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Confederate Legendary Campaign


LAVA

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So here is the problem going into 2nd Bull Run:

I have 19,000 men and 16,000 recruits. Enemy forces are believed to be at 60-65,000 men. I can raise my army up to full strength (35,000 troops) by spending my reputation on money, however, by doing that my reputation will be in the toilet. After 2nd Bull Run you have the Antietam campaign where the USA can have up to 145,000 troops and they will bring them to the battle. Some folks simply walk away from that battle and take the loss, but a loss there is something like -45 reputation. For me that would be the end of the war. I've noted that many folks at this point in the campaign are facing an estimated 110,000 Yankees. And even though I am facing 65,000 men, they are sure to grow by at least 30,000 by the time I get to Antietam bringing them up to 95,000... given of course, that I don't lick them badly at 2nd Bull Run.

So this is a huge point in the Campaign. Do I spend my reputation and try to change history by winning at Antietam or do I back away to live and fight another day and take the hit in reputation?

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From what I saw at Col. Kelly, to win Antietam, you must inflict very heavy losses to your opponent in previous battles. I think that in such a big battle as 2nd Bull Run, such a thing is easier to achieve with a larger army than a smaller one :) In other words I think You must go "All in".

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3 hours ago, Lord Gareth said:

You must go "All in".

I did.

The Yanks lost 40,000 to my 10,000 at 2nd Bull Run and their army size based on Intelligence service is now 45-50K.

Was there ever a doubt?

I'll post the video later tonight.

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I needed to play this small battle several times but finally managed a win. I believe how you handle your artillery is key to the battle.

Manassas Depot:

Twice I pierce the Union center and annihilate their right flank at 2nd Bull Run. The Yankees receiving a stunning 43,360 casualties and the loss of 102 guns. My army losses 10,337 men and 1 gun. It is a true slaughter and probably my greatest Grand Battle playing Legendary, both from the Northern and Southern perspective.

We are now prepared to march on Antietam.

2nd Bull Run:

 

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Well done mate, very swift move there taking the first northern depot. One of my favourite but still toughest battles ( we don't use our own troops :D )

As for 2nd Bull Run, amazing man. That was a very bolt move to surround them and basically kill them all. Very challenging man, i am not sure i can pull of something like that. :)

I like to stay in a more defensive position at 2nd Bull Run in order to preserve my army, but i might go a bit on the offensive to kill more Yankees. Great two battles mate, absolute loved the way you pulled it off. And taking those supplies was a very daring move and lucrative :D

Second day of battle you succeeded in cornering the northern armies again, beautiful.

 

30.000+ kills!!! and why weren't you awarded with a medal :S

Edited by Mukremin
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I was just probing at first with my skirmishers in the central area of the battlefield because I saw all those supply wagons. BTW, I captured 11 in total in the battle. But very quickly it became apparent that the 2 Union forces were split. Napoleon loved those circumstances and would send a small force to pin down one side and the rest of his army to destroy the other. Once one of the forces were destroyed he would then attack the other with the full strength of his army. On the last day, after having destroyed the Union right flank I could have continued the fight, but I figured my men had done enough and we would all camp on the battlefield for the night and rest.

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4 hours ago, LAVA said:

I was just probing at first with my skirmishers in the central area of the battlefield because I saw all those supply wagons. BTW, I captured 11 in total in the battle. But very quickly it became apparent that the 2 Union forces were split. Napoleon loved those circumstances and would send a small force to pin down one side and the rest of his army to destroy the other. Once one of the forces were destroyed he would then attack the other with the full strength of his army. On the last day, after having destroyed the Union right flank I could have continued the fight, but I figured my men had done enough and we would all camp on the battlefield for the night and rest.

exactly, great generals would have find your tactic appealing. BTW looking at your vast numbers of recruits and cash, how is your army now after replenishing?

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Haven't touched them yet. But going forward, I will only reinforce what I need to play the minor battles in hopes of capturing more weapons, prisoners and supplies. I will also be increasing economy so that by Antietam economy will have gone up another 3 points. So my economic discount on weapons should go from 7.5% to 15%. THEN, when I have the greatest discount on weapons, I will re-equip my entire army and enlarge it as well as I will need 3 Corps for Antietam.

We'll see what happens.

