Confederate Legendary Campaign

[LAVA]

At Rio Hill I spare with Yankee Cavalry and well equipped skirmishers. I lose 4,354 men and 1 gun to their 5,990 men and 31 guns. Not the greatest win, but I'll take it.

At Chancellorsville I win on day 2, inflicting loses of 28,682 men and 136 guns on the Blue Bellies to my 15,572 men and 14 guns. My army of 47,000 was outnumbered by the Yankees who brought 100,000 men to the battle.

 

 

[LAVA]

I slaughter the Yankees attacking me at Salem Church. Playing the game at double normal time, I inflict 12,328 casualties on the Union forces will my men only lose 2,080 casualties.

The campaign now moves into 1863.

[Mukremin]

46 minutes ago, LAVA said:

At Rio Hill I spare with Yankee Cavalry and well equipped skirmishers. I lose 4,354 men and 1 gun to their 5,990 men and 31 guns. Not the greatest win, but I'll take it.

At Chancellorsville I win on day 2, inflicting loses of 28,682 men and 136 guns on the Blue Bellies to my 15,572 men and 14 guns. My army of 47,000 was outnumbered by the Yankees who brought 100,000 men to the battle.

 

 

That is a well executed tactic at Rio Hill, it stretched the Union lines and made them vulnerable. Good win despite the high losses.

As for Chancellorsville, in pre Rio i heard you mention a possible day 1 push. But a second day victory is as good, you even get the chance to kill more Union troops.
Nice snagging of supplies there on day 1 The Union was pretty aggressive on day 2 i see, they pushed hard all along the line.

Did you keep the southern part of your army weaker so you could attack in full force from the north-west? The Union army had 100.000 in your battle, Union army i faced was around 85.000. I wonder how we will go from this point on? If we can make pas Chickamauga with our army intact we should be fine. What do you think? I watched the History Guy YouTube video's and at one point he cancelled his campaign and started over. In his first campaign the intelligence indicator said he faced 200K :S:S almost double what we have.

[Mukremin]

56 minutes ago, LAVA said:

I slaughter the Yankees attacking me at Salem Church. Playing the game at double normal time, I inflict 12,328 casualties on the Union forces will my men only lose 2,080 casualties.

The campaign now moves into 1863.

see you brought 2 artillery units to the battle, that was a good choice. I had too many brigades, two of them which i did not even use. Wish you had pulled back those flanking brigades, one unit got routed. Your losses would be even below 1500 which would be a record for Salem Church i think.

Good think Brandy Station is a battle which we don't use our own troops, so you should be around 50.000 at Gettysburg.

Have you noticed? We all have politics at 10, but History Guy gets more reward for some of his battles. What would be the cause of the difference?

[LAVA]

Yep, the 2nd Corps was weaker at Chancellorsville for 2 reasons. The first was because I knew that I had to clear the open ground and especially the right flank to enable me to march up and take the farm. So it was not only the assault force, but a flanking force as well. You see in the assault that I first move against the Yanks confronting my 2nd Corps in defense and after I have destroyed that force, I then shift everything left and attack the objective. The second was to be sure I had a strong force going into Salem Church.

My Intelligence Service says I am facing 67K Union forces for the Gettysburg campaign, but as can be seen, with all the really Great Battles of the war, the Union always has much more men then the expected. I think this is programmed into the game. The really important part about the Intelligence Service is not really the amount of men (unless it starts going North of 80,000), it is the training and armory levels of your opponent. What most folks don't appreciate is that if you can keep his training in the low 50's, you are going to face a lot less 3 star regiments in battle. You do this by wiping out his army at every chance. So while army wipe outs will keep his army at a lower level you are still going to see large armies for important battles, but their quality will be lower and thus easier to win.

As for the History Guy getting more rewards... dunno, they should be the same. I once started a "legendary" campaign and after a few battles thought it was too easy and forgot to click the "legendary" box at the start screen.

