Secret Agent Man

[GraniteStater]

I just got reminded by another post of a lingering question I have:

Just what the heck are Pinkerton and Belle Boyd supposed to do?

[Colonel Dreux]

I just got reminded by another post of a lingering question I have:

Just what the heck are Pinkerton and Belle Boyd supposed to do?

Briefly expose the force make up of whomever you are opposing on the field. Personally I wish you could use them for longer periods of time or for special missions of some sort.

[kglorberau]

I was also wondering what they do. I figured that they were like "spies" and could show you the makeup of enemy units, but I never noticed when Pinkerton was out roaming the North Carolina countryside.

As a one man / one woman force, they obviously cant capture anything, but do you just have them roam by themselves, or do you add them to an Army or Corp stack??

KgLorberau

[GraniteStater]

Thanks. Glad to see I'm not alone.

[Colonel Dreux]

I was also wondering what they do. I figured that they were like "spies" and could show you the makeup of enemy units, but I never noticed when Pinkerton was out roaming the North Carolina countryside.

As a one man / one woman force, they obviously cant capture anything, but do you just have them roam by themselves, or do you add them to an Army or Corp stack??

KgLorberau

I've never employed Pinkerton. I've seen him briefly from the CSA perspective, but don't know what he's doing.

Belle Boyd, once you put her in a stack (so yes, I put her in an army stack or Corps stack), I think, gets captured in one turn. Normally I let her sit in Richmond until there's an army I want to look at. Normally she doesn't really help you because you can already see the opposing army's make up.

Basically a flavor game piece.

[Brochgale]

I once lost Belle Boyd transfering her by train from Richmond to Nashville - she froze to death

Never really found what I would call a satisfactory way to play her. Oh and on other occasions she just got caught by Yanks - Damn those Pinkies?

[mikee64]

Put Belle Boyd on passive/evade and send her to a rear area you want intel on that cav cannot reach due to opposing cav screens. This is doable if the Union has a "shield" of garrisoned regions around DC (AI won't do this but a human might) and you want info on the garrison. She might die or get captured but you will get a one turn report on what's there. And you lose one person not a cav unit.