LAVA

I think you will find on many maps there is a point that if you cross, the AI will immediately respond. For example on 2nd Bull Run in the starting skirmish, if you move your troops anywhere close to the center of the forest, the Rebs will immediately start a vigorous attack. I figured the same thing was going to happen here so I did not approach until I had my entire force on the field and properly deployed. The messages and timers are also used to force the player into moving too quickly and placing himself into an indefeasible position. For the Union, you must play very deliberately. Move when you have your men properly deployed and supported by artillery. I'm a bit worried though, I won't have enough men for the major battle of Antietam which you really need to win big. Guess we'll see...

Battle of Crampton's Gap. Nothing special here expect that the audio came out okay!

Don't use photobucket. They want you to pay a silly amount for their services. Use Imgur.

Well done! A great gob. Good luck with the Rebs!

Their artillery was quite effective actually so I was happy to have destroyed 50 guns. That and the low quality of my infantry is probably why I wasn't able to get more casualties. I could have been more aggressive on my assault on Longstreet on the left, but once again, due to the low quality of my infantry there, it probably would have increased my own casualties without increasing that of the Rebs. I was also moving my artillery around quite a bit and in hindsight I probably should have left the longer ranged guns alone as they can't shoot if they are moving. As long as you have the Rebs in the open in a defensive position it is not so important to have your artillery right up next to the infantry and instead let them just fire and accumulate kills. Could have fought the battle better... but it was fun nonetheless. Good luck at Richmond!

The Battle of Second Bull Run. In this video I attempt to crush Longstreet's reinforcements as I move on the main objective. I had hoped to do much greater harm to the Confederates but overall I was quite happy with this variation to fighting the battle. Unfortunately, once again the audio is pretty horrible.

The problem with the Union Campaign on Legendary is even if you wipe out the Confederate army, the amount of guns you receive after a battle are paltry. During the course of this campaign I have habitually bought guns with reputation. With politics now at 10, I am receiving so many men that I can barely arm them. But yes I agree, punching medicine, training and economy pretty much equally is the way forward.

Well done! Yes, I believe for the CSA spending your points on guns is the way to go, while for the USA politics comes first. But there is no doubt I have reached a point where I am struggling to get enough guns, so I am pretty sure that is the direction I will be headed now.

The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap. The Rebs mount a pretty tough assault and almost take the objective. I fight back, mount a counter-attack and destroy the Confederate army. Sorry for the coughs and sniffles... still getting over the flu. Next up is 2nd Bull Run... that should be fun!

The efficiency values are capped by the Leadership value. So if leadership is 70 and efficiency is 78, the unit fights at 70 efficiency. For very high efficiency units make sure you have the best Division Commander and Brigade Commanders you can muster. If they can't bring you leadership value above the efficiency value then you should not reinforce the units with veterans. While getting the extra perks for 3 stars is important, it doesn't serve if your commander can't take advantage of them because he does not have the ability. The upside, of course, is that the unit does use all the other characteristics, such as stamina; which is not capped by Leadership.

In this video I chat a bit about my overall army management, long term strategy and try to evaluate my performance so far. I then jump into the Battle of Kettle Run and after having literally cornered the Reb Army, charge them to end the battle. If anybody has any recommendations on how to spend my future reputation points, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks Cairnsy, Fact is, I couldn't go much further on this Legendary campaign and decided to go back and play on MG. I made a lot of mistakes here... including right from the start when I picked out my General's characteristics. I don't take any recon now, ever; for example. I also learned a lot about army management, being more methodical in my movements and making sure I had good artillery close by to help me out. I recommend watching the videos of Aetius... especially his Camp videos and how and why he did things. You can check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/aetius9/playlists

I took all my artillery because I intended to fight them in the open as the video shows. The best I did to hold the objective was to attack the Reb right flank (advancing on the left) and I actually threw them back into woods. Unfortunately, I was unable to stop the human wave coming over the bridge and re-position. I tried a number of variations both defensive and offensive, but in the end I just couldn't win.

