Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Antietam (Confederate Side)


AegorBlackfyre

Recommended Posts

On 12/16/2016 at 9:10 PM, Hitorishizuka said:

Yeah, the Antietam scaling is a little ridiculous. As usual, ran out of supply on almost everyone, even with capturing a couple early supply from the enemy. The hard cap on Supply just isn't meant to deal with these kinds of numbers, it's pretty frustrating.

Confederate_Antietam_Results.jpg

 

To deal with this, you need to use generals with +20% ammo to lead your corps for these larger battles.

 

It helps a lot. I was able to finish Antietam on major general while only using about 30,000 of my own supplies plus some enemy supplies. Almost everyone had ammo when they needed it. 

Edited by clench
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played Antietam yesterday on hard as confederates 35k against 83k Union.
At the end i lost 13k while the Union had only 12k soldiers left on the field (most units shattered)

Antietam can be a real bloodbath or quite easy if you know how to play it.
Guide:
1. Make sure you field a small army because the enemy will scale like crazy.
2. Put all your largest brigades on the left flank, only a few brigades at the center and you need nothing on the right but one brigade (the game will not let you start the battle without at least one brigade there)
3. You should be able to match the enemy army size at the beginning. Because you hold superior defensive positions its easy to hold them of.
4. I advice you hold the woods north of the western hill. If you put a sniper unit on der upper left "island" they can probably kill one or both of the iron brigades without much help. Later the snipers can take out their cannons from behind, so you receive fewer losses when pushing the enemy back.
5. When your reinforcements arrive quickly push the enemy back to the upper right corner of the map, you should be able to shatter most brigades before their reinforcements arrive in this corner. Make sure your canons are positioned to fight their reinforcements in the next step.
6. Make sure you to put your brigades into the woods when their reinforcements arrive. You should be able to bottle them up and destory them to the last soldier even while they outnumber you.
7. While you wipe out the enemy in the north, position your troops in the center at the bridge. When you put at least 4 brigades and 4 artillery in firing distance of the bridge you can literally kill brigade after brigade instantly. As they spawn right before you with artillery and cavalry they probably manage to rout one or two brigades of you. Thats no problem, the enemy will falter quickly when being fired on with your artillery. But beware: if you lose this position completly they will swarm you (you can still win but will suffer additional casualties).
8. Hold this bridge until victory. You will be fired upon with artillery, so its good to position some rookies there to catch the bullets.
9. When the last phase starts your north army will have finished their job and can move down to defend Sharpsburg and the sunken road, if the enemy decides to corss the bridges in the south in force. If you want you can recapture the bridges there, but its not needed for a victory.

Antietam_CSA.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/2/2017 at 10:33 AM, Acika011 said:

Hitori, do you have a YouTube channel? I would really like to see how you play to achieve incredible results like in this battle.

@Acika011 A little late but I finally got around to recording Antietam:

Confederate2_Antietam_Results.png.dc7970c3ce9112f5ae4f5bf3c4d42253.png

There's basically only 3 slightly tricky points to hold in the entire battle the way I do it: Dunker Church, the bridge east of Sunken Road, and Stone Bridge. Hold those three and the rest of the battle is trivial.

Edited by Hitorishizuka
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, waldopbarnstormer said:

Hitori, can I ask what your strategy is to recruit and replace brigades because I see some of your brigades have a few hundred men and some brigades have over 1500? 

With this playthrough:

Brigades in the 2000 range are rookies/almost rookies used for combine division.

Brigades in the 1200-1500 range have typically just graduated from being bullet catchers and are there to fill #s out in grand battles as okay shooters where 1st Corps just needs the most troops to counter AI front-loaded deployments. Typically firearms scores of 40+. Below that it is probably cheap enough to bulk them back out with veterans and let them combine again to continue to pick up easy gains.

