HiHi
Here’s some basic ‘Bits & Bobs’ P6, in no particular order.
a Try to keep regiments flanks guarded else they become easy to surround, in the JT games when a regiment/Bgd/Div is surrounded the strength box on the unit description will show red, units will then fight at ¼ their strength. Also if they rout then they can be meleed without the attacker suffering any fatigue. So for eg in an extreme case 3 routed regiments say 700 strong in a hex could be surrounded (using ZoC coverage) by 2 non disorganised units of 75 each and on the Melee turn 75 men melee the hex and the enemy are captured without loss & without fatigue, the game uses this technique to recreate the concept prevalent in the ACW that if you where surrounded there was no dishonour in surrendering, so to reiterate keep your flanks covered!
b Cavalry is NOT the ACW equivalent of armour, they are fragile, easily killed (and have higher VP points) and disrupted when mounted, they also seem to take a bugger of a long time to undisrupted, best treated IMO as mounted Infantry, use their greater movement to get behind the enemy, dismount and use like infantry,
warning here, we all forget at some time or other but cav will
not fire or melee during the turn it dismounts (or mounts).
The obvious other uses for cav is to again use their movement to get to high ground for scouting purposes and to use their ZoC from behind the enemy to help in surrounds, just make sure they in their turn don’t get surrounded, I’ve done that! :rolleyes:
Extra warning re Chickamauga where JT changed the rules for dismount/mounting/ movement of cav; Rule of thumb there is only mount/dismount in a clear hex, or on a road or path, and don’t try passing mounted cav through any other unit or Forest, it will disrupt.
c Keep supply wagons as near as pos to your fighting units (they supply up to 5 hex distance as long as there is not a Creek, enemy unit or it’s ZoC in between) but don’t risk them getting captured eg most folk would probably waste a cav regiment to get a supply wagon, where practical remove regiments on Low ammo from firing range, they disrupt/rout more easily if they take loss.
d Be patient, where pos build up numerical advantage before you hit the foe, and always try to have something in reserve to follow up any local success, take time to study the terrain, it’s dangerous for eg to advance 1 regiment 6 hexs across Clear ground only to have its flank support slowed by an orchard (3 movment) or forest (4 movement), you may laugh but I did that myself in the early days :hissy:
e Most importantly IMO keep an eye on you command radius for your generals try, again as far as pos, to keep them in range (Corps & Army commanders don’t have a Command radius they operate all over the field of battle), try to keep high fatigue disrupted troops out of the firing line as they are more prone to rout and may trigger a multiple rout, remember if a unit is hit and disrupts the units adjacent to it have to make saving throws as well.
f Above all have fun, it’s a game not the beginning, or the end of the World, ... well, most of the time!
Some of the stuff above may seem “Cor blimmy bleeding obvious”, but we have all come a cropper at times through forgetting the basics so don’t fret if you do, just try to learn from any mistakes, Oh yes and watch what your opponent does you may pick some good ideas up of them.
Hope there is something of use there, if you haven’t already check out ‘Bits & Bobs for Newbie’s’ in the ACW Forum ‘Important Threads’ bit.
All the Best
Peter