Tried it several times, but the AI attacked with such ferocity that I was unable to hold the position. There were times when the Confederates were so stacked up in front of my troops that I think they had to have had at least 4 lines of infantry. I was routing them left and right, but they simply kept chipping away at my infantry until a sector would finally just collapse. Once that happened it was game over. Did the best I could.

So after a number of attempts, I give Mulvern Hill another and final attempt. After watching the video I realized that in the last 25 minutes on the clock if I had made a strong push right into the center of the Confederate line, I might have been able to pull out a win. As it is I settle for a draw and accept the result (though I really wanted to win this battle). Sorry I stopped game play a couple times, doing videos is rather difficult for me because normally in the harder battles I play the game at half speed. Anyway... here it is:

Thanks, mate! I've gotten stuck on Malvern Hill though. In the past my artillery was able to hold back the Confederate hordes but on Legendary, there are just so many troops in such a small area that I can't hold the position before re-reinforcements arrive. I know this a hard battle to win, but I don't think I can do it. Has anybody ever won Malvern Hill on Legendary?

Here is my Battle of Gaines Mill. I set-up to force the Rebs to fight in the river and then pound them with my artillery and flank them. Eventually I retreat to hold my primary objective and with the Confederates pretty well depleted, they are unable to take it. Fun battle, much easier the 3rd time (after BG and MG) around.

I made a video... though you might not need it... yet.

Looking at those Brigades, you do have the opportunity to build them up to full strength with nothing but recruits. That will drop their efficiency rating and you will still have 3 star units. As you include recruits into the Brigade you will see the efficiency value drop and though your General will still have less Command than efficiency, you will have a much larger brigade with extraordinary power. I would suggest using your Reputation to get more money for weapons and then fill out the units to full strength or pretty close to it. At harder difficulty levels, you will need every recruit you can get your hands on.

For the Union, this happens quite frequently with artillery. You have 2 choices: 1) put the best commander you have and live with the fact that the battery will fight at his level of efficiency or 2) re-organize your units. I personally re-organize Federal artillery all the time. Here is how you do it: First make sure your recruit pool is 0. A recruit normally has an efficiency rating of anywhere from 8 to 10. Once you have all recruits assigned to units, look at your brigades. So let's say I have 2 really good artillery batteries and 1 middle of the road or recruit battery. If you disband the really good artillery batteries these guys go into the recruit pool with all their stats. Now if you disband a poor battery these guys will also go into the pool and their stats will be averaged. Now reconstruct the batteries and all the new batteries will have exactly the same stats. The really good batteries will drop in efficiency and the poor battery will raise in efficiency. You are then left with 3 good batteries which your officers can command at maximum efficiency. I can do a video on how you do it, if you like.

When evaluating your Brigade Commander, his command value must be higher then the unit's efficiency value. Command value comes from both the Brigade Commander and also the Division Commander. As long as the Command value is higher than the efficiency value the unit will fight at full efficiency. But if the Command value is less than the efficiency value the Brigade will fight with the same amount of efficiency as the Command Value. Always make sure your Brigade Commander has a higher value then the units efficiency value. In this case, Brigadier General Walton has (with a combination of some value approximately around 10 from the Division Commander) a 63 combined Command value. Because that value is higher than the efficiency value (45), the Brigade will fight at maximum efficiency. So you are good to go.

It's just for fun. Have no idea where it will lead. Here is the battle of Rendezvous. As close to an army wipe as you can get. The Rebs were reported to have 60k before this battle and now looking forward at Gaines Mill they went up to 70k. I may be headed for disaster if those numbers aren't brought down. Unfortunately I tinkered with the sound before recording this video and it came out barely audible. Perhaps that's best..

Seven Pines

In this video I fight the Battle of Secure River. The battle ends rather quickly once I take the objective. My artillery is becoming seasoned and is beginning to dominate the battle space... and so am I as a commentator though I mistakenly state I am bringing 4 and not 5 batteries into the battle. It's a quick fight, hope you like it.

Disbanding your batteries and reconstructing them is not a bad alternative. You just need to have your replacements down to 0 first before you do it so that all the folks that get disbanded take their experience with them into the recruitment pool.