Age of Steel: Choosing Generals

Here is my opinion on choosing generals, as of 0.1.1

Aggregate top 5:
1. Napoleon
2. Lan
3. Victoria
4. Isabela
5. Radetzky
Honorable Mentions:
6. Lee
7. Kate
8. Sophia
9. Scott
10. Murat
Infantry:
1. Victoria (for obvious reasons)
2. Lee (he has some very punchy skills, and artillery capability)
3. Brock (I modded him to have Formation instead of Sailor. That means he can get the highest output of any infantry general in the whole game)
Cavalry:
1. Lan (kick-ass and no cost)
2. Radetzky, aka tanky Lan (who has Geography instead of the bs War Master skill)
3. Murat, the Fort-Cracker
4. Grant, aka Lan's twin
5. Dombrowski, aka slow Radetzky
Artillery:
1. Napoleon (yeah, I made him kick ass)
2. Isabela (I'll fix ET's atrocious spelling soon).
3. Scott (Ol' Fuss and Feathers is very slow, but is powerful and has Leadership)
4. Sohpia (begone, Forts!)
5. Seymour (strong Art-Navy Hybrid, especially if you don't have room for Scott in your lineup)
Navy:
1. Kate (pure, focused, tough)
2. Victoria (the queen of S&l)
3. Seymour (Leadership!!!)
Fort:
LOL.

Age of Steel v0.1.1

This is a MINOR update. This means not much has changed, and I guess you can skip it.

Changes:
1. Savary is made normal
2. Grant (store version) loses Surprise, gets Mass Fire
3. Sophia gets Defense Art
4. Tavern generals tweaked slightly
5. First mission of Waning Days campaign released.

I'm not sure whether I can make a major update before Thanksgiving, but I'll try to get Waning Days made kinda piecemeal before that.

Thank you to kind reader Transfermium for pointing out Savary's crazy specs.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04hI0ajr6cxb3RxTEVuWDVpVGs/view?usp=sharing

Age of Steel Guide Pair: 1861

To compensate for screwing up this weekend, I present two guides now.

America 1861

Using a true-to-history strategy, we can actually win this one really fast. I got 24 turns, with underdeveloped generals used in a subprime way, and without trying to rush.

History Lesson: The Anaconda Plan

In the beginning of the Civil War, the Union's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, proposed a plan to defeat the Confederacy.
In his plan, an elite Union force was to land in New Orleans and push up the Mississippi River, while the US Navy blockaded the Rebs. For political reasons, Lincoln added in an attack directly to Virginia. Ultimately, the Union's victory followed this rough plan.

How I did it:

I put Sophia on the Heavy Cavalry outside of New Orleans, and Maria on MGs I built in Philadelphia. I then used Scott and Maria to march down the Eastern seaboard (aided by the superior Union Navy), while Grant marched to Nashville, and then pushed south.
Sophia's task force was the interesting one. I landed them in West Florida, then marched into New Orleans while the Privateer drew the Confederate battleship away. After New Orleans, she pushed into the Deep South, and participated in the serial obliteration of the South.
One general of note is Robert E. Lee. I spammed forts and artillery to get rid of 'im, and it was not easy.

Confederacy 1861

This one was tougher, but at the same time dumber. I used Grant on Cavalry to seize small towns in the West, while spamming artillery from occupied St. Louis to kill his Doppelganger. Lee, Sophia  on Siege Art, and a pile of units Zerg Rushed the Eastern Seaboard, and Kate on an Ironclad wreaked havoc on the Union's blockade. It wasn't fun, but it was won.

Unrelated note: I'm told Savary's specs are weird. This will be fixed in the next update, which will also contain changes to Tavern generals.

Age of Steel v 0.1.0 release

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04hI0ajr6cxbW0yNHJEYW1XeEk/view?usp=sharing

I promised you, and I deliver. In this first open beta release, you get 17 new generals, 5 modded countries, and 6 new conquests. I've even playtested, and can verify that 1861 (5th Conquest) US and 1848 (4th Conquest) Hungary are both playable. I urge you all to playtest it too, and tell me how it goes. I'll publish my readers' successes in a weekly list, if I get enough.

Sidenote:
Yes, the Confederacy features in this mod. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis are both gens, and Lee's specs are OP. This is in no way to be construed as support for white supremacism, slavery, or anything of the sort. It's in the interest of depicting the period properly.

Keep an eye out for 0.2, whose release date will be announced on Tuesday

Mod Reveal: Age of Steel

Super Epic, Exclusive, For Your Eyes Only Mod Reveal: The Age of Steel Mod

Ooh, a gutsy name! "Age of Steel" just sounds like a phase in Emo kids' breeding cycle, but it's also the name of my Victorian Era mod. That's right, Picard is in town!

My plan calls for 6 clean-sheet campaigns and conquests, and a TBD amount of new Generals.

The Conquests shall be:
1. America 1812 (but changed, I promise)
2. Europe 1814
3. Europe 1830
4. Europe 1848
5. America 1861
6. Europe 1866

The Campaigns shall be:
1. Waning Days (1812-1815; France, Britain, Prussia, Sweden, Poland)
2. Manifest Destiny (1812-1848; USA)
3. A Conservative Period (1812-1866; Austria, Russia, Prussia)
4. Rise of Democracy (1830-1871; France, German Confederation, Piedmont-Sardinia, Romania, Poland, Ireland OR Hungary)
5. Blood and Iron (1848-1871; Prussia, German Empire)
6. A House Divided (1861-1865; USA, CSA)

The first to be made, Waning Days, will chronicle Napoleon's fall from the Battle of Borodino to the Hundred Days through 5-8 easy, tutorial-esque maps. Manifest Destiny, its companion, will be a full-scale one going from the War of 1812 to the Mexican-American War (kinda, with a lot of creative liberties taken on geography). Rise of Democracy and A Conservative Period will essentially be twins, with similar maps played as opposite sides. Both will have some period (but no content) overlap with Blood and Iron, whose subject I presume to be obvious.

As you can see, you're looking at one heck of a broad span, going from the depth of the Napoleonic Wars in 1812 right up to German unification. This means months and months of work to some level, but I'm up for it.

Version 0.1

Version 0.1, which will be released on Thursday, will include all 6 conquests to some level of completion (the borders will be done, that much I promise). Potentially, I'll include a few maps in the Waning Days campaign.