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Tips for new players


Koro

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Copied from Steam forums: Not sure why I didn't post it here originally too but here goes:

So I thought it might be nice for new players to have a list to refer to for advice and what will probably be a long list of FAQ. 
This thread contains the most important ones and others can be found in this guide here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=810140368


I'll start with some pointers in no particular order

1 Don't be to proud to choose easy mode 

The game is excellent in many ways and it also makes it hard due to it's many variables and options. You must play better than the AI to win battles in this game (since it will put you to the test) and you must manage your resources in the army camp so you'll have an effective and combat ready army. If you have any doubts as to your ability to handle large armies, easy might be the option for you


2. Not every battle is meant to be won

This game simulates real war, where circumstances and man power are not always equal and "fair". This happened IRL and is the same way in the game. Here is your chance not to repeat the mistakes of history though. Don't we berate those generals who kept on pressing the attack when they were clearly suffering unsustainable casualties? Don't we wonder why they didn't just retreat when faced with overwhelming odds. Here is your chance to do better than them. You are of course free to stay and slug it out in each battle but you may lose your army in the process. Sometimes you will find that withdrawing from the field is the better option. All units have a withdraw button to take them off the field. Remove them all and you'll lose the battle but perhaps save your army. Often you can keep your army on the field though and go for a draw though if you look at the victory condtiions 


3. Career points

Army Organization for it's first 3-4 points is nice to have at first so you are not limited with too few divisions in the beginning. Later you should add enough points so you can get at least 20 brigades per corps and perhaps get the 2.500 brigade limit if you feel you have the men to fill up your brigades this much.

Reconnaissance will you give you a power bar in battles so you know the rough strength of the enemy compared to yours. This is also very handy - will unlock at 4 points.

The rest are optional and you can choose which ones you feel best suit your temper.


4. The strategic points

The strategic points are just that - strategic points. You do not have to capture them within the given time if you feel like you don't have the necessary manpower or your positioning is not quite right yet. These are the locations that drive the battle forward and will give you victory in the end but you can check which points give you the victory in the end in the icon on the top right menu. Likewise if you are defending, you might want to retreat from points before the timer is up if you feel it is not sustainable to hold them.

5. Brigades as the backbone of your army
There are 4 kinds of units you can create but brigades will always form the backbone of your army. Skirmishers and cavalry can be nice to have but you should initially focus on building a strong corps of brigades that can hold their own.
I like to choose 1 or 2 pet brigades that I only buy veterans for and then buy rookies for the other brigades. You keep these two brigades in reserve for when you really need them - to hold this important point right now or you might lose the entire battle - or to put against the enemy's flank, just at the right time for that extra special damage that only comes from your veteran troops. I name my elites "The Danish Brigade"; so sue me :).
I like to have 1 artillery unit per division as well. More is a crowd and less might leave points undefended by artillery so I find this to be a nice ratio.
What is also worth knowing, is that your divisions and reinforcements will be deployed in the order your corps is in the scenarios that you don't decide yourself. So it is worth mixing divisions to avoid getting only cannons or only infantry f.x.

Feel free to ask questions you might want more guidance on and I'll update the thread as we go along.

Edit: Read Zordfish advice too - you may consider them 5,6 and 7.
This thread was mostly intended to give opening advice so new players don't find themselves stuck and overwhelmed with the game. Thank you for the strategic advice too though

My Union campaign is starting here, if you are interested in watching each battle as I progress through the campaign. 

YouTube™ Video: Battle of Philippi 

Views: 482

1. Union mission. Not a perfect execution of the battle but I got myself through. I think I was a bit nervous being "on camera" like that and I rushed things a little.



Special tutorial video for battle controls (after Shiloh):

YouTube™ Video: Protect Center (tutorial) 

Views: 207

This is after Shiloh on my Union campaign but I've made it in to a real tutorial so it doesn't play out like normal. I'm explaining all the basic stuff I could think of in the battle though I am sure...



Special tutorial for army camp (after secure center)

YouTube™ Video: Army camp (tutorial) 

Views: 163

Some basics on using the army camp.



Some pointers for how to place your forces and in combat and use the features of the map to your advantages. Much of what I do here, can be read in Sun Tzu's art of war which is recommended reading for this game!

YouTube™ Video: Crossroads (strategic positioning) 

Views: 119

Greatly outnumbered in this battle, it seems the AI had a trap up its sleavy. Still, getting on the flanks of the AI brigades and using the fortification as a focal points of your flanks, the line...



Longer more in depth video from Lincolns Mullet that is a must watch if you have any questions about anything after going through the videos above:

YouTube™ Video: UGCW - Battle of Newport News 

Views: 149

Some explanations of game mechanics, army management, controls, etc. while fighting the small battle of Newport News from the Confederate side.

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Koro has very useful insight into specific battles on his YouTube channel and if you are interested in improving your performance in the game i STRONGLY RECOMMEND you check out his channel on YouTube.  Look for 'strategic gaming' channel on YouTube.

