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Each CSC commands a number of brigades equal to his rank +1, where rank = 0 for Colonel, 1 for 1 Star General, etc. The CSC provides help committing those brigades and also provides them combat bonuses based on his specialty rating. CSCs can only command units that are the same type as the CSC (i.e. infantry CSC will only help infantry).

The manual goes into this, but here's an example.

Let's say you have Longstreet as a Corps Commander with 12 Command, which is filled up with 8 Infantry and 4 Artillery. If his CSCs were all 1 Star Generals, then he'd need 4 Infantry and 2 Artillery 1 Stars to command those forces, since each would command two. On the other hand, he could have two 2-Stars (who each command three units) and a 1 Star for his 8 infantry, etc. When you have a Corps with CSCs on, it will list in the Corps mouse-over info how many units in that Corps do not have a CSC helping them. So you'll see something like (-4) and as you add CSCs it will decrease until there are no uncommanded units.

I strongly advise folks to keep CSCs OFF until very comfortable with the CSC rules. If you turn them on without understanding them, you will shoot yourself in the foot.

Regards,

- Erik

Okay - that makes quite a bit of sense now (meaning the command points for CSC are useless).

Very, very cool. I will also say that I love the historical feel of the winter months/non-campaigning time. I need that time to reorganize my forces, bring in needed reinforcements, flesh out the command structures, etc.

After a few months of hard fighting, my troops are understrength, under-commanded, and certainly need the time to get back into shape for the next Spring.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Consider a historical assault by a disorganized CSA army on heavy fortifications defended by more Union soldiers than the CSA soldiers attacking them, with the full extent of the Union fortifications and reserves unknown to the CSA commander and the Union army being well organized and fully prepared. It would have been a slaughter and in the game it ended up that way as well.

This wouldn't be the Battle of Franklin, would it?

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
I strongly advise folks to keep CSCs OFF until very comfortable with the CSC rules. If you turn them on without understanding them, you will shoot yourself in the foot.

Here is a bit of advice for using CSCs.

Whenever you add or remove units from a corps, check your CSCs. CSCs get promoted, and corps take casualties. You want to move CSCs from corps where there are too many to corps where there are too few. I know that you can detach CSCs without hurting your movement, and I think you can attach them as well. Also, sometimes one of your CSCs will have been promoted to the point where they have the command rating to be a corps commander.

Erik, thank you,
 
I understand better now. About scouting - I always scouted with Stuart - I scout and then I assign Stuart to the battle ? This is a standard rule in the game I had guessed by now ?
 
A second ting - what are the moving bars in the combat resolution meaning ? All the colours move, numbers are changing - what does it mean ?

The more Blue - the Union is winning, the more Grey, the Confeds are winning.

ORIGINAL: paullus99

The more Blue - the Union is winning, the more Grey, the Confeds are winning.

Alright, that I had figured out - but the numbers are perhaps interesting to learn.

And what about the vertical colour bars - what do they mean ?

The vertical numbers and bars on the sides show the unadjusted combat value for each side, based on the units actually committed to the battle. This is essentially a raw total of each side's combat power. If there were no modifiers, generals, casualties, etc. then the side with the higher raw total would win every time. The adjusted number can diverge significantly from this based on the various modifiers though, but this gives you an idea of how much strength each side committed.

The combat and units sections in the manual explain how raw combat power is calculated and how it's adjusted to come up with a final value that determines victory and defeat.

The central bar is the "tug of war". This reflects the current victory calculation based on the current adjusted battlefield situation.

Regards,

- Erik

I strongly advise folks to keep CSCs OFF until very comfortable with the CSC rules. If you turn them on without understanding them, you will shoot yourself in the foot.

Erik hit the spot with that.
The CSC rule is one of the hardest to master and the one that gives the most unexpected results, mostly defeats, until totally in control. 

ORIGINAL: GShock

I strongly advise folks to keep CSCs OFF until very comfortable with the CSC rules. If you turn them on without understanding them, you will shoot yourself in the foot.

