Specialists usage and Army positioning (In or out of cities?)

[kayapo]

Hello!

I've been poking around trying to find some answers to my many questions, since the wiki is down I have to do what I can.

I'm finding a lot of contradictory responses on some issues. No doubt because the game is actually quite complex but probably also because it seems that it's patches really change the gameplay based on user imput (which is great).

I've also been trying to catch up on the Banks vs Soundoff AAR, and while that helps a lot with understanding how veteran players plan things out it still leaves most newbies with a lot of doubts, at least I have tons

So here are two of them (and a hidden one):

1- In most scenarios at the start you'll have Medics and the Signal guys (or ballons) attached to Armies. From the tooltip it seems to me that they would be much more usefull if attached to the actual Corps or the Division that holds most of the men. Is this true? Is there a "nuance" I'm not seeing? Is there a good reason to leave them attached to the army when the army itself is just the HQ? ( On that note...I've read somewhere that Armies should be left alone with just the general and his HQ behind the lines of Corps that will fight. Is this true? What's really involved behind the thinking?)

2- In the Banks vs Soundoff AAR it seems to me that they almost always leave their armies outside cities. Now from lurking around I had understood that inside cities the frontage of the army is smaller so it would benefit the defender to stay inside when the attacker is stronger to be able to fight less units at a time? Is this correct? So why leave them outside? I can understand that if you are defending in force it is better to stay outside so you can defend with more units. Is this correct? But in the AAR one of them has said (i believe it was Soundoff) that being caught inside a city is, and I quote, "a pig" To sum it up, what's the deal here?

Thanks in advance!

[arsan]

Hi

1- Yes, its probably better to have a medic on each corps if you can afford it. But you can always rotate the medic sending it to to the corps which needs it more each turn. They start on the Army HQ probably just to get the historical setup right. But don't put them inside divisions, just on the stack its enough.
Regarding combat units on the Army HQ: i like to have some as a reserve. But corps are first choice to put combat troops as they will get bonus for both the Amy commander and the corps commander. Being directly on the Army HQ they will only have bonus from the Army commander.
But when your corps are filled (you reach the command penalty limit) the Army HQ can be also filled with combat units, like another extra corp.
Of course the stats and abilities of the Army and corps leaders available can make more or less interesting to put units on one or the other.

2-The reason about avoiding to put stacks inside a city is easy: if inside and attacked they will be considered surrounded (under siege) and will not be able to retire to an adjacent region if defeated.
That can mean a very bloody fight to the end/mass surrender.
The frontage can benefit you somehow if the garrison is small (just some units) but medium or big stacks will also have problems to deploy their elements in defense if inside a structure. But thats secondary.
The main reason is to avoid being annihilated inside the structure. Better retire if you have to and be able to fight another day.

Putting a militia or so there to defend against raiders is ok, but don't put anything you are worried to lose .
As a rule of thumb i would not put garrisons bigger than a brigade inside a structure. Maybe up to a division on some very important location (specially forts).


Regards!

[husky1943]

Just to ride on Arsan's coattails.....

You should have your Army HQ as near as possible the Corps, because (I thought) that would increase the chance of the Sister Corps "marching to the sound of the guns". Plus, keeping them close means you will never be out of the command radius (which means significant - even crippling) penalties. Lastly, if you can't afford a whole bunch of docs and signallers, you can keep them safe with the HQ, and then send them off to the neediest Corps (after a battle or difficult march).

The "caught in a city" is not good. It's like a boxer in the corner - nowhere to go. I had the city of Savannah surrender to me during the Eastern only scenario with a loss of 33K men. They were in the city AND had their back to the sea. I never even got out of defensive (blue) posture. Just starved them with a seige. Bad news.

Hope it helps

[cleveland]

Haven't really had a lot of experience with this game but the defending outside a city is a good tip. It's also historically accurate.

[kayapo]

Thank you for the reply.

Everything makes sense but when I read somewhere that "General X has 4 divisions under his command, these troops won't commit to the fight if one of general X's Corps are fighting".

What does that mean exactly? If X gets MTG than only his HQ will commit not his divisions?

What about when I read that an Army will not engage even if ordered to? Does that mean that a general that has ONLY an HQ can't attack?

[Chaplain Lovejoy]

The "caught in a city" is not good. It's like a boxer in the corner - nowhere to go. I had the city of Savannah surrender to me during the Eastern only scenario with a loss of 33K men. They were in the city AND had their back to the sea. I never even got out of defensive (blue) posture. Just starved them with a seige. Bad news. Hope it helps

...think of Vicksburg.

[Spharv2]

Thank you for the reply.

Everything makes sense but when I read somewhere that "General X has 4 divisions under his command, these troops won't commit to the fight if one of general X's Corps are fighting".

What does that mean exactly? If X gets MTG than only his HQ will commit not his divisions?

What about when I read that an Army will not engage even if ordered to? Does that mean that a general that has ONLY an HQ can't attack?

An army commander cannot initiate combat is one of his subordinate corps is in the region, though if they're alone they can.

[Redeemer]

First, like everyone else said, only put troops inside a city if they are far from combat and you are doing it for faster recovery, otherwise be willing to loose them.

Second, specialist should be put in stacks... if that stack is an army with divisions, then by all means use them there, but the key is the stack has combat units in it that the specialist are supporting.

Third, although a Army in the same region as a corps may not initiate combat, Armies are more likely to march to the sound of the guns I believe. A strategy I will use is an army stack and two corps stacks defending a three region "line". Say I have 7 divisions total. I will put three in the army stack in the center and the two two division corps on the wings. The corps have a chance to march to the center army to help and the army has an even greater chance to march to one of the wings to help in a defense. Granted this is an over simplification and there are other factors involved, but hopefully you get the idea.

[soundoff]

Hi Kayapo and welcome aboard

Its pleasing that you are following Banks and my efforts. Hope you pick up some pointers. If there is anything that you need to know about 'our' game just drop a line in the appropriate AAR to either of us. We'd be more than happy to explain. It is so easy to forget that what we believe is 'obvious' to someone else is anything but. Anyway, lots of good advice already but to go over MTSG in more detail its like this.

An Army or Corp provided they are part of the same command structure has a chance of MTSG. Now that bits important to bear in mind. Its no good expecting a Corp say from the Army of Tennessee to MTSG in support of the Army of Mississippi

Second bit is easy MTSG only works for Corps and Armies. Not Divisions or Brigades.

Third piece is also straight forward. The Army or Corp stacks have to be in adjacent regions. If an Army or Corp is more than one region away then it has no chance of MTSG. So how does it work then?

Well all Corps and Armies start of with a 100% base chance of Marching to the Sound of the Guns. But that chance is modified. The modifiers are:

In 'passive' mode (green) you cannot MTSG.

In defensive mode (blue) -10%

In attack mode (orange or red) no change to the base figure.

If the stack is a Army HQ itself +25%

If its a Corp and the Corp is in a region adjacent to an Army HQ +10%

For each point of the Commanders (thats the commander of the Corp or Army that is trying to MTSG) strategic rating +5%

For each day the march would take -10%

For every 5% of military control lacking in both the region that you start from and the region that you are going to -1%

So you take the pluses and minuses and arrive at a revised chance. The program then rolls the dice and either you pass and your stack MTSG or you fail and it does not happen So, as folks have been saying, Army HQ's have a better chance than Corps of MTSG. Remember too that in poor weather conditions you have far less chance of it happening as the time to march from one region to another increases often dramatically.


Redeemers advice on how to position your Corps and Armies is first class (provided of course that your style of play is to keep divisions with your Army HQ)