House Rules for Union Campaign?

[rchasey]

Been playing since EA but almost all of my campaigns have been Confederacy since the resource disadvantage makes for a more challenging experience.
Can Union campaigns be difficult and fun even with their advantages?
Or do y'all use house rules to limit yourself in Union campaigns? Like:

Giving AI control over fights. I always micromanage units so not sure if this would make for more even battles or would just leave me tearing my hair.
Limiting policies (e.g. no drafts to replenish units).
Not being optimal with commander selection. Put bad commanders in because of seniority/rank/politics over stats.
Etc.

Can these make Union campaigns more challenging or do y'all just play Confederacy as well?

[heres johnny3112]

Playing Union - don't capture Richmond. Go for the anaconda route. fighting in the west down the mississipi, in missouri, tennessee etc. Put the AI bonuses to max, put them on hard as well.

Keep restarting the campaign until they pick both industry/railroad. The third policy doesnt' matter - ideally one that increases population for them. If you do this - they'll get large armies and have modern weapons as well.

Also if anybody knows how to pick the AI perks at the start that'd be great...that way we wouldn't have to just keep restarting until they pick 2/3 of the policies required to make them a bit more competitive.

[Duck]

due to the "bug" surrounding CSA spawned armies being 100% equipped with rifles, plus fighting defensively (thus easier to manage supply + readiness), and along with the union AI having terrible generals thus sucking in battle, playing the 61 campaigns is actually harder as union.

[rchasey]

Publicado originalmente por heres johnny3112:

Playing Union - don't capture Richmond. Go for the anaconda route. fighting in the west down the mississipi, in missouri, tennessee etc. Put the AI bonuses to max, put them on hard as well.

Keep restarting the campaign until they pick both industry/railroad. The third policy doesnt' matter - ideally one that increases population for them. If you do this - they'll get large armies and have modern weapons as well.

Also if anybody knows how to pick the AI perks at the start that'd be great...that way we wouldn't have to just keep restarting until they pick 2/3 of the policies required to make them a bit more competitive.

Now that I think about it I never bother checking the enemy policies before the war. It actually being random might be the problem then. Good to know, thanks for the heads up.

[NoBrainRequired]

No skirmershers/pickets as union.

[Johan217]

Same as in my CSA campaign, dont go for the capital until the very end. No other specific restrictions, but I build my armies based on the historical OOBs (cannot imagine doing otherwise, sorry!) and I try to emulate history by capturing New Bern, New Orleans, Galveston, Tampa etc, preferably within a historical deadline. It's actually pretty hard to do, though often more due to supply mechanics rather than enemy opposition. I basically ignore the AI most of the time until it attacks me LOL

[jamesdemaio]

Publicado originalmente por Johan217:

Same as in my CSA campaign, dont go for the capital until the very end. No other specific restrictions, but I build my armies based on the historical OOBs (cannot imagine doing otherwise, sorry!) and I try to emulate history by capturing New Bern, New Orleans, Galveston, Tampa etc, preferably within a historical deadline. It's actually pretty hard to do, though often more due to supply mechanics rather than enemy opposition. I basically ignore the AI most of the time until it attacks me LOL

By any chance would you be able to recommend a place where I can find the historical oob's?

[Johan217]

Sure, but be warned, once you start you can't stop ;-)

This wonderful website for example:
https://civilwarintheeast.com/

Haven't found anything similar for the West, unfortunately. But on wikipedia you'll find the OObs listed for many Civil War battles. Other than that: books! Larry J. Daniel (Shiloh), Stephen W. Sears (Antietam, Peninsula...).

Also you can simply check the different starting points in the campaign, they are fairly accurate.

[Ferda]

Publicado originalmente por jamesdemaio:

Publicado originalmente por Johan217:

Same as in my CSA campaign, dont go for the capital until the very end. No other specific restrictions, but I build my armies based on the historical OOBs (cannot imagine doing otherwise, sorry!) and I try to emulate history by capturing New Bern, New Orleans, Galveston, Tampa etc, preferably within a historical deadline. It's actually pretty hard to do, though often more due to supply mechanics rather than enemy opposition. I basically ignore the AI most of the time until it attacks me LOL

By any chance would you be able to recommend a place where I can find the historical oob's?

There's always Dyer's Compendium.[www.google.com] It's pretty intimidating, but it's an incredible work. It was compiled by a former drummer boy from the 7th Connecticut. When he was 14, he and a friend ran away from home to join the army (he was an orphan). His friend backed out, so he took his friend's name so he couldn't be traced back. After the war he spent 35 years compiling a basic history of the Union army, down to the regiment and down to the month. He literally did it all himself in a single room in Des Moines, Iowa.

It's USA only, but it sounds like it's what you're looking for.

[Oubley]

Publicado originalmente por Duck:

due to the "bug" surrounding CSA spawned armies being 100% equipped with rifles, plus fighting defensively (thus easier to manage supply + readiness), and along with the union AI having terrible generals thus sucking in battle, playing the 61 campaigns is actually harder as union.

Yes and no. This is second straight union campaign were South has pretty much ignored the west. They don't even pay attention to west virginia anymore.

So game has been pretty much endless waves of playing the Manassas map.

they've thrown away 25k worth of troops and I haven't even really attacked yet. The Manassas map is brutal for the AI, there so many ridges overlooking rivers/creeks. You can defeat much larger enemies because it's so difficult to bring any kind of numbers to bare.

[nicholasbal]

I’ll usually switch sides a few times to make sure the enemy isn’t naming privates to full generals. Once the Rebs get the conscription act they immediately spawn giant armies. Immediately. It’s not hard to go from outnumbering them by 50,000 to being outnumbered by 50,000 the next day. I’ve went as far as deleting an entire army the enemy made only to watch them spawn one the next day. So getting the conscription act as soon as they do is important or they will come at you at the end of ‘61 with big armies.

[CobaLT]

In my union playthrough I’ve had considerable resistance east and west. My only complaint would be the south wasting themselves attacking me so often especially in the east. It seems their programming can’t help it despite not having an advantage to do so