.

Step #6: The GACC then records the VC Worksheet of that respective national government and places it in the secured portion of the game records. The other national government will have no knowledge of the approved Victory Conditions of its opponent.

Step #7: During the conduct of CWOL, a player national government should notify the GACC at any point it believes it has achieved a national victory condition objective. The GACC reviews the notification and concurs or non-concurs (with an explanation of what further action is required to achieve that specific victory condition objective). If the GACC concurs with the submission, a victory condition ratio will be computed and announced via the Game Administration Web Page plus email to the two national governments. {At the end of each game year, the GACC will automatically calculate the victory ratio and notify the player governments of the result} The ratio will be expressed as follows:

- losing (1:2 or less)

Any side attaining a rating of decisive victory is declared the victor. If this does not occur, then CWOL will continue to play until the announced turn schedule is completed. At the end of the turn schedule, the victory ratio will be calculated and announced as the final result of the game.

CWOL Victory Conditions Work Sheet

Nation: _________________

INSTRUCTIONS:

- Print this page out for use as the Worksheet template.

- Complete the worksheet using only those objectives selected for use in strategic plan.

- Each objective gets a default weighting of 1.

- Player governments may assign an additional weighting from 1 to 3 to distribute optional weighs of 6 points; the total of all weights must equal from 10 to 16.

- Player central governments then submit a copy of their strategy to the GA Central Committee for approval; then applies the difficulty modifiers and records the results.

- Player central governments notify GA Central Committee when an objective is obtained.

Note: Player central governments can submit modifications to this worksheet as follows:

1- category weighing can be modified up to 20%; minimum weighing is 10% and all categories are included in the total plan.

2- player central governments can nominate substitute objectives in any category which must be approved by the GA Central Committee.

Description of Key Geographic Locations

{The following listing is provided as the default set of strategic regions for use with Victory Conditions Work Sheet. Either national central government can nominate alternative locations or cities for approval by the GACC based on their rationale.}

1. Key Cities.

Key cities are the political centers of the warring nations and those areas that had divided loyalties. The seizure of these political centers often lead to the cessation of dissent or the collapse of organized resistance.

2. Resource Areas.

Resource Areas (RAs) are the industrial, munition and raw material producing centers of both warring nations. While this is not a comprehensive list, it contains the significant cities and areas involved in the support of the war effort. These 13 RAs consist of: industrial or munitions producing sites, shipyards or rail yards, raw material or foodstuff producing areas, and a corresponding communications/transportation hub. To claim an RA, ALL listed locations associated with it must be secured and under control of the petitioning nation.

NOTE: Several RAs support specific theaters/regions. In the listing below, these RAs are annotated with the name of the theater it supports.

USA

CSA

To return to CWOL Index Page, go to: Index Page

8/15/99

Prepared by Distance Simulations Inc

All rights reserved ©