You will very much want to listen to his commentary and anecdotes on the game in his videos as he reveals concepts that are useful in the METAGAME throughout as well.  

His voice is sometimes obscured by the background noise in his earlier videos (shit happens, okay) so pay close attention.  Even in the minor instances where it might be hard to hear him over the ambient sound effects It is still worth it just to watch his brigade deployment / movement.  Most of the time he can be heard clearly. I find Koro's advice / experience ESPECIALLY USEFUL for MINOR BATTLES because this is where you can build your army without taking significant losses that will set your manpower back.  

The biggest benefit is that if or when multiplayer is released we will all know how to defeat this very skilled player, which will result in a great user experience for all of us including our Danish friend!!!!!! 

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Thanks for the support :). It is appreciated.

You're assuming though that I've divulged all of my tricks for mp if it comes :). Hopefully I've got more up my sleeve. 

I'm doing live stream of Fredericksburg at 17.00 if you care to join in, probably firing up about 1 hour to 30 mins before. 

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15 hours ago, GS_Guderian said:

Question:

 

Does recon do anymore than giving me hindsight of the enemy forces?

Like do my spotters spot further?

May I deploy more units at the initial deploy phase, due to better recon?

Recon let's you know more about enemies during deployment and during the battles.  

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6 hours ago, Don't Escrow Taxes said:

The biggest benefit is that if or when multiplayer is released we will all know how to defeat this very skilled player, which will result in a great user experience for all of us including our Danish friend!!!!!! 

From experience I can tell you that watching Koro's vids wont make you better than him, it will just make you better, which is already good enough. ;)

EDIT : The beta isn't out yet so Koro won't  livestram at 5 o' clock but probably will be able to later in the evening. 

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1 hour ago, Koro said:

Recon let's you know more about enemies during deployment and during the battles.  

Thx,

so aside from future multiplayer it seems rather weak, no?

AI will charge at me anyhow. I won't be able to react to reconnaissance info during battle if the number of deployable brigades stay the same at the beginning. If I have to attack I still need to scout ahead.

Even logistics seems more usefull to me.

Why would I invest career points in anything else than troops & money? 

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Koro will probably add to it but to reply shortly, it's very important to know at least the starting numbers of your opponents because his army size vary and sometimes he will largely outnumber you. You can't just go blind and attack if you don't know how much of an advantage you have or not. You should, imho, start the campaign with at least two in recon.

Medicine is not a popular stat but I came to like it, since it can save a bunch of veterans from death and weapons from being lost, and God knows both are extemely expensive. 

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19 hours ago, GS_Guderian said:

 

 

Qouting doesn't work properly somehow.

Anyways, no, recon isn't of that much value but I heard changes are coming to it.

Different people swear to different career paths, and I suppose that's the whole point, to give players a choice.

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I saw the game at a (close-combat series) clan mate and immediately bought it.

When I started my first gc I fell in love with the career paths.

BUT after playing Union to second bull run by now, I simply felt recon weak in comparison to any other trait.

Maybe I don't like recon to much because of the general knowledge of the civil-war. Maybe because save & reload makes things much easier vs. AI than any mp game would.

Maybe I played every major battle to often in board games. 

But I wish recon would either add % of spotting radius or / and bigger deployment area and / or more starting units vs. less reinforcements.

In my close-combat campaign tournaments e.g. I  simply gave bigger deployment areas for the side which spent more effort in recon.

 

 

IMG_9316.JPG

IMG_9780.JPG

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This is technically a tip but really falls under cheese:

In multi-day Grand Battles where you get the Camp screen between days, you aren't restricted to only increasing supply or reinforcing select Brigades. It doesn't actually make any real sense at all -but- you can swap units on the OOB on that screen, even between Corps. Yes, this is about as stupid as it sounds in practice.

For example, on Confederate 2nd Battle of Bull Run, you can have your I Corps go hard on the opening skirmish to cause enemy casualties (though of course still not wanting to give up more than you deal damage), then swap those units into III Corps and move in fresh troops and fight Day 1 having badly damaged the enemy's forward Division but effectively having taken no losses on your opening Corps. Then after Day 1, you can repeat the process and move all of your badly wounded Brigades out of I Corps and into III Corps and bring in fresh Brigades again, so that you have all of your fresh and full supply troops on the field for the counterattack without even needing to wait for real reinforcements to hit the field from the flanking position.

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On 12/9/2016 at 0:35 PM, GS_Guderian said:

Thx,

so aside from future multiplayer it seems rather weak, no?

AI will charge at me anyhow. I won't be able to react to reconnaissance info during battle if the number of deployable brigades stay the same at the beginning. If I have to attack I still need to scout ahead.

Even logistics seems more usefull to me.

Why would I invest career points in anything else than troops & money? 

