Union vs. AI

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 1 Early April

After the quick fix put out last night by Ace on the AGEOD forum, I decided to do a new campaign and thought I’d do an AAR. There are still some issues in game with an over-aggressive AI that won’t be addressed until future patches, so I’m playing with very low AI difficulty at start to keep the AI from going crazy with deep raids in the opening turns. Once there are enough troops on map to create a somewhat solid front that isn’t so porous, I’ll probably be turning the AI difficulty up to give it some help.

I’ll be playing the April 1861 full campaign as Union. I will play a somewhat conservative game and will try not to take advantage of obvious AI weaknesses or mistakes. This should help keep the game fun and challenging.

For the opening turn there is really not much for the player to do so I issue War bonds and Raise taxes and hit end turn.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 2 Late April

Lots of events fire this turn and the initial batch of Union generals arrive in Washington. I give orders sending most of them out to the west to command the forces that will be appearing soon.

The confederacy offered trade concessions to foreign powers and foreign entry is now at 6. I’m going to be holding off playing any Union diplomacy options until things really look like they need it.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 3 Early May

Both Arkansas and Tennessee Secede from the Union this turn.

An event fired in Texas this turn, Sam Houston remains loyal to the Union and keeps control of Dallas with 2 cavalry regiments. I order the small force to cross the Upper Trinity River and assault Fort Worth. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold Dallas for long, but the more havoc I can cause down in Texas with this little band, the less trouble I’ll have to deal with in Kansas and Missouri early in the war. I gave them at all cost orders since cavalry like to retreat early in a fight even if they are winning sometimes and I want to take as much stuff as I can before confederate forces arrive in the area to start retaking stuff.

The Confederacy Printed paper money this turn.

General Banks appeared in Baltimore this turn. He’s a three star general, but has the nice recruiting officer trait, so instead of using him to fight, I’m sending him north to the level 20 city of Cambridge in the region of Middlesex MA. With a loyalty of 97% in the region to the Union cause, he should be able to boost my per turn recruiting efforts nicely. Currently my per turn city recruitment income is 33, let’s hope he boosts that number by close to 10.

With the Army of the Potomac appearing fixed in the region of Fairfax VA this turn, I spend most of my available manpower on replacement chits. I did however buy all available cavalry regiments first, they’ll be needed to help fight off raids. Also I like to try and put a minimum of 1 cavalry regiment in every division I create if possible, so I’ll be building a lot of cavalry early.

Jim

[loki100]

about the AI - its the detect bonus that tends to send it off on deep raids, not difficulty level per se. Also, helps if you give it 'more time'.

but as you say, its good that you can tweak these settings as the game develops

[Boomer78]

I'm putting the game off until it's patched properly. Until then I will enjoy many a AAR. Thanks, Jim.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 4 Late May

North Carolina Secedes from the Union.

The Confederacy declares a complete cotton embargo and gives territorial concessions and Foreign entry jumps from 7 last turn to 32 this turn, OUCH!!! In response I declare a complete blockade, let’s hope I don’t roll badly or we may see foreign troops on US soil by 1862.

Lincoln gives his first Inaugural address and I gain 1 national morale. Carl Schurz appears in New York with a cavalry regiment and is ordered to Baltimore. Martial Law is declared in Baltimore and a volunteer brigade appears in the region. I also gain 20 conscripts and 5 war supplies for the event.

West Virginia raises 2 cavalry, 1 artillery and 2 militia regiments free of charge in Wheeling in response to an enemy presence in the state. The militia regiments are static but I can move the artillery and cavalry as I wish.

Another small army under Patterson appears north of the Shenandoah Valley. It’s fixed for one turn, next turn I’ll send it to Morgantown.

In Texas Fort Worth was taken without a fight, but the Confederates were closer than I thought and a cavalry regiment appeared near the end of the turn and a battle was fought which we won. The regiment remains in the region however and there is a second cavalry regiment just southeast poised to hit Dallas. I’ve ordered my cavalry back across the river, but there is a chance the Confederate unit will beat me if it was partially across in its last move. Not to mention I will probably have to fight the first regiment again before I’m permitted to start moving.

