Union, Nov 1862, only TWO corps commanders

[plasticpanzers]

WTHeck? Even Thomas (who is seniority 3) cannot be made a corps commander with 3 battles under his belt. Union
army of Potomac with 11 divisions NO corps capable commanders. Even after multiple battles. Tons and tons of
divisional commanders, useless unless you want a bunch of 2 brigade divisions and you STILL would not have more
than 2 (Rosecrans and Grant). Sherman with 5 battles, nope. Sumner fighting for over a year, nope. This is a real
pain for the Union and NO reason other than the basic 5. VERY unclear command setup. Very frustrating.

Also does the game cheat? I swear I see Reb generals whose armies suddenly grow by 50% immiediatly after i move
toward them or suddenly appear many counties away faster than the fastest Union army.

I am playing the standard level and it appears the Rebs have about 8000 points of troops while as the Union using the
massive manpower of the North stuggle to survive with about 6500.

I'm no game newbie. Been playing wargames since AH Civil War and the first Apple/IBM/Commodore computer games.

This is just plain friggin' irritating. I mean NOBODY but Grant appears to get a promotion and he only fights one battle
to get his. What is going on????

[Gray Fox]

You start with Hamilton and Milroy as 2-stars. Then you get Grant. Kearny and Sumner auto-promote to 2-star, unless you lost battles with them when they were still 1-stars and ruined this. You get four more 2-stars, Berry, Whipple, Dix and Foster, with the class of '62. Then there's 2-star Pope and you can use Buell and some of the other 3-stars for Corps command. So that's about a dozen right there by March '62.

If you don't use cavalry to spy on enemy stacks before you commit an army to battle, then your armies attack without knowing what they are up against and find out too late.

Enemy stacks in regions with high CSA MC move faster through those regions than you can with low MC.

If the CSA has higher NM than you, then they will produce more money, men and materiel. It is quite possible for the CSA to produce more than you if the difference gets too big or you are spending all your resources on replacements.

Not every General can be promoted to 3-star. If you check the menu card for the General, a 3-star capable General will have an entry for an "Upgrade To:", i.e. 3-star info card.

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[lodilefty]

Neither side is allowed to form Corps until March 1862.
WAD

[Gray Fox]

The original post was about November '62. I merely pointed out that he should have a dozen possible Corps Commanders way before that date.

[Captain_Orso]

WTHeck? Even Thomas (who is seniority 3) cannot be made a corps commander with 3 battles under his belt. Union
army of Potomac with 11 divisions NO corps capable commanders. Even after multiple battles. Tons and tons of
divisional commanders, useless unless you want a bunch of 2 brigade divisions and you STILL would not have more
than 2 (Rosecrans and Grant). Sherman with 5 battles, nope. Sumner fighting for over a year, nope. This is a real
pain for the Union and NO reason other than the basic 5. VERY unclear command setup. Very frustrating.

I have no idea what you are talking about other than that you possibly don't understand something.

Select any ** or *** leader which is not currently an army commander, division commander or combined with a brigade, put him in his own stack within the command radius of an army commander and click the Form Corps Command SO button.

Also does the game cheat? I swear I see Reb generals whose armies suddenly grow by 50% immiediatly after i move
toward them or suddenly appear many counties away faster than the fastest Union army.

If you tell it to, yes. At Difficulty Level Lieutenant and above the AI will add +1 or +2 Strategic level to all of their leaders. If a leader has 4+ Strategic level it will increase it's CP's. But the game does not cheat by shifting stacks around.

I am playing the standard level and it appears the Rebs have about 8000 points of troops while as the Union using the
massive manpower of the North stuggle to survive with about 6500.

The most difficult things to learn playing the Union are patience, learning where good opportunities are and what you can afford to temporarily loose.

Build your forces up while conserving them as much as possible. Especially if there is a large NM gap it will be more difficult for you to replace losses.

Any place the CS invades into the North puts that force at a decided disadvantage in receiving supplies and moving. Sometimes it is better to first deal with a crisis at one point before going after the stack sitting in Vincennes IN. Often times, these invading stacks can be destroyed completely, especially if you can kick them out of their invaded city and deny them any other sources of supply.

I'm no game newbie. Been playing wargames since AH Civil War and the first Apple/IBM/Commodore computer games.

This is just plain friggin' irritating. I mean NOBODY but Grant appears to get a promotion and he only fights one battle
to get his. What is going on????

Leaders only get promoted in two ways, 1. politically (through an event), 2. through being successful, which means doing a lot of combat damage while receiving very little themselves. Grant, outclassing any Souther leader generally found in the West has a advantage in doing more damage and getting promoted; Lyon and Kearney too. Give these leaders your best troops--no militia if you can manage.

You start with Hamilton and Milroy as 2-stars. Then you get Grant. Kearny and Sumner auto-promote to 2-star, unless you lost battles with them when they were still 1-stars and ruined this[SUP]1)[SUP]. You get four more 2-stars, Berry, Whipple, Dix and Foster, with the class of '62. Then there's 2-star Pope and you can use Buell and some of the other 3-stars for Corps command. So that's about a dozen right there by March '62.

Exactly. There are many candidates.

