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Army Management for new players


jo005597

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There's been some excellent advice for new players posted but much of it centered around the actual game play and fighting each battle. I have some tips to share when it comes to building your army and maintaining it in the camp.

In the heat of battle there's a lot going on - especially in those huge maps that come later in the conflict. Knowing who is who, where they are, what skills they have is vital, but nothing disrupts a game like constantly pushing pause to inspect a unit. This is were the features made available in the camp really come to your aid - use them and you will have an edge in battle.

1. You have the ability to customize the name of a unit. I keep the default name but append the range of the equipped weapon. So a unit equipped with a basic Springfield led by Devin, would be named "Devin 250". A unit led by Gordon with weapon ranged at 320 would be "Gordan 320". In battle I can see at a glance the range of each unit and position them for maximum effect.

2. As a unit grows in experience we get to upgrade their attributes. The second level of skill upgrades has two key options effecting firearms. Increased fire rate (reduced accuracy), or increased accuracy (reduced fire rate). I tend to give the accuracy bonus to those units with long range weapons, and the fast fire rate to those with shorter range weapons. I then denote this in the units name by adding an "A" or an "F" to the units name - so "Devin 250" becomes "Devin 250F", and "Gordon 320" becomes "Gordon 320A"

3. When structuring your divisions you want a good blend of units - I try and aim for 2 fast firing units, and 2 long range units, plus one artillery. The long range units hold the line, and the fast firing units hit the flanks.

4. When limited numbers of men are available it's not always about fewer maxed out brigades. 4 Brigades with 1000 men each is often better than 2 brigades of 2000 as you have more maneuver options on the field and the ability to combine into a larger brigade during battle if required.

5. Cavalry - always have a few cavalry - I try and keep an even number of melee and mounted infantry on hand. The mounted infantry are fantastic to rush to a weak point for quick reinforcement, or exploitation of a routing enemy brigade.

6. Corps - always purchase an extra corp slot! When a corp is maxed out, you can no longer restructure it by dragging brigades around. Keeping a 'spare' corp that is not fully occupied allows you to constantly restructure and rebalance the corps you actually take to the field. If you're about to engage in a defensive fight you probably don't want the cavalry - move them to the spare corp and drag in artillery in their place. If you're attacking you may want less slow moving artillery so move them to the spare corp and bring in the cavalry. I'm constantly restructuring my corp for each battle. When you're faced with one of the small skirmish fights you'll often be limited to 10 brigades. Pick the 10 you know you want and move all the others to the spare corp, this way you are guaranteed to get the units you want on the field, when you want them.

7. Stamina and Efficiency compared to Morale and Efficiency - the first upgrade for a unit. I try and balance this upgrade out so my 2nd corp has the highest stamina possible, while the primary corp has the highest morale. That first corp is gonna be fighting longer, and they need the morale. The 2nd corp is often coming in half way through a fight with a ton of ground to cover before they become useful. You want those boys running! Higher stamina units can run for longer - so keep that in mind when applying upgrades. If you have a blend of cannon - give those light 6lb and 12lb howitzers to the 2nd corp - they move quicker. Keep the heavy 10lb, 12lb, 24lb for the primary corp - they need the devastating fire they produce and are less likely to be moving much in the opening minutes of battle.

8. Leaders - it's easy to lose sight of your leaders and click through the camp quickly after replenishing men. This is a mistake. Take a look at the efficiency rating of a unit. You may have started with a 1000 strong brigade, and boosted it to 2500 men, and failed to notice the efficiency dropped into the red, because the major leading it just isn't up to the task of leading a brigade that big. Reassign leaders. It's always worth keeping an unused major or captain in the barracks for this. If you have a 2 star general leading a unit and feel he may be better placed elsewhere, assign the spare captain or major, to move the general to the barracks, you can now assign him to the unit you want him for. This works well with that spare corp I mentioned earlier. You can populate that with units you don't need in the upcoming fight and low quality leaders, keeping your battle units well led. This is invaluable when you're running low on money and can't afford a new general - buy a captain, and transfer the general from a unit you're not taking into battle.

I hope you found this useful. Remember the battle is won on the field - but good decisions made in camp can make all the difference to the quality of the units on the field.

Ultimate General - Civil War, is without doubt my favorite game. I hope the developers go on to make a Napoleonic version - the Peninsula Campaign would be awesome! Good luck Generals and thanks for reading!

