Tips for new players

[Koro]

So I thought it might be nice for new players to have a list to refer to for advice and what will probably be a long list of FAQ.
This thread contains the most important ones and others can be found in this guide here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=810140368


1 Don't be to proud to choose easy mode

The game is excellent in many ways and it also makes it hard due to it's many variables and options. You must play better than the AI to win battles in this game (since it will put you to the test) and you must manage your resources in the army camp so you'll have an effective and combat ready army. If you have any doubts as to your ability to handle large armies, easy might be the option for you


2. Not every battle is meant to be won

This game simulates real war, where circumstances and man power are not always equal and "fair". This happened IRL and is the same way in the game. Here is your chance not to repeat the mistakes of history though. Don't we berate those generals who kept on pressing the attack when they were clearly suffering unsustainable casualties? Don't we wonder why they didn't just retreat when faced with overwhelming odds. Here is your chance to do better than them. You are of course free to stay and slug it out in each battle but you may lose your army in the process. Sometimes you will find that withdrawing from the field is the better option. All units have a withdraw button to take them off the field. Remove them all and you'll lose the battle but perhaps save your army. Often you can keep your army on the field though and go for a draw though if you look at the victory condtiions


3. Career points

Army Organization for it's first 3-4 points is nice to have at first so you are not limited with too few divisions in the beginning. Later you should add enough points so you can get at least 20 brigades per corps and perhaps get the 2.500 brigade limit if you feel you have the men to fill up your brigades this much.

Reconnaissance will you give you a power bar in battles so you know the rough strength of the enemy compared to yours. This is also very handy - will unlock at 4 points.

The rest are optional and you can choose which ones you feel best suit your temper.


4. The strategic points

The strategic points are just that - strategic points. You do not have to capture them within the given time if you feel like you don't have the necessary manpower or your positioning is not quite right yet. These are the locations that drive the battle forward and will give you victory in the end but you can check which points give you the victory in the end in the icon on the top right menu. Likewise if you are defending, you might want to retreat from points before the timer is up if you feel it is not sustainable to hold them.

5. Brigades as the backbone of your army

There are 4 kinds of units you can create but brigades will always form the backbone of your army. Skirmishers and cavalry can be nice to have but you should initially focus on building a strong corps of brigades that can hold their own.
I like to choose 1 or 2 pet brigades that I only buy veterans for and then buy rookies for the other brigades. You keep these two brigades in reserve for when you really need them - to hold this important point right now or you might lose the entire battle - or to put against the enemy's flank, just at the right time for that extra special damage that only comes from your veteran troops. I name my elites "The Danish Brigade"; so sue me :).
I like to have 1 artillery unit per division as well. More is a crowd and less might leave points undefended by artillery so I find this to be a nice ratio.
What is also worth knowing, is that your divisions and reinforcements will be deployed in the order your corps is in the scenarios that you don't decide yourself. So it is worth mixing divisions to avoid getting only cannons or only infantry f.x.

5. Reputation
The game doesn't make it very clear but if your reputation goes below 0, you will get fired. You should therefore be careful about spending your reputation in the shop unless you are confident you will win or can sustain the reputation loss for losing the next battle.

This thread was mostly intended to give opening advice so new players don't find themselves stuck and overwhelmed with the game. Thank you for the strategic advice too though

My Union campaign is starting here, if you are interested in watching each battle as I progress through the campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ZTduvw--s&feature=youtu.be

Special tutorial video for battle controls (after Shiloh):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2ZbTTnUF8&feature=youtu.be

Special tutorial for army camp (after secure center)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5bm3dWUWQQ&feature=youtu.be

Some pointers for how to place your forces and in combat and use the features of the map to your advantages. Much of what I do here, can be read in Sun Tzu's art of war which is recommended reading for this game!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oYDzSeCmms

Longer more in depth video from Lincolns Mullet that is a must watch if you have any questions about anything after going through the videos above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGF4iHUOzWc

[Zordfish]

#5 is critical. Keep in mind you are building an army, and too much diversification early in the game will make battles far more difficult, if not impossible to win. Infantry brigades need to be your focus early on, with maybe an artillery or two once you get a 2nd division. Also, Koro's tip on veterans is important. It can get very, very expensive to replace veteran losses. If you limit "full" veteran replacements to a couple brigades, and make those your crack troops when you absolutely, positively must get a job done...it'll help keep costs down. As tempting as it is to always replenish your brigades with veterans, it will prohibit you from building a larger army which is necessary for major battles such as Gaines Mill and Antietam.

