About to start Shiloh - Advice Pls!

[kjchan]

So I'm going to start Shiloh.  Order of Battle is 24 brigades. (2 cav, 2 skirmish, 4 arty, 16 IN)

Should I spend another Army point beforehand to bump up my brigades to 2000 men each?  I remember in the .6 patch era, I had 1500 man brigades against the Rebs seemingly 2 to 2.5K brigades and I remember the struggle being real.  Or should I be spending that career point on politics to get an extra cash influx?

Also, I remember losing a lot of men trying to hold objectives in the first couple phases.  Should I just turtle up and put myself in more defensible positions near the top of the map early on, so that way its easier for me to circle the wagons around the landing with less loss of troops?  Then counterattack day 2 and get all my land back?  Or should I try to hold the early phase objectives as the computer recommends?

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Day one in Shiloh, for the North, is a fighting withdrawal. Hold your objectives as long as you need to, withdrawing to the next point out when the computer changes objectives. Make sure your artillery is limbered and moving safley behind your lines before beginning to withdraw the infantry. 

Oh, big brigades. Always. 

Day Two, take Buell's corps of FREE troops and just RAM them down the Rebels throats. No quarter. Destroy both Buell's corps and the Rebel armies and feast on the leftover weapons while your mobile troops do end runs and take the objectives virtually unoppossed. 

[kjchan]

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

[kjchan]

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

[kjchan]

Oh and recommendations for supply?  I currently have 25K each Corps.  Have no idea how the #'s work.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

35k. Go for max. Depending on difficulty you are absolutely able to hold your positions, but keep you skirm cav in reserve for deploying to Pittsburgh Landing as soon as the map extends there to guard it. I often have no ammo left at ALL at then end of this mission, with 2 full corps with 2 skirm cav, 1 skirm unit, 6 arty and rest infantry (1500 men brigades). Don't attack, because the rebs will assault your positions time and again until they destroy themselves. Last time (second difficulty grade) I utterly destroyed the enemies forces at day one, killing all units save arty, 2 inf brigades and the cav brigade of Forrest which spawns on day 2.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

8 minutes ago, kjchan said:

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

If you have the reserves, just push your corps supply up to 35K and leave it there. You'll need it more often than not. 

I would shuffle your two corps a bit and at least have one veteran division in that second corps. You are going to get pressed across the entire front line, if one end breaks you're going to have trouble everywhere until you pull back to the Hornets Nest and take the road north to the Indian Mounds around Pittsburgh Landing. 

[kjchan]

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

[Andre Bolkonsky]

6 minutes ago, kjchan said:

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

To repeat myself, shuffle your corps and put some veteran units in that second corps. Otherwise its dealers choice, you're going to have a problem on both end of the line so better to have firemen on both sides. 

[kjchan]

Whoops sorry for the double post.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

On the left. At least that is what I do normally.

[maniacalpenny]

2000 men per brigade is definitely where you want to be. I would put my best divisions on the west as it has better lines of fire which equates to higher kills per minute for an elite division. The eastern map has less fighting in general and the confederates have to expose themselves less often to open fields, at least for the initial part. Its a different story at hornets nest but casualties tend to be the highest there which is no place for your best brigade, and there is some argument that fighting at the hornets nest is a poor idea in the first place.

For what its worth, it is easier to run from the eastern flank though. If things go poorly your best troops could get chased down trying to retreat from the western flank.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

As I said, I had 1500 max brigades and won the battle pretty easily. On Major General I would recommend 2000 though, too.

[Hitorishizuka]

11 hours ago, kjchan said:

Also, I remember losing a lot of men trying to hold objectives in the first couple phases.  Should I just turtle up and put myself in more defensible positions near the top of the map early on, so that way its easier for me to circle the wagons around the landing with less loss of troops?  Then counterattack day 2 and get all my land back?  Or should I try to hold the early phase objectives as the computer recommends?

 

You can make a hard stand between the VPs and pittsburgh landing, there's a line of very good terrain to do so. I wouldn't try and hold the western or far southern VPs, the terrain is very bad.

Loose suggestion:

Phase 1 - Bleed them by moving forward, then as time is getting close bug out and run. Make sure your artillery gets moving early so it doesn't get overrun.

Phase 2 - Stay condensed and support yourself. You can't move forward fast enough to get to the good terrain to hold them. At best send some skirmishers into the center to harass them from the flanks as they try to push on you.

Phase 3 and 4 - You can stall at the Hornet's Nest but it's hard and I would probably recommend withdrawing slightly north IIRC. Don't try to hold anywhere near the camps to the west, also withdraw north to the trees so you're parallel with your position north-ish of the Hornet's Nest. You can then hold this position for the rest of the map, switching back to offense as time is winding down. It's possible to wipe the entire CSA force on Day 1 but it's a little tricky to get the timing right.

At all points getting skirmishers and cavalry deep behind the enemy lines will pay dividends. Their artillery is ripe for killing and you can threaten points to distract them and pick off lone brigades more or less with impunity. In particular they reinforcements entering from the far S/SE late Phase 2/early Phase 3 that are heavy artillery and a little bit of infantry that you can do a lot of damage to if you can get onto.

[kjchan]

Thanks all for the advice, finally beat it.  Whoo that was fun!  Ended up taking the extra organization point and I'm glad I did, as most of the Reb brigades were right around 2K so it gave me some extra cushion.  

Took the advice to go full 35K supplies on both Corps, and I'm glad I did because I was able to run my arty pretty much full bore for most of the fight and still ended with about 33% supplies left or so at the end.

Ended up not being able to switch some veteran units around to my II Corps as both Corps  were full in their Org Chart.  Is there a way to switch units around when both Corps are full of brigades?  In any case, my elite I Corps not surprisingly killed it on the western edge of the map, whereas my II Corps on the eastern edge had their lines breached once which was a little nerve racking.

Did end up trying to hold the Hornet's nest in a Vee, but ended up wishing I had taken Hitori's advice as the tip of the Vee got hammered pretty hard...but then I used Buell's boys for that job so I didn't cry so much over those losses.

Was tons of fun watching the rebs throw themselves against Pittsburg Landing.  Ended the battle in MUCH better condition than when I tried it in the .6 era.  

Thanks all for your advice!

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

in fact, let Buells boys take all the casualties you can...you get half the weapons his dead soldiers leave behind. Yeah, not very nice, but it saves some dollars...

[Aetius]

On 8/17/2017 at 3:34 PM, kjchan said:

Thanks Andre.  Another quick question.  As of right now I only have 1 "elite" corps (i.e. combat stars and rifled weapons).  My 2nd corps has some battle experience but no stars and all muskets.  Do you have a recommendation as to which side I should place my elite corps on Day 1?

There's not really much choice. Even if you have two Corps, you (mostly) don't get to choose where they get deployed. The last time I started Shiloh, I had units from both I Corps and II Corps deployed on both sides of the map. The only constant I've noticed is that 1st Division is consistently deployed to the Shiloh Church side. I would recommend experienced rifle units in the 1st Division, specifically to hold the woods in front of the Church - it's one of the best defensive positions on the map, and you can bleed the Confederates dry before you have to fall back.