Erik hit the spot with that.
The CSC rule is one of the hardest to master and the one that gives the most unexpected results, mostly defeats, until totally in control. 

sorry, I don't want to twist your words - but are you saying that CSC rule is a malus for the human player when fighting the AI. For sure if the AI is the Union and the CSA can't permit any mistake.

The CSC rule is added complexity. It's a great rule, but if you turn it on you had better know how to use it and make full use of it, because the AI will. Turning on the CSC rule _requires_ that you understand it and focus on making use of it to get the best results. Keeping it off is much easier for learning the game, I think all advanced players will eventually want to turn it on.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

The CSC rule is added complexity. It's a great rule, but if you turn it on you had better know how to use it and make full use of it, because the AI will. Turning on the CSC rule _requires_ that you understand it and focus on making use of it to get the best results. Keeping it off is much easier for learning the game, I think all advanced players will eventually want to turn it on.

in theory, is it a bonus for the CSA - in other words - do they have better leaders at average ?

It's not a malus it's a must to know how to use if enabled. The AI knows how to use it, so if you can't use it, better turn it off or you'll play at disadvantage.
The same can be said if you play a human opponent, but at least, the human opponent suffers from psychological effects such as probe, fear, impatience...gamble...[;)]
It's more prone to make mistakes.

It's not so hard to learn it, and if you don't play hidden and randomized stats, the historical corps formations are good because the stats were ported accurately imho in the game. Using CsC with semi random and hidden stats successfully is really hard because you have no idea of who's the best man for the job until he's been tested on the battlefield.

ORIGINAL: spruce

Erik, thank you,

I understand better now. About scouting - I always scouted with Stuart - I scout and then I assign Stuart to the battle ? This is a standard rule in the game I had guessed by now ?

I usually scout twice, or scout two areas.

ORIGINAL: spruce
I understand better now. About scouting - I always scouted with Stuart - I scout and then I assign Stuart to the battle ? This is a standard rule in the game I had guessed by now ?

You can do that, but I recommend more cavalry and scouting until the enemy forces are all revealed before committing to battle. So you should be scouting with Stuart every turn and making sure that the area you plan to attack is fully scouted. If it's fully scouted, then you can just scout once before battle and have him participate. If it's unscouted, just one scouting trip is unlikely to scout everyone.

I am playing constantly with CSC on and I am beginning to think the confeds have a bit of a disadvantage there- every turn the union gets 5 new leaders to the confeds 4- over the course of the year the union ends up with 12 new leaders more than the confeds- also they get 5 more than the rebs at the startup in Jan 62- - so by the end of the 62 year nearly 20 more slots for the UNion - when being pushed hard by a human player it is very hard for the rebs to gather enough 1 stars to flesh out his corps structure and man all the various positions that need leaders. The upper level generals are about matched- but at the 1 star level I am being outpaced by my Union opponent. Not sure what the fix might be? - but why cannot both sides get the same 5 leaders per month?  I dont think the confeds or the union ever really had a lack of commanders to flesh out any formation they ever fielded. I am pondering this- I'm sure I am overlooking something- but I dont think the confeds should have any less leadership arriving per month than the union.
  
 

The difference is because the confeds have less forces so they need less leaders. The limits are intentional as rear area formations were not the match of the main army fighting corps. We want there to be a shortage so that some areas will not have fully fleshed out corps. I think the Union has trouble filling out their slots, although the Confederate players does have to assign a certain number of leaders to garrison ports where militia might be mobilized.

As Joel said, the Union needs more leaders because it has more forces to command. There's always a shortage on the Union side. The Confederacy also gets the Corps system one month before the Union does, so that it has time to prepare Corps in the key areas. For both sides though, until later in the war there are never quite enough leaders to go around to have every Corps perfectly commanded, so you have to make some choices.

OK- I can understand that

[:)][:)]It is a great game.  Overall I like it the way it is!