PaulD

Here is a features overview of the new 1.28 mod.

My intention was to help demonstrate that the build combo can be maniputed without the AIConfig changes, plus just wanted to apply what I've learned and see if I could do it. By the way, after fighting my last two campaigns with the AI scaling cranked up, I found the battles very easy in this little mini run. In my campaign prior to starting my YT series I fought 40k CSA with 22k Union at 1st Bull Run. I will probably play MG with the new version of the mod just to get the feel for the changes then work on going to LG. I'll do a video covering the changes, compare and contrast the obvious stuff, then try different strategies and post a new series. Maybe CSA first this time.

After our conversation about using the AI Scaling in the AIConfig to indirectly boost XP and weapons harvests, and how that snowballs, I decided to go back and do a quick run up to Shiloh to see if I could get 12 2-star units for Shiloh "naturally". - The only changes in the mod files were using the bypass recon setting to allow me to see AI Army size prior to battles, and having the arty limber set at 1 to force limbering when they move. - I did NOT buy any vets for Walton, or any of the existing units prior to disbanding in the camp before Distress Call like I do in my YouTube series. The result? 14 2-star units sitting in camp prior to Shiloh! I didn't record the battles, but I have the before and after camps of all battles to show what I did. I know the mod is changing soon, but I thought I'd but together a brief YT synopsis of how I did it with this version. For timing sake I just reused one of my post-Philippi saves rather than fighting that battle over again - didn't seem like there would be any benefit other than I may consciously try to get my core units more kills in that battle. What makes it possible currently: - Obviously, you need to take all the Training selections in the campaign set up, and disband all the units after Philippi. Those are a given. - Distress Call and 1st BR allow 12 units (though Distress Call says 10, 12 will actually deploy). River Crossing and Logans Crossroads can take 14 units. - Mid-level Colonels and above can get a new unit to 2-stars in just 3 battles. So, Loomis, Walton, Scales, and Woods will all get their new units to 2-star with no problem. If one of the battles is 1st BR it is easier than doing 3 minor battles, but it is doable and you just have to ensure those guys are right in the middle of the fighting racking up kills. After Distress Call I bought Brewster and Brooks (some combo of them, Franklin, Willcox, and Heintzelman are nearly always in the starting academy). I made 2 more INF with Brewster and Brooks and sent them to Bull Run and left Loomis and Scales on the bench. - Assigning captains to SKM and CAV will more than likely require that they fight in all 4 battles leading up to Shiloh. One of my skirmishers made it in 3, but the rest needed 4. - Assigning captains to ART can get to 2-star in 3 battles if they have NAP and/or ORD. The small 6pd Field guns can't quite get there. I had 17 NAP to start out and bought one more to make 3x6 batteries. I had 4 ORD and bought two to get them to 6 for Distress Call. - You can only take 12 units to Distress Call by putting both Career Points into AO after Philippi. If you then put your point from Distress Call into AO, you can make divisions of 6 units and thus the player can determine which units deploy at 1st BR because the game will take the 12 in the first 2 divisions and not take any from 3rd - if you can only make divisions of 5 the AI will pick whomever it wants from 3rd. This also allows you to build ballast units with whatever extra weapons you have laying around in 3rd Div - I made 1 INF with Muskets and 2 artillery with the extra guns in my armory. HOWEVER, putting the point in AO rather than Training results in not being able to make new 1-star units in the camp prior to Shiloh, because the large influx of new recruits you get after BR will all be 2 points less in every stat. You could put the point into Training to get 8 before BR, but it will be hard to get the AI to deploy the units you want from 3rd division. - To offset not creating larger armies with the AIConfig file, I moved all the allied units at Distress Call and 1st BR into areas where they could support me and I could use them if my units got into trouble, but I tried to use them as little as possible. Basically, I let my units "hog" up all the XP they could. Also, rather than building INF at 1,200 troops like I normally do to start, I built as big as I could get. - Finally, getting the battles led bonus at levels 3 and 4 is a big help to the units that start as Captains. Unit progression is noticeable with each battle. Obviously, keeping officers intact goes a long way to success in this aspect.

Just FYI, in case you haven't noted it yet, Parker's Crossroads says 12 units, but 13 will actually deploy. 8 in the deploy box, then 5 more when reinforcements come in.

Concerning morale degradation, it seems true that taking any volley of fire from a unit causes degradation regardless of the amount of damage done. So, although smaller units might do less damage, they can cause the enemy to rout just as easy. Is this correct, or am I missing something? If this is true, I may play around with stacking reload and fire rate vs just going for accuracy.

Nothing in particular. I was deep into Diablo II in the first decade after it was released and understanding how and when various modifiers were applied mathematically changed the value of the bonus. For example, -5% to X damage vs -10% to Y damage, one would naturally think that the latter is of more value since it is bigger, but once you see the math formula for how the game damage reduction works you would discover the first to be more valuable because X is applied early in the formula (so it reduces a big number) and Y is applied at the end of the formula (reduces a smaller number). I've been taking Sharpshooters at Tier 3 for my Infantry for the cover and accuracy, but with cover being capped at 100% and I use a corps commander with the cover aura, I may switch my INF over to Elite instead. Basically, if something stacks (say accuracy or reload) then having more is always a benefit, but if something is capped, then once you are comfortable that you can hit the cap frequently, then taking more is wasted.

