Hitorishizuka

For people who didn't play various other games, it would be helpful to be more explicit with what you are asking. You want a button or something to just press to rally that can be used anywhere? Please inform. This would probably break game balance even further. Defense is already too good for the player and digging in won't prevent the AI from being dumb. That's because there is no such thing as veterans or rookies, it's just the mechanic through which you recruit troops and then stats average out back into a blob. If you recruit rookies, it brings down the stats of the unit, that's it, you don't actually have rookies. That's probably needless simulation down at the soldier level when we really only care about the brigade as a whole.

Eight 12pdrs for two reasons: 1) Instant burst shock damage from the 12pdrs is most important for getting units to break 2) Auto-scaling means it's better to bring smaller elite batteries instead of bigger ones with worse guns to prevent the AI from getting more free guns Honestly I wouldn't ever use 6pdrs, even if you're dirt poor there's always something better to be using. 10pdr Ordnance is actually a good choice for training up rookie Artillery on because of its accuracy, then promote them to Napoleons or Howitzers or something later.

They might get a reload bonus or you might be only seeing the effect of them not retreating as far between volleys and wasting time. I haven't personally seen much of a difference but I admittedly don't feel the need to dismount them that often.

Correct, they won't wheel, so if they can't get even an angled shot from their current facing they do nothing. If you then tell them to attack that will eliminate the hold order.

That's because they act as standard skirmishers and as such get their additional cover bonus, which they don't when they're mounted.

Because of the range of their carbines, it's better in practice to keep them mounted. They don't need cover or stealth, they're not supposed to actually get shot at and they'll be too close for stealth. Mobility to get them in and out of range is more important IMO.

Gaines Hill is winnable with basically just your first Corps.and a division or two from your second. First Corps can sweep the Union from the first two VPs and draw so much attention that only a division from the 2nd is needed to push on and take Henry Hill.

When i say "can find uses for money" I really mean "okay I actually ran out of money and still want more brigades to fill requirements on the map and can't afford rifles".

Correct. Playing minimum size increases the effectiveness of all cavalry, skirmishers, and artillery units because they don't have to try and mess around with the AI's 3000 man brigades to the same degree. A 750 man cavalry brigade doesn't have to wait around for the battle to progress if the enemy's biggest brigades are only 1200. Sniper skirmishers are really strong on offense because they can fairly easily pick off enemy artillery that is slightly behind enemy lines while you're still engaging the primary force. They still do fine on defense, especially around the flanks. I haven't played with rapid fire skirmishers yet but putting them on a VP right behind someone who gets meleed a lot sounds like a great idea. I do want to use them for flanking, they either bait a turn which means the enemy eats flank shots from all of your main brigades or they quickly rout the enemy anyway themselves. It took me awhile but I finally came around to ranged cavalry, though you have to baby them so much. They're a lot safer at killing enemy artillery that still has some infantry buddies around because they take do enough damage in the first volley to rout to still protect themselves from counterfire but won't be on top of the artillery which will cause them to get shot by nearby units. They also are actually capable of contributing reasonably effectively in line vs line pushes at corners and adding decent damage in, while melee cavalry still sit around and wait for opportunities to go after a single brigade not really engaged or for the whole line to waver so they can break the entire thing. I would still want melee cav as the hammer but ranged cav definitely has its place.

If it's after every battle, another $20k per Corps absolutely adds up. You can pretty much always find uses for money when using all of your men. The save files I was doing that I pretty much couldn't even afford Whitworths/JS or 24pdrs or anything fancy.

I use it for skirmishers who would otherwise fall back in the face of fire when I really did just want them to sit there and duke it out.

Not really true. If you are running a max size army, it's pretty easy to run out of money due to needing to actually buy basic rifles and lots more Veteran refill costs and so on. Money matters.

Sniper skirmishers are basically about as effective as artillery in general casualties while on the offensive and far easier to bring in for flank shots. They're also very good at picking off enemy artillery between their brigades while you're still trying to push their infantry blockers out. Haven't tried the high reload dedicated skirmishers much yet but if micro'd successfully I imagine they could do some really good damage just based on how effective detached skirmishers can be at that role.

Select two brigades from the same division whose total #s are less than 2500, hit the combine button. One will start walking towards the other, when it reaches it, they will combine. For best success, have them both stationary and right next to each other before hitting the button.

