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LAVA's Legendary Union Campaign


LAVA

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In this video I fight the Battle of Secure River. The battle ends rather quickly once I take the objective.

My artillery is becoming seasoned and is beginning to dominate the battle space... and so am I as a commentator though I mistakenly state I am bringing 4 and not 5 batteries into the battle.

It's a quick fight, hope you like it.

 

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It's just for fun. Have no idea where it will lead.

Here is the battle of Rendezvous. As close to an army wipe as you can get. The Rebs were reported to have 60k before this battle and now looking forward at Gaines Mill they went up to 70k. I may be headed for disaster if those numbers aren't brought down.

Unfortunately I tinkered with the sound before recording this video and it came out barely audible. Perhaps that's best.. :o

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is my Battle of Gaines Mill. I set-up to force the Rebs to fight in the river and then pound them with my artillery and flank them. Eventually I retreat to hold my primary objective and with the Confederates pretty well depleted, they are unable to take it.

Fun battle, much easier the 3rd time (after BG and MG) around.

 

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35 minutes ago, LAVA said:

Here is my Battle of Gaines Mill. I set-up to force the Rebs to fight in the river and then pound them with my artillery and flank them. Eventually I retreat to hold my primary objective and with the Confederates pretty well depleted, they are unable to take it.

Fun battle, much easier the 3rd time (after BG and MG) around.

 

Great victory buddy, the enemy was well stuck between the woods and river. You really went for the kill there, second part of the battle becomes harder when more reinforcements arrive. It is almost impossible to hold another line than the static defences there. Luckily you only need to hold one hill apart from the big one.

Keep up the good work ;) oh yeah, in this battle we also had similar losses and kills :D

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Thanks, mate!

I've gotten stuck on Malvern Hill though. In the past my artillery was able to hold back the Confederate hordes but on Legendary, there are just so many troops in such a small area that I can't hold the position before re-reinforcements arrive. I know this a hard battle to win, but I don't think I can do it.

Has anybody ever won Malvern Hill on Legendary?

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2 minutes ago, LAVA said:

Thanks, mate!

I've gotten stuck on Malvern Hill though. In the past my artillery was able to hold back the Confederate hordes but on Legendary, there are just so many troops in such a small area that I can't hold the position before re-reinforcements arrive. I know this a hard battle to win, but I don't think I can do it.

Has anybody ever won Malvern Hill on Legendary?

I am on the MG level, not legendary yet. I tried to hold the woods instead of the barricades and trenches, deployed like that i could hit them on the bridge as well. Some of the CSA units tried to storm the objective, so they were stuck between left and right cross fire including heavy artillery. Perhaps that could help?

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So after a number of attempts, I give Mulvern Hill another and final attempt.

After watching the video I realized that in the last 25 minutes on the clock if I had made a strong push right into the center of the Confederate line, I might have been able to pull out a win. As it is I settle for a draw and accept the result (though I really wanted to win this battle). Sorry I stopped game play a couple times, doing videos is rather difficult for me because normally in the harder battles I play the game at half speed.

Anyway... here it is:

 

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This imo was an unnecessary loss of both the battle and the manpower (Yes I know it was a draw but I still consider it a loss).  Like I said in my comment on the video, falling back is not what you should do, especially if the ground to the south is wide open.  Even if holding the twin forests and wheatfield to the north would result in casualties, it would not have been as costly as the open plains and you would have held the objective.  You might need less artillery and more infantry here.  The smaller early game cannon are not powerful enough to beat back that assault.

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Tried it several times, but the AI attacked with such ferocity that I was unable to hold the position. There were times when the Confederates were so stacked up in front of my troops that I think they had to have had at least 4 lines of infantry. I was routing them left and right, but they simply kept chipping away at my infantry until a sector would finally just collapse. Once that happened it was game over.

Did the best I could.

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A thought - If one is willing to settle for a draw going into the battle (which may the case on Legendary depending on the numbers breakdown), what if you deliberately retreated all the way to the southern objectives?  Make a line at the edge of the woods (with 2nd corps reinforcements arriving 30 minutes earlier due to shorter marching distance), and slaughter the Confederates attacking over the open plains.  Strong artillery becomes the icing on the bloody cake. 

I've never tried this, and wonder what more experienced people think.

Or - if the end timer is not a *strict* end time as some are - do the above strategy, wait until you have wiped the Rebels to half-strength or less, then bull rush the main point.  May this result in affordable casualties?

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Ye I think you had too much artillery and not enough infantry Brigades.  You need mass volume of fire here and many overlapping brigades.  Focus fire on enemy brigades also helps.  Counter Charging with your reserves (which are quite necessary), advancing as far as you can with skirmishers to buy times.  Canister on the flank is quite effective as well but should not be counted on.  Also flanking the enemy attack by advancing on the left is an option but is risky.  Cavalry also is an option as well as they can advance quite far and dismount and might be able to pick off the CSA arty before their infantry catch up.  Also melee cavalry against lone enemy brigades can work.  Flanking with carbine cavalry at the critical moment can turn the tide of battle.  

