LAVA

Well... I decided to be absolutely sure that I was on the Legendary setting and as it turns out RKY is correct. The reason isn't because of the units which show up, it is because you can check the rewards you get for the battles. In my other campaigns after Potomac Fort I had 3 Politics and the rewards for Newport News were $51,100 and 3,600 men. When I check this latest campaign, with 3 Politics my reward for Newport News was $55,600 and 3,900 men. So it appears that I was actually on Major General. Good Spot, RKY! And thanks because continuing this campaign would have been a waste of not only my time, but everyone else's as well. Damn... Oh well...

The Union doesn't start with 3 star units. But they get that way rapidly if you don't kill enough of them. I think the first time you will see a 3 star Yankee infantry brigade in Col Kelly's Legendary Campaign is somewhere around Mulvern Hill. My campaign is a lot more aggressive and I don't see a 3 star Union Brigade until Antietam. Check out Col Kelly's Legendary Campaign here: When playing the Union on Legendary the first time I saw 3 star Confederate brigades was at 1st Bull Run.

RKY, in the post below correctly noted that I was actually not on Legendary when I started this campaign. To see the videos, from Potomac Fort on, scroll down.

In the campaign I was playing just prior to this, I was running two brigades of 2 star Tredegars. Statistically, of course, there are better weapons. For example, if I could have had 20pdr Parrots... well there is no contest. But if you can find a really good spot to park your Tredegars and just let them fire the entire battle without moving, they rack up an enormous amount of kills though I know you can say that just about any cannon really. I view it kinda like a poor man's 20pdr Parrot even though it only has 1700 meters in range. I was impressed enough to see how having a gun like this (in lieu of 20pdr Parrots) for the later battles could come in really handy. We'll see how they do and I'll be sure to check their progress in my future battles once I have them up to a decent proficiency level. I believe I am shooting for 7 artillery brigades for each of 1st and Second Corps. ATM, I have 13 and my inventory contains just about every gun there is. At Fredericksburg I put 8 brigades of artillery in 1st Corps and they really did some damage. Of all my artillery brigades there, the battery with the most kills was an 8 gun 1 star (40% efficiency) 14pdr James brigade with 1771 kills. Those 8 brigades of artillery did so much damage that when the battle moved from the heights to the center and right flank (where I had 4 other artillery brigades plus 2 I moved from my left), the Yankees attacks were feeble and few. Quite a change from what I was accustomed to. Getting AO to 9 made a huge difference...

I'm back to try to take Washington as the Confederates on the Legendary difficulty setting. I'm armed with a new headset so you can expect vastly improved audio this time around. Wish me luck! NOTE: This post has been edited. To see the videos of my game continue to scroll down.

Here is what I wrote after completing my Union Campaign on Legendary: Good luck!

Given the fact that I was able to not only recover my army after Antietam but actually increase it before the next Grand Battle at Fredericksburg has given my the confidence that I am on the right track. I will soon start a new thread and posting videos of this campaign. Like to thank ya'll for your recommendations, especially pandakraut. You've been a great help, mate.

The campaigns are a grind as well. The difference is that you don't always go forward. Sometimes you suffer setbacks. With my history of playing ACW games going back to Sid Meier's Gettysburg and and including the Scourge of War Civil War engine (I was a tester for their first game Take Command 1861 The Battle of 1st Bull Run) that this game is by far the best I have ever played. Incredibly addictive.

Not sure if I understand you well, mate. But, yes, the game is available on steam and ATM is priced at 27,99 Euros. Development is complete and no further support is expected in the future. It's a great game, well worth the price.

Totally agree. One of the reasons I lost those 5 brigades was because I combined them. 2 of the combined brigades were destroyed in the final part of the battle. Not only was it unnecessary but stupid as well. Still it served as a great learning point which I shall remember in the future.

