Scenario 5 - Eleventh Corps

[McHugh]

I am having trouble getting by scenario 5, the one focusing on the 11th Corps. It seems that even moving the other two division of 11th Corps over to where Barlow is positioned and the objective marker, the Rebs still overwhelm them. There certainly are a lot of Rebs! In the meantime, by not defending the right flank of 1st Corps, the Rebs eventually move up and take out the artillery batteries. Meantime, a large number of 1st Corps troops positioned behind their lines do not move up to counter the Reb push on 1st Corps' right flank. I assumed that the priority would be to hold the objective but the scenario instructions seem to contradict this. Will have to try something else.

[Little Powell]

You want to hold the knoll as long as you can but as soon as you start getting overwhelmed, retreat and find better defensive ground... Don't let your guys get slaughtered.. You'll lose all of your points. Also keep enough forces on Cemetery Hill to get those points. At the 30 minute mark, you get 25 a minute and at the 50 minute mark, you could 100 a minute.

[Trilogy]

I've tried this method, but then when I fell back to the objective south of town, my own Corps commander was parked on top of it, soaking up the points and preventing me from gaining any.

Was this just bad luck?

[RebBugler]

I've tried this method, but then when I fell back to the objective south of town, my own Corps commander was parked on top of it, soaking up the points and preventing me from gaining any.

Was this just bad luck?

'ME' will always get objective points, regardless of the presence of a superior officer. In TC2M this was a problem BUG, whereas VP points could be stolen, and often were.

With this scenario you earn engagement points up front while holding the objective. Then it's 'learning to retreat time' without losing engagement points, for the final VP is uncontested. So, you fight half the battle, and retreat the second half...Major Victory, if you engage and retreat successfully, and hold both VPs their duration.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

RebBugler wrote:

So, you fight half the battle, and retreat the second half...Major Victory

Balderdash! Bring the entire 11th corps to the knoll area. Flank the rebel right. Keep just enough men, (a couple of arty batteries), at Cemetery Hill to get the VPs. Unless you get the scenario where the Rebs rush you all at once, you should be able to hold the knoll and destroy most of the enemy. You have to be aggressive on the left. Also park an ammo wagon next to the arty on the knoll. They go through a lot of canister.

One bug in the beta patch, flanking fire is not recognized. You might want to hold off on the scenario until Norb fixes that.

[RebBugler]

RebBugler wrote:

So, you fight half the battle, and retreat the second half...Major Victory

Balderdash! Bring the entire 11th corps to the knoll area. Flank the rebel right. Keep just enough men, (a couple of arty batteries), at Cemetery Hill to get the VPs. Unless you get the scenario where the Rebs rush you all at once, you should be able to hold the knoll and destroy most of the enemy. You have to be aggressive on the left. Also park an ammo wagon next to the arty on the knoll. They go through a lot of canister.

One bug in the beta patch, flanking fire is not recognized. You might want to hold off on the scenario until Norb fixes that.

Guess I always got the Rebel Grand-slam. Still, it was quite entertaining high-tailing the Yanks outta there. Thanks for the heads-up on this one MTG, thought it was just fight, then run.:woohoo:

[Trilogy]

I've been trying this one over and over, and I'm wondering about the mechanics of managing the retreat.

I tend to leave my division commander un-TC'd, I send them where I want them using courier orders. Usually they set up where I need them.

When the time comes to pull out, however, things get hard to manage with the game interface. How do I effect a withdrawal using the game interface? Do I need to select every brigade individually and give a retreat order? (Retreat orders can't be given to divisions.) Do I need to TC them all to make it work?

What do you do to manage this scenario effectively?

LATER: OK, I finally won it with a score around 4300. (4000 is necessary for complete victory.)

When the initial victory location disappeared and the rear-area one opened up, I gave retreat orders to all the brigades individually. At the same time, I gave the division commanders new orders to hold at the new victory location, hoping that they would organize their brigades there when the retreat movement was done.

I rushed my own self back to the new victory location, and I was able to immediately start getting points because I had already (long before ordering the retreat) detached a brigade to sit on top of that location. This feels like a cheat, or at least exploiting hindsight, but I can't believe my retreating and reforming units would have reached the scene in time to give me points if I had been playing "naturally."

My casualties were around 1700, which I think is pretty good for this scenario.

[Apikoros]

/rant
Nothing in this game has managed to upset and frustrate me like this scenario. I have tried it many different ways and the best I have managed is 3850. I ALWAYS have more than enough points for an MV at the 30 minute mark. But no matter what strategy I choose, I watch my points DISAPPEAR through the final 30 minutes so that I come up just short. EVERY time, I go from what should be a 5000-6000 pt victory to 3700-3850. My wrist hurts from all the clicky clicky clicky, I feel like a South Korean playing Starcraft as I try to babysit each indivdual unit while the clock ticks because I can't TC/un-TC while paused. What I would give for a button, on at least brigade commanders, to un-TC ALL of their regiments (at least those not engaged) and regain some modicum of control. I have to TC any regiment anywhere near the enemy while I try to fall back, lest they engage the enemy despite the ENTIRE army around them moving up to the hill. I have to TC regiments in battle, and repeatedly give them destination orders, lest they choose bizarre circuitous paths. Get a few near each other (as when things are concentrated on the Knoll) and it really gets weird, the creekbeds seem to make this worse. It's absolute chaos with the UI for me in this scenario. But what is really frosting my orbs is watching my points dribble away for seemingly no reason!
/end rant

Any other game and I would have already put it down, but I love this game. I haven't touched Total War or other titles since I got SOW and I can't remember ever going this long when I have had the opportunity to play games that I haven't launched SMG. I am going to keep at it.

Are exhausted units routing due to complete exhaustion as they move out of contact? I don't see that actually happening, but I do occasionally see a unit running away long after I have disengaged everybody and begun the march through town. Is this costing me points? If so, what is the value of such a hit? When an ordinance wagon inexplicably goes rolling off into an area occupied only by the enemy (bribery?) does that cost me? Does the use of Retreat cost me? I have tried using it and not using it at different levels and I can't really tell where I am losing the points with so much going on.

How much of my command do I need to move up to the Hill in order to begin getting those points? I saw somebody say that they only moved an arty bgd, but that didn't seem to do it for me. If I move an entire inf bgd up there, I don't have enough to keep the tiring remainder from being overwhelmed down below. If I try moving everything, I lose points. Do the troops already there count?

What am I missing? I've not had to play any scenario more than a few times to get an MV, but I have played this probably 20 times now. My aged wrist cannot take much more, lol.

Thanks in advance.

PS the sooner I beat the GB scenarios, the sooner I buy Pipe Creek

[X Navy Seal]

I only skimmed through your post so i might have missed something but if this is the barlow's knoll scenario the key is to bring up your troops that are on the other side of town near cemetary hill forward to barlow's knoll. I can remember the first few times I played this I did not even know those troops were there - and it is impossible to win without them.

[X Navy Seal]

Ps. I doubt you'll beat the east cav scenarios but you could always prove me wrong.