Questions/Thoughts on the Game

[jstu9]

1) What does it actually take to Rout a brigade? What does it take to Shatter a brigade? And what does it take to make a brigade to Surrender? I've done all of these things but I don't know the mechanism for it to happen. I assume Rout is to reach 0 morale, maybe?

2) I won as the Union and have played through Chancellorsville as the Confederates (both on BG). As the Union, I "lost" one battle. Shiloh. I was winning the battle but I routed a cavalry unit and it went north. I didn't think anything of it until all of a sudden I realized the Confederates held the Victory Point. And I reacted too slowly. Lost one battle as the Confederates, the one with the 2 supply depots/forts. But the point of saying all of that is to point out the most difficult part of the game is knowing how many scenarios there will be. How many chances will I get to get that victory point? how much extra time will I get on the counter? I have lost thousands of troops needlessly rushing for a victory point to only find out there was another scenario after that one. Is there a list anywhere that tells the structure of the battles?

3) Someone really needs to make a guide for Cavalry. I think I am getting better but I have lost so much not doing it right.

4) Is it better to have numerous smaller brigades or fewer bigger brigades? I have tried to have bigger brigades though I often will have medium sized ones due to equipment, veteran cost, and keeping their stars. Actually now that I think about it, bigger is almost certainly better since there are plenty of times when you are limited in the number of brigades and having 10 1200 men brigades versus 10 2400 men brigades is huge.

5) Is a skirmish brigade worth it? (Now detached skirmishers I think are the best unit in the game) As the union I never built skirmish units. As the South, I have made 2-3 with the intent as having them sharpshooters. I don't think I have managed them well and really the only I use them is in major battles, but not sure how useful they are.

6) What is the best way to balance: 1) The Victory Point(s), 2) Minimizing Casualties to yourself, and 3) Maximizing Casualties to the AI? As the Union i went for the Victory Points. Period. I tried to get too many of my units killed, and tried to inflict damage on the Confeds. But as the South, there have been 2 battles I have seriously considered going for the draw to minimize casaulties (In the end I decided to try for the win). As the South, I have been more aware of trying to preserve my troops, and inflict pain on the North.

7) In the final battles with the Union, I had a ton of 2 and 3-star generals in my top 2 Corps. Then my 3rd-4th Corps I had Colonels and Lt Col running my units. I was wondering if it is better to maximize the number of top Generals or to spread the experience around? As the South I have tried to use my Lt Cols and Col's to lead the men in battle in the Minor battles to get more 1-star generals as opposed to maxing out more 2 and 3-star generals.

8) I've been having a lot of fun with this game. Initially I was a bit wary since the battles weren't dynamic, but playing the game for what it actually is has been alot of fun.

[maniacalpenny]

1) Routing is reducing morale to very low. I don't think its 0, its something around 20 perhaps. There is a grey area where you cannot control the unit (white/flashing white, but not routed). Low morale will also stop units from firing in concerted volleys, which generally reduces their damage to a pittance. Shattering a brigade happens when the enemy unit is at a very small percentage of its original strength (something like 20%). It has a random element though, I believe. Capturing is more likely when the enemy is surrounded and in meele combat. I'm not sure if anyone knows the exact specifics though, but it tends to be quite hard to do consistently.

2) Agreed on all counts. There is no single source for this information sadly, but for Grand Battles you can generally read up on the real battle and the flow of the battle will generally follow as it did historically.

3) There are cavalry guides for sure. I believe there is both a meele cav guide (pseudo-outdated) and a carbine cav guide. The general con consensus is to mostly use carbine cav though, as they are much more flexible and tend to be cheaper. For the most part they should only attack flanks, isolated cannon, routing brigades, or en-masse against isolated units.

