Unit organisation By Corps !

[Fox]

Hey guys !

I 'm a french guy, , i'm working as historical jurnalist but my by far for any other period my favorite is your incredibly dramatic and even insteresting civilian war. Secession War has olways fascinated me, so when i found this game, it rememhred me an old game game that i love, playing uin my childhood during the 90's, a wargame, utrn by turn , soberly calledcalled "Civil war II : Grant Lee; Sherman" !
Aniway, some of you ar'nt here to read my life, so i have a question , and i would be pleaesed for anyone who,will dare take the time to yhelp me. How is the BEST WAY to organize my division in my corps ?
Should i specialized some of them and divide them into infantery , all troops in in 2/3 ,divions and a special divion for atrillery or should i make a mixed up witj, for exemple, one artillery unit in each division and one ligh tropops, like skirmish and cavalry ?
Or it has really no matter? Which is something i really doubt, i just realize that can be instresting....
Thank you foir your time, thank you for your answers !

[SaltyFish]

Consider the attribute "mobility" as one of the most important factors Corp determining structure. A Corp without Artillery is much more mobile. Generally - Cavalry one or two per Corp for urgent tactics and scouting. A Corp with ALL Cavalry can be very effective in large battle fields with the room to maneuver and get behind enemy lines. Holding key positions with mostly Artillery a few large brigades and some skirmishers can be useful for blocking and creating strong points advantages such as inhibiting enemy troop flow. Detaching skirmishers allow attacking from two angles and suppressing charges. Nevertheless, deploying according to tradition makes for harder fought battles. So, fight like they fought or fight to win in the game each approach has it rewards.

[oswaldo]

Most players mix them up.

A common recipe is for Infantry based warfare (Cav is possible for micro managers) is ~ this:

3 - 4 Infantry Brigades per Division
at least one 1 Artillery per Division
2-3 Cavalry per Corps (Carbine and Saber)
Sharpshooters (try to have at least one per Corps).


IInfantry Brigades might be mixed in the later game

Elite - Above Average - Below Average - Rookie' Divisions

pure Elite Divisions are hard to replenish, pure Rookie DIvisions have no punch and low morale

[the evil one]

It's more about the fact that in many grand battles they enter the battlefield in division order
I change my division every grand battle so I know what forces will enter the fight and when

Or if I know i get to place a large amount of troops where I want that battle I'll go heavy on the slow moving arty in some divisions and leave the faster moving skirmishers/cav to reinforce

EG 1st division fights the skirmish prior to 2nd bull run, if I had those as a pure arty division they would get wiped out so while I do use pure arty divisions sometimes( ease of selection in large battles) they have to be placed correctly in the corps
Many grand battles are the same
It's no use having your strong but slow arty divisions placed so they arrive late in the battle and far away
Once you know the grand battles you'll soon see what make up of forces is best for each battle

I normally have some of my best troops take the field 1st and reinforce with lesser troops so they can get the easier xp

And 5th corps stores 3 stars for use in the late game

[[Rbls] Yorld]

All the guys here made good points.
I'd say the evil one made one of the most important : it depends on the battle you'll be fighting

So i'd say one important thing is to have room in your army managment table, so you can adjust and adapt easily. But you'll figure this out playing

[Black Hammer]

I tend to go three infantry, one artillery, and one specialist (skirmisher or cavalry).

Sharpshooters are often more useful than cavalry in my experience, since melee cavalry tend to feel like cruise missiles: effective, but one use.

[the evil one]

Originally posted by Black Hammer:

I tend to go three infantry, one artillery, and one specialist (skirmisher or cavalry).

Sharpshooters are often more useful than cavalry in my experience, since melee cavalry tend to feel like cruise missiles: effective, but one use.

+1

Melee cav are good fun and in grand battles they can be good at the end but only if 2 star and above but mostly they need to have their own division and act in trios to be effective for me otherwise like you say they tend to be one trick ponies

rifle cav only come into their own with Spencer rifles

Skirmishers are the best unit in the game

End of the day you can win with any army make up on 1st 2 difficulties it's only gets important to put some thought into it on hard and legendary when you're facing armies like this

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2119467849

[Vuld_Edone]

Joining the thread, why do people put so much faith in skirmishers?

I've so far only played on easy and normal, so needless to say I am still a kevin. But when I tried using skirmishers, well other than moving fast they pretty much do nothing for me. They easily break under fire, they can't hold melee even against artillery, they can't give chase... and to add to it, if not mistaken they are limited to 500 units, when I can simply detach 250 skirmishers from my (late-game) infantry. Maybe the lack of dedicated weaponry makes all the difference?
I actually cheated and had an entire corp with a sniper unit per division... and they were really underwhelming. So I must have used them dead wrong.

I know skirmishers are very useful -- someone even said they were OP -- but I am clearly missing something that hard/legendary would make obvious.