Another thing is to throw off the game's prescripting by doing something very weird.  It may not apply to this battle but in others it might work to your advantage.  

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10 hours ago, LAVA said:

Thanks, mate!

I've gotten stuck on Malvern Hill though. In the past my artillery was able to hold back the Confederate hordes but on Legendary, there are just so many troops in such a small area that I can't hold the position before re-reinforcements arrive. I know this a hard battle to win, but I don't think I can do it.

Has anybody ever won Malvern Hill on Legendary?

 

1 hour ago, LAVA said:

So after a number of attempts, I give Mulvern Hill another and final attempt.

After watching the video I realized that in the last 25 minutes on the clock if I had made a strong push right into the center of the Confederate line, I might have been able to pull out a win. As it is I settle for a draw and accept the result (though I really wanted to win this battle). Sorry I stopped game play a couple times, doing videos is rather difficult for me because normally in the harder battles I play the game at half speed.

Anyway... here it is:

 

Well, I had won on Malvern Hill as both Union and Confederates not long ago when I've had restarted my legendary campaigns after reaching Gettysburg. But I'd got to underline a crucial difference which is that I pause a lot and micro when necessary. So honestly gonna say that your yt recording was pretty amazing for being able to handle both your army and the battle itself as you did. <tips the hat to you>

e1fcupQ.jpg

I of course have completed all the smaller battles (and pretty much wiped CSA at Gaine's Mill inflicting over 22k losses for less than 5k of my own). I had however far less men still as I was investing more into the veterancy of my units (and equipment). I would also like to note my only 24 guns were 100% 3inche's in 2 batteries pretty close to the fortifications so occasionally shooting canisters during the course of the battle. Those 2 12 gun batteries are responsible for 3k kills together which definitely helped a lot. I would also like to add that I had a few skirmisher units (2 sharp rifle's and one 500 with colts model 1855's) as well as one dragoon cav with sharps'es model 1859's. Equipment wise, if I remember correctly - my 1st corps made out of 3 divisions, two brigades each was completely outfitted with HF's 1855's and 1855's itself. My 2nd corp and it's infantry (2x3 if I remember correctly?) reinforcements was bringing out Lorenz'es mainly with some other weapons like 2 brigades with captured MJ&G's etc. In short no short range muskets.

As for tactics. As I said above, unlike u I've paused a lot and micromanaged a huge lot which makes a huge difference sometimes. There are though few things I think you could use still just like I did. In my case I have anchored my right flank with my best division (2 brigades) bunched up in that forest groove (not using the fortification however but having them stack on each other pretty much. Those guys with harpers ferry rifles and firearms skill over 70 were absolutely murderous and pretty much all of their losses came from a constant artillery barrage - not confederate infantry. That anchor can prove to be very important as it can draw a huge portion of confederate brigades (especially of ones coming in support from other side of the river) which I used later by having 2 sharpshooter regiments (with sharp rifles) shooting into the flanks of attackers from the area of the farm in center. Before that though I was regularly launching flanking attacks with one infantry brigade. Another anchor I found are the fields and that little groove just straight north from the fortifications on the left side. I have tied there majority of my infantry and forced confederates into engagement from there before they reached any cover in form of the fields or that groove. It proved pretty effective, but again it was possible thanks to micro and pause, so... This however pushed some confederates to try flank me hard left through that stream and into the woods there - but then they were engaged by my dragoons with 1859's - supported by a 500 skirmisher unit with revolving rifles which were coming from a flank - those guys however needed reinforcing with an infantry brigade pretty quickly. Anyhow, I was able to hold my ground and though the losses listed above on the cut screenshot doesn't seem to high - conversely they were as the lion share of casualties were taken by my most experienced infantry brigades (also dragoon's notably took over 60% losses too, and they were pretty experienced). Once my second corp arrived, it was pretty much over and I was able to rotate my badly wounded divisions. I was actually considering a push out north to tackle the confederate artillery but I have resigned from it, finding that prospect to be too costly.

The battle was still very hard I'd have to say.

Edited by Hussar91
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42 minutes ago, JonnyH13 said:

Ye I think you had too much artillery and not enough infantry Brigades.  You need mass volume of fire here and many overlapping brigades.  Focus fire on enemy brigades also helps.  Counter Charging with your reserves (which are quite necessary), advancing as far as you can with skirmishers to buy times.  Canister on the flank is quite effective as well but should not be counted on.  Also flanking the enemy attack by advancing on the left is an option but is risky.  Cavalry also is an option as well as they can advance quite far and dismount and might be able to pick off the CSA arty before their infantry catch up.  Also melee cavalry against lone enemy brigades can work.  Flanking with carbine cavalry at the critical moment can turn the tide of battle.  

