mod J & P Rebalance Mod by JonnyH13 and Pandakraut 05/06/2023 1.28.4

[pandakraut]

5 hours ago, dixiePig said:

So - even tho previous versions of the mod allowed 6 Brigades per Division when you got to some level of AO, 6-Brigade Divisions are no longer permitted in the game?

Correct. We reduced the maximum amount of brigades per corp back down to 25 from 30. The extra slots were originally added to allow an extra dedicated skirmisher per division during the time when detached skirmishers were disabled. Now that detached skirmishers are enabled again these extra brigades are no longer necessary. 

This had the additional benefit of improving performance by reducing the total number of units on the field and increasing the challenge of a variety of battles where the extra units made things easier than intended. This was particularly the case in later major battles.

We experimenting with alternate setups that retained the 6 brigades per division but it didn't end up aligning with the deploy numbers we were trying to hit in the opening 10 battles or so.

5 hours ago, dixiePig said:

Which means that 2nd Bull Run (which demands 25 CSA Brigades in one Corps) requires that I be at AO Level 9 (in order to allow 5 Div / 5 Bde)?  Which means that I must invest ALL of my CAREER points after Malvern in AO.  The scale is already tipped towards an AO-heavy career path.  This makes it even worse.

It can be done with only 20, though it's certainly more difficult. But yes, if you want the 25 brigades you need to find somewhere to spare the points.

Alternately, If you're up for a little hex editing it's relatively easy to change the brigade/div amounts per AO point. I have a basic guide of where to find those values here: 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iwdcgr8zhk948fk/AACMBXSkErW06fGAymlENXILa?dl=0 

Additional details on hex editing for the game can be found here: 

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/26225-weapon-and-perk-modding-guide/

So for example, you could change the orange box hex value to 02 00 00 00 and that would start your divisions off with 5 brigades per division. This would result in maxing out at 5 divisions of 6 brigades. The hex offset in the screenshot won't match up with the current version of the mods file, but you should be able to find what you are looking for at offset 0222A7A0 in the current version.

If you also want to boost the deploy slots back up to a max of 30, then in the configFile you'd want to change deploySizeMultiplier to 1.1. There will be battles that have hardcoded deploy slots, so this won't always work entirely as desired but it should get you most of the way there.

[dixiePig]

Thanks for the detailed response.  We'll just have to 'agree to disagree' about unit structure, but I understand the limitations & constraints. (Suggest putting explanatory disclaimer into the UI for your alterations to established structure).

I'll probably take a pass on hex editing - maybe noodle with configFiles ...

Further observation on Army Organization:

"When the war began, neither side knew exactly which army structure would be most effective.  Additionally, neither side thought the war would last very long, so there was a certain amount of lee-way granted to those who recruited units, however they were organized, and brought them to the front.  Both sides explored a variety of structures throughout the war.

One of the most significant themes in the evolution of Civil War armies was the gradual division of the three branches.  At the outset of hostilities, it was not uncommon to see a brigade that consisted of infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, and artillery batteries... These were often called Legions.

Over time, leaders on both sides realized that this jumble of responsibilities led to issues on the battlefield.  The effectiveness of artillery, it was determined, could be expanded by organizing them into larger and more independent units.  Thus, by 1863, we begin to see unified artillery brigades in place of individual batteries attached to infantry units.  No longer diluted by haphazard deployment across the battlefield according to the needs of low-level commanders, artillery could be centrally directed to maximize its firepower at key points on the line.  The 150-gun bombardment that preceded Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg in 1863 would not have been organizationally possible a year before.

Similarly, cavalry began the war attached to brigades or divisions.  Usually equipped with weapons of shorter range and lighter caliber than foot soldiers, cavalry could not be expected to go toe-to-toe with infantry.  They still retained a huge mobility advantage, but this was rarely exploited by the commanders in charge, who did not have formal education in cavalry tactics and instead made more frequent use of horsemen as couriers or scouts.  Sparked by the innovations of cavalrymen such as J.E.B. Stuart and Alfred Pleasonton, an organizational shift towards a unified cavalry force offered the potential for more damaging raids, more effective intelligence-gathering, and, later in the war, huge formations of horsemen equipped with brand-new rapid-firing weaponry that had no equal in the world at the time. "

from American Battlefield Trust https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-army-organization

• Historical records show that independent ARTY and CAV units didn't really appear until later in the war (several sources cite "1863")

Since I'm kinda relentless about this, I'm gonna suggest that this might be a new and useful path for ARMY ORG and CAREER (for example, just spitballin'):

• You can't build dedicated ARTY Brigades until you reach AO #4
• You can't build dedicated CAV Brigades until you reach AO #5
• You might receive a dedicated ARTY Brigade as a CAREER perk when you reach AO #3
• You might receive a dedicated CAV Brigade as a CAREER perk when you reach AO #4

These game dynamics are not inconsistent with the current flow and shouldn't 'break the game'.  But they reflect historical reality & limitations.  And they add a much-needed dimension to the gameplay:  the evolution of 3 distinct 'arms' (INF, ARTY, CAV).

It means that the first several battles - including Bull Run and possibly Shiloh - will be fought overwhelmingly with infantry. The exception is the involvement of Stuart's cavalry at Bull Run and the role of Confederate cavalry at Shiloh.  It is reasonable that the CSA has a slight advantage in mobility during the early stages of the war.  Allowing the CSA to have larger, stronger cavalry units in the field earlier in the game could be interesting.

Shiloh is the battle where 'massed' artillery first appears on both sides. By the major battles of Antietam and 2nd Bull Run, we see both armies using massed artillery and large units of cavalry as combat units - but not really before then.

• Delaying the ability to build large, independent units of ARTY and CAV until you've built up some AO is not unreasonable.

I don't know what effect these 'historical' changes might have on gameplay, but feel that they would add variety and challenge to the flow.

Edited January 28, 2023 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[dixiePig]

Helpful Nitpicking from theYouEyeGuy:

"Display Summary of major changes and tips of the mod?" popup

• Indicate size (i.e. the number of 'pages') up front 
• Indicate where you are (i.e. "Page 1 of 4")
• Replace [ OK ] button with  [ Next ] - and finally [ Close ]

Basic Usability:  Show how big it is, where you are, and be clear about what you can do.

• Might be tough to implement, but allow the list of changes & tips to be invoked from anywhere in the game

This will come in handy when you do the next Mod Update & Guide

Edited January 27, 2023 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[Rubinfan]

Had previous experience with the mod, beating both campaigns on Legendary. Decided to try the new version and started a new Confederate campaign on Legendary. 

I managed to reach the 2nd Bull Run winning all battles one way or another. But ran into an obstacle that my forces don't seem to level up at all and none of my brigades were close enough to 2 stars. Having such brigades is crucial for holding the line at Bull Run and later - Antietam, at least from my previous experience. 

I could field around 35k in 1-star units and around 20k - as freshly formed 0-stars and perhaps even more if willing to spend some on obsolete smoothbore weapons. Now, I could jump over the 2nd Bull Run, accepting a loss with like 4 reputation remaining, only to be obliterated at Antietam by 170k+ of enemy against my 45k, number of enemies further increasing if I tried to increase my own army. 

