Union vs. AI

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: rekm41

Hey Jim are you not using any Regional Decisions? I have not seen you mention any?

So far I've only used the intel one to counter the AI's unrest. To tell the truth I really haven't looked at them that closely yet (he says sheepishly), I'll look them over and see if anything jumps out that I want to use.

Jim

[Rekm41]

Just wondering what ones would be good to use. Other than the one you have mentioned. I used that in one of my just trying it out campaigns prior to jumping right in.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 13 Early October

I decided not to wait and went ahead and sent my militia stack from New York down to Philadelphia before hitting end turn and I’m glad I did. It finally shook Johnston loose and he moved away one zone southwest to West Chester. I’ll continue moving my militia into his region, hopefully the AI will finally get the message and get Johnston back into supply before his stack dies.

At Manassas Beauregard’s army and my army both entered the region during the move, but he must have moved out before a battle could occur and I end the turn back in Alexandria and Manassas is again in Union control. Beauregard’s army is in Falmouth.

The Runaway slaves event fires and I gain 2 war supplies and 5 conscripts.

Several elite brigades form via event this turn. Over the past several turns these nice brigades have started to appear on map, they will add significantly to the power of my divisions in 1862.

The rest of the map was pretty quiet this turn except out west. Lower Kansas has been invaded by Stand Watie and his Indian units along with some Texas cavalry.

I build 3 KS militia units in Leavenworth to help defend against the coming Indian raids. I also build enough 2 wagon supply trains for 1 in every stack in KS and MO, to give my small western divisions some supply abilities and benefits.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 14 Late October

With a new year and hopefully a lot of new conscripts coming soon, I decide to go ahead and issue war bonds and raise taxes again. I’m hoping these options are limited to a certain number per year and will become available again in January, but this is just a guess.

I also increase rail and river pools again.

After perusing the decision mode options, nothing really jumps out at me as something I need or want to play except telegraphs (cheap). I’m guessing it’s simply too early in game and my resources are too thin to think of playing these options right now. Later in game I’ll probably use them more.

I did think about using the Build defense option for my main army in Alexandria as its only at level 1 forts right now, but I wasn’t sure if it was a onetime per game/year limit or if a cost was associated with it. Nothing associated to cost is listed on the tool tip, but I decided to wait and try it when it was vital, as I didn’t want to waste it if it has a limited number of uses.

The magic sink a ship card is one I will NEVER play and has no place in an historical wargame. [:@]

Johnston withdraws one region to Lancaster, but his stack is down to a power of 61. It’ll be a miracle if anything survives after another 2 turns of this.

Beauregard’s army moved south towards Richmond into the FOW.

I’m beginning to think I’ve broken some events with the Kentucky territory violation a while back. The force at Evansville has become unlocked, yet no Camp event has fired in Kentucky yet. In addition McClellan is still a 2 star general and has not been appointed to Washington yet.

Given that all the units in Ohio have been trained up from militia status by McClellan, I decide to go ahead and move him to Washington even though the event promoting him hasn’t occurred. I just think it’s too important to competitive game balance to not have him in command in the east in 1862.

At Cairo Woods’ 7th division only has 4 militia regiments left to train. Then as soon as some artillery arrives he and Grant will head south along the Mississippi and see if they can stir up some mischief.

With the Kansas militia becoming active at Leavenworth, I have them trade places with the 3 cavalry regiments in Sumner’s stack. I send the cavalry south to join Lyons at Springfield. They and the three cavalry regiments already in Lyons division shall form an all cavalry division (no time to build a horse artillery unit) and start pursuing Indians. I build 4 MO militia regiments at Springfield to help beef up its defense in anticipation of Lyons pending departure.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 15 Early November

The increase rail and river events just played last turn become immediately re-available and I play them again.

At Lancaster Johnston did not withdraw as before when the militia arrived and with just 26 CV left this will be the last turn on map for the Army of the Shenandoah. I’ve ordered attack posture for the militia to finish him off.

Beauregard’s army re-appears at Falmouth. Surprisingly General Smith leading the Confederate 12th division (CV 143) moves into the region at Fairfax VA where McDowell’s army sits outside the town of Alexandria. Not one to be baited into changing to an offensive stance, I remain in defensive posture to remain behind my level 2 forts in case Beauregard moves into the area as well.