I am not 100% certain because I've never seen it from the Union side but I don't think you can spawn camp them because Longstreet's Corps doesn't show up until the 2nd day and everyone is back into their starting positions, more or less. It would still be a joke because you can just hold that one stretch of forest that runs N-S at the center-left as well as maybe the town right there (maybe, the angle is going to be a bit weird, might be better to fall back from that) as well as rush units over to finish off the last forces of Jackson in case anyone from Longstreet just runs over there and hold the forest against them before they come.

As is the usual refrain, fortifications are a trap. The forward fortifications happen to be a double trap. After you crush the first brigades that moved forward to the railroad line they don't actually have anything left in the center. You take the center-right fields cover basically for free and use that as a salient to get into the trees and split the forces. The battle still ends soon after as you start moving down the treeline but you'll have killed 2/3rd of their force in the meantime outside of the skeleton guard in the left forest.

Well, half that was in this case you did a rather unnecessary wide flank that either caught them completely out of position or forced them to withdraw without shooting. After the initial engagements their center and center-right are actually pretty weak and can be pushed straight through. You lost as CSA? Er...yeah I'd need to know more to help you there. Were you using the forward fortifications for some reason?

Manpower is fairly unimportant unless you're actively going for a max size army. The bigger determination is the $ spent on veterans to rebuild your forces or the wastage of grinding down a Green unit too fast before they've seasoned enough. Either way, the point was that the criticism levied was that your approach was too bloody. Whether or not you can sustain the losses is immaterial if there are approaches that can achieve similar results but with less losses.

Um, no, this is completely backwards. Division commanders have no bonuses, only Corps commanders do. Further, in many battles you do get only a 1-2 Divisions forward deployed, so if you specialized a Division, then you'd be lacking some key element of combined arms for the duration of that phase.

Well, you achieved the tactical victory and forced them off the field. That said, below a certain level of casualties you're actually hurting yourself because you didn't take the opportunity to blood your troops. Experience is more valuable than money and men after a certain point. The flipside, of course, is not to be overzealous in pursuing them if they've retreated to good ground and you'd do more harm than good in trying to wipe them out.

I, um...you managed only a 1.3:1 kill ratio and lost half your force. That is exceptionally bloody. Now a fair part of that is probably due to just taking a lot less forces than you were allowed but it's still very steep.

In long battles you should still turn off artillery if they're just doing long ranged shell fire. Not having a max sized manpower game helps too.

Just max it to 25000 and forget it. Whatever isn't used isn't wasted as far as I know.

Secure the Center: Move all of your big brigades up to the north and use the tree line to start walking brigades in. They only start with artillery up there and one brigade usually so you can get a lot of early damage in. As your forces get over there you're going to have 3-4 brigades focus firing on one. Get your artillery set up to crossfire on that northern side as you push down and you should be able to start sweeping through the trees. As you push in, then you can bring units in to flank the center and if you are careful about distance, they get free flank shots while standing in the open. Just walk and push down through the trees at that point. Cavalry can be used to swat the enemy skirmishers and ranged cavalry that might be hanging around in the north. Rendezvous: Pull your units east into the tree cover right from the start and set up there. You can get free kills on skirmishers as they path in from the south by just leaving cavalry down there and/or using a brigade to insta melee them. Just hold that position until your last brigades come in, then push out now that the numbers are equal. Take the tree cover right across the river at that point and north from there with most of your brigades, push another brigade or two south more to the other trees to spread the enemy out, then use those as good fighting positions until you force them to fall back and you can quickly tighten the noose. Eventually you should be able to push them northeast (try to get a brigade into the big forest early to keep them from going NW, it's annoying out there) and use the river as another barrier to kill them on. Cavalry can take a wide circle south and then west and north and probably catch a brigade on its own it can kill.

An all cavalry division or even Corps can actually be useful if you set them in the Reinforcements slot or on certain divisions of your required Corps that don't actually see battle normally because of distance with their speed actually letting them contribute but it requires intimate map knowledge of when and where such a thing would be useful. On my most recently Union playthrough this is what I had the most success with: Division 1: Green infantry x3-4, Melee cavalry x1, Artillery x1-2 Division 2: Regular infantry x3-4, Melee cavalry x1, Artillery x1-2 Division 3: Iron infantry x3-4, Ranged cavalry x1, Artillery x1-2 Division 4: Iron infantry x3-4, Sniper Skirmishers x1, Artillery x1-2 Artillery down to 1 on offense, 2 on defense. Some maps I may move the Ranged cavalry up to Division 2 also if I feel the early phase supports their usage better than keeping them back. The Green infantry may also not be that Green any more but just haven't taken casualties, it's really just the most recent cycle of the guys I'm currently training up.