FED UP WITH SOUTHERN ARMY'S DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE

[6thohio]

I have the game on the easiest setting and the south in passive mode. Yet here it is April of 1861 and the south is invading Illinois by sending and army up the Mississippi. Now this is impossible.
Are they never going to fixed this? Is the south ever going to be forced to operated within the limits of reality and southern solider's forced to operate and act within the limits of humans?

[Towlie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Stevens there's also examples of Jeb just riding his cav around the entire enemy lines. It's not unheard of, historically, for the south to push north. I do agree it can be frustrating seeing them take Chicago. Gettysburg wasn't a planned battle but they managed to get that far north also. Leaving any opening the AI is pretty relentless, especially with their 9000-13000 man corps.

[pnowkr]

Originally posted by 6thohio:

I have the game on the easiest setting and the south in passive mode. Yet here it is April of 1861 and the south is invading Illinois by sending and army up the Mississippi. Now this is impossible.
Are they never going to fixed this? Is the south ever going to be forced to operated within the limits of reality and southern solider's forced to operate and act within the limits of humans?

Yeah, I pretty much stopped playing the first few years of the war, because the South was always able to generate troops far more quickly than I could as the North. However, I know that is not historically accurate. Generating troops was not a problem for the North early in the war.

[SAS]

I have found the AI does not seem to work well in easy of very easy mode. The default settings actually seem to be best for an "easy" RPG style of play.

[crono900]

As Union try selecting Fort Smith garrison. Then use the quick-recruit to recruit 2 or more artillery batteries to it. This will cause the Confederates western division to battle the fort before they receive their 9000 men that they recruit. This Delays their attack by breaking their morale and causes them to back off for several months, giving you a chance to prepare your western defenses.

Also, you could play with readiness sat to 'off'. The AI is not effected by readiness, it is only there so that you (as the player) do not rush the enemy too much. So to have an enjoyable game without readiness, try to play slightly defensive.

[6thohio]

Sept of 1861. Just defeated a southern arrmy at washington. The south attacks the next day with 10,000 more then they had before.

[SAS]

As the union I take the military I then the regulars, gets you an army early

[Sakbullets]

Yup, my review of this game was long and I discussed all this since its release. They make a million annoying little Armies to harass, and somehow end up routing your larger armies after you win the battle with their biggest Army which is a third of the size of your Army.

[Stone]

The AI recruits it's full amount right from the start. If you watch the paper it talks about recruiting problems for whatever side the AI is on. This is part of what is killing the AI in the campaign. Where as we as players often won't drain the pool to allow for replacements and we try to build up gradually the AI drains this pool and then forces drafts as replacements driving state and national moral down. So just fighting a defensive war with enough battles can bring you victory by the end of 62.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by 6thohio:

I have the game on the easiest setting and the south in passive mode. Yet here it is April of 1861 and the south is invading Illinois by sending and army up the Mississippi. Now this is impossible.
Are they never going to fixed this? Is the south ever going to be forced to operated within the limits of reality and southern solider's forced to operate and act within the limits of humans?

Why? Why is it impossible? You're so busy.... oops wrong historical fiction but lets break it down.

The CSA did raid illinois/northern mizzu later in the war when there was actual troops and armies.

So why would it be impossible when there was no armies to stop them, particularly on the river?

Later in the war, ya silly that it would "sail" up, but early there isn't anything per say stopping them if they had boats.

I don't know what it was like in the 1860's but in today's world there is a decent amount of farms in the Illinois stretch on the trek up to northern illinois. I'm not ultra familiar with Iowa, but I'd imagine it's similar.

You probably couldn't do a lot of "sitting around" but could raid if situations were similar.



*******************************************************************



"My biggest gripe in general is the south out pacing you in terms of Manpower"

Not really there only like a couple week window. I think this is why smaller more flexible corps is beneficial for union then the blockish approach tend to use with CSA.

I change the renlist percent to be like 15% then 95% for the 0/100 loyalty splits (3 months ya were a thing, but I'd imagine most reupped or were easily replaced, so have no qualms about upping %)

policy >> I research Military 1, then stop, don't research anything (don't do 2nd policy, you're losing days to get to 1 year aka arriving 1 day late can be all the difference. aka day late and dollar short.)
April 15th research militia 1 year contract

I don't create any new armies until militia year 1 is done. When done create more corps/troops.

Around May take Alexandria and knockout/knockback the CSA corps that just sits at manassas (it's a free CSA loses 2-4k worth of troops) Pull corps back to Washington DC

Ring Potomac River with 4-5 single ship gunboats

Have 4 ugly brown MS River Rats for patrolling ohio river circa April/may

Blitz West Virginia late summer/early fall

You should be able to keep par with CSA (relatively) with 1 year contract and surpass sometime between the 1st and 2nd wave of 2 year contracts.

3 year contracts are not necessary at this point, some might say ever.

my settings of late have been mediocre/2 aggressivness (low???) (so granted this isn't easiest easiest)

"since they stack so much of their manpower in the east I feel kind of forced to do the same" it tends to be stacked in the wrong places though the majority of time in the east. Best to ignore it 95% of the time. Just keep an eye out for opportunities. Goal to knock stuff back, not necessarily capture cities.