There are some nice new things that I appreciate a lot, like:

1.Random enemy spawns/reinforcement routes

2.Increased government rewards based on Politics stat

3.Increased weapon recovery (does it apply to the captured weapons as well, including guns from prisoners or only to your own weapons recovered after battle?) depending on Recon

4.Enemy detachable skirmishers - because if the player can use a certain game mechanic, the AI should have an opportunity to do this as well. Any chances to teach the enemy skirmish cavalry to mount-dismount? 

5.Limited veteran pool and it's stats depending on your own unit skill. 

 

There are things I can adapt to and live with like:

1.Nerfed artillery - because the enemy's guns got nerfed too, allowing more freedom of movement on the battlefield. And increased government rewards allow getting more decent weapons for a more infantry and cavalry-focused game.

However, rifled artillery seems useless now - during one of my attempts to win at Cedar Mountain, Cabell's battery (the one from the Potomac Fort with a Horse artillery perk, Ordnance guns and still one star fired at the enemy cannons, inflicting 1 casualty per shot (that's for 100$ from my general's salary). I can't obtain any better cannons until the 2nd Bull Run (with 10 in Politics you can get 12 Blakelys for reputation) and there isn't much incentive to field this battery during previous battles.  Low-skilled smoothbore guns still have some use at canister range. 

2.Limited timers - at least I don't have to wage battles with the manual open on an adjacent screen to know how much time remains. 

3.All of my men turning into lazy bums being constantly tired and running away in panic for like 3-4 minutes, further reducing condition to exhausted (no, I don't have 30 minutes to let you to recover because of the aforementioned reduced timers). 

But since my forces almost don't level-up and the enemy constantly gets 2 and 3-star brigades for free sacrificing, overcoming such difficulties is beyond me. 

So I have a question if there is a way to adjust the config file modifiers to return the old experience level-up speed multipliers so my forces would level up like in the previous version? 

 

And another broader question to everyone familiar with the mod - is there any use in investing in low-tier rifles (that would be the Re-Bored Musket, Springfield M1855, Mississippi M1841 and MJ&G)? I can't get to use them to achieve profitable volley trade-offs with the enemy. My Mississippi-equipped units may enjoy some limited success until after Shiloh, but as soon as the enemy switches to Springfield M1861 they just can't kill enough and when I pass these rifles to rookies, they perform even worse. But even my rookie performance jumps up drastically when equipped with Springfield M1861 (the closest upgrade from the Union's shop) or Harpers Ferry M1855 (same from the Confederate shop). I'm interesting to know this because with low economy stat it is better to invest only in stuff you can successfully use later on. So if these rifles have no future use, better to buy the least amount possible and save money. On Economy 1 Mississippi M1841 costs 33$, on Economy 9 you can buy an Enfield 1853 for the same price. 

[pandakraut]

On 1/26/2023 at 11:56 AM, dixiePig said:

Since I'm kinda relentless about this, I'm gonna suggest that this might be a new and useful path for ARMY ORG and CAREER (for example, just spitballin'):

• You can't build dedicated ARTY Brigades until you reach AO #4
• You can't build dedicated CAV Brigades until you reach AO #5
• You might receive a dedicated ARTY Brigade as a CAREER perk when you reach AO #3
• You might receive a dedicated CAV Brigade as a CAREER perk when you reach AO #4

We can't provide extra brigades based on career point allocation unfortunately.

These kind of army composition restrictions is the kind of thing where we recommend self imposed restrictions for a campaign. Where possible we try to allow the player the freedom to play historically or not as they prefer. The amount of units per AO point is unfortunately something that needs to be changed through the hex code and has a lot of carry over effects in terms of making sure all units deploy in battles, so that is one of the areas that remains fairly locked down.

On 1/27/2023 at 1:00 PM, dixiePig said:

"Display Summary of major changes and tips of the mod?" popup

• Indicate size (i.e. the number of 'pages') up front 
• Indicate where you are (i.e. "Page 1 of 4")
• Replace [ OK ] button with  [ Next ] - and finally [ Close ]

Will see if I can fit in a header and change the button names.

[pandakraut]

20 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

I could field around 35k in 1-star units and around 20k - as freshly formed 0-stars and perhaps even more if willing to spend some on obsolete smoothbore weapons. Now, I could jump over the 2nd Bull Run, accepting a loss with like 4 reputation remaining, only to be obliterated at Antietam by 170k+ of enemy against my 45k, number of enemies further increasing if I tried to increase my own army. 

What is your average infantry unit size? What is your largest infantry unit? What is the intelligence server army size in the top right of the campaign map? 170k sounds very high for Antietam with only 45k total men unless you are using 3k+ sized infantry. In my legendary campaign for example I'm only facing 110k with 65k in one save.

20 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

3.Increased weapon recovery (does it apply to the captured weapons as well, including guns from prisoners or only to your own weapons recovered after battle?) depending on Recon

Yes, this applies to any form of weapon recovery. Captures, kills, your own men lost, etc

20 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

4.Enemy detachable skirmishers - because if the player can use a certain game mechanic, the AI should have an opportunity to do this as well. Any chances to teach the enemy skirmish cavalry to mount-dismount? 

Seeing if I can get the AI to dismount is on my list to try, though even if I can I am unsure I can come up with any kind of reliable logic to tell them when to do so. Even as a player its very hard to choose good times to dismount since it's so much more useful to retain the higher mobility. The AI is pretty braindead with its cavalry usage though, so maybe even some poor logic might end up being an improvement.

20 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

However, rifled artillery seems useless now - during one of my attempts to win at Cedar Mountain, Cabell's battery (the one from the Potomac Fort with a Horse artillery perk, Ordnance guns and still one star fired at the enemy cannons, inflicting 1 casualty per shot (that's for 100$ from my general's salary). I can't obtain any better cannons until the 2nd Bull Run (with 10 in Politics you can get 12 Blakelys for reputation) and there isn't much incentive to field this battery during previous battles.  Low-skilled smoothbore guns still have some use at canister range. 

Are you buying up the small amounts of better cannon in the early battles? By Cedar Mountain Cabell was not quite a 3* and I was able to switch him over to blakely's after Malvern Hill. By this battle I had 19 blakelys, 13 james, and 4 20pdrs with 3 points in logistiscs(don't recall exactly when I bumped up to 3.)

I would definitely recommend switching the starting perk to shot/shell for Cabell unless you are planning to switch him to smoothbores. Rifled guns really need multiple damage perks before they get going. I make a point of training up several units in earlier battles since they are so useful to have at Gaines and Malvern Hill. For some defensive battles 24pdrs can also work pretty well with rifled perks since you won't move much and they do decent canister damage as is, so you can swap weapons around to level up faster. Usage of veterans can also get these units off to a faster start.

21 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

3.All of my men turning into lazy bums being constantly tired and running away in panic for like 3-4 minutes, further reducing condition to exhausted (no, I don't have 30 minutes to let you to recover because of the aforementioned reduced timers). 

