Assigning officers Poll

[Jack John]

Hey yall, just curious here: How do you guys like to assign your officers?
Do you assign by state, background (inf, engineer, etc), experience?

I find for USA I am not particular about officers unless its someone like Hancock, Reynolds, etc. For CSA, I am usually more inclined to assign them to their own state brigades so that I don't have all the experienced western Generals in the East.

[rclark92672]

Strict meritocracy.

[Gorilla]

Try to keep it somewhat historical, it's really fun when you try to keep the army sizes to their historic levels as well

[Atheory]

Yea, I tried being strict with same state unit/commanders. But after starting so many new games over time, I just put people I want where i want them, and fall back on 90/10 meritocracy/favortism. But I do try to spread the talent across the different theaters, and find myself keeping many commanders in their respective home theater, as if subconsciously doing it.

[Mr. Breeze]

I try to assign them to the thing they are trained in if possible... artillery officers to artillery ect.

[Targaryen22]

I generally just attempt to focus on assigning them based on expertise. My infantry divisions are led by an infantry commander, artillery by artillery, and my small cav divisions by cav commanders (usually they are based more on initiative then anything as I use cav to scout/ harass an approaching enemy and they work unattached from the army commander) Otherwise, I don't normally mind too much if the individual brigade commanders are randomized as long as there's no feuding happening

[Juulius Caesar]

I like to assign them based on historical commands. Wikipedia has the oobs from the battles and I try my best to align the officers to their commands as they were around that point in time. Sometimes I vary it slightly but I at least try to base the composition on the unit/corps' actual construction.

Where it tends to vary is that since some brigades were split by the states where their forming regiments came from, one must only pick one state to form the unit from. Some commanders (I think it is the group that are not professional officers but I could be mistaken) can only be assigned to the state they are seemingly from. So, that is where it can get tricky as sometimes the commander came from a state represented by only 1/5 or 1/4 of the total brigade.

[williamcarter1993]

at the beginning via states, then meritocracy and background- like I assigned Dorsey Pender to command one of my artillery divisions once

[ErgoQB]

Some historically - Grant always gets a command in the west initially - some per state or per branch, and - as the campaign goes on - increasingly by meritocracy

[Duck]

clearly in the minority here; for the most part i go with the auto pick. Notable exceptions of course for grant and jackson, but letting it be random makes the game feel a little more interesting. I do try to promote high performing brigadiers to divisions as the pool of troops expands. But it is kind of fun to see some deadbeats become heroes. Except Banks. That dude is trash and never succeeds no matter how advantageous the situation.

[CoachMac]

I try to match state of the officer with troops as much as i can.

Then I try to use artillery specialist for artillery and cavalry specialist for cavalry.

Then I try to pick the best commanders favouring experience.

[Timmer120]

With me, I typically go specialty(Infantry to Infantry, etc.) with when I run out of Arty commanders for artillery I then go for volunteers, saving the Engineers for when I need them for the Infantry

Typically I put the less known and worse commanders to work early in the war, saving those that I know do well such as Lee, Stuart, Sherman, and Grant for command positions as those typically have a good few stars already and will gain them quickly while its best to get you unknowns experienced while everyone is green so that when your troops get experienced you don't have too much pesting over the commanders of the units

[mogami_99]

when I form a new unit I take whoever is assigned. The exceptions are I change officer if they are assigned to wrong specialty ( a cavalry officer assigned to artillery BN is changed for officer suited to artillery.)
Since most of the time a new infantry brigade is assigned a political or trained officer from that state I leave them be.
There is no sense is messing with them before the unit is trained equipped and has seen the elephant. I let the officers gain a little experience.
After I get military II and form actual Armies I go through the Order of Battle and begin assigning Division and Corps commanders. Most of the time this involves promoting Brigade commanders or previously unassigned.
I don't see any point to wasting time fussing over leaders during the period where it does not matter and risking a good leader commanding below strength, untrained, mixed musket units that might rout and defame them. (when a leader I know is really good is assigned one of these early units I replace them with someone from the state but I leave good leaders auto selected to division or Corps command. )
I leave early Army commanders alone (the pre-Military II Armies)