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At the time of the battle of Antietam, Lee's army was exhausted. After months of hard fighting, his ranks had suffered from casualties, disease, desertions and fatigue. By the time he'd reached Maryland, his army was down to two-thirds its strength.
McClellan's Army of the Potomac was numerically superior, but was demoralized and without focus after suffering one defeat after another at the hands of Lee.
The North had stood at the gates of Richmond only a few months earlier. They could have crushed the rebellion right there but for McClellan's hesitation. Ultimately, Lee would push the North all the way back home and threaten Washington itself.
Lee hoped his triumphant march into Maryland would inspire its citizens to join the Confederate cause. It did not. Instead, the realization of the threat to their capital galvanized the North, and they rushed to meet Lee near a little creek called Antietam.
As the battle opens, formations of troops, both North and South, are positioned as they were in the early hours of September 17, 1862. From this point on, the power to change history is in your hands.
Tips for the North
You have around 90,000 men versus the South's 70,000, but your enemy holds the high ground and you will pay heavily in your efforts to take it from them. Also, you are on the offensive, and armies on the offensive almost always suffer more casualties than armies that are defending their positions.
Early in the battle, your regiments on the front line will suffer terribly. Because of this you will want to carefully monitor their morale. Order your demoralized regiments to fall back before they rout and replace them with a fresh regiment. Continue to switch off like this to keep the pressure on Lee's forces.
McClellan was hesitant to commit his reserves, even when the Confederate line had broken and the North was in pursuit. You will find it frustrating to see entire brigades resting on the hills, awaiting McClellan's orders to activate. First, you'll be told that reinforcements are coming up, and you'll sometimes have the option of activating units before McClellan wants to commit them. However, you will lose hundreds of points if you do this. Resist committing reserves early. As the North, you are starting the battle with an enormous disadvantage in points. If you have maneuvered your active brigades well enough, you should be able to hold out until McClellan activates your reserves. You will have to be creative and flexible on the battlefield to keep your men fighting.
Use your artillery wisely. You have more of it than the South. Concentrate your batteries in one or two critical areas and pour fire down on the enemy. Set artillery on auto-target, but jump in when you have the time and focus all cannons on a single target for best effect. Don't be afraid to move your cannons often. The battlefield is constantly in flux, and moving your cannons to the right spot at the right time can turn the tide of battle quickly in your favor.
In order to advance, it is helpful to place one brigade on the front line to fight the Confederates, while a second brigade advances in front of the first. The second takes over the fight as the first then advances and so on. This leapfrog method keeps pressure on the enemy and (hopefully) forces him to fall back. Of course, you don't have enough men to be able to do this all across the line, so choose one critical area where the enemy has a tenacious hold and focus your efforts there.
Watch your line carefully. Don't let a salient (bulge) form, or the enemy will take advantage of this weak spot and hit you hard from all sides.
Once you've taken a value-point position (i.e. East Woods or Miller's Cornfield), push your line beyond this point so you have room to defend it from the inevitable enemy counterattack.
Tips for the South
You have fewer men than the North, but you are holding all of the value-point positions and the high ground. Your forces will be a bit scattered in places, so quickly organize your brigades into the longest lines possible. You won't be able to form one enormous line due to the position of the areas you must defend. Within those areas, move your line beyond the value-point positions so you have a buffer between these objectives and the North's army.
It will take some time for reinforcements to be activated, and your men are going to have to fight hard. Coordinate your active units carefully to replace demoralized regiments. You might want to consider activating reserves before Lee releases them to you, but don't do it recklessly. You're starting out with more points than the North, but this can quickly turn and you might end up losing by just a hundred points or so . . . points you could have saved by holding off on committing your reserves prematurely.
Use your cavalry! Jeb Stuart took the initiative at Antietam and constantly harassed McClellan's forces to great effect. You can do the same. Use hit-and-fade tactics to draw critical forces from the North's lines, and then rush to safety. Come back and attack the enemy's flanks, then fade away again. Run to weak points in the line and bolster hard-pressed regiments.
You don't have as many cannons as the North, and you're going to have to use your own judgment as to whether you should attack enemy artillery, or enemy infantry. Whatever you do, concentrate your fire. Because numbers are working against you, you'll want to target the North's most threatening elements and soften them up with volley after volley of cannon fire. If the enemy is moving his artillery, or has left it undefended, take advantage by rushing the battery (but only if the artillery is focusing on another target). Routing enemy artillery batteries takes a lot of pressure off your troops suffering through their withering fire.
If you are forced to fall back, try to pull enemy forces into a trap by creating a salient in their line. You can then attack this weak spot from all sides and quickly rout the troops caught in the bulge.
Hold as long as you can until reinforcements arrive. You will most likely have to give up value-point positions, but if you can make the North pay heavily enough, their units will be weakened while you relieve your exhausted frontline troops with fresh reinforcements. Charge the weakened Yankee lines, push them back and retake what's rightfully yours.
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