Another thing is to throw off the game's prescripting by doing something very weird.  It may not apply to this battle but in others it might work to your advantage.  

I took all my artillery because I intended to fight them in the open as the video shows.

The best I did to hold the objective was to attack the Reb right flank (advancing on the left) and I actually threw them back into woods. Unfortunately, I was unable to stop the human wave coming over the bridge and re-position.

I tried a number of variations both defensive and offensive, but in the end I just couldn't win.

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In this video I chat a bit about my overall army management, long term strategy and try to evaluate my performance so far. I then jump into the Battle of Kettle Run and after having literally cornered the Reb Army, charge them to end the battle.

If anybody has any recommendations on how to spend my future reputation points, I'd love to hear them.

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The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap. The Rebs mount a pretty tough assault and almost take the objective. I fight back, mount a counter-attack and destroy the Confederate army.

Sorry for the coughs and sniffles... still getting over the flu.

Next up is 2nd Bull Run... that should be fun!

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I spend my points early in the game on guns, after i while i switch to manpower or cash depending on the situation or the outcome of a major battle.
I am not playing legend mode but Major General, i just won Chickamauga with the following stats:
Chick.jpg.d68ec514b27b3d149a04dcaa3dbc5203.jpg

i nearly destroyed the CSA army, the battle map screen shows their army size now at max 55K with two battles to fight before Cold Harbor.
 

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14 hours ago, Mukremin said:

I spend my points early in the game on guns, after i while i switch to manpower or cash depending on the situation or the outcome of a major battle.
I am not playing legend mode but Major General, i just won Chickamauga with the following stats:
 

i nearly destroyed the CSA army, the battle map screen shows their army size now at max 55K with two battles to fight before Cold Harbor.
 

Well done!

Yes, I believe for the CSA spending your points on guns is the way to go, while for the USA politics comes first. But there is no doubt I have reached a point where I am struggling to get enough guns, so I am pretty sure that is the direction I will be headed now.

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1 minute ago, LAVA said:

Well done!

Yes, I believe for the CSA spending your points on guns is the way to go, while for the USA politics comes first. But there is no doubt I have reached a point where I am struggling to get enough guns, so I am pretty sure that is the direction I will be headed now.

True, i followed the videos provided by Col_Kelly as a basis to start CSA campaign. I gave up though, no way i could win Washington with only 60.000 men. I play Union now, might try to get back to CSA.

For Union i spend my career points on Politics and AO, after that i switched to medicine, training and economy in that order. I might have bought 2 or 3 times some guns with the rep points. I try to encircle and completely destroy the enemy in order to get my guns, i captured like 9000 Richmond and 6000 Texas guns along with 20+ arty pieces in just 2/3 battles. My biggest trophy came from Chickamauga and Brock Road. Be sure to get to the most southern woods along the river at Chickamauga in order to wipe the CSA army out. Once of course you secured the northern objective.

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The problem with the Union Campaign on Legendary is even if you wipe out the Confederate army, the amount of guns you receive after a battle are paltry. During the course of this campaign I have habitually bought guns with reputation. With politics now at 10, I am receiving so many men that I can barely arm them.

But yes I agree, punching medicine, training and economy pretty much equally is the way forward.

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The Battle of Second Bull Run.

In this video I attempt to crush Longstreet's reinforcements as I move on the main objective. I had hoped to do much greater harm to the Confederates but overall I was quite happy with this variation to fighting the battle.

Unfortunately, once again the audio is pretty horrible.

 

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27 minutes ago, LAVA said:

The Battle of Second Bull Run.

In this video I attempt to crush Longstreet's reinforcements as I move on the main objective. I had hoped to do much greater harm to the Confederates but overall I was quite happy with this variation to fighting the battle.

Unfortunately, once again the audio is pretty horrible.

 

Great victory bud, one of my favourite battles for both sides really. Flanking their left flank is the only low cost strategy, it is also smart to attack that flank because of the incoming reinforcements. You pinned them down and pushed them back and inflicted casualties. I thought the casualties for the CSA would be more higher seeing the units killed.

Fighting Richmond as we speak ;)

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Their artillery was quite effective actually so I was happy to have destroyed 50 guns. That and the low quality of my infantry is probably why I wasn't able to get more casualties. I could have been more aggressive on my assault on Longstreet on the left, but once again, due to the low quality of my infantry there, it probably would have increased my own casualties without increasing that of the Rebs. I was also moving my artillery around quite a bit and in hindsight I probably should have left the longer ranged guns alone as they can't shoot if they are moving. As long as you have the Rebs in the open in a defensive position it is not so important to have your artillery right up next to the infantry and instead let them just fire and accumulate kills.

Could have fought the battle better... but it was fun nonetheless.

Good luck at Richmond!

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