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Confederate Legendary Campaign - Take 2


LAVA

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I'm back to try to take Washington as the Confederates on the Legendary difficulty setting. I'm armed with a new headset so you can expect vastly improved audio this time around.

Wish me luck!

NOTE: This post has been edited. To see the videos of my game continue to scroll down.

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Was interesting to hear your praise for the Tredegar. Stat wise it should be excellent though with a high damage variance. In terms of actual performance both @The Soldier and I just haven't seen the results at long range, though it definitely performs well overall. Not like you have a lot of choice as the CSA either way though, take any cannon you can get.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

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In the campaign I was playing just prior to this, I was running two brigades of 2 star Tredegars. Statistically, of course, there are better weapons. For example, if I could have had 20pdr Parrots... well there is no contest. But if you can find a really good spot to park your Tredegars and just let them fire the entire battle without moving, they rack up an enormous amount of kills though I know you can say that just about any cannon really. I view it kinda like a poor man's 20pdr Parrot even though it only has 1700 meters in range. I was impressed enough to see how having a gun like this (in lieu of 20pdr Parrots) for the later battles could come in really handy. We'll see how they do and I'll be sure to check their progress in my future battles once I have them up to a decent proficiency level.

I believe I am shooting for 7 artillery brigades for each of 1st and Second Corps. ATM, I have 13 and my inventory contains just about every gun there is. At Fredericksburg I put 8 brigades of artillery in 1st Corps and they really did some damage. Of all my artillery brigades there, the battery with the most kills was an 8 gun 1 star (40% efficiency) 14pdr James brigade with 1771 kills.  Those 8 brigades of artillery did so much damage that when the battle moved from the heights to the center and right flank (where I had 4 other artillery brigades plus 2 I moved from my left), the Yankees attacks were feeble and few. Quite a change from what I was accustomed to. Getting AO to 9 made a huge difference...

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The 14pdr james really is a great gun. Range is just a bit short once you get enough 20pdrs. If only you could get more of them than the 8 you can buy through rep as the CSA. 

Looking forward to seeing what you did at Fredericksburg. I held the far right flank with a rookie corps once just to see if it would work. Casualties were pretty high but it  went ok. Most other campaigns I've seen have always just abandoned it for Telegraph Road so will be interesting to see a different approach.

Edited by pandakraut
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The Union doesn't start with 3 star units. But they get that way rapidly if you don't kill enough of them. I think the first time you will see a 3 star Yankee infantry brigade in Col Kelly's Legendary Campaign is somewhere around Mulvern Hill. My campaign is a lot more aggressive and I don't see a 3 star Union Brigade until Antietam.

Check out Col Kelly's Legendary Campaign here: 

 

When playing the Union on Legendary the first time I saw 3 star Confederate brigades was at 1st Bull Run.

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I've sometimes seen 1 union 3* at Shiloh but otherwise they are pretty rare until Malvern Hill or Antietam. For the CSA I've seen 3* units at distress call before. Overall, 3* units are much more common for the CSA than the Union, but there is also variance between campaigns depending on which reinforcement types the AI gets. If you get Veterans and transfer or training every time you'll face significantly more earlier than if you get rookies and weapons. Kill rates will influence this as well.

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Well... I decided to be absolutely sure that I was on the Legendary setting and as it turns out RKY is correct. The reason isn't because of the units which show up, it is because you can check the rewards you get for the battles. In my other campaigns after Potomac Fort I had 3 Politics and the rewards for Newport News were $51,100 and 3,600 men. When I check this latest campaign, with 3 Politics my reward for Newport News was $55,600 and 3,900 men. So it appears that I was actually on Major General. 

Good Spot, RKY! 

And thanks because continuing this campaign would have been a waste of not only my time, but everyone else's as well.

Damn... Oh well... :(

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That is unfortunate. At least you can try and fix whatever you didn't like about that attempt? But you have to play through the starting mission again. I do not envy you that.

Should add fixing that tooltip into my UI mod as well. Won't have to second guess if my save files are named correctly anymore.

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Well damn, there is both a good and bad. The good is that the stuff that I started doing about 6 or 7 battles into the campaign, like you say, I can now start right from the start.

The bad is the battle of Potomac Fort, but I won that on the second attempt (though by the skin of my teeth). 

The first battles go rather quickly, so I have already finished Ambush Convoy and headed for Shiloh.

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So... off we go again to guarantee I'm playing on Legendary:

Potomac Fort:

Newport News:

1st Bull Run:

Ambush Convoy:

Stay Alert:

Was all rather rushed actually (5 games in one night)... but I'm fairly happy with the results although some of the battles were a bit more chaotic than I normally fight them.

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The sound is totally messed up. Turn off the sound... sorry!

What a shame... it was a really nice game with me staying at distance and using my rifles to just thump the Blue Bellies. :(

I take the city with the loss of 2,025 men. The Yanks lose 10,681 men and 26 guns as their army is wiped out. Unfortunately, I was only able to take 154 prisoners as this scenario normally is an easy one to capture a couple brigades. On the bright side, 4 of my infantry brigades receive their second star.

1st Winchester:

 

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I dedicate this battle to Pandakraut for all his advice. Thank you, mate!

Gaines Mill:

Starting to get the knack of using Skirmish units and have also began to use a bit of charge cavalry as well.

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So... I figured I get some statistics up to this point.

The Union have lost a total of 127,121 Infantrymen; 10,297 artillerymen; 6,727 cavalrymen; 7,045 missing and 410 guns.  Total losses including missing is 151,190 men.

