Thoughts after finishing my second game

[midnight]

Just finished my second game vs Athena playing as the Union using the RC4 build and thought I'd give provide a brief overview of how I did and some random thoughts.

• The Mississippi campaign is REALLY fun and is great for gaining experience. I loved seeing Grant, Sherman, Rosecrans, Lyon, Meade, Sheridan, Pope etc. level up very quickly (Grant was a 3 * by start of 1862)
• Completely ignored the Far West and what still not sure what to do here. I tried taking Tucson but got pushed back in Western Arizona and then lost Ft Yuma and then abandoned everything west of St.Louis (minus Rolla and Springfield MO)
• I learned the hard way of advancing too quickly, ignoring garrisons and losing cities to small divisions, militias and cavalry.
• I *finally* figured out why my blockade was so low (tip: check your naval boxes handling in game options!)
• Athena entrenched a 7000 stack in Richmond, making it very difficult to attack and was very cautious with it. Only an unsuccessful amphibious campaign on Norfolk (that repelled my attack AND destroyed my fleet to the CSA army besieging Fort Monroe) seemed to distract Athena long enough to open the road to Richmond by splitting the 7000 stack.
• Something strange happened at Evansville, 2 CSA armies converged on Evansville and sat there doing nothing for a good 3-4 months after failed attacks on St Louis AND Bowling Green (retreating into my territory as they went). However, Athena did a good job of harassing me with these armies until they got caught.
• I seemed to have lots and lots of resources (over 4K WS at start of 1863), more than I could ever hope to spend. Money was definitely the limiting factor here. (I did initially build a couple of armouries and iron works)
• Promotions system is bit hit and miss. Not being able to see the effect on a generals stats when promoting generals, losing promotions and multiple promotions in a stack are a pain.
• It would also be nice to see the affect of appointing a Corps commander has on its subordinates.
• I don't build nearly enough cavalry for scouting
• The game still crashes fairly frequently (especially alt tabbing or flicking to my second monitor)

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AI settings

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Game settings

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East

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West

Overall I had a lot of fun and would like some advice to make the next game that much more challenging. I'm not sure if I should give the CSA a go or stick with the Union and make it more difficult. I'm already playing on Lieutenant but I'm thinking Colonel might be a step too far

[Merlin]

[*]Completely ignored the Far West and what still not sure what to do here. I tried taking Tucson but got pushed back in Western Arizona and then lost Ft Yuma and then abandoned everything west of St.Louis (minus Rolla and Springfield MO)

It doesn't take much to hold stuff there, so a little investment pays off big, especially for the Union. Using the California Column is a bit more difficult and you're not going farther than Tucson unless you play the depot cards out there. Additionally, Athena seems to like beefing up her NM contingents, so you're not going to be doing much outside the boxes. Supply rules everything out there, and there's not enough to cover any additional forces unless you can push into Texas. I usually just go for Tucson and call it quits in the FW.

Now, the KS/IT/North Texas region is something else entirely. Athena loves this region regardless of what side you're playing, and a few 1-2 regiment brigades can hold the stockades, but were the territories really shine is small, fast whack-a-mole stockade warfare. One or two 100-200 PWR fast divisions with good leaders allows you to tie up significant garrison investments and works every bit as well as the Mississippi for promotion purposes. I routinely get Sherman, Sheridan, Forrest, and others up to three stars out here. Anybody with high STR and a few of the cav, master logistician and fast mover traits should take a tour in the territories, IMO.

You can certainly ignore everything west and south of Leavenworth or even engage in some scorched earth to keep the enemy out of your corner, but I love the fluid nature of the theater. It's a cheap investment too; your average stack costs about as much as it's fighting weight and the few garrison brigades don't cost much more.

[*]I learned the hard way of advancing too quickly, ignoring garrisons and losing cities to small divisions, militias and cavalry.

I use the big, awkward MA and NE brigades for this. Tack on whatever units exist in your trailing army gaggle and you've got a solid garrison.

[*]Athena entrenched a 7000 stack in Richmond, making it very difficult to attack and was very cautious with it. Only an unsuccessful amphibious campaign on Norfolk (that repelled my attack AND destroyed my fleet to the CSA army besieging Fort Monroe) seemed to distract Athena long enough to open the road to Richmond by splitting the 7000 stack.

Destroyed?? Did you set you fleet to bombard by chance?

