How do you you stop cavalry raids?

[aryaman]

I am playing the 1861 campaign with CSA and I am suffering continuous raids by small cavalry units, I tried to chase them with my own cavalry, but they evade me all the time, however I have a strong army corps at Fredereicksburg that is constantly engaging any cavalry trying to pass. but of course I can´t post strong corps everywhere to stop them, Any ideas?

[Rafiki]

I'd like to hear others' thoughts about this too. I've tried using a continuous frontline with perhaps as little a single militia element in each to "screen" of any would-be raiders, but my experience with it is a bit mixed.

[James D Burns]

I'd like to hear others' thoughts about this too. I've tried using a continuous frontline with perhaps as little a single militia element in each to "screen" of any would-be raiders, but my experience with it is a bit mixed.

Entrenched units are supposed to have an enhanced ability to spot raiders passing through their area. Early on due to serious cash flow issues I simply use 1 or 2 of the brigades I have on hand per area entrenched. This helps but isn’t foolproof. Later I plan to use 1-2 militia regiments and 1 cavalry regiment.

The militia will be there to give me an edge in the combats numbers wise, the single cav for their ability to spot/search. Add to this the entrenched bonus and I'm hoping cavalry raiders will be a thing of the past.

Jim

[marecone]

I just put one militia in every border city and the cities behind the first line. I don't care about raiders. If the destroy RR, I fix it.

Anyway, when they really piss me I put a cavalry in border town. If raider passes me and enter deeper in my area then I draw my cavalry on it with attack option. This way my cavalry will follow rebs and probably catch them because they have to come back home.

Another tip on stopping raids is placing gunboats on river. Pocus will correct me if I am wrong (usually am ) but no land unit can pass on other side of the river if there are gunboats patroling.

Hope this helps

[aryaman]

I have seen units crossing rivers despite gunboats, as for cavalry, in my games I have tried to intercept with the attack set on, but when I enter the same region I usually fail to intercept it and the %chance showed in the log is very low, less than 10%, so I guess I will have to settle to just repairing broken RR

[Winfield S. Hancock]

How many gunboat units are necessary to block movement across a particular section of river? Just one, or do you need to have a number of ships (usually are 2 per gunboat unit) equal to the blockade value of the river hex? Or, do you need a number of units (regardless of how many ships they contain) equal to the blockade value of the river section?

Pocus or betas, help please!

[Spharv2]

Yes, there's a chance for units to cross rivers despite gunboats. The chance is affected by their evade skill I think, so cavalry is more likely to be able to. My strategy is usually to buy a lot of militia initially, and just repair any breaks made with a group of roving militia.

Then I buy small groups of cavalry (Usually 2 cav and one horse artillery) that sit in the forward border cities. I try to get at least 3-4 groups like this. If I can come up with enough decent cav leaders, I'll use them to lead these groups, but they have to have a high strat value, I don't care so much about Att and Def, but they have to be active when I need them. I play only with random generals by the way. As soon as I spot a cavalry raid, I set the nearest cav unit to intercept them, unless it's a large group of cavalry, I'll pursue with the assault posture to increase my chances of destroying them as quickly as possible. Usually, if they don't scare them back across the border, then they'll usually chase them down in a couple of turns and by then, the raider's cohesion should be low enough that they're slow and weak. The key is to not let those raiders capture any cities, if they do, then they can resupply, and that leads to even deeper raids. As my lines push forward, I move the entire thing forward keeping up. After I begin to push in, I try to keep at least a three line depth of militia to ensure I can defend the cities cavalry can reach quickly.

[Pocus]

Are you sure that the cavalry passed exactly between 2 regions separated by a river where you had a gunboat? The code is rather clear that you should not and I don't see a bug for now (can be though ). If you have a saved game, it can helps me, but I would need to have the backups, the turn and the location of the passage...

[Le Ricain]

It has certainly been my experience that a line of single gunboat units keeps out cavalry. The trick is making sure that there are no gaps in your coverage.

[Rafiki]

How does that work out management-wise? I take it that you need to have some rotation of the boats?

[Le Ricain]

How does that work out management-wise? I take it that you need to have some rotation of the boats?

Yes, you need to have a spare boat or two to replace the out of supply gunboats. Fortunately for the Union, you have quite a few depot cities on the river systems close by. In my experience, the replacing gunboat always fills the gap before the South can take any advantage.