An absolute gem of a game. but it has a steep learning curve.

[pdstanbridge]

I love this game, there's no denying that. But I've just got fired in my Confederates campaign at the Cold Harbour mission. The missions up to that point (as the confederates anyway) have become more aggressive and increasingly difficult. In one grand battle I was facing about 90,000 men, and I had just 40,000, or so. Managing the manpower is a nightmare. I'm more efficient using cover, and have studied various guides. I am an okay player, but the manpower is a disaster. I realise that in reality the Union had superior numbers and I'm fine with that. But how many men should we be using as an average? It's certainly challenging. The max I could field was 3 corps, with about 2 divisions per corps. I guess I was looking at 2,000 men per brigade of infantry as a max. but I often used much smaller brigades. I tried to keep a surplus of manpower to about 10k, but after a couple of the grand battles I lost the lot and would have to eat into my reputation to replace it where I could. As a result my rep was quite low at most times. I'd appreciate any advice.

 

 

[william1993]

what level are you on (colonel, BG, mG)? what skills did you max out? politics and organization is most important, esp. politics, because you can get more men quicker.

what types of guns do you arm your men with and what type of fighting strategy do you use? are you all infantry attack or defense, combined arms, etc?

[pdstanbridge]

Hi William. I'm the level with no bonus and no penalties. Is that BG? I maxed out politics and org, with medicine following. I tried to upgrade my muskets quickly, thinking smaller brigades with superior weaponry is a better choice. Due to the lack of manpower I generally suffered I couldn't take the offense in a lot of battles so I played defensively. If a mission involved assault I would try and use the canon fodder for the initial assault, followerd up by a better quality unit. I would always try and keep my best brigades in reserve, but this plan was hardly ever followed The battles would be fast and furious and sometimes I couldn't follow my own strategies due to lack of time. On occasion it felt like a capture the flag rush. The first unit wins due to the terrain. I would always like to use at least one cavalry unit in my divisions and one skirmisher unit with the best weapons I could get. But the micro management could prove problematic on occasion. I've accepted defeat in this campaign, right at the last hurdle. But I am going to try it again from the beginnng. I've learnt a lot more since the first run through and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

At the start, I like to have 4 recon so that I at least know the numbers I'm up against. Then I try to go for org.

What size brigades would you start with? 700-800 men? Try and keep it roughly balanced with the Union side (to begin with).

 

 

[william1993]

700-800 men is way too small. Try 1500 or 1600. as you max our org and politics get it up to 2000

 

Also, each weaponry is different.  Rifles are better at shooting and muskets are better at melee.  So it's good to have some men with one or the other depending.  The Springfield rifles are the best in the game but  those don't show up until later.

maybe try at easier level until you get the hang of it.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

Actually your losses decrease if you increase your brigade sizes, at least in the early campaign, because your units are more capable of doing real damage to the enemy.

[pdstanbridge]

You are right about the losses decreasing. It's quite dramatic! In Gaines Mill (I think), the grand battle anyway, I had 35,000 men on the field. The Union had 65,000! I didn't realise this because I opted for medicine/logistics rather than recon as my first set of points. But my brigades were much larger. I went with 1500-2000 men per brigade where I could. I ended up defeating the Union with only 7,000 losses. They lost 39,000! What a difference.

 

[GRIT]

The game is great but would be much more difficult without the Guides players have posted. I'm on my 3rd time starting the Campaign and I finally feel like I have a hang of things.

As was recommended by one Guide, I save often, before and during a battle. If I really screwed up I hit restart and try again. Which helps to learn what kind of tactics work best. I hate to not get a victory and not get the phat loot to build my army.

 

[pdstanbridge]

So... Another complete run as the Confederates, this time fairing much, much better until I get to Cold Harbor. I've got 60k or so men, against how ever many they field. I don't know how many it is because I haven't used recon past 1 point. But the mission ends somewhat abruptly on the second or third? phase. I just can't get the victory points in the alloted time which is a very frustrating way to end the mission all things considered. I'm obviously playing too defensively but that is the way I've taught myself to win the battles. I ended in overall defeat even though I had won all but two of the missions, and those 2 were drawn. I inflicted 450k! casualties. But I'm a tad burnt out now, need to try the Union side and see how it compares.

 

[maniacalpenny]

3 hours ago, pdstanbridge said:

So... Another complete run as the Confederates, this time fairing much, much better until I get to Cold Harbor. I've got 60k or so men, against how ever many they field. I don't know how many it is because I haven't used recon past 1 point. But the mission ends somewhat abruptly on the second or third? phase. I just can't get the victory points in the alloted time which is a very frustrating way to end the mission all things considered. I'm obviously playing too defensively but that is the way I've taught myself to win the battles. I ended in overall defeat even though I had won all but two of the missions, and those 2 were drawn. I inflicted 450k! casualties. But I'm a tad burnt out now, need to try the Union side and see how it compares.

 

 

There is only one victory point you need to take to win the battle: that is one of the two union controlled VP's in the 2nd phase of the battle. Choose the one in the forest to the north, it is sparsely defended. Afterwards you will fight a series of defenses against increasingly large union assaults where you must hold all the VPs. Alternatively take the VP on day 1 to win the battle, or take one of the northern VPs on day 2 to win the battle. Day 3 features massive Union attacks against the weakest parts of your defenses, so its arguably better to skip those.