michaelsmithern

Well it's not supposed to be easy, what i'd recommend, as i just beat it(took high losses still got a victory however) is to get some cav, and then a bunch of throw away brigades(although they shouldn't be called that they're more of take the first hit troops) use them to weaken the enemy to the best of your ability, after wards you should have put your main army as the second wave, they'll come in and punch through the lines. after this all you need to do is take the south or west and east parts of the hill. which i found to be pretty easy. this is where the cav can come in handy, and you may even get lucky with the union trying to attempt a retake of the north. If you can muster up what's left of your shattered 1st Wave and coordinate the arty on one flank(not both you won't get much done) then you should re-engage, if you feel you have taken too many losses and can't take the two victory points i'd recommend just sitting back, and waiting for 2nd Manassas, then you'll be A-Ok. and of course then you get fredericksburg, which will be a definite win for you, then you get chancellorsville. the only thing that might cause problems is Antietam...which was more of a draw historically(counted as a union victory though). this is because defending the left flank is slightly harder than expected, the bloody lane i had a lot of fun defending and of course Burnside bridge was fun since it was a one way gap.

I wanna see a Union player have 100k troops at a battle so the AI will scale their force to higher than the number of troops in the theater

awww, but i don't wanna read today

good question, but I think you should be somewhat happier in this case, while you may not be exploiting the full range of your guns, you have made it so the enemy must cross to come to your and with your better weapons you will inflict more casualties towards them... although then again you can still do the same either way. i'm sure darth is working on a way to resolve this issue, as it's probably just a bug. hell it could be like that based on the historical battle units, which cover the same range.

hmmm..... i could try and make the argument that union cav is a little close the supply wagons, although i've seen myself and the AI pull off capturing supplies in closer situations. very interesting to take note of however.

Not sure if it's related but i know that my division commanders have died before...although i think this can only happen if you combine the brigades together. As for what they do...i guess the same thing as a brigade commander and is offer a morale boost while still alive, or when you combine the brigades it makes the "new" brigade have some morale.

you got a point, but it's short term solution for now. although Darth(Nick) could just leave it as is, and use the excuse that melee was very confusing and it was hard to lead troops out of it sometimes i.e. mass melee charges

i know what you mean, i think it might be interesting to have them setup in like a box like pattern, for those who played Starwars Empire at War it would look kinda like the box that contained all the fighter icons on the map in space battles

alright, so i recently started my third confed campaign. I've looked at some of the users guides and tips for playing, one of the things i noticed is that after listening to some of these guides it gets somewhat easier, such as with troops, i've got max 1000 men in my units(and i have about 12 brigades with the same numbers(i do not mean i can only have 1000, but it's my set limit so i don't use all of my infantry)) and they are each equipped with Mississippi rifles, this allows for a large corps, while also allowing to be a real fighting force, be aware that it won't last long against if attacking units of 2500 or more, seeing as by that point it's mostly a numbers game and flanking game. I currently am at Gaines Mill, which is a bit difficult, i saved and will think of something to do later, but as for the battles before it, i have had little trouble, hell even shiloh was a pushover and the only thing that killed me was the fact that the pre made confed army was by itself and wouldn't open the field like with the Union campaign, if it weren't for that i'd have taken the hornets nest earlier. but with what i had i dislodged one of the brigades and ran out of time with the second. bull run was a little trickier, since i didn't have my cav detachments to cover my flanks and hit enemy arty, but i managed fine with the three brigades i had(by this point i had all of them with mississippis, and they each got 2000 kills). I didn't lose the bridge, but i did lose matthews hill due to the shear numbers of the forces assaulting the postition. when Jackson arrived the Union crossed the river and got slaughtered, and then when the final wave of reinforcements showed up it was practically over. the smaller battles i've won fairly easily, although this one in the gaines mill campaign i'm just glad it ended when it did, cause i don't know if my brigades could have held much longer, i had my favorite unit(the Iredell County Volunteers) down to 300ish men before the end. I'll be at antietam soon, hopefully by tonight, but i think i've finally found the match for troop numbers and weapons. Edit: i've noticed since i've stopped trying to max my troop count i've not spent as much on veterans to maintain skill ranks, which is a plus...although since the AI is starting to get more and more numbers, i'm running low on Mississippi rifles and might have to switch to the Palmetto or back to Springfields 2nd Edit: Just finished Gaines Mill, and i was doing pretty good if i say so myself, while i had the second corp basically become fodder, they did do pretty well and even routed some of the union brigades for a short while, however after the battle the entire corp went from 12 brigs to about 5( i lost the entire 1st Division of that corp as well) when the 1st Corp arrived(named 2nd Corp in the battle) they started cleaning house, but once more i ran out of time to finish off the enemy, and i was so close to crushing their army, however i captured the zone in the back of the map(whatever hill it was) and the far most right point, i was using whatever troops i could scrounged from the all but destroyed 2nd Corps to fight the enemy and distract them. Now i'm working on Malvern Hill, although the way it's going i don't expect a victory, at the very least a draw. The 2nd Corp was the first wave and the 1st Corp(with the new 3rd Corps) just arrived and were getting set up. My cav is practically useless on this battle as i can't just charge 2150 horses at 10000 troops and hope for the best...although i did that tactic with most of the 2nd corp to dislodge the union from their defenses, unfortunately they retook them. hopefully the 1st Corp can beat them back although at the rate this is going and with very little in the way of flanking, i don't know if i'll be able to pull it off.

