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I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall

I have had a busy few weeks learning the game and working up through the different levels of Athena till I am now at the second hardest setting. I had few problems achieving a major victory as the union but I am really struggling to do the same playing as the confederates at this level.

It is late 1863 and I am just getting overrun. I have had some notable victories in the eastern theatre and have a pretty solid defensive line from Alexandria through to Harpers Ferry. Athena has retreated to Washington with a stack of 11000 power and seems to have stopped all offensive ops. So pretty much a stalemate in this theatre.

Elsewhere though it is pretty grim. I held Louisville for a while but had to withdraw before the divisions there got cut off. I have since lost Bowling Green but still hold Nashville, Corinth and Memphis. But I cannot find any free troops to mount an attack of any note. I am also lacking in corps commanders in this theatre which is not helping.

But it the deep south where I am really struggling. Athena has invaded through Fort Pickens and also landed troops at New Orleans and Galveston. There are probably around 10 divisions of union troops roaming around at will in this theatre and I have no troops to bloody do anything about it!

This campaign is probably beyond saving I am afraid But before I start over any tips on a strategy to get myself into a stronger position to deal with the union hordes 1863 and onwards would be much appreciated.

The CSA needs to win outright by 1863. After that, you will slowly be overwhelmed by the blue tide and all you can hope to do is hang on for a point victory by the skin of your teeth. Any difficulty level beyond Sergeant is going to give Athena hordes to play with, and at Colonel I generally consider a "win" anything lasting beyond June 1865.

Jep u have to win before 63 after that u really can't win. Well no major victory anyway.. Now u have to but fluid defense if u want to attack or hit Athena in Deep South, move your armies to counter attack and try to have local powerplay when u attack be fluid and try to hack disposition corps if Athena has those and maybe retreat to Chattanooga it is good defensive position if he out flank Nashville.. And good luck

Thanks for the tips guys. I have just reviewed the map and I have tended to rely too much on forts and a static defence. Looks like I will have to learn some sneaky manouveres to crack this one.

Agreed that things get tough for the CSA late game. The CSA is short on Corps commanders, it is just one of their built-in weaknesses. It is really important to get promotions early while you are having successes in the field.

In terms of defending the Deep South, and pre-supposing that you can scrounge up some troops to send there:

Check the Regions ledger to find the VP producing regions, and concentrate on keeping these out of Union hands. Much of the rest of the territory in the Deep South is not strategically valuable. If a region you are making a stand in does not have a depot already, consider building one (use flatboats if you can to save money and WS) as they make cohesion recovery and replacement rates much faster.

Those invading divisions have tenuous supply lines, find ways to disrupt them to put a crimp in Union operations. Destroy any depots that are about to fall into Union hands. Use your Partisan Raid cards or capture and destroy Union depots in their rear outright, especially ones along rail lines or in harbors. Use mobile forces to slip behind enemy lines to re-establish MC and/or destroy rails linking their divisions to their coastal depots. Partisan units prevent enemy supply from transiting the region, otherwise you need at least 75% MC to stop supply movement. Entrenched artillery set to bombard and stockades/forts with artillery (even a single 6lber) prevent supply transit along waterways.

Force the Union to attack you in entrenched positions rather than trying to counter attack, unless they are weakened from lack of supply or failed assaults. Station militia elements outside structures so that they are pre-building entrenchments so that larger forces can quickly move into them. When moving forces around, be sure to leave a unit behind (again, often a militia) to maintain the entrenchments in case you need to return. Athena has a habit of overextending individual stacks, you can often trap them after they lose a battle; this is where your tactical mobility comes in to play. They will generally need to stick to rail lines to stay supplied away from the coast; fortunately you only have a few of them in the region, so you have a pretty good idea of which way their stacks have to move.

On your next play through, think about building up more troops in the Mobile/Pensacola area earlier to tie down or possibly scare off the early attack from Ft. Pickens. If it establishes a secure harbor/depot combination on the mainland, the floodgates are opened for later Union divisions pouring in from the sea.

Thanks ArmChairGeneral. It is an amazing game. The more I play and the more I learn, the less it seems I know. I would never have seen the lack of railway lines in the deep south as an opportunity!

Is it any different in a PBEM game? As the confederates do you have to go for the quick win?

As the CSA you kind of have to look at everything like that. The rail lines in the Deep South work so well for slowing advances because, unlike the northern parts of the CSA and the North itself, they're sparse enough to allow for single attack axes only. Get used to flipping the board, so to speak, and trying to figure out what you would and wouldn't do as well as what you wouldn't want to have happen to you.

If you get into PBEM, it gets even more fun. You start taking psychology and limited information into account to deliberately deceive and shape your opponent's strategy.

Double post.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I have just managed a confederate major victory

Onwards to the hardest Athena setting!!!

I have just finished my first attempt as the Union with Athena at Colonel settings. I have to say it was a pretty straight forward win. I had changed no other settings. Still historical attrition and the other AI benefits to improve her performance. But I did convert to the 1.04 patch before starting. Athena was very quiet in Virginia but was very aggressive in Tennessee and Kentucky. Athena just kept coming at me the same old way and Grant kept killing her the same old way. I am not sure if I am improving as a player or if the patch has changed some Athena behaviour.

Apologies for the superfluous screen shot below. I am missing Mickey's and GF's AAR so much I am thinking doing a PBEM and AAR and want to test if I had the technical skills not to butcher it lol

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On a side note, what are the changes 1.04 has made to the combat power ratings? I know the first number is actual combat power in ratio to me currently. But the new second number, is that actual combat power ratio achieved at some point or potential combat power? I am a bit worried about the British 11/109 number as FI was nearly triggered in this game. It got up to high 80s at one point from memory.

The second number should represent the naval power comparison.

Thanks Red Baron. But it seems strange that the Confederates would have a larger navy than the Union?

You set Athena to Colonel. Notice how she still has 60% of your land combat power even though she's taken almost 500,000 total losses (assuming that 126,700 prisoners)? She just ran out of other things to build, and you probably didn't build a blue water navy at all.

I generally don't set her higher than Lieutenant and just give her much larger activation and detection bonuses instead.

Thanks Merlin. That makes sense. Athena never used any of that huge navy though. I think I will load the last turn as the Confederates and see what she was doing with all those ships.

Yup Merlin. You was absolutely spot on the money. Athena has built a huge fleet but then left all ships in harbours. A shame really. The added challenge if she had utilised those naval units would have been interesting.

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