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Some questions and lessons taken (maybe) from the start of the early 1861 campaign as the Union side with CIVII 1.04.
1. Norfolk. If the CSA do not take this on the 1st or 2nd turn I send a Marine unit plus a one star General to land. It can be several turns until the CSA turn up. At which point, my troops on retreat status manage to get back to Monroe without damage. However one occasion I pumped 13 units into Norfolk and upon an attack by the CSA they surrender on the 2nd turn of the siege. I presume that bad result was compounded as the force was inside the town of Norfolk, so the white flag came out without a fight?
2. Conscript Generation. Correct me if I am wrong but I do believe that the recruiting officer must be in a City that is not only (+5) but also has a loyalty above 50%. Nathaniel Banks is the first recruiting officer available, it seems he sat many turns in Baltimore without having an impact. Is loyalty essential ( as should be the case) ?
3. Forming Armies early on is difficult. One has a limited number of 3 star Generals which are active, I think in seniority they are McDowell, Freemont, Butler and Banks. Without taking the penalty for using less senior Generals for Army leaders I did decide to pull Benjamin Butler out of Monroe so he can form an Army. Am I correct to think this is the only way to form three armies in 1861, without the seniority penalty? Or is it worth taking the penalty?
4. I am settling on the plan of moving troops to both Morgantown and HF. As a result the CSA moves forces from Manassas, so they can take HF. But it opens the door for the union to take Manassas. That must be a priority considering the minus 10 NM penalty?

Gen Marc wrote:Some questions and lessons taken (maybe) from the start of the early 1861 campaign as the Union side with CIVII 1.04.
1. Norfolk. If the CSA do not take this on the 1st or 2nd turn I send a Marine unit plus a one star General to land. It can be several turns until the CSA turn up. At which point, my troops on retreat status manage to get back to Monroe without damage. However one occasion I pumped 13 units into Norfolk and upon an attack by the CSA they surrender on the 2nd turn of the siege. I presume that bad result was compounded as the force was inside the town of Norfolk, so the white flag came out without a fight?

Sending one Marine Battalion to hold Norfolk is... a good start, but it will not do by itself. You will need some more troops--preferably better than militia--and especially some defensive artillery, 12lb-ers at the least. A siege artillery will go a LONG way in defending, but are expensive and take a long time to build.

Siege Combat has very much to do with having supply--Norfolk should have no issue with that--having artillery to defend--of which you had none--and having high quality troops, which you had, but far too few.

Gen Marc wrote:2. Conscript Generation. Correct me if I am wrong but I do believe that the recruiting officer must be in a City that is not only (+5) but also has a loyalty above 50%. Nathaniel Banks is the first recruiting officer available, it seems he sat many turns in Baltimore without having an impact. Is loyalty essential ( as should be the case) ?

I'm not sure if the Recruiting Officer must be inside the city. It used to be so and I see no reason why not to put him inside the city, so just do that. If other leaders are in his stack--there's really no reason to do that if there's no imminent threat of being attacked--the Recruiting Officer must be in command of the stack--have the highest rank and seniority. Just drop him into Philadelphia or New York or Boston alone in his own stack and let him do his magic.

Gen Marc wrote:3. Forming Armies early on is difficult. One has a limited number of 3 star Generals which are active, I think in seniority they are McDowell, Freemont, Butler and Banks. Without taking the penalty for using less senior Generals for Army leaders I did decide to pull Benjamin Butler out of Monroe so he can form an Army. Am I correct to think this is the only way to form three armies in 1861, without the seniority penalty? Or is it worth taking the penalty?

I'm not sure what you mean by "One has a limited number of 3 star Generals which are active". A leader does not need to be activated to become the commander of an army, no more that to take command of a corps. Only division commanders must be activated to form a division.

Anyway, you don't have an unlimited number of armies which can be formed. From May '61 you can have a total of 3 armies; from March '62 it's up to 6 armies; and in March '63 it goes up to 9. I don't think you can ever have more than 9.

In '61 you also have Patterson , Halleck and McClellan .

Patterson is friendly enough to allow himself to be removed from the equation all by himself and you will always be better off using McClellan and Halleck to train-up troops with their Training Officer abilities.

Grant arrives in September '61, but is only a Maj.Gen., so you will have to work to get him promoted as quickly as possible. Once he's been promoted I generally give him an army almost regardless of what it costs in NM and VP.

Lyon, if you can get him promoted, is also a candidate at 4-2-2 as Lt.Gen. It's a little disappointing losing him as a 5-2-2 Maj.Gen., but it depends on how badly you need an army general with better than 2 on the strategic level.

Gen Marc wrote:4. I am settling on the plan of moving troops to both Morgantown and HF. As a result the CSA moves forces from Manassas, so they can take HF. But it opens the door for the union to take Manassas. That must be a priority considering the minus 10 NM penalty?

For the Union is most certainly is. If the South uncovers Manassas, go for it! Remember, you must control Manassas mid-September. It does you no good if you take it before that and then lose it.

In terms of Banks and his talent for conscription, here is text from a recent thread:

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I became determine to figure out what the actual benefit was and started to move around Burnside, McClernand and Banks to different cities. Here is what I observed:

• The only way to see the *true* number conscript production is to hover over the Conscripts Companies icon at the top of the screen and look at "Changes from City Income". This is always updated based on the position of your recuriting generals.
• While the region list shows the conscript production per city, if you move a recruiter into a city, these numbers WILL NOT change unless you quit the game and restart. (this might be a bug)
• It is not a +5 increase as previously mentioned in the thread. I am not sure of the calculations, but it does have something to do with loyalty (I think). With Banks in Baltimore(43% loyalty), you get a +4. Banks in Boston(87% loyalty), you get a +7. McClernand in Chicago (92%) +7, in St.Louis (65%), +6. I guess it could be % based and would vary over time....
• The highest benefit that I could find was +7 (Detroit with 100% loyalty)
• Each general with the trait seems to have the exact same effect.

The thing that really struck me was the % benefit these generals can provide. In December of 1861, My cities were producing a total of 90 conscripts. With 3 generals working high loyalty cities, you get an additional 21, which roughtly works out to a 20% increase.
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I didn't know about the higher loyalty payoff for the recruiters until I saw that thread too. Always
will put them in a city with high loyalty and bigger than 5 from now on.

Does the recruites or training officer/master must be a commander officer of the whole stack? For example I have him commanding a division within an army, will the bonus apply?

He has to be the commander of his stack. So if he is stacked with an army that he does not command, then the army commander negates his ability to recruit.

The Training Officer (directly trains-up up to 2 elements per turn) does need to command the stack, who's elements he is trying to train-up.

The Training Master (gives all elements in his stack +1XP per turn) and does NOT have to be in command of the stack he is in.

The Recruiting Officer must also be in command of his stack, if his ability is to work, but he needs not other units or elements and may be alone in his stack.

GF, please try to be more concise with your answers.

Smitzer, check the tool-tips on these abilities. Tell us what they say.

Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann!

I only correctly responded to part of his post. Sorry for the shortness of my reply.
I was at work and Homer left his lunch in the reactor again.

Don't confuse the n00bs, you were one too at some time