Sat Nov 01, 2014 4:35 am
It provides a neater board because all stacks are placed on top of each other when your turns begin, but I prefer to leave it unselected because regions with lots of stacks can be harder to manage if you've been away from the game for a day or so and forget what's there.
Other options I like:
Veteran activation - Allows you to instantly form divisions at the beginning of the turn (after September 1861) which significantly cuts down on micromanagement.
Normal supply - Easy supply will allow you to do things not even within the remote realm of possibility. Better to leave it off and learn the system.
Normal naval box handling - Same as above.
Normal replacements - Or whatever the option to prevent them from being automated is called anyway. One of the best ways to learn replacements is to have to buy them yourself.
Historical attrition - In conjunction with the above setting, you'll quickly learn how the game tracks and uses replacements and how you should prepare for their need.
All these will make the game significantly more difficult, but just do a search on the subject in question (replacements, supply, attrition, etc.) here and you'll get dozens of hits on threads which contain many of the details not in the manual, which is designed to give you the absolute basics. You will get up to speed and learn the game more quickly this way.