The Battle of Shiloh AKA let's do some more retreating. Can anyone weigh in on what this battle is like on legendary?

[PegLegFatty]

The Battle of Shiloh (on Normal Difficulty) gives you far more troops than you need.  

Pro Tips for this battle (on normal difficulty):

Don't over-engage or push too far
Hold Back
Keep a reserve

I kept facing the problem of being forced to retreat from engagements I had the upper hand in.  I'm guessing that is normal on this difficulty.  

What is this battle like on Legendary difficulty?  
The Battle of Shiloh (Day 1)

[Aetius]

As the Confederates on Legendary, it's not easy but it's doable - I push my units through the hole in the middle of the Union lines along the map divide, take Pittsburg Landing, and then hold it. It can get dicey at the end with the heavy Union reinforcements.

As the Union, it's much more difficult. Your forces are small and relatively inexperienced. I've lost the battle in my last two Legendary attempts - one to a cavalry unit slipping into the rear and capturing the VP, and another to just getting run over. I think the best strategy remains doing as much damage as you can on the left, and then falling back to Pittsburg Landing and holding. The problem is that the defenses right around the VP are very poor, and it's difficult to hold it against the storm of Confederates that come through the woods. Also, the VP capture area extends out beyond the fortifications, so all they need to do to win is stand there - having a unit in the fortifications is not enough to stop them from taking it.

[A. P. Hill]

Quite possibly, your "being forced back" could simply be game mechanics attempting to mimic actual history. 

The Confederates overwhelmed the Union troops on the first day forcing them back, almost into the river. Night came and gave the struggling union troops a chance to regroup.  Getting fresh reenforcements during the night also helped.  Knowing the battle would resume the next day the Union forces were prepared. 

The Confederates were prepared as well for the second day, they just don't have any reenforcements to replace their loss from the first day. 

[Bigjku]

A few things.

1.  Your units that keep frustrating you by wandering around are "auto sliding" because they are being told to position on top of another brigade and they are trying to sort themselves out.  For the most part units can't occupy the same space.  With artillery you can.  But infantry it's a big no no.  Try clicking on the division (hold control and de select artillery if you don't want to move it) then draw a line to deploy them and tweak it after.  That will ensure you have spacing.  Otherwise just be careful to keep brigades clear of one another.

2.  Part of the issue with the ammo issues you had is some of the positions you were fighting from and the weapons you have.  First smoothbores don't do much damage at extreme range even outside of cover.  With both sides in trees you expend a ton of ammo for not many kills.  Sometimes this is unavoidable but at Shilo you want to make your hay around the positions on your left flank (right side of map) where there is open ground and opportunities for flanking fire from cover.  You can really pile up the kills here which will be important when you go on the attack.  Done right you can make day 2 a walkover.  There is no particular spot you need to hold long term other than the landing.  Find good cover with open ground before you and kill until forced to move.

3.  Another control tip.  Don't ever give a move back order with the move command under fire.  You will be instantly rear flanked.  Use the fallback command until out of range.  Then issue the move commands.

4.  You don't have to fallback to the landing at all.  Generally my right flank (left side of the map) never moves.  My left flank bends back to maintain contact with my right wing and form a pretty much connected line.  The important thing is to form a continuous line and force the enemy South during all phases of the battle.  All CSA troops come from the south.  The ones you fought for the landing likely went through the large gap in the middle of your lines when you piled everyone into the triangle behind the hornets nest.  You need to hold the woods west of there.  Array artillery by the tip of the hornets nest to fire down the tree line. Your infantry in those woods can flank any attack direct on the hornets nest and the hornets nest can do the same to any attempt on the woods.

I think at least one of the units that beat you north was the one you routed on the western portion of the map but that had gotten around your lines and routed to the North.  You want as long of a defensible line as you can get anchored on the river on the East.  That should keep the enemy out of the landing and let you fight from better spots.

 

Overall the key to me as the Union at Shilo is the wreck the enemy on the eastern side of the map.  You can rack up kill numbers that make day 2 a walkover if you get after it.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Bigjku

[AJ McCully]

The Union strategy, in theory, is as simple as delaying as much as you can, a bit like Antietam as the CSA. In practice, it's a lot harder. 

You really have to exploit the best defensive points and keep the attackers on their toes so they don't have an easy job of simply walking towards your VP. 

If you try to hold a line far in the front (i.e. the points you hold on the first phases of Day 1), all that's going to happen is a rebel cavalry unit will steal the VP as soon as the map opens up. Spain Field and Larkin Bell Field are not good points to hold for a long fight and, when you give them up, you leave all your brigades at Shiloh Church exposed. 

Hornet's Nest is a great point to hold for as long as possible as it takes a lot of pressure off your centre at Pittsburg Landing. Your centre is the weakest point as the enemy has cover leading right up to the fortifications and can take the VP just by routing the 1 brigade that can defend those fortifications. It's better to have a stubborn detachment of your army holding Hornet's Nest, at least for a while. Even if you allow some of the confederate army to skirt around, some of it will remain to fight you there and make their attack on PB less effective.

If they do hit you hard in the centre, try to swing around on the flanks of their attack as the confederate advance is pretty chaotic and uneven, especially if you're stubbornly holding parts of the map. The right flank of PB is also pretty shit, so it's better to fight a series of delaying battles in the woods and farmhouses between Shiloh Church and PB.

I think the two most common ways to lose Shiloh as the Union is to over-extend and stretch out your army across all the points, or to do the opposite and turtle up in PB.