 

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As a very new player (only 3 hours played) these tips are greatly appreciated, thank you.

This is my first post on the forum, and I guess it's also my introduction. I can already see it's a great community with some extremely helpful players - I look forward to learning and maybe making some friends.

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1. If there was nothing changed, the range of engagement for infantry brigades are the same no matter what weapon they use.

2. The general consensus is that accuracy is the better choice over rate of fire.

3. How you combine brigades into division does not matter. Only thing matter is the structure of your corps and what part of it you bring to the battle.

4. My own opinion is that one more infantry brigade is always gonna be better than one more ranged cavalry brigade. As you play more and gain more experience, you'll spot the weak points that need to cover on your line or exploit on the enemy's beforehand and move your forces accordingly.

5. The minor bonus to morale in the 1st infantry perks rarely make the difference. Most of the time you don't want your troops in positions that will need that perk in the first place.

 

 

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On 9/7/2017 at 6:07 AM, Jamesk2 said:

1. If there was nothing changed, the range of engagement for infantry brigades are the same no matter what weapon they use.

2. The general consensus is that accuracy is the better choice over rate of fire.

3. How you combine brigades into division does not matter. Only thing matter is the structure of your corps and what part of it you bring to the battle.

4. My own opinion is that one more infantry brigade is always gonna be better than one more ranged cavalry brigade. As you play more and gain more experience, you'll spot the weak points that need to cover on your line or exploit on the enemy's beforehand and move your forces accordingly.

5. The minor bonus to morale in the 1st infantry perks rarely make the difference. Most of the time you don't want your troops in positions that will need that perk in the first place.

 

 

 

Carbine Cavalry fill the role of artillery hunters much, much better than infantry does. Infantry is surely the backbone of the army but not having at least 2 cav brigades is probably a mistake. Their use as mobile infantry should be secondary at best. That is a much more niche role that is often not vital.

Meele cavalry require an insane amount of micro because the best part about meele cavalry is rapidly firing your pistols into fleeing enemies, and this can be annoying and/or hard. It doesn't help that meele cav weapons are nonsensically expensive. Obviously you can use them to hunt artillery as well but in practice using carbine cavalry is more flexible as the superior range makes it more likely that you can hit your target without retaliation from nearby enemies.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is one for you...

 

I always put my best units in the 1st Division of the Corps and my worst in the last. I've noticed in several battles when your second Corps comes in to reinforce, it is usually the first Division followed by the second, etc. By placing my best folks in the 1st Division I make sure I have my best units getting to the fight first.

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5 hours ago, LAVA said:

Here is one for you...

 

I always put my best units in the 1st Division of the Corps and my worst in the last. I've noticed in several battles when your second Corps comes in to reinforce, it is usually the first Division followed by the second, etc. By placing my best folks in the 1st Division I make sure I have my best units getting to the fight first.

This is actually often undesirable. Sometimes a vital point must be held at all cost and your best troops are needed up front, but fielding them there every battle will inevitably cause high casualties which is costly. Many people will hold their most elite troops in reserve, or may not even commit them to the battle, until it is absolutely necessary.

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Yeahm pretty much the way I do it. For example at Malvern Hill you WILL need you most elite units from the start of the battle if you want to hold the line. But at Antietam you want your elite brigades to come in as reinforcements, because you have to charge the enemy in the second phase of the battle and the first phase will have exhausted and depleted your elite units if you sent them in.

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My army composition at the time of battle of Richmond (but I've been using the same composition essentially the whole game):

I corps:Elite Infantry corps. (holding the line and assault)
1st division - Elites of the elite. 
All divisions except 1st division have one 10pdr cannon unit (workhorse cannon).
2 units of skirmishers per corps.
One or two units of cavalry per corps
These are my Triarii. I hold them back and if they don't see any fighting, it's a good battle.

II corps: Artilery corps (Assaulting and holding fortifications )
1st division - Elite infantry for this corps. Just infantry.
2nd divison - All heavy artillery. 20pdr parrot, 24pdr howitzer, one unit of whitworths.
Other divisions - Infantry with 10pdr cannon unit.
One unit of skirmishers per corps
One unit of ranged cavalry per corps.

III corps: Cavalry corps. Speed (quick reinforcements and exploitation)
1st division - Elite infantry for this corps. Infantry and 1 skirmisher
2nd division - Cavalry only. Mix of melee and ranged
Other divisions - Infantry + 1 cannon + 1-2 skirmishers.

