Advice for hard difficulty & some questions

[Squadron HQ]

I'm going to start a hard difficulty game. Can you guys give me some advice please? I also have some general questions. 

1. Medicine. Do the troops returning return directly to Brigade (preserving the weapon & the veterancy) or back to the pool? I.e., suppose I have 10% medicine. Brigade loses 100 out of 1000 men in the battle. Does it return to the Army screen with 900 men and I get 10 extra in the pool, or does it return to the camp with 910 men instead? Seems to me the latter would be very worth it and the former not at all worth it. 

2. Weapons & unit size. How does this scale? Is it better to have a "big" Brigade with weaker weapons (like Farmer or 1862 .69) or is it better to scale the Brigade to be small but with a better weapon (like the Enfield or the M1855?) I see that a lot of players have some elite Brigades they fill out with good guns and have bigger Brigades of lower veterancy, weaker weapon troops. Is this really a good idea? Does it stand up to analysis?

3. What should I spend reputation on, if at all? I'm sure this question is often contextual, but is it worth it to buy a few thousand rifles, or should I not even bother buying guns from the rep screen? 

Thanks in advance!

[Bill the Bold]

1.  They return to the brigade, keeping weapons and veterancy.  

2.  I think you want your best most experienced shooters to have the best weapons (enfield, m1855) and then your "cannon fodder" units palmetos and m1842s.  A mix of both is important imo.

3. I think whatever suits your situation at the time.  I've had cause to use every option at one point. 

 

edit,

 2. and your "elite" units will tend to be smaller simply because of a limited number of higher end weapons available and the veteran replacement price

3. i think weapons are a good thing to spend rep on, especially as CSA where gear like napoleons and minie ball rifles might not otherwise be available.  Its a cash free upgrade in fire power to a unit and it frees up the old rifles to give to new green units or sell for cash (if thats what you need more of)

Edited January 5, 2017 by Bill the Bold

[Wandering1]

1. As Bill says, they return to the unit with their veterancy and weapons. As far as career points go though, you still wouldn't spend on medicine before you max out Politics or up your Army Org as necessary, because 2.5% of 100-500k cash and 10000+ recruits in general is far greater than 20 guns and 20 recruits per point of medicine at most for your basic infantry squads.

2. Also as Bill says, limitation on veteran squads is cash and equipment. Create new sponge squads with weak guns, intended to soak charges, whereas your veteran squads are smaller with better guns supporting the sponge squad when they inevitably get charged.

3. Guns, guns, guns. If you win every battle, you'll generally have enough reputation to buy the reputation guns between every major battle. Don't need to buy every cannon from reputation though.

[Squadron HQ]

Thanks for the advice! 

[Commander_Rahl]

The only way to get the W on hard, is to really understand the mechanics of the game

Positioning, and terrain bonuses are HUGE factors.  

Count on being outnumbered, and outgunned in pretty much all the battles.   The AI scales are quite nasty for Hard mode.   Several encounters, your forces are outnumbered by 2 to 1 or more.   The way to ove come this is to be a better strategist.   MICROMANAGING is key, to make sure the odds are always in your favor.

As a general strategy, I Focus on a smaller force, of veterans.   Be sure to be very attentive in your camp phase, as decisions here are more critical, with more limited funds and recruits.   

[GeneralPITA]

Playing on hard it's a good idea to max out army organization early and start pumping out those free Division Officers and Corps Commanders. Assign all your top brass to existing brigades, then create as many divisions as possible. Colonels and Brigadier Generals will appear out of thin air. Veterancy is key and you must start early. It doesn't really matter if you have brigades assigned to them yet. You'll use them at Antietam for sure. I average 60 promotions in that battle, which pays dividends for the remainder of the campaign. You won't have enough men to fill out five corps, but you should have at least one brigade in all 20 divisions.

I tend to spend all my rep points on weapons, especially rifles. 

Preserve your officers. I have the occasional wounded officer but KIAs are very rare.

