Good "stationary" generals

[James W. Starnes]

Greetings. This is a silly question, but do you ever find some generals great to have for an imaginary "training camp?" For example, I just station Henry Halleck in St. Louis and rename the force to "Missouri Training HQ" and literally spam volunteers to be spent there. Then, over time, the militia become conscripts, then regular soldiers. I find this system very effective and cheap, and say if you want to make a CA or CO infantry brigade that you couldn't else wise, just recruit the militia and send them over! Boom, you instantly get trained soldiers from states you couldn't in the regular recruitment page. My question to you is, what are good generals to do this with? I also found McClellan useful for this trick. Any CSA generals to do this with? Would love some NM or FL regular troops!

[Cardinal Ape]

I also keep Halleck in St. Louis. I usually have Blenker serve as his training assistant because he looks too afraid to do anything else, he really looks like he saw a ghost or something. In the first few months before divisions, I like to train merged militia for their low CP cost. Then I build and train those one regular infantry, one volunteer brigades that can be built in Missouri and Kansas. The volunteer elements of these brigades finish being built a turn before the infantry finish, so you can train the vol's while the infantry finish and they'll be ready to roll without any down time. Occasionally I send some of the western volunteer cavalry to get trained in St. Louis, without those 2 element brigades it is tough to get a maxed out cavalry division.

The CSA also get a trainer at some point.

[packersfanmw87]

Every time I play I try to figure out new ways to deploy the generals (and when I mod my game to introduce more generals [a lot of game included generals don't appear in the FULL campaign] I need to find work for generals who have been pushed out or historically didn't really command much in the field. My last campaign, I had Halleck sit in Cairo, IL, training up militia and volunteers. I always want McClellan to do that but I end up having him moving the field command of the Army of the Potomac, though I did remove him from that command and just placed him in Washington to train for a few months before he left to run for President.

I ended up dumping Daniel Hunter and Tyler in Washington to command the defenses, etc. I had so many two and three star generals running around. I had a corps consisting of all two star generals commanded by a three star...and then another would get promoted and leapfrog him in senority. It was crazy. Getting a little off topic here, but I found that if you don't use replacements that much and just replenish your forces with brand new regiments, that generals have a high probability of being wounded or killed. This campaign was actually the first time where I was struggling to find commanders for units in 1864 (thus I modded to add more of the generals into the campaign).

I believe Blenker was an early casualty in my last war.

[tribeticus]

Good Candidates to make Training Officers (same trait as Halleck, Richard Taylor) are:

CSA: Taylor & Cooper are vanilla trainers but Cooper gets booted upstairs... add: Samuel Jones (I added him in the Portrait Mod forum), Hardee (Wrote the book on training), Bragg could be changed from Drilling Master to Trainer IMHO. Thomas Jackson knew how to maximize his troops but there no way you keep him stationary. Sometimes it makes sense to fill a Corps up with volunteers and put them with a training officer in a strategic location and let them train until needed. But that is only if you add the training officer trait to someone like Hardee or Jackson.

USA: Sigel, Halleck, McClellan are vanilla trainers. I usually put Sigel next to McCellan out east in PA because of the massive amount of volunteers available and train four units at a time (2 volunteers ea). Halleck stays out west. Rufus king is already a training master and could be changed to training officer which is better. Thomas Meagher was a heck of a trainer. Charles Griffin and Andrew Humphreys were some serious disciplinarians

[James W. Starnes]

Good Candidates to make Training Officers (same trait as Halleck, Richard Taylor) are:

CSA: Taylor & Cooper are vanilla trainers but Cooper gets booted upstairs... add: Samuel Jones (I added him in the Portrait Mod forum), Hardee (Wrote the book on training), Bragg could be changed from Drilling Master to Trainer IMHO. Thomas Jackson knew how to maximize his troops but there no way you keep him stationary. Sometimes it makes sense to fill a Corps up with volunteers and put them with a training officer in a strategic location and let them train until needed. But that is only if you add the training officer trait to someone like Hardee or Jackson.

USA: Sigel, Halleck, McClellan are vanilla trainers. I usually put Sigel next to McCellan out east in PA because of the massive amount of volunteers available and train four units at a time (2 volunteers ea). Halleck stays out west. Rufus king is already a training master and could be changed to training officer which is better. Thomas Meagher was a heck of a trainer. Charles Griffin and Andrew Humphreys were some serious disciplinarians

I think training master should go to Thomas Jackson, but Bragg should lose training master and changed to training officer. Then Jackson could still be active, giving his troops experience points. Bragg, despite his controversial career, turn the AoT into a rag tag fighting force. I'm with you on that. I can't find Samuel Jones anywhere. Does he appear in a certain scenario? Thanks for the information.

[tribeticus]

No Samuel Jones would be someone you would need to add to the game.

He commanded almost every department at one point or another and was in command of defense of railroads and the salt mines. Because he was more of a defensive engineer type administrator general I use him to train troops since he was rarely involved in combat but helped defend important positions for the CSA on the 'homefront'.

Charles Winder is also someone who could have the training designation as he was a disciplinarian who hung back and kept Richmond in control.

