Meagre Heart

Good for you, my man!

IIRC Kelly actually skipped (intentionally withdrew from the map as soon as the battle started) Antietam and took a loss there. Apparently on Legendary it the union is absurdly strong and isn't worth the losses. Antietam is one of my favorite battles so far. I cheese the battle a little and have some 2500 strong divisions with farmer muskets and some cheap howitzers sitting on the bridges, so when the union spawns and tries to rush it turns into a bloodbath. What have you tried so far?

I hope you had a good Christmas Kelly. Just glad to hear that you're doin' alright!

I'm very curious about how it is you're taking so many losses on the first day. You can make some phenomenally defensive positions at the first farm and Seminary, and then Cemetary later if you feel it's necessary to withdraw. Also, if you must withdraw, make sure you pull back before you are forced back, and feel free to detach some skirmishers to cover your retreat. Skirmisher units are harder to hit in the woodlands and your enemy can't shoot past them to hit your brigade. Detach, leave the skirmishers, then fall back with your brigade. If you don't cover your retreat the enemy can simply run up and shoot you in the back! There's no shame in repeating battles to test your strategies and prepare for assaults. The CSA Antietam is brutal the first time if you don't know what to expect. Many Union generals were replaced throughout the actual Civil War due to perceived (or actual) incompetence or negligence, and it's a good thing the game challenges us. Keep playing and keep having fun!

Literally playable!

I would like to also chime in and send you my gratitude for your series! I hope you're move goes well.

Though only somewhat related, you can replace your personally named general and make him a brigade or division commander instead of a Corp commander, where he can be wounded or killed. This doesn't have an impact on the campaign overall but is a somewhat entertaining event.

I had no idea this was a thing! I was looking at his camp screen and astonished to see he had a few brigades with only a few hundred troops each! Some less! This makes much more sense now. I can only manage to scrape together a few hundred Henry rifles in the Early/Mid CSA game, but if I mash them into a 2.5k Farmer unit I could really make some magic happen. I've never used the feature before as my only experience with a 'Unit Combining' mechanic is from the Total War games, which deletes one unit to reinforce the other. Thank you for explaining what was going on. An exploit like that would sap the fun away for me since it somewhat reduces the excitement of having some units with fancy rifles and others being fodder out of necessity, but I'd be lying if I told you I'm not going to try it out at least once!

Thanks for putting up a video! I found the switch at the end of the campaign to battles focusing around forts to be a struggle. The first time I ran this one and won I took about 35 brigades to the northern forests, then barraged/sniped until the outer perimeter guards started to run. After that it was an intense leapfrog to the flags. Also, I'm curious about your Camp screen. How is it you've managed to hoard 1.5 million dollars?

Part of my dismounted cavalry 'tests' included making 750 man units equipped with the sawed off shotgun. My hope was that by massing them and relying on their high damage I could quickly shock brigades into retreating, even in woodlands. This, ah, didn't work as planned.

Well, as Tragopan highlighted here, these were also my conclusions. The cost of keeping these guys reinforced with veterans is debilitating and the lack of effective gear available to purchase makes it impossible to field more than two or three at a time at Rank 3. I had a few very memorable moments of charging my infantry through a fortification then immediately rushing my dismounted cavalrymen in front of them to soak incoming fire. They did marvelous, and once I reformed and refreshed my line I could make them fall back and continue my advance. This is probably a combined cost of over 75k across the span of the campaign for a handful of clutch moments, which is a little too rich for my blood. To summarize my brief experiment: why would you spend so much money on horses and then refuse to use them?

I've often wondered about how the behind-the-scenes mechanics work, but I've been supposing that the % indicator on the armory tab simply modifies what they have available, much like the game already does for the player. You know how the armory updates and refreshes it's stock after each major battle? I presume that the ai has a similar arsenal of weapons to choose from with similar limits. That way you may fight a few brigades with '55s, but others with Farmers.