I’d love to hit the 12th, but going offensive would take away my forts and the lost cohesion from a fight, even a won fight, would leave me vulnerable to Beauregard’s army which would then enter the area in perfect shape and probably beat me.

In Texas at Fort Worth Hindman launches an assault and it surprisingly ends in stalemate even though my men had no ammo. With over half my regiment killed with no loss to the enemy they can’t stand another assault. 20 supplies remain on hand inside the fort.

In New Mexico Confederate general Baylor launches an assault on the garrison that was rolled up at Fort Stanton and loses the fight, though no NM was gained by the Union for the small fight.

Confederate general Hardee has appeared near Fort Pickens with a large division boasting a CV of 418. While not large enough to take the fort, it is sizable enough to dissuade any adventurous notions I may have had about using Shields small division to grab some towns in the area.

In Missouri Lyons division absorbs the 3 cavalry regiments and drops all non-cav units. With a CV of 195 his cavalry division is far stronger than anything I can see in the surrounding areas, so he heads west to Fort Scott to attack the 11th Texas cavalry regiment.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 16 Late November

The Trent affair event fired this turn along with the YMCA event.

At Lancaster the offensive stance of my militia stack caused Johnston to withdraw to York. He’s just one region away from being adjacent to Confederate territory now, but with only 7 CV left I doubt he’ll make it. I again pursue with the militia to try and get him to withdraw.

Winter is setting in across the map, and Beauregard’s army stays put in Falmouth. The 12th division withdrew from Fairfax, I didn’t see where it went.

Hindman attacks Fort Worth again and destroys the stockade along with the garrison unit. Hindman suffers no losses.

In Kansas the Texas cavalry evade Lyons at Fort Scott and a garrison unit is rolled inside the stockade, so it remains in Confederate hands. I give Lyons at all cost orders and he is given orders to first pursue Stand Watie to the north and to then head west to Fort Smith.

My initial run of 10lb parrot batteries complete this turn. I then build a new run of artillery consisting of six 10lb parrot batteries and six 20lb parrot batteries. I also make my first naval builds constructing eleven Gunboats, four Mortarboats and two Transport squadrons.

These boats are constructed at Cairo and Saint Louis and combined with the boats in Foote’s fleet will make up four different fleets, each with 12 combat and 4 transport elements. This makeup makes each fleet capable of blockading any section of the Mississippi River. I also build two blockade squadrons in Boston, which brings my on hand cash down to 154, so hopefully I’ll get some more taxation events as the year turns over.

Jim

[Gilmer]

Very nice AAR. Do you still think that the loss of the Johnston Force, The Shenandoah Army will so cripple the South, that they might not be able to recover?

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 17 Early December

I get to increase rail and river pools again this turn.

Johnston’s army has withdrawn to Carroll MD, and is adjacent to confederate territory. His stack shows no CV any longer, but there are still two regular units listed, so perhaps some of his army will be allowed to rebuild. I rail my militia stack through the region in an offensive posture to be sure he gets totally out of union territory.

McClellan has arrived in the area, but is still a two star general. I place him in command of the two divisions at Baltimore. Once Johnston’s stack is gone, I’ll march him to Harper’s Ferry and try and get him promotable to a three star by winning a few fights. That way I’ll be able to put him in command of the Army of the Potomac and properly handicap the Union army in the East.

At Cairo Woods’ division is all set to go campaigning. As soon as the supply wagons are done building, he and Grant will head south.

Lyons fought two engagements this turn. One stalemate at Fort Scott where he began the turn and a victory over Stand Watie at Mound City, where he ended his turn. With all his ammo gone I’ve ordered him to Leavenworth to refit.

General Canby appears at San Francisco this turn. Unfortunately he’s stuck in the far west and will not be able to get to Fort Craig where he was stationed historically as the march path would take him through Fort Cummings which has Confederate troops in the region. Canby should appear in Santa Fe NM I think instead of San Francisco to prevent this.

With a shortage of Leadership in NM, I’ve sent everything I could except the militia garrisons I built for the towns to Santa Fe and placed it into a small division under Carson. I also burned one of the two supply wagons and built a depot there, which doubles NM’s tiny ammo production ability to +2, 1 for Mora and now 1 for Santa Fe.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: H Gilmer

Very nice AAR. Do you still think that the loss of the Johnston Force, The Shenandoah Army will so cripple the South, that they might not be able to recover?

