Starting a grand campaign?

[dermax]

Hello,

I finally took the plunge and bought ACW2 and have been having a lot of fun. I love the depth that it offers and although there are a few things I'd like to see added (sortable leaders, etc.) most of them are covered elsewhere on the forum. I've read through the manual, played the tutorials, and managed to win a couple of the smaller campaigns. Loads of fun. I recently started up an April 1861 Confederate Grand Campaign and, whew, talking about dropping into the deep end!

I started off by moving Beuregard's command onto Fort Sumter, which I think was a mistake, since I got an event that it had surrendered... but it remained in Union hands until I stormed it. I also began recruiting troops to serve as the eventual core of my armies only to find that they (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Shenandoah, Price's Command, etc.) were simply appearing. Beauregard teleported to Manassas to command the Army of the Potomac. While, particularly in the South, I was expecting to see garrisons and militias started up by the govenors, it was kind of a suprise to see entire armies created by events... will this continue throughout the war?

I decided, once they were unlocked, to move the Army of the Shenandoah to Harper's Ferry, which was quite an experience. Due, I assume, to the lack of command points early in the war, the men suffered heavily en route. The Stonewall Brigade, for example, was down to half strength and had never been in combat! This led me to look into the replacement system, which I'm still figuring out. Particularly the amount of brigades to have as reserves in order to cover the required hits.. which I think is the red numbers on top. Long story short, the Union Army of the Potomac attacked the Army of the Shenandoah in Harper's Ferry, leaving the way to Washington open for the Beauregard's Army of the Potomac, and that's where I left off. I think I'll restart with the lessons I've learned so far, but I have a few questions for you grognards

1) Are armies and garrisons automatically recruited and does that continue throughout the war?

2) Is a brigade worth of replacements the equivalent of 10 "hits"?

3) Until Divisions and Corps are unlocked is it the best idea to make a bunch of small stacks in order to get around the command penalty?

4) Completely unrelated to the above, is it possible for the Union to recruit US Regulars at some point or are you stuck with what you begin with?

Oh and a final interesting note. I noticed that there was an enemy army roving around north-eastern Virginia. I popped out to see who it was... and it was a stack made up of nothing but Union generals. Bold move!

[GraniteStater]

1) The Union NEVA Army and the two CSA Armies you saw pop up are the only 'auto-Armies'. The rest you make, with three star generals.

2) Dunno. Others here know.

3) Depends. If you're gonna fight, bigger is better. Smaller 'loose' stacks can get wiped out if overwhelmed.

4) No, not really, unless you want count Marines, Sailors (a land unit) and the occasional Artillery battery.

And the last - that's my Athena, one wild & crazy AI!

Welcome to the boards. Your life, as you knew it, is now over

[tripax]

Re: roving army of generals - the Union gets a bunch of generals and needs to move them around the board to troops without commanders in the first turn. This happens at the beginning of each year, the Confederacy gets some too. For some reason, it is faster to move these generals through Norther Virginia than Pennsylvania.

Re: half strength units - some units that arrive by event are at half strength. Some even are missing regiments, which will suddenly get added to the brigade. The same is true for some naval units, it takes time to figure out which ones, I guess.

Re: Command before divisions can be formed - If you combine large brigades with commanders you can reduce the command cost of large brigades. I think this increases the effectiveness of the brigades slightly and maybe can give the commanders some experience, but I'm not sure.

[dermax]

Thanks alot! I really appreciate it!

In regards to the small stacks at the begining, I suppose "march divided, fight concentrated" will be important here!

[GraniteStater]

Actually, not so much. The game doesn't really model putting different columns on different roads, etc. Different axes of approach apply more to tactical considerations.

Railroads are huge, though.

[tripax]

As for hits, looking at the code I think this is correct:

Infantry - 20
Cavalry - 20
Light Infantry - 15
Sharpshooters - 10
Irregulars - 4 to 10
Militia and Volunteers - 15
CSA Artillery and Fort Battery - 8
USA Artillery and Fort Battery - 12
CSA Siege Artillery - 6
USA Siege Artillery - 10
CSA Coastal Artillery and Gatling - 12
USA Coastal Artillery and Gatling - 16
Ironclads - 30
Armored Frigate - 20
ShipLine - 35
Steam Frigate - 20
Frigate - 15
Steam Sloop - 15
Sloop - 12
Brig - 10
Cottonclad - 10
Gunboat - 6
Mortarboat - 3
Transport Ship - 8
Riverine Transport - 3
Bateaux - 3
Flatboat - 2
Blockade Ship - 10
Merchant Ship - 5
HQ Support Units - 5
Pioneers - 10
Other Support Units - 2 or 3

[Captain_Orso]

Hello,

Hi dermax

Welcome to the forum!

