Elusivehonor
Civilian
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Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:51 am

Shelby's Campaign + Bull Run - Newb Strategy Questions

Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:22 am

Was wondering if any veterans can help me get the hang of these campaigns because I am failing all over the place.

For Shelby's Campaign, specifically, how should I go about beating the initial Union armies around Texas and Colorado? Could anyone give me some general strategy tipes? It seems everytime I go on the offensive it either ends in disaster, or very limited successes.

Also, how much do the penalties hurt me? That is, do numbers offset the command penalty, or should I avoid command penalties like the plague?

Furthermore, in Shelby's Campaign the estimated move times seem to be a bit random (I assume this is based on weather, and unit cohesion?). Sometimes, they don't move at all. How do I make sure my generals move, and move as fast as the game says they will? I am aware that this might be a feature, I am just not sure.

Lastly, and more generally, sometimes my generals refuse to go into an attack posture. Why is that, and how can I tell the reasons for that?

For Bull Run, the Union never attacks Manassas, and the only time I've ever attacked Alexandria the Union effectively destroyed my forces.

It was during that time that I discovered a rather gamey way to win the game. After the attack on Alexandria, I decided to send Johnston's army to maneuver around to Washington. The strange thing is that I lost the battle, but Winfield Scott decided to leave the capital so I won. I've been doing that for a few games now (minus the attack on Alexandria), and while it works...its not exactly fun, or satisfying.

My questions are:

How do I get the Union to attack Manassas? I sit Beauregard there, the Union sits in Alexandria. I move Beauregard out of Manassas, the Union sits in Alexandria.

Also, more generally, how should I go about controlling armies made up of separate divisions in the early game? Should I stack them all into the HQ? Is there a way to link them to the army/HQ so they could move generally as a single unit (the way corps work)?

Any other tips, in terms of getting armies to the battles, would be helpful. I'm somewhat at a loss as how to confidently proceed at the moment.

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Gray Fox
AGEod Guard of Honor
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Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:48 pm
Location: Englewood, OH

Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:47 pm

I've not played any of the minor campains, however the game mechanics are the same throughout. If a stack has a penalty for lack of command, this usually cannot be overcome by dumping more units into the stack. Just from the math, if you had a 700 power stack and you added a 300 power force to it that then gave the stack a 35% penalty, then the new stack would only have 650 power (1000*.35=350, 1000-350=650).

To reflect the complexities of command and control of that period, Generals are given a Strategy rating. For most 1-stars this is a 3. The AI does a check each turn to see if a General is active based on their Strategy rating. An inactive General cannot attack or assault, has movement penalties and cannot form a new Division.

Until March 1862, you cannot form a Corps stack. So you only have a limited number of Army stacks that can be formed by a 3-star General. Divisions not stacked with the Army can never be linked to that Army for movement or marching to the sound of the guns. Even two Army stacks cannot be linked.

The composition of an Army stack depends on what you want to accomplish with that stack. You will want some Divisions and artillery with perhaps an engineer, pontoon unit, HQ unit and some supply units. An attacking stack should have more power than one in the defense. Some elements are slower than others so if you want to get there 'first with the most' then don't stack these with your Army.

As to your last request, you might try watching the tutorials, reading some of the AAR's and perhaps familiarizing yourself with the manual. Good luck!
I'm the 51st shade of gray. Eat, pray, Charge!

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Jim-NC
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Location: Near Region 209, North Carolina

Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:25 pm

Welcome to the forums Elusivehonor :wavey:

Unfortunately, you can't force the AI to attack you where you want (in your case Manassas). The AI "sees" something that tells it to stay in Alexandria. I am not sure what it sees, but there is something.
Remember - The beatings will continue until morale improves.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

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Stonewall
Posts: 267
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Location: Florida, USA

Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:41 pm

Jim-NC wrote:Welcome to the forums Elusivehonor :wavey:

Unfortunately, you can't force the AI to attack you where you want (in your case Manassas). The AI "sees" something that tells it to stay in Alexandria. I am not sure what it sees, but there is something.


What the ai "sees" is the writing on the wall. Which says in no uncertain terms "It's probably a bad idea to attack an entrenched defender with equal numbers."

Elusivehonor
Civilian
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:51 am

Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:23 pm

Thank you for the responses, and the welcome. I will take another look at the manual.

Stonewall wrote:What the ai "sees" is the writing on the wall. Which says in no uncertain terms "It's probably a bad idea to attack an entrenched defender with equal numbers."


Well, the relative powers of the two stacks were pretty different. The Union had around 1800, while the Confederates only had around 1000. I guess that wasn't enough of an advantage for them to attack Manassas.

khbynum
Major
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Joined: Wed May 02, 2012 8:00 pm

Sun Jul 20, 2014 7:12 pm

I just finished Sibley's campaign as CSA and lost on points, despite retaining all my original locations, occupying everything north to Santa Fe, winning every battle, destroying Canby's army and inflicting 2:1 casualties. So, I think that one can't be won. I'm now trying it as the USA.

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