Antietam too hard as CSA

[Sanny]

When I've won every battle, but can only field 35,000 men to the Union's 70,000. Inflict more casualties than they did to me and hold onto Sunken Road + Sharpsburg but lose 50% of my army by the end. I am defeated and my campaign is over? The "Lose less than half your army objective" is simply ridiculous when you're outmatched 2:1. I think it's clear that the enemy army does not get broken down no matter how well you've done in the campaign. I find it a bit strange that I was given minimal money + manpower in the Camp screen, where as the Union you get signifcantly more (yes I know, it's historical) but some things should be changed for balance.

I also don't get why you have to play an extra 4 minutes defending, if you've held onto the Church and Sunken Road. It just gives the AI more oppertunity to fling countless waves at you. Because you end up losing the church to these immense numbers anyway. So what the hell was the point in defending it?

[Wright29]

What level are you playing at? Also, are you out of money, manpower, or available guns?

[Sanny]

Originally posted by Wright29:

What level are you playing at? Also, are you out of money, manpower, or available guns?

Normal.

I was out of both money and manpower and guns, I find that the side missions are not rewarding enough for how bloody the battles are.

I also don't get why the armoury does not even have enough Springfield 1842s by the time you get to 2nd Bull Run, I know the Confederacy had some serious armoury and foundry issues in reality due to the blockade and lack of factories but it's honestly not acceptable in a game where things should be balanced. Otherwise you have the Easy-Medium difficulty Union campaign, and the Very Hard Confederate campaign.

[maniacalpenny]

Originally posted by Sanny:

Originally posted by Wright29:

What level are you playing at? Also, are you out of money, manpower, or available guns?

Normal.

I was out of both money and manpower and guns, I find that the side missions are not rewarding enough for how bloody the battles are.

I also don't get why the armoury does not even have enough Springfield 1842s by the time you get to 2nd Bull Run, I know the Confederacy had some serious armoury and foundry issues in reality due to the blockade and lack of factories but it's honestly not acceptable in a game where things should be balanced. Otherwise you have the Easy-Medium difficulty Union campaign, and the Very Hard Confederate campaign.

Although there are a few side missions that are not that rewarding, in general they are worth it as long as you adopt a reasonable strategy.

I don't see whats wrong with the Union campaign being easier than the Confederate one. Its not like its a head to head game... There are plenty of examples of strategy games with different campaigns of varying difficulty. Also, the confederacy's rookies are miles better than the Union, so its not like they have every advantage.

[Wright29]

You've got to take fewer casualties if you're at zero extra manpower with an army of 35k by Antietam. There's tons of YouTube videos available on how to do better as the csa early on in the campaign. Also, the side missions only get harder and the rewards only get smaller as its goes on.

[mhenry_101381]

Find, Fix, Flank, Finish. Find the enemy, Fix his position, Flank them with other troops, Finish them off. To win as the CSA at Antietam, make the battle for the church, your priority. Hold the woods, use other troops to divert their attention and hit them in the flank, then fall back to your position. The goal is to survive by keeping them off balance. During the battle, send troops from the Sunken road to the middle bridge, 3 infantry and 1 artillery will do. Pin down the enemy on the bridge and wipe them out. Then send extra troops from the Sunken Road, north to the church. Right before the last phase, send 5 or 6 brigades away from the main army and hide. Last phase, take all but the fore mentioned 5 or 6 brigades and retreat to the town. Form a double layer of infantry and artillery, utilizing the town's 100% cover with all wagons supplying the men. Let the North fall upon your sword. Midway in the last phase, take any spare troops and form up NW of the town and fall upon their right flank rolling up individual brigades, then divsions, then entire Corps. They should be well worn down by this point. Use the 5-6 brigades from earlier to go after the VPs and any routing troops. I have bottled up the Union army and destroyed them with 20-25% casualties. Not hard.

[Kyo Gnome]

2:1 odds is very do able. check out my first legendary game at antietam.. 140,000 vs 52,000

the CSA is deffinately hard mode. if you want an easier campaign, play union...

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/852721946114653515/E24481BAE646C9A5F3BABAEF900FAC779DEF5CF6/

these days if I get 2:1 odds in a battle i will often wipe every enemy unit on the map. one unorthodox tactic that I use is keeping my center line weak and the flanks strong. Then enemy knows this and will send a lot more troops to the center creating a huge blob that you can encircle and crush. the trick is keeping the center weak enough for the enemy to mass there yet not weak enough to have it collapse.

[Sanny]

Originally posted by mhenry_101381:

Find, Fix, Flank, Finish. Find the enemy, Fix his position, Flank them with other troops, Finish them off. To win as the CSA at Antietam, make the battle for the church, your priority. Hold the woods, use other troops to divert their attention and hit them in the flank, then fall back to your position. The goal is to survive by keeping them off balance. During the battle, send troops from the Sunken road to the middle bridge, 3 infantry and 1 artillery will do. Pin down the enemy on the bridge and wipe them out. Then send extra troops from the Sunken Road, north to the church. Right before the last phase, send 5 or 6 brigades away from the main army and hide. Last phase, take all but the fore mentioned 5 or 6 brigades and retreat to the town. Form a double layer of infantry and artillery, utilizing the town's 100% cover with all wagons supplying the men. Let the North fall upon your sword. Midway in the last phase, take any spare troops and form up NW of the town and fall upon their right flank rolling up individual brigades, then divsions, then entire Corps. They should be well worn down by this point. Use the 5-6 brigades from earlier to go after the VPs and any routing troops. I have bottled up the Union army and destroyed them with 20-25% casualties. Not hard.

More or less the strategy I used apart from the last part about keeping 5-6 brigades aside, I held too long at the Sunken Road and was enveloped by a pincer movement resulting in losing 15,000 men at that objective. I also felt I lost way too many men holding the bridges.