An event or something occurred in Treasure MT that has no text message to display to players yet. I’ve noticed a lot of these events fire, so whatever it is needs to be addressed in a patch.

I spend all available manpower on more replacement chits.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: loki100

about the AI - its the detect bonus that tends to send it off on deep raids, not difficulty level per se. Also, helps if you give it 'more time'.

but as you say, its good that you can tweak these settings as the game develops

I tried a game with all my settings the same as this game except for ranking, which was maxed out at colonel. The AI abandoned the Shenandoah Valley and headed to Albany. It never tried to return to its own lines.

At the current settings I have now, I’ve seen the AI go to the south shore of Lake Erie, but it then returned to its own lines, after that I had enough troops around that it never tried a deep raid again, so that’s what I’m hoping for at this lower level.

Once I get to the point I did in that game, I’ll crank up ranking and stuff and see what happens. I can ignore a rush to Lake Erie, Albany and the cities along the way are too vital to the Union cause and would force me to destroy the attackers, so I’d like to avoid that route if I can.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 5 Early June

The Union declares a complete blockade and rolls well. Foreign entry drops to 19, not great but it does take the feeling of pressure I felt last turn off a bit.

The Saint Louis Massacre event fired this turn and Nathaniel Lyon now commands a sizable force in the region, though he and about half of the force is fixed. He should be available for orders next turn.

Patterson’s command became unfixed this turn and I order it to Morgantown. Patterson however was detached and sent to the region of Franklin PA to command the small fixed brigade there pending his removal from the game. C Hamilton (2 star general) and two others have taken over command of the army.

Generals Humphreys, Howe and Schurz have all been able to form division shells already and are sent to Alexandria. They will be able to form combat capable divisions next turn when the Army of the Potomac unlocks, so I should be able to move on Manassas right away. Though I guess I should probably wait until the event fires that tells me to head south. Does anyone know if it matters if you take Manassas before the event? Will you then be unable to take it after and thus lose the 10 NM, or does the event simply never fire if Manassas is already taken?

In Texas I’ve paid the price for being aggressive. First the battle in Fort Worth ended in a draw because my fighting capacity crumbled. I assume that means I ran out of either cohesion or ammo. Of course that means I lost the battle in Dallas when my guys showed up and tried to retake the town which had just been lost to the other Confederate cavalry regiment.

As the turn wore on, even more confederate forces started arriving in the area, so there is now an artillery unit in Dallas and an irregular unit south of Dallas in addition to the two cavalry units.

So now my two regiments sit in Fort Worth with no ammo surrounded on three sides by Confederates. I thought about moving away, but I need ammo and the region of Tarrant TX where Fort Worth sits shows it will produce +1 ammo this turn, so hopefully I won’t be attacked. Fort Worth has good stocks of supply, in fact it had over twice what Dallas had so I’m ok for quite a while on that account, ammo is my only real issue.

Jim

[USSLockwood]

Great AAR! Please keep it going, I'm learning a lot from you.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 6 Late June

The military balloons event fired this turn and I placed them with McDowell’s Army of the Potomac.

With the activation of The Army of the Potomac this turn, I spent the turn organizing the forces in Alexandria. In the end I kept the three divisions under Schurz, Humphreys and Howe and also created a new division under Heintzelman and placed those four divisions in the Army. With a combat power of 1166 it’s on par with the combat power of 1198 reported for the Confederate army at Manassas.

I’ve decided not to march south yet until the event fires that mentions that requirement, as I don’t want to risk breaking the event by possibly taking Manassas before the event even occurs.

I was also able to create two other divisions under Miles and Tyler, they shall remain at Alexandria and guard that region. The remaining leaders and troops will go to Washington.

At Baltimore Griffin formed a division this turn and shall remain there as the region defender.

