Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) – How to Play Campaign as CSA (Tips and Tricks)

Tips to Play Campaign as CSA

• One, start economic development.
• Two, build two Western Army/Corps and an early Independent Cavalry Corps.
• Three defend the Potomac as your Eastern Line of defense with forts and strong Army Corps that can defend and attack across the Potomac at the DC area and the Harper’s Ferry area, both are strong railroad crossings places but watch easy riverboat crossings from the North.

Work to build at least two Army/Corps in Tennessee use these to do three things capture Kentucky, secure Kentucky, and Capture and secure Cairo Illinois (Convergence of the Ohio and Mississippi), try to make this a strong point.

Now returning to the Western Theater this is first priority because it tends to pull resources from the East and Central Theaters. Capture St Louis and hold it. Hold both St. Louis and Cairo will secure the Mississippi, and prevent the Anaconda Plan.

All being said if you play your battles well by late 61 early 62 Union moral will fall so badly the the CSA will win the game. Not for sure the Devs keep playing silly Raider Deer games with the AI.

If you want a good game that lasts to get better weapons and perks don’t be so aggressive, work most on economy, and ability to recruit great Armies that are well armed.

Important note: It all depends on which scenario you play.

If you play 61 scenario especially earlier one you can go as described you have time to build an economy.

South can really contain the North in 61 scenario mostly because AI struggles to build an army as strong as a human may (even after all AI improvement). So 61 is a very good scenario to start with especially with CSA if you play your first game.

Now if you take 62 or 63 (i never looked at 64 i assume it is probably worse), then it is a totally different story. From the very start you get violently attacked on your heart and Union has a very strong army in both cases (because they use historical strengths).

Please note that If you play with historic policies it is more challenging than going with customised policies. The southern weapon policy for instance gives you a significant boost in term of weapons delivery.

I think i would add to not neglect with CSA the effectiveness of older technology weapons (14lb James rifle art/12lb Napoleon/rifles) because the point is to not only produce weapons but deliver quantity of weapons with enough range and rate fire/accuracy to be successful.

There is a huge capacity issue on the South. It takes 300 days to produce 10K Richmond rifles. So personnally keep the focus on easier to produce weapons for domestic production and import modern rifles which which can deliver mass of decent rifles for your regular infantry.

Exception being sharps, where you can look to equip a subset of (elite) brigade with sharps rifles but you will struggle to produce a lot.

We dont mention fleets, some people seems to use it fairly well on rivers to contain the North. I have never tested it myself but it seems interesting to slow down USA progression on MS.