LAVA

Interesting. Given my problem is buying weapons, I was thinking quite a lot about going with economy instead of politics. I was working under the "conventional wisdom" that hitting 10 in politics first is what you should shoot for even though it seems at around 6 or 7 you get diminishing returns from politics. Looks like I will have to rethink that philosophy. Thanks for the advice.

After 1st Bull Run I took a look at the coming battles. Shiloh, the next large battle allows the player to bring 2 Corps of 20 brigades so I spent both of my Career Points on Army Organization. I also used by reputation to buy 2000 Springfield 1855 rifles and 4 24pdr Howitzers. I added a 3dr Division, brought everyone up to strength and increased my artillery up to 12 guns per battery. Here is what my Corps looked like in preparation for the Battle of Crossroads: The Battle of Crossroads Overlooking the battlefield you find yourself once again sandwiched between 2 Confederate forces trying to protect an objective that is in the open but not too far away from available cover which the Confederates can use to approach. You will be attacked first from the north and then from the south. It is unwise to try to fight in cover as the Confederates will be on top of you before you can do much damage and they will charge and rout your forces. I determined that I had to win on one side of the battlefield and hold on the other. I start the battle with 2 brigades of infantry and my 10pdr Ordnance as it is good at medium and close range. I placed my forces at the top of the ridge a bit back from its original entry and detached skirmishers to go take the objective. The skirmishers are bait which I hope will draw the confederates to immediately attack the objective and come out of the woods... and that is what happened. First attacked by his skirmishers the next thing I know, as my reinforcements are entering the battlefield 2 reb brigades break cover and push hard at the objective from the north. A third brigade emerges south of the objective. I detach skirmishers on my reinforcements, sent 1 brigade to the right flank and 3 to the left. This was probably the most important part of the battle and unfortunately it was happening so quickly I didn't get a screenshot. Nevertheless I was able to rout the third brigade back into the forest. The rest of the skirmishers were sent into the forest off to the East of my position in hopes of slowing the second prong of his attack. Here we see the brigade I routed on his far right flank return to the battle, but he is isolated from the rest of the Confederate army. His brigade in the center is taking the full brunt of my artillery and about to break. This would become a seesaw battle as he attacked my center and right flank and I pressed hard on the left. Here you see my right flank has had 2 brigades routed while on the left flank I am able to move forward in good order. He attacks my center and right flank but my artillery and consent harassing by my skirmishers holds him back. I am able to regain my line and press forward and take the objective. He continues to regroup and attack my center and right flank, but I now have victory in sight. So in sum, I was able to advance my left flank after his initial attack and though my center and right flank were continually under pressure, his charges crashed against my artillery with his forces completely in the open. Notice that my 10pd Ordnance has almost 600 kills. And here is my 1st Corps after the battle: And my Career Points which will receive a bump in Politics: So at this point in the Campaign my greatest problem is arming the troops I have available. I have more men than I can arm. My arsenal consists of about 1600 usable infantry weapons; some Hunters for skirmishers (sell), Cavalry with shotguns (sell) and a couple of charge weapons of no more that 50, and 4 12lb Howitzers (sell). Pretty poor pickings. My reputation is quite low and I believe it is effecting Washington's willingness to give me arms... so I am going to have to stop tapping into my reputation points and build that up. Next battle is River Crossing requiring 12 brigades with Shiloh afterwards allowing me to bring 2 Corps of 20 brigades if I have them. I believe in my BG campaign I brought one full Corps and a second Corps with a full 1st Division. Looking at my resources and the fact that I am almost certainly going to have to be buying a lot of weapons, am not sure whether I will be able to repeat that. We'll see. BTW, this is the first time I have brought the 24lb Howitzer into my army. If anyone has some advice on how to use this battery to its maximum effect, I would appreciate it. In fact feel free to comment and give any advice you think I could use to help me along the way. That's it for now! Cheers

It gave my fits the first time around on Brigadier General. Played it tonight and won on the first go. Will post the AAR tomorrow.

