Overview
The early Union battles are very difficult–the enemy has higher quality brigades. And the Union advantage of more money can be easily squandered in the chase to outgun the CSA. This step-by-step guide shows you how to get started, with details for exactly what to create for each of the early Union battles, as well as the general battle plan to follow on easy (Colonel) difficulty.A word of warning–this guide is a bit different from my other guides as it has some interesting tricks that only veterans of the game know. I will point those out when they occur.
Introduction
This guide walks through the early Union battles for Ultimate General:Civil War on easy (Colonel) difficulty. With this start, you should be able to have a successful campaign.
As the Union, your early units will have less experience than the Confederate States of America (CSA), and you will be outnumbered in the initial battles (sometimes badly). Although you will have more money to spend than in a CSA campaign, it is easy to squander it on veterans and weapons. And because when you are just learning the game, it is difficult to choose where to spend your money, career points, selecting veterans or rookies, and a host of other choices. This guide provides very specific guidance on what to buy and what to build.
This guide assumes you are familiar with the game’s basic mechanics, such as those documented in my Newbie Guide (pinned at the top of the Discussions).
It is NOT meant to tell you how to build your army for higher difficulties, nor how you may choose to make different decisions. It is meant to give you a decent start so that you are not ‘behind the 8-ball’ in later battles. Or, if you have already started and unable to defeat the CSA, it may provide some ideas for going to an earlier battle save and rebuilding from there.
Many thanks go to the players on this discussion board who have helped me improve over the past two years, and to the people who have posted YouTube video replays of battles. As the famous quote goes, “I see so far because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” May you become one of those giants.
#1 Capture the Train Station (Philippi) – Part I
Part 0: Starting the Campaign
Although in general I recommend selecting Strategy, Artillery, Politics for your starting career choices, for this guide I am using Tactician, Infantry, Politics. The reason is that I want you to have 2 in Recon, which is what the first 2 selections will give you. This will allow you to see how your choices affect the scaling of the enemy. (Scaling means the game increases or decreases the number of enemy it will bring to the next battle depending on YOUR army size. More on that later).
So for now, use these options. And, of course, select Colonel (easy) difficulty.
Part1: Initial forces
Here is your starting position. These 3 troops are loaned units that will disappear after the battle. In a short while you will get 4 brigades you will keep afterwards, and so need to protect as much as possible: Infantry — Loomis and Walton, Artillery — Woods (10 pounders) and Scales (6 pounder)
Note: Exchanging fire in the woods with an enemy skirmisher takes quite a while. Instead, after each firing, move forward. The skirmisher will retreat. Keep doing that until you force him into the open where he will take lots of damage. Also, hit him from the flanks if you have multiple units.
Here is an alternative approach. Detach a Zook skirmisher and send everyone up on the ridge.
Note: Trenches and fortifications are very vulnerable to flanking and rear shots and will rout. This is true of both the enemy and your own units when entrenched.
Part 2: Attack the city on this side of the river or not?
Attacking the nearby city option:
In my initial guide, I recommended taking everyone to the first town and hammering the enemy there until he retreats across the river. He’ll disappear from view but will remain in the upper town. Then you would start hitting Law entrenched on the other side of the river. This is the way I executed this battle for the longest time.
Notice your skirmisher Schaeffer up in the woods at the top–he has an eyeball with a slash through it. That means the enemy cannot see him. There is an enemy artillery near the flag in the city that you cannot see, but he can see all your other units (no eyeball with a slash over them), so you will be taking fire from it. At least the city gives you extra cover.
Note: There is little to no cover on bridges or when crossing river fords. You never want to fight while on those. Always run your men across. (Likewise, always try to hit the enemy when they are on them.)
Other things to notice–the eyeball on a stick in the middle right. That is an observation point. Putting someone there will let you see enemy units farther away. Also notice the small icon on a pole behind the flag that looks like it has 3 small cannonballs. That is a free supply point. It is red right now since the CSA owns it. Once you take the city, it will turn blue and supply your fellows. Putting your mouse over the supply point when you own it will tell you how much is left in it.
So for this option, hammer away with artillery, move Zook in to shoot and add the others, then when Law routs run everyone across and fight towards the flag.
