Battle of Gettysburg? [CSA]

[magnum2016]

So I just played the battle of Gettysburg as the Confederates and I was freaking out figuring it was going to be a very difficult battle however in reality it was the easiest major battle I have ever experienced.

I successfully finished the battle of Day 1 and managed to kill 35,000 Union soldiers and only lost 5.000.

I even let myself not take Cemetary Hill on day 1 just to see if it would get harder and I eased through day 2 with 6,000 casualties compared to the Unions 33,000. I was just wondering if it is usually this easy?

[CrashToDesktop]

Yes, it's usually this easy. Think it's getting changed next patch however.

[Champin Playr]

Yes, i had 27k to 3k casualties at the end. Maybe this battle should be re-worked a bit

[HughMyronbrough]

Originally posted by The Soldier:

Yes, it's usually this easy. Think it's getting changed next patch however.

Oh no, I was enjoying slaughtering the Union masses...

[LordOfSweetrolls]

I believe the problem lies with how easy it is to secure Cemetary if you have enough spare units after taking Seminary

[kokopeli]

Do we have the opportunity to take Little Round Top a day early as the Confederates? I haven't reached that point in my campaign.

I did play the historical battle day with Pickett's Charge on BG level and that seemed easier than I expected.

[Didz]

I was a bit puzzled by this battle as on Day 1 (Easy Difficulty) I divided my 1st Wave into three brigade columns and took all three objectives before my first lot of reinforcements arrived on the field.

When Reyonolds turned up it was just a case of digging my heels in and using them for target practice, sending the reinforcements whereever it looked like they were massing for a major push (actually mostly at Oak Ridge)

On the second day taking Cemetry Ridge was no problem and by the end of the day I'd pushed one Division past Cemetry Ridge, another had cleared Gettysburg, and the third were pushing east from Oak Ridge.

By the time the final reinforcements arrived from the North the battle was pretty much over and it was just a mopping up exercise.

However, when the Victory screen appeared I realised that there were several objectives that I hadn't even had to fight over e.g. Culps Hill, Little Round Top etc.

Felt a little bit cheated, they were listed as optional objectives, so I still won but still feel I missed out on something. Perhaps my Union play through will feature these objectives.

[[TFM]bobcat]

I dont know what difficulty you guys are all playing on but in my experience it is not at all easy to win on Day 1 on MG difficulty

[HughMyronbrough]

I played on Normal (BG). Even then, it took some finesse to win Day 1 on time. I ran down troops from the North to demonstrate on the Union right, and I used 5 brigades from the East as the main striking force, with the rest of the army going through the city and taking people prisoner, before forming a secondary strike force.

On MG, I probably wouldn't even try to win on 1st day. I'd probably focus a giant assault through the city to score shatters and surrenders, though.

(Currently I'm playing Union on MG. I'll play Rebels MG after that).

[Imbezile]

I´m playing the MG CSA Gettysburg now and having problems minimizing casualties on day one. Primarily due to the pesky skirmirhers and the Iron brigade in the beginning while rushing for oak ridge and seminary.
I´m not aiming for day one victory since it is a disservice to the future campaign but trying to limit my casualties below 9k during the first three scenarios (Day 1, Lil´ round top and culps hill). By now I´ve managed to annihilate the union force taking 10k casualties but that is simply not good enough for the long game as I´d prefer not to take net casualties

Sincerely this battle, if not aiming for a quick win, is harder than Chancellorsville or Antietam to master.

[Didz]

Originally posted by HughMyronbrough:

I played on Normal (BG). Even then, it took some finesse to win Day 1 on time.

Yeah! I'm playing my Union campaign on BG, so I'll get a feel for the difference when I play through Gettysburg as the Union.

Gettysburg is one of the few ACW battles that I know a bit about as I've played it serveral times as a boardgame. So, I know that in the opening phase it's vital that Heth's Division pushes hard against Buford's Cavalry and secures the first ridge line before Reynolds arrives to bolster the Union defence. And so in my Confederate game I literally went bald headed for Oak Ridge and Seminary Hill, and soaked up the losses to get there fast.