I sometimes give my brigades special names once they achieve two stars after a battle, just to make 'em feel special, and usually choose a name related to the battle they just fought. Have a division that really held their own on Big Round Top? Call 'em the Hilltop Brigade. (A name I stole from Col_Kelly's tutorial videos, which you should watch).

Will do! My CSA game has slowed down because I want to take some time with the speculative battles in the final campaign (Hall's Ferry Road, etc), but once I get to see these guys in their element I'll let you know.

I have some bold plans for my next campaign. I think with the cover bonus from rank 3 Dismounted Infantry perk along with the rank 3 Defensive general perk you can build very resilient woodland skirmishers. I can't wait to see how I can leverage these guys.

Thanks for responding! I was curious from a gameplay standpoint if when dismounted the cavalry 'becomes' a skirmisher unit and no longer receives Cavalry specific bonuses from the Corp commander. It's interesting what you said about the additional morale damage being attributed to increased volleys. While certainly more bullets = more terror, I've noticed Cavalry induces a morale failure with fewer bullets fired than infantry. Am I simply stuck in a confirmation bias?

Since getting Forrest in the Confederate campaign I had only paltry success with him on horseback, but as soon as I dismounted him and put him into some cover he started tearing through the Union! I immediately added two cards of cavalry to each of my Corps to give provide more options. A few questions: Cavalry gets a bonus to morale damage, does this apply even when dismounted? Skirmishers seem to get a bonus to standing in cover, and in some cases benefit more from fortifications than regular infantry. Does this also apply to dismounted cav? If I've selected Cavalry as the second tier general upgrade do those bonuses apply to both mounted and dismounted?

If I recall correctly, he takes Experience -> Infantry -> Defender for two generals, and the third gets the command aura bonus instead. The exp bonus (again, iirc) is useful so that you don't have to spend so much on Veterans to keep your brigades strong since they regain experience a bit quicker.

Thanks again for all of the great tips and strategies Col. Kelly! I can't wait for you to post a video for Chickamauga, since it feels like a much different battle than those before it. The union is putting out some crazy gear for their brigades and it's hard to counter, and all of that woodland is making it casualty-city.

Keep on goin' PLF! It's very encouraging for me as a new player to learn from so many people.

I'm glad you have so much luck with them! I have poor micro, so mine often get whittled down. With the cost of replacing those guns, each casualty is worth 4-5 of a normal brigade, which makes me sad.

You know, after I posted what I wrote I thought "I'm probably thinking of earlier, aren't I?" Hah! You're absolutely right. I was thinking to 40-50 years prior where Napoleonic era charges were more interesting.

I had an interesting game where I would draw three star brigades out of formation (on that one map with the railroad) and then ambush them with two charges of 500 melee cavalry. It ends quickly, and felt a little cheesy, but that's the effect Cav had in that era.

I'm on the opposite side of the coin; I'm not a great player, and it's usually my own brigade trying to escape and running through enemy lines instead of towards my own units. It's frustrating, but I wish there was a better indicator to show that if that unit breaks, they are going to behave desperately. Maybe an indicator showing my brigade is overextended? In reality, I could imagine a brigade that is simply running away because it can't see a friendly force nearby. If they're panicked they're not going to do what anyone wants, really. It's tough to think of how to change the mechanic in a way that doesn't also allow for an exploit. If a brigade gets overrun (retreats accidentally into a foe) it could simply surrender or disband, but that makes it easy for the player to cheese tough fights.

Congratulations on your big win! My Union campaign ended in a minor victory, despite having clear superiority after each battle. Once the full campaign gets released with major battles, maybe there will be ways to tweak how the prelude battles affect the major ones, and even later battles. Should Jackson and the Stonewall brigade be around if you crushed them at Manassas? Wouldn't it be amazing if the previous battles adjusted the AI for future ones? (A badly defeated foe comes back and pursues you aggressively? A dominate foe is happy to let you come to him? Etc.) I love your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to write it.