Bypassing the nearby city option:
I now use this method of bypassing McHenry in the nearby city and concentrating on Root. Set up as follows:
You should save at this point, because using this method, McHenry will become very annoyed and decide to rush over towards Zook’s skirmisher. Retreat your skirmisher, wait until McHenry gets close, then send everything at him (everyone but Loomis). McHenry should rout back towards the city. Chase him with your cavalry and 2 dedicated skirmishers and send him over the river, setting up the rest of your men like so:
Note: Cavalry does not melee well in woods and cities.
Once across, set up somewhat like this:
When time expires, you will have to defend the city against counter-attack.
#1A Hold the Train Station (Philippi) – Part II
Holding the city
Now this is the really hard part of the battle. You’ll be attacked relentlessly. Remember what I said about the fortifications. The game will start you in them. Get out right away as those are exposed positions. You will be attacked mostly from the right side of the screen. Save your game, then set up as follows:
Put Scales near the flag. He’s a 10-pounder and better at range than Woods (6-pounder). Woods is closer to where the action will be since he is good at close range cannister. (And his guns are less expensive if you do lose one).
Note: My cavalry is dismounted. Dismounted cavalry in woods and cities gives them more cover and a firing bonus.
Note: Fortifications give a melee bonus. Even though you are not in one, if the enemy charges you, you can run into it for the bonus.
Note about being charged: Hitting enemy with cannon fire reduces the chances of them charging, so you might want to spread your shots around to different nearby units. When the enemy charges, put your brigade facing them on run and use the fallback command. The enemy should stop in a few seconds. Then stop falling back. If you are in a tight spot, then detach a skirmisher. This will instantly stop a charge. It is considered bad form to do this, but as a beginner, you can use it as a last resort.
In my initial guide, I recommended sending skirmishers way to the right woods to delay the incoming confederates. Now I think hunkering down in the city works best. Try both ways.
When your reinforcements arrive, run one of the infantry when he’s about 1/3 of the way to the city. Then when the main reinforcements are 1/2 way, run another. Your guys in the city, especially Walton, need backup.
When the enemy train arrives:
When the train flashes pink and retreats, let it go. I thought when I first played that you had to kill it, but you don’t. Better is to keep firing at the enemy infantry.
When your third reinforcement gets into the city, have him replace Loomis and fall Loomis back a bit to rest. Move the new artillery to the right and left sides so you now have 4 across.
Stay in the city and keep firing at anyone who comes close. Retreat when charged.
Eventually the enemy may fall back and stop attacking.
This is more typical on easy difficulty. Hold for a while to make sure.
If the “FINISH” pops up, save your game so you can come back to this point.
Now is the time to practice. Take your units that you will not keep after the battle, and move them forward. (You can use your 4 units you will keep as backup, or on the flanks relatively safe if you want.)
Once you’ve basically won, you want to attack and try to eliminate as much of the enemy as possible. Why?
a) As the game progresses, extra units you do not kill build up the enemy’s pool of reserves, making their army larger in later battles.
b) You get a proportion of the your dead’s weapons as ‘recovered’ after the battle. (Some people try to get all their loaned units killed for this reason, although if you have installed a mod this is less true.)
c) You also get a portion of the enemy’s dead’s weapons as ‘captured.’ These are all free weapons to equip your men after the battle.
And a lesson–if you take everyone out of the city, the enemy has a lone cavalry unit who WILL run around you and head for the flag. (I admit this has happened to me!) You don’t want to lose to that! At least keep a detached skirmisher at the flag to warn you of enemy approaching there. But, if you wait until the FINISH is active to move forward, you can press Finish before he grabs the flag from you. Ha ha!!
The First Camp
You will be presented with a results screen where you can see how your units and the enemy’s performed. So look through the tabs to see if any commanders were killed or promoted, and what weapons you recovered. Then go to the Camp.
It should look something like this:
A quick recap (see my Newbie guide for more details).
GREEN box – The money you have to spend on equipment, veterans, and hiring commanders.
BLUE box – The number of men in your pool that are available to put into brigades.
