Joel Billings
Posts: 32265
Joined: 9/20/2000 From: Santa Rosa, CA Status: offline
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To attack, you need initiative, intiative, initiative. To win battles, you need leaders, leaders, leaders. The AC's are crucial to winning battles, and the unit commanders will impact things as well (although nowhere near as important as the AC). The attack rating of the attacking AC versus the defense rating of the defending AC is the biggest factor in determining who is going to win (more than manpower). As for scouting, don't forget about the scouted level rules. If you are in Manassas and you expect the attack to come from Washington, you should be heavily scouting Washington every turn. Even if the units start in Baltimore, if they move through Washington which has been scouted, they will become spotted before the battle in Manassas. Save for the attacker. If you're attacking Manassas, be sure to scout it heavily before you move your attacking units in. If you scout it well, the Confederate units that react into the area before the battle will actually be "spotted" just prior to the combat resolution so your units will not be surprised. Yes, you should rotate units to the rear when possible (for several reasons), but a player with cavalry that does the appropriate scouting will not be tactically surprised by enemy units reacting into the area. If you're ever in a battle where more than a couple of enemy units are getting the surprise bonus for not having been spotted, you're doing something wrong (and probably taking lots of causalties).
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