To the Roundtops

Stuck in a part of the game. Here's where the Grogs help the Newbies. Share your best strategies for winning and try someone elses.
ird1968
Reactions:
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:29 am

Re: To the Roundtops

Post by ird1968 »

Assaulted DD and took all union arty. Held it entire time got VP only intermittently and yes I had a commander and at least a gun up there.

Took BRT no problem what credit did I get? Who knows?

LRT held against me. I charged it en masse and entire brigade routed with exception of my tac reserve reg. Brought up battery to pound it rallied the brigade but oh no! time ran out.

Took PO and was holding it when time ran out.

Major defeat!

Would Longstreet have agreed? I don't think so! He'd at least call that a draw. lol Will keep trying.

Just had pretty much the same result - a score of 222 for a major defeat. And it's by far my most successful attempt yet!!!!
Kesto11
Reactions:
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:35 am

Re: To the Roundtops

Post by Kesto11 »

This is probably my favorite scenario because you can not only sweep the Union left and rewrite history, but it also requires a lot of maneuvering. I beat this scenario twice on normal with a major victory. I don't remember exactly how I did it the first time, but the second time I had amazing success and decided to continue to fight for a couple hours after the end of the scenario and was able to crush a couple more divisions until they started bringing everyone from Cemetery Ridge! Anyway, this is what I remember doing:

I quickly ran up a regiment and an officer to BRT to get those points (disappears after 15 minutes). I pulled a Jackson/Lee and divided by forces, sending two brigades to flank LRT (using the road to BRT to prevent fatigue) and two brigades to storm DD. This is where maneuver is key. I did not run my troops to the locations- I knew they'd need their energy. I sent in one brigade to assault Devil's Den from the South, picking on a couple regiments and avoiding the trees that would eat up energy. The other I held in reserve until an opportunity presented itself. I was able to draw the Federal infantry in front of their artillery, nullifying its presence. I then started to move around to the right of DD, to assault it from the rear. Meanwhile, my other two brigades are nearly in position to launch the attack on LRT simultaneously. I believe after pressuring two-three union regiments with a full brigade, I sent in about 3 regiments to charge (you can get 2+ regiments to fight hand-to-hand on the same Union regiment by just getting them really close together, essentially overwhelming them by numbers). Meanwhile, I sent the other two regiments to capture that nuisance artillery. All the while, my fresh reserve brigade has begun storming up the rocks from the South, where another couple Union regiments are trying to (rather pathetically) hold them off. I launched these charges and brought up the fresh brigade simultaneously, simply overwhelming the single brigade and battery there *without* taking terrible losses. In short: Skirmish with a couple regiments to draw them away from the main body, and flank with your other brigade.

Now for LRT: I believe I started the attack around the same time I was overwhelming DD. Again, one brigade initiated the attack on a couple regiments while I sent the other to flank- this time up through the woods I believe to the right. Again, I let my 1st brigade shoot up the defenders for a bit- maneuvering to have two regiments firing on one, then charging to force them off. As soon as the Union started to show break in the lines, I threw my second brigade in and crushed them, again with only a couple regiments getting torn up (but still able to fight).

The Union sent reinforcements to counterattack, but due to my strategy I had a relatively fresh brigade at each objective to fight them off easily (High ground + defense bonus is amazing) while my other two brigades rested. These counterattacks were forced to come between the Valley of Death- so at many different points I was able to pin Union troops in between fire from DD and LRT and my arty helped break them up a little too. Eventually, these attacks died out and I sent most of my troops from LRT down to DD to consider an attack on the Wheatfield. I realized I would probably come up short of VP so I decided to rush into the Wheatfield (with very little support unfortunately from the rest of Longstreet's corps) with a combined force the size of a couple brigades. I took a couple guns before the Federal counterattacked blocked me from the rest, but this also blocked the canister fire I would have taken. I retreated back to the OBJ marker and formed a line to hold onto the point until time ran out. This scenario was very, very enjoyable, even without support from the rest of the corps which usually comes. After playing around for fun after time ran out, they eventually did join the fight and helped me destroy virtually the entire Union left.

In summary, when attacking as a Confederate Commander, I try to stick to a few rules: 1. You are nearly always outnumbered, you should almost never engage in a 1:1 fight. The only time I do this is to hold my flank or pin down Union forces so I can flank them, which leads me to number 2. Flank flank flank. Find the enemy, engage and draw out isolated forces and flank them to deliver a smashing blow. Frontal assaults are costly- which is why the North won Gettysburg. 3. Reserves. Troops fatigue quickly when fighting, and this greatly impedes any flanking movements you may attempt. I do my best to always have some fresh troops to use to quickly move to a flanking position or exploit a break through in enemy lines.

My artillery was not as effective as I was hoping it would be in this scenario, most likely due to my lack of expertise in placement (the topography is particularly touchy in this scenario). Sorry for the long post, but I absolutely loved fighting this scenario in particular and was very happy with the success I had, especially without much support from the rest of the corps. One more thing I'd like to add is that I threw a brigade ASAP at the pesky US Sharpshooters at the beginning to capture them (flank and envelope them while 1-2 regiments are putting fire on them to hold them down) so they wouldn't pick off hundreds of my men as they are capable of doing. My parents named me after Stonewall Jackson, and this scenario requires you to think like him and outmaneuver the enemy like he was so famous at doing.
Gerry
Reactions:
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:59 pm

Re: To the Roundtops

Post by Gerry »

Little Powell, Little Powell. Post one of your legendary major victories in this sucker on YT. Because I have played it a lot and I'd sure like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with you and talk about it.

Let me put it this way: if Law had taken BRT and held LRT with a brigade at the conclusion of the time frame, and DD had see-sawed and WF was in contention, we'd be living in a little podunk country and the Confederacy would still exist.

Just sayin', sir.

I'll keep trying.

Gerry
o/
Post Reply