Salem's Church

[James Cornelius]

Hi all,

 

Finally had a chance to play through Chancellorsville in my union campaign. I like to play the historical battles first before I get there in the campaign to get a feel for the battle and experience it in an "unaltered" way. I play on brigadier general difficulty.

 

Historically, I was able to vastly outperform Hooker (which of course is not terribly hard) by pushing hard (but retreating when I became outnumbered) in the first phase. In the second phase, I immediately had Howard's XI Corps run back to the rest of the army around Chancellor House - they might be exhausted getting there, but at least will be in one piece. I probed to the SW to the two objective points. In the third phase, with my army concentrated, I sat back and blew Jackson's attack to pieces and continued to send probing attacks to the SW. Since I was inflicting far more casualties than I was sustaining, I let each phase go until it forced me to finish: i.e. I did not click "finish" when the timer ran out and it said I could.

 

As a result, by the time the final phase of the battle came where you could re-attempt the attack on the Orange Plank Roads, I still had nearly 50,000 troops and the Confederates were down to 9000. As you might imagine, the final phase was a bit anticlimactic. Final casualty rates were something like 11,000 for me and 40,000+ for the Confederates.

 

Now, when I played the campaign battle it did not go as smoothly. For one, the numbers were a lot closer, and the scaling of the enemy brigade sizes with every one being a 3 star veteran definitely played a role. I ultimately had the same end result, but with casualty rates a lot closer: 22,000 for me, 33,000 for them. A victory is a victory, I guess...

 

So then I get to the Battle of Salem's Church, in which I'm given command of Sedgewick's historical VI Corps and in order to achieve victory I must take Salem's Church and inflict 5% more casualties. Ok...except ultimately you end up outnumbered and trying to force the enemy from some pretty good ground. The best I have been able to get in this battle is a draw (inflict 10%casualties) by positioning the corps in the trees behind the little creek and waiting for Ewell's troops to come from the south. I get my kills this way, but as soon as I try to push towards the Church it starts to turn against me again. I can take the Church, but not without losing more men than the Confederates.

 

Anyone have any tips?

[The Soldier]

Best way I've found is to sprint your men as soon as you get them through the forest ahead, over the creek, and into the small forest just south of the point.  Hole up there with all your men and artillery and fend off the Rebels as they come for you.  If you get the opportunity, move a brigade out to capture the point.

[william1993]

that forest to the right off the church on the main road is key.  Hold that and you will beat all the ass.  I played as the Rebs and I held it after the chancellorsville battle with a bunch of 1200 1300 man brigades and beat them back.  Put maybe 1 brigade out on the far flank to take the church point if they fall back

[Hitorishizuka]

4 hours ago, The Soldier said:

Best way I've found is to sprint your men as soon as you get them through the forest ahead, over the creek, and into the small forest just south of the point.  Hole up there with all your men and artillery and fend off the Rebels as they come for you.  If you get the opportunity, move a brigade out to capture the point.

I sprinted around along the road the whole way, I -think- that's faster and better on condition than going straight through the forest but am not sure.

Beyond that, yeah you need a solid core of troops in that small forest for the enemy to break on, especially their southern reinforcements later. You can still afford to have 4-5 brigades slowly push up and around through the northern forest and get to the point, though. If you play it right with skirmishers you can harass the enemy by attacking from the south while your northern forces are pushing and get them off the point in good order.

[James Cornelius]

Thanks for the tips. What is the benefit for winning? The main battle states what rewards you get - do you get a bonus for winning Salem's Church?

[The Soldier]

1 minute ago, Sir R. Calder of Southwick said:

Thanks for the tips. What is the benefit for winning? The main battle states what rewards you get - do you get a bonus for winning Salem's Church?

Actually, I don't know.  I'm not even sure if there's any Reputation at stake there - for the Union player at least, you're not even using your own troops.  If there's no Reputation, then there's literally nothing for the player to lose, and everything to gain - free rifles, cannon, and your officers even heal up after Salem Church if they got wounded at Chancellorsville.  As the Confederates, it's more interesting because you're using your own troops.

[Aetius]

9 hours ago, Sir R. Calder of Southwick said:

Thanks for the tips. What is the benefit for winning? The main battle states what rewards you get - do you get a bonus for winning Salem's Church?

You do. In my last Legendary Union playthrough I received +9 Reputation after Salem Church, even though my Chancellorsville was a draw - I'm not sure what the exact number is though. Everyone has pretty much hit on the strategy; Get your troops across and into the forest south and east of the VP. If you push out skirmishers and overrun their skirmishers, you can tie up the incoming units to the southwest and southeast and get an easy victory. It's a pure-gravy scenario in Legendary because none of your own troops are involved and its a fairly bloody fight.

[James Cornelius]

So I was ultimately successful, and another reward is third career point (after winning I finished the combined battles with 3 instead of just the 2 from Chancellorsville). I think I noticed the reputation increase as well.

 

What I did was run and get into the northern woods above Salem's Church. Some confederates still beat me there, and inflicted heavier casualties. However, I was gradually able to push them out and array my forces along the southern line of the trees so that the enemy troops were in the open below them. In time, the casualty ratio flipped in my favor. Once there was an opening, I swung my right flank (leftward troops looking at the screen) down - the farthest brigade remained in the salient of the trees facing SE to deal with the artillery, and the next two marched westward to both flank the enemy brigades and move into position to take the objective. Final casualties were about 4500 to 6700.