*************************************************************************
rough details**************************************************************
add to west corps >>> 1.5k illinois, 1.5 mizzu, 1.5 iowa to West Corps (there is already 1st mizzu brigade as part of this corps so end up with two 1.5 muzzu brigades)
1 kansas battery
~7k

create XX corps with 1.5 IL , 1.5 indiana, 1.5 iowa, 1.5 wisc ?? in illinois
~7k

I corps at washington dc is 2.25 maine, 2.25 maryland, 2.25 mass, 2.25 NY, 2.25 Wisc Iron Brigade
2 washington DC batteries
~11k

Ohio corps 1.5 mich??? , 1.5k-2.25 ohio, 1.5-2.25 ohio, 1.5-2.5, 1.5-2.25 penn ???
2 batteries Minnesota
~7-10k

East HQ in NY >>
1.5 NY Vol brigade
2 2.5 NY brigades (get transferred to II Corps (former Dept of Pennsylvania)
2 delaware batteries ???? (transfer to some corps)
~5k

Ohio HQ in Ohio >>
1.5 Ohio Vol Brigade

West HQ (highly optional)
1.5 IL vol brigade

That min

Research militia 2 year (Wave 1 of 2 year contracts)
>>>
add XXI corps and XXII corps in illinois
>>illinois, iowa, Mizzu, indiana, kentucky, Tennessee
>>batteries kansas, colorado, new mexico
~14-20k

add units to dept of ohio corp
>>> ohio, indiana, michigan, maybe penn/NY
>>>batteries minnesota
~7-10k

east
III Corps be something like
>>> NY, Penn, Maine???, Mass???

NE Corps
Add Penn brigade, 1 Cavalry from Vermont

east HQ
>>> mass,, maine???, Conn, NJ, New hamprhire??? (division gets transferred to 1st Corps)

East Cavalry
>>>NY, New Hampshire, Conn???, West Vriginia, Michigan (Wolverine/Custer)

Ohio Cavalry
>>> Ohio, Kentucky, Penn, NY???, Tenn????

West Cavalry
>>>Indian, Mizzu, Iowa, IL???, Indiana???

(2nd Wave)
IV Corps in east

XXIII Corps in West

Add/3rd Ohio Corps

[Kemal]

The problem I run into confronting the huge Southern armies is that I run out of ammo before they run out of soldiers. That, and that the CPU's artillery can easily find the angles to snipe your artillery, while as the player its extremely frustrating to find the angle to hit their art.

[crono900]

Originally posted by Kemal:

The problem I run into confronting the huge Southern armies is that I run out of ammo before they run out of soldiers. That, and that the CPU's artillery can easily find the angles to snipe your artillery, while as the player its extremely frustrating to find the angle to hit their art.

I had modded the zoom for the battles to 10 instead of 20. This almost makes it 3rd person view. reason I'm mentioning this is I had my forces laying down in parapets with a hill between me an the AI artillery and they were still firing through the hill and causing casualties. I thought they didn't use indirect fire in the civil war.

[drzom]

Originally posted by crono900:

I thought they didn't use indirect fire in the civil war.

Howitzers and mortars.

[chsalpha]

Originally posted by 6thohio:

I have the game on the easiest setting and the south in passive mode. Yet here it is April of 1861 and the south is invading Illinois by sending and army up the Mississippi. Now this is impossible.
Are they never going to fixed this? Is the south ever going to be forced to operated within the limits of reality and southern solider's forced to operate and act within the limits of humans?

+1

Confederate AI is way too aggressive/offensive even when set to calm. I don't have an issue with the occassional raid or if the AI attacks cities near the border, but the AI usually goes way too far north and sometimes even lays siege to Chicago or New York.

One issue I have noticed (which seems related to this): Sometimes when the AI loses a battle the defated army will retreat into my territory and NOT back into AI territory. For eample I defeat the AI army near Washington and then it will retreat up north to Baltimore. This makes it easy for the "defeated" AI army to attack Philadelphia or New York for example.

I'm really hoping the devs will look into the confederate AI aggressivness & AI's retreat mechanisms for the upcoming patch.

I'm loving the game but the campaign AI still needs some work.

[crono900]

Originally posted by drzom:

Originally posted by crono900:

I thought they didn't use indirect fire in the civil war.

Howitzers and mortars.

but cannonballs fling straight through a hill to hit me?

[Oubley]

Originally posted by chsalpha:

Confederate AI is way too aggressive/offensive even when set to calm. I don't have an issue with the occassional raid or if the AI attacks cities near the border, but the AI usually goes way too far north and sometimes even lays siege to Chicago or New York.

This is why I think there should be better garrison/militia logic.

I'm pretty sure the 75k volunteers was just to supplement the regular army and that states were still running/using their state militia's

Even if it wasn't true, you'd think that there be an emergency levy of some kind for big places like Chicago/Cleveland/NY etc.

I have a bigger issue with how quick people march up north, not so much that they are marching north.

Look at Gettysburg, that took months to only go a short distance, and months again to traverse back down, granted union went rather quickly but some of that was forced/emergency marching. and even then, there were battles and regular marching in between the big fight.