PURPLE box – Your reputation. You can use these points to acquire money, men, weapons or commanders by clicking on the capitol building to its right. Its max is 100. Higher reputation gives your troops a morale boost; and lower than 26 gives a penalty; 0 reputation–you are fired!
YELLOW box – Your supply wagon for the Corps. Max is $35,000.
ORANGE hexagon – The name of the brigade you have clicked on. Click in the name to change it. (I like to add something about their weapon, like L for Lorenz or P for Palmetto or 24H for 24-pound Howitzer) Note: If a commander was killed in the previous battle, click on the missing photo to purchase a new one.
PINK circles – Top circle: When you add men from the pool to the brigade, whether they come in as Rookies (no cost but lowers the unit’s stats) or Veterans (cost money, less if you apply points to ‘Training’ in you Career screen).
Bottom pink circle: The first thing I do is top off artillery with veterans before I forget. Each cannon requires 25 men. Four men were killed in the last battle. Do this now for your 2 artillery units (do not add any cannons, just men i.e between 0 and 24)
Note: I always add veterans to artillery, since they perform much better and the 1- and 2-star perks you get on leveling up make a huge difference.
Notice ‘Careers’ is highlighted at the bottom. Before selecting it, go to the Battle screen by clicking on BATTLE MAP at the top, then select Distress Call. Click in the central box to add your corp of 4 units.
Here you also see why I had you make the initial career options which gave you a career Recon of 2. A Recon of 2 will show at the top of the screen how many men and cannons the enemy is bringing to the battle, and you can compare it to how many you are bringing. Your actual numbers may be different from this screengrab, partly because there is some randomness to the game.
Write down the enemy numbers: 4308 men; 12 cannons
Wite down our numbers: 3629 men; 10 cannons
Go to Army Camp screen, then click on the Careers tab at the bottom to get:
The bottom small green circle shows this gives you 3 brigades/division.
Hover your mouse over the ‘>’ next to the Army Org of 1 and the black box will pop up.
The black box shows you that going to Army Org of 2 will give you 4 brigades/division (large green circle). That’s what we want so that we can field 8 brigades for the next battle.
Click on the ‘>’ to bring Army Org to 2.
Wait, you say? Didn’t I have 4 brigades in the 1st Division when the max was 3?
IMPORTANT: After certain battles, your 1st Corp/1st Division may get 1 more brigade than the maximum. If you move a brigade out to another division, you won’t be able to add it back as the game will default to that maximum number of brigades. Thus always save at Camp right after a battle and before changing things.
While here, you can also hover over the other Career options ‘>’ to see their effect. If you check the Recon of 2, you’ll see you don’t really get any benefit from going to 3. After a few battles we’ll go to a Recon of 4 as that will give you important info during the actual battle that really helps as a beginner.
After changing to Army Org of 2, click on ARMY at the bottom to go to your CAMP screen.
Add $20,000 to your supply wagon.
Click on one of your infantry brigade’s commanders and buy a Lt. Colonel (silver) [the reason is that you only have a few lower ranking ones to buy, and those will go to the new rookie brigades]
Bring both Infantry brigades to 750 men by using Veterans. [Do not go over $5,000 spent–when you hit that number, add rookies until you get to 750]
Tip: Always add veterans before rookies, as you get a slightly better deal per dollar spent
While you are at it, change the names of your brigades so you can distinguish them from loaned troops during the battle. Remember — you want to sacrifice loaned troops you won’t keep instead of your own.
SAVE here as a precaution.
Now we are going to build the other 4 brigades.
Click on the brigade empty box and select Infantry, 1000 men, and Springfield 42s
Create a second 1,000 man infantry brigade.
Create a Skirmisher brigade of 150 men by selecting Springfield 55’s (You should have captured a bunch at the first battle, so this will only cost you for a commander for them).
Create a Cavalry brigade by sliding the slider to 200 (instead of the default of 250) and Springfield 55’s for weapons.
The Cavalry will be very useful, and the reason for the Skirmisher is to start leveling one up for later battles.
SAVE. We are almost ready to start the next battle.
A Quick Lesson on “Scaling”
As a beginner, you’ve probably seen on the discussion boards this mysterious thing called “scaling.”