1st Bull Run Here is my Corps going into the battle: I used 6 reputation points to buy 2000 Palmetto M1842s for my 1 star brigades and the other 2 are armed with the standard Springfield M1842. Notice my Corps Commander has a 20% increase in supply perk and the Cavalry perk (you can't choose these) which increase melee and attack value. There was a spare 1000 bucks there that I should have put into supply. The battle is essentially divided into 2 parts. The first is an attack on a farm house through open territory then crossing a river and assaulting Henry Hill which is surrounded by patches of forests supplying good cover. While capturing the farm house is not of consequence (though you are urged to do so) to continue the battle you must capture Henry Hill. The 2nd part of the battle is defending Henry Hill from Confederate reinforcements. You are assisted by the Union Army who will accompany you with reinforcements from the northern part of the map down to the south and another group on the east. Viewing the battlefield the critical factor in this battle is that it will be fought in large part in the open. The more I can keep him in the open and force him to move to me, the more likely I will be able to reduce his numbers and rout his forces. So as the battle began I detached skirmishers and sent them ahead of my column marching from the north. I attempted to try to outflank the rebs on the east part of the map at the ford, but I had insufficient forces to do that. My troops moved to an area of woods to the north of the first farm house and once there I put my skirmishers on my flanks. I ordered my reinforcements of 3 large brigades and an artillery unit to move down the road in support of my position and had them double time for about 2/3rds of the way. As they were approaching, a reb brigade of 2100 moved to engage my right flank. He charged me and I ordered my brigade to fall back. As he closed the distance I moved 2 skirmisher units to a position to fire into his flank and once his brigade stopped he came under fire from 2 of my brigades and the 2 skirmisher units. He fairly quickly routed. As my first large Union brigade arrived straight down the road, I placed him in my center and stretched out my line. The other two were put on either side and I now had a battle line of 3 large regiments in the center, flanked by 2 of my own and then 2 skirmisher units. Thus, the line almost stretched across the entire map. I then advanced and was opposed by 3 large rebel brigades. As I closed, my flanks began to move towards his flanks. Combat than began and he tried to charge me multiple times. Each time my opposing unit fell back and he was then caught between at least 3 firing units of mine which quickly sent him packing. I kept moving forward and eventually all his brigades were routed and artillery destroyed. At his point reinforcements had arrived to my east and made their way across the river. Here I saw the opportunity to outflank his entire army. With his troops falling back into the river I kept shifting my forces south west to stretch his line and attacked his retreating troops in the river as vigorously as possible. At the same time I was moving to clear the Confederates from their fortifications across the bridge and get 4 batteries into a position with would allow me to fire into the Confederate flank. As I closed the trap on the banks of the river, Hampton's Legion surrendered. He was soon followed by the 5th Virginia. Both units trying to defend in the woods in the bend of the river at its northern most position. Note the position of my massed battery of 4 artillery units just to the left of the green field. In this shot you see the aftermath of the fight for the center: With the Rebs fully engaged on their front I was now moving to envelope his position from the east. As I moved forward one unit after another was routed as I pushed towards the Henry Hill and took it. I them reordered my line and brought up my artillery and placed them such that they could easily fire to the open front of the objective. The last phase of the battle began as the Confederate army received reinforcements and tried to retake the Hill. The most difficult part of the battle occurred when he attempted to charge 2 units into my right flank in the open and one against my left in the trees. This was a really tense moment and in reaction I counter charged at both areas. Fire from the flanks devastated his brigades and with little time left, his army was shattered in the open fields. I received 8,300 casualties to his 15,000 and we rested on the battlefield for the evening. Here are my battle rewards: Note that I received Army Organization +1 Corps, but that didn't change my status for Career Points. And here is a shot of what was left my Corps (approximately 1,500 casualties): So... its on to the Shiloh campaign. I'm going to have to make some difficult decisions on how I will approach that campaign from an Army Management POV and this will probably take some time. Once I have figured out what I am going to do, I'll post up my decisions and rational for making them. Hope you enjoyed the AAR! Cheers

Thanks, Nick! I have finished 1st Bull Run with a victory on my first attempt. I will post it tomorrow.

Thanks mate! A couple things. Remember if you want to see the picture better, click on it for a larger image. Also looking at the victory screen for Distress Call it now occurs to me that they are no Confederate missing. Guess at this level of play even when a unit completely looses its cohesion it can reform again. Don't think this happened at Philippe because before the brigade disintegrated it was almost completely destroyed. Can a developer comment and give some insight on this?

