Too few officers?

[Timur]

I'm currently playing my first Union campaign (only on easy and with fixed army strength) and the further I get, the more the low number of available officers becomes the limiting factor for my army.

My next battle is Antietam, I have an army strength of 85k, with 33k men in the reserve and about 170k $ available.

But I can hardly do anything with them, because I have 0 officers with a rank higher than Major left. Is that normal? Did I miss an obvious way to get more officers promoted? Majors seem hardly able to command more than artillery batteries and maybe smaller cavalry units.

I know that I get more in the barracks after a big battle, but after 2nd Bull Run I only got a handful. So what am I doing wrong?

[Caramirdan]

Not sure. I have the exact opposite problem as the CSA late in the campaign. Hardly any BGs, but a ton of MGs and several spare LTGs as I'm running only three corps.

One thing I've done on this campaign is ensure my highest-ranked officers are in charge of a corps first. Once the highest ranking general is at the corps level, the next highest is 1st Division, then the next 2nd Division, etc., e.g., when a division commander makes LTG, I take him out of the division command and appoint the next-highest ranking MG to that opening, and move all the other division commanders up as well.

I used to appoint any BG brigade commander making MG up to a new division, but now I have a dozen+ MGs without divisions just sitting in the barracks getting into trouble and playing cards. They'll probably end up as brigade commanders as my BGs die off.

One thing to get officers if your Academy is empty is to create a new brigade. The lowest rank of officer will be hired to command it, you'll notice.

[Wright29]

Sometimes RNG can be brutal with officers available in the Barracks. Like a single Colonel after a major battle.

As Union it is in line with history to be short of quality officers in the early war. You really have to recruit every single officer at abd above lt colonel after every single major battle in order to equip yourself well for antietam and Fredericksburg. Even then you'll have some captains heading arty brigades.

Definitely need a use reputation every time to get generals in the first half of the game.

[Mr. G]

Originally posted by Wright29:

Sometimes RNG can be brutal with officers available in the Barracks. Like a single Colonel after a major battle.

As Union it is in line with history to be short of quality officers in the early war. You really have to recruit every single officer at abd above lt colonel after every single major battle in order to equip yourself well for antietam and Fredericksburg. Even then you'll have some captains heading arty brigades.

Definitely need a use reputation every time to get generals in the first half of the game.

I did not realize that. I just finished Shiloh day 2 and am also running low on officers. I will burn through some favor and grab some more generals. Thanks for the heads up.

[Timur]

Originally posted by Wright29:

Sometimes RNG can be brutal with officers available in the Barracks. Like a single Colonel after a major battle.

As Union it is in line with history to be short of quality officers in the early war. You really have to recruit every single officer at abd above lt colonel after every single major battle in order to equip yourself well for antietam and Fredericksburg. Even then you'll have some captains heading arty brigades.

Definitely need a use reputation every time to get generals in the first half of the game.

As far as I see it, stuff from the armory shop or the barracks doesn't disappear after big battles, does it? So buying the officers out of there early doesn't really changes things. Buying the repution stuff is another story obviously, but I think I bought a lot of those during the campaign already.

[wanderingthoreau1987]

I always buy or hire more officers even when I have a surplus as you can have 6 officers end up as casualties in just a minor scrape.

[RomePong]

I think Confederate get better, and many officers than Union.

[Wright29]

Originally posted by Timur:

Originally posted by Wright29:

Sometimes RNG can be brutal with officers available in the Barracks. Like a single Colonel after a major battle.

As Union it is in line with history to be short of quality officers in the early war. You really have to recruit every single officer at abd above lt colonel after every single major battle in order to equip yourself well for antietam and Fredericksburg. Even then you'll have some captains heading arty brigades.

Definitely need a use reputation every time to get generals in the first half of the game.

As far as I see it, stuff from the armory shop or the barracks doesn't disappear after big battles, does it? So buying the officers out of there early doesn't really changes things. Buying the repution stuff is another story obviously, but I think I bought a lot of those during the campaign already.

The officers disappear when you start the next major battle. You'll get new ones, but the current ones are gone forever.
Likewise, guns available on the shop do not stack. For example there might be 8 24pdr howitzers available. If you don't buy them, there will still be another 8 available after the next battle. BUT you could have bought the initial eight, then the next eight for 16 total. So you miss out every time you don't buy items after a major battle.

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

did not know items did NOT stack after each battle in the shop so it doesnt accumalte =/ lame..

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

Originally posted by Wright29:

Originally posted by Timur:

As far as I see it, stuff from the armory shop or the barracks doesn't disappear after big battles, does it? So buying the officers out of there early doesn't really changes things. Buying the repution stuff is another story obviously, but I think I bought a lot of those during the campaign already.

The officers disappear when you start the next major battle. You'll get new ones, but the current ones are gone forever.
Likewise, guns available on the shop do not stack. For example there might be 8 24pdr howitzers available. If you don't buy them, there will still be another 8 available after the next battle. BUT you could have bought the initial eight, then the next eight for 16 total. So you miss out every time you don't buy items after a major battle.

[Solar Maximus]

Nice Wright29. You always have some good "intel". It's info like this that can help us fight this strong AI. On to Richmond lads!

[Timur]

Originally posted by Wright29:

The officers disappear when you start the next major battle. You'll get new ones, but the current ones are gone forever.
Likewise, guns available on the shop do not stack. For example there might be 8 24pdr howitzers available. If you don't buy them, there will still be another 8 available after the next battle. BUT you could have bought the initial eight, then the next eight for 16 total. So you miss out every time you don't buy items after a major battle.

Hm...I have to test that.

[mhenry_101381]

Originally posted by RomePong:

I think Confederate get better, and many officers than Union.

Historically, they did. The great Union officers didn't really start showing up until 1863. Grant was making serious waves in 1862, but didn't get LTG and brought east until late 1863. I wonder how Grant would have handled the Eastern campaign if he were in command earlier in the war.

[Timur]

Originally posted by mhenry_101381:

Historically, they did. The great Union officers didn't really start showing up until 1863.

I think it was also due to the fact, that southern aristocrats chose a military carreer more often than the northern elite, which went more for careers in arts, science or business.

So the South had more officers who actually went through a military education, while the North had to take whom they could.

[mhenry_101381]

Originally posted by Timur:

Originally posted by mhenry_101381:

Historically, they did. The great Union officers didn't really start showing up until 1863.

I think it was also due to the fact, that southern aristocrats chose a military carreer more often than the northern elite, which went more for careers in arts, science or business.

So the South had more officers who actually went through a military education, while the North had to take whom they could.

They had an established chain of command already. Also if you look at the Southern social ladder, plantation owners and their sons were the top of the heap. They became the Colonels and Captains, Generals usually came from those with military backgrounds from the US Army, those with years of experience in certain areas like railroads and/or those with political connections. The militias of the time also picked their own officers, which often led to disaster. The rest of the social ladder filled in the other ranks.

[dazedandconfused]

Ugh, I lost one CSA general KIA, and 9 WIA at 2nd Bull Run. I had snatched and used every available BG available up to that point.