BTW: By the time I get to Antietam my reputation will be 48. If I lose the battle it is -48 to your reputation. That would bring my reputation to 0. Would that end the war for me?

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1 hour ago, LAVA said:

BTW: By the time I get to Antietam my reputation will be 48. If I lose the battle it is -48 to your reputation. That would bring my reputation to 0. Would that end the war for me?

Aye, it would end your game with a sacking from Lincoln.

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What a great battle. This is perfect "all-in"... :)
The only thing that annoys me is the first phase. In a real war, for this behavior the commander would at least be removed from command. The farm can be defended, so there is no justification for abandoning it.

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At Chantilly I fail to push hard enough on the enemy and whip them out before the time runs out. Nevertheless, I inflict 18,166 men and 14 guns in losses to my 5,938 men and 5 cannon.

 

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I surround the Yankee army during the Weapons Factory battle, but they slip through my fingers...  :angry:

On a brighter side... my intelligence service is estimating 66,000 Yankees at Antietam and my army now stands at 45,000.

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18 hours ago, LAVA said:

At Chantilly I fail to push hard enough on the enemy and whip them out before the time runs out. Nevertheless, I inflict 18,166 men and 14 guns in losses to my 5,938 men and 5 cannon.

 

nice battle mate, you did well to get into that wooded area in order to deny the enemy good cover. You forced them to stay out in the open and they got massacred.

5 hours ago, LAVA said:

I surround the Yankee army during the Weapons Factory battle, but they slip through my fingers...  :angry:

On a brighter side... my intelligence service is estimating 66,000 Yankees at Antietam and my army now stands at 45,000.

another well executed battle mate, you outflanked them and took the woods and forced them to fight out in the open. I hate it when the AI routes and gets past your lines, very annoying :D

We are in a exciting position right now, i have yet to fight the battles prior to Antietam because i am at the depot mission.. still... yeah.

I really do hope that the Union will bring less than 80.000 so you will at least grab a good result. Can't wait to watch Antietam mate, i love your videos.

Oh and please record the camp before fighting, i want to see how you spent the points and cash on your army and see your final numbers.

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I'm really stoked for the Battle of Antietam. By winning this battle I can significantly change the course of history.

I've had some folks warn me about how many troops the Yanks will have. Looking at the Intelligence report it states 66,000. Having said that there have been times in my campaigns where the intelligence report was wildly wrong. Also most Grand Battles have a "minimum" AI force and I have not a clue as to what that is at Antietam. A captured message warned of 25,000 men en-route to the area by rail, but that was never reflected in the intelligence report number.  So I will not be surprised if I am outnumbered by 2 to 1, putting the Army of Potomac at 91,000 men. Given that the 3 -5% to army size perks are applied, that would drop their force by 14,000 leaving them at 77,000 men. Overall then I think I can safely say there will be somewhere between 66 to 91,000 men present for the battle, with a more likely range of 77 to 91,000.

My army stands at 45,000 men. We have faced 2 to 1 odds before such as at the Battle of 2nd Bull Run. They are veterans and they are well armed. We have taken up defensive positions behind Antietam Creek and expect McClellan to attack us this morning...

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47 minutes ago, LAVA said:

I'm really stoked for the Battle of Antietam. By winning this battle I can significantly change the course of history.

I've had some folks warn me about how many troops the Yanks will have. Looking at the Intelligence report it states 66,000. Having said that there have been times in my campaigns where the intelligence report was wildly wrong. Also most Grand Battles have a "minimum" AI force and I have not a clue as to what that is at Antietam. A captured message warned of 25,000 men en-route to the area by rail, but that was never reflected in the intelligence report number.  So I will not be surprised if I am outnumbered by 2 to 1, putting the Army of Potomac at 91,000 men. Given that the 3 -5% to army size perks are applied, that would drop their force by 14,000 leaving them at 77,000 men. Overall then I think I can safely say there will be somewhere between 66 to 91,000 men present for the battle, with a more likely range of 77 to 91,000.

My army stands at 45,000 men. We have faced 2 to 1 odds before such as at the Battle of 2nd Bull Run. They are veterans and they are well armed. We have taken up defensive positions behind Antietam Creek and expect McClellan to attack us this morning...