 

[Wandering1]

As far as officers go, you don't need to have brigades to assign officers from the pool. The officer pool re-loads with a full pool after every major battle, and you can hire them without assigning to brigades by going to the barracks menu in the Army camp. Which does mean that you can buy out every officer from the pool and have a long bench of officers, but on Hard Mode, that's money usually better spent on weapons or veterans.

[Commander_Rahl]

6 hours ago, GeneralPITA said:

Playing on hard it's a good idea to max out army organization early and start pumping out those free Division Officers and Corps Commanders. Assign all your top brass to existing brigades, then create as many divisions as possible. Colonels and Brigadier Generals will appear out of thin air. Veterancy is key and you must start early. It doesn't really matter if you have brigades assigned to them yet. You'll use them at Antietam for sure. I average 60 promotions in that battle, which pays dividends for the remainder of the campaign. You won't have enough men to fill out five corps, but you should have at least one brigade in all 20 divisions.

I tend to spend all my rep points on weapons, especially rifles. 

Preserve your officers. I have the occasional wounded officer but KIAs are very rare.

 

Have had a hard time justifying huge armies in this game.   Due to the Scaling of the forces on all battles by the AI.   No matter the size of your army, your going to be outgunned by a certain % of the size of your forces.   If I bring 30K to antietam as a confederate, the Union will Bring 60K+.   If I bring 65K to Antietam as a Confederate, the Union is gurranteed to have over 125K in forces.   This being said, I always tend to focus on Veterans, and Training First.   I keep my forces quite lean and Mean, getting veterans quickly, on a large number of Units.   I find the majority of my cash goes to replenishing Veteran forces after encounters.   I find that I have a large pool of reserve recruits, in case I do suffer a defeat, I can replace my army quickly with those reserves.   With this strategy, I tend to focus on Politics, Training, and Medicine.   These seem to make the most sense, when your focusing on a smaller force, of more veteran troops.

While I agree that numbers help to a point, and you need at least enough Brigades to defend key points, and have reserves.   With the scaling the way it is, I would rather deal with less troops to manage, that are strong veterans who are well equipped.   

Just my two cents.

[GeneralPITA]

Veterans are insanely expensive. I don't see why people buy them, even with points in training. I haven't bought a single one and look at all those three star brigades in my 1st division.

I'm not trying to maximize the army size, I'm trying to maximize the number of high ranking officers available to get them experience early on.  They can be promoted by participating in battle even if they don't engage directly. You need to clear the barracks and assign all the colonels/generals before bothering to do this trick.

The enemy scales up, but it maximizes at three stars. If you can match that, so much the better. Here are screenshots of my forces as I prepare for Stones River with plenty of high ranking generals. As you can see, I have no pool of recruits left, but my kill ratios have consistently been 5:1 or better for each battle. 

 

1st Corps - Vanguard

2nd Corps - Regulars

3rd Corps - Reserves 

[Wandering1]

Re Buying Veterans: veteran cost varies by how much veterancy you're actually replacing. Adding veteran recruits onto 1* brigades is not as costly as adding veterans onto 3* brigades.

Which means that replacing Union veterans is a lot cheaper than replacing CSA veterans, typically.

It is true that the commander determines a starting unit's veterancy levels. For clearing the 1* hurdle though, you only need colonels on standard infantry brigades. Brigadiers are better assigned to maxed out skirmisher or cavalry squads to not lose efficiency.

As far as having a shortage of high ranking officers to clear the 1* hurdle, however, this is not usually a problem depending on how many brigades you're expanding in the early game. After the first combat or so when the unit obtains experience, you can swap out colonels and brigadiers from current squads into new squads, and replace them with Lieutenant Colonels. 

[Hitorishizuka]

On 1/6/2017 at 10:30 AM, GeneralPITA said:

Veterans are insanely expensive. I don't see why people buy them, even with points in training. I haven't bought a single one and look at all those three star brigades in my 1st division.

