Noob Winter Question

[cmurphy625]

Ok.. I'm in my first Campaign game (not doing too bad thanks to this forum!).. but question.. I'm coming on to my second winter.. is it best to have troops inside cities? or is just being sufficiently supplied enough to prevent too many losses due to the elements.. Sorry if this is a stupid question.. but tried to do a 'forum' search and didn't seem to find anything...

thanks for all your help!

[biggp07]

I'm a noob myself, only been playing for a couple weeks and still getting the feel and learning from this forum myself, therefore my answer can be taken with a grain of salt. But thought I'd take a stab at this one!

I think the "book" answer is its best to have them in the city because it reduces effects of harsh and/or severe weather, even completely I think. Even if they are recieveing full supplied or not, if they are still in the weather they will suffer from its effects, in other words they are going to take hits. There are some other ways to help reduce wether effects like using forts and if you have supply wagons within the unit but its not as much as putting them "inside" for the winter.

I haven't played for long so this is only from my 2 cents of experience! i hope it is good!

PS: Glad to meet a fellow noob! Hopefully we won't be here for long!

[cmurphy625]

Thanks.. I kind of assumed this was the case.. just wanted to be sure..

LOL time to start moving my formations into the towns whereever possible.. hopefully the NME won't be attacking...

I wish I kept track of which areas got the snow last winter!!!

[soloswolf]

I wish I kept track of which areas got the snow last winter!!!

To tackle this point first: The weather is random turn to turn. Many regions have a higher chance of rough weather, but there is an element of chance to it.

As far as where your troops need to be: As long as they are within a region with a structure they are all set. You do not need to actually place them inside the structure. This is significant because you would lose your entrenchments when moving them inside.

Keep having fun!

[arsan]

Hi!

No need to actually put the troops inside the town. Its enough to be on a region with a friendly structure (town, fort, depot) no matter if in or out.
Its very useful to not lose the entrenchment values of the units (as in and out the structure are like two different "places").
Of course, you also have to keep the well supplied.
But an army well supplied in the open (no friendly structure in the region) will suffer winter damage.
A related tip: supply wagons with supply reserves help to shield other units in the stack from winter damage. Each point of winter damage will be shielded by spending extra supply points (not sure how many now 2? 4? It should be on the manual) automatically.
Its good to reduce damage and can completely protect a not too big force for one or two turns.

Regards!

[Major Dilemma]

I have a somewhat related question, about the CP penalty as it pertains to multiple brigade forces in the same region. Is there any advantage to keeping them separated within the region? As separate stacks their CP penalty is reduced but if they are all in the same stack their penalty is combined. However if they are attacked they fight together (I think) so does their penalty combine when they are attacked? Thanks.

[arsan]

Hi

Its very dangerous to keep brigades (or divisions or whatever) separated on several stacks in the same region to lower CP. If attacked there is no guarantee that they will fight together.
Most probable outcome is that the enemy engages just one other stacks and defeat them while the other stacks do nothing... or are committed to the battle some hours later just to arrive too late to be of help and to be defeated in succession.
Bear in mind that a region is pretty big (just guessing, but maybe 30-50 miles long). And there where no radio back then.
This rule tries to represent that different stacks can be in different parts of the region and never notice there is a battle going on on the other side of the regio... or at least they will not be able to get to the battle in time.
There are tons of historical cases like this.
Regards

So, myself i prefer higher CP that several separate stacks. Try to low CP making armies, corps and divisions or adding leaders..
Regards!

[Banks6060]

Yes absolutely take the Command Penalty over seperating you brigades and divisions.

If you don't have a Corps or army to put the units into. Just combine them with a General (if one is available)...organize them as best you can to avoid as much of a Command Penalty as you can...and they'll then fight as one unit...instead of a whole bunch of seperate ones.

The command penalty sucks, but it's better than the alternative of each of your units being attacked and likely defeated seperately.

[dolphin]

Yes absolutely take the Command Penalty over seperating you brigades and divisions.

I am new player so correct if I am wrong.

While ending a turn on defense it certainly makes sense to combine the brigades and take the command penalties, but I had a situation yesterday where I actually seperated over x20 brigades into their own seperate stacks of x1 brigade each to add to a massive attack and push in order to retake Alexandria.