6. Cover, Cover, Cover:

If your brigades have to cross an open field to attack a heavily defended position, trust your gut instinct: its a bad idea. Trees, buildings, corn/wheat fields, etc provide cover of varying degrees. Cover lessens the amount of casualties you take by a significant amount. You can blunt attacks that outnumber your men with brigades set in proper cover (see: Hornets Nest or Sunken Road), and your overwhelming attack can be crippled if attacking out in the open.

[Zordfish]

7. Reputation:

Reputation has 3 different uses. A. It provides additional morale to your entire army when at a high enough level. B. It's another resource you can use to request additional men, money, weapons, or officers. C. Most importantly, it determines your success as a General and if it drops too low you can be relieved of command and the war ends early.

Typically, I only request resources prior to going into a major battle such as Shiloh. These are critical fights I want to have the best chance at winning, so using some of my rep to strengthen my army is a tradeoff I'm willing to take. Especially if I may encountered recent setbacks. Putting the best weapons into the hands of my most experienced brigades is important, and early on sometimes the best weapons are only available in large quantities by requesting them (Such as the Lorenz rifle).

If you're confident in your army, then you can leave your reputation as a morale booster. Also, by not using reputation you're building it up in case you suffer losses in the future. Too many losses and your rep drops to 0 or negative, and you are relieved of command. So having extra rep allows you to suffer a string of defeats. Otherwise, one loss at a major battle could send you packing!

[Zordfish]

8. Army Management

Without a tutorial or guide (so far), this is a new feature that helps to know some basic pointers. When your army is small, stick to infantry brigades as much as possible. This is the backbone of any defensive or offensive action. Cavalry are very useful for scouting and cutting down pesky skirmishers/artillery, but generally cannot defend against infantry brigades. Skirmishers as a separate brigade are useful to arm with sophisticated rifles that you normally can't get with large infantry brigades. But again, they are still skirmishers and not meant to attack/defend positions and hold them.

Armory: As you fight battles, your army will fill up with captured weapons. You can pre-purchase weapons here to keep in store, or sell weapons for $. Typically though you don't need to buy them here. When creating a new brigade, it'll show you how many rifles/cannons you have in your armor and how many you can buy. Anything you have to buy will significantly increase the cost of the new brigade. $10 per farmers rifle x 1500 men will cost $15k just to arm them (unless you have economic skill that lowers costs). So it's beneficial to arm your new brigades with captured weapons.

Barracks: Officers are a key component to your army. From your Corp commander, to division commander, to your brigade commanders. Higher level officers provide higher command and efficiency bonuses to everyone under their command. A Major, for example, will have a difficult time keeping a 2,000 man regiment operating efficiently. In this case, it's better to put at least a Corporal or higher in command of such a brigade. Wounded officers will remain in your barracks until a specific campaign is over, then they recover from their wounds and can be used again. Dead officers are dead. Nuf said.

Skills: When you win battles, you gain skill points. This is where you can further define the type of General you are. Keep in mind that Army Organization is a unique skill out of them all, in that when you get to larger battles (Such as Gaines Mill) you can bring 3+ Corp to such a battle. While that isn't necessary to play that battle, additional Corp allow for flanking attacks and mid-battle reinforcements. If you decide on having less Corp, but far more experiened/well-equipped troops, you can play that way too in most cases.

Finally, don't feel like you need to always max out your brigades to maximum # of men. If you have 1000 veteran troops, adding 1000 rookies isn't always the best course of action. It may be better to create a whole new brigade of 1000 men, to provide additional brigades in a battle to help with flanking attacks, etc.

[Dragoneer]

yes army organization as your first leveled up skill is hugely important, getting 3 divisions with 3 brigades is critical for campaign progress

[Akastasiya]

Condition is hugely important. Make sure you're not pressing your brigades to the limit unless you absolutely need too.

[FroBodine]

These are great tips! One question - what does pr. mean, please? You use it twice in your write up:

- - Later you should add enough points so you can get at least 20 brigades pr. corps

- - I like to have 1 artillery unit pr. division as well

What does the pr. mean, please? I'm trying to understand what you're saying, but that is tripping me up.

