Davidon

I like the upgrade to Determined because the AI forced a draw my last game. This would be the first time I have not won as the Union. Good work!

I finally got back in to try my tactics against "Cunning," and it was harder, but I still won. It was definitely a good AI opponent. I've seen people say that the Confederate AI is too strong, but I think it could stand to be a tad stronger at the top level.

I might be able to give you some pointers. I have been winning all my defensive battles as the Union, but I'm not doing anything that I didn't learn in a Total War game. So here's what's important. You want the high ground when you are defending. You want to make sure that your artillery are in a useful spot and doing damage. Since it's a VP game, you know that the attacker will try to hit you near the VP areas; often, he attacks right at them. So you want your best quality troops near those spots. If you are playing as the Union, your morale needs constant watching. You need to keep your generals near the troops at the front line of the main attack. Your generals are skittish and will move if they think they are threatened, so keep an eye on them. They are pretty important to the morale. Since it's a map based game, choose areas where you can use an edge of the map as a natural flank protector. (You may object to using this tactic, it's possible to win without it so don't worry.) Keep a back line at critical areas (you will know where these are by the number of troops you are facing off against) so that when your front line troops tire or break, there is someone to replace them immediately. Allow broken troops time to rest and then when you bring them back, make them back line first. It's best to keep reserves for emergencies but I don't think these need to be high quality troops. I've used them mostly to delay an attack that would give a decisive advantage while I get my better troops into a good position. If you are playing as the Union, do not charge with your rifles if you can avoid it. Your troops are not good at it. But they will have an advantage if the fire fight lasts, because they use better quality weapons. So it's in your interest to prolong the engagement rather than try to end things quickly with a charge. The exception to this is in attacking artillery. Use cavalry if you have them. I've found it hard to actually get a charge out of cavalry on artillery, but they do overrun the cannon positions and that works. Light troops can charge but you have to sneak them up using something to distract the artillery because a good barrage will break your men. But it is important to even the odds in artillery or even get an advantage if you want to have a decisive victory or better. I've had an epic and a heroic I think it was called and I'm betting it was taking out the artillery that made it happen. Now other than this, I can say that I've found you don't have to micromanage your lines. You'll see them shifting around, but if they aren't breaking and leaving a gap, you don't need to fuss with them most of the time. Let them alone so that they continue firing. These strategies seem to me to be the main part of holding on during the early stage of the game and providing yourself with an advantage as the Confederates tire. If you can hold the line on Seminary Ridge, say, until your reinforcements arrive, you will be able to bring some to the flanks and begin to roll up the Confederates lines. This is a tried and true Medieval Total War strategy and it works in this game as well. With this basic strategy, I've won with all the AI's I've tried, but I've yet to use the top left AI.. I forget what it's called suddenly, but that's the most "attacky" AI. I'm about to try it and see if this strategy will work as well against it. But I have to admit, when I tried using the Rebs, my efforts were much less fruitful.. I'm not a very good attacker.