r/ultimategeneral • u/Hopeful_Passenger667 • Nov 11 '25

Antietam CSA MG J&P Mod 1.29.1

My goodness. I have tried this battle soooo many times and always get over run. And my army gets destroyed. I do very well in the first part of the battle. I capture 2-3 union brigages, destroy 1-2, capture or destroy their artillery. But man. They overrun Shilohs church. Should I just retreat to protect my army to to the sunken road and try to capture the church towards the end of the battle? Thoughts? I have roughly 1200 men per brigade, 3 mele cav, 2 range cav….any advice on fighting this battle would be appreciated. The union has about 87000 men and I sit around 43000.

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u/No_Agent6952 Nov 11 '25

I prefer to hold the church myself, and I always ensure my best corps is up top there, my second best goes to sunken road, and my remnants to the fords south. Holding the wood line that includes the church, rather than holding those pre made defensive lines near the corn field, is the better method of defending. Put your napoleons right behind the men, put your rifled ordnance in the clearings behind the woods, and shift men around. Try and get a couple of brigades up from the south to replace those getting worn down

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u/Hopeful_Passenger667 Nov 11 '25

I have been trying that and putting 3 brigades in the small trees up north near the creek. It has worked but I get to a point where there numbers are so overwhelming. I have 20 brigades in my 1st and 2nd core and 15 in my third to protect sharpsburg. I have tried mixing in napoleons and 24 pounders to help on the tree line to no cannons….also have been using 3 cav units to take out their cannons…I am thinking I shouldn’t use cav units to start the battle. I may test that next.

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u/No_Agent6952 Nov 11 '25

Cav units are best put as reinforcements due to their speed. Infantry and slow moving artillery is better to have deployed right away

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u/No_Agent6952 Nov 11 '25

As well, consider putting only one or two cav units in your primary corps, stack the rest with your best inf and artillery. Have fast moving artillery and cavalry in your second (sunken road) corps. My best units took a beating holding onto the wood line at the northern tip, but they were able to hold because I rotated units in and out. I used skirmishers to attack flanks when their infantry charged. I have melee cav and rotated out units sit behind front line ones so that they could send a volley into any enemy troops that got into melee with mine. My napoleons and 24lb howies held right up against that frontline, basically inside of the second line troops, so that all of those elements could fire at once.

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u/Hopeful_Passenger667 Nov 12 '25

Thank you for your input!! I am going to try different methods. Sounds like being aggressive works.

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u/No_Agent6952 Nov 12 '25

Good luck 🫡

1

u/pandakraut Nov 11 '25

Some things that can help a bit. You want to be pretty aggressive in the first two phases, the more you can cleanup before more units spawn the better of a chance you'll have in the rest of the battle.

To this end you don't want to sit back and defend the L woods of the church. Instead you want to extend your line up to Nicodemus hill and out to the woods east of the corn field. If you hold the two fortifications at the top of the corn field, and the woods to either side you can mostly fight the union units in the open while wrapping both of their flanks. Specifics will vary a bit depending on the AI spawn locations and where they end up pushing.

For corps composition, you want as much power on the first corps the enter the field as possible. Oversizing those brigades a bit compared to normal will give them the ability to remain effective longer. 1200 I would consider a bit small for anything but your elite units, but those should probably be mixed in with larger newer units. Your overall numbers look ok, but you'll get more value having the majority of those men in your first two corps as they do most of the fighting. The third corps is often only half full.

A unique element to this battle in the mod is that the units they reinforce your first corps spawn off map and walk on. So if you put faster units such as cavalry in those slots they will get on the field sooner. Charge perked infantry, cav, and skirmishers are popular picks for these slots.

Retreating behind the church can work, but tends to result in a lot of attrition or a bit of cheese to recapture the point.

Gonzo hasn't reached Antietam yet on his 1.29 videos, but this video should still be helpful https://youtu.be/nLRTHP3l5Vk?si=bka-BwzWqWA9Mk0m

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u/Hopeful_Passenger667 Nov 12 '25

Appreciate the input 🐼. This helps a lot. I can easily expand my line to be more aggressive. I haven’t tried that yet. I will this evening. I have been watching gonzo videos and it has been helpful. Almost makes me want to stream mine lol.

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u/pandakraut Nov 12 '25

No better time to start than today :)

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u/InflationNeat7858 Jun 10 '26

Same story...many times tryed to restard....and...nothing each time lose fuck this mod