[*]Something strange happened at Evansville, 2 CSA armies converged on Evansville and sat there doing nothing for a good 3-4 months after failed attacks on St Louis AND Bowling Green (retreating into my territory as they went). However, Athena did a good job of harassing me with these armies until they got caught.

Max out Athena's detection and don't push her aggressiveness above default. Also, don't leave strategic targets un-garrisoned. Between the two she should stop making suicide runs.

[*]I seemed to have lots and lots of resources (over 4K WS at start of 1863), more than I could ever hope to spend. Money was definitely the limiting factor here. (I did initially build a couple of armouries and iron works.

Learn to love it. It's incredible how much experimentation this glut of resources allows.

[*]It would also be nice to see the affect of appointing a Corps commander has on its subordinates.

It would be nice to know the formula (I don't think it's random like in AACW), but if you corps commander is better than the army commander, he might get handicapped. The reverse results in bonuses, and a rule worth following is to never allow anyone with two or more ratings below 3 to command a field army if it can be helped.

[*]I don't build nearly enough cavalry for scouting

Build it all. CAV is ridiculously cheap.

[*]The game still crashes fairly frequently (especially alt tabbing or flicking to my second monitor)

Mine crashes every six turns or so, and has ever since AACW. I just save, quit and restart if I'm going to play more than six turns. It's annoying, but I'm willing to put up with quite a bit of inconvenience to play the only decent ACW series in existence today.

Overall I had a lot of fun and would like some advice to make the next game that much more challenging. I'm not sure if I should give the CSA a go or stick with the Union and make it more difficult. I'm already playing on Lieutenant but I'm thinking Colonel might be a step too far

Just max out Athena's handicaps and try some different strategies. The CSA is fun and definitely worth playing, but I prefer the burden of attack and frontage of the Union to the investment dilemmas of the CSA.

[tripax]

Go for Colonel, it looks like you did great. I switched to Colonel right away, and allowed myself to cheat by redoing moves once every 6 months, and then once a year as a way to ease into the higher difficulty. In hindsight, I don't think I needed to do it though, I would have learned just as much losing a few games if not more.

[GlobalExplorer]

Talking from my memory with AACW (should work the same in the new game) .. There are many good strategies in the West, but I found it more fun to ignore the West and concentrate on Virginia and North Carolina. If the AI forms a 7000+ superstack in Richmond, that's a chance to destroy 100,000 men, just don't attack! A better strategy is to cut off Richmond (attack Lynchburg from the north and Petersburg from the south). In my current game I have managed complete encirclement, and simply let my Corps hold defensive positions (railway junctions etc), the AI losses are horrendous.

Also a good idea is an invasion from Wilmington (South Carolina), or Norfolk might do as well. The key to invasions is that you must send enough troops.

[GlobalExplorer]

Mine crashes every six turns or so, and has ever since AACW. I just save, quit and restart if I'm going to play more than six turns. It's annoying, but I'm willing to put up with quite a bit of inconvenience to play the only decent ACW series in existence today.

I had similar problems, they all disappeared after disabling antivirus software.

[tripax]

...There are many good strategies..., but I found it more fun to..

I've copied my favorite part of your comment. The best part of CW2 for me is to be good enough at the game to have a chance at success trying out fun (and hopefully good) strategies. For instance, in the real war, large land armies didn't usually arrive on shore in the deep south and march inland (Sherman upside down), but you can try that. I once won mostly holding the line in the east and west and taking the trans-Mississippi and far West first, then gobbling up the South from the Mississippi moving east. You can try to replicate paths using different generals, undo mistakes, redo mistakes, whatever.

Anyway, I wanted to go back to one point of the OP, that of resources. I think you finished in April 1863. For me, by the end of 1863, money sorts itself out and conscripts becomes the limiting factor. I'm not sure about how to exactly maximize your economy, but here is what I do. I play Habeus Corpus and other loyalty cards on resource earning regions (check the regions menu to see which ones) and I industrialize completely, especially Ironworks and Arsenals. I rarely pay 2 for volunteers, but will pay 1 or 1.5. I've taken to playing all the money options, although not always the very first time they are available - usually within a month or so. I build less replacement artillery, since it isn't used as much. Some people buy and put lots of transports in the shipping box, I'm not 100% sure if that is economical and on what timescale (does anyone know?).