IV, V corps: Infantry corps (fresh troops - assault and first line defense)
One cannon per division, 1 cavalry per corps, 2skirmishers per corps
additional units (ie. heavy cannon) may be assigned according to mission.
These brigades are deemed expendable if need be.

In my opinion, using this every corps is usable for every battle, but some are more good in some form of warfare then others.


Regarding first level infantry perk - I don't take the morale buff. I get high morale from my political points.

 

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13 hours ago, maniacalpenny said:

This is actually often undesirable. Sometimes a vital point must be held at all cost and your best troops are needed up front, but fielding them there every battle will inevitably cause high casualties which is costly. Many people will hold their most elite troops in reserve, or may not even commit them to the battle, until it is absolutely necessary.

I mostly am referring to reinforcements. When reinforcements, say from the 2nd Corps, enter the battle, I have noticed that they frequently enter the battle by division beginning with the first division and then going done the line to the last division. Because many times those reinforcements are the folks you use to outflank your enemy, I normally put my best regiments in the 1st and 2nd divisions of that 2nd Corps.

 

An exception I recently played was Gettysburg from the Confederate campaign. Here I put my best divisions in the 1st Corps entering into the battle, because essentially how you use that 1st Corps will determine if you win the battle on the first day. The 2nd Corps folks, by the time they got into battle were all exhausted (except the Cavalry) and only had to mop up.

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Here is a  graphic which shows how I reinforce a 2 star brigade after a battle. It keeps costs down so you can grow your army, maintain quality and afford to upgrade to better weapons.

The first box is the state of the brigade after my last battle. The second shows how I reinforce with recruits up to the very edge of losing my 2 star status. The third shows me filling out the brigade with veterans and you can see the cost here. It would have cost me 20,000 or so if I had reinforced with only veterans. The final, is how the brigade looks after finishing reinforcing it. (I am running brigades of 1500 men at 2 star and above and 1700 men at 1 star.) If you look at the first and last boxes, you can see that the quality of most of its characteristics have dropped, but they are still quite high and the brigade will perform superbly.

Va0CUH3.png

Though I have 5 three star infantry brigades, I think if I had started again, I would have tried to get better weapons sooner and pushed to make sure all of my brigades were 2 star (barely). I am preparing for the Battle of Cold Harbor. Intell says I am facing a Union Army between 63-68K (I believe the real battle was somewhere around 120K). So we'll have to see what happens. I am bringing an army of 64K and 144 guns.

I've completed the Union Campaign. Both normal difficulty.

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Here is a note on supply.

At the very beginning of the campaign I try to get at least 25,000 into the supply slot. This works very well as long as your Corps is using predominately smooth bore weapons and you will rarely have problems with supply.

Once you start getting rifled weapons, the firing rates start increasing fairly dramatically. At this point I drive the amount in my Corps supply to the maximum of 35,000 and supply problems are local issues which are easily solved with your supply wagons, even in the bigger battles.

Though I have in both my campaigns taken 2 slots of logistics, I do believe that there are far better ways to spend your career points, however, in doing so, you must not skimp on bringing lots of supply to the battlefield. In quite a few videos I have watched, folks end up shutting down their artillery and that IMO is a mistake unless it is a battery using a Napoleon, for example, firing at maximum range. Artillery, well positioned are freebie kills.

Don't shut them down by not bringing enough supply to the battle.

“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great

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2 hours ago, LAVA said:

Here is a note on supply.

At the very beginning of the campaign I try to get at least 25,000 into the supply slot. This works very well as long as your Corps is using predominately smooth bore weapons and you will rarely have problems with supply.

Once you start getting rifled weapons, the firing rates start increasing fairly dramatically. At this point I drive the amount in my Corps supply to the maximum of 35,000 and supply problems are local issues which are easily solved with your supply wagons, even in the bigger battles.

Though I have in both my campaigns taken 2 slots of logistics, I do believe that there are far better ways to spend your career points, however, in doing so, you must not skimp on bringing lots of supply to the battlefield. In quite a few videos I have watched, folks end up shutting down their artillery and that IMO is a mistake unless it is a battery using a Napoleon, for example, firing at maximum range. Artillery, well positioned are freebie kills.

Don't shut them down by not bringing enough supply to the battle.

