1. Prequel

2. Economy

3. Armies and officers

4. Navies

This will be my Comprehensive Guide to GT:ACW

I play it with the AOM Mod and with some automanage on, but you can play how you wish.

It won't be finished all at once- as updates happen and as I play through the game.

But we start in the spring/summer of 1861. Lincoln is president, the southerners are butthurt, Fort Sumter is shot, armies are raised, and war is on the horizon!

The confederate states consist of: Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, FLorida, Georgia, both Carolinas, with the potential to capture Kentucky and Missouri, and sympathies in Maryland. Their capital is Richmond, VA

The Union states are the rest, with the capital at DC.

Both sides have multiple armies at major cities/chokepoints

Your economy happens in the background. You can choose to automanage/autosubsidy everything and just focus on tactical battles and campaigns if you wish. But for those who want to get involved manually in any manner- here you go.

Your economy is a compilation of all your buildings and farms and everything that is needed to make an army, navy, and have a populace. Food, water, iron, weapons and ammo production, even livestock production, all matters. You have buildings that you can build and/or upgrade and each one has a particular reason for existence. You can mouse over the economic indicator tab at the top (usually near the invasions tab) and a pop up cloud will show you what is needed (ex: we need 50K tons gunpowder but only enough factories for 30K tons)

You have regular buildings, which you can just start anywhere. These are private buildings, such as a group starting a factory or a family starting a farm.

Farms- required to grow food, livestock, and horses. Basic farm, imagine the farms at Gettysburg or Antietam. Build them anywhere that there is grass.
Brickworks- required to make bricks. These are necessary for forts and houses and things.
Foundries- these are required to make iron/bronze, which is further required to make artillery and weapons and ironclads. Build them near the other things that you want to produce, such as forts or depots for ships/arms respectively
Ironworks- they take the iron/bronze made from foundries and turn them into weapons or ammo or ships. Build these near major ports or major cities with arms factories.
Lumber mills- created cut wood, for building
Factories- factories can be for anything, from canned food to cloth for uniforms.
Flour mills- for bread. Bread was prime food in those days. Build them near farms and metro areas.
Plantations- southern massive farm for a cash crop, such as soybeans or sugar or cotton. Requires some slaves
Saltworks- used to create salt for food preservation. Try to build them near oceans

You need all levels of buildings to have an effective economy. For example, if you want to build artillery, and you have plenty of ironworks, but minimal foundries near the ironworks, then you won't be able to build much artillery, OR it will be delayed, because a critical aspect of the process is missing.

There are also federal buildings, or regional/state buildings

Hospitals- self explanatory. the injured from battle go here.
Market- this is a collection area for the food from all the farms in the region. Buiid them near metro areas
Newspapers- help for the propaganda/diplomacy fight
Prison camps- you can send captured soldiers from battlefields here. Also, beware because if the prison camps become overcrowded (you can mouse over it and see) your reputation will go down a little like it did when people heard about Andersonville or Camp Douglas
Military School- imagine West Point or VMI. In game, the US has west point, the CS has VMI/Citadel. Having military schools means that any officer from that state that you enlist after the school is complete will have experience added to him due to that.

Finally, there are subsidies. You can go to the economy tab and alter your subsidies with a sliding bar based on which aspects you wish to put more money into. More money into a certain subsidy means more activity. For example, if you raise the subsidy of MILITARY to HIGH, eventually you will get more funds for certain policies, like producing spencer rifles or buying international guns. You can mix and match as you wish, or automanage it all.

Next up, what you've all been waiting for! War!

Each army is composed of multiple types of units commanded by multiple types of officers.

Infantry- men with rifles or muskets. They march on foot
Cavalry - men with carbines for ranged fire, then swords/pistols for close quarters combat.
Artillery- the king of the battlefield. Cannons.

Officers
these are the leaders. They come in various forms with various levels of experience. From lowest rank to highest, they are:

Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lt. Col
Colonel
Brigadier General
Major General
Lt. General (hello Mr Grant)

Each officer comes with experience commensurate to his rank, experience and ability. There are symbols associated with each one so you can tell what that officer is capable of.

