kjchan

What size gun batteries would you recommend Andre? And i should ignore that 3rd corps for now right?

Hey guys, So after finishing Shiloh, my biggest question is whether or not to spend my career points on Politics or Army Org. If I took my next AO point, it would unlock 5-brigade divisions. Looking at each of the minor battles, I can't seem to take 15 brigades in any of them, so that would seem to suggest that I shouldn't take an AO point. But then I look at Gaines Mill and there's an opportunity to bring a 20 brigade Corps. So should I be working up to an AO level that allows for 4 Divisions/5 Brigades during the course of this campaign? What's also slightly confusing is that after having won Bull Run and Shiloh, I got two free corps in a row. But there's nowhere to deploy a 3rd Corps in Gaines Mill, so I assume I should ignore putting troops there for now, right?

Thanks all for the advice, finally beat it. Whoo that was fun! Ended up taking the extra organization point and I'm glad I did, as most of the Reb brigades were right around 2K so it gave me some extra cushion. Took the advice to go full 35K supplies on both Corps, and I'm glad I did because I was able to run my arty pretty much full bore for most of the fight and still ended with about 33% supplies left or so at the end. Ended up not being able to switch some veteran units around to my II Corps as both Corps were full in their Org Chart. Is there a way to switch units around when both Corps are full of brigades? In any case, my elite I Corps not surprisingly killed it on the western edge of the map, whereas my II Corps on the eastern edge had their lines breached once which was a little nerve racking. Did end up trying to hold the Hornet's nest in a Vee, but ended up wishing I had taken Hitori's advice as the tip of the Vee got hammered pretty hard...but then I used Buell's boys for that job so I didn't cry so much over those losses. Was tons of fun watching the rebs throw themselves against Pittsburg Landing. Ended the battle in MUCH better condition than when I tried it in the .6 era. Thanks all for your advice!

Whoops sorry for the double post.

Thanks Andre. Another quick question. As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons). My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets. Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

Oh and recommendations for supply? I currently have 25K each Corps. Have no idea how the #'s work.

Thanks Andre. Another quick question. As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons). My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets. Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

Thanks Andre. Another quick question. As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons). My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets. Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

So I'm going to start Shiloh. Order of Battle is 24 brigades. (2 cav, 2 skirmish, 4 arty, 16 IN) Should I spend another Army point beforehand to bump up my brigades to 2000 men each? I remember in the .6 patch era, I had 1500 man brigades against the Rebs seemingly 2 to 2.5K brigades and I remember the struggle being real. Or should I be spending that career point on politics to get an extra cash influx? Also, I remember losing a lot of men trying to hold objectives in the first couple phases. Should I just turtle up and put myself in more defensible positions near the top of the map early on, so that way its easier for me to circle the wagons around the landing with less loss of troops? Then counterattack day 2 and get all my land back? Or should I try to hold the early phase objectives as the computer recommends?

This point was very interesting to me. I had envisioned making in the later stages of the game a sizable contingent of Cav troopers armed with at a minimum breechloaders if not repeaters to make large scale flanking or rear attacks. If you're willing to do the micro management though, are you saying its a viable strat?

Ooh Soldier I thought of another question on unit scaling. Say, I decide to play for a draw and go into a defensive posture, and in doing so inflict huge casualties on the other side. But at the end of the battle, the victory conditions are a draw. Is the unit scaling for the next battle influenced by the fact that I drew, or by how many casualties I inflicted on them?

How many AO points would you vets recommend for Bull Run Union? I haven't put any points there. Eyeballing it, it looks like I'll have a 4k manpower advantage as of right now. How many points for Shiloh?

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply Soldier! Some clarifying questions? 1) I get that weapon scaling is no longer a thing, but what did you mean by the phrase "limits set by the Armory value listed in Intelligence Screen"? 2) Did Intelligence Service effectively hard cap the enemy forces to within a given range so that there's less of a nasty surprise in how much you're outnumbered by?

Hi all, I was around starting at .6 patch and then took a break to await the final game. I'm really excited! Question though, is Weapon Scaling still a "thing"? Like I would love to make an elite sniper unit to wreak some sneaky havoc, but will the enemy just counter with a flood of Whitworths from out of nowhere? I also went back a few pages, and can't find a topic on unit scaling. I remember reading the patch notes from awhile back and I think I recall that the status quo is that on Colonel mode the enemy is heavily influenced by casualties...but I could have sworn there was another option I was supposed to toggle. Is there one?

Dumb question - I haven't logged in my game in a while and I see that the .72 patch came out. Will my saved campaigns reflect the new changes (I'm most interested in looking at the dynamic campaign change), or do I have to start a brand new game?