So after completing both campaigns on Brigadier General level, I have decided to start a Legendary Union Campaign. I'm not a YouTuby guy, so the best I can do is screenshots. I will attempt to explain critical events/strategy/tactics and how I manage my army. Hopefully I can do so in such a way as to be both informative and fun. Battle of Philippi: I fought this introductory battle 3 times. The first battle was a complete wash. The second battle I won and had myself set up in a really good defensive position and thought I would let it play out until the game ended the battle. I put the game on fast forward, sat back and watched the Confederates dash themselves on my defensive's and then at the last moment they broke one of my units, regained control of the objective and the game ended in defeat! So I played it once more, won the battle and then broke off action when the time was over. The critical part of Philippi was keeping McHenry's reb brigade guarding the city south of the river from crossing the bridge to the northern part of the town to rejoin his army. Since he was in a square shaped defensive position behind fences, it is rather easy to rout him by attacking his flank. What I did was separate my army into 2 parts. The western part attacking directly at the town consisted of 2 brigades and my artillery. The southern group which would attack his flank consisted of 1 brigade, 2 skirmisher units and my cavalry. When I was set to go, I moved my regiments forward and very quickly under fire from all 3 brigades and artillery he routed. As he routed northwards towards the bridge I attacked him with my 2 skirmisher units and cavalry which prevented him from crossing the bridge. The skirmishers and cavalry pursued him relentlessly and he fled into the woods on my side of the river. Eventually, I totally destroyed his brigade. Once I had driven off McHenry I moved my infantry forward to the bridge and placed my 6pdr artillery in the city, close enough to use canister on any unit close to the fortifications on the other side. My 10pdr Ordnance guns where set up in such a way as to provide support against both fortifications. I gave the rebs a pounding there, routing one unit after another. I detached skirmishers when it was obvious that all his brigades had taken a beating and moved them across the bridge with the cavalry which was now available. They gave me covering fire to get my brigades across the bridge. I stormed the objective frontally through the city with my brigades and in the flank with my skirmishers. Having taken Philippi, it was now time to defend it. I pulled my units back into the western side of the city, placed my artillery inside my perimeter and put my dismounted cavalry in the defensive works. They held strong until reinforcements arrived and I was able force the train to retreat and to hold the town. Distress Call Now in this battle you are tasked with holding 2 supply depots in the open against the Confederates who will be attacking you from the the north and east. My own forces consisted of 4 smallish brigades of infantry and 2 batteries of 6 guns each, augmented by 2 small brigades manning the wooden palisades of the two depots, 2 skirmisher units and a small cavalry detachment. The setup reminded me a lot of Napoleon's battles in Italy where he would interpose himself between 2 Austrian groups, hold one off with minimal forces and then attack the other with the rest of his army and destroy it. So the critical part of this battle was to prevent Confederate reinforcements from crossing the bridge on the eastern flank. In my first battle I sent the 2 skirmisher units and cavalry to make a perimeter around the bridge to hold off the reinforcements. They were overwhelmed and my army was destroyed. In the second attempt I sent the 2 skirmisher units and cavalry as before, but this time I sent an additional 2 skirmisher units from my brigades and also the brigade that was holding the southern supply depot. I then put together a line with my 3 other brigades in the open between the two depots and detached skirmishers from all brigades and put them on the flanks. I was then attacked by a large rebel brigade of 2100 men and they charged my central brigade. I fell back and he charged right into the middle of my formation, essentially surrounded. When he routed he went south west into the woods and I gave chase with 2 skirmisher units. Eventually, they were able to totally destroy the brigade. At the bridge, my boys held, preventing at least 3 confederate brigades and 2 artillery units from entering the battle. Reinforcements arrived in the form of 2 brigades and my 2 artillery units. I detached skirmishers to my flanks and placed the brigades in line (now 5 brigades strong) with my artillery directly behind them to deal out canister when he charged me. The battle then began in earnest and more than once I had brigades break and re-enter the line. With 9 skirmisher units on the field I constantly harassed his flanks. As his strength fell and time shortened I then advanced on the northern depot. Another of his brigades broke off away from his main army and once again I sent to 2 skirmisher units to continually harass them and keep them from regaining their morale. It was a pretty bloody fight, but I retook the northern depot and won the game. Here you can see the whole field of battle as I retook the northern objective (note the fighting to the east at the bridge and skirmishers on either side of my battle line): Victory! Notice how the Confederate strength is reported as 7856 men. In my first battle where the Confederates were able to breech my defenses at the bridge this number was something like 12,000. Here is a shot of my Career Points after the battle. I believe I took Medicine after Philippi and Politics after this battle. Army Organization is almost certainly next on the list. Next up is the Battle of First Bull Run. This battle should help me build up my forces as you get a lot of help from the Union Army. Like I say, I know it is a lot more fun to watch videos, but as an old man I haven't learned how to do that. Nevertheless, I hope ya'll found this interesting and based on your interest and my ability to succeed will depend on if I continue this thread for very much longer. Cheers!