Brigades around 800 I am keeping at that size at the moment as supplemental veterans that are intended to shoot only from the best cover or flanks. They are units that I haven't yet needed to wither them down in support of having more deployable Corps worth of troops. Typically firearms scores of 60+

Brigades with a few hundred I am deliberately letting wither away so as to give them the best rifles and then combine division with them. Once they hit about 400 or so men is around where I have enough of the top tier rifles sitting around to outfit them appropriately, but lower is better. Typically firearms scores of 80+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
On 2/15/2017 at 9:38 AM, Hitorishizuka said:

@Acika011 A little late but I finally got around to recording Antietam:

Confederate2_Antietam_Results.png.dc7970c3ce9112f5ae4f5bf3c4d42253.png

There's basically only 3 slightly tricky points to hold in the entire battle the way I do it: Dunker Church, the bridge east of Sunken Road, and Stone Bridge. Hold those three and the rest of the battle is trivial.

Wow! I can't wait to replay and try to fight much more like that. I feel like I face a lot more Union though, and a lot of 3 stars. I swear there are three or four Iron Brigades. You also have way more and way better cavalry than me. How do you nurture them throughout the campaign?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/18/2017 at 6:30 PM, Bobby Fiasco said:

Wow! I can't wait to replay and try to fight much more like that. I feel like I face a lot more Union though, and a lot of 3 stars. I swear there are three or four Iron Brigades. You also have way more and way better cavalry than me. How do you nurture them throughout the campaign?

This was recorder a long time ago, a lot of things changed in that time period.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2017-2-15 at 3:38 PM, Hitorishizuka said:

@Acika011 A little late but I finally got around to recording Antietam:

Confederate2_Antietam_Results.png.dc7970c3ce9112f5ae4f5bf3c4d42253.png

There's basically only 3 slightly tricky points to hold in the entire battle the way I do it: Dunker Church, the bridge east of Sunken Road, and Stone Bridge. Hold those three and the rest of the battle is trivial.

I'm trying this battle on Major General and hitting a wall.

Have you attempted this battle on MG and got similar results? My main problem does seem to be supply and being stretch insanely thin, the bridge choke-points mean nothing to the Union on MG so defending them is difficult even with a large detachment, which I can't really afford.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
On 5/21/2017 at 6:34 AM, AJ McCully said:

I'm trying this battle on Major General and hitting a wall.

Have you attempted this battle on MG and got similar results? My main problem does seem to be supply and being stretch insanely thin, the bridge choke-points mean nothing to the Union on MG so defending them is difficult even with a large detachment, which I can't really afford.

 

I'm curious to know if anyone has played this on the most current version as the Confederates (any difficulty) and if so, would be glad to read thoughts on Army size and organization heading into the battle. And of course newer/better strategy if used. How bad is Union scaling on BG level? 

When Col Kelly elects to skip this battle in his ongoing video series it makes me think twice about fighting it!! :wacko:  Thanks in advance. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I managed to win Antietam (current patch, legendary) with 22k vs. 85k losses with a classic pincer movement, using skirmishers to flank the infantry-core and bind the union artillery, my cav took almost all their supply waggons. I used all available forces in Phase 1 to beat their first assault and drive them into the open, enveloping them and using canister manually to break charges. My skirmishers drove the union reinforcements to the same open ground by pressuring their flanks, so this open area (screenshot) became a killing field, the only retreat for union troops beeing one patch of forest. Since their artillery was isolated and couldn't participate in the main fight, i had no problems to hold my envelopement. In the last phase the union troops in the north were already so weakened that i could pull off one third of my infantry brigades to bolster my defenses at Sunken Road and Sharpsburg where I managed to break their final Iassault. I was really surprised, when I saw the scorescreen, cause my 24PD Howitzers only took 8th and 9th place in kills with 4,5k and 4k beeing in a very good position to canister almost the entire time while my infantrybrigades with Enfields and Harpers did 5k, one Enfieldsbrigade even an absurd 8,6k kills. Even my Richmondbrigade of 1,5k men got 5k kills.

I watched some playthroughs where the confederate defenses held bravely but were routed ultimatively and my own playthrough on BG was a victory only because of my army size. Imho the biggest mistake you can make as confederate on Antietam is to play passive and defend the woods around dunker church. If you manage to beat the first assault coming from the north decisively and keep fighting them in advantageous terrain, you will have a superior kill ratio with less casualties.

In conclusion this was the most entertaining, most challenging battle yet, constantly under pressure by a much larger force, one mistake equalling the loss of a cavbrigade or even the union breaking through the envelopement. Well done devs!

