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Union Campaign, Battle for the train station, Philippi


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Okay... so, I found that Legendary was too tough for me after the introduction of the last patch and felt that instead of going from BG difficulty straight to Legendary that I should first play the campaign on MG difficulty.

Therefore, I started a new campaign on MG difficulty and, of course, the first battle is for Philippi, the train station. When I fought this battle, I crossed the river on the far side by the forest and camped there. I pretty much annihilated the Confederates that were defending and then with about 5 minutes to go, I moved forward and took the objective. When the timer went to 0, instead of shifting to the next phase when the Rebs get reinforcements and are backed up by an armored train, the battle just finished and gave me a victory. I was somewhat surprised.

I don't think it is a bug, or possibly it is, but I was wondering if someone could explain why this happened.

Thanks!

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Ah this might be an overlooked, unintended result.  I believe it is expected that the Player take the objective before the scenario timer hit 0 and the 10 min Objective timer would auto go to the next day.  The problem is that you took the objective 5 minutes before the end of the scenario and the objective timer was 10 minutes so therefore the end of the scenario result took precedence over the objective timer result.  I believe no one thought this would happen since no one had ever did this before.  

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Make sense to me.

I didn't notice that you had to hold the town for ten minutes. I deliberately didn't take the town so the Rebs would keep attacking me.

But, its MG level, so I'll take it. ;)

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Interesting...

I did hold the bridge on the Southern part of the city with a brigade and skirmishers and yes indeed, the Rebs kept trying to attack me there. I placed my artillery so that they could support and was able to hold them off there with some pretty big casualties. 

Overall, I lost 1000 men to their 3,000 so as I said before, when the game ended early, I wasn't complaining.

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4 hours ago, Andre Bolkonsky said:

It is much easier to pull beyond the river, break the Rebels when they try to cross the bridges, then re-take the town and begin reducing the train. 

Do they usually attack? I tried this once (can't remember which patch) and they just hung out on the victory point and I had to cross back when my reinforcements showed up (or rather, I just restarted the campaign).

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7 minutes ago, quicksabre said:

Do they usually attack? I tried this once (can't remember which patch) and they just hung out on the victory point and I had to cross back when my reinforcements showed up (or rather, I just restarted the campaign).

I can only remember one game where they entrenched in the town and made me come and get them, but that was way back when the AI was basically unbeatable for a variety of reasons. The last campaign I started they came across in mass and were shredded by line infantry and artillery whose arc of fire was approximately the far side of th ebridge. 

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I believe if you wait too long the CSA gets a brigade or 2 as reinforcements in the first phase.  My strategy is to focus fire on the left most bridge with everything as the enemy cannon by the right bridge is too far away to do much damage as compared with attacking the southern bridge.  Also use Zook to charge across the bridge first and have him soak up the fire.  Once you make it into the town and at least 1 enemy brigade is routed (and the enemy skirmishers neutralized by your cav or they retreating too far) you will have an easy time capturing the place.  Most early fortifications are utterly useless (at least in their damage output) and provide little cover so close range cannon combined with fire from everything will make the brigade rout in short order.

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13 hours ago, Andre Bolkonsky said:

Phillipi has always, always been difficult. 

It is much easier to pull beyond the river, break the Rebels when they try to cross the bridges, then re-take the town and begin reducing the train. 

It's really not bad so long as you realize the fortifications are traps and the town cover is incredibly good. Then just play skirmisher games and run your reinforcements up and it's fine. The train can't really do anything to you if you're sitting in 100% building cover.

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5 hours ago, Hitorishizuka said:

It's really not bad so long as you realize the fortifications are traps and the town cover is incredibly good. Then just play skirmisher games and run your reinforcements up and it's fine. The train can't really do anything to you if you're sitting in 100% building cover.

I do everytying I can to maintain and keep my two core infantry and two core artillery at close to full health. When I get to camp, every man of those units has an intrinsic value when I break them up and rebuild my army. 

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That would be Distress Call.

I let the Rebs have the Northern Supply Depot and then camped in the woods to the West of the Southern Supply Depot. My reinforcements brought in 2 batteries of artillery and I made sure that I kept control of the Southern Depot so that I could prolong the battle to the bitter end. The AI was pretty aggressive but I had no problem luring them into canister range. After I had put a hurt on all the Reb brigades I advanced to the middle of the field to face the Confederates who were now solidly on defense of the Northern Supply Depot. Flanked them from the West as they had defending batteries to the East. Neutralizing those batteries was a bit dicey but between my cavalry and some skirmishers they fell back as well. Fought the battle until the entire Rebel army was destroyed. This is one of the few battles in which I deliberately merged 2 brigades... the 2 smallish brigades you get who are garrisoning the supply depots.