I think you will do fine, your reserves and cash is in better shape than mine. I need to fight the Weapons Factory and Chantilly though. Here is what i had in my previous Legendary CSA campaign which i did not finish ( might load the save after Antietam and continue from there :D ) 
r3zYC8y.jpg

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2 hours ago, LAVA said:

I've had some folks warn me about how many troops the Yanks will have. Looking at the Intelligence report it states 66,000. Having said that there have been times in my campaigns where the intelligence report was wildly wrong. Also most Grand Battles have a "minimum" AI force and I have not a clue as to what that is at Antietam. A captured message warned of 25,000 men en-route to the area by rail, but that was never reflected in the intelligence report number.  So I will not be surprised if I am outnumbered by 2 to 1, putting the Army of Potomac at 91,000 men. Given that the 3 -5% to army size perks are applied, that would drop their force by 14,000 leaving them at 77,000 men. Overall then I think I can safely say there will be somewhere between 66 to 91,000 men present for the battle, with a more likely range of 77 to 91,000.

With how well you have been managing the AI size I'd expect you to hit around the minimum ratio which is about 2:1. When mostly wiping out the enemy in prior battles I've never seen the giant 3:1 type numbers that people have encountered.

Haven't been able to watch recently, but it sounds like things are going well and am looking forward to catching up.

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The Yanks lost 48,000 and I lost 21,000. I also lost 10 officers. :(

My army started at 46,960 men with 111 guns and ended up (due to the medicine thing) with 31,068 men with 91 guns. I have 9,600 recruits.

I'll do the video soon... but these long battles are exhausting, so I might take a bit of a rest.

P.S.: The Yanks had 75,975 men and 190 guns to my 42,761 men and 111 guns.

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So here are my campaign stats up to and including Antietam:

CSA Campaign Losses


Battle                       CSA Losses        USA Losses       USA Missing+

Potomac Fort               2,466/05             5,337/11               846
Newport News             1,652/02             4,925/00                   0
1st Bull Run*                7,500/12           23,909/42            2,957
Ambush Convoy             283/00             1,870/00               308
Stay Alert                      4,085/00           14,769/27            1,419
Shiloh*                           9,471/05           28,449/62                   0
1st Winchester             3,759/01           12,151/24               553
Cross Keys                    3,690/01           15,149/00                  0
Port Republic                2,769/00           11,451/50           1,069
Gaines Mill*                  5,626/02           13,063/64              237
Malvern Hill*              12,467/10           32,040/104          1,190
Cedar Mountain           6,849/03           22,716/48               120
Manassas Depot          5,118/00            7,824/02                327
2nd Bull Run*              10,337/01          43,360/102          1,482
Chantilly                         5,938/05           18,166/14              111
Weapons Factory         2,010/00             8,526/55                   0
Antietam*                    20,888/24          47,820/62               120

Totals                         104,908/71       311,524/375         10,739

K/D Ratio: 2.97

# = men/guns
+ = included in loss numbers
* = Grand Battle

Antietam knocked my K/D ratio down from 3.13 to 2.97. Dammit!

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I think you should give yourself a pat on the shoulder as fighting and winning Antietam in Legendary as CSA is tough and a lot of players just don't fight the battle, they take the loss on their reputation and move on.

By curiosity, do you intend to play this whole campaign in one go without replaying any of the battles? Because you could clearly increase your K/D ratio for each of them, but then it is much more time consuming and becomes more a puzzle-solving game. Wiping out the Union at each battle is the best strategy for the campaign but you also need to preserve your troops so that they can build up their experience and keep their weapons. A K/D above 3 is good though and you can win with that (some people on Youtube won the Legendary campaign with much lower K/D ratios).

For the manpower, you should be fine campaign-wise if you manage to recoup from your losses in the Fredericksburg/ Stones River campaigns as they have a couple of minor battles where you can win without bleeding your army too much. Fredericksburg is easy to win if you stay on the defensive all the time, and Stones River is also easy to win on day 1 if you don't pay attention to the timer (you actually can fight on until 21:00 if I recall correctly) and you encircle the Union troops by doing a massive flanking attack on your left (as done historically).

You should try to capture more men to increase the extra recruits you can get from there; the CSA needs all the men it can muster!

Good luck!

 

 

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