Army Size and Composition

[Barry]

I see screenshots and videos of users with 100k plus Armies (as the Union obviously) but large armies as the CSA too. I recently just played and beat Fredericksburg with a mere 33k (as the Union) but I'm curious as to how other people are creating such massive armies. I inevitably run out of money before I run out of recruits. Perhaps I'm wasting too much money on guns and veterans.
So when in camp, how do you guys reinforce your depleted regiments? What career skills do you focus on in order to create such massive forces?

[uhamster9]

Don't reinforce with all veterans.

[apocal43]

Originally posted by Barry:

What career skills do you focus on in order to create such massive forces?

Careeer focuses on army organization and training while not reinforcing with all veterans for every infantry regiment.

[korben dallas]

Focus on politics and medicine. Don't buy as much artillery. Do a little planning if buying expensive rifles is your thing; if you want to equip everyone, sometimes you gotta go cheap.

On my last two playthroughs I didn't spend a dollar on veterans, you'd be amazed how many rifles you can buy with the savings

[Burnin Prograde]

After a grand battle I will spend around 10k per division in 1st Corp on veteran recruits. Other then that I reinforce cavalry with veterans and, sparingly, cannon. I am going into Chancellorsville with a 101k Union army. Of that I have 3750 cav and 2 full div of cannon.

Except above I spend every cent on equipment. I splurge early for a unit of 24lb how and 12lb napoleons and use them as my primary method for leveling new officers.

My first few playthroughs have all been max size armies and i've only just started a min size CSA campaign on major general.

33k at fredericksburg as union?! What kind of casualties did you take?

[apocal43]

Originally posted by korben dallas:

Don't buy as much artillery.

u crazy

[korben dallas]

Originally posted by apocal43:

Originally posted by korben dallas:

Don't buy as much artillery.

u crazy

That's beside the point ;)

He can't pay for rifles to equip more than 33k union troops at fredricksburg...I'd say yea it's time to slash some costs

[[TFM]bobcat]

Yeah definetly dont buy so many veterans if thats what you are doing.

Also, you don always buy the very best weapons for everyone. When I play CSA (OR as Union) I have a heirarchy of weapons I give 1855s to as many as I can, Lorenses (and Mississippis if CSA) to the next tier down and 1842s and Palmettos to everyone else. Whenever I capture 1855s in battles I will give them to my better units that used to have lorenses or Mississippis and then give those guns to the units with SF 1842s and Palmettos and then gives the SF and Palmettos to any newly formed units. Also, if you are paying for rifles by Fredricksburg, you're doing it wrong. Early on, buying weapons is very necessary because capture yields is battles is farily low but by Malvern Hill you should be getting easily 10k worth of captured rifles and by Antietam over 20k captured rifles, more than enough for replacing loses and outfitting new units. Hell by the time I get to 2nd Manassas I dont even bother buying weapons because I have so many in stock and get many more once battles are won. The only things I do bother buying by then are the really high end rare weapons that get restocked after each main battle for equiping my units like the Fayeteville for the CSA and Witworths for scouting units or really good arty like the 24 pdr and the Tredgar. I'm playing as the CSA right now and just won at stones River and my army is at 84k with one unit equpped with Fayetevilles, 3 with CS Richmonds, and the rest are half and half harpers ferrys and 1855s. Of those 2 I have never bought any harpes ferrys (CSA cant really buy them anyway) and I have only bought a handful of 1855s. I also have something like 25k in rifles in storage in my armory because I just dont have any room left until I expand my organization slots to get an additional corps for more units.

As for career points. you can basically ignore logistics and recon, I have never really found any major use for them. Organization is important but you only really need that filled up to 6, anything after that isnt strictly necessary. The rest, training, medicine, economy and politics are all really good categorys though personally I would personally prioritize medicine and politics as medicine allows you to return veteran troops to your units along with their weapons which can save a bundle. For instance if you suffer 10 k losses in battle with Medicine at 20% thats 2k in men and weapons you dont have to replace. Politics is good because you will get more men and money for winning battles which should be obvious as to why thats good. training I would say is next if you like having at least some veterans as that will save you some money or economy if you prefer buying those shiny new toys you spy sitting in the armory

[Metal Lord]

If you kill/capture more enemies they drop more guns, just equip what they give you. You can make some garbage brigades whose only purpose is to soak up enemy fire and use their crappy guns as clubs. Then use them to storm fortifications while your good units do the shooting.

