AGEOD Forums

Ok, I just got the game and like it a lot except for 2 things.

1) Dumb Yankee Cavalry running around in SC NC, GA, TX, AK, and I can't get rid of them. I can't catch them with my cavalry because they evade me and they just destroy railroads and take over random cities and then abandon them.

How do I get rid of them? They are miles away from supply, most of them are damaged and yet, they won't go away! In real life, if news got out that 10 horses were running around ransacking farms, I'm pretty sure some southern townspeople would rise up and try to ambush them. I'm tired of chasing after them and getting no result.

2) Basically the same thing as part one, but I hate when the North sends random armies to take over territory. Like I just won a huge battle - 2 huge armies fighting each other - and I finally take over a territory. I force the Yankees to retreat, and then the next turn, they send a really tiny army around my big army and take over a random piece of land.

Like seriously? Do I really have to split of my troops and start chasing this tiny army around. It's not going to attack me - and once it leaves that plot of land, I will have to take it over again.

It's just an annoyance! I'd understand if they took over and actually try to hold the land for once and garrison it!

Any strategies? Especially for the random horses that run around.

Hi Thisgame,

welcome to the fold . I see Athena's been having her way with you . Not to worry, we all went through this.

A couple of things:

1) get the latest patch from this thread: New official 1.14 patch (the latest is always linked in the first post) so that everything (almost everything) is WAD (Working As Designed), but be advised, there will be a new (possibly last) patch out in a few days Pocus, when can we expect the legacy patch?.

2) Athena (the game AI) does so very much love to put units/stacks in your back yard to keep you busy, either to draw-off pressure from another region, or to distract you while planning a thrust elsewhere. My experience (playing the Union) is it's best to be patient. If they're behind your lines, they are also cutoff from their supply base. That means, they can't hold out there for too long.

If the enemy stack is in a city (this is mostly what Athena does) and you can place a stack of your own of at least equal strength in the same region, the enemy stack will become besieged. Basically, unless the enemy now sorties out of the city to attack you, it's trapped, it receives no supply (unless the city has an un-blockaded harbor) and each turn a Siege Resolution is executed, which can result in a Breach being made and the enemy taking 'hits'. Breaches reduce the protection the enemy unit gets in a city/fortification (eventually to 0). (If you click on one of your units/stacks, it appears at the bottom of your display in the 'stack display', then click on the NATO symbol in the upper right corner of one of those units, the 'unit display' opens to the right of the 'stack display'. The little men at the top of the 'unit display' denotes how many hits a unit can take)

That may sound like the up to 10 hits you may make per turn through besieging would take forever to reduce the enemy stack, and actually it would, but during the turn resolution Athena will automatically trade those hits against available supply in the enemy stack. The enemy stacks own supply usage plus the hits you are causing will slowly but surely reduce the enemy's supply to 0, at which point the enemy stack starts loosing 'hits' from all the units in the stack due to being out-of-supply.

Also the enemy stack will start to get disorganize (lose cohesion), especially if it sorties out to fight, which it can only slowly recover while being besieged. The stack will eventually start to crumble to the point where your besieging units can risk an assault.

If you have enough units to rotate in and out of the region, you can also attempt to assault every couple of turns even if you know you will lose, because the bashed up units you just assaulted with can be relieved by fresh ones. Repeat until success.

3) About those pesky cavalry raiders, the best solution is to garrison everything of value in your hinterland. One militia regiment in a city is enough to prevent them from attacking a depot. Chase them with your own cavalry. Don't just move to the region, but drag your cavalry unit on top of the enemy unit until the enemy unit brightens up. Now drop your unit. You will now see an icon on top of your unit (the real one, not the dark one denoting to where you are moving that unit) that looks like three soldiers with a pair of scissors on top of them. This means that your unit is intercepting the enemy unit and will actually try to follow them. It doesn't work that often when intercepting cavalry, but you can also continue plotting with your attacking units by dragging them to a further region to where you think the enemy raiders might move.

I've never played the CSA, as it seams that you are doing, so my suggestions my have to be modified for your situation. The Union player generally always has a lot more units, though they are almost always weaker (especially the leaders) than the CSA, especially early in the war. You may be able to put a stack together with strong units and leaders with good strategy and assault values and just smash a Union stack right from the get-go of them being in your back yard. You'll have to evaluate per situation.

Hope this helps, and don't despair. You'll get a hang of it yet.

It is frustrating yes. Is it realistic, well, not quite, but see that as an abstraction. I believe that in the late part of the war, 1/3 of the Union soldiers were used in garrisoning duties along railways, depots and communications lanes, to guard against CSA partisans, or civil disorder. In AACW, you don't have to guard all railways regions, on the other hand you get these annoying cavalry raids from the AI. Overall, it compensates: a lot of your soldiers should garrison cities and depots, as in history...

Chase them down with your own cavalry. Think it's bad against the AI, try PBEM

That makes me smile.
Playing grey I felt the same. So nice and so dead difficult.
Takes a while to learn and than it is so easy.
If you take your time to read, all possible problems
are discussed here.
Threat Washington, guard you rear(depots), build railroad early,
have your replacement stocked propperly, attack only with good attack rating, Jackson and Forrest and so, be happy if Athena is deep raiding - that armies are so easily completely destroyed and and and.

Welcome to the forum. I think you may have to change your name after the game "clicks" with you. I recommend you change it to thisgameisfun.

Having raided and defended against raids in PBEM games I can say that it can be one of the most fun aspects of the game - but possibly one of the hardest to get to grips with. You can see raiders as an irritation, but also as vulnerable enemy units to be destroyed. They quickly tire from attrition but can be devastating if used at the right moment - especially in support of major attacks to cut off supply or interdict enemy reinforcements. You need to make sure you keep mobile forces behind your lines to deal with these situations and plenty of small garrison units.

On a slightly larger scale, amphibious attacks behind enemy lines to cut off supply routes or capture depots, especially if launched just before winter can cause real problems for your opponent.

Cheers, Chris

Pocus: Had a house fire Friday. Severe damage; no one hurt. Will be unsetteled for several months and will have to reload all my games once setteled elsewhere. Wish me luck please. L3 apy:

Sorry to hear thay Tagwyn, hope everything turns out for the best.

Same here. Good luck to you. You could probably use some.

I'm sorry to hear that Larry, I hope for the best for your family and you then. When you need them, just ask me for your keys and links to games.

Best of luck to you, tagwin. Happily no one got hurt.
Hang on.

Good luck to you. I went through it about 6 years ago. Not a pleasant experience but as long as no one was hurt and your insurance was good you'll come out okay. We actually ended up with a nicer house and furnishings when it was all said and done but not the recommended way to remodel and redecorate.