Guns

[Noxious]

How can i get more guns for my infantry? Do i have to wait for them to be built, or can i build them myself?

[Chief Wiggum]

Three ways:

-Buy them
-Build them
-Glitch them

Buy them on the market after you research them using your military subsidies. I like the Springfield Musket Rifle, as it's cheap to buy. I usually do a 1000 buy to get the standardization going, and then do a 50K buy.

-Build them slowly, which the game does automatically. I think the higher the standardization, the faster they produce.

-Glitch them by merging division units. When you have a small unit with like 500-1500 men who have a good weapon like a Mississippi Rifle, and you merge another unit with Mixed Muskets into it .... presto instant larger division units with great rifles!

[Noxious]

Thank you. Also for new players, would you recommend CSA or Union?

[Chief Wiggum]

I'd go Union. Resist the temptation to spend lots at the beginning. Buy a Salt Mine at the start as Union doesn't have one.

Research whatever two policies you like at the start (except the recruitment one as you get it free when the war starts). After the first two, the war has started and you then go for the next recruitment one (12 month one I believe). Then when that finishes do your recruiting.

I usually recruit 3 x 3000 infantry, plus 3 x max artillery, and 1 x 3000 Cav in each division. Recruit as many of this template as you can with the available volunteers.

Research Springfield Musket Rifle as your first Military pick. And buy 50,000 of these.

Focus most of your effort on the area between Washington and Richmond. Also, I like to push south into Kentucky & Tennessee.

Try to fight with a numerical advantage by grouping several divisions together.

Also, when you get some money flowing into Agriculture & Industry, I suggest waiting for 100% saved towards new farms, mills, forges, etc. As Union I usually buy a Salt Mine right at the start, and maybe upgrade a Level 1 Iron Mine right at the start. Then save for a new farm, and the building that turns iron ore into iron. Then save for a new Mill.

Lastly, create like 5 navies and blockade the most profitable Confederate ports. If you want to build a few frigates, go ahead. Buy you can blockade decently with just the starting ships.

[Bramborough]

Originally posted by Chief Wiggum:

-Build them slowly, which the game does automatically. I think the higher the standardization, the faster they produce.

I've read this before, so a friend and I tested. Unlocked Confederate Rifles (to ensure none could be captured from the Union and skew numbers). Made no orders. Six months later, zero of the relevant weapons (Richmond Rifle-Musket & Carbine, Fayetteville Rifle-Musket) had appeared in inventory.

Is there some other step which must be completed? For example, a small order to get Standardization above zero, and *then* they begin to trickle in?

[Chief Wiggum]

Yes. If you place an order, the standardization increases.

[oddball]

Originally posted by Bramborough:

Originally posted by Chief Wiggum:

-Build them slowly, which the game does automatically. I think the higher the standardization, the faster they produce.

I've read this before, so a friend and I tested. Unlocked Confederate Rifles (to ensure none could be captured from the Union and skew numbers). Made no orders. Six months later, zero of the relevant weapons (Richmond Rifle-Musket & Carbine, Fayetteville Rifle-Musket) had appeared in inventory.

Is there some other step which must be completed? For example, a small order to get Standardization above zero, and *then* they begin to trickle in?

If you don't make an order you won't get rifles. You can turn on AI mgmt of the weapon ordering tho.

[tcmancini]

Originally posted by Chief Wiggum:

Three ways:

-Buy them
-Build them
-Glitch them

Buy them on the market after you research them using your military subsidies. I like the Springfield Musket Rifle, as it's cheap to buy. I usually do a 1000 buy to get the standardization going, and then do a 50K buy.

-Build them slowly, which the game does automatically. I think the higher the standardization, the faster they produce.

-Glitch them by merging division units. When you have a small unit with like 500-1500 men who have a good weapon like a Mississippi Rifle, and you merge another unit with Mixed Muskets into it .... presto instant larger division units with great rifles!

There is a 4th way to aquire weapons/artillery/ships, capture them in battle. Eventually, you can even get enough weapons to equip your brigades or enough ships to create a new squadron/flotille

[A_P_Hill]

If you desire a challenge ... Go CSA all the way.

[Bramborough]

Did another test campaign. I see zero evidence that weapons slowly trickle in without being ordered, even after previous orders are complete and standardization has substantially increased. Which is what I expected, I just wanted to test again and confirm before stating "this just doesn't happen".

For those who've noticed numbers of weapons increase in inventory without having ordered, the most likely explanation is that these are probably weapons which have been captured in battle.

[Noxious]

Should i research two at the same time, or one after the other?

[Shirome Artiste]

Research? If by that you mean research policies such as industrialization/military/diplomacy/any acts/etc then ehh. I would say the slowdown isn't worth it, you're better off sequencing them one at a time.

If you actually mean "Should I order multiple types of weapons at the same time" then, depending on how good/bad your credit rating and/or cash surplus is, then almost always YES.

Especially when you start from spring 61 your initial stockpile of non-awful weaponry is depressingly small, regardless of which side you pick (Although CSA without arms deals taken is really, really poorly equipped) any anything that isn't mixed/unrifled muskets is a godsend.

Once you have unlocked multiple non-awful weapons for each branch of your army I would argue it can be worth it to "phase out" and stop ordering batches of the least significant upgrade so that you can slowly start building standardization for the actually good weapons without diluting them with "meh" equipment, but in my opinion as long as you don't have the weapon stockpiles to remove all poor quality (Starter equipment, unrifled muskets, rebored musket stopgap units, etc. etc.) weaponry from all armies you should keep ordering more weaponry as your budget allows.

[dom_weasel]

My problem is that the amount I order gets stuck. It gave me a cap of 3000 on Springfield Rifle-Muskets but would allow to put in 50,000 for another another type of rifle I had zero of which were never delivered with the delivery date getting stuck first on 164.3 days and then 64.3.

I ended up with 100k plus of both Springfield Muskets and Musketoons with no carbines being made or delivered and only a pathetic trickle of rifles being delivered over the course of two years. I ended up being able to equip one brigade per month. This was as the Union. I had a similar problem with artillery, with the occasional delivery arriving of modern weapons but the rest of the time, I was fielding all the 6-pounders I took off the Rebs.

[Shirome Artiste]

Originally posted by dom_weasel:

My problem is that the amount I order gets stuck. It gave me a cap of 3000 on Springfield Rifle-Muskets but would allow to put in 50,000 for another another type of rifle I had zero of which were never delivered with the delivery date getting stuck first on 164.3 days and then 64.3.

I ended up with 100k plus of both Springfield Muskets and Musketoons with no carbines being made or delivered and only a pathetic trickle of rifles being delivered over the course of two years. I ended up being able to equip one brigade per month. This was as the Union. I had a similar problem with artillery, with the occasional delivery arriving of modern weapons but the rest of the time, I was fielding all the 6-pounders I took off the Rebs.

That sounds like a bug to me, I've had sporadic issues where ordering different artillery pieces (I believe the basic 12&24pd Howitzers?) which both claimed the same amount of delivery time when ordering, arriving several days apart. But I've yet to have any weapon order delayed eternally.

[dom_weasel]

Originally posted by Shirome Artiste:

That sounds like a bug to me

A bug? In this game?
INCONCEIVABLE!