Full Campaign - New Player Questions

[Longshanks]

Horse artillery are 6-lb pea-shooters. Use two in a stack for effect. There's a thread somewhere on this.

regular 6-lb-ers don't necessarily upgrade all that fast - I've had them hang around for months and months.

12 lb are effective short range (i.e. defensive) and 20-lbers/Rodmans long range (both defense and offense), so mix them. Again, there's a thread on this.

How many arty per division? I'd say two, unless you're in the wide open country in good weather, in which case four. Only the Union can realistically accomplish this for every division. (another thread on this, but see the Frontage discussion for nuts and bolts).

Yes, Siege guns WILL slow you down. But there are tricks and ways around this (without being gamey).

Gatlings are great, but not THAT much different. They are best on defense (check out their range). Don't let the Rebels capture them! One for each of your best divisions, best commanders, on the front and likely to be attacked should do the trick. I always build them ALL immediately.

Militia is good for garrisoning those rebel cities in the rear that the Union has taken, but can be taken back by early cav if not garrisoned due to loyalty to the rebels. Stick them inside the city where marauding cav and Indians have a harder time getting to them. Sometimes building militia on the first turn can save a Harper's Ferry or Manassas, or Jefferson City, but they're not worth much in the long run.

No matter how much you learn, you soon find out everything you know is wrong.

[Chuske]

No matter how much you learn, you soon find out everything you know is wrong.

Prob most useful peice of advice, and not just for the game

[Chaplain Lovejoy]

Gatlings excellent value for defense of choke points like Harper's Ferry. Gatlings are defensive weapons, but USA is on the attack. Buying too many Gatlings will result in (or from) a "Maginot mentality." [No insult intended to my French brethren here for the reference!]

[Chaplain Lovejoy]

Gatlings are great, but not THAT much different. They are best on defense (check out their range). Don't let the Rebels capture them!

I seem to recall many moons ago a comment in a thread that a great thing about Gatlings was that they were useless to the Rebs if captured.

[Longshanks]

They can be incorporated into divisions now, so as long as a Gatling is not too beat up, it'll be useful.

Gatlings don't make me defensive minded, but they do help me mind the defense!

[Chuske]

Been awhile since I needed to consult you wise AACW sages, but hitting a few hiccups with seiges and Athena.

Firstly I'm trying to find the smallest force that can capture the NC forts quickly (Fort Clark etc). At the moment my force is the Irish brigade, 2x20lb, 1 rodman and 2 seige guns all inside a division with a supply wagon and much to my confusion it takes several turns to get a breach, I'm on normal def posture (blue/orange). Is there anyway to build a small force that can breach these forts quicker? I'm assuming the case when only the standard garrison troops and guns are defending?

Secondly. I'm having problems with Island No. 10, I've had Pope laying seige to it for ages and again he's not getting any breaches. He dosen't have seige guns but has 1 full division and one half division with 8 guns (1x12lb and 5x20lb) + 2 supply wagons and nearby depot at Columbus. The problem is the swamp terrain is keeping his forces cohesion low. I have a hospital unit and 2 seige guns in transit to him from east coast. Again how could have approached this seige better to get a quicker result (other than costly assault)?

Finally how does Athena pull off some of her moves? Sometimes a large force appears out of nowhere. In my first AI game I advanced most of my troops to Fredricksburg ready for a move on Richmond, leaving a 2 division corps in Manassas and a brigade with gatling guns in Alexandria. In 1 turn a large force of 40k under Bory and Jackson appeared out of nowhere (there had been a force opposite Manassas but it looked small), and took Manassas, Alexandria and Washington in 1 turn!

In my recent AI game AS Johnston marched all the way from Decatur, TN to Bowling Green to Clarksville to Savannah and ending up in Corinth in only 2 turns with a large force. My corps couldn't keep up even though they were on a shorter route. How does Athena pull this off, my troops get worn out marching 2-3 regions? Any tips on keeping Athena in check better?

[Jim-NC]

I never siege the forts on the coast. I take a division and assault. The standard CSA garrison is 1 inf element, 1 coastal art, and 1 fort batteries. A full division takes some casualties, but not too many.

As to Island # 10, you need more cannons (siege preferably). Again, I normally assualt as soon as possible.

As a note, the coastal art has a high power, but doesn't fire on ground troops (so if the stack power is 260, 250 might be from the coastal guns, meaning you are attacking a force with a power of 10).

As to Athena's marching abilities, she may be using RR, or those wonderful fast movers. There are many things that may be slowing your troops down (low cohesion, command penalty, inactive general, slow mover disability, troop type (cannons *may* slow you down - depends on the type of guns). If all else fails, you can peek at her moves and see how she pulled off that move.

Get some calvary out there as pickets to see her troops. You should have cav 1 to 2 regions ahead of your front line (where possible), and on your flanks so you can see those troops.

[Stauffenberg]

I never siege the forts on the coast. I take a division and assault. The standard CSA garrison is 1 inf element, 1 coastal art, and 1 fort batteries. A full division takes some casualties, but not too many.

I was under the impression the US got +1 NM for every successful siege on the coast. With some 17 + forts along the coasts, that's a substantial steady increase for the diligent and patient US player.