Does cover have a cap, or can it be over 100%? Or, in other words, if a unit is already in a 100% coverage area of the game, do their cover perk bonuses apply above the area coverage? Is there a set order in which modifiers are applied during combat? Is there somewhere else where that may already be published? Thank you

Ah, I don't usually get to day 3. I try to end it on day 2 because the complete reset on day 3 is just an inconvenience. On day 2 you have all of 2nd and 3rd corps, then the first 3 divisions of 1st corps. Since all of 2nd and 3rd corps are on the field I assumed all of 1st would be there.

If you don't have it already, please add to the To-Do List 2nd Bull Run, ensure that 4th division in 1st Corps deploys. Currently that division never takes the field. Thanks

Understood. There are a handful of battles, like Secure River, where I'm thinking the AI should stay in the superior defensive position - yelling obscenities, flipping my guys off, mooning, and basically saying "come and get it sucker" rather than charging down hill into the open. A couple more... - Lets say that a unit has 2-stars. They get beat up a bit in a grand battle so you give them some rookie recruits and that pulls them down to 1-star. During the next grand battle they gain enough XP to get back to 2-stars. My question is, will they function as 2-stars from the moment they get that experience back during the battle? Or, does it require going to camp to reset them back to 2-stars? On-screen during the battle I notice they display a 1-star but as soon as your back to camp they are 2 again. - To what degree does weapon damage equate to more kills, or doesn't it? I mean, if one small arm does 4 to 6.5 damage and another weapon with completely equal stats other than damage does 4.5 to 7, does it may any difference at all? Does the game even consider the damage range, or does it just check for hits and a hit equals a kill? Thanks for always educating us on the mechanics Pandakraut! Much appreciated.

Hey Pandakraut, Two questions: - If you have zero in Training, do incoming recruits still get better with time? If so, does at which points of the game does this occur? - This may already occur, but is it possible to cause the AI to be less aggressive when it is meant to hold a VP (defense). It seems like it is always on the offensive even when it should be defending.

Hey Panda, I created a new YouTube channel to post gaming content (Gonzo Gamer). Philippi is up now. I know you had subscribed to my Paul D. YT ID, but I decided creating a new channel was a better idea.

Got it. I was just wondering if there was a set percentage of losses involved. Like, if the AI has a 4,000 INF unit, does 10% (400 killed) cause enough damage to root? So, they root, recover, and come back with 3,600, and another 10% is 360 casualties to root them again. I know I'm using round numbers and simplifying. In my Shiloh narration I am trying to cover some of the reasons that the battle is such a challenge, and many people likely have built up a false sense of their forces capabilities since in every battle prior to Shiloh, the player either outnumbers or has equal forces to the AI (Distress Call, Logans, and River Crossing), or the AI forces enter the battle piece meal so the player can take them out in phases (Philippi and 1st Bull Run). At Shiloh it is completely reversed, with the player having smaller units entering the battle in smaller groups with the AI having all of it's forces early on. Plus the AI units can be so massive (4k to 5k in some cases) that doing enough damage to make them root is a real challenge. Just stopping charges feels like a victory - those big AI units seem like they can tank forever. Up until this battle, the player has not experienced this combination of battle conditions.

Two questions: 1) Obviously you can name your brigades or corps whatever you want. Is there a way to reset brigade name to display whichever officer is in command after you've changed it once? Or, once you've changed it manually, you can only change it manually. 2) I've done searches for this but haven't been able to find it - how much damage is required to affect morale changes? Is it a flat 10% or something like that, or is it more complicated? Thanks

A couple things: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "destroy all my units". I assume you are talking about disbanding units in camp. But on the chance that you meant killing off allies in battle, I'll include the a comment on that. 1) Vanilla gives you more weapons if you kill off your allied units, the mod gives you more weapons from allied units if they are not killed. 2) In the mod, brigade officers get a bonus from battles led. If you hover the mouse arrow over the officer XP you'll see the bonus listed. At 3 battles led, you get a 15% bonus to Command, Officer XP gain, and Unit XP gain. So, keeping units together with the same officer produces a greater return. New officers get a -7.5% penalty, 0 penalty with 1 battle led, 7.5% gain with 2 battles led, and 15% gain with 3 battles led. The bonus caps at 3. Officers do keep the bonus if they are wounded and come back to the same unit, but if they go to a different unit they loose the bonus. 3) In vanilla and the mod, career points in Training gives recruits better starting stats. If you hover over the recruiting pool you can see the starting stats, which I'm sure you know. So, in both the mod and vanilla, you can disband units to cause the stats in the recruit pool to increase since disbanded units go back into the pool - it is just a calculated average of the recruits in the pool and the unit(s) that you disband. However, you loose the bonuses discussed above. And, each time new recruits are added to the pool after completing future battles the average stats in the pool is recalculated, so it will go down since the new recruit stats added after each battle are based on your level of Training points. Hope this helps.