Ohen

As someone who has completed legendary for both sides, let me give you some pointers on your points. On maps where you have to take objectives, rushing for them is more or less the only way to get it done. Find weak spots and go for them. On CSA side Shiloh phase 1 i went with a rush for the left side, then along the "ridge" behind the farmhouse. Pretty much pushing them towards the middle of what become the big map. For phase 2, the opposite, rush down to the right, cross down by the swamps and hold the forrested area at the top of the map, beware tho, reinforcements can spawn ontop of you if you missplay. After that, just push along the edges and take the landing before things get to ugly. Get the fayettes as soon as possible and equip a brigade with them. Have them in the battles, but don't actually use them unless you really really have to. This inflates the AIs weapons and you get better weapons in the captured pile. This is very true. But you should still stay as long as it's still "profitable". If you have perfect cover ( and i mean 100% cover with flat terrain infront ). Don't capture the objective if you don't have to. ( edit: you should still rush to a position where you can take it with minimal casualties ) Just sit there and collect monies. Yes, think of kills as money, it helps. Don't use skirmishers and don't use cav. With the extra manpower added to the AI, any brigade of skirm or cav you have in your army will turn into deathmachines spawned by the AI. So it's actually better not to use them at all. Okey, maybe if you have some extra cash laying around you can grab a cav or 2. But the consequences might be horrible. ( When i played the CSA legendary i tried adding a 300man cav unit for the mission Ambush Convoy. This gave the AI 6 units of 500+man melee cav. Happy days! ) I've tried this out alot of times and have found that it's more about positioning. But i might be wrong on this one. What i have seen tho is that if i don't leave an opening, i don't get rushed.

I still think those numbers are insane! Your casualties alone are more than my entire army at that point in my CSA campaign. This is what i ended up with:

I don't know about the rest of you generals out there. But i for one find a big part of my gaming experience comes from engaging with the community. Asking and answering questions, sharing tips and tricks, discussing different approaches and such and such. For this game tho, i feel it kind of lacking. Sure, there is this forum, and the Steam discussion group. But what i really want is a faster way to communicate, in a group. So, for the last week or so i have been hanging out in the steam-group chat, and what i've noticed is that people come and go pretty quickly. I belive mostly becouse the UI is horrible for steam chat, it's for the most part empty, and it's very intrusive. So, after checking with Col_Kelly he suggest i put up a poll to check if there are more people feeling the way i feel. Go vote people! Would you like a discord or some other chat service?

There is a thing called "The Paradox of Choice" which is just what you are talking about. And i know that exact feeling. My threshold for enjoyment is between 15 and 20 units. Anything more than that and after i while i just say hello kitty It! And just charge my units in willynilly. Not becouse i feel like i lost a grasp of the tactical position, more becouse with that number of choices prioritizing becomes a problem and without prioritizing all units lose their value. This is the reason i enjoy the small engagements alot more than the grand battles. Sure it looks cool with thousands upon thousands of little dudes running around shooting. But it very quickly becomes stale becouse i lost intrest in the units themselves. One thing i would like with the small engagements is bigger maps. Not alot bigger, just a little little little bit. Sometimes they can feel crowded, even with 10-15 brigades on them. Not alot of room for flanking, or massing troops at specific points for breakthroughs, etc.etc.

But they really are! Reputation points and career points is essential for a successful campaign!