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barrydylan

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Landsmen

Landsmen (1/13)

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  1. Ok, so its fair to criticize the ad hominems and generalization. I only swore once though so its not like I littered it with profanity like a 14-year-old. I may have been ~4 beers deep when I initially posted this so now I regret adding point 5. I'm glad you liked the part of the review that stayed relevant to the game.
  2. It only took me 280+ hours and many false starts, but I've finally captured Richmond and saved the Union. I thought I would make this post to share my experience/philosophy as a Union player (I play both sides but I decided to beat it for the first time on the right side of history). Here are my opinions, take them for what they are worth: 1) Once you learn the basic mechanics, don't play it on any difficulty lower than MG. The finished game is pretty well-balanced and I don't think the computer relies too heavily on the number advantage since they fixed the scaling system. The AI in this game will never be intelligent as a human player, but there are plenty of difficult situations that you must think hard to win which make it both challenging and fun. If you struggle on MG don't be afraid to save mid battle before you make tactical decisions. If you mess up, go back to your save. That's what I did throughout this campaign and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. 2) a. Everyone has their own opinion on what is the best Army composition/campaign management system. Take the time to figure out what works best for your style of tactics in battle. That being said, the ...general.... consensus seems to be that one should focus on creating infantry heavy armies backed by a combination of 24lb Howitzers and 10lb Rifles. Personally I don't bother with any other type of cannon besides those and the 6lb smoothbores. I also like having one elite mounted infantry brigade in each corps. They're great for flanking and chasing routing units or (in desperate circumstances) filling gaps in your battle line. You can run a sniper brigade if you want, those units can rack massive casualties, but the downside is the AI matches whatever type gun you have and has 5x the number of those type brigades. b. When it comes to using campaign points I establish certain baselines (4 recon, 2-3 logistics, 6 organization) and then focus on maxing out the other stats in the following order: Politics, Medicine, Econ/Training. I think a lot of the play testers who primarily play on BG underestimate the value of veterans. You don't want to break the bank buying tons of vets but I think they are worth it in the late game. Especially during the period between Chancellorsville and Cold Harbor, you don't get many troops as rewards for those battles and if you've maxed out your medicine buying vets starts to make more sense than recruiting rookies. However, refer to point 2a, everyone has their opinion and find out what works best for you. c. This may be a left over habit from when the game was in alpha and the scaling was broken, but I don't go past Army Org 6 and I don't use more than three corps. I run one elite corps, a second veteran corps, and a third corps of reserves, which also includes my only brigades of melee cav for sniping victory points or mopping up routing troops in the latter part of major battles. 3. Battle Strat: As Grant figured out during the Wilderness campaign, the key to winning battles is flanking, flanking, and flanking some more. If the battle map constrains you so as to inhibit flanking (i.e. Mule Shoe) pick a point and concentrate all of your firepower into to breaking the line at that singular location. Then... you guessed it... roll the enemy by flanking them through their broken battle line. Another piece of advice is to know your civil war history. If you're playing this game, you're obviously a nerd. You should know that Lee split his forces to rout Hooker at Chancellorsville, so brace your forces for Jackson's attack on your right flank! 4. As Sherman said, "war is hell," and this game sure is fun as hell. Tell your friends to play it. Below are my final stats and army comp going into Richmond 5.PS, congrats if you read to the bottom: There is one last point I want to direct at all the Lost Cause revisionists who occasionally spew your bullshit on this forum. The war was fought by the South to preserve the institution of race-based slavery, and the subsequent racial hierarchy that placed the poorest, most ignorant white above any black. The aim to preserve slavery is written in the various articles of secession of the majority of Confederate states, and clearly stated in the letters, journals, and official correspondence of everyone involved in the Confederacy. Yes, the North, and Lincoln, would've tolerated the continued existence of slavery to preserve the United States at the beginning of the war. But after the Emancipation Proclamation the war very much became about ending slavery versus preserving it. If you believe anything else then you are willfully ignorant. That doesn't mean it isn't fun to play as the CSA, but you don't need some perverted ideology to justify doing so.
  3. Yeah I was the Union and played too aggressively, which I won't do next time. But its the cavalry spawn that kills me. Has anyone else controlled all the VP's at once, just to have a bunch of 3-Star 850 strong cav brigades spawn at directly on top of them?
