which army hq should be placed at?

[Longshanks]

Ethan has given excellent advice.

The other option which is getting more of my attention these days is setting the generals to "high random" on their attributes. This greatly changes the settings for generals. Lee became a 6-2-7 in one of my games, Jackson was worse, but many of the other CSA generals were quite a bit better: Van Dorn was a 5-2-4 as I recall. It's not historical of course, but then, neither is the game you play once you deviate from the historical moves. I'm going to see if my next PBEM opponent will agree to try this. It throws a LOT of doubt into the decisions one must make in the game!

[It's a Trap]

I use to do the high random for generals, but it tended to strongly favor the Union, as their generals can only go up. I once ended up with a Longstreet who was like 7-7-7 which was awesome.

[Ethan]

Ethan has given excellent advice.

The other option which is getting more of my attention these days is setting the generals to "high random" on their attributes. This greatly changes the settings for generals. Lee became a 6-2-7 in one of my games, Jackson was worse, but many of the other CSA generals were quite a bit better: Van Dorn was a 5-2-4 as I recall. It's not historical of course, but then, neither is the game you play once you deviate from the historical moves. I'm going to see if my next PBEM opponent will agree to try this. It throws a LOT of doubt into the decisions one must make in the game!

Thank you, Longshanks!

On the other hand, I have never set their stats randomly so I don't know if it works fine.

[Ethan]

I use to do the high random for generals, but it tended to strongly favor the Union, as their generals can only go up. I once ended up with a Longstreet who was like 7-7-7 which was awesome.

Anyway, without randomized stats, a good Corp commander under Grant's Army could have these values.

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

I've been wanting to try a PBEM with low random, but high random is too crazy for me.

[Longshanks]

Heh, should I add your name to my "dance card?" I'll try low random this weekend and see how it looks.

In my games with high random, I tended to see much better defensive ratings by the CSA than in the game. Both sides had some generals worse (one Union guy was a 0-0-0 IIRC, maybe an 0-0-1), and quite a few better.

Certainly the vanilla aspects of the 3-1-1 hordes was gone.

[Chaplain Lovejoy]

So, might a consensus be, early in the game, keep Hooker as a very good corps commander, maybe even under McClellan, but especially under Lyon, if he is still alive?

I think I recall from reading Lincoln and His Generals the observation that some generals were quite good at their job as long as they could see all their troops, as division and corps commanders could. Hooker was one of those. But army commanders, who couldn't see all their troops, had to command via maps. Some weren't very good at that. Hooker was also one of those. At least that's what my elderly memory recalls from reading that book. FWIW.

[Ethan]

A very interesting observation, no doubt!

[pesec]

Anyway, without randomized stats, a good Corp commander under Grant's Army could have these values.

I had Longstreet with defensive rating of 10 under Lee

Heh, should I add your name to my "dance card?" I'll try low random this weekend and see how it looks.

In my games with high random, I tended to see much better defensive ratings by the CSA than in the game. Both sides had some generals worse (one Union guy was a 0-0-0 IIRC, maybe an 0-0-1), and quite a few better.

Certainly the vanilla aspects of the 3-1-1 hordes was gone.

Since Union has a higher number of leaders, high randomness will favour Union more: player can cherry-pick those who randomly ended up good. Since Union has a bigger number of leaders, more will end up good.

[Ethan]

I had Longstreet with defensive rating of 10 under Lee

[Woodford]

Has anyone turned on randomization in an ongoing game? I noticed that in my current game against the AI, I killed Grant in an all out assault against Bowling Green. Every so often in the winter I'll load up the US side and "help" Athena out. Usually I just try to buy her some troops and move around some generals, (for some reason I always catch her building an army in NYC with about 4 coastal artillery). When I went to the US general roster I noticed I must have killed Sherman somewhere or he starved, because he was gone. This leaves the US pretty short on capable Army commanders.

Long story short will randomization work in the middle of the game or only at the beginning?

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

Has anyone turned on randomization in an ongoing game? I noticed that in my current game against the AI, I killed Grant in an all out assault against Bowling Green. Every so often in the winter I'll load up the US side and "help" Athena out. Usually I just try to buy her some troops and move around some generals, (for some reason I always catch her building an army in NYC with about 4 coastal artillery). When I went to the US general roster I noticed I must have killed Sherman somewhere or he starved, because he was gone. This leaves the US pretty short on capable Army commanders.

Long story short will randomization work in the middle of the game or only at the beginning?

It should work during the game. Same with changing the FI value.

[Jim-NC]

Has anyone turned on randomization in an ongoing game? I noticed that in my current game against the AI, I killed Grant in an all out assault against Bowling Green. Every so often in the winter I'll load up the US side and "help" Athena out. Usually I just try to buy her some troops and move around some generals, (for some reason I always catch her building an army in NYC with about 4 coastal artillery). When I went to the US general roster I noticed I must have killed Sherman somewhere or he starved, because he was gone. This leaves the US pretty short on capable Army commanders.

Long story short will randomization work in the middle of the game or only at the beginning?

Welcome to the forums. You probably have an earlier patch (where if Grant was killed too early Sherman doesn't show up at all).

[Woodford]

Thanks. I am playing with 1.15, I'm guessing he met his demise somewhere in MO, I seem to remember a battle or two in western MO or IT with him in it. I'll probably start a new game and play a touch more passive in 61 and 62 this time.