Chancellorsville... Holy Crap!

[jeremiahsvow]

I just had my army wiped off the face of the earth. Union Campaign over.

Can any offensive action be taken in this battle?

I have played it through a couple of times. I just can't figure it out. Outnumbered. Outgunned.

I just don't have the manpower to put together any kind of offensive. Should this be played completely as a defensive battle?

[Punished Wizzard]

Originally posted by uhamster9:

Originally posted by Punished Wizzard:

I wish casualties would make a difference between phases for me like it did in Hetstaines game. I'm also playing on Major General mode, I completely encircled and destroyed the Rebel army on day 3, there wasn't a single survivor. Day 4, I'm supposed to retake Orange plank road and Orange turnpike but now the CSA have resurrected 37,000+ soldiers and 110+ artillery pieces. Utterly infuriating.

What are you talking about? If you have fully eliminated CSA army on phase 3 (day 3 dawn to late morning), there won't be any meaningful resistance on phase 4 (day 3 late morning to afternoon)

See screenshot (borrowed)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851695261

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851906980 Day 3 - CSA army is completely destroyed.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851907490 Phase 4 triggered when last unit is killed (Advance on what? The army is gone...)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851907715 Day 3 afternoon aka Robert E Lee discovers Necromancy and a magic tree that grows cannons.

Despite inflicting horrific casualties there's zero impact carrying over to the CSA army on the next phase.. In fact, if I choose to hit finish early on phase 3 I end up facing less troops (29k~ or so) then if I destroy the entire CSA army. Assaulting Orange pike is basically impossible when I'm outnumbered no matter what I do.

[GeneralPITA]

Originally posted by Punished Wizzard:

Originally posted by uhamster9:

What are you talking about? If you have fully eliminated CSA army on phase 3 (day 3 dawn to late morning), there won't be any meaningful resistance on phase 4 (day 3 late morning to afternoon)

See screenshot (borrowed)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851695261

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851906980 Day 3 - CSA army is completely destroyed.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851907490 Phase 4 triggered when last unit is killed (Advance on what? The army is gone...)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851907715 Day 3 afternoon aka Robert E Lee discovers Necromancy and a magic tree that grows cannons.

Despite inflicting horrific casualties there's zero impact carrying over to the CSA army on the next phase.. In fact, if I choose to hit finish early on phase 3 I end up facing less troops (29k~ or so) then if I destroy the entire CSA army. Assaulting Orange pike is basically impossible when I'm outnumbered no matter what I do.

This is a bug, happened to me except I was playing as CSA. I had to kill 207k union troops with my measly 50k men. AI kept getting a fresh army every day despite being routed to the last man multiple times. I reported it.

[Guernica]

Step 1: Read up on the historical battle.

Step 2: Understand the mistakes made by the Union.

Step 3: ????

Step 4: Profit!

To elaborate: The Union made a few crucial mistakes under Hooker's leadership. First was that he did not attack aggressively, and instead chose what he believed would be favorable ground to defend. That ground was not nearly as favorable as what he thought, allowing Jackson to lead a flanking attack through the woods and into open fields where many of the union were positioned. Finally, on the 3rd day, when the CSA had the Union surrounded, Hooker order the 3rd Corps to retreat from Hazel Grove, a key elevated position that later allowed the CSA to devestate the Union with enfilading fire.

So what does one do as the Union to acheive victory?

Day 1: DEMONSTRATE THE ATTACK! I tried a few different tactics here. What worked in my win was to skirmish with the CSA, finally setting up a defensive line in the woods along the two streams that run perpendicular to the Orang Turnpike and Plank roads. Being completely passive and setting up in the camp is a big no no. Insta-rout. Being super-duper aggressive almost works, but my 1st Corps (2-3 Star brigades mostly) took 50% casualties and was not able to hold for the entire duration against the CSA's 2-3:1 troop ratio.

Day 2: OBEY THE RULES OF BATTLE! Your right flank is out in the air, meaning it is neither anchored by an impassible land formation or another Corps. Huge no no. Pull that ♥♥♥♥ back. There's a line of woods that runs N/S about where the majority of your Corps defending the right flank start. I found this to be an excellet position to defend from as the CSA is forced to attack you across open fields. Pull most of the corps defending your LEFT flank over to reinforce/fill the gaps. I also moved a division defending the camp (leave a few brigades. If CSA cavalry get behind you, they will try to cap the VP... game over) SE to fill the gap between my right flank and center. All of this should allow you to repulse the CSA flanking offensive

Summary of Day 2: Ensure your right flank extends further north than that of the CSA attack, such that it is you, not them, who can take advantage of massive flanking fire.