By the way, I don't use automatic replacements, it doesn't save much time and getting used to buying your own is good. Also, I turn up historical attrition, it isn't too bad, it just means you have to buy more supply and hospital units. Both of these will increase difficulty a bit if you don't want to switch to Colonel yet.

[GlobalExplorer]

"Sherman upside down", is a good way to describe that strategy. Have to remember that if I should write a post mortem to my campaign.
AACW, but the campaign underneath is the same, there is not so much difference between the games.





By the way, the Confederates are still not on their knees (!), even with most of NC and VA under my control, two huge pockets have formed: Richmond/Petersburg and Shenandoah Valley, I guess at least 100,000 inside. They just take losses turn after turn, it seems even with that level of encirclement they still get supply from their remaining harbors.

[Merlin]

I had similar problems, they all disappeared after disabling antivirus software.

I appreciate the information, but that has already failed me. I'll live with it as necessary.

[midnight]

Thanks for the input and support guys!

Destroyed?? Did you set you fleet to bombard by chance?

I don't think I did but I wouldn't rule it out! After all I did accidentally leave the fleet there for 2 turns and lost all 16 ships

Max out Athena's detection and don't push her aggressiveness above default. Also, don't leave strategic targets un-garrisoned. Between the two she should stop making suicide runs

Aggressiveness was at default, but I will be sure to crank up her detection. Ironically the reason I left her garrisoned was because of her attack at bowling green and she beat me back to Evansville!

Go for Colonel, it looks like you did great. I switched to Colonel right away, and allowed myself to cheat by redoing moves once every 6 months, and then once a year as a way to ease into the higher difficulty.

Thanks Tripax, next game I will try Colonel and add historical attrition. Allowing my self to cheat every 6 months is also a great idea! I have a feeling I may very well get destroyed but something tells me I will have a lot of fun doing it! I think that's one of the great things about CW2, there is so much you can get out of it. For me the best part is using CW2 as a supplement my civil war reading, it is VERY handy for someone who isn't (wasn't) familiar with US geography or the civil war.

If the AI forms a 7000+ superstack in Richmond, that's a chance to destroy 100,000 men, just don't attack! A better strategy is to cut off Richmond (attack Lynchburg from the north and Petersburg from the south). In my current game I have managed complete encirclement, and simply let my Corps hold defensive positions (railway junctions etc), the AI losses are horrendous.

I actually started doing this but I played it safe and pulled back. I was terrified that Athena was either going to leave enough troops to defend Richmond and make a mad dash for Washington or to isolate and attack my split army. Is there anything I could have done differently or to at least mitigate these risks?

I play Habeus Corpus and other loyalty cards on resource earning regions (check the regions menu to see which ones) and I industrialize completely, especially Ironworks and Arsenals. I rarely pay 2 for volunteers, but will pay 1 or 1.5. I've taken to playing all the money options, although not always the very first time they are available - usually within a month or so.

+1 for this, using habeas corpus and other loyalty cards (not sure if def works is working correctly though) extensively you can get the following money/WS/conscripts at 100%:

• 59/2/2 from Northern California
• 45/14/9 New York NY
• 34/68/11 Suffolk MA
• 31/40/9 Philadelphia
• 16/0/0 Nevada
• 16/0/0 Clear Creek CO

I was just wondering if I needed to buy Iron works or invest in armouries? I can't see me ever using that many and WS and I was spending all my money every single turn.

I appreciate the information, but that has already failed me. I'll live with it as necessary.

Me too, changing the save game directory and setting memory usage and max texture size down a notch helped a lot too.

I actually bought AACW at the same time too and did think about giving that a go next although CW2 is much shinier!

[tripax]

...I was just wondering if I needed to buy Iron works or invest in armouries? I can't see me ever using that many and WS and I was spending all my money every single turn...

...
I actually bought AACW at the same time too and did think about giving that a go next although CW2 is much shinier!

I do invest in them, you can kind of figure out what they are worth and decide for yourself, I think Iron Works and Armories provide WS, maybe I have that wrong.

I liked AACW and you might, too. The geography of the game is a little bit different, so it will give you a different perspective, for sure. The pros and cons of recruitment have been discussed elsewhere, but that, a more limited geography, and the lack of regional decisions are the biggest differences. Even so, AACW can be a funner game for some - although I think those forums are less active. AGEOD says the AI is better in CW2, I think.