Struggling - but love it... Need campaign advice please.

[pdstanbridge]

New to this game and am thoroughly enjoying it. It's easy to pick up but very difficult to master.

I've read the tips thread above, and it has helped a little. But I'm struggling with numbers. I've played two campaigns now, but only until I got sacked in one and gave up in the other. I've tried both sides.

My basic problem is a fundamental one. I am lacking in manpower. I've started out with no bonuses, and gone with 1 corps until I have to upgrade to 2 and 3. My career path; I start out with the 4 recon which I find essential. Then I focus on politics/organisation. I try to focus on primarily infantry units in my divisions. I am doing well until I get to the end of 1862, then I have tiny corps due to the lack of manpower. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage. In one main battle of the campaign, I had 42,000 men and the enemy had 68,000 or so. It was a hard slog. But I eventually won. But from then onwards I had too many casualties and not enough replacements. It was unsustainable and quite frankly, not much fun. It felt terribly unbalanced from that point onwards and I'm not sure how you are expected to proceed. The problem as I see it, when you are made to add a corps of men to your army, the AI scaling seems to go through the roof. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I had manpower, but after losing 20,000 in one battle and then expected to face 60,000 or so in the next battle. I don't know what you are supposed to do.

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I've also read that you don't need to worry too much about weapons as you will capture thousands along the way. This isn't how I see it. Sure, I am capturing a percentage. But nowhere near enough. I am wondering if turning the difficulty level down a notch will help.

 

[Bentbake]

Give'em the bayonet!

[James Cornelius]

The first step is to keep your casualties low in battles. Keep in cover and seize any opportunities that present themselves to flank or shatter an enemy brigade that is exposed, isolated, or cut off. Eliminating an enemy brigade early on can have big dividends in a long battle.

 

Do not be too eager to expose your troops in needless charges. When you have two brigades engaging one enemy, try to maneuver one of them so that it is attacking the enemy flank. Protect your own flanks! If you are about to be flanked, better to fall back than take those volleys!

 

I generally don't put much into organization early on - just enough to get the minimum of corps needed. You need two corps for the Union by Shiloh, but only one for the Confederates. In my most recent Union playthrough I did not put in organization points to get four divisions per corps until the attack on Richmond (though in hindsight I probably should have for Cold Harbor). Don't feel the need to have every reinforcement go straight into the line - in that campaign I still had 50,000 men in reserve even after going to 4 divisions x 3 corps.

 

With 4 brigades per division, I prefer a balanced army of 3 infantry brigades and 1 artillery battery per division but some prefer all infantry with one divisions as just artillery. Many players even after maximizing organization still prefer 2000 man brigades to 2500.

 

If you want recon, choose a career path that gives you most of it in the beginning and then focus on politics first since that will maximize the amount of reward you get. After that, I like medicine as it has a twofold benefit - you don't have to replace veterans, and you also don't have to replace their weapons making it quite cost effective over the course of the campaign.

 

Watch some of the videos other guys have posted and watch how they position their troops - that might help you with your own positioning.

 

Good luck!

[Major Grigg]

I went through similar struggles when I first got the game way back when. 

 

Your casualties are too high. You should never lose 20,000 men in one conflict. One thing that is pretty basic and fundamental that took me a while to take seriously and implement in my tactical philosophy is cover, and flank. Once you find cover, stay put and flank. Advance to cover, hold and flank, advance. This is simple, yet crucial to keeping casualties down. 

 

Also, protect your flanks with skirmishers, cav, and light brigades. 

 

Hope this helps. Good luck! 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

7 hours ago, pdstanbridge said:

New to this game and am thoroughly enjoying it. It's easy to pick up but very difficult to master.

I've read the tips thread above, and it has helped a little. But I'm struggling with numbers. I've played two campaigns now, but only until I got sacked in one and gave up in the other. I've tried both sides.

My basic problem is a fundamental one. I am lacking in manpower. I've started out with no bonuses, and gone with 1 corps until I have to upgrade to 2 and 3. My career path; I start out with the 4 recon which I find essential. Then I focus on politics/organisation. I try to focus on primarily infantry units in my divisions. I am doing well until I get to the end of 1862, then I have tiny corps due to the lack of manpower. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage. In one main battle of the campaign, I had 42,000 men and the enemy had 68,000 or so. It was a hard slog. But I eventually won. But from then onwards I had too many casualties and not enough replacements. It was unsustainable and quite frankly, not much fun. It felt terribly unbalanced from that point onwards and I'm not sure how you are expected to proceed. The problem as I see it, when you are made to add a corps of men to your army, the AI scaling seems to go through the roof. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I had manpower, but after losing 20,000 in one battle and then expected to face 60,000 or so in the next battle. I don't know what you are supposed to do.

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I've also read that you don't need to worry too much about weapons as you will capture thousands along the way. This isn't how I see it. Sure, I am capturing a percentage. But nowhere near enough. I am wondering if turning the difficulty level down a notch will help.

 

What difficulty are you playing? Colonel is not necessarily easy mode, it just lowers the enemy slightly until you can get your feet under you. 

Your fundamentals are sound. If you can take an army of 42K and whip a Federal Army of 68,000 you've gotten the general idea down. Well done!