I have two locations I’m going to defend in West Virginia. Morell has formed the 4th division and will defend Wheeling. Mansfield and Keyes shall form divisions at Morgantown and remain under command of the two star general Hamilton. So far only Mansfield has formed a division, so the command penalty for the stack is still 25%.

At Pittsburgh Wallace has formed the 12th division and will defend that strategic location.

Asboth formed the 6th Division at Cincinnati and is ordered to Columbus to take up defense there.

Wood has formed the 7th Division at Cairo and will defend that location.

Hurlbut, McCall and Lyons all formed divisions at Saint Louis this turn, though the first two are only brigade strength. Hurlbut will attack Jefferson City and McCall will attack Rolla. Lyons will make a 13 day march to Springfield and try and take that town, though I doubt he’ll be in very good shape to fight if he finds any decent opposition there.

At Fort Worth my cavalry units are up to 12% ammo. So it looks like it’ll take a good 8-10 turns before they get to 100%. Unfortunately the AI made a poor move and moved its artillery unit into the region without support.

I’ve left my cavalry in defensive posture to try and not take advantage of this AI blunder, but I only have 49% military control in the region so they may end up attacking it this turn anyway. If so I’ll simply move the captured artillery back into Confederate territory next turn to give it back as I don’t like taking advantage of bad play like this.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 7 Early July

The northern papers event fires and I need to get into Manassas no later than the end of the first turn of September or lose 10 NM. Of course now that I want to move south I can’t. The Army of the Shenandoah has moved through Harper’s Ferry and Fredericktown and is threatening Baltimore.

I order the Army of the Potomac to remain in place with hold at all cost orders to hopefully keep the large confederate force at Manassas pinned in place. Tyler and Miles divisions are split. Miles is ordered to march to Washington and will arrive in 6 days, Tyler has orders to board trains for Baltimore and will arrive there in 3 days.

Assuming Miles arrives in time, the combat power of my defense at Baltimore will be 494 behind level 2+ forts with another 178 behind level 6 forts inside the city. Unfortunately due to commander shortages I’ll have a 15-20% command penalty.

The combined defense at Washington will be 443 behind level 3+ forts with another 398 behind level 6 forts inside the city itself. Again commander shortages mean I’ll suffer a 15-20% penalty.

The Marines at Annapolis shall remain in place with regular defense combat orders to act as a speed bump should Johnston try and move through that region. With hold at all cost orders given to all my other forces in the area, I’m hopeful this is enough to stop the Army of the Shenandoah.

Congress authorizes pay for volunteers, and I chose the no pay option. I also increase my rail and river pools.

In West Virginia Confederate General Floyd captures the towns of Fairmount and Union adjacent to Morgantown. His force has a combat power of 188 so any of my stacks in the area should be able to handle him if attacked.

Near Cairo a couple of Confederate gunboat squadrons cause my Kentucky gunboat squadron that was transiting the area to go into retreat posture, though no battle was fought. I order the gunboats into harbor at Cairo and then dispatch Foote’s gunboats from Saint Louis to transit the river zones around Cairo in attack posture hoping to catch the offending vessels. Foote’s plotted orders will see him end his move in Cairo by day 9.

In Missouri all three towns were taken without incident and my forces revert to defensive posture there.

In Texas the AI has redeemed itself and has consolidated both its cavalry regiments with the artillery unit in the same region as my forces. With ammo only at 25% I stick around in defensive posture, though I lost one point of MC this turn and am down to 48%, so eventually I will be forced to attack by the game engine. Anyone know when that will happen? It would be nice to know so I can bug out when that level gets close.

I build 24 militia regiments this turn.

Jim

[Gilmer]

GREAT!! I've been waiting for someone to start an AAR.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 8 Late July

Grrrrr, well the Army of the Shenandoah appears to be on a raid heading for Albany… It completely bypassed all my units and made it as far north as Philadelphia, but did not attack anything. I have 276 combat strength behind level 6 forts in the city, so it’s a toss-up whether or not an attack will succeed, though I think the 4 militia regiments under construction there may actually force a penalty on me if combat occurs.