As for spending money on vets, I would mix it up and restore units with a little of each. Every battle is another chance for them to earn more exp. If their stats are maxed out its wasted.

Every enemy unit that walks off the battlefield is guns you could have captured. Kill them all.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/163654751772616749/5DC5C2F3BDDB65151C7E77C9EB178CDD8FB8F8F1/

[Ashantai]

Do you have a picture of the goods screen from that F'burg battle?

[danloveschrista]

To chime in my 2c about upgrades- equipping relatively inexperienced units with "upgraded" rifles is a big negative for them. The "weak" rifles have far better melee performance, which is a big factor in newbies fleeing the field. Also they're going to get slaughtered until you build up some veterans, so you're wasting expensive guns on cannon fodder. Keep newer units with old guns, give the newer guns to only the best few brigades. Also as a rule, I go about 50/50 veteran/green troops when refitting after a battle. Or I'll look at how much cash I have, pick a max number for veterans so each brigade costs say $10k to fill, maybe that's 200 vets, then no brigade gets more than 200 vets, no matter how many casualties they took.

[Metal Lord]

Originally posted by Ashantai:

Do you have a picture of the goods screen from that F'burg battle?

Sadly no, but if I recall correctly I got about 20k infantry rifles from the enemy as well tons of other weapons and artillery. Also, even if you don't use they give you, it can still be sold to buy what you want.

Another thing to note is that the shop restocks between major battles as does what you can ask for with your reputation. So stock up on what you want before major battles, available equipment doesn't accumulate it expires. By buying a few of a rare weapon each time it restocks you can accuire enough to outfit a larger unit.

[Barry]

Originally posted by Burnin Prograde:

After a grand battle I will spend around 10k per division in 1st Corp on veteran recruits. Other then that I reinforce cavalry with veterans and, sparingly, cannon. I am going into Chancellorsville with a 101k Union army. Of that I have 3750 cav and 2 full div of cannon.

Except above I spend every cent on equipment. I splurge early for a unit of 24lb how and 12lb napoleons and use them as my primary method for leveling new officers.

My first few playthroughs have all been max size armies and i've only just started a min size CSA campaign on major general.

33k at fredericksburg as union?! What kind of casualties did you take?

About 10k. Split my forces to take Prospect and didn't even bother with Marye Heights.

[Barry]

Originally posted by TFMbobcat:

Also, if you are paying for rifles by Fredricksburg, you're doing it wrong. Early on, buying weapons is very necessary because capture yields is battles is farily low but by Malvern Hill you should be getting easily 10k worth of captured rifles and by Antietam over 20k captured rifles, more than enough for replacing loses and outfitting new units.

Are you playing on the hardest level? Because I never capture anywhere near that number of rifles.

[[TFM]bobcat]

Originally posted by Barry:

Originally posted by TFMbobcat:

Also, if you are paying for rifles by Fredricksburg, you're doing it wrong. Early on, buying weapons is very necessary because capture yields is battles is farily low but by Malvern Hill you should be getting easily 10k worth of captured rifles and by Antietam over 20k captured rifles, more than enough for replacing loses and outfitting new units.

Are you playing on the hardest level? Because I never capture anywhere near that number of rifles.

No, I'm playing on Normal difficulty. How big do you get your army? because I think how many weapons you capture scales to the size of the battle and the losses and the size of the battle scales to your army size. So for instance if I'm playing as the confederates at Antietam and I have 80k troops the Union will have like 130k. If I then kill, capture or maim 90k+ during the battle, 20k in captured weapons actually is a fairly low figure in comparison to what I should probably be getting (hint hint wink wink Devs).

[Guernica]

My Union playthrough had 138,000 before taking casualties at Chancelorville. I think I took something like 10k, so I expect I'll be pushing 150,000 by the next major battle.... Gettysburg.