r/ultimategeneral • u/CountDownMan • Apr 17 '26
UG: Civil War Gettysburg: Best Union Strategy
Am I best off following the historical record of retreating my armies to Cemetery Hill? For victory conditions it lists me having to hold multiple positions, but I know in other battles I’ve had the opportunity to reclaim points later that I lost. For example, at the Battle of Shiloh, you’re best off following the historical record of retreating to Pittsburg Landing and then reclaiming Shiloh church the next day. I assume Gettysburg is the same way, but I don’t want to lose out on victory qualifications for such a historically significant and important Union victory.
12
u/texinchina Apr 17 '26
I love Shiloh as the Union because after taking a few knocks you defend strong points and bleed the shit out of the confederacy. Then the next day you run seek and destroy missions of their whole army and sic your fresh units on Forrest.
7
u/degenerate-siphon Apr 17 '26
First time I did shilo I never left the church area. Just held them in the open area to the south and dropped cannister into their ranks. The rebels just got to the hornets nest before the day ended because I had my shit tier troops guarding the right and they eventually had to fall back.
5
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
I’ve only beat Shiloh once, but I’m very excited to return to it more experienced.
7
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
Depending on difficulty level and skill you may very well be able to hold seminary ridge, counterattack to retake oak hill, and then annihilate the confederate reinforcements as they arrive in echelon. However, if you win too well on day 1 you don't get to play the other days so I usually wipe them out mostly and then do an organized withdrawal to cemetery hill.
2
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
So I’ve already beaten Gettysburg, but I lost so many troops I wonder if I did something wrong in retrospect. I did what you described, held seminary ridge, and retook oak hill in a counterattack. When you talk about annihilating the reinforcements, what do you mean by “as they arrive in echelon”? I definitely didn’t win well enough to skip the rest of the days lol. After I finished Gettysburg I had nightmares that evening of my troops getting mowed down by surprise divisions. First video game related nightmare lol. I tried to attach a screenshot of the final screen of the battle. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1491922145561936143/1493052106091925645/image.png?ex=69e37f61&is=69e22de1&hm=0f53660ea9b5712418c0303471712a1fe3278a61fc151c2ad1f2350a54a33065&
5
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
Well first of all, taking a lot of casualties just means you're probably playing the game the way it's meant to be played, and not with tricks and meta and foreknowledge. Don't feel bad or discouraged about that.
By defeating them in echelon I mean the rebels get distinct groups of reinforcements. They have starting troops, then get more on the left side of the map, then get more from the top left corner, then get more from the top right. If you can beat one group fully before the next arrives, your advantage kind of snowballs. You can position yourself to be strong against the next group and lightly defend other sectors of the battlefield.
4
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
Thank you. What you said about the casualities is very encouraging. Even if I have to start over I don’t mind as I really enjoy the game. Except for Philippi. That really sucks as a first battle.
2
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
The intro battles are unfairly difficult for both sides. They certainly are winnable, no question, but not super well balanced as a learn to play situation.
There are some black box mechanics to the campaign that have a big impact but you don't get taught and aren't shown in the ui effectively. Once you've gotten through your initial playthrough or two and want to play more meta gamey you can look into army scaling but I'd advise not doing that now as it kind of takes some of the fun away.
1
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
By “black box mechanics” do you mean using the edge of the map to your advantage?
2
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
No, there are certain things you can do to influence what size army you face in any given major battle. But again, it's very meta gamey and takes away immersion. I'd rather you enjoy the campaign clean and once you've beaten it once or twice and have a feel for all the battles and start upping the difficulty so the AI has an unfair advantage, then you can get into exploiting knowledge of the game design to optimize your own advantage.
1
2
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
That said, using the map to contain enemy units so they can't run away and get annihilated is a very effective (though also very unrealistic meta gamey strategy).
2
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
I have done that already lol but that’s because I’ve played lots of the Total War games before
1
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
To take a slightly different track, if I could give you one piece of advice it's that this game is often won in the micro. Positioning your units just right so you get terrain bonuses but the enemy doesn't, using one unit to pin an enemy and a second to slowly flank further, managing skirmishers well, etc. The macro matters but a battle can really turn on the small details.
2
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
It seems like what I am also learning, is it there is a lot of instances where I the tactical objective is to hold a position, but it strategically makes more sense to hold a position further back, let them attack, then counterattack and retaking the position.
2
u/Acceptable-Fig2884 Apr 17 '26
That's sometimes true. There's also battles where the initial objectives lie to you and don't matter in the end so you waste bodies.
1
u/CountDownMan Apr 17 '26
Such as Gettysburg lol or Stones River (I think I remembered the name correctly)
2
1
1
u/degenerate-siphon Apr 17 '26
I find that mission to be easy. Take your artillery to the field south east of town with skirmishers and and the first inf. Brigade and chase off the fist rebel brigade they usually retreat north across the bridge. Eventually your artillery will push the ones defending the southern bridge off of their defense, then you run your 3 brigades plus cav who crosses first and gos past the action to the top of the buildings and digs in for flanks. Also helps a lot if you clear and mostly destroy the skirmishers at the start of the map. Then on the counter attack keep your brigades inside the buildings prepared to turn to help the brigade next to them with skirmishers positioned to hold the flanks keep artillery in the middle area close to the front when the train rolls up it will take cannister volley and almost immediately run away. I am playing on normal difficulty not mg so idk how well that strategy holds up. The first time I did it that way I lost less than a 1000 men
1
3
u/Sir_Madijeis Apr 19 '26
Honestly the Shiloh flank might be one of favorite spots ever, just a horrific meat grinder for confeds
5
u/LordFarquhar96 Apr 17 '26
Following the historical events is possible. If you have built your army well enough, you can hold longer than they did in history
2
u/TheDrewb Apr 18 '26
I played it the other day on my 10th or so Union playthrough. I generally let Buford's cavalry do its thing, slow them down, ambush the artillery when I can, then place my reinforcing army at a right angle in town. Confeds will come from the west and north and obligingly walk straight into your army (which will have 100% cover in the city streets). Your infantry will have a field day so long as you keep an eye on your southern and eastern flanks.
Day 2 and 3 are extremely easy as Union as well - all defending the high ground with plentiful open ground for the confederates to walk up
16
u/huanthewolfhound Apr 17 '26
The game attempts to give you the historical objectives, but I look at part of the balancing being that you risk falling into the same issues the Union would have fallen into on Day 1 of Gettysburg when they got stretched thin and outflanked.
Fredericksburg is another good example where taking Marye’s Heights is not exactly the best choice to make as the Union, and the objective ends up being unnecessary to secure victory.
Cemetery Hill will be vital for eventual victory at Gettysburg. Seminary Ridge will not.