Washington, CSA

[Dik Dixon]

Well. Yesterday, for the first time, I played that battle. After long and bloody battle I broke Union defences and captured city itself. Got 80k troops against 90k enemies. BG level. Lost 35k but destroyed entire union army.

And then against my exhausted and decimated army enemy throw 150k strong horde with 700 cannons. Wow!

First try and ofc I got overrun. Got some ideas, but It seems that I will have to replay battle (i thought it was last battle so I do not care about the losses... :/). Frankly I was surprised that final battle isnt so hard until it become impossible :P).

Is it possible to achive victory with such small army - 80k + 300 cannons against almost 250k and 1000 cannons? Or I have to replay whole campaign preparing for this final battle?

[PaloAlto]

While I would not say impossible, it will be extremely challenging even on BG. I have won it on MG with 90K. There are tricks for this battle mentioned in other threads about this battle. However, 80K is definitely on the low side, especially considering you are playing on BG. I suspect most players bring between 100K-150K to Washington.

[Malkor2]

I could be wrong but it sounds to me like you're only bringing 3 Corps to a fight where you need at least 4, better bring 5 if you can manage that. At that time in the campaign each Corps should have 24 Brigades and count at least 30k men. In my current Union campaign i am before Fredericksburg and my two full Corps with 20 Brigades are at 30k men. With the men from my third Corps which is at half strength i have the same amount of men as you have. And in my current CSA campaign it is the same thing.

I don't see a way for you to win this fight. Playing as the CSA is harder than playing as the Union because you are basically starved for manpower. I would suggest you start a new campaign and make sure to keep your casualties as low as possible, while still winning the battle. Also don't spend money on veteran replacements (except for Artillery and maybe two units of Infantry) so you can buy more Officers and weapons. And don't forget that while Cavalry and dedicated Skirmishers are nice and useful, it is the Infantry and Artillery who will do the heavy lifting. So most of your Divisions in the end should have 5 units of Infantry and one Artillery. Or maybe 4 Infantry and two Artillery. That is up to you. Another thing that will help you is spending some of your reputation points on manpower. Do it early and do it as often as you can because you will need that extra manpower in the end.

[Dik Dixon]

Damn. Just as i thought. I must try to beat them once again even with little hope to success.

I have 2 full elite corps (** and ***), 1 battle hardened corps (* and **) and 2,5 division of rookies (*). Didnt feel like I need bigger army before. :)

Thx for advices. I see how I fail to make proper prepartions for this battle. That behemoth union army is little overkill, but I know what to expect now. :)

[PaloAlto]

Your best chance on your current playthrough is to minimize your casualties on the first day. Don't worry about trying to destroy the enemy. For the forts, send everything you got with your rookies leading the charge (actually, your detached skirmishers should be leading the charge). The only way you are going to dislodge the defenders is to bum rush them (i.e.melee). All you need to do is dislodge one of the defenders, then you can shoot the others in the back. For the other fortifications, find the extreme edge and attack there. Once you breach the fortification, then you can easily roll up or down the line. Also, don't worry about dislodging every enemy in the line fortifications, just the ones you need to access your objectives. The enemy AI will be more than happy to man meaningless fortifications out of the way even as the rest of their army is being destroyed.

[scott0007]

On the last battle your left is the strongest. One division is plenty to hold it. On your right comes the lightest attack, I have 1 brigade, 2 snipers, 2-3 detached skirmishers from other brigades, and all my cav sweep the right counter clockwise killing their cavalry and skirmishers. Then the cavalry sweeps from 3 to 12 o’clock destroying the union artillery in the process, it’s normally Undefended. After the unions left is gone, start a flanking move with any brigades that we’re defending your right. Push the union towards the left of the map towards the river. Your cav can run around killing more artillery and capturing supply.

Basically it’s an desperate defense for the center fort while your left and right are fairly easy defenses. And btw a 24Pd cannon placed at the base of the cornfield to the right of the center fort does devastating damage to units trying to flank the center fort.

[mhenry_101381]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥ Dixon:

Well. Yesterday, for the first time, I played that battle. After long and bloody battle I broke Union defences and captured city itself. Got 80k troops against 90k enemies. BG level. Lost 35k but destroyed entire union army.

And then against my exhausted and decimated army enemy throw 150k strong horde with 700 cannons. Wow!

First try and ofc I got overrun. Got some ideas, but It seems that I will have to replay battle (i thought it was last battle so I do not care about the losses... :/). Frankly I was surprised that final battle isnt so hard until it become impossible :P).

Is it possible to achive victory with such small army - 80k + 300 cannons against almost 250k and 1000 cannons? Or I have to replay whole campaign preparing for this final battle?

Same boat myself, I lost maybe 1/4 of my men and was taken out peice meal the next day. Started over mainly because I didn't bring enough seige guns and my 4th Corps was mostly green. Going to fix that. Also look into the Surrender or Rebalance mods for help. They are found in the forums. The Surrender mod will help with the manpower issue. Two choices to download from, one returns the prisoners, the other doesn't. Captured about 20K at Shiloh and got an equal number in return plus what I would I have got. Going into Anietam with 3 Corps and a recruit pool of over 80K. Only issue is not enough weapons to max out my brigades. Rebalance makes the casualties more realistic and adds a few tweaks.

[limith]

I've won games where I was outnumbered 1:4 before (Fredericksburg CSA), requires a significant amount of micromanagement and awareness of game mechanics. You also have to spawn camp the AI and merge brigades. Achieve local superiority while barely hanginging on elsewhere, then slowly roll up their line.