But, as always, the devil is in the details. The more you play the better you get at the little stuff that makes a difference: where you site your men and batteries, how to use skirmishers to greatest effect, and how to dance cavalry around the flanks and always keep the enemy watching over their shoulder. And, after you play the same battles a couple of times, you'll know the best angle to stick in the knife and when to twist. 

Regarding weapons, yes, you'll capture them along the way, but you'll also lose some along the way. Some players like to buy as many cheap guns as they can afford to build as many large, green brigades as possible. Personally, I don't like to pay money for guns I don't want to keep for the long run; not after Bull Run anyway. And I have no problem buying large numbers of Harpers Ferry and M1855 when availability of suppy and gold make it possible. Whenever you see the word Spencer, buy 'em. All of 'em. You want those most of all.  Unless you're Confederate, then apply that to the Fayettevilles. 

[Hitorishizuka]

You can't afford to take Pyrrhic victories. If you're not inflicting at minimum at least twice as many casualties as you are taking, you need to figure out how to play more conservatively or strategically while still accomplishing your objectives. (Really you should be looking for at least 5:1 but that's a starting point.)

It should also be noted that ballooning your army with just rookies to pad numbers doesn't help you much, both in terms of enemy scaling and in terms of developing your core troops for later. Staying small gives you veterans who, in the right position and with the right weapons, can outfight many times their number.

[HansGruber]

17 hours ago, pdstanbridge said:

New to this game and am thoroughly enjoying it. It's easy to pick up but very difficult to master.

I've read the tips thread above, and it has helped a little. But I'm struggling with numbers. I've played two campaigns now, but only until I got sacked in one and gave up in the other. I've tried both sides.

My basic problem is a fundamental one. I am lacking in manpower. I've started out with no bonuses, and gone with 1 corps until I have to upgrade to 2 and 3. My career path; I start out with the 4 recon which I find essential. Then I focus on politics/organisation. I try to focus on primarily infantry units in my divisions. I am doing well until I get to the end of 1862, then I have tiny corps due to the lack of manpower. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage. In one main battle of the campaign, I had 42,000 men and the enemy had 68,000 or so. It was a hard slog. But I eventually won. But from then onwards I had too many casualties and not enough replacements. It was unsustainable and quite frankly, not much fun. It felt terribly unbalanced from that point onwards and I'm not sure how you are expected to proceed. The problem as I see it, when you are made to add a corps of men to your army, the AI scaling seems to go through the roof. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I had manpower, but after losing 20,000 in one battle and then expected to face 60,000 or so in the next battle. I don't know what you are supposed to do.

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I've also read that you don't need to worry too much about weapons as you will capture thousands along the way. This isn't how I see it. Sure, I am capturing a percentage. But nowhere near enough. I am wondering if turning the difficulty level down a notch will help.

 

Before you do improvements to your game, just finish your campaign first. Just take yourself as far as possible whether you get a Victory or Defeat. If manpower is your problem, then do this: Fix your army size for different stages of the campaign and try to win your individual battles from there. 

Recon will not improve your army and only serves as crutches.

Rush Army Org 6  first to get 20 brigades in a Corps. For battles before Malvern Hill, you can go with size 1000 infantry brigades. During Malvern Hill, you can opt for size 1200 until Antietam where 1500 would be good. Use size 2000 brigades only during or after Gettysburg. Then, you can stop putting points to Army Org to rush Politics (more manpower). Don't be afraid to spend reputation points. Morale is easily increased through participation in battle so spend your Reputation as long as you don't get morale penalties.

Of course these numbers are somewhat arbitrary but it will help you manage your manpower well. For instance, if you lost 20k men with 1200-1500 size brigades then you probably lost the battle. Therefore, you have to teach yourself how to win that battle and not rely on looking at numbers.  Note that, increasing the size of your brigades DO NOT significantly increase their firepower. Increasing brigade sizes is practically for increasing MORALE. You improve firepower through better weapons. Don't mind the scaling that others say. It's mostly been fixed and enemy numbers largely depend on the Difficulty you chose at the beginning.

[pdstanbridge]

Thanks all for your advice, it really came in useful. I restarted a Union campaign, and have had a much better experience. The only caveat is notching down the difficulty level so that I get the gold and manpower bonus. That has helped no end. I started out small, with brigades smaller than 1000 men, and have gradually been able to ramp them up to 2000, and some of them with elite status. I'm still struggling somewhat with the weapons side of things however. I've been on the lookout for those Spencer rifles and have managed to find a whopping 16 When do they start to show in numbers?

I've just finished the Stones River mission, and managed to field 95,000 men. The Confederates had 60,000. By the end of the battle they suffered 38,000 casualties to my 24k. That was a pretty difficult mission for me, up that hill. It was a long, costly slog. I sense the missions are really ramping up in difficulty now. Lots more entrenchments and better quality troops.

[Hitorishizuka]

15 hours ago, pdstanbridge said:

I've just finished the Stones River mission, and managed to field 95,000 men. The Confederates had 60,000. By the end of the battle they suffered 38,000 casualties to my 24k. That was a pretty difficult mission for me, up that hill. It was a long, costly slog. I sense the missions are really ramping up in difficulty now. Lots more entrenchments and better quality troops.

FYI, Stones River you can basically break them on the first two points with a stiff defense and then roll them after the first phase. Fielding a lot of troops actually works against you because of how limited your deployment is initially and how strong they come in.