[Rod Smart]

Results may vary, but I seem to always end up having:

As the Union:
- McClellan training in Cincinnati
- Halleck training in Washington
- Sigel training in St Louis (and moved to Cincy when McClellan disappears).
- King with McClellan in Cincy, to add experience (and free up an HQ unit for frontline duty)
- Recruiting general in Chicago
- Banks recruiting where he starts in Baltimore
- My two worst two stars as the corps commanders of the locked defenses of Alexandria and Washington. If you're lucky, they'll MTSG and unlock themselves. If they don't, no big loss
- I send Butler to Ft Pickens too. Either he's stationary and out of the way, or he gets captured and is really out of the way.

As the CSA
- Taylor training in Kentucky or TN.
- Hardee adding experience in either Springfield or Fayetteville. My goal is to make this area a static campaign, so I hope to have my troops sitting in one spot for 3 years. That's a good spot for an experience providing general.
- Bragg adding experience in New Orleans. A combination of needing to garrison NO, hoping nothing happens (so cheap garrison), and keeping Bragg away from where he could do actual harm.
- There's a recruiting general that shows up late in '63. He takes over the Richmond garrison
- There are a few patriot generals with poor stats that give boosts to militias throughout the states if they are the highest ranking general in that state. I usually forget about them, but if you can figure it out, you may want them "stationary" in low priority regions, where they could give a boost to those garrison units. Like Florida or Charleston or something. Breckinridge and Pope maybe?


Your results may vary.

[ArmChairGeneral]

The militia boosting abilities are broken as far as I can tell. For example, Price will boost the cohesion of any loose militia under his command, but if you combine any into a division, then only a militia that is at the top of the stack benefits, while the others stay the same. Similarly, I have never noticed any change based on the state level version (Patriot I think, can't recall off the top of my head, could be Militiaman).

The CSA only gets Taylor halfway through the war, I usually have him in Louisville if I am forward or Nashville/Memphis if I did not get the 'Ville. I only have hime upgrading volunteers, it is a waste to upgrade conscripts since he is the only Training Officer. Cooper is around for exactly three turns, so make sure to have three (unlocked) volunteer brigades in Richmond so he can get them upgraded, it is a major boost in power for them.

Training Masters are very effective over the long term, (Bragg, Hardee, HQs) but you have to get them going early. The important thing to realize is that they affect EVERY element in their stack, so make sure to bulk their stacks for max effectiveness. The volunteers and militia take forever to upgrade via Training Master, focus instead on conscripts which only need 5 xp to get a star (and thus eligibility to upgrade to regulars). Yes TMs don't have an effect if they move, but most turns are static, so having one of those guys or HQs in your largest frontline stacks usually results in major bonuses over the course of the game. A star or two does wonders for most elements, (2 star conscripts are almost as good as regulars) and you can get them fairly quickly.

I usually use Hardee in a forward position somewhere in the West, and Bragg in New Orleans. I like to build Louisiana Cav (which are conscripts) in New Orleans and leave them under Bragg for a bit before sending them elsewhere. They quickly upgrade their Police, Patrol and Evasion values and help to shift NO loyalty while they are training up for scouting roles.

On a side note, I usually have the International Brigade (a militia brigade which forms in NO) upgraded to regs before I get any Union activity around New Orleans. Is this a scripted upgrade, or is it due to Bragg and the normal upgrade path?

[ArmChairGeneral]

Though I leave Bragg in New Orleans early for his TM ability, he is much maligned on the forums, and I am not afraid to use him in combat. He is a highly effective Corps commander, and does a lot of good work in 1862 West, and some of the Bloody Roads South campaigns. Don't be afraid to use him for fighting, 1 CP is no big deal in a Corps and Hotheaded is not that big of a disadvantage if the stack is large enough not to need to retreat early. Plus his stack gets more effective over time due to his TM ability.

Sure, he is no Grant, but compared to Buell, Bragg is great.

[Durk]

Though I leave Bragg in New Orleans early for his TM ability, he is much maligned on the forums, and I am not afraid to use him in combat. He is a highly effective Corps commander, and does a lot of good work in 1862 West, and some of the Bloody Roads South campaigns. Don't be afraid to use him for fighting, 1 CP is no big deal in a Corps and Hotheaded is not that big of a disadvantage if the stack is large enough not to need to retreat early. Plus his stack gets more effective over time due to his TM ability.

Sure, he is no Grant, but compared to Buell, Bragg is great.

I absolutely agree. Bragg is decent and does well.

[Teatime]

On a side note, I usually have the International Brigade (a militia brigade which forms in NO) upgraded to regs before I get any Union activity around New Orleans. Is this a scripted upgrade, or is it due to Bragg and the normal upgrade path?

Some of the units created by event come with stars of experience and are therefore eligible to upgrade as soon as they are on the map

The European Brigade is created with one experience star so is eligible to Train Upgrade.

You can see how many stars a unit has on creation in the event files ... e.g. SetLevel = 1 means all elements in the Unit will have 1 star upon creation

Vanilla upgrade rules are 7% chance per turn once 1 star of experience is reached

[ArmChairGeneral]

Teatime,

So they just upgrade via the normal pathway (7% per turn) but start with a star so start rolling from their first turn. Thanks!