• Crossed implements- notes the branch of prior service. Rifles for infantry, swords for cavalry, cannons for artillery. Any of X unit under this officer's command gets a training/experience bonus
  
  
• Shield- looks like a red/blue colored shield with a snail on it- this means they went to west point and are professional military men. Suited for high command
  
  
• Bird with flying mexican and american flag underneath- this officer gained war experience during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848
  
  
• gray background with what resembles one of those "i voted" chest stickers- this is a volunteer officer. He volunteered to command men and go to war
  
  
• lectern symbol with red white and blue- political appointee. The military education of these men may vary but if you remove them from command their states will be butthurt and support decrease

They also have some qualities that can be passed onto their troops

fame- how well known they are. more popular officers can do greater things
initiative- how tactically astute they are. With initiative on, these officers can move their brigades at will and do good things on the battlefield without being micromanaged
administration- how well supplied and organized their units will be
leadership- at the crisis point of combat, how will their men respond to an officer with a certain level of leadership


INFANTRY
The initial unit is the company . An infantry company in general is 60-120 men, commanded by a Lt or Captain.

A regiment is next. It's composed of 6-10 companies, and in general from 400-1000 men. Average regimental strength per side through the war varied. Early war on average was around 800 USA and 600 CSA, late war with veteran regiments maybe 400 USA/250-300 CS. Some units initially present prewar are regiments. These are commanded by Majors, Lieutenant and full Colonels

Brigade- the major tactical unit in the game. Composed of 3-6 regiments. In game you recruit brigades whole (e.g. recruit a brigade of 2250 from South carolina called Kershaw's brigade, not individually recruit 2,4,5,6,7 SC Regiments and make them a brigade). The slider for an infantry brigade goes from 1250 to 2250 to 3000 (max size). Commanded by experienced colonels or brigadiers.

Division- a group of multiple brigades, usually commanded by a BG or MG. Generally has 3-5 brigades plus associated cavalry/artillery. Second major tactical unit in game. Most divisions can fight and function as singular entities.

Corps- multiple divisions. Generally commanded by a major general.

Armies- multiple corps. US Armies were generally named after rivers (army of the potomac, army of the cumberland, army of the ohio) while CS armies named after places (Army of Tennessee, Army of Northern Virginia). Commanded by major generals usually or a lieutenant general.

Infantry is armed with rifles or muskets. They are usually fired by a percussion cap, but some outdated ones are still flintlocks. The more common ones are

• Springfield rifled muskets (M1855/61)- US rifled musket of 58 caliber.
  
• P1853 Enfield- British rifled musket of 58 caliber. Imported to both sides
  
• M1854 Lorenz- Austrian rifled musket of 54 caliber originally, some rebored to 58
  
• M1841 Mississippi rifle- US intranationally produced rifle of 54 caliber. Officially the M1841 US rifle, made famous by Jeff Davis and the 1st MS volunteers during the Mexican-American War. Rebored to 58 caliber upon adoption of the 1855 Springfield
  
  
• Sharps rifle .52 caliber long range breechloading weapon made famous by Hiram Berdan and his green jacketed US Sharpshooters. Fired a linen cartridge. Carbine version common with cavalry.
  
• Colt Revolving rifle- rifle frame with a revolving cylinder. 56 caliber, not super common for infantry
  
• Spencer rifle- .52 caliber 7-shot buttstock loaded lever action weapon. Carbine version made famous with cavalry. Fired a metal cartridge.
  
• M1817 Common Deringer (US) rifle- last flintlock 54 caliber national rifle. Outdated but effective
  
• Hawken rifle- big bored mountain man rifle. As seen in movies such as The Revenant
  
• Springfield muskets- .69 caliber smoothbore weapons. M1816 (flint) M1822 (flint) and M1842 (caplock). These weapons could be converted to caplock or not. They could be rebored to rifled weapons or not. The "springfield muskets" arms in-game represents the M1842 caplock weapon, while the M1816/1822 are represented by "Old Smoothbores" and the .69 rifles represented by "rebored muskets"