Let me explain the situation.

I had no Army HQ as it had been destroyed in my attempts to take Washington earlier when both of its Corps where forced to retreat to Alexandria and it stayed and got stuck behind enemy lines with all my artillary.

I was then pushed back the Mannassas with my two primary Corps which to defend I rushed fresh reinforcement brigades to from all over the place.

Anyway after reforming my two corps with the best brigades I had all these partially damaged brigades left over many of which where not at full cohesion just sitting there in a big stack.

I decided to take back Alexandria with a massive attack with everything I had, but to get all those leaderless brigades with no division commanders to make it in with the two corps I had to seprate them to individual brigades because if I tried to march on Alexandria with even two of them stacked together I would simply not have enough movement to make it to the battle in the next turn to support my two corps. Seperated individually gave them faster movement and they were all able to join my two corps in the latter part of the battle which I won by the way.

Game turned out to be a stalemate the very next turn.

So in conclusion it does appear that there is in fact certain very rare circumstances that defy the current wisdom on this issue.


P.S. That game was from the 12 turn free demo. I just purchased the full version last night and am doing my due dilligence research reading the forum before starting my full campaign.

Great forum by the way.

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

I am new player so correct if I am wrong.

While ending a turn on defense it certainly makes sense to combine the brigades and take the command penalties, but I had a situation yesterday where I actually seperated over x20 brigades into their own seperate stacks of x1 brigade each to add to a massive attack and push in order to retake Alexandria.

Let me explain the situation.

I had no Army HQ as it had been destroyed in my attempts to take Washington earlier when both of its Corps where forced to retreat to Alexandria and it stayed and got stuck behind enemy lines with all my artillary.

I was then pushed back the Mannassas with my two primary Corps which to defend I rushed fresh reinforcement brigades to from all over the place.

Anyway after reforming my two corps with the best brigades I had all these partially damaged brigades left over many of which where not at full cohesion just sitting there in a big stack.

I decided to take back Alexandria with a massive attack with everything I had, but to get all those leaderless brigades with no division commanders to make it in with the two corps I had to seprate them to individual brigades because if I tried to march on Alexandria with even two of them stacked together I would simply not have enough movement to make it to the battle in the next turn to support my two corps. Seperated individually gave them faster movement and they were all able to join my two corps in the latter part of the battle which I won by the way.

Game turned out to be a stalemate the very next turn.

So in conclusion it does appear that there is in fact certain very rare circumstances that defy the current wisdom on this issue.


P.S. That game was from the 12 turn free demo. I just purchased the full version last night and am doing my due dilligence research reading the forum before starting my full campaign.

Great forum by the way.

While it is sometimes neccesary to split up stacks to increase movement speed, it's not a good idea to form an attack force out of them. I'm guessing all your brigades got there at different days so most of them probably didn't help in the battle. Even if they get there at the same time, they won't always participate. I learned this the hard way in a recent PBEM, also at Alexandria oddly enough.

[dolphin]

While it is sometimes neccesary to split up stacks to increase movement speed, it's not a good idea to form an attack force out of them. I'm guessing all your brigades got there at different days so most of them probably didn't help in the battle. Even if they get there at the same time, they won't always participate. I learned this the hard way in a recent PBEM, also at Alexandria oddly enough.

Agreed, but in my situation all my stragily brigades that went on in by themselves arived after my Big Stack got there.

I was pretty sure I was going to win the main battle. Sending the stagglers in was mainly so I would be able to reorganize right away at the beginning of the next turn by them all being in one spot.

[Spharv2]

Definitely wouldn't recommend that method if you have any doubt about the outcome of the main battle, and considering some of the battles my generals have managed to lose when I had huge odds in my favor, that would mean almost never.

Best case, you take it and get organized next turn, but the worst case is much much worse. One big loss, if your main attack was defeated, then a huge succession of small defeats, and since they were pre-damaged units, possible unit destruction. This could, if it happened enough times, shatter your NM in one turn.

In that case, I would suggest moving with the main force, and leaving a spare general or three behind to gather up the other forces to move up on the next turn. Delays you a bit, but it's much much safer.