The fact the invading army made no attacks means not only did the AI make a crazy decision to charge north with no regard to supply lines, it did it with an army that was not even activated for the turn. It passed through York, Lancaster, West Chester and finally Philadelphia, all of which had garrisons in the cities as it marched through, yet none of them was attacked.

I’ve decided to totally ignore the invaders for this turn in hopes the fact they are low on supply (green bar looks to be about 70% full) at turn start might prompt the AI to try and get back to his own lines during this turns moves. It is a risk as losing Philadelphia would of course necessitate that I then react and totally destroy the invading army, a loss of about 1/3rd of the Confederate combat power in the East. I doubt the AI could recover from such a loss very quickly if at all.

The Confederate army at Manassas moved southeast to Falmouth. I debated running in to grab Manassas, but I want my big army in perfect shape next turn if I need to rail it north to Philadelphia. Also I would prefer to actually have to fight to get Manassas, taking it on the cheap feels like taking advantage of the AI.

At Cairo it turns out my move to try and intercept the Confederate gunboats with Foote was a huge mistake. I hadn’t noticed some of the river areas are actually Kentucky territory so I inadvertently violated their neutrality. The resulting event appears to have crashed Union loyalty in all Kentucky regions. I’m going to be very careful not to violate their territory any more as they may actually secede if I do. I have no idea if that can actually happen but it makes sense since they just issued an ultimatum via this event. Actually the way the event is worded it sounds like secession, but Kentucky is still shaded over indicating neutrality.

In Texas Fort Worth spawned a Union garrison regiment this turn and the resulting increase in combat power is enough to begin to turn MC back in my favor. Union MC is up to 54% now, also the ammo included with the infantry regiment brought the total ammo for the stack to over 50% now. So I now have enough ammo for at least one good fight if attacked. Supplies are down to 42 though, so I’m going to have to think about leaving soon if I want to leave enough supply behind to keep the garrison alive for a good while.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 9 Early August

An “unknown event type 27” occurred this turn, it’s the first event in my event list. Clicking the tiny icon next to the message text doesn’t jump to any location, so I have no clue what it could be.

Congress enacts the first income tax law and passes the confiscation act. Between the two events I gain $400. Flush with cash and volunteers, I build 38 Militia and 6 cavalry regiments this turn. With the earlier build of 24 militia regiments a few turns ago, I should have enough troops to flesh out my divisions now, so next I’ll be building some artillery and river combat ships as future resources allow.

I increase rail and river pools again this turn. With $1000 already sitting in the pool, I forgo taxes and bonds even though the events are in the ledger again. Manpower is my current choke-point so I’ll let that determine if I need to draw on those money events again this year.

Fremont arrives in Saint Louis this turn and I decide to post him in Madison WI in charge of a militia garrison. He’s a really bad leader and I don’t want to give him any more seniority than he already has by getting him into early combats. After some better leaders arrive on map and earn seniority over him, I’ll bring him back down south and give him command of some strategic backwater.

I’ve had shields sitting in New York in charge of a small division waiting on some fleet units to repair. This turn he has boarded transports and will head to Fort Pickens in Florida to take command of the forts defense. I’m sending two transport ships so they can build a depot at the fort when they arrive. The blockade fleet unit shall join the units in the Gulf blockade box after it finishes this escort mission. With his fort defender trait and the added strength of his division, Fort Pickens should prove very difficult to take with anything less than a full division or two.

Philadelphia remains under siege by Johnston who made no attack. The militia units inside completed training so now I have a combat power of 359 in the city behind the level 6 forts. Johnston has a combat power of 694, but his supplies are now below 50%. If he doesn’t leave this turn or take the city his supplies are going to dry up. I decided to leave him alone for one more turn to see if the AI moves back to his own lines.

Near Manassas the large confederate force under Beauregard left Falmouth and moved north to Leesburg. This has me nervous that this army too will soon go raiding to the north, so I order McDowell’s force under full assault orders to move to Manassas and then back to Alexandria. If Beauregard heads north I’ll want to give chase right away next turn by rail, so I need to grab Manassas now as this is probably my last chance to get it before mid September if I end up chasing around raiding armies in the north.