4) Smaller brigades are more "efficient" in that they will do more damage per man than a larger brigade. That being said, you should bring mostly larger brigades as you mention the brigade cap is very relevant. You should have fodder brigades of poor weaponry + rookie soldiers at very large brigades (2500 if possible), and large brigades for veteran troops with good weapons. Typically for me this means 2000 man brigades of 2* troops with Springfields or better. I occasionally field brigades smaller than 2000, but this is mostly for elite 3* troops with very high tier weaponry. I still try to keep these brigades over 1500, and don't mind fielding at 2000 if possible. It is arguable that these elite brigades should be on the smaller side (~1200) as it allows for maximum efficiency of the elite weaponry and the smaller brigade is actually significantly more maneuverable than a larger brigade. However fielding small brigades is detrimental to your army count so in practice I do not take it to this extreme.

5) Sharpshooters are quite good but also micro intensive. They require constant baby sitting and re-positioning in order to keep them safe and dealing damage, but they can absolutely wreak havoc in certain scenarios. They are good for safely inflicting high morale damage by flanking, sniping cannon with support from cav or detached skirmishers, or inflicting long term casualties from between holes in your defensive line. For scouting and screening, detatched skirmishers are the way to go.

6) Aim to win every battle. Losing is heavily detrimental in many ways, although there is an argument that certain battles should be skipped on Legendary difficulty. If you look at the rewards for draw vs win, usually if you combine the money, men, and reputation the end result is a lot of resources. Between minimizing casualties and maximizing casualties to the ai: There is very real benefit in killing the ai, especially at higher difficulties. However there is a "sweet spot" where killing enemies makes a difference. If you kill too few it is likely the enemy will still have a larger army than what they are allowed to bring to the battle, so killing more will not impact their ability to maximize their fielded army. If you kill too many the enemy will benefit from powerful bounce-back mechanics and minimum army size per scenario (bringing more units than Intelligence says their army has, for example.) This cutoff varies between missions and union vs confed, but overall it is not possible to reduce the total army size past ~50k and in many mid-lategame battles the minimum deployment size is beyond that anyways.

7) Only buy Colonels and BG when you can, and buy them all after every grand battle. This will keep your supply of high quality officers high unless losses are very heavy. In general, I would say focus on getting the highest possible level generals as a 1* infantry is trivial to hit command goals, even 2* infantry is relatively easy to hit with high level corps/division commanders. 3* units on the other hand are often upwards of 100 efficiency and even with all the lieutenant generals in the world you will have a hard time capping out their command stat.

[Hitorishizuka]

23 hours ago, jstu9 said:

6) What is the best way to balance: 1) The Victory Point(s), 2) Minimizing Casualties to yourself, and 3) Maximizing Casualties to the AI? As the Union i went for the Victory Points. Period. I tried to get too many of my units killed, and tried to inflict damage on the Confeds. But as the South, there have been 2 battles I have seriously considered going for the draw to minimize casaulties (In the end I decided to try for the win). As the South, I have been more aware of trying to preserve my troops, and inflict pain on the North.

7) In the final battles with the Union, I had a ton of 2 and 3-star generals in my top 2 Corps. Then my 3rd-4th Corps I had Colonels and Lt Col running my units. I was wondering if it is better to maximize the number of top Generals or to spread the experience around? As the South I have tried to use my Lt Cols and Col's to lead the men in battle in the Minor battles to get more 1-star generals as opposed to maxing out more 2 and 3-star generals.

6) You have to learn the battles but in general time is generous enough that you can sit or advance through good cover and minimize casualties at first, then only move onto VPs and killing the AI after you've mostly broken their forces or at least achieved numerical parity. Obviously if you're still moving too slowly as the timer is ticking down you can acquire a sense of urgency. Either way, go for victory all the time, but sometimes you can opt to not destroy the entirety of their forces if they still have good positions and it'll cost more than you'll gain after the battle.

7) Use the lowest officers you can in small brigades to develop a wide barracks or else you risk running into that. 2 and 3* generals should only really be leading Max size brigade, divisions, or corps. You can use Lt Cols and below for small units. Cavalry units are also good for farming Colonels into Brig Generals.