Unit Types

General(s)
Generals in Ultimate General: Civil War provide a slight morale bonus to units within the yellow circle surrounding the General. Generals of higher ranks (Brigadier and above) grant armies additional bonuses through perks:
 * Brigadier Generals [Tactics (3% speed to all units), Training (5% increased experience for all units), and Logistician (5% increased ammunition for all units)]
 * Major Generals [Infantry (5% Reload, Efficiency, Melee), Cavalry (5% Melee, Charge Damage, and Efficiency), Artillery (5% Reload, Efficiency, Ammunition)]
 * Lieutenant Generals [Leader (20% increased general's radius), Defender (+5% cover rate and morale recovery rate), or Attacker (+5% stamina, melee)]

Division and Brigade leaders can also gain perks as their units increase in experience. Please see the Perks page for more details.

Supply Wagon
Supply Wagons are units which are capable of resupplying troops which are low on ammunition within the circle surrounding it, but the Supply Wagon does however have a limited amount of supplies and in certain battles. Supply is vital for a certain victory, and not having sufficient supplies will lead to units with no ammunition (receiving a severe reload speed penalty (-50%, approximately half reload speed, although exact penalty effect unknown)).

Supply wagons can carry up to 35,000 supplies, with each unit of supply costing one US dollar (35,000 supplies = $35,000). Supply is automatically replenished after each battle to whatever amount was set prior to the battle as well.

Supply wagons, both yours and the enemy's, can also be captured by charging units (Infantry, cavalry, and skirmishers) and physically "touching" the wagon.

[It is currently unknown what happens to supply gained as loot from battles].

Infantry
Line infantry is the basic infantry unit in Ultimate General: Civil War. They will form the bulk of your army and will do most of the fighting and take damage. Line infantry units can be as large as 2,500 (Campaign mode) and small as 300 or less (though 500 is the smallest size a new unit can be at creation), but players will primarily control Brigade sized units (exception of Gettysburg). Because infantry brigades fight in a large line formation, their speed is relatively slow when marching and turning, thus difficult to react when flanked by enemy skirmishers and snipers. Double time temporarily can fix this slowness, but it is not recommended for them to run too long as it will rapidly deplete stamina/energy and negatively affect combat (reload, efficiency, melee). Line infantry can also tank the most damage without too much morale loss, unless flanked or extended melee fights.

Infantries can be equipped with muskets, musket rifles, and lever-action rifles, and deal good damage all around in all aspects (ranged or melee).

Infantry damage inflicted per volley increases with unit size up to 1840 men. Above that size, damage decreases until 2500, where a 2500 men unit only does the same amount of damage as a 1240 men unit. Damage increases again above 2500 men, with a unit of 2815 men doing equivalent damage to a 1840 men unit. Damage continues to increase with unit size from there.

Skirmisher
Skirmishers are harassing infantry excellent for flanking maneuvers and long range harassment. They are mobile, as their default moving speed is the infantry equivalent of "double time". Skirmisher units are small, the maximum unit size being 500 and minimal optimal level of 150 (DO NOT GO BELOW THIS NUMBER), making them harder to hit than line infantries. Skirmishers have the highest view range and stealth(cavalry being the second highest), so use these units to spot units or sneak around the enemy flanks for surprise attacks!

There are different categories of skirmishers depending on weapon choices:
 * "Detached" skirmishers - This variant is from simply pressing T when selecting an infantry brigade. These skirmishers are infantry men with the best aim and reload speed, making them sort of "commando" units of the brigade. Armed with muskets and musket rifles, detached skirmishers have the best accuracy, medium range, and normal reload rates. Detached skirmishers can be reattached to brigades by pressing T again (Warning: units will move one way towards their respective brigades ignoring enemies, so be careful)
 * Skirmishers - This is the default skirmisher type, armed with short ranged rifles with extremely fast reload rates, but average accuracy. Their high rate of fire allows for multiple skirmisher units to cause enemy units to lose morale quickly. However, the short range makes it difficult to harass effectively if there are more than one unit.
 * Sharpshooters - The most expensive, well equipped skirmishers. Either equipped with the Sharps rifles, Withworth rifles, or their respective scoped variants, sharpshooters are deadly snipers having the longest range among all non-artillery units. They have also the highest accuracy, and slow reload rates, making them perfect units to snipe enemy artillery, generals, and slow moving infantry. It is advised to keep sharpshooters far away from direct combat.

Skirmisher damage inflicted per volley increases with unit size up to 375 men. Above that size, damage decreases until 500, where a 500 men unit only does the same amount of damage as a 110 men unit. Damage increases again above 500 men, but never actually gets back to the same level of damage as a 375 men unit.

Detached Skirmisher Sizing
The size of detached skirmishers is dependent upon the size of the parent unit. It follows the following formula, rounded up to the next whole number:
 * Size of Skirmishers = (.18 - ((Size of parent unit - 500) * .00004)) * Size of parent unit

The size of remaining parent unit is actually calculated by subtracting the unrounded size of the skirmishers from the original size of the parent unit and then rounding the result. This ends up adding an "extra" man to the parent unit. So, for example, a parent unit that starts at 1015 men, splits off a skirmisher unit that is 162 men in size. The remaining parent unit now has 854 men in it, instead of the expected 853 men. Only parent unit sizes that divide evenly by 500 have the expected remaining parent unit size (since the math works out to whole numbers instead of having decimals that round up to the next higher number).

One notable side effect of this formula: Parent units larger than 2500 would see skirmisher sizes decrease, though this would not come into play for the player normally, as 2500 men is the maximum size allowed at unit creation.

Some example parent unit and skirmisher sizes:

Cavalry
Cavalry are quick moving units; they are excellent at flanking maneuvers if armed with carbines. However, they are also excellent at melee when equipped with sabre and sidearm.
 * Scout Cavalry (Carbines, rifles)
 * Melee Cavalry (Sabre, sidearm)

Scout Cavalry (also called Skirmisher Cavalry) damage inflicted per volley increases with unit size up to 375 men. Above that size, damage decreases until 500, where a 500 men unit only does the same amount of damage as a 110 men unit. Damage increases again above 500 men, but never actually gets back to the same level of damage as a 375 men unit.

Melee Cavalry damage inflicted per volley increases with unit size up to maximum size allowed for the unit. However, the increase drops off significantly starting at 500 men.

Cannon
Cannons are support units capable of firing at extremely long ranges and inflict massive casualties to units should a battle be prolonged. Different types of artillery include: Cannons fire three different shell types: Ball (Long range, small damage), Shell (Medium range, moderate damage), and Canister/Grapeshot (Short range, high damage)
 * Smooth Bores/Howitzers: Short to medium range cannons, low to medium accuracy, medium to high damage. [It is unknown if smooth bores deal more damage to units at downwards slopes vs. high ground positions]
 * Rifled cannons: medium to long range cannons, they act as counter-battery, sniping enemy units at long distances, or as infantry support

Protect artillery pieces, as they are of slow reload and traverse speed, and spot targets for your artillery to fire on, as they have low visibility range.

Artillery damage inflicted per volley increases with unit size up to 14 cannons (though see below). Above that size, damage decreases, where a 24 cannon unit only does the same amount of damage as a 4 cannon unit. More specific artillery testing has found that 12 cannons may actually be the size that inflicts maximum damage per volley, so having a unit size of 12 - 14 seems to be recommended.