When Reynolds appeared I was already in possession of the ridge and the Iron Brigade got shot to peices trying to push me off it

By then the 2nd wave were rushing forward to bolster the first defence line and when the orders came to take Cemetary Ridge I had fresh brigades on hand and the Union had pretty much shot their bolt trying to take back the first ridge. So, it wasn't hard to drive them off Cemetary Ridge and by the time the 3rd wave turned up I was really just mopping up.

Obviously it would be harder on BG, and even harder still on MG.

[limith]

Just finished the battle csa MG. I Lost 7k, AI lost 47k.

Day 1: let the ai keep oak ridge, assaulting it takes too much manpower. The AI will abandon it in the last phase. Instead stay in cover in the north and the buildings in front of the open field west of oak rodge. Let the ai counterattack you when you are in favorable terrain. Encircle and hit from flank with skirmishers. Eventually ai will run out of units and fall back to oak ridge. You can sneak two units to capture the southern areas. I didn't bother with cementary hill myself. Instead I holed up in the city and encircled the defenders in oak ridge with my 2nd corps reinforcements while my southern sneak force advanced to take the city. Since I beat them to the city all of the defenders were wiped out when the ai tried to withdrawl.

Day 2 all forces went around to steal little round top. All you have to do is hold it. Used local force superiority to kill the initial northern reinforcements, the western forces, and the finally southern reinforcements.

[Imbezile]

Just finished it earlier 53k/8,5k KDR. Blitzed the oak ridge with all the initial three brigades (3-star) while engaging the AI skirmishers with mine to cover the advance.
Used two cavalry units from the second wave to mop up the skirmishers in my six while one infantry unit reinforced the ridge and two took the southern objectives. Once the skirmishers were done I moved the cav to take out Cutlers(?) batallions being routed east of the ridge. Once the AI reinforcements were on the run for the second time I advanced my southern troops into the town and mopped up the AI troops stuck on the fields north-northwest of town with the northern ones and then reform to a line along the seminary ridge.

Once II corps arrived I reinforced the three brigades in the town with three howizer brigades and made a made a minor attempt to hit cemetary hill from north-northeast.

Day 2. went pretty much the same way as above. Except I refused to deploy artillery and sent full three divisions of infantry instead. In the end I accidentally captured the southern cemetary hill (the capture area is surprisingly large) when annihilating the troops defending it.

[[TFM]bobcat]

Originally posted by limith:

Just finished the battle csa MG. I Lost 7k, AI lost 47k.

Day 1: let the ai keep oak ridge, assaulting it takes too much manpower. The AI will abandon it in the last phase. Instead stay in cover in the north and the buildings in front of the open field west of oak rodge. Let the ai counterattack you when you are in favorable terrain. Encircle and hit from flank with skirmishers. Eventually ai will run out of units and fall back to oak ridge. You can sneak two units to capture the southern areas. I didn't bother with cementary hill myself. Instead I holed up in the city and encircled the defenders in oak ridge with my 2nd corps reinforcements while my southern sneak force advanced to take the city. Since I beat them to the city all of the defenders were wiped out when the ai tried to withdrawl.

Day 2 all forces went around to steal little round top. All you have to do is hold it. Used local force superiority to kill the initial northern reinforcements, the western forces, and the finally southern reinforcements.

Did pretty much the same thing for day 2 but for Day 1 I held out on Mcphersons ridge and just let the Ai throw themselves at me and didnt attack until my 2nd corp arrived to the north and then just steam rolled the Union forces as they were caught between the forces at Mcphersons ridge and attacking along the flank of oak ridge

[magnum2016]

The reason I managed to beat the battle so easily was due to the battle before I literally devastated the Union's army and brought them down to a mere 50,000 soldiers.