My OOB is nothing original, but two words on cavalry.
> Available equipment severely limits how many cavalry units one can fields. I tried going for a cavalry build playing Confederate but could barely manage, from memory, 3-4 units with all the losses melee cav' can take. And with poor equipment, enemy cav' will prove deadly.
> With unlimited armory though (and okay, I admit, unlimited funds too) I would go for 5 melee cav' per army corp: one per division with the second division having two. That way, for most of the battle I would have 3-4 melee cav' at disposal for 1-2 charges, plus reinforcements at the end for the pursuit.
Indeed, once it reaches the critical mass (~2000 horses), it can wipe isolated infantry units pretty rapidly and decimate unprotected artillery. But unless you're insanely skilled or lucky, they will take heavy losses. For economic warfare, it's probably only worth adding them to the third and fourth divisions.

Eventually my philosophy is that I don't know what the next mission will entail, so true to division spirit, each division should be its own mini-army, with only 1 brigade for specialization.

[pandakraut]

Dedicated skirmisher units don't have much use unless they are armed with scoped weapons that outrange infantry. This lets them stay hidden while firing at enemy units. Since the AI usually does not know how to deal with this situation it can be very strong, especially when combined with heavy artillery support. This becomes more important on higher difficulties where limiting casualties is more of a priority.

Carbines can be occasionally useful, but generally are just not worthwhile when you could use detached skirmishers with longer ranged infantry weapons anyways.

You don't want to have more than ~375 men in dedicated skirmisher units unless you are running a modded game that fixes that issue.

[CivWar64]

@Vuld_Edone - I also wondered about skirmishers, but eventually found from watching videos from Pandakraut and others that they can be marvelous. If you equip them with long range scoped rifles and a stealth perk, they can sit away from the action on the flanks unseen and do incredible damage. Two together can easily route the best enemy units in a few shots. So now I start training some right at the 2nd battle. But yes they require a lot of micro-management.

[CivWar64]

For a Corps buildout, if 4 divisions, my divisions split this way: 2 artillery, 1 artillery+1 sniper, 2 artillery, 1 artillery+1 shooting cavalry.

And it depends on the battle too. Sometimes no cavalry and more artillery.

In the later battles, when your division sizes are bigger, I will add a second sniper and a melee cav. In the 2nd Corps, I may have a 3rd or 4th division with just cavalry since they will be arriving later to the battle and can get places faster.

[Fox]

thnaks guys for all your answers !!!
But, sorry, i don't want to show any misgratitude but, nobody clearly answers me that if i should better get a mixed up or if dediacted divisions has any différences/impact ?
I mean most of you devellop very instresting aspects and im leraning a lot, but i still don't cmearly sure that if there is an interest bonus/malus for regrouping specifics brigades into divions.
And what aboiut the role of the division's comamnder ? I see u cant have less than a colonel, but how is that imapcts the games ? Does the divion just can grows up or have any advantages with that chief ?
I see the role of the corps commander and how it affects with perks, same way for the brigades, but for the division its still remains a mistey ....
Aniway a byu thank for your time and fell free to continue giving advices and sharing Xp with me.

P.S : i 'ma always been on the south sides on my heart so i precise that i can't play the Union ...

Dadadam....

O I'm a good old rebel, Now that's just what I am.For this "fair land of freedom" I do not care a damn. I'm glad I fit against it,I only wish we'd won, And I don't want no pardon For anything I done.
.......

[CivWar64]

@Fox...My general Newbie guide (pinned at the top of discussions) has some general info on this. But if you are playing the South, I have a Newbie Guide specifically for the first 9 CSA battles that shows you exactly what to build (at least for my style of play). It might help you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590910447

[CivWar64]

@Fox...there is little impact of division commanders in the base game. In the rebalance mod, they make a huge difference, to the point that moving a brigade from one division to another could mean the gain or loss of an experience star, or the brigades fighting less efficiently.

In general, I put my best general in Div #1, the next best in Div #2, etc. but mostly because they are safer there than in infantry brigades. Sometimes the best general will go into infantry so I can get an extra star, or so I can add more rookies without losing a star. And as I said, sometimes they will go into long range artillery to get experience faster.

Also, you want the command bar for a brigade to be greater than the efficiency bar. In the screengrab below, even with a 2 star general, my 3* 24-pound artillery's efficiency, even though it says '100' will actually fight with the general's rate of '77'. (You always want the unit's first bar labeled command to be higher than the efficiency bar underneath it.)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2120880564

[Fox]

Well thanks its clearer now :)

Aniway, in yoyr screenshot, i see that's really different presentation of the graduation for generals from the South, which use something different ^^

[pandakraut]

To answer one of your questions that got missed. The only advantage to having specific unit types all in the same division outside of infantry. Infantry within the same division can combine into a single unit, though this costs them their perks. Only really useful for when an officer gets wounded/killed so that another unit with an active officer can command both.

Otherwise you can mix and match as much as you like with no penalty.