Seeking advice on command points are where, if ever it is better to overload

[major snafu]

Hi all,

So I am playing through my first 1862 West Theater as one of my first full-plays of this game.

I think I have a basic understanding of how to organize Corps, divisions, etc.

But I ran into a practical application question and I am seeking suggestions with the understanding that there may not be a single answer - but more on what points i should be considering when deciding how to structure an Army, etc.

So at the beginning of this scenario, one of the things I notice is that the Army of the Tennessee (under Grant) has 6 divisions and a reserve also as independent stacks in this same area.

All of the independent divisions, excepting on (the 3rd) have a lack of command points resulting in a penalty.

You cannot place all of the divisions and the reserve under the army without overloading the command points for the army and thus every unit has a pentaly.

So I decided to placed the divisions with the worst command penalties under the Army and used the divisions with no, or the lease amount of penalty as independents.

Is this the correct thinking? Or is it better to place them all into the army and then maneuver them separately to gain the chain of command benefits even if there are command point penalties?

Regards,

SNAFU

[ArmChairGeneral]

IIRC there are available 2 star generals to form Corps under Grant's Army, which is the optimum organizational method. (Unlike the Grand Campaigns, Corps formation is available from the first turn in 1862 West, you do not have to wait until April.) Place the "excess" divisions into those Corps rather than have them running around independently.

The situation you might consider accepting the command penalty as the cost of doing business is during the summer of 1861 in the Grand Campaigns, before division formation. Any large stack at this point will suffer command penalties. Since the max penalty is 35%, any extra troops you put into a stack on top of this do not increase the penalty, so it makes sense to fight at, say, Manassas with a giant stack that is way past the -35% size, under the best general you have. You can easily bring twice as many troops to a battle as an opponent that is keeping to the CP limits. Quantity has a quality all its own, and if you have twice as many troops, the enemy may even retreat without a fight, entirely negating your penalty. A single large stack, even with CP penalty will often slaughter an equal sized group of smaller stacks (in this case they cannot MTSG) due to the way that the stack selection mechanism works during combat.

If you look at how the AI plays during this period, it is perfectly willing to accept the max CP penalty and bring "overstuffed" Army stacks to battle, which is an indication that this is a reasonable organizational choice. Whether or not you can come up with a way to finesse a better result through some alternative org table, you at least know that if you also overstuff a stack and fight against their overstuffed stack that the penalties will cancel each other out and you will be fighting on even terms.

[Gray Fox]

A Division requires 4 CPs, but the Commanding officer only provides 2. Some of the stacks labeled as Divisions also have an additional scouting element of cavalry. So you get a bunch of "5 CPs required, 2 Provided" messages. Fortunately, most of the Divisions aren't up to a full strength of one commander and 17 elements, the term for infantry regiments or batteries of artillery. For this campaign, I rail a lot of units around and reorganize the army on the first two turns. After all, the Confederates aren't going anywhere. Anything that can be organized can be done. After that, Grant can command a force equal to all the rebels combined. Good luck!

[ArmChairGeneral]

What Fox said.

To expand a bit, the first thing to do as either side in this scenario is to fix the very poor organization that your forces are in at start. Your goal should be to have as many full strength (17 elements plus commander) divisions as possible, and possibly an artillery-only division as well composed of the "loose cannons" you strip out of your regular divisions. You don't want any more than 4 cavalry in a front-line division as a rule of thumb or it won't have enough punch in combat. This is a bit of a puzzle, and requires you to zip and unzip divisions over and over again while you try to get them configured, and can involve moving brigades and elements around like Fox said. It is ok to make an all-cavalry division, but it does not go into the stack you will be attacking entrenched Rebel positions with.

Off the top of my head I think you can get six divisions under Grant without CP penalty if you have an HQ/Signal Corps, a 4 Strat Aide-de-Camp and a Balloon in his stack, but maybe only five divisions. Anything else you can put into a separate Corps stack. Do not leave any combat elements loose (i.e. outside of a division) in any stack; it is inefficient CP-wise and highly sub-optimal during combat resolution. Supply wagons, HQs, hospitals etc are fine loose, these should never go into divisions.

Also, don't be fooled by the starting "Reserve" stacks into thinking that a reserve is something you need to have. It is almost always best to bring as large a force as you can sufficiently command to battle. A couple of brigades left at Ft. Henry are all you will need to prevent Rebel shenanigans in your rear, just be aware that without control of the Depot there you will be unable to operate in western Tennessee.

[major snafu]

Thanks for all of the helpful (am really detailed!) replies.

I think I am going to re-start and take all of this into consideration.

As with every operational wargame I play/have played I need to understand better the pacing of activity in general.

Taking those initial turns to put things in order makes sense - I just wasn't sure I could afford to take the turns to do that (tempo) and possibly loose the initiative.

Cheers,

SNAFU