[Mukremin]

9 minutes ago, LAVA said:

Yep, the 2nd Corps was weaker at Chancellorsville for 2 reasons. The first was because I knew that I had to clear the open ground and especially the right flank to enable me to march up and take the farm. So it was not only the assault force, but a flanking force as well. You see in the assault that I first move against the Yanks confronting my 2nd Corps in defense and after I have destroyed that force, I then shift everything left and attack the objective. The second was to be sure I had a strong force going into Salem Church.

My Intelligence Service says I am facing 67K Union forces for the Gettysburg campaign, but as can be seen, with all the really Great Battles of the war, the Union always has much more men then the expected. I think this is programmed into the game. The really important part about the Intelligence Service is not really the amount of men (unless it starts going North of 80,000), it is the training and armory levels of your opponent. What most folks don't appreciate is that if you can keep his training in the low 50's, you are going to face a lot less 3 star regiments in battle. You do this by wiping out his army at every chance. So while army wipe outs will keep his army at a lower level you are still going to see large armies for important battles, but their quality will be lower and thus easier to win.

As for the History Guy getting more rewards... dunno, they should be the same. I once started a "legendary" campaign and after a few battles thought it was too easy and forgot to click the "legendary" box at the start screen.

it shows 94K and both training and weapons 54%-59% at Chickamauga. He had around 200K and training/weapons at almost 80%. So it was wise for him to restart the campaign, would be near impossible to win Washington.

Have you thought about Gettysburg strategy? I must say i am impressed with the way History Guy and i went, it is far the best way to go. Just be sure to surround the Unions at day one, because storming cemetery hill won't let you kill that many Yankees.

[Mukremin]

Oh and maybe you are right, i just watched pre Chickamauga and he has a bit more rewards. Perhaps he forgot to tick Legend mode on

[LAVA]

From most of the videos I have seen of Gettysburg, your strategy of surrounding the Union forces on Day 1 is probably the best I have ever seen. You get a lot of unit wipe outs there and that is very important in keeping his training levels low. Not sure what I will do at Gettysburg, but your battle was very well executed.

[LAVA]

Since I am now on the march to Gettysburg thought I would post a short video by the American Battlefield Trust on the Gettysburg Cyclorama. I have seen it in person on a visit to Gettysburg and it is truly wonderful. I didn't do much of a tour of the battlefield as I consider these places to be and in fact are cemeteries.

 

[LAVA]

I have given up on this campaign. It was a shot in the dark anyway in how I wanted to use my strategic assets.

I have started another Legendary campaign and we'll see how that one goes. If it seems to be panning out, I will begin posting the videos... but on another thread.

Right now I am at 1st Winchester and moving quickly through the scenarios.

[Mukremin]

3 minutes ago, LAVA said:

I have given up on this campaign. It was a shot in the dark anyway in how I wanted to use my strategic assets.

I have started another Legendary campaign and we'll see how that one goes. If it seems to be panning out, I will begin posting the videos... but on another thread.

Right now I am at 1st Winchester and moving quickly through the scenarios.

why man you should have continued... if you give up i have to give up too since our campaigns are not that much different.

[LAVA]

The best I could do at Gettysburg was to win with 14,000 casualties and my army just couldn't handle that.

I believe I committed various fundamental mistakes during the campaign, which I am attempting to remedy in a new go.

@Mukremin You should continue. I would like to see someone complete the Confederate Campaign on Legendary.

[Grimthaur]

Im sure you will do even better in your next try!

14k casualties at Getty is not that bad, especially with your limited manpool at Gettysburg. Imho the problem in your playthrough is that you suffered heavy casualties in a few earlier major battles.I think you did very well in the first battles up to gaines mill. But then the casualties add up. If you are not against replaying a battle several times i think you should be aiming to minimize casualties, expecially at Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Stones River and Chancellorsville. You should imho have at least 80k men (deployable + pool) right before Gettysburg (i had 110k without buying manpower). For getting there i would rather watch col. kelly and adapt his strategy to your playstyle and unitcomposition then follow history guys lead, i like his vids and his background information but he just suffers way to many casualties.

Imho it is better to inflict slightly less casualties in some battles and perserve your own army then to inflict max casualties since scaling will erase your advantage anyways. For example: you won Antietam with 19,8 vs 62 while i only inflicted 52,2k but lost 8,6k (11,2k more men for future battles). I tried different approaches for several major battles. At Antietam in my first try i also managed to kill 85k union troops while suffering 21k casualties. KDA 4:1 but just way to many casualties.