If you don't use cavalry to spy on enemy stacks before you commit an army to battle, then your armies attack without knowing what they are up against and find out too late.

This cannot be overstated. What you can see through the Fog of War in enemy territory is very limited. Athene is good at keeping stacks just outside your view and then surprising you with them. When I just started playing the game I had the feeling that Athena was cheating too. I started breaking out the previous turn and looking at what Athena's situation was before the move and seeing what she could see compared to what I could see. Often times the differences were significant. It was no wonder I was caught off-guard by stacks I did not even know existed suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Enemy stacks in regions with high CSA MC move faster through those regions than you can with low MC.

Plus at the start of the war most of the CS troops already have higher quality, plus their higher moral gives them a quicker cohesion recover/lower cohesion loss. This all adds up to faster movements. It can look absolutely eerie at times.

If the CSA has higher NM than you, then they will produce more money, men and materiel. It is quite possible for the CSA to produce more than you if the difference gets too big or you are spending all your resources on replacements.

Not every General can be promoted to 3-star. If you check the menu card for the General, a 3-star capable General will have an entry for an "Upgrade To:", i.e. 3-star info card.

In the units directory there will be a number of units for the same general, something like Jackson, Jackson2 and Jackson3.

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[SUP]1)[SUP] Nope. The promotions from events are political promotions. You can lose as many battles and take as many losses with a leader as you will, if there is an event to politically promote them, they will be promoted.

[Gray Fox]

Thanks, I was just trying to imagine a situation where, as he posted, Sumner would still be a 1-star after a year.

[Captain_Orso]

Sumner gets bumped up in early '62. It's always a race for me to get Lyon promoted before that, so I don't have to leave Sumner off in the corner somewhere so that he doesn't mess with Lyon.

[plasticpanzers]

Thanks for the input. Understanding the game requires that the game lets you know how it works to begin with and CWII does not
at this point. Many things are left to the player to figure out on their own and not included in the rules. It currently is learning how
to game the game by playing it. I would rather know the ground rules than have to figure them out. As i said I am not a newbie nor
dumb (my word, not yours). I have been gaming over 50 years.

Sumner has been fighting alone as a General in the West for a year and doing well, winning 5-6 battles but losing one. He is still just
a divisional commander and has no one stacked with him. When i take all the troops away he is still only a div. commander. Same
with Thomas (senority of 3) who has fought 3 battles (winning so far as part of Buell's army). He still cannot command a Corps when
stacked alone. By the way why the heck should i have to destack them to promote them to Corps commander? I should be notified
(by the flashing thingie for promotion) and then their units would auto detach. I should not have to play look for a grain of sand in a
pile of sand.

This is why I suggested earlier post a leaders page so that you can see them at a glance rather than have to dig over the map leader by
leader which is not fun, adds nothing to the game, has no historical basis, and is just plain annoying.

Its not that CWII is not a spectacular game, It most certainly is, but as a diamond in the rough it does need some work still.

[Jim-NC]

I think the problem is that your commanders are commanding divisions. If your general is commanding a division, he can't create a corps. You need to remove the commanders from the division, and remove divisional command from him, and then you can make them Corps commanders (if they are in range of an army). That is why your 2* generals are still command divisions, they need to be separated and then they can command a corps.

[charlesonmission]

See if this video helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4UqkZqugLQ&list=PL0elpXyl8LDXJxQTNGdvk_zwB_ZYGv-0A&index=6

I think the problem is that your commanders are commanding divisions. If your general is commanding a division, he can't create a corps. You need to remove the commanders from the division, and remove divisional command from him, and then you can make them Corps commanders (if they are in range of an army). That is why your 2* generals are still command divisions, they need to be separated and then they can command a corps.

[plasticpanzers]

I went back and found a few generals once I removed their troops and from their larger stack that were promotable but it is a
really poor process to go thru to find them and do this. I hope to see an improvement when they work more into the upcoming Nappy
game and spin off some of the work back into CW2. Love the game, really do, needs some tweeks tho.

[charlesonmission]

Can you explain by what you mean promotable here? If a general is a 2 or 3 star, they can be assigned a corps' command as outlines in the video. That is not a promotion according to game terms though. Through the general list, you can sort through all 2 and 3 star generals. If a general is a 1 star, you will get a message when he is promotable (right after the turn is processed where he becomes eligible). In order to promote him, you will have to take him out of the stack unless the leading general is the promotable as well, or the general to promote is the leading general in the stack.

As other have pointed out, the Union is already assigned many 2 star generals through events. In fact, the Union should never have a shortage. Of course, some don't like those 2 star generals and would like to promote different ones, but that does take time and by Nov 62, you are really only 14 months into the war.

I went back and found a few generals once I removed their troops and from their larger stack that were promotable but it is a
really poor process to go thru to find them and do this. I hope to see an improvement when they work more into the upcoming Nappy
game and spin off some of the work back into CW2. Love the game, really do, needs some tweeks tho.

[lodilefty]

The original post was about November '62. I merely pointed out that he should have a dozen possible Corps Commanders way before that date.

Neither side is allowed to form Corps until March 1862.
WAD

Senior Citizen brain cramp!