Depends on the battle how much time is available to recover, but you definitely want to try and preserve your condition as much as possible. Good positioning, limiting charge/melee time, and setting up favorable shooting conditions so you don't get stuck in drawn out fights all help.

21 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

But since my forces almost don't level-up and the enemy constantly gets 2 and 3-star brigades for free sacrificing, overcoming such difficulties is beyond me. 

Investment in training can help a lot here. Improving your recruits reduces the stat loss when refilling units, and post Shiloh you can get some free training on units that don't deploy into battles. Another thing that helps a lot is keeping the AI focused on newer units while your more experienced units hit the flanks. I generally find that I can keep my stats gradually moving upwards on most units even after bringing them back up to strength. Sometimes if a good unit gets worn down too much I'll merge it with another unit instead and just create a new recruit unit to take up the free slot.

Investment in good officers also helps a lot here. I will always buy out all the BGs and high level colonels when I can to help boost a unit to that next star faster.

21 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

So I have a question if there is a way to adjust the config file modifiers to return the old experience level-up speed multipliers so my forces would level up like in the previous version? 

Towards the bottom of the unitModifiers file you can find the following. These values are unchanged from 1.27.4.3, it's more that the shorter timers, harder battles, and change to how veterans work have slowed down unit stat progression. You may want to consider lowering enemy size and xp a bit instead, or give MG a try instead of Legendary to see if that fits what you are looking for a bit better. Timers can also be extended, but that is a little finicky as there can be odd problems if the end of day time and the timers don't end up lining up correctly.

killsPerEffectivity,225
killsPerMelee,75
movePerStamina,1300
shootPerFirearms,7
timePerMorale,2900

For comparison here are the values used in the vanilla game. We made experience slower to gain across the board, so you can use values closer to the vanilla values if you want it to be faster.

killsPerEffectivity, 150
killsPerMelee, 25 
movePerStamina, 1000 
shootPerFirearms, 5 
timePerMorale, 1800

21 hours ago, Rubinfan said:

And another broader question to everyone familiar with the mod - is there any use in investing in low-tier rifles (that would be the Re-Bored Musket, Springfield M1855, Mississippi M1841 and MJ&G)? I can't get to use them to achieve profitable volley trade-offs with the enemy. My Mississippi-equipped units may enjoy some limited success until after Shiloh, but as soon as the enemy switches to Springfield M1861 they just can't kill enough and when I pass these rifles to rookies, they perform even worse. But even my rookie performance jumps up drastically when equipped with Springfield M1861 (the closest upgrade from the Union's shop) or Harpers Ferry M1855 (same from the Confederate shop). I'm interesting to know this because with low economy stat it is better to invest only in stuff you can successfully use later on. So if these rifles have no future use, better to buy the least amount possible and save money. On Economy 1 Mississippi M1841 costs 33$, on Economy 9 you can buy an Enfield 1853 for the same price. 

I'll keep using all of those weapons as long as I have sufficient quantities available. I don't tend to buy all that many, but that's true of basically every infantry weapon if I can avoid it. The older weapons just get cycled down into my newer units that I try to have absorb most of the casualties when possible. I find range combat to mostly be about positioning and focus fire. Optimally any given enemy unit will walk into an arc and be hit by 4-6 of my own and be forced to fall back fairly quickly. Definitely harder to pull off depending on the battle and situation, but making sure the unit being fired at has good cover, getting the enemy out of cover(initial positioning, falling back then moving back into good cover, etc), and making sure to be hitting flanks whenever possible all can improve your how efficiently you are trading casualties even with bad weapons.

Even muskets can be quite effective at shooting if you can get them under half range. I also will use them on slightly larger melee brigades that I'll use for counter charging. They can also step in on the firing line decently if a unit needs a break or routs and a charger has stopped inside 400 range. Eventually I'll try to get my better melee units 400 range weapons with high melee stats so they can fire more effectively while waiting for the right moment to charge. They'll never be as good at it as a dedicated range unit, but everything helps and the more you can boost your firearms stat the faster you'll hit that next star for the huge boost in damage that charge perks provide.

Generally for infantry weapons I'll buy a few here and there to fill out unit sizes as needed. Sometimes I'll buy a full units worth if I need another unit on the field, but I really try to avoid this as it's quite expensive. Better to buy 500 expensive enfields than 2000 springfield 55s(or whatever the math says is actually cheaper.) But I also don't stress about upgrading my infantry unit weapons either, the AI will drop better stuff soon enough. That may work less well on difficulties other than legendary due to how AI weapon progression is slower there.

Hope some of this helps. If you have more questions please ask

[dixiePig]

4 hours ago, pandakraut said:

We can't provide extra brigades based on career point allocation unfortunately.

These kind of army composition restrictions is the kind of thing where we recommend self imposed restrictions for a campaign. Where possible we try to allow the player the freedom to play historically or not as they prefer. The amount of units per AO point is unfortunately something that needs to be changed through the hex code and has a lot of carry over effects in terms of making sure all units deploy in battles, so that is one of the areas that remains fairly locked down.

I hear you and am not surprised.  Thanks for taking the time to answer, PK. 

Would still like to see some controls on when it is possible to build independent CAV and ARTY units, which would also be a step towards 'historical mode'.  I've already observed that there weren't really any independent CAV and ARTY units until well into 1862 or really 1863.  Is there any way to gracefully prevent player and AI from building anything other than INF units until either

• reaching an AO level of 3 or 4 or
• a  specific calendar date or Major Battle (Shiloh at the earliest)

Historical evidence is pretty clear that - with the possible exception of Stuart's Cavalry - there were no real independent CAV and ARTY units in either army until then.

I've scanned the respective Orders of Battle (Wikipedia) for major battles up to Antietam. As noted before, in the early days of the war artillery was very small, very weak (2-4 guns), with mixed cannons assigned to INF brigades.  Large and independent ARTY units (central 'Reserve' in the USA, 'Right Wing' and 'Left Wing' in CSA) don't really appear until the 7 Days Battles (Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill). 

• Significantly, well-deployed massed Union batteries at Malvern Hill were considered to be significant factors in the Union tactical victory there. 

The centralized ARTY formations disappear in 2nd Bull Run, and don't become a regular factor again until Antietam.

• At Fredericksburg, the CSA had effectively centralized strong, centralized artillery, which devastated the Union attacks, despite being of inferior quality.

I doubt it, but is there any way for me to mirror these historical conditions by noodling the configFiles?  And have the AI conform to them, as well?

If not - then would it be of interest (I know it's a bunch of work) - to create more 'historically resonant' version of the mod? I remember that Adishee had a version a while back, tho it was still early days.  Is that a possibility?

UGCW seems to be a bit artificially ARTY-heavy.  Historically, Cannons were few and far between until well into 1862; usually a maximum of only 4-6 cannons per Division. Yet UGCW gives you a fair number of cannons and allows you to build sizable ARTY units long before they ever actually appeared on Civil War battlefields. 

• Is it possible to turn off the building of ARTY units for a period of time - or restricting the size of those units - without breaking the game?

 

[pandakraut]

35 minutes ago, dixiePig said:

Is it possible to turn off the building of ARTY units for a period of time - or restricting the size of those units - without breaking the game?