I have lost a total of 48,352 men and 22 guns. This includes forces not in my army (somewhere around 10,000 men).

Including all losses I have a 3.26 K/D ratio. Take away the folks who weren't in my army and it is around 3.94. 

Got to do better...

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  • 3 weeks later...

So... I had some stuff come up and the campaign went on hold but I am back into the fight.

Chantilly:

Weapons Factory:

Antietam:

None are particularly great fights. Overall I am fairly happy with my army. My artillery now has 15 brigades including a 3 star 20 pdr Parrot brigade. I need to upgrade some guns and increase brigade size though. I have 12 20pdr Parrots, 12 24pdr Howitzers, 45 10pdr Ordnance, 33 10pdr Parrots, 10 10pdr Tredegars, 8 12pdr James, 12 6pdr Field and 6 12pdr Napoleons for a total of 134 guns. I have 4 Cavalry brigades, 2 skirmisher brigades (including one 2 star Withworth brigade) and 23 Infantry brigades. The emphasis will be on buying weapons for my infantry and getting them up to 28 infantry brigades. In total, with active service and recruits I have 57,000 men. 

Can't afford another battle like Antietam but at this point I think I still have a chance to win this campaign. We'll see.

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Campaign continues... Note the last 5 minutes of Fredericksburg is without sound... so no analysis of the result there.

Corinth:

Prairie Grove:

Fredericksburg:

So... it appears I was able to recoup my army from the bloody battle of Antietam from 40,000 men and 128 guns to 43,000 men and 140 guns at Fredericksburg. My artillery really shined there (especially my 3 star 20pdr Parrot which was whacking the Yank artillery good in counter-battery). With 48 brigades (27 infantry, 15 artillery, 4 cavalry and 2 skirmisher) I am happy where I stand with my artillery (though some brigades need reinforcement and better guns) and cavalry, however, I badly need to expand my infantry and possible add a couple skirmisher units as well. The first target is 50 brigades... and then I will be shooting for 60... if all goes well.

After Fredericksburg my Career Points stand at Politics 3, Economy 10, Medicine 10, Training 3, Army Organization 9, Logistics 2 and Reconnaissance 0. From here I will be driving Training to 10.

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Everettsville:

Stones River:

I am fighting my battles more methodically now. In the Union campaign it pays to play very aggressively, however, in the Confederate campaign I believe you must be more deliberate and seek advantageous situations which are in your favor.

Though at this point I don't need to, does anybody believe that at some point one should expend reputation points on men and not weapons? I have economy at 10 and training is almost at 10 as well. I am heading for Chancellorsville and I believe I will be able to equip my army without using the reputation points accumulated. So I am looking at a situation where I can either buy some very expensive rifles (CS Richmonds) or men. Any thoughts?

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21 minutes ago, LAVA said:

I am fighting my battles more methodically now. In the Union campaign it pays to play very aggressively, however, in the Confederate campaign I believe you must be more deliberate and seek advantageous situations which are in your favor.

Playing through the CSA campaign again has been a good reminder of how much stricter the battles are than the Union's. As the Union the majority of battles you are given at least semi favorable terrain and plenty of time to completely wipe out the enemy army. But as the CSA you frequently have to just go for the objective and getting as many kills as you can on the way. Arguably this means the CSA campaign is just better designed as it actually forces choices on you. Though it'd certainly be interesting to see some stats on which campaign the people complaining about the timers in the game primarily played.

35 minutes ago, LAVA said:

Though at this point I don't need to, does anybody believe that at some point one should expend reputation points on men and not weapons? I have economy at 10 and training is almost at 10 as well. I am heading for Chancellorsville and I believe I will be able to equip my army without using the reputation points accumulated. So I am looking at a situation where I can either buy some very expensive rifles (CS Richmonds) or men. Any thoughts?

Personally I like to buy rifles as long as they are available as that is the limiting factor for the size of my army. I don't recall exactly when but after a few more battles men and cash are the only rep buy options anyways. You have had a few battles with higher casualties, but it seems like you are still mostly limited by weapons not men. You may want to review your casualties in some of the battles coming up. If there are enough that you are worried about keeping casualties down and you think you have enough weapons then go for the men. 

The other upside of buying some of the later rifles is how much you can sell them for. Anytime you can pick up fayetvilles you can sell them off for more decent rifles if you need to.

 

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I am heading for Chancellorsville now and I will probably buy more weapons but I don't think I have to if I don't want. I don't expect my army to grow by much for that battle (I have 49 brigades of which I can only use 48). What concerns me is afterwards. I will have to expand my army and my reserve recruits are slowly being depleted. At Blackwater Heights I capture 4 3 star Yankee infantry brigades, but overall my capture rate has been underwhelming, thus leading to a slow but constant reduction in reserves. Yes, I have also had some pretty bloody battles as well and suffered more casualties than I should have. Between the two factors, I am now starting to be concerned about how many men I can get into battle. So perhaps this is a campaign where I can buy more men... dunno. Your point concerning the lack of weapon buys as the campaign goes ahead is a good one and possible worth continuing if nothing else then to have them for the future.

On the brighter side, the majority of my brigades are 2 star or better and though my artillery needs upgrading, none of my infantry brigades are using the stock Springfield. So I guess what I am saying is that I am starting to think that I will not have enough men when the battles start getting larger and more intense and will probably need to increase my infantry strength by at least 8 brigades.

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