The game is designed to give you a constant challenge, so in general the enemy army size will ‘scale up’ as you increase your own army size. This is more pronounced on higher difficulties, and is important on these higher levels since the enemy adds better weapons and more experienced troops than your own. So if you add 100 1-star men with lousy weapons, and the enemy adds 100 3-star troops with repeating rifles, you’ll not be doing yourself any favors.
But knowledge of scaling can still benefit you as a Newbie to the game in getting a good start.
Make sure you’ve saved your game.
As a reminder, when we last checked with only 4 brigades, these were the numbers for the upcoming battle of Distress Call:
Enemy Size: 4308 men; 12 cannons
Our size: 3629 men; 10 cannons
Let’s see what it is now. Go to the BATTLE MAP and select DISTRESS CALL. It should be close to this.
Enemy Size: 5030 men; 12 cannons
Our size: 6316 men; 12 cannons
We’ve added 2 cannons and about 2,700 men vs. the enemy added only about 700 men. It only ‘scaled up’ a little bit.
Go to CAMP, and add 1 cannon to your artillery, then go back to the battle screen.
This is NOT a good deal. And imagine if you are playing on the highest difficulty, this will be 3-star cannons which can obliterate your guys. This is why the topic of scaling comes up so often.
Restore your saved Camp.
Now add 100 rookies to one of your infantry brigades, then go back to the battle screen. You’ll see your infantry number goes up by 100 (6316->6416), and the enemy infantry by around 87 (5030->5117). This may or may not be good depending on the quality of the enemy units. But right now, you have to buy all those weapons, and it is better to save your money for later. (You’ll capture more weapons in the upcoming battle to use for your men.)
So for now, restore your Camp, go to the Battle screen, and start Distress Call.
#2 Distress Call
Initial Forces
I’ve tried to fight this battle many ways. I’ve sent my men north to help defend the fort. I’ve also tried sending men east to blast the enemy crossing the bridge.
But the following method I’ve found works well, especially on the higher difficulties where the enemy is more powerful and aggressive. Abandon the northern fort. Yup, I said it. Skedaddle out of there.
Important Tip: This took me a long time to learn about this game. You DON’T have to hold onto the initial flags with a death grip, especially at the start of a battle when you are outnumbered. In some of the battles, it is better to retreat to a defense position and a) await your reinforcements and b) bleed the enemy as they attack you.
With that in mind, retreat your brigade from northern fort, and send your two initial infantry starting units to the woods:
Most likely, nothing will happen and your reinforcements will arrive. Expand your defensive arc by sending one of your rookie infantry to the northwest arc, and the other just to the right of the southern fort. Send your skirmisher to the right of the fort also. It should look like this:
A few things to notice:
- I have my 6-pound artillery set to “no-fire” as I don’t want to waste ammo on long range shots where they can do very little if any damage. This is good practice in later battles where ammo is tight.
- My cavalry unit and skirmisher unit are set to fire on the flanks of anyone approaching the southern fort, but more importantly they will hide there for now. Two enemy artillery units will be coming in from the northeast, way behind their infantry, and you’re going to pounce on them.
- Now SAVE your game, and wait. Don’t attack any infantry that cross by you heading to your southern fort since you want them to pass, giving your cavalry time to then move up the far right.
After you eliminate them, go for the enemy ammo wagon. There is also an enemy general you can try to take out. If you succeed, the enemy morale will go way down.
Hint: When going after an ammo wagon, direct your unit to go past it and put it on “no-fire”, otherwise it will stop and fire at the wagon as it approaches. You don’t want to kill the wagon, and you don’t want to stop the chase. I found pointing the unit to move past usually works better than clicking on the wagon as if attacking it.
Surviving waves of attacks:
Here is a bit later in the battle, when the enemy attacks your southern fort. Let Richards and Woods do most of the fighting, since you don’t keep them after the battle.
When the enemy starts to weaken, sending only small puffs of fire, rush out with your units and hit them in the flank. When they rout, rush back to the woods for cover.
I put 2 skirmishers in the open to give me eyes on the northern fort. Don’t get too close!
Notice my cavalry have captured the ammo wagon and going after the general.
Now that the enemy artillery near the fort is spotted, aim your 10-pounder to keep hitting it.