“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great

There are many times that I question the utility of firing even rifled artillery into lategame entrenched positions. The kills are not really free, you pay for supply and sometimes in the lategame even for minor battles that can be $70k drained from plunking at entrenched infantry. The exception to this is having a critical mass of artillery that can break entrenched brigades, as you can then get enough kills to be worth it by hitting them while on the run.

Also, even with max supply, there are battles in which you can run out of ammo by constantly firing your artillery. So sometimes making the artillery hold fire is the best choice.

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11 hours ago, maniacalpenny said:

There are many times that I question the utility of firing even rifled artillery into lategame entrenched positions. The kills are not really free, you pay for supply and sometimes in the lategame even for minor battles that can be $70k drained from plunking at entrenched infantry. The exception to this is having a critical mass of artillery that can break entrenched brigades, as you can then get enough kills to be worth it by hitting them while on the run.

Also, even with max supply, there are battles in which you can run out of ammo by constantly firing your artillery. So sometimes making the artillery hold fire is the best choice.

Yeah, for example Shiloh with the Union. At the beginning you don't have your supplies, and later on there are so many enemies and your brigades have to fight for such a long time you will run out of ammo if you don't conserve it.

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On 9/26/2017 at 8:30 PM, maniacalpenny said:

There are many times that I question the utility of firing even rifled artillery into lategame entrenched positions. The kills are not really free, you pay for supply and sometimes in the lategame even for minor battles that can be $70k drained from plunking at entrenched infantry.

AFAIK, you don't actually pay anything to replenish your supply between battles, you only pay once for setting the supply level. The exception is the camp in multi day battles, if you as much as visit it your wagons get automatically topped up and you seem to get charged for the difference. If you don't visit the camp mid battle your wagons stay at the level they were on the previous day. I wish the game would ask before refilling them.

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2 hours ago, Bounty Jumper said:

AFAIK, you don't actually pay anything to replenish your supply between battles, you only pay once for setting the supply level. The exception is the camp in multi day battles, if you as much as visit it your wagons get automatically topped up and you seem to get charged for the difference. If you don't visit the camp mid battle your wagons stay at the level they were on the previous day. I wish the game would ask before refilling them.

Actually, you pay after every battle. The game simply doesn't tell you. ;)

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On 9/26/2017 at 7:30 PM, maniacalpenny said:

There are many times that I question the utility of firing even rifled artillery into lategame entrenched positions. The kills are not really free, you pay for supply and sometimes in the lategame even for minor battles that can be $70k drained from plunking at entrenched infantry. The exception to this is having a critical mass of artillery that can break entrenched brigades, as you can then get enough kills to be worth it by hitting them while on the run.

Also, even with max supply, there are battles in which you can run out of ammo by constantly firing your artillery. So sometimes making the artillery hold fire is the best choice.

I'm playing the last bit of the Battle of Washington ATM on BG level and all my artillery is rifled. I also have max supply.

I agree that you shouldn't be firing at entrenched infantry, but I have no problem firing at entrenched artillery. My infantry very rarely run out of supply at this level of the game, but having my guns continually blasting away and ready to fire comes in very handy when the Yanks attempt to counterattack one of my positions or their infantry rout out of entrenched positions... especially if you place the artillery on their flanks.

Overall though, my guns are normally firing counter-battery and since my AI opponent seems to always have more artillery then me... there are plenty of targets.

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On 9/28/2017 at 9:50 PM, Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf said:

Actually, you pay after every battle. The game simply doesn't tell you. ;)

But that is only if you use it.

So you can see the level of supply in your supply wagon and that I believe represents the amount of supply you have put into the supply section of your Corps. Supply is also modified by Logistics in your career points which can be used to increase the base amount of supply that every unit carries into battle. In both my campaigns I took 2 slots of logistics by the late 1863 to early 1864 due to rifles and increased firing rates. Supply is also modified for artillery at the one star level where if you choose the supply wagon (Logistics), which I always do, they receive a 50% boost in ammo. If you choose Strategy for the first level of your Corps commanding General (which I always do), you receive a 20% increase in ammo for the entire Corps. And of course, if you capture enemy supply wagons you can always use those first. What supplies are actually consumed from your supply wagon is what you will pay.

