The war of attrition

[Argon]

I think I have hit a point where it’s not worth it to kill as much of the AI’s army as possible anymore. Just want to know what you guys think.

For context, I’m on Union MG campaign, the Mule’s Shoe battle before Cold Harbor. The rebels man power pool was about 55k, while my total is at 50k. So, not great, not terrible. When I started Mule’s Shoe, intelligence said Lee brought 55k with him, that’s his entire army.

Assaulting Mule’s Shoe was terrible, I lost 17k, compared to his 19k. At the end I tried 2 scenarios: finish the battle right there, or try killing a bit more enemies. I found that if I kill 19k, Lee would receive 25k reinforcement after battle. If I try a bit harder and kill 23k, Lee would get 30k reinforcement ... So it’s not worth it to risk more men at that point, looks like it’s hardcoded that he must have at least 55k soldiers at least for Cold Harbor.

What are your suggestions on army size for the rest of the campaign? I made some sub-optimal choices in army management, so currently short on both cash and men. I emptied the reserve pool to have 66k men ready for Cold Harbor, some units have to use 1942 guns due to lack of cash. If things go on like this I don’t think I can have more than 60k men for Richmond.

[Searry]

Your campaign is over. The USA campaign is pretty easy since if you keep defeating the rebs in detail, they will eventually run out of men and you will have a huge superiority. You just have to do this in a fashion where you preserve the army from unnecessary casualties. Same thing for the reb campaign.

[Hugh de Salle]

Originally posted by Searry:

Your campaign is over. The USA campaign is pretty easy since if you keep defeating the rebs in detail, they will eventually run out of men and you will have a huge superiority. You just have to do this in a fashion where you preserve the army from unnecessary casualties. Same thing for the reb campaign.

Does not work like that on MG difficulty or above.

And no the Union campaign is not easy i found personally a lot harder than the rebel campaign in the early stages but everyone has an opinion.

[Searry]

I personally always have men left in the reserve, money is the issue. Defeating in detail is good because you get free arms captured. That means you can put more men on the battlefield.

EDIT, Oh yeah I missed the MG was the hardest. I've only beaten the game on BG and will try MG USA next. So my bad.

[Dauntless07]

Union campaign is very difficult on MG and Legendary. The cost sometimes isn't worth destroying the enemy army in detail, but I think the Mule Shoe is one fight where you can afford to, though you have to "cheat" to do it. Stack your entire army on one flank of the Mule Shoe, rush through at the edge of the map, then set up your artillery just outside the capture point. The Rebels will come out in the open, attempting to stop you from advancing on the point. If you sit there, you can annihilate the majority of the enemy army with ranged fire alone.

[Argon]

That's a good suggestion. I reloaded the end of the battle and camped in the wood. This time I killed 29k in total at Mule's Shoe. The bad news is, he got reinforced with 35k troops immediately after the battle.

Here are 3 different tries:
- Killed 19k, he got 25k reinforcements
- Killed 23k, he got 30k reinforcements
- Killed 29k, he got 35k reinforcements

Now I firmly believe 55k is the minimum the AI is scripted to have, going into Cold Harbor. I think it's time to change tactic, instead of focusing in killing the AI I should focus in reserving my army.

My philosophy for this campaign has been trying to kill as many as I can, while also accepting quite a lot of loss, it’s fun and thematic. The AI's man power pool peaked at Gettysburg, and was kept under 60k since then. Meanwhile my army has also been hovering about 60k with 0 reserves left. The new recruits have all been sent to the meat grinder.

I think I’m still in a good position, slightly outnumber him. The infantry is not in the best shape, but artillery all have high ranks. I don’t know how many men the AI will get going into Richmond campaign, but as long as the number is roughly the same I can eke out a win.