Day 3: THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE: If Day 2 was successful, you'll greatly outnumber the CSA by now. At this point, I had 75,000 in the actual battle compared to the CSA's 35,000 or so. Once again, I pull about half of my left flank over to the right where Jackson's troops attack from. I use them to flank down and around from the North. This will be the hadest fight. Both sides will be fighting for control of the woods just West of Chancellorville Camp. If you take full advantage of flanking fire, moving cannons into positions that maxmize casualties, you will rout most of the CSA brigades. Attack throughout this entire day, always advancing. Try to wrap your right flank around (where most of your troops are by this point) into the CSA troops defending the two Orange roads.

Day 4: THE ENEMY IS WEAK! If you hold Chancellorville Camp until this point, you are given an opporunity to go on the offensive. DO IT! ♥♥♥♥ their ♥♥♥♥ up. Make the CSA pay for what they did at Fredericksburg! Seriously, push push push. I routed the entire CSA army here. Not one man was left to fight for flag or country.

The battle that immediately follows with non-player troops: Push the rebel scum away from the church and out of the woods to the North and West. Once you do this set up to defend attacks from all directions. The CSA gets a butt ton of reinforcements coming from the North, and I think the South as well. Your goal should be to be able to quickly maneuver your troops from one side to the other to reinforce as necessary.

That, boys and girls, is how the Union wins at Chancelorville.

[Ashantai]

Guernica's advice is really solid, listen to it, it helped me win, causing 26,000 Rebel losses for 10k of my own.

[Aurion]

You can take offensive actions as the Union, sure. But they have to be under control. Feeding your troops into a wild melee will just get a bunch of them killed.

Ironically, following the Union AI's strategy is the best way to deal with the first day- don't send your forces charging down the roads because the entire Confederate army will jump you if you do.

On a side note, easily one of my favorite sequences in the CSA campaign because the Union shows legit tactical intelligence by refusing to blunder facefirst into my entire army and instead just probing and falling back towards the Chancellor Farm (and all that artillery)

When dealing with the flanking attack, the best advice I can give is to get your troops out before they get smashed. Your support units are too far away to have any real hope of holding your initial position, and your initial position lacks solid defensive terrain anyways.

If you want to challenge yourself though then yeah go ahead and try to use the historical strategy- using the term loosely given the level of disorganization that the attack caused- better than the actual generals did.

[Ashantai]

Yeah, you can easily withdraw to the N/S line of woods and bring up reserves before the flank attack hits, making them charge over open ground to be massacred.

[zachariah.kitzman]

Place your best troops on your right during the planning phase.Do nothing in the first phase, contract your lines in the second phase by bringing your best troops closer to the core of the army and reinforce it with spare troops. Confederates will not move forward on any other front so leave a thin screen everywhere else. Cause as many casulties as possible to Jacksons flank attack and drive him back or encircle him with the time comes. In the third phase use your right flank ot encircle the confederate attack there, by swinging it down like a door. and then bring those troops to the left and deal with whats left of the Confederate forces. In the last phase there will be so few troops left on the confederate side that you can easily take all objectives. Do so by moving your entire line forward covering the map, so that you can sweep up any remaining confederate forces. I only took 20% casulties to my entire army this way, while crushing the confederate forces.

[Ashantai]

On the 3rd day if you move forward really quickly you can catch the AI forces in transition, especially the artillery. Was able to kill 4 batteries of rebel guns before they could fire a shot, though the front line brigades paid heavily for this it was worth it.

[Loco Dahmerio]

Don't want to start a new thread, hope someone will help me here.

I managed to capture all 3 victory points on day 2 and I still move on to day 3. In this correct?

[bradford174]

Originally posted by Loco Dahmerio:

Don't want to start a new thread, hope someone will help me here.

I managed to capture all 3 victory points on day 2 and I still move on to day 3. In this correct?

Yeah, you move on regardless of how well you did at the moment.

[Cpt. Kid]

4:25 AM 2/1/2017

Dont ruin it. Im playing it right now. Trying not to read what happened to others before me.

Day 1 they wanted you to bring all of your forces together for that Army Corps that came in on the map. I didnt play Day 2 yet. Day 1 I bet I could of capped both points.

[Loco Dahmerio]

Originally posted by bradford174:

Originally posted by Loco Dahmerio:

Don't want to start a new thread, hope someone will help me here.

I managed to capture all 3 victory points on day 2 and I still move on to day 3. In this correct?

Yeah, you move on regardless of how well you did at the moment.

Well, that's just wrong...

[Harconn]

How many casualties did you have in this battle (Union)? I'm playing on normal and lost nearly 40k. Don't know how to compensate these losses with just the reward. :(

[uhamster9]

Wow. How did you lose 40k?

[Gorillator]

I need some help here.

I'm Union with 38k versus CSA wth 60k. Whatever strategy I do, even if I'm killing over 7k more than they kill mine, on the 4th phase I just don't have enough soldiers to take them on.

Can any Union post how they did this?