More waves:
A bit later..our plan is working well.
You can detach skirmishers to go in the open to entice the enemy to charge into your defensive arc.
Keep your 10-pounder focused on the enemy artillery when not firing at someone close.
Keep an eye on the enemy cavalry. They are fast!
Oh no. Time’s almost up and I don’t have the fort!!
Guess what. The game often deceives you with the timers and the objectives to be reached, trying to give you a sense of urgency and forcing your actions. There are now a set of really good guides by D-Dub and Kristoph42 that tell you what you actually have to do for every phase. They also tell you if you have extra time past the timer reaching zero. For this battle, you have until 18:00!! (7 extra game-time hours.)
Here is a link to their Union Guide:
Critical Battle Point – when to counter attack?
At some point, the enemy will sit back licking its wounds in the northern fort.
I’m starting to shift my western units up closer to the fort, but still in the woods.
Try sending a skirmisher towards the fort, then retreating to see if they will come out.
Hint:[/b ] Notice the captured enemy ammo wagon is set to “no-supply” – you get $$ for any unused captured supply at the end of the battle. And artillery can use up ammo fast.
A bit later–encirclement almost complete:
Remember to use your loaned units more than you own.
At the end, the enemy cavalry and the last man entrenched in the north fort will make a run for it to the northeast. Follow them and wipe them out. You have plenty of time.
Remember to keep someone in each fort so the enemy cavalry doesn’t end-run you to the forts!
#3A Pre-1st Bull Run Camp
You are about to go into your first “Grand Battle” and there are a few things to know about them:
- Grands are long battles, so it is best to fill your supply wagon(s) to the max ($35K).
- The weapons in your Armory will refill, so if you don’t buy any, the amount won’t grow (much).
- The enemy scales to the total size of your army whether your brigades are part of the battle or not.
- In general, it is better to have more smaller units to cover the field than a few large units.
- What you can buy for reputation points (by clicking on the Capitol) changes after the battle.
- The various battle phases many times trigger even if you don’t capture the objective.
So, let’s see where we stand right now as far as our brigades:
Right now, SAVE!!
And what going into 1st Bull Run with this looks like:
Also, if you looked carefully, before adding your Corps to the box, at the bottom it showed that you had some men already. These are loaned units.
The screen shows:
Enemy: 10,890 men; 30 guns
We are: 13,145 men; 42 guns
But don’t get too excited. Since this is a multi-phase battle, it only shows the first phase men. The enemy will get a HUGE reinforcement in the second phase of this battle.
Initial set of Army changes to make:
- Go to the Career tab and add your point to Army Organization, and go back to Army screen and click on the new 3rd Division to add a Colonel to command it.
- Max your supply wagon to $35K
- Add VETERANS to your two artillery units to bring them to 8 cannons each
- Add $5K of VETERANS to your two 1-Star brigades, then ROOKIES to get to 1,000 men each
- Add VETERANS to your Skirmishers and Cavalry to get to 250 and 350 respectively
- Add ROOKIES to your other two infantry units to get to 1,000 men each
- SAVE!!
What are the odds now?
We are: 14,313 men; 46 guns (Up about 1,000 men, 4 guns)
This is great! We are going to add those next two infantry brigades to bring us to 10 brigades, but first we are going to do some purchases from the Armory. You should make this a habit before every Grand Battle.
Purchases to make from the Armory:
Likewise, go to the Armory Skirmishers tab and purchase all the J. F. Brown sniper rifles:
Now let’s go create our new Rookie Infantry brigades for the 3rd Division:
Instead, Click on the Capitol building (Orange box).
Purchase the 2,000 Palmettos for 4 Reputation Points.
Hint: The Maximum Reputation Points you can accumulate is 100. The more you have, the better your troops’ morale, but I’ve found it is much better to spend them wisely as you need them.
Apply the Palmettos to your two 1-Star units by clicking on the unit, then clicking on their gun image, and selecting the Palmettos.
You now have freed up the 2,000 Springfields to give to your 2 new Rookie Infantry brigades. Go ahead and create them now. And remember to rename them in order to distinguish your men vs. loaned units in the upcoming battle. I like to add the -P to my 1-star units to remind me they have Palmettos.