Not to put too fine a point on it but for being deep in 1862 having 3 3-star brigades in trade for having 2 Corps worth of 1-star brigades is probably not that good of a trade.

[Commander_Rahl]

On 1/6/2017 at 1:30 PM, GeneralPITA said:

Veterans are insanely expensive. I don't see why people buy them, even with points in training. I haven't bought a single one and look at all those three star brigades in my 1st division.

I'm not trying to maximize the army size, I'm trying to maximize the number of high ranking officers available to get them experience early on.  They can be promoted by participating in battle even if they don't engage directly. You need to clear the barracks and assign all the colonels/generals before bothering to do this trick.

The enemy scales up, but it maximizes at three stars. If you can match that, so much the better. Here are screenshots of my forces as I prepare for Stones River with plenty of high ranking generals. As you can see, I have no pool of recruits left, but my kill ratios have consistently been 5:1 or better for each battle. 

 

1st Corps - Vanguard

2nd Corps - Regulars

3rd Corps - Reserves 

Thanks for the above Reply PITA.   Thought about what you said a lot.   Started new union campaign, focusing on commanders, and leveling up my commanders.   Making sure that I send max possible Divisions, and cores to each engagement.   Not spending limited funding on Infantry Vets, but instead focusing on maxing out army size, and command structure.   Has been a lot of fun so far.   About to run Second Manassas, with 4 Cores, and almost 50K well equipped union men.   Maxing out the possible number of divisions that I can bring to the engagement, bringing all 16.   Sound advice above.   Made me rethink some of my approaches.   

[GeneralPITA]

It's nice to see someone else try my approach. Let me know if it works, Commander_Rahl. Hitori has a good strategy, but I try to use all my manpower and engage as many officers as possible. Hitori optimizes the scaling mechanic. but I get more weapons and experience when I kick butt and larger battles are more fun. 

[GeneralPITA]

17 hours ago, Hitorishizuka said:

Not to put too fine a point on it but for being deep in 1862 having 3 3-star brigades in trade for having 2 Corps worth of 1-star brigades is probably not that good of a trade.

I'll use my vanguard less often on the side missions in my next campaign. Achieving three stars requires about five times the effort of a two star brigade and it's a pity when they die stupidly. Cover is being reduced with the next patch, so it'll be harder to preserve them. Veterans will get more firepower as well, so it may be best to spread the XP out and make as many 2 star brigades as possible. 

[Hitorishizuka]

20 minutes ago, GeneralPITA said:

I'll use my vanguard less often on the side missions in my next campaign. Achieving three stars requires about five times the effort of a two star brigade and it's a pity when they die stupidly. Cover is being reduced with the next patch, so it'll be harder to preserve them. Veterans will get more firepower as well, so it may be best to spread the XP out and make as many 2 star brigades as possible. 

3 star brigades are good but IMO the big jump in power is going from 1->2 and getting the bump in Firearms and reloading/accuracy. I have a save with 1 side battle and Fredericksburg to go on CSA and I have 3.5 Corps worth of brigades with basically only 1 Division at 1 Star, the rest at 2 Star, and the free 3 Star brigade you get given.

[Wandering1]

The reload and accuracy I believe are the biggest jumps. Once you hit 3*, most of your veteran squads are already at 100 firearms, so there's severely diminishing returns unless we're informed that going over the firearms cap has a use in battle (and not really as a sponge to eat recruits in veteran squads).

[GeneralPITA]

4 hours ago, Wandering1 said:

The reload and accuracy I believe are the biggest jumps. Once you hit 3*, most of your veteran squads are already at 100 firearms, so there's severely diminishing returns unless we're informed that going over the firearms cap has a use in battle (and not really as a sponge to eat recruits in veteran squads).

My best infantry brigade has 32,000 kills and 4,700 losses but only has a firearms skill of 90, even with 3 stars, which confers a huge efficiency boost. Do you play on hard? I rarely get the firearms skill to 100.

