General Experience

[Cardinal Ape]

What is the most experience you have ever had on a general or even a unit? Has anyone ever legitimately gotten up to 9 or 10 stars?

Also, does experience not increase a generals strategic rating anymore? I thought I remember it doing so in the first game.

[Merlin]

I've gotten 8 or 9 once, though I can't really remember which. You have to kill off a lot of elements to get there though, and it certainly requires a large slice of good fortune to have the same guy involved in so many favorably decisive battles. I'm almost positive getting enough XP ranks increases STR at least once, though OFF/DEF seems kind of random as to which you get.

[Captain_Orso]

I can't remember exactly. Probably about 7 or 8. Generally, from my experience, it happens when I've gotten the army under Meade or Grant in the East and have the Confederates outnumbered about two or more to 1 in the field. I'm advancing more or less line-abreast and hitting Lee & Co. over and over again, kind of like the overland campaign, only with a much larger Union advantage and never ending. Lee's corps don't get a chance to recover and start taking worse and worse losses.

Eventually there will be a battle where Lee and his corps just cannot escape and they get wiped out, massive NM loss for the South, game over, and I'm standing there with these huge armies, highly trained and battle hardened, with generals with so many stars they resemble a terrible Milky Way rolling across the South. Where are the Brits when you need them?

Defensive and Offensive values increase in alternation with each increase of EL (Experience Level -- star), first defensive, then offensive. Ability levels can also increase with EL, for example Strategist gives +1 CP and +1 CP per Ability Level. Ability Levels increase every other EL IIRC. The tool-tip of the ability will tell you the current ability level.

Strategic values were never increase through experience, only through the model having different values at different ranks.

[Merlin]

Strategic values were never increase through experience, only through the model having different values at different ranks.

Really? I could've sworn you get a point around 5 stars XP or so. Maybe I just thought I had Thomas outside command influence.

[Rod Smart]

What is the most experience you have ever had on a general or even a unit? Has anyone ever legitimately gotten up to 9 or 10 stars?

Also, does experience not increase a generals strategic rating anymore? I thought I remember it doing so in the first game.

Over the weekend, I turned Cornith into Verdun. Freemont is on 7 stars, and about 5 experience points away from his 8th.

I can confirm that his strategic rating does go up. He started with 4-0-4 (I'm playing with random generals). He is now a 6-3-7.

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As to how: In early '61 I focused my limited western resources on securing Missouri. I was successful. The CSA focused their free western units on coming north on the Mississippi, and captured Cornith early and easily. I used the only army general I had available, which happened to be the typically craptastic Freemont (even with randomized stats, his offense was still zero). I either attacked or defended pretty much every turn from August of 61 until December of 63. I won more than I lost, but I couldn't hold Cornith. The confederates committed more and more to the fight, which meant I couldn't hold Cornith and Metropolis at the same time (but allowed an easy march down the rail line to Nashville- thanks Joe Johnston!). The rebels kept pushing me back, but could never get all the way to my depot at that little level 1 city in Illinois, allowing quick recovery times to the ever-growing stack.

Its now the winter of 63-64, and I hold the Mississippi and Ohio line with half the army in Colombus MO and half in Paducha, and plan on taking New Madrid and marching south in 64. He could be up to 10 stars by then.


It should be noted that the army marching south through Kentucky were corps elements of Freemont. I am not sure if those victories were calculated in to Freemonts experience level, but it is possible, since the division commanders that were involved in all those fights around Cornith only have a third of the experience that Freemont has.

[RickInVA]

James Longstreet (4-6-7), 9 stars, 524/550. Longstreet has been defending Alexandria against all comers from summer 1861 to the current date of Early Jan 1864. The Union has probably lost 250,000 men trying to take Alexandria over the course of the war. We had a true Civil War battle one time; the Union outnumbered us about 120,000 to 60,000, and lost 48,000 men in the battle. We lost about 8,000. Conclusion: Attacking heavy entrenchments manned by very veteran troops, amazingly well led, is a bad idea.

A unit of captured NY 12 lb artillery in Alexandria has 8 stars 380/450.

[Rod Smart]

Over the weekend, I turned Cornith into Verdun. Freemont is on 7 stars, and about 5 experience points away from his 8th.

I can confirm that his strategic rating does go up. He started with 4-0-4 (I'm playing with random generals). He is now a 6-3-7.

Up to 9 stars and 380 experience

It seems that Army commanders do get experience points even when they are not in the fight. Freemont has been chilling in New Madrid waiting for the navy, but he appears to have gotten 80 experience points for his corps winning a bunch of battles in the Nashville area.

That's interesting.