[reviewed/revised 18 Oct 2021]
You bring to the Battle of Fredericksburg 3 corps of up to 24 brigades each.
The two strongest will defend Prospect Hill and Marye’s Heights, and should have strong infantry with good rifles. The Marye’s Heights corps should have at least several artillery units. The other one should have at least two artillery units.
The third corps will appear in between those battlefields, at Telegraph Road, midway through the battle. The Union probably will not have many forces to spare to take Telegraph Road—and the CSA doesn’t even need to defend it to win—so most of this central CSA corps can be used to support the battles to the N and/or S. For this central corps, infantry brigades are of course useful, but try to have at least half a dozen cav units in the mix—for capturing Federal supply wagons and shattering depleted brigades.
The Fredericksburg battle opens with a timewasting night skirmish in which Union forces attempt to cross two bridges into Fredericksburg town. CSA has a brigade with detachable skirmishers, and three other skirmisher units, which usually is enough for a brief defense (order skirmishers to “hold” in place so they don’t backpedal every time a Federal brigade charges at them). Even if the Federals do take the flag here, the battle moves to the next day and CSA can still win normally.
An example of CSA dispositions for Prospect Hill is shown in the image below.
Remember that the goal is to protect the flag, and too thin a line will invite the Federals to bunch up and punch through. Don’t use the front fortifications (which are generally bugged in this game) unless you outnumber the Federals on this map. If the Federals start to seriously dent your defenses, use some of your brigades to start hitting the flanks of the Federal line.
Initial dispositions for Marye’s Heights are as you might expect: in the forward fortifications, with brigades close behind the line for help against charging Union brigades, and artillery set up to hit those charging brigades at fairly close range. Note the flanking force which has already started doing its thing on the CSA left wing—Marye’s Heights should usually end with a severe weakening of the Federals followed by their encirclement and annihilation, if necessary with help from CSA’s central/reinforcing corps.
This is a long battle, lasting until well after nightfall, but it should be pretty easy for CSA, which in the end should inflict >70% casualties on the Union. Note, however, that on MG level this battle is often game over for CSA because the Union numbers are simply too great. The historical, non-campaign version, also playable in UGCW, is challenging but very winnable, and I find it more interesting and satisfying than any campaign version.
J & P Rebalance Mod (1.27.4.3) BG
What works at this battle in the vanilla campaign will work when using the mod. But note that the mod on BG makes the campaign significantly easier than vanilla BG, in part because it keeps the Union force to a much lower level after you have annihilated it in battle again and again. Therefore at this stage of the campaign, unless you are a beginner, there is little challenge, especially in the grand battles where you can always outnumber the USA.
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