Turn off is hard for the AI and any allied units. At one point I figured out how to change one unit type to another but I forgot how to do it and have tried multiple times to recreate what I did without success. I could stop them from spawning entirely but there is no support for that in the configs currently.

Max size for the AI can mostly be controlled in the config files. The aiConfigFile has an artilleryMaxSize(or something close to that) which could be changed as you progress through the campaign. One thing that may be an issue is if the min sizes are smaller than the minimum size used when units split, that could override the config value. Setting them to zero should work I think. The unit will still spawn but anything that looks at it will kill it. Probably safer to set it to 1 instead though.

Allied units is harder. I think you can use the historicalSizeMultiplierNorth(or respective player side) to affect those, but that would also hit other unit types.

There are playerMaxSize values in the config file, but those only limit the sliders in camp. Probably easier to just disband your starting unit and rebuild to whatever limited size you prefer though.

[dixiePig]

Thanks for spending so much time on this with me, PK.  Much appreciated.

SCOPE
I want to have the game reflect historical realities, which include weak/nonexistant ARTY until about Shiloh, nonexistant CAV for USA / weak CAV for CSA until Gaines MIll.  ARTY and CAV appearing through allied armies or AI should reflect the weakened properties - both in number and also XP.  Current AO progression in CAREER is vastly overpowered and irrelevant (i.e. you can't even use 2 Corps in battle until Gaines Mill). Altho CAV appears in Battle#1 for CSA, CAV doesn't really appear for USA until later. INF, CAV, and ARTY unit sizes are set unrealistically high in AO progression.I wish to set limits on both unit size and when CAV and ARTY units can be built.

Here's my wishlist.  

1. Do not allow building of CAV or ARTY units at AO:1
2. set max size of ARTY units in AO:1 to 4 guns (about 100 men) 
3. allow building of ARTY units at AO:2
4. increase size or ARTY units to 6 at AO:3 (about 150 men)
5. increase size of ARTY units at each succeeding AO level, by about +50 per change
6. set max size of CAV units in AO:2 to about 100 men 
7. allow building of CAV units at AO:2 only for CSA
8. increase size of CAV units at each succeeding AO level, by about +50 per change
9. allow building of CAV units at AO:4 for USA
10. Allow 6 Brigades per Division at AO:2

These changes focus primarily around AO, the size of units, and the ability to make CAV and ARTY a significant part of your Army.

It's obvious that some of what I want just can't be done on the current platform, although some can be accomplished thru either configFiles or hex editing. Would appreciate if you could respond to each numbered point with 'configFile', 'hex edit', or "np" (not possible). 

NOTE:  I can appreciate that it is difficult - and not really desirable - to prevent AI and allied units from introducing CAV and ARTY before the player can build these units themselves. Introducing these units is okay, esp. if it is possible to reduce their numbers and XP 

[Rubinfan]

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What is your average infantry unit size? What is your largest infantry unit? What is the intelligence server army size in the top right of the campaign map? 170k sounds very high for Antietam with only 45k total men unless you are using 3k+ sized infantry. In my legendary campaign for example I'm only facing 110k with 65k in one save.

I ended up with my infantry being between 2 and 3k depending on funds and weapon availability. I have 3 units of 3000 men that are the largest. Tried to load again and tried clicking in and out of the battle map. 170k was probably a one-time extreme, but mostly I get an enemy size of 161-164k for my 44,5k. Tried to disband my army and form 850-men brigades, then I get 130k+ vs the same 40k+. 

I admit that my brigade swelling went out of hand, because there were battles where I managed to win strictly because some of my brigades were large. It makes the the AI less charge-happy and even if it charges - they don't fold as quickly as standard 1500-men brigades. Also there were battles like Cross Keys where I was outnumbered on the intelligence screen but managed to field a comparable force via adding men to my 1500-men brigades and forming some 850 men dummy units in the second Corps. Still took me 10+ restarts to win. 

Quote

Seeing if I can get the AI to dismount is on my list to try, though even if I can I am unsure I can come up with any kind of reliable logic to tell them when to do so. Even as a player its very hard to choose good times to dismount since it's so much more useful to retain the higher mobility. The AI is pretty braindead with its cavalry usage though, so maybe even some poor logic might end up being an improvement.

Well, foot skirmishers seem more annoying to me than skirmish cavalry on horseback. Horses usually hide in the rear or stand foolishly in the front line and take severe losses from volleys since they don't have that foot skirmisher resistance. 

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Are you buying up the small amounts of better cannon in the early battles? By Cedar Mountain Cabell was not quite a 3* and I was able to switch him over to blakely's after Malvern Hill. By this battle I had 19 blakelys, 13 james, and 4 20pdrs with 3 points in logistiscs(don't recall exactly when I bumped up to 3.)

I would definitely recommend switching the starting perk to shot/shell for Cabell unless you are planning to switch him to smoothbores. Rifled guns really need multiple damage perks before they get going. I make a point of training up several units in earlier battles since they are so useful to have at Gaines and Malvern Hill. For some defensive battles 24pdrs can also work pretty well with rifled perks since you won't move much and they do decent canister damage as is, so you can swap weapons around to level up faster. Usage of veterans can also get these units off to a faster start.

I do, although I probably missed this once due to lack of funds. I also had only one point in Logistics and also buffed up Cabell to 15 guns fairly early while he was still relatively inexperienced. Switching perks seems like a reasonable advice, as well as reserving some veterans for cannons (they don't require many) thank you. In this version of the mod canons move faster without the horse artillery perk than in the previous version. Or it just seems so? 

Quote

Depends on the battle how much time is available to recover, but you definitely want to try and preserve your condition as much as possible. Good positioning, limiting charge/melee time, and setting up favorable shooting conditions so you don't get stuck in drawn out fights all help.

I usually try to preserve condition but random moments still happen. 

Quote

Investment in training can help a lot here. Improving your recruits reduces the stat loss when refilling units, and post Shiloh you can get some free training on units that don't deploy into battles. Another thing that helps a lot is keeping the AI focused on newer units while your more experienced units hit the flanks. I generally find that I can keep my stats gradually moving upwards on most units even after bringing them back up to strength. Sometimes if a good unit gets worn down too much I'll merge it with another unit instead and just create a new recruit unit to take up the free slot.

Investment in good officers also helps a lot here. I will always buy out all the BGs and high level colonels when I can to help boost a unit to that next star faster.

I tried the "7 in training" build, replaying the Potomac Fort when I got into problems at Newport News. But unlike the previous version of the mod, where I successfully used it as the Union, I got no improvement in the default recruit stats. Hiring a limited number of veterans with 20-30 stats didn't seem very expensive so I chose not to play down this path and stayed with 3 in Politics, 1 in Economy, 4 in Recon and something build. Didn't touch training after this. From the description I understood that it can increase stats of units that don't take part in battles, but couldn't understand how noticeable this buff would be. 

As for the officers, I did and do move the existing high-ranked officers to those units that are close to geting a perk. But I didn't buy any high-ranked ones during the last run since 20k for a brigadier general is way to expensive and the colonels offered weren't much better than those promoted from my captains. I also got free general Ruggles from Shiloh as well as Albert Johnston and two Tomas Jacksons. I'll probably need more officers should I wish to field more smaller units during the next run. 

