Overview
This will be an updated guide on GT-ACW as latest patch. I will discuss sides, organization, weaponry, battlefield tactics, and try to add some naval stuff in there
CONTENTS
1. Sides
2. Policies
3. Organizational (army and below)
4.Weaponry
5. Morale
6.Supply and infrastructure
7. Campaign tactics
8.Battlefield tactics.
9. Naval warfare
SIDES
Side 1- Union- consists of 23 states I think. Kentucky/MO can be made to stay under Union control if the rebs don’t grab it.
Side 2- Rebs- 11 states. I’ve captured St Louis before and made Missouri confederate. I’ve also captured both Covington, KY, and Louisville, KY, and capturing both sides of KY made it go Reb. Otherwise 11.
Border slave states are MO, KY, DE
Each side starts with X amount of soldiers (active, and volunteers/drafts) and ships and weapons. If you go to the military tab you can see your list of armies and fleets and officers. What and how much of what you have are dependent on your initial policies.
POLICIES
Each side has 10 policies to choose from at the beginning of the campaign. Each policy will cause an effect that may be historical or ahistorical. At the beginning, on the selection screen, you get to select your side by clicking on a flag (either US or CS). You can also select difficulty- very easy, easy, mediocre, normal, hard, very hard; and also a bonus (as if you want to make it harder you can give your opponent a buff up to +50 in levels of 5)
US policies are-
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD– this helps slaves escape. Since the South was a slave based economy, production of goods becomes more expensive since the free labor is gone. Also, less recruits in confederacy are available because they are needed for farming
KANSAS IS A FREE STATE– kansas becoming a totally free state gives +5 support to Northern public
GO WEST– American settlers travel to Oregon and California, which become free states. +20 population adn support to the Union from those states. Recruitment allowed (think like Glorieta pass type stuff)
SUPPORT OF ABOLITION– hardline public political support of abolitionism is -10 to southern sympathizers in Union states
ENFORCE NEUTRALITY– this allows for no Southern invasions into Latin america to make their little slave empires like they wanted. This causes positive diplomacy with abolitionist Europe
BREADBASKET– America exports food throughout the world. This causes positive diplomacy to Europe and decreases the likelihood of their intervention for the Rebs
INDUSTRIALIZATION– more rails, guns, and ships, also more immigrants which reduces national unity due to religious differences. Unity -5
NATIONAL SECURITY- this allows for tight watches on Southern sympathizing commanders of depots and things, so they can’t sneak guns and ammunition down south like John B Floyd tried to do. -50% to confederate arsenals as well as low quality weapons to begin
INDIAN WARS– the constant warring against native tribes gives +5 military experience to the armies
UNION PACIFIC– a transcontinential railroad allows for +25 railroad transport ability and construction speed
Confederate policies are
OLD DOMINION- as historically, the capital is moved to Richmond. -5 US morale because RIchmond is within 2 hrs of DC
KANSAS AS A SLAVE STATE- +5 support to southern public and +25 support to Southern cause in Kansas
SLAVES TO THE WEST- AZ and NM become slave states. Recruitment is allowed. +25 population adn support in those regions. Also greater trade ports on the Texas coast.
APOSTLES OF DISUNION- the seccessionists who are wild like Edmund Ruffin and William Barksdale take over here. This causes +20 support in Southern states but also bolsters the US causes by +10
FILIBUSTERING- Southerners invade Cuba and form a little dominion as part of the CSA. +5 experience to their armies and recruitment allowed from Cuba
KING COTTON- Cotton is the prime export of the South to the world. Plantations are all upgraded. +5 support to the Rebs in every slave state (this includes border states like KY and DE). +20 change the Europeans intervene on the Southern side
INDUSTRIALIZATION- as above, but with the positive effects to the Confederates
ARMS AGENTS- Southerners go abroad to Europe, much as in real life, and make deals for good weapons to be imported like the Enfield and Lorenz. +50 to the amount of Confederate weaponry and you get Springfield and Enfield rifles
NATIVE ALLIES- Recruitment of Native Americans from what is now Oklahoma (then Indian territory) is allowed. It’s like Stand Watie and the Cherokees. You can get them.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD- as above, with the benefits going to the South
So with policies, you start off with a few selected. Each policy has branches. Blue branches are side policy and red are to upcoming policy. So, for example, Military I to Military II would be a red branch. Those are two main policies where you have to do the first to reach the second. However, blue branches off of Military II would be Enrollment (more volunteers), Bounties (paying for soldiers), or Emancipation (where I think you can get USCT). Those are sub-policies that you can now start (with a timed delay period of X days) now that you have reached a certain policy
But only a certain amount of policies can be active at any given time. Once you commence a main policy, you cannot undo it, but you can turn off subpolicies. So, for example, if you spend all your policies on military and then all of a sudden find yourself low on money/food, you can’t add a new main policy until the game triggers it. I don’t know what exactly triggers the ability to adopt a new policy, if it’s completion of the previous or what, but I do know a red exclamation mark will arise over the policy box at the top of the screen when you can choose a new one.
Do you want to have as much money and recruits as possible? Do you want the Europeans to step in sooner rather than later? Can you hold out long enough?
So choose your policies wisely, generals!
ORGANIZATION
So the main organization in the game is an Army.