Next game?

Even on Brigadier General (normal) the stand alone battles seem easier to fight than in the campaign. Try a couple of the battles on Major General (hard). If you get a good fight I would suggest you restart your campaign on Brigadier General. And if you are still whooping the AI... well... that is what Major General is all about. P.S. Be sure to check the little box called Legendary.

But that is only if you use it. So you can see the level of supply in your supply wagon and that I believe represents the amount of supply you have put into the supply section of your Corps. Supply is also modified by Logistics in your career points which can be used to increase the base amount of supply that every unit carries into battle. In both my campaigns I took 2 slots of logistics by the late 1863 to early 1864 due to rifles and increased firing rates. Supply is also modified for artillery at the one star level where if you choose the supply wagon (Logistics), which I always do, they receive a 50% boost in ammo. If you choose Strategy for the first level of your Corps commanding General (which I always do), you receive a 20% increase in ammo for the entire Corps. And of course, if you capture enemy supply wagons you can always use those first. What supplies are actually consumed from your supply wagon is what you will pay. At the Brigadier General level, I never had problems with supply in both of my completed campaigns, except on a localized basis such as a heavily engaged unit which is continuously firing during the battle. From what I understand an out of supply unit fires at 1/3rd the normal speed. Having your army run out of ammo... well... it is just too much of a handicap and considering all the available modifiers that are available to boost supply, there really isn't any reason to do so, IMO. In fact, given the modifiers available, I normally create a grande battery and place my supply wagon there so that my artillery is firing continuously. And even in the big battles, I rarely had infantry running out of ammo or my supply wagon going empty. I think we tend to focus almost exclusively on the combat and react to the supply. But if you can also manage your supply effectively and use the modifiers available, you won't be paying lots of money and that amount you put into your Corps level supply can be seen as a cash reserve for when you really, really need it. Cheers

After 230 hours, I have finished both the Union and the Confederate campaigns on Major General (normal) level of difficulty. Sure you all are familiar with those screens. Nevertheless, I have to say that this was probably one of the most impressive strategy games I have played in a long time. In fact, I was playing Hearts of Iron 4, but it just wasn't doing it for me when I bumped into this game on a forum and tried it out. I started right off the bat with the Union Campaign, understanding the normal setting was fairly difficult and figured the Union Campaign would be more forgiving than the Confederate. I immediately fell in love with the game and just couldn't stop playing it. So many times I found myself in nail biting situations in which winning actually made me shout out "Hurrah!" Of course, for an old guy like me, the game was very reminiscent of Sid Meier's Gettysburg, which I loved to death. But I have to say that the campaigns were far more elegantly programmed and the overall atmosphere not only historically fascinating but far more intense. The Battle Management system was a magnificent feature which really sucked you into the game and the campaigns. I have never seen such an intricate system like that and I have to say it is nothing short of first class. The only thing that I would have liked would have been to have had a far more historic system of giving commands on the battlefield. As a tester for the game "Take Command 1861" by Mad Minute Games (later to be know as the Scourge of War series) I know that such a system was a real hurdle to program correctly and even so, was very difficult for folks to use as they are so used to micromanaging units. As such, that system added a degree of complexity to the game which many found too difficult to embrace. So I can understand, giving the depth of UGCV why such a system probably wasn't necessary. It certainly didn't take away from my experience, but it would have been one of those features a real grognard like me would have appreciated. In closing I would just like to express my appreciation for a really well programmed and tested game. I had a fantastic time playing the two campaigns and am sure after playing a few battles I will return and try the campaigns again on Major General. Well done, thanks again for your effort and hoping there will be a follow-on!

