Matrix Games Forums

Into 1863 now as the U.S. I'm at -9, Confederacy at 8. I won the first 3 detailed battles and lost the last 6 or so. Finallly starting to read the tactical AI. I've taken Nashville and little else.

I think next game I have to re-equip my infantry sooner, build more artillery and cavalry and keep my brigades up to strength with more camps. Anyone notice that understrength brigades are (due to no stacking) at a real disadvantage in detailed combat.

Who can tell me if I should be mustering and conscripting. I don't do it because I don't understand it and reading that part of the manual just makes my hair hurt.

Anyway the patched game is obviously giving me a run for my money, and that's at the Sargeant Major level, no less.

Johnnie,

Glad to hear you're having fun with it. While opinions vary, I definitely recommend mustering and sometimes conscripting. I generally use these rules of thumb and use the city list screen to make it quick and easy.

1. If the Muster chance is 40% or over, Muster. Make sure you start building additional Division containers as you are mustering so that you have something to do with the brigades you'll get. Try to designate a few central "organizational" cities to move mustered brigades to in order to get them into divisions. It's best to choose ones that can produce division containers.
2. If the Danger is 10% (20% if you're really desperate) and the Muster Chance is below 40% and you really need the additional brigades, Conscript.
3. Finally, make use of Impressment too, if the Danger is 10%, the quantity of resources is 30 or 40 and the chance of success is 60% or greater

Those are my personal guidelines, which is usually follow. The City List puts this info at your fingertips, so that you can just click on the Muster, Conscript and Impress columns for each city where appropriate.

Regards,

- Erik

If you're playing with governors, then pay attention to their attitudes when mustering, since you don't want to drive those numbers too far down. Also, pay attention to population levels in cities -- if there are just 1 or 2 men you might not have enough free population for a muster, in which case you'll have taken a hit to your governor's attitude for nothing.