civsully1 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) Well boys....I decided to stay on the battlefield and not yield despite all the sound advice to retreat. It wasn't pretty. I fell back out of the woods around the church toward Sharpsburg. I retreated north to the town from Stone bridge leaving a brigade and 2 skirmishers hidden in the woods. All my other units fell back from the Sunken Road. All units into the town. The lone supply wagon was quickly consumed by all my arty batteries. So while the Union suffered losses on their march to the town. I still had 3 Cav units about 800 men north of the church. And they began to destroy 4 arty batteries, a supply wagon, and captured a wagon. Two battered 700 man brigades that were hidden and isolated managed to link up with the cav units. So while the Union pressed around the north, east, and south of the town...these units recaptured the church and the sunken road. Meanwhile the union forces (3 brigades) chased the infantry brigade all the way from Stone bridge to the town taking but a few losses. And it entered the town fully loaded and staved off two attacks at the end. Meanwhile the two skirmishers destroyed an arty battery at the bridge and recaptured it. Those 450 men fought off a counter attack by a infantry and cav brigade. The final moments of the battle saw union infantry enter into the northeast corner of the town. All hell broke loose and cannon and men were firing with what they had. In the end it was just melee and carnage. In the end...it was a Victory. But very costly. I lost 28000 to the union's 52000. So as I enter the refit in between battles now preparing for the Winter War phase....I have lots of cash but not enough men to fully rebuild all three Corps back up to 2000+ brigades. And it would cost 30+ reputation just for 7500 replacements which doesn't seem like good value. Looks like I'll have to start investing points into getting more recruits in the next few battles. Who says this game lacks excitement and challenge! Again appreciate all the comments. Edited April 2, 2017 by civsully1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col_Kelly Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Quote This is what happens when I try to retreat from Antietam. 0 losses but apparently there was no-one left to defend Richmond. I guess Jackson, Beauregard and the other 40k confederates just went straight home after. Lee's reputation was, oddly enough, undestructible, even after defeats. He was truly a god to the south and the one people really looked up to. Back to the game you probably had less than 44 reputation which is why you were given a campaign defeat. It's advised to anticipate and stop spending reputation when you reach the 2nd Bull Run campaign so you can build it up. The alternative to your problem would be to go for the draw (only have to hold Sharpsburg) but it's not necessarily easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aetius Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 6 hours ago, civsully1 said: these units recaptured the church and the sunken road I've noticed this tendency on the part of the AI as well - once it has captured those points, it does not defend them. To be fair, defending the Sunken Road would be difficult, but ... the AI has the troops. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A. P. Hill Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 3 hours ago, Aetius said: I've noticed this tendency on the part of the AI as well - once it has captured those points, it does not defend them. To be fair, defending the Sunken Road would be difficult, but ... the AI has the troops. Indeed. I too have slipped units behind the enemy lines and managed to secure VPs after they are left undefended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civsully1 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I was aware of the AI's tendency not to leave forces in place at captured VP points Aetius and A.P and counted on that to make the moves. I wonder if this AI "tendency" is on the fix list of the developers?? I will say that the AI at the last moments did make a vigorous counter attack at the church and sunken road with its remaining cav units. Fortunately I had the two 700 infantry brigades which had gotten condition back over 90+ and fully supplied to hold each place supported by my flanking 3 cav units. It was a nail biter. It's after battles of this scale I wish there was a replay video function so I could sit back and watch the battle play out with an objective perspective. I mentioned earlier that I am now hurting for lack of manpower after refitting my battered brigades. So did the best I could but a couple of brigades will be below 700 men for the time being. So I hope the next two battles of Corinth and Prairie Grove will be victories that will allow more replacements to fill out my existing Corps before Fredericksburg?? So it remains to be seen at this point whether I should have retreated early on or just moved everything into Sharpsburg and weather the seige with intact and fully supplied Corps inside the city? I plan to replay this battle from after capturing the church and try different options once I complete the CSA campaign. I don't have the stomach to do it now!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civsully1 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Now moving onto a new thing I noticed after the battle that I was "rewarded" with Lt General Lee. What are the thoughts of players and testers about this? Would it make more sense at the very start to have a Commanding General in place in charge of each Army? Lee for the CSA and McClellen for the Union. Each lends certain traits to all the units under their command and grow with successive victories. Then one is free to start the campaign with their own unique yet unproven Corps commander or use one from the pool. This would seem to make more sense then waiting to get Lee into play in 1862? Just throwing it out there for your thoughts and consideration. It may have already been suggested perhaps??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A. P. Hill Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I will say this, while the AI did not defend VPs taken by them, it was fully aware of my movements behind their lines as several brigades broke loose and fell back towards the VPs as they were overtaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjku Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 It seems like a tweak is needed for the stealing of geographical victory points late in games. AI pulled that on me at one of the Seven Days big battles (can't recall which one) where I smashed the majority of its force to pieces and a few skrimishers and one shot to pieces brigade took a couple of victory points the rest of the force had no chance of getting to. I don't know if the engine is capable of counting troops in a given area but it seems like to really hold a hill or something you need to have some sort of substantial force on it. As a start I would say skrimishers should be unable to hold any victory locations period. I feel like the ideal solution would be that you have to put a substantial force near a victory point to change that flag. The issue is what constitutes a substantial force of course. Just as a ballpark I would say if you don't have say 15-20% of the enemies numbers within a reasonable distance of that point it shouldn't change. If we have two 40,000 man armies going at it having 6,000-8,000 men on a key position is enough that it could reasonably do something from there. Having just a single brigade does you no good really. You and the AI should be forced to capture points with enough men to have a reasonable prospect of doing something from that position. It would make things more balanced in the end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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