Split screen battles are fun.. until they're not.

[Nuss]

I really enjoyed Shiloh. Starting with two small maps, which were later combined, felt really climatic and rewarding.

Now I'm at Frederickstown and this shit is a complete mess. Sorry for the strong language, but having 2 brigades of infantry miraculously spawing into my artillery lines is a bit more than frustrating. And that's only when I ragequit the battle. The frustration began way before that, at Frederickstown itself, when I saw that it was utterly impossible to crack the Rebell lines and thus had nothing to do for three entire game-hours. And afterwards my left flank got split with one portion of the army miraculously disappearing with absolutely NO warning whatsoever and not even a hint as to how army positioning would matter later. And then the game spawned 2 brigades of infantry into my artillery lines, when moments before I was about to secure that position with 6 of my own infantry that just had disappeared into nothingness. This is a horrible design choice, one of which, if it accumulates (and it does for the game tends to punish you for not behaving in the expected way), makes the game unplayable.

[The Soldier]

Just so you know, Fredricksburg is kind of supposed to be difficult to crack.  Mayre's Heights is not supposed to be a cakewalk for the Union - having to fight through streams, bogs, open ground, and then have to tackle a 4-foot tall Stone Wall that provides 100% Cover and Melee isn't easy.  If you can't take Mayre's Heights, well don't fear, because the win conditions dictate that (in short) you have to capture and hold any of the two objectives.  If you'd read that, you'd have realized you could have bypassed Marye's Heights and just instead waited to attack Telegraph Road.  It's possible to crack Marye's Heights if you analyze the defenses though.

Also, just so you know, Fredricksburg allows the player to attack all the objects for two full phases.  First it's Prospect Hill, then Marye's Heights, then Marye's Heights + Telegraph Road, then Prospect Hill + Telegraph Road.  If you captured and Secured Prospect Hill during the first phase (which is possible), then it skips the last phase and you've achieved victory after the Marye's Heights + Telegraph Road phase.  I understand this is still that you only learn by playing the battle, but I always recommend playing the Historical battle before the campaign version - both are usually very similar in layout.  That way, you don't waste your own army smashing them into those Stone Walls.

Edited April 4, 2017 by The Soldier

[Sir Texas Sir]

Yah the split screen thing made me loose a whole corp that was left over on the other screen that could of pinched the other team between my forces.  It's happen to me more than one fight.  That and I hate it when it splits your corps up, I use to break divisions down into like one for arty, one for infantry and another for Cav/Skirms, but I found they can split so you have arty by it self in one place and the others on the split map. Lost a good amount of arty that way one fight.  Just stopped the match and rolled back to the save before the fight and had to reorganized my units differently.

[Wright29]

once you learn how the shifting works, you can really use it to your advantage. As Union, you can just chill at Marye's Heights and then attack Telegraph Hill with 2 full corps. Likewise as the Confederates, you can camp spawn the Union forces crossing over from Marye's Heights. 

Kind of cheap tactics, but I'll do whatever it takes to win on the harder difficulties!