Yeah I've been mulling over the problem, and I think what I'll do is this. As soon as the lines stabilize and I have enough troops around to prevent another suicide raid, I'll disband 700 CV worth of troops in the east to compensate. Hopefully that will even things out enough to keep it challenging.

But the fact the AI still hasn't even bothered to take Norfolk (I've left it empty), has me starting to want to drop this and look for human play. But I'll stick it out through most of 1862 in hopes things become more challenging with more troops appearing for both sides.

I'm also worried the Kentucky issue has broken some critical events, my fingers are crossed that's not the case.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 18 Late December

The Trent affair Union apologizes event fires, and even though the wording of the event sounds as if it goes my way, I lose 2 NM and foreign entry goes up by +5. The Confederacy also promises territorial concessions again. Foreign entry now sits at 39 at the end of 1861, so it looks like there may be foreign troops on US soil at some point in this game.

That of course will more than make up for the loss of the Army of the Shenandoah if it occurs reasonably early in the game, but I still plan to disband the 700 CV once I have a solid front set up in the east.

Johnston is in Fredericktown, and I give McClellan’s stack orders to rail to that location, hopefully he’ll push Johnston back like the militia was doing. I also send 2 divisions from Washington into the open region of Montgomery MD between Fredericktown and Washington to start digging in on my side of the Potomac. Hooker’s division rails to the region of Chambers MD on the other side of Fredericktown to dig in there.

In Ohio Confederate general Floyd’s 6th division captures the town of Marietta. I give Porter’s 20th Division orders to rail from Cincinnati to the region of Meigs OH as a blocking force. He lacked the ability to get into the region where Marietta is so I’ll retake it next turn if I can. Blenker’s 23rd division remains behind on defense in Cincinnati.

At Cairo Grant’s force is ordered south across the river to attack Charleston. A sizable confederate force has appeared north of there in Perry MO. I order Foote’s fleet to sail up and down the river in an attempt to prevent a crossing into Illinois. Milroy’s stack at Saint Louis has a CV of 310 behind level 4 forts now, so I feel secure there.

Lyons goes into passive mode at Leavenworth to speed up his R&R.

At Fort Arbuckle Hindman has caught up with my Texas cavalry and is just south across the river.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 19 Early January

Two events fire with broken text strings. One says evt_nam_USA_PayVolunteers. The other says evt_nam_USA_EmancipateSlaves. The colored troops option that appears in my ledger this turn has an emancipate option on it, but look at the costs/benefits on the screenshot, weird symbols instead of numbers. I have no idea what they mean so am not going to use the event in case a dev wants to look at this.

The Coffee Guns event fires and I get a fixed Gatling gun unit in Washington, it’s added to the city garrison.

The Arizona Territory event fires and the event mouse over says it gives NM and new unit types to the CSA. I think this event is supposed too appear for the Confederates, not the Union.

I increase my rail and river pools again. I also raise taxes and war bonds again. A new option Charter Merchants appears and I select that for the three new merchant ships it says will appear in my merchant box. I also chose volunteers without paying a premium and select partial mobilization as well. All in all it appears I’m going to get a lot of stuff to spend next turn.

I have new industry options, but none of them allow for ironworks to be built in the states whose artillery units cannot be placed on map. I believe you can only place artillery in cities with ironworks based on the cities I’ve checked when buying my units. That means 1/3rd to ½ of the Union guns will never enter play unless some new industry options appear late in the war that allow ironworks to be built where needed.

Johnston makes it into Harpers Ferry and according to the mouseover some stuff survived as he now has a CV of 71.

At Fairfax VA Huger attacked the 14th division which I had moving out of the Army of the Potomac back to Washington to add more brigades. This is very weird, as I had an entire army in the region which is not a part of this fight, how did Huger pull off attacking a moving division in the same region as a stationary army?

A new batch of generals arrives and I dispatch them out where needed.

The confederates leave Marietta to the south and I order the 20th division to retake the town.

Grant took Charleston without a fight and sits idle to recover cohesion this turn as bad weather prevents him from being able to move into the next region south during the turn.

Jim

[Oberst_Klink]

Smashing AAR, Jim! Still up that late/early? Must be 02:00 AM in CA, uh?

Klink, Oberst

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink

Smashing AAR, Jim! Still up that late/early? Must be 02:00 AM in CA, uh?