Quote

Towards the bottom of the unitModifiers file you can find the following. These values are unchanged from 1.27.4.3, it's more that the shorter timers, harder battles, and change to how veterans work have slowed down unit stat progression. You may want to consider lowering enemy size and xp a bit instead, or give MG a try instead of Legendary to see if that fits what you are looking for a bit better. Timers can also be extended, but that is a little finicky as there can be odd problems if the end of day time and the timers don't end up lining up correctly.

killsPerEffectivity,225
killsPerMelee,75
movePerStamina,1300
shootPerFirearms,7
timePerMorale,2900

For comparison here are the values used in the vanilla game. We made experience slower to gain across the board, so you can use values closer to the vanilla values if you want it to be faster.

killsPerEffectivity, 150
killsPerMelee, 25 
movePerStamina, 1000 
shootPerFirearms, 5 
timePerMorale, 1800

Thank you. I'll probably try the Vanilla values and see if this improves the gameplay for me. As for the lowering the enemy numbers or XP, it's just more fun for me to fight against larger and more experienced armies, just need my army to be up to the challenge. 

Quote

I'll keep using all of those weapons as long as I have sufficient quantities available. I don't tend to buy all that many, but that's true of basically every infantry weapon if I can avoid it.

I see. So probably no reason to buy them more than enough to field the initial few brigades. 

Quote

Hope some of this helps. If you have more questions please ask

It certainly does, thanks a lot!

As for the questions, I got a few new ones:

1.If the corps commander "dies" in battle and disappears from the field, will the units of the corps lose the buffs given by the first two commander's perks (they definitely lost the third in the previous version of the mod since it was command aura-based)?

2.Do the first two corps commander's perks (the third one used to work this way in the previous version of the mod) apply only to the units within the commander's aura radius? Asking because someone from outside of this forum mentioned this. 

[dixiePig]

A Workable Kluge for customizing unit parameters
It involves a  little overhead between battles, but is fairly easy:

1. Edit the ConfigFile.txt and the AIconfigFile.txt
2. Set the artilleryMaxSize to 100 (this allows only 4 cannons per ARTY unit, standard in the early days of the war)
3. Save the files as ConfigFile1.txt and the AIconfigFile1.txt

Repeat the copyAs and parameter setting, customizing the unit levels as needed ... (a maxSize of 150 allows 6 cannons per ARTY unit, a maxSize of 200 allows 8 cannons per ARTY unit, etc) and create several 'levels' of configFiles.

Then, when I increase the AO in the game, I go to the Rebalance folder and 

• Copy ConfigFile1.txt As ConfigFile.txt
• Copy AIConfigFile1.txt As AIConfigFile.txt

The unit sizes are now set at my desired levels for both my troops and for enemy AI troops (game symmetry).  i.e. Both armies are limited to small 4-gun batteries. I can do this both for ARTY and for CAV for both armies.  The levels approximately reflect historical progression.

In this way, I can finetune adjust unit levels along with a change in in AO, and also keep them symmetrical. Once created the 'custom' config files are relatively easy to manage.

The overhead is that I must exit the game in order to update the config files to new levels; UGCW does not recognize the new configFile unit limits without a re-start. But, that's no biggie.  This process allows me to set the ARTY and CAV to somewhat historical levels, without too much extra work. And, it's easily customizable.

Have only played this technique for one campaign so far -  just finished Shiloh as CSA. The game dynamics are decent.  A little slower & less wacky, more 'linear' (as battles were in that time), and still very fun imo.  I can probably readjust some other configFile values back to default levels. We'll see how it works out.

PK:  That takes care of most of my wishList.  Any other kluges that might allow me to invoke 6-unit Divisions again would still be appreciated.  Thanks again.

Edited February 2, 2023 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[pandakraut]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

I ended up with my infantry being between 2 and 3k depending on funds and weapon availability. I have 3 units of 3000 men that are the largest. Tried to load again and tried clicking in and out of the battle map. 170k was probably a one-time extreme, but mostly I get an enemy size of 161-164k for my 44,5k. Tried to disband my army and form 850-men brigades, then I get 130k+ vs the same 40k+. 

I admit that my brigade swelling went out of hand, because there were battles where I managed to win strictly because some of my brigades were large. It makes the the AI less charge-happy and even if it charges - they don't fold as quickly as standard 1500-men brigades. Also there were battles like Cross Keys where I was outnumbered on the intelligence screen but managed to field a comparable force via adding men to my 1500-men brigades and forming some 850 men dummy units in the second Corps. Still took me 10+ restarts to win.

Antietam is one of those battles where the AI usually has lots of small brigades. This is the kind of battle where the average size scaling can really hurt as it will have more impact than battles where the AI normally has fewer larger units. It's good to hear that in some battles your approach is working well though, trade offs for different army setups is usually a good thing even if there are still spikes that need to get smoothed out.

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

In this version of the mod canons move faster without the horse artillery perk than in the previous version. Or it just seems so? 

I don't think I changed anything so might just be perception?

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

I usually try to preserve condition but random moments still happen. 

Definitely still a problem at times. I've definitely lost my share of battles or taken dramatically higher losses when I mess this up.

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

tried the "7 in training" build, replaying the Potomac Fort when I got into problems at Newport News. But unlike the previous version of the mod, where I successfully used it as the Union, I got no improvement in the default recruit stats. Hiring a limited number of veterans with 20-30 stats didn't seem very expensive so I chose not to play down this path and stayed with 3 in Politics, 1 in Economy, 4 in Recon and something build. Didn't touch training after this. From the description I understood that it can increase stats of units that don't take part in battles, but couldn't understand how noticeable this buff would be. 

I don't recommend the max training start anymore. Just too many trade offs elsewhere. But ~4 starting points or boosting up to 4-6 after Shiloh can workout decently. The recruit stats take time to increase, so after the first battle you won't see any changes to your recruit stats. Then after the next side battle you'll start to see the stats increase.

The training for out of battle units works basically the same way. If a unit not in a battle has a stat less than a specific amount(increases based on total points and current campaign date) then that stat will get increased by the specified amount. Usually doesn't do a whole lot, but it's useful to boost my melee stat for my early units that started with very low stats and haven't been in melee. This was mostly added so that people didn't feel the need to disband their non-participating units to try to get the training benefits.

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

As for the officers, I did and do move the existing high-ranked officers to those units that are close to geting a perk. But I didn't buy any high-ranked ones during the last run since 20k for a brigadier general is way to expensive

In my opinion that 20k is almost always worth it because of how strong getting access to perks sooner is. I know that some other players are successful going with cheap officers though.

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

1.If the corps commander "dies" in battle and disappears from the field, will the units of the corps lose the buffs given by the first two commander's perks (they definitely lost the third in the previous version of the mod since it was command aura-based)?

I'm trying to remember if this gets recalculated when the officer dies. I think it does and the bonuses are lost? It's been a long time since I looked into it, so I may not be remembering correctly though. Easiest to test with would be the speed perk.