Looking at this gif prompted this question in my mind: Is there an analogous function to "spacebar" in Total War, whereupon pressing it you can see a visual overlay of ALL movement orders you have given to units? I'm not aware of one so far in this game.

Follow on question - why not max out cav units at 750? Is it that they're too expensive to maintain in terms of replenishment of weapons post battle?

Thanks for the replies all. Sounds like I have some experimenting to do. Another question to the veterans. Is it worth it to spend a brigade slot on dedicated skirmishers but armed with the best sniper rifles money can buy? Basically I'm curious if they're a force multiplier that's worth it...especially compared to a melee cav unit occupying the same slot.

On my 2nd playthrough, count me down with the other guys clamoring for dynamic campaigns where the effect of your battles matter on the enemy force structure. To appeal to as wide of a community as possible (and trust me, I want you guys to make bank on this, so you can keep churning out quality games)...you should appeal to casuals like me. There are plenty of hardcores in here who want the highest possible AI difficulty. But my enjoyment within the camp portion of campaign is knowing that I'm doing everything I can to build a superior force with which to crush my foe. Right now, it feels like the camp portion is all about just trying to keep up with the joneses so I don't get my own rear end spanked in the next major battle. I should be able to get a benefit or some sort of reward for early superior campaign gameplay. Should absolutely have a toggle in the options to have AI army scaling or not (or some other campaign reward that will actually make a difference).

Was the officer's rank mechanic something that existed in UG: Gettysburg? If so can anybody educate me on how big of a difference each jump on rank makes (i.e. MAJ to LTC) on the effectiveness of the unit? My overarching question is - is it a large and worthwhile impact? Should I be stuffing my officer ranks with BGs, at least for the elite units and artillery?

What was your supply level by Shiloh? I had 13K in each Corps, let my guns shoot the whole time, and I ran out by the end of Day 1...

Thanks all for your feedback. I have two follow on questions to the two sirs who gave me detailed feedback. 1) What is the bare minimum force needed to successfully execute Shiloh? I know DET said he only had 3 Army Org points...I had 4 (which I think equals 2 corps, 2 divisions, 4 brigades). And I found Shiloh Day 1 at the end to be a hard deal due to the sheer volume of the Confederate troops. 2) What specific artillery pieces do you prefer? I was using 12 lbs Napoleons as an all-arounder type weapon. Or should I go with Parrotts? 24 lbs Howitzers? Also, do you have all your arty pieces on HOLD FIRE and do you manually release them to fire only when the enemy is at grapeshot range?

Hi all, I'm a noob to the Ultimate General series and just wanted to pick your veteran brains as to how best to optimize your campaign (especially leading up to Shiloh). I went for a Union quality building programme and spent most of my attention on getting rifles into the hands of my troops. I didn't pay as much attention to pumping points into Army Organization and sheer number of units and promptly got out-attritioned in Shiloh Day 2. My Army Order of Battle leading into Shiloh was 2 Corps, 2 Divisions apiece. Each Division contained 3 Infantry Brigades. Within each Corps, 1 Division had a full complement of breech loading carbine cavalry (750 men) and the other division had a 24 gun battery. My career background was Politics. I'd like a more successful 2nd playthrough. So questions I have for you all are: 1) What was your optimal use of Career Points? Seems to me that the game prioritizes having sheer numbers on your side and therefore Army Organization should be prioritized. 2) Are skirmishers worth it? I know that historically they're important for screening and delaying...but they don't seem to do that well in this game, or I could be using them wrong. Seems like a waste of a unit slot in the early game. 3) Is Cavalry worth it in the early game? As another poster mentioned, it seems like mounted infantry are a crap concept in this game. I know that historically that's where Union cavalry tended by the end and were useful as rapidly deployable skirmishers. But when I try to use them in that role I seem to fail - I once had a wonderfully looping flanking maneuver which landed both my cavalry units in a Rebel unit's rear...only to have them somehow magically sense my presence, rapidly face me and then decimate my cavalry units within 2 volleys (sigh for the loss of their hideously expensive weaponry). Also my mounted infantry had massive issues handling the saber armed Rebel cavalry. It was no contest. Seems to be a clear favor in this game towards saber armed cavalry ...but I can't imagine using them unless on routing troops, troops in melee, or on artillery positions. Seems like I should focus that 4th slot in my divisions on more artillery? 4) How to use Artillery in this game? Should they be behind my lines? Should I squeeze them into my lines somehow? I know I shouldn't let them continuously fire unchecked since they are an ammo hog...but what else should I be cognizant of? Should I do 24 gun batteries, or are they too unwieldy? Should I save my best subordinate commanders for my artillery units for the best bang for buck? 5) Is it worth it to get all my infantry units rifle armed? Its quite expensive and they're not in large supply. I know that a lot of posters espouse building up a handful of key veteran brigades. Is this where all my rifle supply should go? 6) Supplies - I have no idea what that number means and how much is enough. Thanks in advance for any replies I may get!

