The placing and use of Leaders

Leaders of vitally important to success or failure. The mechanics of how they are used is outlined below but is not necessary to know in order to employ them wisely. You must keep your units together with their Brigade commanders at a minimum and preferably near their whole chain of command. This is even more vital when you are playing the Union as the quality of the army makes a route very likely, if not probable!
Make sure to dismount your leaders when close to enemy units. A mounted man makes a much better target! Additionally, you need to use brigade commanders for melee purposes. This will greatly enhance your chances for a successful melee, but remember not to risk leaders in the front line for too long.
Some players, also like to aggressively use their corps and army leaders just behind the lines to both hold the lines and to rally other troops behind the line, but corps and army leaders should never be risked in the front line.

1. Maintain command and control as much as possible. This means that regiments are within the command radius of the brigade commander, and the brigade commander is within the command radius of the division commander.

2. Rule 1 above dictates that divisions normally be kept intact, and that the smallest detached manoeuvre will be at division level. The preferred detached manoeuvre is at corps level.

3. Whenever a division is detached from the movement reach of the corps commander , such as being moved to the left flank from the right flank, the corps commander should be with the largest portion of his corps and the army commander should be in the area of the detached division. This is so that units can be rallied faster in both locations. If the division is sent on a mission completely detached from the army, they are usually on their own without a corps or army commander present.

4. When a commander is needed in the front line for combat purposes, it should be a brigade commander. Only under the most severe and dire circumstances should a division commander be used for combat. A corps or army commander should never be exposed to combat unless they are so poor in command that the odds are that their replacement would be better. If you have a choice of which commander to use, use the one with the lowest rating.

5. Any and all of your commanders should be in or behind your lines and not out front. It is not considered sporting to use them for forward scouts.

6. Dismount your commanders if they can be subjected to any enemy fire. Their chances for survival are much better dismounted.

7. Do not use a lone commander (or a supply wagon) to complete a zone of control around an enemy unit. That is also not considered sporting.

Game Mechanics Command Radius & What it means (optional)

The command radius distances are found in the help file under the Parameters data.
Command Radius
USA Division leader radius = 4 Brigade leader radius = 2
CSA Division leader radius = 6 Brigade leader radius = 3

What command radius' are used for is a little more complicated. Your leader has two ratings. The Command Rating (top) and Leadership Rating (middle). The Leadership Rating is used to rally ROUTED units only. Any leader adjacent or with a Routed unit modifies that units Rating for rally. The rally check uses the Leadership rating if it is higher than the units Rating. If it is equal to or lower than the units Rating, then the units rating is given a +1 modifier. Having multiple leaders near by will not increase your rally attempt, you only get the benefit of the best leader in the area. ROUTED units are rated as "0" for rally so must have a leader adjacent to rally. Leadership Ratings never change.

The Command Rating is used to rally DISRUPTED units. It is modified by gaining pluses from higher leaders within the chain of command. No pluses will be gained if subordinates are outside the command radius at the determination of moral which is done at the beginning of each player's turn. Leaders are first checked for being "In Command" by the roll of a dice and comparing it to the Leaders Command Rating. If the roll is less or equal to Command Rating he is "In Command" and can pass a bonus of a +1 to all subordinates within Command Radius (all leaders higher than Division have an unlimited radius). Then the next level of leader is checked in the same way, applying any bonus received, to determine if he is "In Command". Again, if the die roll is less or equal to his Leader Rating (plus any modifiers from higher leaders) then he will also add a +1 to his subordinates. These pluses are cumulative as they are passed down. But if the next leader does not pass his "In Command" check, that breaks the bonus passing chain and the next subordinate leaders will compare their base Leadership Rating against the die roll. You can display the leaders that failed by using the "D" button on the tool bar.

Unit Quality is only used to determine if it will rout from combat effects. It is not used to determine rally. All ROUTED units are rated "0" and all DISRUPTED units are rated "1".

Night turns reduce the effectiveness of leaders. All leaders must be stacked with units they are attempting to rally to be effective. And the Command Rating of leaders is reduced by one for the purposes of rally.

Corps and higher leaders extend their bonus into adjacent hexes. All other leaders must be in the same hex to apply their bonus. At night, this exception for Corps and above leaders is negated.