New to this game and am thoroughly enjoying it. It's easy to pick up but very difficult to master.
I've read the tips thread above, and it has helped a little. But I'm struggling with numbers. I've played two campaigns now, but only until I got sacked in one and gave up in the other. I've tried both sides.
My basic problem is a fundamental one. I am lacking in manpower. I've started out with no bonuses, and gone with 1 corps until I have to upgrade to 2 and 3. My career path; I start out with the 4 recon which I find essential. Then I focus on politics/organisation. I try to focus on primarily infantry units in my divisions. I am doing well until I get to the end of 1862, then I have tiny corps due to the lack of manpower. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage. In one main battle of the campaign, I had 42,000 men and the enemy had 68,000 or so. It was a hard slog. But I eventually won. But from then onwards I had too many casualties and not enough replacements. It was unsustainable and quite frankly, not much fun. It felt terribly unbalanced from that point onwards and I'm not sure how you are expected to proceed. The problem as I see it, when you are made to add a corps of men to your army, the AI scaling seems to go through the roof. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I had manpower, but after losing 20,000 in one battle and then expected to face 60,000 or so in the next battle. I don't know what you are supposed to do.
Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I've also read that you don't need to worry too much about weapons as you will capture thousands along the way. This isn't how I see it. Sure, I am capturing a percentage. But nowhere near enough. I am wondering if turning the difficulty level down a notch will help.