Some Questions:

• How did you spend your reputation points? I used evrything on rifles, especially on Enfields once they became available through points. Also 20 pdr guns since they are so rare and sharpshooting rifles.
• You have rather large brigades (2150 at Stones River), did you try to use 1800er brigades? From my experience they are easier to manouver and sometimes a 2nd brigade fits into a covered defensive position were 2 2k+ brigades wouldnt fit. Also 1800er brigades are more effective.
• You seem to rate 10pdr parrots highly, having 3 or 4 ***batteries. Is this moneycap-related? I would only use 10pdr parrots if i have to and otherwise upgrade to 24pdr or 20pdr.
• You seem to value cav (3-4 brigades), imho it is very expensive and - compared to 600-ranged skirmishers underperforming. What is your cavs killratio?
• You dont use dedicated or detached skirmishers to the same extend i do. Is that because you dont want to pause the game? I saw some very nice opportunities to flank with skirmishers in some of your vids.

 

 

[LAVA]

I made some fundamental mistakes in my first campaign (as I did with my first Union Legendary campaign). I have backtracked to just after 2nd Bull Run. I have corrected course in a couple directions and have seen some very good results. When I have gotten back to Gettysburg and given that things are going better, I will then start re-posting videos. It should be a little while, however, as it is August... summer... and all that. 

[LAVA]

In this video I bring my first Legendary Confederate Campaign to a close. I discuss why it failed and where I made some very fundamental mistakes. I also explain why it is important to "kill" and hopefully soon will be posting videos of my 2nd try at this campaign commencing after the battle of 2nd Bull Run.

 

[Percon]

On 6/27/2018 at 12:44 PM, LAVA said:

At Shiloh, I pierce the Union Center, take Pittsburgh Landing and crush the Yankee right flank. The Blue Bellies suffer 28,449 casualties and lose 62 guns to my 9,471 losses and 5 guns. Try as hard as I might, none of the Yankees surrender... but I deliver a heavy blow nonetheless.

Siloh is the first challenge, doable, but as for me, the very first time when higher difficulty is noticeable. 2k against 2.9k, 9 hundrets makes a difference. I thought weather I should do it on 1.5k units, but it's the highest time to finaly increase infantry in size up to 2k [I guess]. 

15 units this time. [INF] 4 x Springfield M1842, [INF] 2 x Rebored Farmer, [INF] 5 x Farmer, 2 x [ART] 8 6PDR, [CAV] 2 x Palmetto M1842. No fancy equipment, no high ranked leaders, I like to keep it real, even though the outcome of the battles never is...

It does bother me, when it comes to casulties, and it's even worse knowing, that CSA is in a huge disadvantage here. I feel attached to my soldiers. Your army almost shrinked in half. I might spent a lot of time here, but I'm quite certain, it's not a place for miracles, even Hari Pota won't help. Later it will only get worse.   

Edited August 22, 2018 by Percon

[LAVA]

During my Shiloh game, most of the casualties were to my AI buddies. My army went in with 18,545 inf and 24 guns. After the battle I had 15,491 inf and 24 guns for a loss of 3,104 men. The key to preserving your army at Shiloh, just like at 1st Bull Run, is letting you AI troops carry the battle.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

Yupp, expend your AI allies to the max in the early battles, not only does that mean less losses for your forces, it also means more weapons for you to salvage after the batte.

[LAVA]

So I have initiated a number of reforms for my second campaign and at the moment I have reached Malvern Hill. Some of the reforms include using the XP perk for the Corps Commanders; pushing hard on both army organization and politics; starting brigades with large numbers of poor weapons and then when they get their 2nd star, maintaining them with good to very good weapons but at lower levels (15-1700 men), buying the Tredegar artillery piece and using snipers. As I approach Malvern Hill I will begin creating a small group of melee specific brigades. I have 18,000 recruits ATM and highly doubt I will be using them all for the upcoming battle. But what I will bring is at least 30 brigades to the battle where in my first campaign I had 24. We'll see how things go.