Klink, Oberst

Yeah retired cop, I usually sleep during the day. No matter how hard I try to get my sleep habits flipped to normal daylight hours my internal clock always has me falling back into late night habits. Too many years spent cruising the streets on patrol at night I guess.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 20 Late January

The Simon Cameron event fired this turn.

The three new merchant ships appeared in the Shipping Lanes box, bringing my total up to 9 units. This last turn I received 14 money and 14 war supplies from the 6 units I had last turn, hopefully the three new units add at least 10 more to the current merchant income of 28.

Most of my artillery units from the last production run become active this turn. They should add quite a bit to the firepower of my Corps stacks (I plan to put a min of one 10lb or 20lb parrot with each Corp stack, more later).

Along the Potomac I now have a line of 2 division stacks each commanded by a 2 star general. This will be my defense line used to dissuade AI raids. As soon as the depot finishes building in Fredericktown I think the east will be secure for most of 1862 (assuming I’m allowed to form corps soon which can march to the sound of the guns in support of one another), allowing me to focus on naval campaigns along the east coast and eventually down in Louisiana.

My plan is to capture all the forts along the coast with Meagher’s powerful 22nd Division (all infantry are elite) that has been forming up in New York. This turn will see two Rodman artillery batteries (forgot to mention when I built those quite a while back) join the division, which will add some serious long range firepower to his unit. All that’s needed after that are three more infantry regiments and he’ll have a maxed out division with close to 800 CV I’m guessing. That should be powerful enough to take any fort by storm.

Confederate general smith moves on Fort Monroe and sets siege there.

Due to harsh weather the 20th division hasn’t quite reached Marietta yet, so continues its march.

Grant is fully recouped and marches south to New Madrid in harsh weather. He should arrive in 11 days.

Lyons marches south to attack Fort Scott. Ammo is only at 88%, but the region is empty so he should only need to fight one battle to take it. I have built 2 transport fleets in western MO to use to build depots at Leavenworth and Jefferson City as I found out there isn’t enough ammo out here to operate effectively. Hopefully the new depot chain will pull enough ammo out west to allow offensive ops when it gets built.

Hindman has entered the region of Garvin IT where Fort Arbuckle and my Texas cavalry are but he did not attack.

I built 4 River Ironclads and 6 Transports at Saint Louis. This fleet will combine with Porter and his ironclad in the spring. Porter is stuck at Springfield IL and must await the thaw. Porter will be my main support for Grants campaign along the Mississippi. I’ll use his transports to build depots when needed and to shuttle troops to and from Cairo for refit.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 21 Early February

Due to my need to disband 700 CV of units, I change my normal habit of building more expensive stuff after 1862 like trained troops, artillery or ships and I build 36 militia regiments. Money is short, so I can’t build as much as I wanted to. It’ll be several more runs of militia before I feel comfortable with disbanding an entire Corps worth of troops.

Johnston leaves Harper’s Ferry and moved one region west into Morgan VA. His CV is up to 164 now, but my recon isn’t good enough to see his stack details. I thought about crossing the Potomac and grabbing Harper’s Ferry and Leesburg, but Beauregard’s army has a CV of 1641 now and he can easily defeat these 2 division stacks of mine since they cannot march to the guns in support of each other yet. I’ll wait till I can form Corps before I cross.

With Marietta in Union hands again, I order Porter’s division to Parkersburg WV where he will take up defense. Keyes division just took Clarksburg WV, so he’ll stay there on defense.

Sherman appears with Grant and I send him to Cairo where he’ll form a division. Grant’s boys are tuckered out so he remains in place for the turn for R&R.

An Indian unit crossed into IL and captured Metropolis. I create a 2 regiment cavalry division with Thomas at Cairo and send him in pursuit.

Lyons took Fort Scott without a fight and he is given orders to chase a small Indian unit just to his north.

I’m really starting to worry about the Kentucky situation. It’s still neutral and no events to deal with it have appeared in the ledger. I’m starting to think I’ll try invading it or something to try and get it kick-started into the war. If it’s still neutral by the end of March and no options have appeared in the ledger by then, I think I will just invade and see what happens. Of course by invade I mean send a large navy into the river region that created the issue in the first place, I don’t think I’m allowed to march units in, I’ll have to check.