One of the points most folks still won't accept is that by destroying whole units and armies, you reduce the quality of your enemy. At Weapons Factory I not only completely destroyed the entire Union army, I captured 5 2 star brigades. You will notice that the AI will always focus on your better units, and the player must do the same. Because of the battle at Antietam and Weapons Factory, at Fredericksburg the great majority of the Union infantry was 1 star. Yep, there were a handful of 3 stars, but I believe those are hard coded into the battle (and I obliterated a number of them). There was also a few 2 star artillery brigades but a lot of 1 star brigades as well. If you get to the point where your adversary is putting lots of 3 star units on the battlefield... you're going to have a hard time. As an aside, I won my Legendary Union Campaign with a K/D ratio of around 3.1 to 1. My feeling is that to win the Legendary Confederate Campaign I am going to need at least 4 to 1. That fits historically with demographics of the time. Just fought Fredericksburg. My Army of 43 brigades had 38,396 men and 128 guns... which is larger than the one I brought to Antietam (40 brigades with 36,505 men and 106 guns). The Union army had 95,178 men and 254 guns. I lost 10,138 men and 3 guns. The Yanks lost 47,978 men and 46 guns. Because of medicine (which is at 10) when I returned to Camp, my army was not 27,000 men (38,000 - 10,000), but 29,126 men and 126 guns. Medicine not only saved me 2,000 men, but their experience and weapons as well. I have close to 33,000 recruits in reserve. I have 9,000 rifles in my armory and the reputation to buy another 3,500. Wouldn't be surprised to see my army at 40,000 for the next Grand Battle at Stones River. So, yes, Career Points do make a difference.. a critical one. So at this point, without having spent my 2 points from Fredericksburg, I have Politics 3, Economy 6, Medicine 10, Training 5, AO 9 and Logistics 2. I never spend points on recon. At present I view Economy and Training as both equally important so I will be splitting my Career Points equally between them until they both hit 10.

Have finished the battle of Antietam. Started the battle with 40 brigades, however, I lost 16,000 men including 5 2 star brigades. Brigade strength was 1,300 men. I did manage to completely wipe out the Union Army including 170 guns. AO is at 9 and Medicine at 10. ATM I have more recruits than I have in my army. Yet, I'm optimistic. I also have 11 experienced artillery brigades who are looking forward to Fredericksburg. The goal is to create 2 hardcore Corps of 25 brigades each. I'm looking at 16 infantry, 7 artillery and 2 sharpshooter units per Corps. I suffered a set-back at Antietam so I'm going to wait a bit before putting my videos on YouTube. I think I can recover. Only time will tell.

You get 7 units in that battle and you appear to have 7. So, I'm not sure what you mean by "missing units." You have also pushed very aggressively and successfully against the Confederate forces as the time is 5:51 and it is dark. The confederates have, I believe, 4 infantry brigades, 2 skirmisher brigades and 1 artillery unit in that scenario. If you push directly on the objective and take it, the AI has a tendency to send it's troops to the right side of the map. The only way to detect them at this time is to occupy the observation point to the right of the objective. Hard to say what happened here, but since you don't have a unit on the observation point to see the map, my guess would be that a Confederate skirmisher unit sneaked in and captured your supply wagon.

With 5 minor battles and 2 Grande Battles before 2nd Bull Run there should be no problem getting 9 AO. There are 2 more minor battles before Antietam, so once again no problem getting Medicine to 10. Funny... this is the way I was going in my first try at Legendary but then got sucked away to Politics. I think I am at 3 for Politics, Economy and Training and 4 for Medicine and AO after 1st Winchester. The proof will show itself at Antietam. If that goes fairly well, I will start posting the videos of my present campaign. Ever since my first try I have had this feeling I should have been pushing hard on economy and training (medicine goes without saying), but folks seemed to be pointing at Politics and even though I really wasn't convinced, I went for it anyway. Right now I am on the road to Gaines Mill and my brigade size is down to 1,300 men. As for the reinforcement bug, yes, I was aware there are times when I got extra brigades in some minor battles but was not aware of what caused it. Thanks for the explanation. BTW, when I played Ambush Convoy this last time around I had a full out battle. I have come to believe that just as when I was playing the Yankees on Legendary and relying so heavily on my artillery; as the Rebels, I must do everything possible to destroy as much of the Union artillery in the Confederate campaign as possible and keep them from getting masses of 3 star artillery brigades. At Ambush Convoy I crushed the forces reinforcing from the left side of the map (including 2 artillery units) and then called it a day. We'll see how this all works out.

Not sure about the reinforcement bug... have no idea about that. At Shiloh I had AO at 3 and my infantry brigades were at 1,500. Took 9 infantry brigades, 2 artillery brigades and 1 cavalry brigade into that fight and it came out fine. I can see, however, your thought process and it seems quite good. I still have the time (and the men) to have 9 AO for 2nd Bull Run and 10 medicine at Antietam. We'll see how I fare.

The Developers have, after quite some time, announced that support for the game has ended and are now working on new projects. If Easy is to easy... there is a very easy way to make it harder... increase difficulty.

I see, so you are putting a big emphasis on AO so as to bring as many brigades to Grande Battles as possible. Correct?