Thanks for all the tips guys, I've slept on it, and have figured out a better strategy with the help of the advice here, will let you know how it goes.

[Sanny]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/868488696174205147/5E30B6EB41D15D5324B785F347882EBED8879079/

Guys I did it. Was very close.

[mhenry_101381]

Originally posted by Sanny:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/868488696174205147/5E30B6EB41D15D5324B785F347882EBED8879079/

Guys I did it. Was very close.

It's a draw, but if you catch them on the bridge in the middle of the map, they won't be able strike at the Sunken Road. That will take the wind out of their sails. Once they are destroyed, move most of your men from the road to the church. Then follow the rest of my strategy. You will win next time.

[Lu5ck]

I am not sure, I destroyed them on normal. I put best infantry (3 stars supported by 1 stars) at the north, they destroyed most of them before the 2nd wave came. I redirect part of the north troop to camp in the forest, intercepting part of 2nd wave. While other troops clearing up the 1st waves.

I move my central troop towards the north, some to cover the east flank as well then two 2-stars troop to the water, with a general and arti. The east flank eventually move north via the east forest.

Eventually, I get to encircled the northern waves with my north and central troops, eventually destroying them completely. Of course, by then north troop lost a lot, about 1/2 strength left.

The south is handling ok since is just choke. I redirected some troop to the central water since it leaked some out. I send in some troops from the north battle on flank assault for the central water. Then, destroyed the central water area and moved to south water.

All in all, the KDR was about 3:1. I took a lot of weapons in that battle.

Water = River.

[posey70]

Originally posted by Sanny:

When I've won every battle, but can only field 35,000 men to the Union's 70,000. Inflict more casualties than they did to me and hold onto Sunken Road + Sharpsburg but lose 50% of my army by the end. I am defeated and my campaign is over? The "Lose less than half your army objective" is simply ridiculous when you're outmatched 2:1. I think it's clear that the enemy army does not get broken down no matter how well you've done in the campaign. I find it a bit strange that I was given minimal money + manpower in the Camp screen, where as the Union you get signifcantly more (yes I know, it's historical) but some things should be changed for balance.

I also don't get why you have to play an extra 4 minutes defending, if you've held onto the Church and Sunken Road. It just gives the AI more oppertunity to fling countless waves at you. Because you end up losing the church to these immense numbers anyway. So what the hell was the point in defending it?

I feel your pain in this battle. I love the game but the scaling is just ridiculous. I try my best in the side battles so as to maximise my money and keep from expending to much manpower. But there seems to be little point in having a huge army as the north simply scales up and always has a ridiculous number of troops to throw at you.

[Traf]

Sanny, something you did wrong on your campaign sir. Playing now CSA and just got finished Antietam. I had an army of 73K and USA had only 63K. Some of their brigades had maximum 1300 men, but most had 900-1000, while mine were all 2500. Ofcourse AI will do no charges against such numbers and overall was playing very cautious. I have no points in intel and didnt knew how many forces AI would get into battle and was cautious by myself. But at the battle end Union lost almost whole army. I quess if I replay this one, and I will sometime, I will get even better results. Here is a screenshot with my current battle results http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1134711252
Another one how the battlefield looks at the end with surprisengly fresh, most numeral US brigade under Crook command (there in the middle of screen) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1134713643

[J. P. Armistead]

Originally posted by mhenry_101381:

Originally posted by Sanny:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/868488696174205147/5E30B6EB41D15D5324B785F347882EBED8879079/

Guys I did it. Was very close.

It's a draw, but if you catch them on the bridge in the middle of the map, they won't be able strike at the Sunken Road. That will take the wind out of their sails. Once they are destroyed, move most of your men from the road to the church. Then follow the rest of my strategy. You will win next time.

I agree with MHENRY 100%. Its vital to hold that bridge.
However i didn't need to abandon any of the vp's, i held them all quite easily.
I did move troops down to Sharpsburg to counter Burnsides advance over the southern bridge.

My army 31K, Union 53K
casualties Union 36K , CSA 10k

I think you should give serious thought to restarting your campaign. You are obviously doing something wrong.

You need to lessen your casualties whilst obtaining weapons from the enemy.
Before Antietam i had $374,000 and 64,000 men in the manpower pool.
It is achievable.
With the experience you have gained you should do much much better if you restart the campaign. As it is you will not get much further in your current campaign.

My strategy is to keep my armies relatively small (max brigade size 1500) until later in the game when i have the manpower and money to expand it. In the meantime i build up an experienced core of seasoned troops.
More brigades rather than fewer large ones gives you better tactical flexibility when it comes to flanking etc. Study MHENRY's tactics.

put your experience points into politics first then build up medicineand aim to get 6 points in army org just prior to 2nd manassas. 4 points in recon helps too.

Use cavalry ( i have 2 400 men brigades) to capture supply wagons ( gives you money and depletes the Unions firing ability).

Get 24pdr parrots and Tredegars, and buy the 20lb parrots as and when.
I have 2 x 12 24pdrs, 1 x 9 20lb , 1 x 12 and 1 x 8 Tredegars and several batteries of 3" and napoleons.


I have just smashed the Union at Fredericksburg so badly they chose not to attack in the final phase of the battle.
Go on , you can do it too!

[Traf]

Originally posted by J. P. Armistead:

4 points in recon helps too.

Recon is the most useless skill, NEVER use your precious points on it!

[J. P. Armistead]

Not so. If you have 4 points in most battles it gives you the size of the enemy army when you go into select the battle. If you then go back to the camp instead of going into battle you can tailor your army size to meet or exceed the enemy. It also gives you good warning of what you are going to face rather than going in blind.