Alright just got the game and am at the battle of second bull run, one thing i noticed is that in this battle, literally all of the confederate brigades(or divisions as they are referred to for some reason) are level 3, meaning my new brigades can't even make a dent in their lines before getting beaten to shreads. as for troop scaling, this hasn't been much of a problem yet, as i only saw it in the Western theater(reclaming the battlefield on the final stage of shiloh was pretty hard, but i managed it) as for my units i can barely get a level 3 commander(most have died or got wounded) yet the confederates can somehow conjure officers with the best abilities ever? all i'm saying if they had 2000 man units with lower level commanders or historical representations of their commanders(brigade wise) then i'd be fine, but i lost the 2nd battle of bull run, even though i outnumbered them 2 to 1 in the beginning with 2 1 star brigades, 4 2 two star brigades, 1 no star brigade, 2 2 star cannon batteries, and a horse unit(no stars), when the reinforcements arrive i thought it was all over, but somehow the tigers, archer and the one guy with his name starting with a T held off fresh and battle hardened units(these guys were hit hard, but most were above half strength, when i went in for the kill) Don't get me wrong i'm aware it's early alpha and things are due to change, i remember this well from Gettysburg, but this was ridiculous, i couldn't even pull that off if i tried hard enough Edit: After watching my little recording of the battle i noticed i did do some rather idiotic moves towards the end, which cost me the battle, so the 4-6 brigades that held me back were in fact doing pretty well to beat me. As for the Unit experience, hmmm maybe it's to even it out, i do get a lot of reinforcements so i guess it'd make sense that it should end immediately from the player army thrashing the AI. oh well, on to Antietam

it probably will be, looking at the footage they'd only be able to do it a couple ways, they could set up custom battles for players to pick and choose a corp setup, or for a campaign it would have to be where both players do as they please with units(skip the first missions, phillipi and the assault on the fort) and start with bull run, and then the players would upgrade their units as in the regular game and continue on, they'd probably either vote or some kinda system for selecting the next mission. So is it possible for a multiplayer campaign? yes of course, is it gonna be a nightmare...probably, it's better to use the already premade battles and make that the multiplayer, and you could add 2v2 3v3 4v4 to some of them to account for the large amount of troops, so one player won't have to move back and forth across the battlefield to worry about shiloh church or taking the hornet's nest.