Jim

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

Turn 21 Early February

Due to my need to disband 700 CV of units, I change my normal habit of building more expensive stuff after 1862 like trained troops, artillery or ships and I build 36 militia regiments. Money is short, so I can’t build as much as I wanted to. It’ll be several more runs of militia before I feel comfortable with disbanding an entire Corps worth of troops.

Johnston leaves Harper’s Ferry and moved one region west into Morgan VA. His CV is up to 164 now, but my recon isn’t good enough to see his stack details. I thought about crossing the Potomac and grabbing Harper’s Ferry and Leesburg, but Beauregard’s army has a CV of 1641 now and he can easily defeat these 2 division stacks of mine since they cannot march to the guns in support of each other yet. I’ll wait till I can form Corps before I cross.

With Marietta in Union hands again, I order Porter’s division to Parkersburg WV where he will take up defense. Keyes division just took Clarksburg WV, so he’ll stay there on defense.

Sherman appears with Grant and I send him to Cairo where he’ll form a division. Grant’s boys are tuckered out so he remains in place for the turn for R&R.

An Indian unit crossed into IL and captured Metropolis. I create a 2 regiment cavalry division with Thomas at Cairo and send him in pursuit.

Lyons took Fort Scott without a fight and he is given orders to chase a small Indian unit just to his north.

I’m really starting to worry about the Kentucky situation. It’s still neutral and no events to deal with it have appeared in the ledger. I’m starting to think I’ll try invading it or something to try and get it kick-started into the war. If it’s still neutral by the end of March and no options have appeared in the ledger by then, I think I will just invade and see what happens. Of course by invade I mean send a large navy into the river region that created the issue in the first place, I don’t think I’m allowed to march units in, I’ll have to check.

Jim

You're correct. You can't march in troops yet until it declares a nationality.

Fun AAR btw...loving the updated game from the original.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 22 Late February

French intervention in Mexico occurs this turn and I gain 3 NM.

General War Order number 1 occurs ordering me to go on the offensive and I decide I’m not going to try and prevent the penalty. 10 NM lost will help offset the damage the south suffered with the loss of the Army of the Shenandoah. Confederate morale currently sits at 91 to my 98, so I assume they lost a lot when units started dying in the army.

I’ve also decided I’d like to see foreign intervention occur in game if possible, so keeping my morale below the confederate morale will help that. I also won’t be playing the emancipation event to help keep foreign intervention high.

Meagher’s division is fully fleshed out and shows a CV of 839 (755 with command penalties). He boards Farragut’s fleet and is given distant unload orders to attack Fort Clark.

General Buell appears in Cincinnati.

Thomas beats the raiding Indians and retakes Metropolis.

Grant has recovered his cohesion and is ordered to cross the Mississippi to Lake TN to assault the large confederate force outside the Island 10 fort. With pouring rain weather in a swamp region, I’m not confident I’ll win this. It is however an 11 day march so perhaps he won’t initiate battle this turn. Sherman wasn’t active this turn so it’ll be a minimum of another two turns before he can join Grant with a second division, so I didn’t want to wait.

Lyons chases the Indian unit to Fort Smith and runs into Price’s division which had been undetected. Lyons loses the fight due to low cohesion, though no NM was lost. I’ve ordered him to Leavenworth where the just completed depot should help is R&R efforts.

I build another 16 militia regiments this turn. One more run like this and I should have enough extra regiments to help absorb the 700 CV hit I’m going to take and still be in a position to resist Beauregard’s large army.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 23 Early March

Northern Papers push for an 1862 offensive event fires this turn and mentions the loss of 10 NM. I’m now confused about last turns war order number 1 event, I didn’t read it carefully and assumed it was this event.

Subsequent to last turns war order number 1, this turn gets war order number 2 telling me to keep 48 regiments around Washington for 2 months or lose 50 VP. With all the recent militia I’ve built that one should be easy to avoid.

Unfortunately the 4 promotions to two star generals that were supposed to go with the war order number 2 event didn’t occur. I’m now starting to think the fact McClellan hasn’t been promoted and now this promotions failure may have something to do with the quick fix I installed. I can create Corps this turn, so that is working, but in game promotion events appear to have been broken.

That said Lewis L. Wallace is promoted to two stars, but the event promoting him was a single line of black text in the event lists, so perhaps it’s somehow different from red line text events.