The best game I have had at 2nd Bull Run, I brought 7 12gun artillery brigades and 13 infantry brigades of 2,000 men in 1st Corps. I had 2 infantry brigades and 3 cavalry brigades in 2nd Corps. I find you approach interesting. So you took training/econ to 5, then medicine to 10 and then I assume you maxed out training and economy. You are going to have a pretty small, but hard core army. Were you creating many 3 star infantry units during the campaign? Did you start with like 2,000 man recruit brigades and then let them gain experience and stabilize them at some quantity... like 1,800 men and maintain and or increase proficiency? You know, one of the things I have recently encountered is that it seems that my Major Generals get wounded and killed like crazy. Having Division Commanders killed during grande battles really sucks, and it seems to happen frequently... perhaps too frequently.

Legendary CSA is quite a different animal, however. 2nd Bull Run is fairly easy to win because you merely need to hold off a couple attacks by the Yanks so AO at 9 is not needed. That is fine if you are only after the win, but the problem is you allow a snot load of Yankees to gain tons of experience. You keep doing that and you will soon be fighting a Yankee army that is nothing but 3 star units. I have destroyed well over half the Union army at 2nd Bull Run by taking the offensive and attacking their center (1st Corps) in a previous attempt. I think the first time that you will see the difference (not sure because I'm not there yet) is at Antietam, if you choose to fight the battle, but for sure at Stone's River where essentially what you do on the first day with your full 1st Corps, 2 divisions of 2nd Corps and 1 division of 3rd Corps will determine how well you do in that battle. By having AO at 9, it will allow you to bring an additional 6 brigades into the battle on the first day. In Grand Battles, for the most part, your 1st Corps takes the brunt of the fighting and having 4 more divisions as you get deeper into the campaign... is worth a think. I am now on my 4th attempt. LOL! This time I am playing quite differently than the 3 before them. For example, last night I fought Ambush Convoy. Normally I run in with my Cavalry, steal the supply wagons and then retreat. There is some infantry contact, but very little. This time around I wiped out a Yankee infantry brigade and a cavalry brigade. Both were isolated and surrounded and I had hoped they would surrender... but no luck there. That was an additional 3,000 casualties for the Yanks that cost me 400 more men than usual.

I believe Col Kelly's advice was... Politics to 5, then Medicine to 10, Politics to 10, then Economy to 10. Training no higher than 5 and bump Army Organization up to 9 quick enough to be able to increase your Division strength to 6 brigades for 2nd Bull Run. I've never bumped AO to more than 7. Perhaps that is much more important than I suspect.

So I have smashed my head a few times now on the Legendary CSA campaign and I can't help but feel one of the big reasons I have not been able to complete this campaign is how I spend my Career Points. I'm pretty sure that Politics (you need as many men as possible as the CSA) and Medicine (back to men... this returns men back to your army) need to get maxed out first. From there... not sure. Economy means my weapons are cheaper so it is easier to field a well equipped army... especially since you are almost always outnumbered. Training means veterans are cheaper which is good at creating a well trained army. I have gone with economy before training in my campaigns, but I'm not sure that is the best way to go. A 2 star veteran costs way more than a decent rifle. Any thoughts on the spending progression of career points for the CSA? Would be much appreciated.

So I have initiated a number of reforms for my second campaign and at the moment I have reached Malvern Hill. Some of the reforms include using the XP perk for the Corps Commanders; pushing hard on both army organization and politics; starting brigades with large numbers of poor weapons and then when they get their 2nd star, maintaining them with good to very good weapons but at lower levels (15-1700 men), buying the Tredegar artillery piece and using snipers. As I approach Malvern Hill I will begin creating a small group of melee specific brigades. I have 18,000 recruits ATM and highly doubt I will be using them all for the upcoming battle. But what I will bring is at least 30 brigades to the battle where in my first campaign I had 24. We'll see how things go.

You may be right. I have just recently played Shiloh on Legendary and I think the difference is that you clicked on "Finish" while I did not. Once "Finish" shows up on the screen, if you don't click it the game ends in victory a few seconds later.

During my Shiloh game, most of the casualties were to my AI buddies. My army went in with 18,545 inf and 24 guns. After the battle I had 15,491 inf and 24 guns for a loss of 3,104 men. The key to preserving your army at Shiloh, just like at 1st Bull Run, is letting you AI troops carry the battle.

Same goes for Gettysburg as I am trying for a 2nd day victory capturing Big Round Top... I believe it is.