[Koro]

Erhm, I am not sure how to explain it - it's prononounced per corps. Just means you should have enough army organization to fit 20 brigades in a corps and put around 1 artillery unit in each division :). Maybe it's not an English word actually.. unsure of that suddenly. Lol, it might be the only word I've brought in from Danish ever then.
Edit: just googled it.. apparantly it's just "per" in English. I'll go correct it. My bad. It's how we spell it in Danish.

[FroBodine]

Aha! Per. I have never seen it written out that way. Yes, I'm American. I thought you were trying to abbreviate pounder or something. Per makes sense. Thank you for the clarification.

[blueakomoon]

Cavalry Tips:
There are two types depending on what you arm them with. All Cav work best in open areas when mounted.
1. Cav armed with a pistol and sword (the cheapest ones have the highest melee) are pure melee and cannot be dismounted. These are great for sneaking around behind enemy lines and attacking undefended artillery, supplies, and even officers. They also can wipe out enemy skirmishers if they can catch them. Keep these away from enemy infantry brigades that are at full moral or full strength.
In addition to their raiding capabilites, Melee Cav can be used in large numbers (500+) to attack and wipe out routed enemy brigades of up to two or three times their size. They can be the Anvil to your Infantry's hammer. As enemy brigades are routed, your Melee Cav attacks from the rear and sides and will do an amazing amount of damage (I had a 700 Melee Cav unit completly destroy a routed 1700 size brigade). This only works against routed brigades. If they are not running, the enemy will shoot your Melee Cav to pieces.
Note, this gets easier as the campaign progresses as infantry switches to rifles with less melee strength, thus they are more vulnerable to Melee Cav when routed.

2. Cav armed with carbines are more or less mounted skirmishers. They should never engage any target while mounted. You should dismount them and have them fight as skirmishers. Think of thier ability to mount up as a way to move them accross the battlefield faster, this makes them ideal for scouting. But as soon as they come under fire, have them dismount.

Also, keep in mind that Cav units are expensive becasue you have to pay for thier horses too, thats why thier price is so high.

[limith]

As an addon to 2 above, for the Confederates Skirmisher cavalry can aso be used as melee cavalry against artillery if need be (due to lacking weapons on the Confederate side if you want more than 1-2 melee cavalry brigades). You need to give them move orders through enemies rather than attack orders or else they won't melee the target. They will be pretty fragile until they start leveling up their melee skill. Don't use them to attack routing Infantry and they may even lose against skirmishers until their melee skill is leveled up.

If you recruit a commander for a new brigade with a rank that has red stripes, you will get a free skill for the brigade, which can make a huge difference for cavalry brigades. The +Morale skill is great because cavalry need morale to stay in melee combat.

[Dave]

Before starting my first game, I have been going back and forward to see; how the different decisions would result in different starting profiles. After you have finished your decisions you can see the total modifiers however, I made this small table to better understand the choices when you make. Hope this helps some other new as well.

Also, if the table is not entirely correct let me know and I will adjust this post.


Starting skill points


Commanders skill......Bonus.....................................................................% per point
Politics......................Income...................................................................+ 2.5 %
Economy...................Discount................................................................. - 2.5 %
Medicine...................Units replenishment losses for fee.............................+ 2.0 %
Training.....................Replenishment/recruitment of veteran cost less...........- 2.5 %
Army Organization.....Ability to lead larger and more brigades
Logistics...................Increases the amount of ammunition your units have....+ 5.0 %
Reconnaissance........Gain information about the enemy, need at least 4 points for basic info.

[Koro]

I've added special tutorial videos on army camp and battle controls in the bottom of the thread.

[mister.hister]

Learned the right-click and hold group drag is not bugged by watching your tutorial Koro. LOL.

[Skaman1978]

Easy way to get a screening force is by clicking the "Detatch skermishers" from your infanty units. You get a small unit that you can use as a screening/recon force without haveing a Skermisher devision. Note, they will have the same moral, condition, supply, and rifle as the mother unit. So if you have a unit that just did a charge and is tired, detatching the screen will be the exact same way.

[Koro]

Originally posted by mister.hister:

Learned the right-click and hold group drag is not bugged by watching your tutorial Koro. LOL.

I thought it was bugged the first few hours I played beta too :).