  4. This battle is almost unplayable in it's current form. As my title suggests, there are two reasons why: 1. The AI routing mechanic is still broken. I rout AI brigades and then they disappear in the woods, only to reappear as they take Kelly's field or one of the other objectives. With the number of troops the AI has on MG, its impossible to track them all down and destroy them in the heavy woods, because you constantly have to rush brigades to hold every single objective if you want to win the battle. By the end of the battle, there are AI brigades everywhere having "teleported" to each objective after routing them. I only won the battle because I rushed all my cav skirmshers to take back the last VPs at the last possible second. 2. The AI magically spawns somewhere between 6 and 10 cavalry brigades in the fourth(?) phase of the battle IN THE MIDDLE OF MY BATTLE LINES. This is what really pissed me off. So I get a couple volley's off and rout them, then they disappear into the woods which brings me back to the first problem with the game/battle. I am aware the AI routing issue is a well-known bug which appears unfixable for some reason. But the cavalry spawning at the objectives is ridiculous. It seems to me that they should have to enter at border of the map like all the other troops do in every other battle. I fought this battle twice. The first time, I lost in the first phase but only took ~2k casualties. The second time I won, but lost 25k (out of 52k) and several elite brigades. I could have managed the battle better (now that I know the AI is going to magically spawn thousands of cavalry) but I still think the rep and money aren't worth the amount of casualties it takes to win the battle.
  5. This is actually a really easy battle after you've learned how to exploit it. There are several bugs that seem to happen as a result of the phase changes. And Stuart's calvary gets trapped in the corner and destroyed way too easily. But the real reason I made this thread is because I wanted to share this screenshot with the only people who will appreciate it.
  6. So I've been running my second Union campaign on Hard/MG and its been the most satisfying one so far. And through Antietam at least it hasn't been unpleasantly difficult. The AI's experience and numbers bonus makes up for its strategic ineptitude. The only exploit I know is the combine brigade, and I don't use it. Unless we consider flanking an exploit, because the AI is so bad at dealing with flanking maneuvers... So in sum I think MG/hard is the best difficulty level and I'm surprised the more experienced players here prefer BG/Normal. It all comes down to personal preference though.
  7. I hadn't thought of that, good point. As I get better at microing I am finding marksman to be the better perk.
  8. What are the opinions on the second star infantry perk? I was watching Aetius play and I saw he prefers to give all his 2 star rifles marksman training over firearms. I just finished Malvern Hill on MG and I was running a little experiment with my 2 stars. I made two brigades of equal strength armed with 1855s. I micro'd them to the best of my ability on my left flank, and the firearm-perk brigade dealt way more casualties than the marksman. In fact, the marksman unit now ceases to exist (RIP). In my experience, I find firearm training to be far more effective than marksman. Its all about getting more firepower faster than your opponent.. Same reason I give my smoothbores and howitzers gunnery training. I-1/3 rifles is the unit I'm talking about and as you can see below they have put in some work for me. (Including over 4k kills at Shiloh)
  9. Well, history has always been a narrative we construct, even when the evidence is literally carved in stone. To indulge in a little more speculation: Even if McClellan had won the election, I think war would have broken out again between the two sides over control of the West, and by that point Northern industrialization would almost certainly guarantee a victory for the USA.
  10. Would it not get boring playing as the North over and over again? I alternate between both sides. And in comparison I find playing as the CSA more challenging and interesting as well.
  11. It might have lasted longer but the end result would've been the same.
  12. Thanks for the advice. Reading/watching Koro's walkthroughs he recommended sticking with 1 corps as long as possible which is what I was doing. After the shock cav nerf I'm guessing you're still of the opinion they are worth the investment?
  13. Yeah, bumping up my army org to 7 and then filling my brigades out is the mistake I think I made after Chantilly. Also I'm an idiot and stated this is my screen after Cedar Mountain when its actually after Harper's Ferry. With 20k recruits I have enough to make another full corps, which I've done in the last few attempts. I move some of my veterans brigade down from the 1st corps to balance them out. I will follow your advice to make smaller brigades, which is also what I was thinking.
  14. I need some help on Antietam as the CSA. I've played and lost it three times in a row now on the hard difficulty after trying a few different strategies. I'm afraid I've mismanaged my army beforehand and I'm screwed, but I'd like to hear from some other people how they win at Antietam. I know I could pull back to Sharpsburg and play for the draw (easily) but I like winning. Attached is my army composition after Cedar Mountain and prior to the major battle itself. I've got one career point to burn which I plan to use on logistics because I inevitably run out of ammo by the third phase of the battle. The last couple attempts I've bought rifles for all my remaining musket units, then used those extra muskets to equip new brigades. I still run out of guns before I run out of money. Last attempt the scaling put me at 40k vs 90k. Even though I get units racking up anywhere from 1000 to 4000 kills in the course of the battle, I can't hold off the AI's numbers in the last phase. My second corps only has a couple mounted skirmishers and one infantry brigade in it. For the record, I've got 100plus hours in this game and I've watched/read the guides and the FAQ so I'm not a total noob.
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