20170919184043_1.jpg

20170919190302_1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Grimthaur said:

I managed to win Antietam (current patch, legendary) with 22k vs. 85k losses with a classic pincer movement, using skirmishers to flank the infantry-core and bind the union artillery, my cav took almost all their supply waggons. I used all available forces in Phase 1 to beat their first assault and drive them into the open, enveloping them and using canister manually to break charges. My skirmishers drove the union reinforcements to the same open ground by pressuring their flanks, so this open area (screenshot) became a killing field, the only retreat for union troops beeing one patch of forest. Since their artillery was isolated and couldn't participate in the main fight, i had no problems to hold my envelopement. In the last phase the union troops in the north were already so weakened that i could pull off one third of my infantry brigades to bolster my defenses at Sunken Road and Sharpsburg where I managed to break their final Iassault. I was really surprised, when I saw the scorescreen, cause my 24PD Howitzers only took 8th and 9th place in kills with 4,5k and 4k beeing in a very good position to canister almost the entire time while my infantrybrigades with Enfields and Harpers did 5k, one Enfieldsbrigade even an absurd 8,6k kills. Even my Richmondbrigade of 1,5k men got 5k kills.

I watched some playthroughs where the confederate defenses held bravely but were routed ultimatively and my own playthrough on BG was a victory only because of my army size. Imho the biggest mistake you can make as confederate on Antietam is to play passive and defend the woods around dunker church. If you manage to beat the first assault coming from the north decisively and keep fighting them in advantageous terrain, you will have a superior kill ratio with less casualties.

In conclusion this was the most entertaining, most challenging battle yet, constantly under pressure by a much larger force, one mistake equalling the loss of a cavbrigade or even the union breaking through the envelopement. Well done devs!

20170919184043_1.jpg

20170919190302_1.jpg

I agree that being too passive will cause too many losses, but IMO you should let the Union extend farther south and crush him mainly with a left wing envelopment. Even after being repulsed from Dunker church and being threatened on the left, the AI will still send its forces towards the sunken road in the phase change and that is the best time to crush the AI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

i am currently at Antietam.. i seriously consider starting a Union campaign or a total new Confederate campaign. :(
i cant seem to win or draw Antietam, i just have very few troops to do anything. Any help is appreciated.. i can post my army if you want.

 

Update:

Tried 3 times yesterday and after watching 2 videos on here i managed to beat the Union by being more aggressive and swinging the door shut from the north towards the church. However my army is destroyed, hard win... have 350.000 to rebuild

Edited by Mukremin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/5/2017 at 3:53 PM, Mukremin said:

i am currently at Antietam.. i seriously consider starting a Union campaign or a total new Confederate campaign. :(
i cant seem to win or draw Antietam, i just have very few troops to do anything. Any help is appreciated.. i can post my army if you want.

 

Update:

Tried 3 times yesterday and after watching 2 videos on here i managed to beat the Union by being more aggressive and swinging the door shut from the north towards the church. However my army is destroyed, hard win... have 350.000 to rebuild

Hi Mukremin,

I have been fortunate enough to arrive at Antietam a few times at BG-level and win.  Wiping out or shattering the Feds at Shiloh, 2nd Corinth, and Malvern Hill has dealt body-blows to them and they have difficulty in gathering strength for the next battles.  At this moment, I have once more wiped them out at Antietam.

My starting numbers are:

I Corps 12 bgdes  1 skirmish    5 artillery battalions    2 cavalry      supply @35,000

               22,054 Soldiers     3000 arty with 120 cannons       1,500 cavalry troopers

II Corps  12 bgdes   7 artillery battalions    1 cav     supply@35,000

               21,900 Soldiers     3750 arty with 150 cannons       750 cav troopers

III Corps   6 bgdes    4 skirmishers      5 artillery battalions   1 cav      supply

              13,763 Soldiers    1875 arty with 75 cannons          750 cav troopers

 

Feds                      victory   CSA

inf  58,399                           58,617

cav 2315                              3,000

Guns 306                                345

                  cas/losses

inf  43,071                           22,096

guns   210                                   10

cav   1,350                                546

missing 3293                               0

 