I strongly disagree. It is very useful to know how strong the enemy is. I use it to dictate my tactics early on. If out numbered its important not to throw troops away early on and fight on the defensive. If you have a big advantage in numbers you can afford to press home attacks at bayonet point 

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8 hours ago, Koro said:

Can you? I've never tried that. Should probably be fixed though.

Hey, I thought you said you tested everything. ;)

You can also move supply in between Corps, which is also kind of silly but is fine for gameplay because of artificial supply limits. (A long fight like 2nd Bull Run Day 1 say my I Corps completely run out of supply. Since I don't carry money between battles, I couldn't restore it, so I instead sold supply from II and III Corps and rebought back it back in I Corps.)

7 minutes ago, Fletch67 said:

I strongly disagree. It is very useful to know how strong the enemy is. I use it to dictate my tactics early on. If out numbered its important not to throw troops away early on and fight on the defensive. If you have a big advantage in numbers you can afford to press home attacks at bayonet point 

The game tells you in briefings whether or not you're outnumbered, though, and the AI isn't particularly clever about hiding its strength. So long as you detach skirmishers and probe a little bit you should basically know whether or not you can be aggressive.

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btw, regarding weapons, whats your take? is it worth upgrading to rifles or keeping springfields all the way at least till Shilloh? I did try to equip some brigades with M1853 rifles, but didnt see much difference in casualty rates.. next time i will rather use Lorenz rifles which are cheaper...

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9 hours ago, JaM said:

btw, regarding weapons, whats your take? is it worth upgrading to rifles or keeping springfields all the way at least till Shilloh? I did try to equip some brigades with M1853 rifles, but didnt see much difference in casualty rates.. next time i will rather use Lorenz rifles which are cheaper...

Best recipe for success seems to be to delineate weapon usage by Brigade type:

Green brigades (max size, there for catching bullets or leading charges) - Farmer/Re-Bored Farmer on CSA, Springfield 1842 on Union

Regulars (have taken some damage, 2/3-3/4 size, can do both but starting to protect these units more) - Springfield 1842 on CSA, Lorenz/equivalent on Union

Iron (elite units kept half size or so, used mostly as shooters and ideally kept out of direct line of fire) - Springfield 1855/equivalent on both

Edited by Hitorishizuka
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What I find very important and hardly ever mentioned is the option to pause the game. I watched a lot of videos and hardly ever see someone using this very useful option.Quite often I saw let's plays with the player failing to notice the reinforcement flags or enemies popping up in the way of cavalry. If you want to take a look around the battlefield or search for some stray units, simply pause the game. Also you can give complex orders to several units while being paused. There is no need to lose men somewhere on the map because you were busy somewhere else.

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17 hours ago, JaM said:

btw, regarding weapons, whats your take? is it worth upgrading to rifles or keeping springfields all the way at least till Shilloh? I did try to equip some brigades with M1853 rifles, but didnt see much difference in casualty rates.. next time i will rather use Lorenz rifles which are cheaper...

I swear by Lorenz rifles. I have a division in my confederate army (3 brigades) equipped with Lorenz's and they outperform all my other units by a fair margin.

Edited by Speedkermit
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21 hours ago, Speedkermit said:

I swear by Lorenz rifles. I have a division in my confederate army (3 brigades) equipped with Lorenz's and they outperform all my other units by a fair margin.

I recall looking at the stats and don't recall anything striking although, as said above, the price looked good. What am I missing?

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51 minutes ago, MikeK said:

I recall looking at the stats and don't recall anything striking although, as said above, the price looked good. What am I missing?

Lorenz seem to be very good for their cost. They're certainly superior to the Springfield 1842 which the majority of my brigades are still equipped with. The range and accuracy is better.

In my confederate campaign, I'm at the stage where the next battle to be fought is Gaines Mill. I've been forced to start equipping new brigades with re-bored farmers as anything else is too expensive. To my surprise these brigades have done quite well.

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44 minutes ago, Speedkermit said:

Lorenz seem to be very good for their cost. They're certainly superior to the Springfield 1842 which the majority of my brigades are still equipped with. The range and accuracy is better.

In my confederate campaign, I'm at the stage where the next battle to be fought is Gaines Mill. I've been forced to start equipping new brigades with re-bored farmers as anything else is too expensive. To my surprise these brigades have done quite well.

Lorenz is perhaps the most balanced weapon relative to  costs, but only is seem available in numbers for a short time (from my own experience with the campaign).  

I made myself extensive use of farmers (captured) even as federal...due to money shortage as I did not follow the wise advice of not trying to maintain veteran brigades at top numbers... and the recruit troops mede good use of them until I was able to substitute them

Edited by JJPettigrew
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4 hours ago, Speedkermit said:

In my confederate campaign, I'm at the stage where the next battle to be fought is Gaines Mill. I've been forced to start equipping new brigades with re-bored farmers as anything else is too expensive. To my surprise these brigades have done quite well.

Well, bored farmers have historically been a good source of recruits. :wacko:

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