[donalddawkins]

I barely won washington with 4 corps, with the final corp mostly composed of farmers and rebored farmers due to all my money running out!

I reccommend mass rushing forts. Just concentrate all your men into a tight mega column 2-3 bdes wide and 3-4 bdes deep. Push them initially at a walk into the enemy forts, just out of range from them, then corder your men to run THROUGH the fort. Don't charge your men at a single brigade as it'll destroy their condition and cause them to chain rout. Instead make them run through the fort (and by extension anyone in it). the mass of men should quickly take the fort with some micro management (ordering troops to move inot the abandoned defences, running them into the stationed cannons etc etc), allowing you to reinforce it and use it as a hardpoint to wipe the surrounding enemies holding its perimeter. THAN you can expand around the fort.

Cannons should be being brought up to point blank enemy bdes when your meat rushing, and you'll need some bdes at 2000 men to take the fort itself. Your elite veteransshould pull it off though, and that's when you'll find out the difference between veteran and rookie brigades.

This should win you the first phase to the north if you use your elite corp to do so.

second phase you'll potentially lose a ton of men if you bum rush the wrong place. Here dont try to bum rush on the north eastern side the enemy defences by the fort; the denemie's entrenched troops will break your charge and the fort right behind it will rain fire down on you. Instead, manouvre your men to the south east towards washington, then do the Massed column bum rush tactic, you'll bash through the weaker defences and from there you should be able to push into the fort with a lot less casualties.

As for any troops in the western side, you can either hold and wait for reinforcements from the north to to help the final bum rush, or you can try and win early. I personally find bum rushing with your western attacking troops to be a bad option as usually tha corps I use for that attack are the weakest and most inexperienced. Either way, the best tactic is to quickly smash through the enemy defences and turn it against them,you'll get maybe 1-2 devastated bdes from each rush as they'll eat all the fire while the ones behind it remain unaffected, but compared to the general mass attrition trying to shoot and flank those, it's the better strategy.

TLDR DONT ATTACK oN A BROAD FRONT, MASS ATTACK ON A NARROW FRONT, IN DEPTH AND EXPAND FROM THERE.

The defense is a bit easier

cram cannons into each fort, don't place them in any of the artifical defences, just put them right in the centre of each fort;when the enemy bum rushes you, your cannon can wipe the enemy bdes without being bogged down or whittled down by enemy fire. Also, leave some bdes in the centre of the forts as well, so when the men holding the walls break from attrition or fire, you can immediatey send up a new batch of men to take over the walls and prevent the enemy pushing in.

This is for medium difficulty mind, it's a lot harder to do this strat on hard mode.

[Dik Dixon]

Tried Washington once again. I limited my casualties to 15k after day one. Sadly its is not enough. Most of lost troops are my elites (somehow rookies lost less in malee - probaly due to fact that they raut much quicker and elites stay in fight to the bitter end). So I got lot of depleted brgiades starting day two. They just could not whithstand union mass charges.

Got to play once more. :)

It seems that elites are not so cost-effect good. :/

[mhenry_101381]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥ Dixon:

Tried Washington once again. I limited my casualties to 15k after day one. Sadly its is not enough. Most of lost troops are my elites (somehow rookies lost less in malee - probaly due to fact that they raut much quicker and elites stay in fight to the bitter end). So I got lot of depleted brgiades starting day two. They just could not whithstand union mass charges.

Got to play once more. :)

It seems that elites are not so cost-effect good. :/

Add the rebalance or surrender mods to even the odds a bit. Just do a quick seach in the forums.

[Dik Dixon]

I begin new CSA campaign, again BG. Use some of your advices guys:

1) Got lot of infrantry and small amounts of support troops
2) No elites!
3) 12-cannon batteries (2 each division), max 2000 brigades
4) Accumulating generals, $ and manpower to quick form up 5 full Corps for last campaign.

For now I win 2nd Bull run and have 3 full Corps (+70k, 200 cannons - force almost equal to one I assault Washington last time :P) and I can form easily 4th (400k $, and 20k men in reserve).

Its going so easy now. I outnumber Union in almost every battle. Shiloh end with total anihilation of US army. I clear the table whenever I can. No mercy this time! :P

Imho elite troops are sneaky, sneaky trap in this game. Give nothing and drain $ like crazy.

[Malkor2]

Units with 3 stars can give you a lot if you use them right. Most people use their 3 star Infantry as a reserve and only throw them into the battle when the rookies are running away. Just put your 3 star units in the last division so they always appear last on the battlefield. Reduces the risk of messing up your forces when you have no control over which unit to deploy and where. And always make sure they're supported by at least one other unit when you throw them into battle. After all, you want the enemy to shoot at someone else while your 3 star units tear them apart. The amount of micro management 3 star units need is definitley something to think about. Basically the same goes for 2 star units in the early game. Those are your elite troops in the early game and most people treat them as such.

[limith]

Always commit your elites after your reserves are exchanging fire with the enemy. Preferably fire from the flank with your elites. Never have more than 1/5 of your army be elites.

[scott0007]

What do you consider elite? 3 star? As a campaign goes by I typically get a lot of very high 2 star units with around 60 efficiency, few 3 star units as I typically only use rookies as replacements. That being said by mid game, stones river for example, at least 60% of my army is high level 2 star units.

[limith]

2 stars are elites for most of the campaign, I always have new green troops being rotated in. You don't need to always recruit veterans. Once a unit becomes 2* I usually don't bother recruiting veterans except to keep the 2*. Reserve brigades I will keep at 1* (these are the ones you lead into a charge if you don't have green troops, and the ones you let get fired upon).