I have a feeling that GS may have misunderstood some of your question, so I'll try to fill in the blanks.

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1) Are armies and garrisons automatically recruited and does that continue throughout the war?

No. In some locations (mostly forts) "auto-garrisons" can be generated if enemy units enter their region, but you shouldn't count on it.

Some "Flavor" units will be granted to you throughout most of the game, but the great majority of unit you must purchase.

Press <F11> to open the Recruiting Screen. The buttons on the left filter the types of units. The buttons on the right filter the Grand Regions/Departments in which you can build them. If you move your mouse pointer over a unit, it will be selected and the regions on the map in which you can build them will turn green.

2) Is a brigade worth of replacements the equivalent of 10 "hits"?

??? You can purchase replacement "chits". Each chit is approximately equivalent to 1 element of that type (there is some luck involved in how many hits you can actually replace with 1 chit.

3) Until Divisions and Corps are unlocked is it the best idea to make a bunch of small stacks in order to get around the command penalty?

It depends on what you want to do with them. The problem is that the number of Command Points you can use in a stack is very limited. Leaders outside of Corps and Army Stacks (outside of the chain-of-command-penalty) have their CPs halved and the maximum CPs that are generated in such a stack is limited to 8CPs.

So, you could create a stack with, for example 4 Brig.Gen.s, giving the stack 8CPs, but 8 CPs will only allow you to command a few units before their needed CPs exceed 8. With each additional unit the effectiveness of your stack will drop, up to -35% to movement and power.

This also means that once a stack has reached the -35% penalty cap each unit added to the stack will increase the stack's strength by 65% of that units actual strength with no addition penalty.

So, you can put together a number of smaller stacks that might be very effective within their limits, but in the overall will be rather weak.

Also multiple stacks in one region will not necessarily support each other in combat, which can allow the enemy to fight then one at a time. This is not something that you can control. Which stack finds which within one region is very dependent on the cohesion and leadership of the stacks in the region.

4) Completely unrelated to the above, is it possible for the Union to recruit US Regulars at some point or are you stuck with what you begin with?

You can purchase units as I described in 1) above, it that is what you mean by "US Regulars". Most of the units you purchase will be of "conscript" quality, some not. Zouaves for example are Line Infantry right from the start, but they are only single regiment units and take much longer to train (build). Also the larger brigades will often not require 1-1 in CPs per element. A brigade with 2 infantry regiments and 1 artillery battery will cost 2 CP, but a stack of 2 inf and 1 bty of single element units will cost 3 CPs.

Once division organization is allowed in Early October '61 things will get better. And once Corps organization is allowed in Early April '62, then you will be able to build your armies with little worry about CP penalties. Then you will have to worry about getting good commanders

Oh and a final interesting note. I noticed that there was an enemy army roving around north-eastern Virginia. I popped out to see who it was... and it was a stack made up of nothing but Union generals. Bold move!

Yes, Athena (the AI) tries to use them for scouting yet apparently and maybe to trick you into thinking that she might have some troops with them. It used to be much worse, but I haven't seen much of that myself of late.

[dermax]

Thanks to you all for the help and welcomes! Two points real quick, just for clarification purposes...

In regards to "US Regulars", I refer to "regular army" as opposed to "state troops". So while my family would have served in, for example, the 148th Pennsylvania, now that I've moved out west the closest Civil War unit raised around here was the 13th US Infantry, raised just across the Iowa boarder in 1861. I haven't seen the option to raise "regular" as opposed to "state" troops, so I'm assuming it's not possible right now.

Secondly, and I suppose this is where I'm having the most trouble right now, is the organization of units in the early stages of the war - a problem that is historically correct, but causes me some headache due to my desire to have a nice, streamlined "Napoleonic" Order of Battle. Where's McClellan when you need him? So in short, are you better off have a bunch of small stacks without the command penalty or concentrate forces in, say, the Army of the Potomac or Shenandoah where even the best commanders don't have enough CP to offset the penalty of not being able to create divisions and corps yet?

Thanks again!

[tripax]

Up to the 9th US Infantry arrives by event mostly in the West, (mostly California). The 15th US, 16th US, 18th US, and 19th US arrive by event in October of November of 1861 as the Regular Brigade, usually somewhere in Ohio. Other elements of US regular Infantry might be added to the game in later patches or mods, I think most will be set to arrive by event rather than be recruitable.

As for organization, there is little you can do before divisions are enabled in early October. I try to avoid too many battles early on as I don't find them to be as much fun without divisions. That said, you are usually better off with large stacks and a command penalty, as small stacks can get destroyed in detail. Also, if I understand correctly, the command penalty doesn't get worse after 35%, so adding more brigades after that isn't so bad, I think. In any case, if you look at AARs of good players, they all mostly use large forces even before divisions are enabled.