[Hitorishizuka]

19 minutes ago, GeneralPITA said:

My best infantry brigade has 32,000 kills and 4,700 losses but only has a firearms skill of 90, even with 3 stars, which confers a huge efficiency boost. Do you play on hard? I rarely get the firearms skill to 100.

You...are doing something weird. Or Hard has vastly different xp gains or something. My most elite 3 star brigades top out around 4000-4500 kills and are all Firearms 90+ if not 100 in my normal/max size CSA game. And on Union I have high 2 Stars at 91 Firearms with 3500 kills in my min size campaign. Then again I do have brigades with 8-10000 kills with only 80 Firearms, so there's something else going on with how that stat is gained, it's not just kills.

Actually, I wonder if the XP formula might have something to do with kills vs enemy size, to where individual kills get devalued as battle size gets bigger and bigger in order to keep stat/XP generation roughly linear as the game progresses instead of making it easy to accelerate new units to 3 star in late game.

edit: Alternatively, it could also be that smaller units are just a lot easier to raise in stats than the max size units you seem to favor. Or...have you been constantly replenishing your units back to full with Rookies?

Edited January 9, 2017 by Hitorishizuka

[GeneralPITA]

I go for the marksman upgrades and gave them C.S. Richmonds. I don't think I'm doing anything weird. Darth will have to chime in on this.  I won't speculate on the XP formula, but would like to know how it works. 

Obviously XP works very different on hard difficulty. 

[Wandering1]

39 minutes ago, GeneralPITA said:

My best infantry brigade has 32,000 kills and 4,700 losses but only has a firearms skill of 90, even with 3 stars, which confers a huge efficiency boost. Do you play on hard? I rarely get the firearms skill to 100.

Sigfried and Kemper's squads at Efficiency/Firearms/Morale 100. This is my hard save for CSA.

14264 Kills/3392 Deaths. Playing min-size also because this was my first hard playthrough, and I was being miserly because you only get 10% kill drops.

[GeneralPITA]

28 minutes ago, Hitorishizuka said:

Or...have you been constantly replenishing your units back to full with Rookies?

For awhile I was adding rookies to maintain two star status, recently I've been adding rookies to maintain three star status. I water it down, but only a little bit. It costs around $150,000 for 1,000 three star veterans, so I'd be a fool to pay for them. I simply "top it off".

Wandering1, I'm guessing you don't "top off" brigades with rookies like I do.

[Wandering1]

2 minutes ago, GeneralPITA said:

For awhile I was adding rookies to maintain two star status, recently I've been adding rookies to maintain three star status. I water it down, but only a little bit. It costs around $150,000 for 1,000 three star veterans, so I'd be a fool to pay for them. I simply "top it off".

Wandering1, I'm guessing you don't "top off" brigades with rookies like I do.

Don't really have to if you're playing min-size.

I'm sure those two squads can sponge recruits now, because the firearms boost from the perks would still keep it at Firearms 100. Obviously, this is far different for Union, because Union recruits are half as valuable as CSA recruits (the difference between 10 Firearms and 20 is pretty large for keeping skill levels high).

[Hitorishizuka]

Purely for comparison's sake:

Probably had them at max size until 1st Bull Run, then let them wither down until I needed Vets to keep them at 800.

[Wandering1]

12 minutes ago, Hitorishizuka said:

Purely for comparison's sake:

Probably had them at max size until 1st Bull Run, then let them wither down until I needed Vets to keep them at 800.

Okay, even less min-size than me. Too lazy to go lower than 1000 on my squads, since that's where they start at.

[GeneralPITA]

20 minutes ago, Hitorishizuka said:

Purely for comparison's sake:

Probably had them at max size until 1st Bull Run, then let them wither down until I needed Vets to keep them at 800.

Thanks for posting this. Your efficiency is lower, firearms is higher. 

Edit: My stamina sucks!