At the Brigadier General level, I never had problems with supply in both of my completed campaigns, except on a localized basis such as a heavily engaged unit which is continuously firing during the battle. From what I understand an out of supply unit fires at 1/3rd the normal speed. Having your army run out of ammo... well... it is just too much of a handicap and considering all the available modifiers that are available to boost supply, there really isn't any reason to do so, IMO. In fact, given the modifiers available, I normally create a grande battery and place my supply wagon there so that my artillery is firing continuously. And even in the big battles, I rarely had infantry running out of ammo or my supply wagon going empty.

I think we tend to focus almost exclusively on the combat and react to the supply. But if you can also manage your supply effectively and use the modifiers available, you won't be paying lots of money and that amount you put into your Corps level supply can be seen as a cash reserve for when you really, really need it.

Cheers

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/7/2017 at 9:07 AM, Jamesk2 said:

1. If there was nothing changed, the range of engagement for infantry brigades are the same no matter what weapon they use.

 

Whoa? Is that true? Sounds like a game-changer.

I just finished an MG Union campaign, and I definitely noticed differences in firing ranges with different infantry weapons (or at least many cases where one infantry brigade can fire at another infantry brigade that can't return fire out of range).

Anyone else confirm this?

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9 minutes ago, guidon101 said:

Whoa? Is that true? Sounds like a game-changer.

I just finished an MG Union campaign, and I definitely noticed differences in firing ranges with different infantry weapons (or at least many cases where one infantry brigade can fire at another infantry brigade that can't return fire out of range).

Anyone else confirm this?

Infantry brigades have had the same firing range since UGCW first got released on Steam.  You should pretty clearly be able to notice that a Farmer with 200 range has half the range of a Fayetteville with 400, but it's not in-game.  Range appears to be standardized around 300 for most infantry brigades.

The Range stat now just tells how accurate the weapon will be at the edge of the range.  The higher, the better it will be at that kind of engagement.

Also note that hills have a minor effect on firing range - large ones even moreso.

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5 hours ago, The Soldier said:

Infantry brigades have had the same firing range since UGCW first got released on Steam.  You should pretty clearly be able to notice that a Farmer with 200 range has half the range of a Fayetteville with 400, but it's not in-game.  Range appears to be standardized around 300 for most infantry brigades.

The Range stat now just tells how accurate the weapon will be at the edge of the range.  The higher, the better it will be at that kind of engagement.

Also note that hills have a minor effect on firing range - large ones even moreso.

 

Wow, that really blows my mind. After all this time, I never noticed (the AI seemed to always bring better or equal guns, so I assumed that's why our weapon ranges always seemed similar). I had to test it just for sanity's sake, and I can confirm:

Ran a quick simple test with 1 fresh brigade with Re-bored Farmers (220 range) vs. Fayettevilles (400 range) at the opening of Richmond as Union.

1) you can see their visual range indicators are the same

20171102180511_1.thumb.jpg.2a8bf37949c9958491b73a403d1c3446.jpg

20171102180514_1.thumb.jpg.15a8e8d73ff94b98dfd748546e1a2832.jpg

2) When actively shooting at enemy units, they can shoot from the same max distance. The Fayettevilles couldn't shoot farther than the Re-bored Farmers, when their range should be almost double.

20171102180911_1.thumb.jpg.10fe222774e03af176847759422d18d9.jpg

20171102180914_1.thumb.jpg.41be5a111324a772dc5c67687d6201d2.jpg

 

The different infantry ranges of fire I was observing before must have been a result of:

1) Oblique angles of fire

2) Terrain/height differences

3) weapon range

 

So, Artillery, Skirmisher, and Cavalry brigades all change their max firing ranges depending on weapon, but infantry does not? Is there anything else I missed?

Any other non-intuitive but significant game-changing mechanic out there? I guess that topic might deserve its own thread.

 

Edited by guidon101
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  • 4 months later...
On 11/2/2017 at 11:00 PM, A. P. Hill said:

Also be aware, if you have supply, that wagon takes a slot in your allowable force you bring to the field.  Sometimes it's easier to forego supply and look to the enemy to provide for your army. :)

This is not accurate.

You can right-click your supply to undeploy, but the Yellow Slots remain the same.

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On 9/7/2017 at 3:07 PM, Jamesk2 said:

 

3. How you combine brigades into division does not matter. Only thing matter is the structure of your corps and what part of it you bring to the battle.

 

The Order Of Battle often dictates how your reinforcements arrive.

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