Hi there Game Labs, I'm loving the game so far. I absolutely love the concept of owning your own corps/army, getting to upgrade it between battles, and then being deployed within the context of a larger campaign or battle. As a total noob to the Ultimate General series (but not to this genre - I'm a Total War junkie), I feel that some enhancements to the campaign mode are needed so as to prevent "new player" frustration or confusion. So here's what I did in my campaign: Went with the Union. Won the Battle of Phillippi series, the Distress Call, and the two other random battles leading up to Shiloh with no problem. In between battles, I went for a "quality" enhancement program with my corps. Tried to replace muskets with rifles wherever I could, tried to enhance my artillery park and cavalry weapons. Went for some veteran replacements as $$ allowed. With career points, I did an even spread and didn't really focus on one particular category. Is the guide not fully updated? I tried looking for a description of "Supplies" so I could figure out how much I needed, but couldn't. So I just kind of winged it and kept bumping it up by ~3K per corps after each victory. I also noticed that with each new battle it seemed like the Rebs' unit size grew rapidly from roughly 1K per brigade originally to where they swelled to 3K per brigade by Shiloh while I was stuck at 1.5K throughout. So then Shiloh hit and I went into it with 2 corps with 2 divisions apiece. 2/3rd of Day 1 was no problem, as my qualitatively better troops were able to easily hold their position. But then, my mismanagement of my supply situation reared its head and I spent 1/3rd of it critically low. And then, my failure to put one more point into Army Organization hampered me because the numerically superior Confederates chewed me up on Day 1 through simple attrition. So Day 2 was basically impossible because I was at less than 50% strength and with zero supplies. So what? I fear that it will be possible for newbies to this series to make strategically bad choices in their career/army management (like I did) such that they find themselves unable to literally take the next step to progress, and they will have to restart their whole campaign (if they saved at the wrong spots, as I did) in order to reattempt certain battles. Furthermore, with the way the Confederates' unit size dramatically increased in 5 battles, it seemed like there was really only 1 Army/Career playstyle to adopt - that of going for broke in Army Organization to get more units, and to spend all your $$ on basic musket-equipped new units in order to be able to match the AI numerically. Proposals to remedy: 1) Need more guidance in the Army/Career menu. If the intent is really to go down a certain administrative playstyle (i.e. get as many men and guns on to the field as you can early), then some sort of Adviser function is needed so that you can get advice on where career points should be placed, if you are critically low in a category that is instrumental to victory. And potentially put some sort of guidance in the campaign map so that when you click on a battle it has a suggestion statement (i.e. "In order to take part in this battle, it is recommended that the player have XXX soldiers and XXX artillery pieces"). And with supply, the adviser did tell me to buy more supplies, but it didn't intimate HOW MUCH to buy. 2) Scale the Battle Objectives Based on Player's Troop Strength: If a player doesn't go all out on Army management, you could scale the objectives and enemy troop strength within each battle to something commensurate with that player's troop strength. I was pretty disappointed when one of the early Army Organization levels gave me another corps to manage off the bat. I wanted to be just another corps commander for awhile and work within the context of a larger Army operation, while improving my unit's quality. I would love it - and it would greatly enhance Campaign replayability if you could play the entire campaign as just a Division, Corps, and Army commander each time through. Even the division only perspective would be entertaining, if the random campaign missions were tailored to a division's level (i.e. take a mostly mounted infantry division and conduct raids through enemy territory, or stop such a raid, etc etc)/ 3) Allow for an MMO-style "Gear Grind": You can only play the custom, off-shoot battles once. I think that on an easier campaign setting you could allow for replays of battles, so that way you could get an easy infusion of cash and career points so that you could rectify your mistakes. Miscellaneous: 1) I think the Army Organization category should function more as an open ended tree. I don't like how it forces you into certain organizational structures that I would rather control myself. For instance, I personally would much rather have increased my Corps to 3 Divisions and increased unit size before moving on to a 2nd Corps. 2) Rather minor but in certain areas of weapon overlap, for some reason you can't share Skirmisher and Cavalry rifles even though they seem to be that exact same rifle? I had one instance where I had to sell the rifle and rebuy it at a loss so I could equip my Cavalry with that weapon. Anyways, keep up the great work guys. I really love this concept of a game and am looking forward to seeing what you all have in store next.