Spoke to Q-Ball and this is a free-fire zone now and been catching up on 'the other side of the hill'. Echo all the sentiments that its a cracking AAR (even though you are all obviously pure evil for giving advice, comfort and encouragement to the enemy!!
). Unfortunately my AAR fell by the wayside at christmas as due to a bunch of familiy stuff I just barely had time to get a turn done. However I thought a few summary words here for the record might be interesting.
So, for sure it was an interesting and challenging game. Q-Ball definately applied the pressure and used the Unions advantage in extra corps to exploit weaknesses in the CSA armour and ensure that as we couldnt be everywhere then any fortified positions I created could only buy time for a few months each at best. I for my part tried to get in character and while strategically I had to surrender the initiative, at least tactically I tried to be aggressive and give the Union a bloody nose wherever possible. His strategy of spreading his corps out in a net to outflank my positions often left one isolated that I could hit hard before the others evened the score. This meant I was able to gain a number of decent NM victories that stopped our morale deteriorating.
Aside from taking Fort Donelson, Grant didnt have much success the rest of the war on the actually field. Winning 'Shiloh' held up the union in the west for months just when things were looking dark. However once on the move again the Union net forced us to abandon Memphis, but much later than historically. I was tempted to make a siege of it out of curiousity to see how long would last, but I knew he would strip the countryside south. We held him long enough I think. But after that we could hold a blocking position south for a while but with the numbers he was building he was flowing around us like water, never assaulting frontally. It wasnt until Montgomery that we were able to find a position that was difficult to outflank. However as we were able to keep the army of the Mississippi pretty intact and fairly much undefeated then it was a strong position and with Chattanooga, Atlanta and Montgomery and Texas still held at end game I think out west that was about the best result we could have hoped for given Q-Balls well executed strategy.
In the Far west we tried to hold Missouri as long as possible. Not many VPs or industry but a decent opportunity seemed to arise early that Q-Ball was ignoring Missouri. There was maybe a chance to take St Louis which would have been a real pain for his plans so the 3 divs we deployed there were worth the risk I think, but at the last minute he saw the threat and re-inforced. This weakened his Mississippi campaign ever so slightly and maybe helped the 'Shiloh stall' so overall I don't regret that. Also that Missouri force re-took Little Rock when it obviously was held too weakly and we ended with Arkansas in CSA hands which was nice.
In the east the disparity in numbers in the end was frightening. In fact the numbers showed from quite early on. We managed a good few successful counterattacks, and held the Potomac line and the the Fredricksburg line for a while but in the end once again numbers just had him flowing around the edges. But once again that gave us a few good NM boosts picking off vulnerable corps, but never any knock out blow. Right until the end Q-Ball made sure he didnt waste himself attacking frontally which kept me frustrated for sure but was the rational thing to do for sure. Unless he had 2+ combat power then he would strike. He opened the door at Fredricksburg which got me sweating but lucking agressive action by Jackson saved the day more than once. Keeping him the whole war certainly helped. In fact very few men of note were lost possibly due to mostly CSA victories. What was frustrating right at the end, and it happened quite a few times before, despite being on red/hold at all costs and being well fortified in Richmond, and inflicting more casualties on the Union, the CSA retreated and left the city. This was curtains obviously but felt a shame not to last another month. But the game really doesn't do sieges very satisfactorily i think, there never was a real proper siege. Its too easy to flick to red/assault and even what should be a strong defense retreats the province leaving the attacker to crush the inner city defence instantly. Needs a better model on this i think.
And obviously a relentless naval campaign steadily stripped us nearly bare in the end. We kept Texas and retook Charleston but otherwise we couldnt have done much more. We kept a series of decent garrisons in key points, probably more so than historically but to no avail. Any more and the front lines would have suffered too much. As it is the CSA faces tough tough choices. With huge naval advantage and of corps commanders the Union has a massive strategic advantage in maneuverability that the CSA really has to work hard to keep at bay. Given everything against us I think we put up a decent fight, but Q-Ball mastered his forces advantages and ultimately won.
On the subject of VPs we both picked up early on that they really are out of balance and its probably impossible for the CSA to gain more points, unless they really rip the Union apart in which case there would probably be an NM victory anyway. I think the VPs are designed to tip as they are linked to foreign intervention. However whats really needed is a scale I think of what the final points ratio is. For example we ended up CSA 2478 to USA 3956. But even before we lost Memphis and Nashville I think the Union was already pulling in more VPs per turn and we held most of Missouri. So despite holding out longer than historically we were losing. Its not going to be possible to redress that to anything close to the CSA ending up with more points I think in any sensible game, but maybe thats not a problem. Given time it will be apparent maybe that 1,000 points spread is a tactical victory, 2,000 points is a decisive victory etc... But in the end it doesnt really matter. It was an excellent and challenging game that I was sure the CSA would lose, but going down like a southern warrior was my objective and trying to fight a good non-gamey fight that felt historical. Mission accomplished I reckon.