Meagher landed at Fort Clark but did not attack. I leave him in attack posture and set Farragut’s fleet to normal defensive posture and leave it in the sea zone adjacent to the fort.

Generals Davis and Sigel appear in MO. Davis goes to Saint Louis, Sigel goes to Rolla to train the militia regiments in McCall’s division.

Pope appears at Cairo and will stay put until I have enough troops to form a second 2 division Corp stack there.

With the new ability to form Corps, I form 5 new Corps in the east attached to the Army of the Potomac.

Grant attacks the Leaderless Confederate troops at Lake TN and is soundly defeated. With a CV of only 98 his stack is skulking back across the Mississippi. Sherman was active this turn and was able to form a division. He has orders to march south and retake Charleston from the Indian units who took it this turn.

I’m a little worried about Grant, there is a Confederate stack south of New Madrid in Osceola. Sherman can’t join grant for at least 16 days, so is 2 turns away, so Grant may lose another battle in New Madrid given how poorly his troops are doing right now.

I get a message about partisans appearing in southern Colorado in the region of East Huerfano CO. The message stated partisans siding with the confederates have been spotted, so I’m not sure if these guys spawned spontaneously or if they were built somewhere else and the AI sent them here. If the AI sent them, it’s an interesting little side development.

I wonder what it’s up to, perhaps going after the gold mine in Golden City? I looked over the area and there really isn’t much else worth fighting for in the state. I guess taking Denver would open up a small build pool of militia units for the south since it’s a strategic location.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 24 Late March

Generals Franklin and Sykes appear at Washington. General Curtiss appears at Saint Louis.

Meagher’s division besieging Fort Clark achieves nothing, at this rate it’ll take years to clear the east coast forts, so I order full assault orders.

Before making it back to New Madrid, Grant is attacked and beaten again by the Confederates outside Island Number 10. Grant’s campaign isn’t starting off so well. Yet again I pay the price for being too impatient, had I waited for Sherman I probably would have won. Sherman retook Charleston and will join Grant during this move.

Pope has enough troops to form a second 2 division Corp, but almost all of them are militia, so He’ll stay put for now and allow Halleck to continue training them. While looking him over this turn I found an error on one of the mouse-over tooltips, see this turns screenshot.

The partisan unit in CO moved southwest and captured Fort Garland without a fight.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 25 Early April

Phil Kearny was promoted to two stars this turn via a black text line in the events list, I made him the 6th Corp commander under the Army of the Potomac.

I order Berry’s Corps across the Potomac to attack Leesburg. Dix’s Corp crosses as well with orders to attack Harper’s Ferry. If these attacks succeed, I’ll have shortened my lines by one region. I’ll then disband 700 CV from McClellan’s stack to make up for what happened to the Army of the Shenandoah.

Confederate general Smith attacks Norfolk with 3000 men and the south finally takes it exactly one year into the game.

Fort Clark surrenders before Meagher can assault it and the Union gets the fort. Oddly we do not get to keep any of the surrendered guns, but a Union garrison infantry unit appears for free. Another oddity is the fact the Union fleet is prohibited from entering the fort even though it has a Harbor. No reason is given, it just says cannot reach destination from here when I drag and drop the fleet onto the fort. Meagher is given orders to board the fleet at sea.

As it’s April and still no ledger events have appeared to deal with Kentucky, I order all four active fleets into the two river regions listed as Kentucky territory. Hopefully this breaks something loose with the Kentucky events.

In anticipation of Kentucky’s possible entry into the war, Buell and his division sized force moves to New Albany IN. I recall Parker’s division from WV and send him to Cincinnati. Asboth’s division is already at Evansville, so that gives me three divisions to move into the state right away. Pope’s 2 division Corp will also be available to move in from Cairo.

Sherman joins Grant at New Madrid and they are placed in defensive stance. Wood’s division goes into passive posture inside New Madrid to facilitate taking on replacements to repair the recent battle damage.

In Southwestern Missouri, Confederate general McCulloch appears leading The Army of the West (he's just a one star so its the stack name I guess not actually an army) just southwest of Springfield. It’s a powerful force but Hays' 57th division is behind level 4 forts with hold at all cost orders, so it might be a good fight.

Lyons division is recovered at Leavenworth, so he is given orders to pursue a large stack of irregulars near Laurence Kansas.

Jim