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.