ORIGINAL: Arminius
Hi, after playing the game for some rounds (May 62) I decided to quit to start again with more knowledge. I want to start again with better planing. So right now I want to build 88 Brigades of any kind. 17 more Divisions and 12 Corps. Then I will see how I go on.
Sure, make sure you're on 1.9.4 and try either Coming Fury or Southern Steel for the scenario.
Army of the Potomac
Army of Kentucky
Army of Illinois
Army of Cumberland (where was it`s area of operations?)
Army of the Tennessee
Any more? Is this 4th Army in the game a historic one? Don`t think so.
Hm, Army of the Ohio is another, I think there was also an Army of the West, there were some that were the same army but went through several name changes. I think that 4th Army name is probably a scenario issue. Which one is that in?
Detailed battle: Can´t find it in the manual. What does that white blinking star beside a brigade really mean?
Loss of morale?
I know it's in the manual somewhere - it means the brigade is Out of Command. You can restore it by clicking on the button to get it back into command, then clicking on the brigade you want to restore. I suggest restoring brigades that are not yet "pinned in combat" before those that are.
What does that golden, big, shiny star mean? Must be something good.
If you are describing what I think, it means that a general has just rallied that unit.
How many fleets do I need for a complete blockade of the CSA? I know there have to be 3 ships (x 10) inside a fleet. Is it important to build extra fleets to hunt down blockade runners? Is it important to build frigades?
Is it important to build ironglads?
You need 30 "ships" in a fleet, but ships can be Ships, Frigates or Ironclads. Each unit has 10, so three units per fleet will do it. There are, IIRC 8 or 9 major CSA ports to blockade. I recommend building fleets and frigates in Boston, Philadeplhia and Brooklyn until you have the blockade in place as cheaply as possible, then a few more fleets to hunt blockade runners. Ironclads are more important if the CSA starts building a fleet or if you want to bombart a port.
Another question that I have to explain. In early 62 the AoP is laying siege on the Forts of the Fredericksburg province. After destroying two of them, Zollicofer is moving into the province to seek battle.
To my surprise I`m the attacker, even so the CSA enters the province.
Whoever controls the province is the "defender", so until you take those forts and take the province they have the advantage in any fight in that province.
Well, careful in a good order I move my divisions and after my right wing has contact with Rebel Cavalary I start to bring the whole Army in Line Formation. More and more CSA troops arrive in the area and because they all appear at my right wing, I move my center and the left wing from heading south with new direction west. Therefore I change most formations back to column. But I do not order forced march, to keep them fresh. After a while, the frontline is heading north to south. I have about 145k troops, the CSA about 95k. My troops can hold the line and inflict at least as many damage to the CSA, as they take. Because the battle started after 5 pm it is going on into the nighttime. Even so nothing dramatic happend to my troops, suddenly at about 4 am, my troops start to leave their positions and route. I have no idea what`s the reason. Maybe the overall morale was down to zero. Can someone tell what is the reason for this. The battle report told me, that I inflicted 15k casualities to CSA and took 12k. Later I saw a very long list of brigades surrenderd to the CSA. Frustrating.
My first guess is that the CSA succeeded in outflanking you, which can generate yellow and red morale reduction zones that affect your army's morale. This won't normally rout good troops, but if your troops were of low quality and/or low disposition, they would be fragile and could rout in that instance. Did you notice any of your movement areas turning red or yellow when you had a brigade selected? How was your Will to Fight doing? It gets reduced by 2 each day, did it reach 0 before your army started to rout? How was your Supply and Disposition in your army going into the battle?
Definitely keep a close eye on Will to Fight and brigade morale (you can use TAB to check this visually) each turn.
The AI loves to outflank - less so in the next version where we mixed things up a bit, but in 1.9.4 it LOVES to outflank. You have to make sure to keep your army from being outflanked or the penalties can be fairly severe.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
- Erik
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