[Jim-NC]

I was under the impression the US got +1 NM for every successful siege on the coast. With some 17 + forts along the coasts, that's a substantial steady increase for the diligent and patient US player.

It is, but it takes forever. If you want to move a Grant or Sherman up the seniority ladder, put them in charge of a division and charge forts. They will pick up a few points for every successful attack.
IIRC, you have to block all harbor entrances to get a surrender, which means both sides of the fort (on some, you need shallow draft ships to do that). I am usually to busy planning at getting to Richmond or Nashville/Memphis to worry about sieging forts.

[Longshanks]

Have to agree with Jim-NC on this one (it's dangerous not to!). If you have all day and don't care about sitting around, then, yeh, you can pick up a few NM. But better to take the forts by assault, get the cannons, move them elsewhere, destroy the fort, and lay the bare midriff of the South open for ... oh dear, I seem to have broken the family reading code!

[barkmann44]

For anybody who wants the real Nuts-n-Bolts information about what works and why one of the best and compactest sources of information is Dixicrat's Basic Training for AACW newcomers. If you want to know why A, B or C works or when it won't work and why, this is one of the best places to look.

I honestly don't know why this isn't stickied to the AACW Section with blinking lights and a

tried to look at post was denied permission

[Chuske]

Great advice as ever guys. Looks like I'll be ordering Matthew Broderick to make his glorious fort assaults (just rewatched that movie, def one of the best) in my serious games (ie ones where not taking all year to capture a coastal fort is priority)! Also as per my new siege thread I'll be experimenting to see if I can work out a force type that can breach quickly.

tried to look at post was denied permission

barkmann44 I had exactly the same problem when I first joined, unfortunately the beginners thread is in a section that now cannot be accessed by people new to the forum see here http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?17093-To-combat-spammers-restrictions-applied-to-new-members-of-the-forum

So I believe that you need to post at least 4 more times and wait a week, pain in the *** I know, it was for me too.

If I get time this weekend I may start building a new thread of links to threads useful to beginners, as I'm only just getting the hang of this sim so my efforts and confusions are pretty fresh and have bookmarked a ton of useful threads on this game.



Right, I have one more question of my own. In my AI game I captured Tallahasse with its depot intact and the coastal region next to it. All of a sudden I ran out of supply. I'd assumed the supplies would flow overseas and then up the river to Tallahasses harbour and into my depot. Looks like that wasn't the case and I'm having to pull out blowing the depot as I go.

Any ideas what prevented supply getting to me? Pic below is just after I pulled out but shows the supply situation I had until I blew depot and left.

[Captain_Orso]

Ocean supply is only transported to coastal harbors, never through rivers. If the exit-point of a harbor states that it is a coastal region (tool-tip) it should get supply from the Shipping Box, but the cities up the Mississippi up to the Red River confluent -- everything south of there is coastal waters -- may be exempt per other definitions as IIRC the game engine doesn't look directly at the exit-point region to see if it is a coastal region, but the files defining each region.

I was under the impression the US got +1 NM for every successful siege on the coast. With some 17 + forts along the coasts, that's a substantial steady increase for the diligent and patient US player.

You get +1NM for each successful siege regardless of where or what. If the besieged force is under-supplied they will suffer penalties. If the besieging force is large enough the defender may outright surrender as soon as the siege begins.

About Island #10: if you are attacking Island #10, don't try to march into the region, land there from transports. It costs the least in cohesion. If you are defending Island #10, have some batteries entrenched outside the fort. These will fire on troops trying to land in the region with devastating results in the first round or two of battle. This is also valid for any region (old pre-war forts) that might be invaded.

Defending coastal forts only from within will fail. While the troops inside are being bombarded by besieging forces, the besieger has free run of the land and the fort defenders are reduced to nothing but place-holders. Think of Richmond and Petersburg, most of the defenders were outside of the cites in entrenchments.

[Chuske]

Ocean supply is only transported to coastal harbors, never through rivers. If the exit-point of a harbor states that it is a coastal region (tool-tip) it should get supply from the Shipping Box, but the cities up the Mississippi up to the Red River confluent -- everything south of there is coastal waters -- may be exempt per other definitions as IIRC the game engine doesn't look directly at the exit-point region to see if it is a coastal region, but the files defining each region.



You get +1NM for each successful siege regardless of where or what. If the besieged force is under-supplied they will suffer penalties. If the besieging force is large enough the defender may outright surrender as soon as the siege begins.

About Island #10: if you are attacking Island #10, don't try to march into the region, land there from transports. It costs the least in cohesion. If you are defending Island #10, have some batteries entrenched outside the fort. These will fire on troops trying to land in the region with devastating results in the first round or two of battle. This is also valid for any region (old pre-war forts) that might be invaded.

Defending coastal forts only from within will fail. While the troops inside are being bombarded by besieging forces, the besieger has free run of the land and the fort defenders are reduced to nothing but place-holders. Think of Richmond and Petersburg, most of the defenders were outside of the cites in entrenchments.

Doffs hat to the Captain. Great and wise advice as ever!

So to supply Tallahassee I need it connected to a coastal port.... shame no Mulberry harbours until 1944.... , looks like I need to capture quite a bit of territory to supply Tallahassee, maybe an FL E.coast port and capture along a rail line.... bah! Much more tricky than I expected, time to change target me thinks.