On BG level I was able to hold off their reinforcements at the bridge (which prevents the artillery from entering the field) and setup in the center of the battlefield and fought a similar battle of attrition. The difference is that on MG the Confederates are higher in quality and have more troops per brigade. The AI is also more aggressive and will push through any attempt to stop them from crossing. Learned that from playing on Legendary so didn't even try it.

Have to say that things are going a lot better for me on MG than on Legendary. I've learned a lot about the mechanics, the way the AI reacts after the last patch (which is significant) and at least so far (I just finished Shiloh) I typically use up all my reputation points to get my hands on the best weapons available.

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Interesting strategy - I might try that in the future.

 

On both BG and MG (though the latter was significantly more difficult) I used my brigades to basically hold up the northern attack by putting my men in the woods while the confederates were in open ground. To the east, I used the skirmisher regiment to stack up that attack - I think I managed to disable one or two artillery batteries and keep one brigade there which traded fire from the open against the skirmishers in the woods. I don't recall how I handled the depots themselves, but I think I held the southern the entire time but might have lost and retaken the northern.

 

In my MG campaign the only other battle that really gave me trouble was South Mountain, which was partly my own fault for not micro-ing my flank attack properly, and while on BG I successfully flanked from the north, I found MG worked better with a flank attack from the south.

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  • 3 months later...

I just tried this and at around 1:30, 3 new brigades came flying into town.  so whichever bridge i tried to take, they always had a new brigade to replace any that i routed at the bridge.  if i crossed the river b4 they got there, then i'd get swarmed by all 6 brigades plus a couple of skirmishers and their artillery.

 

this is my 1st attempt at MG, and I've already noticed that its harder to capture units.  on BG, i'd capture at least 1 skrinisher and the west side brigade.  but they are retreating way too quickly for me to capture, and if they dont retreat, then they simply disintegrate.

Edited by nicewolf64
typo
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I just started my first run on MG, and how I did this in the first attempt is as follows: one skirmishers and a detached skirmishers go up the hill to fight the two enemy skirmisher units on the cliffs, while the brigade and the other skirmishers go for the third CSA skirmisher unit in the forest in the east. Go in slowly, you want your reinformencts to arrive. When they do, let the cav circle around the hill and cut off the skirmishers on their retreat. I was able to destroy one skirmisher unit this way. In the meantime all your infantry brigades, artillery and the skirmishers should head for the northern bridge. Move in the skirmishers first, take cover in the small forest area right next to the bridge and start blazing away at the enemy in the forifications. Move up the cannons for canister shot, and the infantry too, just stay closer with the skirmishers so they get fired upon. As soon as the enemy brigade routes, charge across the river with all the infantry brigades, followed by the skirmishers and go straight for the victory point. Move up the cannons for support. Now sit down on the point, two brigades facing south, one east, the skirmishers flanking any enemy unit trying to push you and your artillery pummeling the enemy with cannisters. Worked for me.

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it's easier to kill (and slim chance to capture) the skirmishers in the woods by using your general as bait to draw them south of your units.  but you cant jump on them too quickly (skirmishers retreat north instead of east), or send the general too far north (dies).  the 2 hilltop skirmishers totally disappear by the time i get my cav to the hilltop lookout point.  i suffered almost no loses this way (less than 20 total).  thanks to the comments here, i now see how much easier and less deadly an attack on the north bridge is.  put the cannons along the river out of rifle range and just rout them over and over.  but you have to watch for the west side brigade.  if they retreat to the south bridge, they'll come back at some point.  of course if the retreat across the north bridge, that's 2 brigades that you have to wear down.  you need to be across and secure the town before the 3 new brigades come at 1:30, otherwise you are greatly outnumbered and they put a whooping on your ass.

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yeah at the train station it is smarter to advance with caution, i took the left bridge (their right flank) and captured the town. I left skirmishers to defend the right bride.

Holding the town is the hard part, i retreated back over the bridges and formed my brigades and combined some when the reinforcements arrived. After you take up good positions, just wait for the them to come and you can massacre them. Once again after i routed them i take the left bridge (their right flank) and take the town.

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