On 2/1/2023 at 10:04 AM, Rubinfan said:

2.Do the first two corps commander's perks (the third one used to work this way in the previous version of the mod) apply only to the units within the commander's aura radius? Asking because someone from outside of this forum mentioned this. 

Tier 1 and Tier 2 are global for units in the corps. Tier 3 is for anyone in the aura. The tier 3 perk description has an aura tag.

[pandakraut]

23 hours ago, dixiePig said:

The overhead is that I must exit the game in order to update the config files to new levels; UGCW does not recognize the new configFile unit limits without a re-start. But, that's no biggie.  This process allows me to set the ARTY and CAV to somewhat historical levels, without too much extra work. And, it's easily customizable.

I don't do this with all values, but some get read from the files when you move from the campaign map to the corps deploy screen. Give that a try and then go back into camp and see if it works without restarting the game.

23 hours ago, dixiePig said:

PK:  That takes care of most of my wishList.  Any other kluges that might allow me to invoke 6-unit Divisions again would still be appreciated.  Thanks again.

Disabling building certain unit types by AO would require a code change in the dll. Could also just set the max size to 0 I guess, not sure if you'd run into bugs with that though.

6-unit divisions requires hex editing, see my post a few days ago for details.

[pandakraut]

duplicate, apparently we can't delete posts anymore

Edited February 5, 2023 by pandakraut

[pandakraut]

@Rubinfan Watched some of your latest stream. Interesting setup with the 2 cav and immediate retreat at 1st bull run. That has the downside of delaying Jackson. If you hold the stone bridge VP for most of the phase Jackson will arrive almost immediately in the 2nd phase. I usually hold the bridge until the last 15-30 minutes and start pulling back across the river at that point.

Edit: after watching more you came to the same conclusion

Edited February 5, 2023 by pandakraut

[Rubinfan]

12 hours ago, pandakraut said:

@Rubinfan Watched some of your latest stream. Interesting setup with the 2 cav and immediate retreat at 1st bull run. That has the downside of delaying Jackson. If you hold the stone bridge VP for most of the phase Jackson will arrive almost immediately in the 2nd phase. I usually hold the bridge until the last 15-30 minutes and start pulling back across the river at that point.

Edit: after watching more you came to the same conclusion

Ah, great to hear. I decided to make a new Legendary run, keeping the default mod values unchanged and adjusting the initial career point distribution and heeding some of your other advice. 

I ended up beating the 1st Bull Run with no cavalry at all eventually. There were multiple problems that forced me to decide this way:

1.Only one cavalry unit was up to the desired strength of 600 men. The other had 282, as far as I remember - all due to lack of Palmettos in the shop. So this unit was more like a liability - not enough numbers to melee anything more than cannons, single-shot pistols, even one infantry volley taken meant drastically reduced combat worthiness. 

2.The cannons were positioned in a way to incur volleys from close range from the enemy infantry nearby, should I choose to yolo-charge them. So had to make use of the pistols while shielding myself with the cannons from the enemy. This didn't always work and sometimes the enemy could shoot me through the cannons. Also took some losses from the cannons while running back and forth and eating some canister due to bad timing. 

3.Couldn't find any more meaningful ways to influence the battle after the cannons were done for. It was possible to kill the artillery supporting Sherman's and Keyes's brigades, should they take the route to attack Henry Hill from the rear, but not much more due to decreasing condition and enemy size.

4.The enemy spawned an insane amount of cavalry, totaling around 2500-3000 men. I couldn't risk bringing my cavalry closer and see it getting killed and also my infantry already had its hands full with dealing with superior enemy infantry. The last thing I needed were packs of enemy horses wrecking my lines. 

So I chose to disband my horses and add 2 more 1000-men infantry brigades. This helped me to get through. 

As for holding then retreating - I found it problematic to pick the right moment and retreat behind the river. All this extra walking makes my lazy bums tired and prone to rear flanking fire in the water. So chose to take my positions in peace at the beginning. 

Quote

I don't think I changed anything so might just be perception?

Could be. But at CSA Shiloh you get a ton of loaned no-perk artillery. In my previous playthroughs I remember it getting hopelessly stuck in the woods, struggling vainly to reach the desired positions as these positions kept moving forward with the advancing army. But in my previous walkthrough they were able to keep up. Same with some of my own guns with other battles. 

Quote

Antietam is one of those battles where the AI usually has lots of small brigades. This is the kind of battle where the average size scaling can really hurt as it will have more impact than battles where the AI normally has fewer larger units. It's good to hear that in some battles your approach is working well though, trade offs for different army setups is usually a good thing even if there are still spikes that need to get smoothed out.

In my new campaign I decided to keep my units around 1000-1500 at the beginning like during my very first walkthrough and expand, maybe, after Antietam. Let's see how it goes with the newest version. 

Quote

I don't recommend the max training start anymore. Just too many trade offs elsewhere. But ~4 starting points or boosting up to 4-6 after Shiloh can workout decently. The recruit stats take time to increase, so after the first battle you won't see any changes to your recruit stats. Then after the next side battle you'll start to see the stats increase.

The training for out of battle units works basically the same way. If a unit not in a battle has a stat less than a specific amount(increases based on total points and current campaign date) then that stat will get increased by the specified amount. Usually doesn't do a whole lot, but it's useful to boost my melee stat for my early units that started with very low stats and haven't been in melee. This was mostly added so that people didn't feel the need to disband their non-participating units to try to get the training benefits.

Great. Tried to start with 4 in training and the recruit pool stats are certainly going up. This also eliminated the problem present in the earlier versions - if you pump a lot into politics early, you'll get a ton of low-stat recruits and once you start investing into training and get decent recruits, the previous recruits will keep pushing the skill average down until the end of the game. 

Quote

In my opinion that 20k is almost always worth it because of how strong getting access to perks sooner is. I know that some other players are successful going with cheap officers though.

I usually go with the cheapest officers until pumping up Economy high enough - they level-up pretty fast on rookie units anyway. However, in the new run had to break the bank and hire some Colonels exactly for getting the first perk faster. All of my starting officers got wounded in the first battles and Kemper died (R.I.P). 

[dixiePig]

On 2/4/2023 at 12:07 AM, pandakraut said:

I don't do this with all values, but some get read from the files when you move from the campaign map to the corps deploy screen. Give that a try and then go back into camp and see if it works without restarting the game.

Nope.  Cold reboot of game is required to enable new configFile values.  No biggie, but there it is.

[dixiePig]

I am now noodling with my stronger-xp units to learn the dynamics of getting them from 1* to 2*.  As noted, you can upgrade units from 0* to 1* fairly easily by reinforcing them with Veterans, but that just doesn't work when you try to upgrade from 1* to 2*.

I am currently replacing losses in more experienced 1* units with Veterans (which keeps the xp level stable, but eats up my veteran replacements fairly quickly) - while keeping the same commanders for their higher levels of battle experience.  And then I send them back into battle, hoping that they will advance on xp without taking too many losses.

