I have recently acquired this great game and am enjoying it very much. After some scenarios and try-and-error approaches to campaigns I have finished my first Union campaign in summer 1863 by storming Richmond and now I am on my first real Confederate campaign. Playing the rebels I have noticed 2 things about the AI which puzzle me a bit.
1) Blockading. Playing as Union I managed to keep blockade efficiency at 25% with minimal effort. (Although I didn’t conduct any naval raids or invasions, so I could devote my entire navy to blockade duty.) The AI started out great with a blockade efficiency of 35% which really slowed down my initial build up in 1861, but suddenly they withdrew all their ships from the blockade boxes and my blockade runners are free to travel to and fro Europe for (at the start) much needed supplies. Now it is early 1863 and all the Union has is a small number of ships in the Atlantic box for a 5% blockade. Is this a general deficiency of the AI or did something just went wrong during this one game?
2) AI suicide runs. I noticed that the Union AI seems to have a tendency for suicidal invasions into southern territory which end in total annihilation of the invading force. It started with (what I thought at first was a good move) attack of McDowell with some 30 thousand men towards Richmond. I had massed my army at Manassas which was by-passed by the Union via a (relatively) undefended Fredericksburg. I simply cut their supply lines by taking Alexandria with Jackson’s corps and sent Johnston’s corps to push McDowell to the peninsula where apparently his force just withered away due to a lack of supply. (Since I haven’t seen him since, I presume he was not evacuated by sea.) Another example was a Union landing in North Carolina in ’62. Some 15 thousand men took a harbor, and while 3000 remained to defend the beach head the rest moved inland. I sent Lee to first take back the beach head, then chase the rest of the invaders which (probably due to an inactive leader) didn’t manage to take a single town or depot despite only militia garrisons. When Lee caught up with the survivors they where down to less than 2000 without any major engagements.
Is there a setting which allows the AI to execute such invasions with better logistics?