Here is your result:
Notice we still have over $14K left for future spending, and over 4,000 men for future recruiting.
Of course, you’re numbers will be slightly different.
And here are the final battle odds:
You are now ready to start the battle. Proceed.
#3 1st Bull Run
Some (not all) of your loaner troops arrive first. Your own troops will arrive later.
Important: You do NOT have to take the flags. This is the game pushing you to follow the historic model.
A) Go for the nearby flag. But you will be facing multiple infantry and artillery and will have to cross the narrow bridge. NOTE: Bridges give you no cover and are slow to cross.
B) Go for the nearby ford. There is only 1 entrenched unit across it to confront you. There is also a cavalry unit who will cross and try to attack you, which your units can easily rout.
C) Go all the way around to the top and cross. There is no one to confront you there, but I’ve found that my troops get tired doing this, and after crossing you have no cover.
I personally like option B, and show that above.
Hint: Always RUN your troops over water, then walk them after crossing. You are very exposed while crossing.
See the silly CSA Dragoons getting blasted.
Once you rout the CSA cavalry, detach skirmishers and set up as so:
a) It allows you main units to rest and recover condition.
b) Skirmishers are wiley and take less damage usually.
c) When the skirmishers’ condition gets low (near 50%), reattach them to their parent brigade. (Red box below)
When you cavalry arrives, send it around to that “C” ford in the North. This is a Melee cavalry unit with very short-range rifles. You are going to use it as a scout for now so bring it over but not too close to the enemy. Hovering your mouse over the cavalry’s gun will give you its details.
When your men arrive from the north, send them to the woods. If the enemy decides to enter those woods, you may have to run the last bit. You want to be in the woods with the enemy in the open.
Bring your own cavalry unit to scout from the west, and when the enemy infantry closes in to engage your units in the woods, you can run your cavalry in and fire on the nearest artillery brigade, then retreat. The artillery will turn to try to fire at you, so run for your life! When you get out of site, the enemy artillery will turn back to fire at your infantry. Then run in again to fire on them!
I like to bring my scout cavalry up for eyes from the East side, and my sniper over there where he is safe and can retreat into the woods. Alternatively, you can bring him over to the left to fire on the flanks of the enemy infantry, but he is a bit more exposed there.
You will probably be charged by the enemy at this point:
b) If they get in the woods, Counter-Charge with multiple units. Here, a 3-on-1 breaks the enemy easily, Plus cannister from the 6-pounder. Hint: Always rest up after a charge. Your early units tire easily.
c) Tip: This is kind of a cheat, but you can use it if you must. Detaching a skirmisher from your charged unit will instantly stop a charge.
Game tip: Charging with more than 1 unit will give them all a melee bonus, so try not to charge with only 1 brigade.
Important: You will get more loaned units from the NorthEast, and more units from the North to help your men. Keep and eye out for them (check the mini-map often). I always seem to forget in the heat of the battle!
If you are lucky (usually because your northern attack is successful and you are still trying to cross the initial eastern ford), the enemy infantry in the East will head North to blunt your main attack. (Your Melee Cav unit will spot them.) This is the time to charge across that eastern ford. You can then swing south to catch the artillery unit alone with just a few skirmishers. Use your melee cav to charge them all down and to grab the supply wagon there.
Keep attacking from the North and pushing the enemy South. At some point, you will be able to cross the river. Lead with your loaned units on the flanks and North while your own are in support.
Here is near the end of the phase (45 minutes on the timer). Push forward with your loaned troops to about where the enemy artillery is in the below image:
The enemy will retreat away. DO NOT CHASE THEM. A huge number of their reinforcements are coming. Instead, retreat at about 30 minutes left on the timer and form an arc and rest up. Get your artillery positioned.
Have your loaned units around the flag.
Just beat back the waves by shooting them from all sides and hitting them with cannon fire.
When the attacks start to wane, you can move down from the North cautiously. Close in from the flanks slightly. The goal is that any enemy coming towards you will get fire from 3 sides.
You should try to wipe out all of the enemy brigades (the enemy cavalry might escape). Remember to lead with your loaned units and to use your own to flank fire on routing enemy. Keep someone by the flag!