https://www.twitch.tv/versorger12/v/101412076 theres one twitch stream of the game, although this man may need to learn some basic strategy, i saw so many things he did wrong, especially at Shiloh where he threw his men straight into the Hornet's Nest and thought that they could win. anyways i think there might be another one up as well Watched it again, and man the thing with the streamer was he wasn't doing bad in the beginning, he just didn't realize his troops weren't in any kind of cover, and on top of this he deployed to many skirmishers from his brigades which got routed and didnt' come back, so he effectively killed his army

Can't wait, i gotta go make sure i have enough money in my bank account before i do i buy it though Look forward to playing it

agreed, however i wonder how they'll do it, since it could be a custom battle gamemode like from total war games, or it could even be as big as a head to head campaign. it'll be interesting to see for sure

well UG: Gettysburg had a terrain map feature that showed the Topography, which really helped a lot of players when placing units. Although like yourself i never really got a good control of arty, so i usually just let it do it's thing until i was certain i could move it up and not have it be destroyed, if at least half of the guns fired, i didn't move all the batteries. as for the other terrains like grass and what not, i thought it was fairly easy to distinguish the two, grass was mostly just the green on the map, aside from the forest which had trees, corn was usually yellow, rivers blue, and it was a rocky formation it usually had grass with some rocks mixed in. as for timed execution, sounds interesting wouldn't mind it, although not sure it's entirely needed since you can just push the units up yourself...although it would be helpful if you have a large army.

while i feel they must suffer a tiny bit in the depth, i do however have high hopes that the battles will be amazing. As for my favorite feature, hmmmm well i like the idea of minor skirmishes, and commanding your army for reals this time, not that your weren't doing it in the previous title, but now you've got an administration type deal going on. and it's nice, because it reminds me slightly of the way Hearts of Iron 3 had there divisions set up(not really though, two completely different games) while adding the factor of being able to watch and control the battle

like a custom battle type game mode, where you set up units for both sides and go at it?

I see what your saying, although it would be interesting to see a head to head campaign. However from what i've seen the single player looks phenomenal and i cannot wait to play and beat it

It could possibly be an update for post release, seeing as they were major engagements i don't see why the wouldn't make it. i'm excited for the campaign, i'm not entirely sure what it is, since the pictures give a small view into it, so from what i've seen you got the battles of the war you can play but there are also drill camps? and minor skirmishes that you can fight, and the campaign itself is neat as you take the units you have from the last battle and reuse them, as well as getting new ones and reinforcing your old. damn i wish i had the closed beta, because the game looks neat

i would like to see what it is the multiplayer aspect of this game will be. I'm not sure it will be like the previous title, but maybe more intricate, with purchasing units in a total war style way. on top of this with a "campaign" you could have 1v1 head to heads(possibly more if you could code it in)

I got on today to see if anything new had come about, low and behold a project that looks even more impressive than the last(gettysburg) was delivered. My only question after watching the awesome video and checking the very nice photos is, if there will be multiplayer? I'm sure a game like this is well suited for single player, but a multiplayer campaign would be interesting to see. or just a multiplayer along the lines of total war where you select units(that could have preset names) and go at it. so basically my question is, What plans for Multiplayer are you willing to discuss at this time? I

Yeah you're right

i see, i didn't realize it, but i guess thats what i get for not being on the forums for quite a while

Take notice to this picture(sorry if it is really big) have you noticed that there are these test units in the game all without explanation, this one striking my fancy, as it give the chance of Stannard defecting to the south. I found this very interesting since UGG wants to recreate history, but offers the choice of forging your own path. Personally i want to know whats up with this and how it could affect the outcome of the battle

oh man I cannot wait, you're giving bridges a use in the next game, but I wonder where this next game could be. I know you want to do something with Antietam, but a short 13 hour battle, while yes the bloodiest, doesn't stand up to the three day engagement of Gettysburg, although I feel a good way to counter resolve this would be to make it the whole Maryland campaign, or just take the skirmishes that happened around and in Sharpsburg