This is frustratingly slow and reeks of 'gaming the system'.  Apparently, XP advances only modestly through battle.  I have no 2* units by 2nd Bull Run, even tho several of my units have been very effective at killing the enemy. I am coming to the conclusion that an army of competent 1* units works just fine (and it does) - esp. since the AI remains fairly symmetrical.

• Does TRAINING have any impact on XP advancement?

imo, XP Advancement should be a function of battle experience, leadership, and success.  I really don't see that happening with my troops.  What am I missing?  note:  Just completed Stay Alert.  My more seasoned, stronger-xp units performed well : Their xp remained essentially the same. Attempting to advance them is apparently not worth the effort and overhead.

• Is there any way to affect xp development in the configFiles?

Edited February 6, 2023 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[pandakraut]

17 hours ago, dixiePig said:

Does TRAINING have any impact on XP advancement?

No, it does not increase the rate at which units gain stats which determines how much xp they gain. What it does is improve the stats of the recruits, non-deployed units, and veterans(if their stats are low enough and they are sitting in the pool between battles) after battles. This means that the units stats will drop less when you add recruits to it.

Medicine also becomes fairly important when trying to maintain 2 and 3 * units. It will both return more casualties to your units and increase the amount that recover into veterans. This tends to be something that gets invested into mid to late campaign as it's not as useful when most of your army has the stats of starting recruits and poor weapons.

17 hours ago, dixiePig said:

Is there any way to affect xp development in the configFiles?

Yes, in the unitModifiers file towards the bottom 

killsPerEffectivity,225
killsPerMelee,75
movePerStamina,1300
shootPerFirearms,7
timePerMorale,2900

For comparison the values used in the base game

killsPerEffectivity, 150
killsPerMelee, 25 
movePerStamina, 1000 
shootPerFirearms, 5 
timePerMorale, 1800

17 hours ago, dixiePig said:

This is frustratingly slow and reeks of 'gaming the system'.  Apparently, XP advances only modestly through battle.  I have no 2* units by 2nd Bull Run, even tho several of my units have been very effective at killing the enemy. I am coming to the conclusion that an army of competent 1* units works just fine (and it does) - esp. since the AI remains fairly symmetrical.

XP progression is intended to be slower. It was faster than we desired in the previous version between the amount of xp that could be farmed due to easy battles, long timers, instant affect of training on stats, and full conversion of recruits into veterans. The intention was that 1* units were around the same difficulty to acquire, but 2 and 3 * units would be harder to maintain and acquire.

Without seeing the steps its hard to say what, but it seems like either you've had terrible luck with officer deaths, something is being overlooked on the field or in camp, or you are building very broad if you have no 2* units by 2nd bull run. For comparison I had ten 2* units and one 3* by that point. Starting with 4 points in training and moving to 6 by that battle. This wasn't some super optimized campaign, just accepting decent results and progressing as fast as possible to be able to test more battles, but it was also played on early versions of 1.28 so some mechanics have changed since then as well.

my recruit stats are 20, 25, 25, 25 25
veteran stats are 30, 44, 50, 44, 31

17 hours ago, dixiePig said:

imo, XP Advancement should be a function of battle experience, leadership, and success.  I really don't see that happening with my troops.  What am I missing?  note:  Just completed Stay Alert.  My more seasoned, stronger-xp units performed well : Their xp remained essentially the same. Attempting to advance them is apparently not worth the effort and overhead.

Post Stay Alert into Shiloh isn't a great spot to compare xp because I'm shifting the majority of my officers around when expanding my army. That was largely my goal leading up to Shiloh, train up my units and officer corps enough so that my best officers could move on to new units to get them to 1* while their old units would be experienced enough to retain their star while under the command of a new officer. Could also easily just keep all those officers where they are and go in with more 0* units if preferred.

But here is what my xp progression looked like for each unit in my army from Ambush Convoy to Shiloh:

Pre-Ambush Convoy
68, 31, 54, 73 
4, 3, 33, 42
4, 1, 1, 1

Post Ambush Convoy
81, 48, 72, 85
19, 19, 46, 55
24, 22, 13, 12

Pre-Stay Alert
68, 28, 69, 85, 82
11, 12, 45, 55
24, 19, 13, 12

Post Stay Alert
86, 53, 82, 99, 95
31, 28, 59, 71
47, 36, 34, 25

Pre-Shiloh
75, 32, 41*, 99, 7*(displayed xp restarts at 0 when moving from just under 1* to just over)
6*, 1*, 27*, 9* *
1*, 1*, 1*, 1*

* indicates an officer was swapped out.

The two starting infantry units in the top left don't make much progress because I'm focused on adding veterans to other units under the goal of fielding all 1* units at Shiloh. In the battles leading up to Gaines Mill I would regret not focusing on them a little more at some point as it would have been very useful to get them to 2* sooner. They were still 2* by Gaines Mill. I fielded three infantry and 2 artillery that were 2* in that battle.

Merging units in camp can also be a useful tool for maintaining xp. It's not my first choice, but if two of my more experienced units get ground down it can be better to merge them instead of dumping a bunch of recruits into them to get them back up to full strength.

[dixiePig]

Thanks for the very detailed response to my comments re 'growing xp".

The unitModifiers in the configFile are a little esoteric, but I get the trend.

Slower xp growth is just part of the game now. Okay by me, as long as the ai remains somewhat symmetrical with my rate of growth.  Yes, I do tend to build my armies broadly and somewhat generically; my first INF perk is accuracy (because that's what they do), my first CAV perk is speed (because that's what they do), my first ARTY perk is horse-drawn (because speed & mobility fit with how I play).  I have little desire to micro-manage battles based on the specialized attributes of individual units. 

Speaking of which; the horseArtillery perk for ARTY is nice for my playstyle, - but a historical anomaly. Although horseArtillery (fully mounted) ARTY units were attached to larger CAV formations, they were not prevalent in 'the general population' - esp. during the early years of the war. The majority of ARTY units had enough horses to pull the weapons, but the crews were not mounted and - for the most part - the units moved no more quickly than INF units.

 

• Given the logistics of actually outfitting artillery units as 'horse artillery', there should probably be limits on the number of ARTY units you can turn into fully-mounted, fast-moving horseArtillery.

Cavalry

Cavalry actions affected the course of battle at Gettysburg and Chickamauga and the cavalry’s success in delaying the advance of Confederate infantry in the initial phase of each battle led to the acceptance by the Federal high command that cavalry could perform more than their traditional tasks.

To give credit where it is due, Jeb Stuart’s Confederate cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia utilized these tactics in the first years of the war before the Federals were well enough trained to do so. Like his Federal colleagues, he too was a West Point graduate and had gained practical experience in the American West. But he had the initial advantage of a culture where the cavalry came from the class of society where riding was natural and expected. However, the South was unable to provide the technological capability nor the continuous supplies of horses and men that the north could, and by mid-1863 the southern cavalry was in decline while the Federal was evolving to new heights.

 

Artillery

At the First Battle of Bull Run in late July 1861, the Union army fielded only 55 guns; the Confederate army fielded only 42. Immediately after that battle, both armies began to reorganize their forces to make them more effective in future combat situations... This brief description of the respective artillery arms’ organization for battle grossly over-simplifies an issue that remained problematic throughout the war; both armies reorganized their artillery forces many times in order to learn from mistakes and increase its effectiveness. Over time, both infantry and artillery commanders learned to appreciate the benefits of massing artillery, and concentrating its fire on one target at a time.