Some months back I had read about moving my forces up even with the farthest north line of fence of the Miller farm, so I put weak forces there and straight east, and angled up from the farm to the tip of woods of Nicodemus hill on the left.  I placed two artillery battalions behind the fence and one in the open space leading to the hill, and sent two groups of skirmishers out to the left and swung behind the Yanks to knock off their artillery battalion there by the group of trees.  Played defense until the group of reinforcements arrived, slowed and stopped their forward motion and started pushing them north, while using skirmishers to gradually make a pocket with the north and east map edges.  The cavalry and 3-4 skirmish units started going after the supply wagons and slowly destroying Fed artillery battalions, and then destroyed or captured all Fed units to the northeast.

When the units at the sunken road appear, (I had read this tactic earlier), I immediately send 4 inf brigades and 2 arty battalions to the middle bridge - placing one on each side facing the bridge with and arty battalion directly behind each, and place a back-up inf brigade behind each arty battalion.  A 5th inf brigade is sent to the woods to the north of the previous units to await a 1,000 trooper cav unit that attempts to clear the road to the bridge - and fails.  Once the Feds crossing the bridge are all smashed (inf-cav-arty), then move all your units back to form a quarter circle around the area where a few new units will arrive from across the middle bridge.  (I never received a Yank attack at the sunken road.)

At Burnside's bridge to the south, bring all available infantry brigades and artillery units to the bridge or to the depression or on the hill directly behind and pour all firepower into any Fed attacks.  I always take the unit at the southernmost ford to the bridge while leaving its skirmishers to hold the ford.

Eventually I bring all CSA units in the north and at the sunken road to the southeast part of the map, driving all remaining Feds into the SE corner and shattering or capturing them.

It sure is easier to win when you start off even in numbers ... :D

           --Gael      

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/15/2016 at 5:40 PM, AegorBlackfyre said:

Hello i was playing the battle Antietam as a confederate and i lost the battle (duh) but i was really wondering if this result was achieved in real life would the confederate be able to win the war?

i mean in the real battle the union casualties were 12,410 while the confederates casualties were 10,316, so this time the Army of the Potomac took some serious casualties leaving it with only 47 thousand men but one would also argue saying that the Army of Northern Virginia is completely destroyed only 16000 men. 

so what do you generals think?

   
 

Antitam.jpg

AegorBlackfyre,

I don't think the CSA would have won the war solely on the basis of winning this battle.  The army was so worn out by that time, they couldn't continue on their campaign to deliver a decisive blow to the north.

The reasoning is that this battle was fought by Lee and the defense of the South Mountain passes two days earlier solely to shield Stonewall in his effort to capture the 11-12,000 Yanks bottled up at Harpers Ferry.  OPINION: To lose a corps like that should have shaken the North but for the propaganda mill at work proclaiming a northern victory and Lincoln hurrying to issue the emancipation proclamation, which seems in hindsight to have distracted much attention.

According to the book "North With Lee and Jackson", the army was heading north to destroy the anthracite (hard) coal mines in the six counties east of the Susquehanna River, when the very sudden and unexpected forward movement by McClellan occurred just two weeks after the severe thrashing of Pope's army and the subsequent reorganization of both Yank armies into a single entity.  Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson were able to continue after 2nd Manassas and Chantilly (west of and right next to Fair Oaks Mall on Rt 50 is a tiny park with two boulders marking where both Generals Kearney and Stevens were killed) as DH Hill had led 3 divisions up from the Richmond area after the majority of McClellan's troops had shipped out and up north to reinforce Pope, while Lincoln was infuriated with McClellan's footdragging and slowness in reinforcing Pope who was "getting his lunch handed to him".

Jackson's strategy on destroying the coal mines had been recommended just before the Peninsular Campaign and the Seven Days, so he had to wait til the Fall, and by then the CSA had to go slow as their shoes and clothes were already wearing out just as they were entering Maryland with its stone-paved roads ...  The stone roads and worn-out conditions of the Fall of 1862 were definitely on Lee's and Jackson's minds when planning the 1863 campaign, so when they won at Chancellorsville, Lee within a few weeks sent Ewell off for the mines in Pennsylvania once more, only to bump into the battle at Gettysburg.

                      --Gael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...