CSA Normal Difficulty Campaign getting steamrolled

[JochenHeiden]

How am I supposed to play CSA on brigadier general difficulty?  in every battle I am getting absolutely steamrolled by the Union. They have more brigades and way more men in each and there is nothing I can do to stop them. I BARELY won at Bull Run and I am dreading Shiloh.  I don't see how this is winnable with the massive Union numerical superiority

[Hitorishizuka]

Most battles with Union numerical superiority are hampered by really bad terrain and/or they only arrive piecemeal. You want to focus your forces locally on areas and overwhelm them and defeat them in detail before their reinforcements arrive and you want to fight smart and use the terrain so you do so in a manner that mostly preserves your own forces in the process.

Terrain, veterancy (Union start with baaaaaaad troops compared to yours), and weapons tend to matter more than strict numbers.

[JochenHeiden]

I don't get the veterancy. All my brigades I create have 0 stars like all the ones I did in Union. I am trying to make as many brigades as I can with about 1250 per for now.  Still badly outnumbered with green troops with bad guns because air can't afford rifles.  This seems unwinnable. 

[Hitorishizuka]

Your rookie brigades should be starting at 1 star assuming you have even a reasonably high officer to lead them. Even if not they still actually start with something like twice the firearms score of Union rookies.

That said, you probably skimped on Army Organization as well so your max sizes and # of brigades are lower than they could have been. 1250 is fine for 40-60 stat journeyman but it's not really good for rookies.

[The Soldier]

Very high ranking Lt. Colonels and above start their brigades with Vet 1 with the Confederates (though earlier on you're going to need Colonels).  Always good to use those, ignore Majors - totally worth the extra money put in if you ask me.

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

And small brigades are worthless. The bigger the brigade, the bigger its firepower etc etc. You only need a decent officer. On brigadier, I steamrolled the Union. I literally crushed them at Bull Run, capturing I think 2500 men.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf

[JochenHeiden]

Thank you guys for the tip on the brigade quality.  I didn't realize that high LTCs and above automatically yield one star for the brigade! I just survived Shiloh with a draw, which I'll take considering how many troops the enemy had.  I think I got it under control now!

 

 

[JochenHeiden]

I am about to start Gaine's Mill and I am bringing 43k infantry and 65 guns on the CSA side. I am very curious if that's enough to win there. Attrition rate amongst the officers has been extreme.

[Hitorishizuka]

Without more detail about the actual composition of troops it's hard to give a truly accurate answer but the pure numbers should be fine. It's possible to have Gaines' basically won before your last reinforcements hit the field let alone get close to the fighting.

[JochenHeiden]

I just played both Gaines Mill and Malvern hill and received pretty smashing victories on both.  I have everything under control as CSA on normal difficulty at last. I maxed out politics with my career points first so I had sufficient income, Army size is good, now I am working on getting better weapons to my troops.