It is impossible to underestimate the importance of horses to the field artillery in the Civil War. Both armies had very specific requirements for these animals, and were willing to pay ranchers more for a good artillery horse than one to be used by a cavalryman. Estimates of the number of horses used during the four years of that conflict run upwards of 2 million; the cost of the shoes, feed, care, and equipping of those animals has not been adequately calculated. In the horse artillery units that accompanied the cavalry all the cannoneers were mounted; those units had approximately 150 men and 150 horses, including extra cannoneers and mounts. So called mounted artillery units had fewer men and horses; the cannoneers usually walked along beside their limbered pieces and sometimes rode or rode on the ammunition chests carried by the limber. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Horse_Artillery_Brigade

https://www.nps.gov/stri/cw-horses-and-mule.htm

https://www.historynet.com/americas-civil-war-horses-and-field-artillery/

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-civil-war-artillery

 

• I am now fairly successful in managing the size of my units and AI units over the course of the early campaigns.  It appears that my configFile editing does not affect the size of my allied units.  How can I downsize them?

[pandakraut]

3 hours ago, dixiePig said:

I am now fairly successful in managing the size of my units and AI units over the course of the early campaigns.  It appears that my configFile editing does not affect the size of my allied units.  How can I downsize them?

In the AIConfigFile you can use these fields

historicalNorthAddStat, 0
historicalSouthAddStat, 0
historicalNorthSizeMultiplier, 1
historicalSouthSizeMultiplier, 1
 

These were originally intended for use modifying the custom battles as the normal config options in the campaign only apply during scaling which doesn't happen for the custom battles. It turns out they worked in the campaign as well and I've never gotten around to locking them down.

If you're playing as the Union just set historicalNorthSizeMultiplier to something like .5 and all your allied units will be half their normal size. Existing minimum sizes for split units may override this.

4 hours ago, dixiePig said:

The unitModifiers in the configFile are a little esoteric, but I get the trend.

The unitModifiers file was an early move of a ton of unit properties into a text file so we could experiment with them easier. The majority of the values didn't end up changing. The AIConfigFile and configFile are where we've added new values that modify various behaviors.

[dixiePig]

Excellent. These 2 answers really address my needs.

I'd wondered about the possibiilites in the historicalMultiplier values, though  Config file guide.txt describes them as "testing value to increase or decrease size", so I doubted that they would still  work in the game.  Am pretty sure that they will meet my needs. Thanks!

[dixiePig]

As an aside: Selectively reorganizing the values in the config files would make them far more manageable for novice UGCW gamers like me to easily customize the profile of gameplay.

For example:  the attribute controls in the configFiles fall into 3 major categrories:

Unit Sizes & Strengths (Max & Min size, scaling, experience,  etc.)

Unit Performance (speed, range, spotting, charge, morale, damage, etc.)

Game Dynamics (gamespeed, rewards, perks, range display, etc.)

Re-organizing the configFiles into smaller, more focused text files, as you've already done with weapons (weaponDegradeType, WeaponNames, etc) will aid 'noodlers' in fine-tuning the UGCW experience.

Speaking from my own usage, I feel that game Dynamics are probably set once, unit Performance is fine-tuned to my preference rarely, and I spend much more time & effort trying to find the sweet spots (plural) for unit Size over the course of the game. BTW: The default troop level settings in Army Organization are irrelevant to my gameplay style and are also historically absurd.

A footnote on crafting the configFiles and their guide: 

• Most technical documentation is written from the developer perspective (i.e. "inisde/out"), whereas usage documentation is written from the gamer perspective (i.e. "outside/in"). 
• Some of the descriptions in Config file guide.txt are quite useful, but some merely describe how the attribute works internally, rather than what I (as a user) can do with it.
• For example: "lowMoraleMeleeDamageReductionHi" offers a lot of infodata, but it is not intrinsically understandable.  The existing  explanation "low point of melee morale damage resistance curve" offers little help.  An explanation like "a higher number makes it less likely that a unit will take casualties when suffering a melee attack" makes more sense to me - and heck - I don't even know if that's valid guidance, because of what I just said ...
• Net/net:  Don't try to explain how it works (unless I ask).  Just tell me how I can use it.
• Any player who's fiddling with configFiles really only wants to know, "What will happen when I put in a lower (or higher) number?"

 

As noted, I've come up with some (for me) usable, historically valid adjustments for unit development, organization, and tactics over the early course of the war ('61 & '62) :

• ARTY was not a unique factor in the earliest stages of the war through Shiloh (about 9 battles).
• The CSA has an advantage in CAV thru 2nd Bull Run (about the 1st 15 battles)
• Both armies struggle with developing  a successful ARTY strategy & organization thru Antietam or even Federicksburg (about the 1st 20 battles), though the North has increasingly superior quality & numbers
• CAV equity between North and South happens at Antietam 
• From Antietam onwards the North has a growing advantage in both CAV and ARTY

Up until about Antietam there are some really interesting dynamics as both armies struggled - historically - to evolve decent organization and tactics - in ARTY especially.

By fine-tuning ARTY & CAV in the configFiles it's possible to make these early battles even more interesting and challenging.

I will continue to finetune my configfiles in order to better reflect the early historical evolution of Civil War army organization & tactics.

Meanwhile: The the poor design of vanilla UGCW's built-in Army Organization path remains a problem - and obliges us to increase AO unnecessarily.  Here's hoping that it can be corrected.  The default for small arms recovery in Spoils of War is also too low; Here are some interesting numbers re 'rifle recovery': https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/almost-every-rifle-recovered-at-gettysburg-was-fully-loaded-and-no-one-knows-why/

By the same token, there's always waay too much ARTY recovered after a battle - esp for the early days of the war, when ARTY was at a premium. 

Thanks again for excellent work and clear answers

Edited February 9, 2023 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[Aericles1775]

Hi, newb here.

First off this mod is great and addressed everything i wish the og mod would've had. Like the game changer of numbering units (Total War is too deeply ingrained in my finger tips to not have numbered units.) and cannon ranges. I have a number questions about the Commander traits. I've searched through this JnP thread and I've tried to conduct tests on battle map editor with no firm conclusions. 

1. Are the first tier perks global? Strategy makes distinction between arty and inf. Tactics with a +25% charge implies Inf by the picture and following the tree down makes sense. Trainer with the 15% to speed does it apply to horse, or globally?

2. Are any of the 2nd tier perks arty/inf/cav specific as well?

3. 3rd tier - In vanilla the perk only applies to the area the commanders AO, is that the case with JnP mod as well?

[statesrights]

Hi Pandakraut - I am trying to install your UIAI customization mod 1.9 into to base game (GOG download).  I'm having real trouble.  When I unzip your file, it has a "managed folder" with the sharp file.  I replace that one.  Then the game fails to load -- it just holds up on the "Loading" screen.

What I'm I doing wrong?  Thanks

You can email me direct at kriswustrow@gmail.com