Mule Show and Cold Harbor advice

[mhenry_101381]

I am going in losing about 3000-4000 more troops than I gain in recruits. I am focusing points towards medicine and politics to stem that loss. I may spend some reputation to gain 6000 troops because Gettysburg destroyed half a corps and Chickamuaga didn't help. Prior to Chancellorsvile I had a 20,000 recruit pool, no longer the case now. Historically this was pretty much a meat grinder. Cold Harbor resulted in 6000 Union dead within minutes. Mule Shoe was a massive 20 hour brawl for trenches that involved up to 4 Union Corps at one time within maybe a mile of trenches. The South retreated to a new trench line after the North withdrew. Casualties were about 17,000 combined.

For those who have attempted these battles as either side, what do you suggest? Given the fact we don't know how much of this campaign is left, troop numbers are obviously important. How do you win these battles while still having some form of an army left?

[floyd]

I stripped down two of my corps. Sold weapons and then made every unit as large as possible. Ended up with two powerful corps with some three star units and some weaker ones. Didn't settle for draws in the first two battles and after trial and error mad it through with okay losses. Kept my troops in forests as much as possible on Mule Shoe level.

[m4rt14n]

Cold Harbor can be cheesed by Union on the second day. Attack top left with canons and break them. They only have 2 brigades defending there and the VP is close by.

Mule Shoe is just... well..

[Wright29]

skip Mule Shoe.

[mhenry_101381]

I tried Cold Harbor historical and the last part of the battle, if I had known the CSA wasn't going to move, I would have it them sooner. I took 7 brigades and focused on the far right flank and rolled them up. 7000-8000 total casualties and about x2 for the South.

[El Presidente Putin]

I took the highest casualties of my campaign on Mule Shoe. Cold Harbor was easy.
For Mule Shoe, you could skip it, but I try to play every battle. Really, you have to use close-range artilllery. I also added a lot of cannon fodder units to my army. They ended up trashed, with ~75% casualties, and the rest took ~25-50%.
Mule Shoe is an exercise in hitting strength with strength. You’ll take casualties, and they will take some, too. Try to be quick about overwhelming the first line, before they bring up reinforcements. The center is where I took the most casualties. The Parrott guns the CSA uses have an insane canister range, so take them out ASAP.
For Cold Harbor:
On Day One, don't attack. Let the rebel infantry come to you, and cut them to pieces. Try to get as many kills as you can before the day is over.
On Day Two, don’t attack. The CSA doesn’t attack your center today, so you’ll be fine. You’ll want to preserve your forces, because they will take casualties, but you also want to pin the CSA in place and cause them losses. To do that, bring all your artillery to the grove of trees in the center. They can deal a beating there, and are fairly safe from return fire. Concentrate all the fire on one unit, until it’s very low, then switch to a different one. Small units are brittle, so it’s OK to have more of them. If you want to use detached skirmishers to bait a brigade to attack you, go for it. Canister will cut them to pieces.
In the north part of the map, don’t attack. Send a brigade to the far south, to hold the edge of your line.
On Day 3, continue the barrage in the center, and conserve your men.
On Day 4, attack on your flanks, not the center. Bring all the center cannon to the left flank, and set it up to shell the CSA trenches and support the infantry attack. Use your lowest-tier units to soak up some musketry, and push the ford north of the creek with the better ones. You should be able to swamp the defenders with infantry. Make sure to kill their cannons, too, or you’ll get shredded. From there, capture Turkey Hill, and clear the area. Start pushing a line up the flank of the defenses, and leave your most-wounded unit at the point. Don’t attack in the North map unless you really want to. Once the north part is over, continue the assault on their right. Push to New Cold Harbor and the Central Breastworks from their flank and rear. Consolidate your forces, and wait till the timer runs out.

Some general tips:
1800 to 1950-man brigades are much better than 2000-man ones. They don’t trigger scaling, and it’s not a huge manpower difference anyway.
You won’t need dedicated skirmishers in either battle, but a 500-man unit equiped with Spencers is helpful in the north of Cold Harbor.
Try to capture units when possible. You get recruits, and all their weapons.
Combine all your corps into 2 for Mule Shoe, and separate them for Cold Harbor.
At Mule Shoe, send in the lowest-tier corps first, and the higher one next. It’ll save you some money.
At Cold Harbor, put your middle-tier corps in the center, and your weakest on the right. Your elite troops should be reinforcements.

[mhenry_101381]

I tried Mule Shoe twice, the first one was a "see what happens/recon". I attacked on three sides with about 78,000 men. Long story short, I lost 30,000 men and saw the layout. I was one line short of the VP. Part 2, I split my men and sent them to the extreme end of each flank and would send 12,000-14,000 2-3 star men at one 1,800 3 star brigade. One quick fire and mass charge later, I pushed them out of the way and cleared out the neighbors next to me. I brought in the rest of the men then pushed on to the 2nd line and repeated the process. This was done on the other flank. During the long march, they sent two divisions out to attack one of my flank marches only to be routed by my men. Soon I got my men on the VP and behind their lines. Then I lined up my men and forced them from their fortifications and reoccupied them. Then the time ran out. I lost 17,000 men and they lost 11,000 men but a win and they can't replace the losses. Also, their line is split with 30,000 men caught between my men and the other Union corps historically speaking. War is over.

[edwardstoner]

Originally posted by Wright29:

skip Mule Shoe.

Last summer, I spent two days visiting these battle sites, and the Mule Shoe was Awesome. I had never seen it before and it is amazing how well preserved the area is, considering that it is over 150 years later!

The Mule Shoe is, I am sure, a site that BOTH armies would have liked to avoid. To me, it was amazing that the two armies could get tens of thousands of men to commit suicide for the Honor of Dying at The Mule Shoe. Wow.