An Army is led by a Major or Lt General. Below armies are Corps(Maj. Gen), consisting of multiple divisions (MG or BG), which consist of multiple brigades (BG to Col) and batteries (Capt to Col). The Brigade or battery is the base unit in the game.
So, here is my Army of Northern Virginia in Sept. 1863
I have Four corps assigned to that army.
A corps consists of multiple divisions, and is generally combined arms. Most divisions consist of infantry brigades (2-5) plus some artillery batteries. I am a big fan of corps being self sufficient, so as you see, I have my corps consisting of infantry divisions (with infantry brigades only) plus one artillery division (of guns only) and a cavalry division (for scouting/raiding/etc). That way if I need to guard or scout I have cavalry, all my corps artillery is centralized under one commander for maximum effect, rather than one battery here and one battery running there, and I have my infantry. You can pattern your divisions however you wish- most common is a few brigades of infantry or cavalry with batteries
A division consists of multiple brigades. These can be infantry or cavalry. There are usually guns attached.
A brigade is the base unit in the game for cavalry or infantry. The equivalent artillery unit would be an artillery batallion (what you recruit for artillery as opposed to brigades). In reality a brigade is anywhere from 3-8 regiments (depending on size). Early war brigades were around 2500-4000 men, mid-to-late war brigades around 1500-2000 (outside of the fresh Union garrison regiments). The game does not represent regiments or batteries- the least you can recruit is one whole brigade or one whole battalion of artillery. So, for example- you’d recruit a brigade from Alabama and it’d be called Law’s Brigade or whoever the commander is. Sometimes what I’d do is rename them with regimental names- so where Hoke’s Brigade is, on the army management screen, I erase that and put 2 15 44 47 AL. It’s not coded into the game but it’s nice.
So to recruit- you start with an army. On your military management screen there is an icon of three stars surrounded by some leaves. You click this to commence recruitment of an army. It will give you a commander, usually a general of some sort. Depending on your policy level, you may or may not be able to create divisions and corps initially; I think that’s Military II that allows that level of organization. Historically, early war ‘armies’ even though they were armies were just a collection of brigades all reporting to a commanding general, rather than a grouping of organized corps and divisions.
Each officer has associated statistics and experience. There are symbols that signify this. if you see a symbol with an american flag next to a green/white mexican flag, that means that officer has military experience from the Mexican-American War. There are crossed rifles (infantry) crossed cannons (artillery) and crossed swords (cavalry). A fort symbol (engineer). A shield with an American flag on it(West Point trained- the most professional). There’s an anchor for (Naval Academy). A ballot box with the word vote is a political appointee. Volunteer officers have a gray shield
When you recruit an army- you have to select the state you wish the army to be formed in. Now, this does not limit you as to where your recruits will come from- just where the army is initially based. Then you can start adding subunits. Each army commander has two plus signs next to his name; one of double (++) and one of single (+). The single plus means you will attach subunits directly to that commander, no corps or divisions. The double plus means you will create suborganizations such as corps, divisions, or brigades. So, for example- let’s say you create an army to begin in Pennsylvania
You can then select the double plus sign and it will create a corps underneath that army commander. Or if it’s a corps command, it will create a divisional commander. Once you have your division commanders established you can add brigades.
Those domino signs at the bottom of the recruitment panel is for auto-recruitment brigade and battery size. I always recruit personally. So to do recruitment of a brigade or battery, you have to click on your associated divisional commander’s plus sign. it will take you to a recruitment screen. On the screen you will see all the states and the amount of soldiers associated with them. There is an active level (the amount of soldiers from that state currently enlisted), a deserter level, how many volunteers are available from that state, and how many draftees, as well as finally the amount of support for your cause from that state.
Infantry brigade sizes are of 1800, 2400, 3000. Cavalry brigades are of 1250, 1800, 2500. Artillery battalions are of 120 180 240 men corresponding to about 12, 18, 24 artillery pieces. There is an arrow on the left hand side of the screen when you select a state to recruit your particular unit from. You can maneuver this arrow to whatever size you want it to be
So you have volunteers you can recruit from or draftees. Draftees allow you a bigger recruitment pool but it also ruins your state support (nobody likes being drafted). The game will not allow you to recruit without the requisite number of men ( you can’t recruit a 3000 man inf. brigade from Delaware if they only have 2200 volunteers or 1800 draftees available). Each unit you recruit has a time-to-army- as in, you recruit a Delaware unit to a Pennsylvania army and it will tell you 32 days, for example- meaning that there will be 32 days before this fresh green unit arrives to your army. The time is based on the size of the unit and the distance it has to travel, plus the mode of transportation available. So if you go into battle in 10 days it won’t be available. Also, the times stack, meaning if you have recruited two units from Delaware, the time for the second one will be longer than 32 days.
So on you can build your army. You can replace commanders by clicking on each commander and clicking the replace button. You can, on the right hand side of the leader screen, sort your officers by state, branch of service, volunteer, west point trained, political, wounder, unassigned, and so on. Sometimes I try to change my commanders when I can to have state units commanded by officers from that state, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. One thing I definitely try to do is have infantry commanded by infantry experienced officers, and so on with cavalry and artillery.
WEAPONRY
So in this game you have infantry weapons, cavalry weapons, and artillery pieces