I'm playing the last bit of the Battle of Washington ATM on BG level and all my artillery is rifled. I also have max supply. I agree that you shouldn't be firing at entrenched infantry, but I have no problem firing at entrenched artillery. My infantry very rarely run out of supply at this level of the game, but having my guns continually blasting away and ready to fire comes in very handy when the Yanks attempt to counterattack one of my positions or their infantry rout out of entrenched positions... especially if you place the artillery on their flanks. Overall though, my guns are normally firing counter-battery and since my AI opponent seems to always have more artillery then me... there are plenty of targets.

The other problem with larger units is that they take more time to wheel and face their enemy. While moving, they aren't loading. Personally, I go with 1,500 man brigades. It's quite easy to maneuver them when necessary to get 3 v 1, they turn and face quite rapidly, and given how the maps are made and of course depending on the battle, the cover seems to favor smaller units. Just my feeling.

Here is a note on supply. At the very beginning of the campaign I try to get at least 25,000 into the supply slot. This works very well as long as your Corps is using predominately smooth bore weapons and you will rarely have problems with supply. Once you start getting rifled weapons, the firing rates start increasing fairly dramatically. At this point I drive the amount in my Corps supply to the maximum of 35,000 and supply problems are local issues which are easily solved with your supply wagons, even in the bigger battles. Though I have in both my campaigns taken 2 slots of logistics, I do believe that there are far better ways to spend your career points, however, in doing so, you must not skimp on bringing lots of supply to the battlefield. In quite a few videos I have watched, folks end up shutting down their artillery and that IMO is a mistake unless it is a battery using a Napoleon, for example, firing at maximum range. Artillery, well positioned are freebie kills. Don't shut them down by not bringing enough supply to the battle. “My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great

Here is a graphic which shows how I reinforce a 2 star brigade after a battle. It keeps costs down so you can grow your army, maintain quality and afford to upgrade to better weapons. The first box is the state of the brigade after my last battle. The second shows how I reinforce with recruits up to the very edge of losing my 2 star status. The third shows me filling out the brigade with veterans and you can see the cost here. It would have cost me 20,000 or so if I had reinforced with only veterans. The final, is how the brigade looks after finishing reinforcing it. (I am running brigades of 1500 men at 2 star and above and 1700 men at 1 star.) If you look at the first and last boxes, you can see that the quality of most of its characteristics have dropped, but they are still quite high and the brigade will perform superbly. Though I have 5 three star infantry brigades, I think if I had started again, I would have tried to get better weapons sooner and pushed to make sure all of my brigades were 2 star (barely). I am preparing for the Battle of Cold Harbor. Intell says I am facing a Union Army between 63-68K (I believe the real battle was somewhere around 120K). So we'll have to see what happens. I am bringing an army of 64K and 144 guns. I've completed the Union Campaign. Both normal difficulty.

I mostly am referring to reinforcements. When reinforcements, say from the 2nd Corps, enter the battle, I have noticed that they frequently enter the battle by division beginning with the first division and then going done the line to the last division. Because many times those reinforcements are the folks you use to outflank your enemy, I normally put my best regiments in the 1st and 2nd divisions of that 2nd Corps. An exception I recently played was Gettysburg from the Confederate campaign. Here I put my best divisions in the 1st Corps entering into the battle, because essentially how you use that 1st Corps will determine if you win the battle on the first day. The 2nd Corps folks, by the time they got into battle were all exhausted (except the Cavalry) and only had to mop up.

Here is one for you... I always put my best units in the 1st Division of the Corps and my worst in the last. I've noticed in several battles when your second Corps comes in to reinforce, it is usually the first Division followed by the second, etc. By placing my best folks in the 1st Division I make sure I have my best units getting to the fight first.