Nicolas I

“No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” attributed to General George S. Patton

This teleportation back from hard gained positions thing must be fixed. It happened to me at Chickamauga as CSA and my exhausted troop had to advance again towards where I was before. Happily enough I had wiped most Union troops so this was still possible.

You can always go back to your toy soldiers :-).

WHY ? They give better bonuses and can command more troops, there's no downside.

Yes, been there, done that. It was somewhat easier after removing the good rifles of my lone skirmisher unit as all the enemy units weapons scaled down. Also, I used cavalry to destroy the enemy skirmishers and artillery. After that the infantry reinforcements attacked the dismounted cavalry that I attacked from the sides or behind.

I agree. It would be great if we could merge the remnants of two experienced brigades to form a new one instead of being forced to disband them or fill them with recruits.

In my first campaign as CSA I stockpiled too much and lost points when I reached the 100 points cap because there was nothing worthwhile/useful to buy. In that sense, it's better to use some points in early/mid-game when building your army and when all the ratios for money, men, arms or generals are the best. I agree with you that the morale boost you get by stockpiling reputation points is valuable, but you can still get it despite spending a few points (if you win consistently).

Other than about their respective power in the woods, I do think that generally speaking skirmishers are a little too fast and powerful in melee and cavalry a little too slow and should be a bit more powerful in melee.

It seemed your main concern not long ago, that may be why he answered about that topic.

Select a brigade, then you will see a window with detailed info on this brigade on the right side of your screen. Use the slider to increase the number of men (up to the max allowed by you army organization). You have to chose between veterans or recruits reinforcements. Veterans cost you both manpower and money (so they are quite expensive), while recruits only cost you manpower. As men will need weapons, it will also cost you money if you don't have enough weapons in your stock (armory). In the same window you can select another officer and also change the weapons used by this brigade. Be aware that if you select officers in the academy rather than your barracks (if your barrack are empty due to losses) they cost you money. Same for the weapons, if you don't have enough in stock (armoury) you have to buy them with money. It's good to know that you will be able to buy some better weapons with reputation points and that you will reap some weapons after battles provided you crushed enough enemies. Enjoy the game ! PS The cost of veterans goes increasing for more experienced brigades 1*, 2*, 3*, so don't waste your most experienced troops. For costly frontal attacks (if unavoidable) send rookies to the sacrifice, unless it's the tipping point of the battle.

I made my own list of reputation linked bonuses for CSA (just began an Union campaign). It is useful as the relative value can evolve with time. For exemple, for the Lee Enfield rifles you can sometimes get a high ratio of 285 guns per reputation point or later as low as 100 guns per reputation point. Most of the times the late offers are more costly, so it's better to spend early and mid-game. And never forget there's a cap of 100 reputation points.

Exactly ! I was also annoyed by the damn skirmishers when first playing. Now I send two detached skirmishers units against them to have a 1,5/2 to 1 ratio. Shock cavalry is still useful against skirmishers in the open, to disturb/destroy artillery, to flank the enemy and to chase routed brigades. So it's not useless as some pretend. Its use is quite historical which, surprisingly, fits an historical game.

As CSA, I successfully baited enemy troops in the NW with a single brigade + skirmishers + artillery in the thin tree line close to the Potomac (by the way that's where Stuart was historically). I also had a long range artillery (Tredegar) to pound the enemy troop on the open ground. I was often close to being overwhelmed but I grinded many enemy brigades this way and also released some pressure on the West Wood until reinforcements arrived. Being able to stand in West Wood and Dunker Church, I think that diverted troops from Sunken Road where there was no really threatening attack. So I could send some troops/guns from there towards Antietam Creek. I think that was a kind of spillover effect/virtuous circle. Also, a cavalry brigade was able to disturb/damage a few enemy artillery units. Enemy troops were too close (and their reinforcements waves also), so I didn't destroyed them for fear of being seriously mauled. But all the time you disturb enemy artillery, they don't shoot on your troops and they stop their advance to the front trying to target you (run in circles to avoid it). I think that single cavalry brigade saved me many hundred troops and also morale damage that could have made my front fall back/collapse at crucial moments. I admit I was somewhat lucky these horsemen survived many near death experiences.

I fight enemy skirmishers with my own detached skirmishers putting two companies/battalions against one for a 1,5 or 2 to 1 ratio to get some success. After I get rid of them I go after another. Charging them with cavalry on open ground still works fairly well, if you distract them a bit before you reach them. I agree skirmishers are highly annoying, but so are yours for the enemy. That being said I find their hiding and melee bonuses, as well as their speed, a bit too high. That needs some fine tuning.

A sparse skirmish formation hidden behind trees seems hardly an easy target for cavalry impeded by the same trees/stumps/bushes.

Having done some horseriding in woods I can tell you that unless you find paths you have to go quite slowly, not even thinking of charging. Not only it is difficult to manoeuvre as it has been said, but the uneven ground and debris can be very tricky for your best friend who can easily hurt itself. Each time I would go in the woods I would carefully inspect the legs and hooves and often find small problems. That been said, I don't know to what extent the game makes a difference between deep woods and sparse ones regarding horses penalties. As the game does calculate the level of coverage, the same level of penalty could/should apply to horses.

I usually trained troops in combat to get 1 division of elite brigades (3*), 1 of veterans (2*), 1 of regulars (1*) and the last division of recruits brigades. Then I would gradually transfer some of these seasoned troops to form a second or third corps without going from scratch. But take note that the scaling takes into account all your army troops. This limits your ability to create new corps/divisions (or else the enemy also gets more troops). Which is somewhat odd because some part of the fun is supposed to be the development of your army towards next battles. I would greatly prefer if the scaling was based only on the troops you actually deployed on the battlefield.

Bizarre game mechanics at Chickamauga ? As confederates by 2/3 of the battle I had taken all the objectives except the last one horseshoe ridge (not yet visible in this phase). Then, when the next phase began all my troops were automatically pushed back out of these objectives ! I had then to push my (weary) troops forward again to regain these already won objectives and finally all the way up to horseshoe ridge. That was not a big problem as I had killed most of enemies (+90%), but what was left of his cavalry quickly retook 2 objectives. And my very tired troop were very slow, still they easily prevailed against the Union's remnants to hand me victory. I really don't understand why the game expelled me from hardly won objectives that I had just garrisoned to resist an eventual counter-attack ???

Take/defend all the flags (victory points).

Same for me. No description on the battles selection map, but the description is there at the beginning of the battle.

Yes, drag and drop to switch officers would be great.

I agree, but you must keep the brigades using them safe because they are quite difficult to replace if you lose too many men (and their guns).

I agree, cavalry is somewhat fragile and has a limited role but is useful against skirmishers, routed infantry (not too big units though) and to overrun artillery. As confederates, capturing cannons in itself is quite valuable to replenish/build your batteries for free. Cavalry (when mounted) should be able to disengage more quickly from melee than infantry. For now you are at risk if you enter melee tot close to other brigades.

I think you are absolutely right ! I already pleaded that scaling must be reworked, a limit to the number of rare weapons should be established. I recently linked your very convincing demonstration with screenshots on Steam in the "why are enemy troops so beefed up" thread.

I agree with the word "using" special weapons bought. But some rare and very expensive weapons bought with reputation can simply be sold for cash if you are short on money. For these niche weapons the reputation for cash ratio is better than getting money for reputation directly (even considering the lower resale price). Like Fayetteville's.