[reviewed/revised 16 Oct 2021]
At Malvern Hill CSA should inflict devastating losses on the Union force—you wonder how CSA managed to lose this one IRL.
CSA can use two 20-unit corps. It can add a third, late-arriving corps but that isn’t necessary. Having 4-6 strong melee cav units will be helpful, but the rest can be infantry, unless you have a large 24-pounder artillery unit—always good for punching through a line as well as defending.
One corps is the first wave. The other is the second wave.
The first wave should position itself just out of artillery range to the N and NW of the Union left flank. Keep artillery switched off.
The second wave should march around the far right edge of the map and down a hill towards a stream it can ford in two places to start pressuring the Union right flank.
When that second wave has begun to engage Federal brigades and is spreading out to enclose them from the SE, march most of your first wave in a narrow column along the river by the far left end of the Union line. Push through that left end of the Union line and start routing the Union brigades towards the east and south. (You can start by flanking the Union left through the woods to the west of the river, but crossing that river and attacking uphill takes a big toll on your units.) Use the rest of your first-wave units, and any late reinforcements, to block a Union escape to the N. Take the North Malvern Hill flag.
Now just use your two main corps, one coming from the west and north, the other from the east and south, to encircle the Union forces or at least squeeze them from two sides. Eventually the map will open up to the south and you can take the E or W Malvern hill flag. You need to hold only one of those, plus the N Malvern Hill flag.
The battle should end around 2030.
Note that you should have an Army Organization level of 9 by 2nd Bull Run, which is coming up soon—so you might want to use your points from this battle to add to your AO.
J&P Rebalance Mod (1.27.4.3) BG
The same hammer-anvil strategy described above works for Malvern Hill when using this mod. You can bring two corps of up to 24 brigades each for your main attack force, but even 20 brigades each is plenty. Melee cav are very strong in this mod, and Union cav units can be huge, so for these grand battles CSA should always have at least a few big melee cav units on hand. No need for artillery though.
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