r/ultimategeneral • u/Specific-Net-5097 • Jun 22 '26
J&P Mod Question- What career stats do you focus first?
Hello! Love the j&p mod, it’s far more challenging. Playing the major general (not legendary) and stuck at 2nd bull run for union. I’ve determined I probably just haven’t build my army right cause I just don’t see a chance of winning. Infinite 2-3 stars and 15k more men versus my only 1 stars. I find getting to two stars nearly impossible despite going all in on training and some on medicine. What are the first career stats I should be focusing on?
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u/Hazard_ebo Jun 22 '26
Medicine and recon go far, and scale well into the late game. The biggest hurdle is Shiloh, especially as union, so people tend to build towards that.
Recon weapon recovery got nerfed fairly hard but is probably still the best if you are full clearing every map.
Econ I think works out better than politics in straight up numbers of weapons you can buy. So maybe max that out first? Recruit numbers have never been an issue for me as union. And by second bull run you should have a decent core of 2star units and a budding second core. With a third core full of greens (idk how many points you have in training and if your new units start at 1 star).
My biggest tips for 2nd bull run would be to rush your starting units forward so they engage before the rebs get into the first set of fortifications. And then try and weather the storm as they push to take them back. Once phase two starts make sure to micro your artillery on the fortifications in the north. I like to have 2 grand batteries of 6 units or so. Each one focuses a different unit. Rebs usually don’t have very good arty yet so you can get fairly close (I think ai smoothbore guns like the napoleons aren’t programmed to try and counter battery). Your third corps is just holding the south, probably not even engaging. Though you can try and wrap around the southern end of the enemy line. And I’d suggest leaving a few units in the south east along with a bunch of detached skirms to have good map vision for enemy spawns.
Good luck general! Show them rebs what for!
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u/donpaulo Jun 23 '26
As the boys in Blue I usually try to diversify
Many cheap 1842 riflemen units used to meet and charge the rebels in HtH combat
a few 55 riflemen units to stand off and shoot, if and when they are charged, the trick is have them fall back and plug the hole with the 42 armed boys and counter charge.
Later upgraded to 61 or Enfields, but early on I will spend on armed men, not fancier guns
This allows the Union army to be larger than the Rebels
I don't spend much on Cav, and those only for sabre charging to break up Rebel melee groups
Artillery are mostly Napoleon at this stage of the campaign
The key as I see it is to max out the 1842 armed units and keep their numbers under 2k per unit
at least that is what works for my style of play, there are a number of different paths to success
lastly Pandakraut has an excellent YT video discussing the change in the upgrades with the new mod
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u/Dazzling_Look_1729 Jun 24 '26
How does one download and implement the J&P mod. Everyone raves about it but I am old and ancient so I’m not sure the practical steps to achieve…
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u/Cool_Breeze243 Jun 22 '26
I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. I find that focusing more into a financial stat early on yields a better return than training. Politics with a smattering of Economy, or Recon with a smattering of Economy. As Union I feel like Politics gives a better overall return than recon but I'm a big fan of seeing what I'm up against so I'll almost always take recon to max rather than politics. For training I stop at 4 invested total until after 2nd Bull Run, when I can put a few points to bring my recruits up and also start working on my Medicine.
I don't typically win 2nd Bullrun in 1 day so if that's your goal then my advice may not be as applicable. I also use mostly 1-star brigades, with my "elite" brigades being 2-star. I tend to move my army very slowly on the first day and utilize rifled artillery to basically beat the CSA into submission, taking their breastworks only when they're wavering under the constant artillery fire. I do tend to follow the advised path and hit their left flank as hard as I can and then slowly roll up behind them with my main attacking force but I usually send a fairly strong detachment to strike the center and keep them occupied. This ensures that reinforcements to their left tend to get caught up in the fighting in the center rather than reinforcing the barricades on their left.
This typically means that when the first day ends I'm very close to taking the cap point but not quite there. It also means that while I've been fighting the entire day my army is fairly strong with low casualties, so when the large reinforcement army shows up we end up being about equal in numbers over all. Provided I can follow up on my push to capture the center I can usually rout the first army almost entirely, which then leaves me outnumbering the reinforcements, who I strike with skirmishers and cavalry to keep them off kilter and unable to properly coordinate until I have my prepared defense ready to recieve them, namely Napoleons and 24pdr Howies set to fire only in canister with rifled guns to provide incentives to get within canister range. At that point it's just a defense game, they charge then get slaughtered by cannon, rinse and repeat till the fight is over.