It would be nice if Beauregard moves to Manassas instead and a fight ensues, though that is probably hoping for too much.

A battle occurred at Morgantown when Confederate general Zollicoffer attacked my two division force of 13,600 men with his single division force of 4500 men. The union easily won this fight though no NM was gained for it.

At Cairo some Confederate units tried to sail past my guns and were bombarded. A cavalry unit suffered 54 hits and a militia unit was also hit and suffered 15 hits. Oddly there are some Confederate fortress batteries aboard ship in Cape Girardeau, I have no idea where these are coming from nor where the AI is trying to send them.

I would be very impressed if they landed across the river from Cairo at Charleston to set up an interdiction battery, but given where the cavalry unit ended its move along the river to the north, I suspect the AI is sending it that way as well.

I already have Foote’s fleet sitting in the river in defensive stance blockading to help prevent Confederate land moves into Cairo. I decide not to switch him to attack mode to not take advantage of the AI. Also I’d love to see those guns land in Charleston, so I don’t want to mess with their move so I can see just what the AI is up to.

In Texas Confederate general Price arrived with his small division and a battle was fought at Fort Worth which ended in stalemate. With all my ammo expended again and far too many confederate forces in the region, I order my two cavalry regiments northwest with evasion orders to Belknap via a circuitous route through all the small towns up there. Hopefully I can capture a town or two with some ammo and no defenders in it.

Jim

Edit: After posting this last turns AAR, I’ve been mulling over the decision to go for Manassas. I’m starting to get a creeping feeling that Beauregard may simply make a dash at Washington. While I have some strength there, by far it is the worst stack I have in the area in terms of command issues.

So I’ll put it out there, should I forgo the run on Manassas and move back to Washington to defend against a rush by Beauregard behind me through Montgomery MD?

[Rekm41]

I have noticed some unnamed events as well and have been meaning to post a question about them. Great AAR keep up the good work.

[elmo3]

Great AAR Jim. I say go for Manassas. Make them react to you, not the other way around! [:)]

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 10 Late August

I’m glad I was talked out of heading to Washington. Beauregard tries to march back to Falmouth through Manassas and a large battle occurs. Unfortunately some weird battle logic I’ve mentioned in the forums before rears its head and the garrison units inside the city are fought and destroyed before the army outside is engaged.

The Battle ends in stalemate though the Union army suffers the worse of it. At turn end my combat power is about half what it is at full strength, the Confederate army that ended the move in Falmouth is almost in perfect condition with over 1000 combat power. Since the Depot got destroyed in Manassas, I decide there is no reason to stick around and order my army back to Alexandria.

At Philadelphia Johnston again made no move nor any attacks. His supply bar is now all but gone so he is going to start taking supply hits this turn. I decide to leave him unmolested yet again in hopes he returns to his own lines.

At Cairo the mysterious fortress guns disappear, I have no idea where they went. The Confederate troops I saw in Charleston last turn are marching north towards Saint Louis, so I’m forced to send Foote’s fleet north along the river and then back down to Cairo to try and prevent them crossing into IL.

More worrying is the fact Confederate general McCulloch appeared in Missouri with a large division sized force this turn and beat up on a small militia brigade transiting to Jefferson City. His force with a power of 241 combined with the force with a power of 131 coming from Charleston should be more than enough to take out my 2 star general Milroy and the militia force he commands with a power of 133.

I’ve left him outside for the screenshot to show what’s happening, but I’ve decided to move him into the city behind its level 5 forts. Combined with the garrison troops the combat power of the force is now 266, and I have zero command penalty, so the city should be much tougher for McCulloch to take even if he does combine with the troops from the south for his attack.

In Texas my cavalry captured two of the three small towns it moved through, but they burned all the supplies and ammo… I did not have them set to do that so it appears cavalry are treated as pillagers in game. I have them plotted to move north to friendly territory at Fort Arbuckle. With 57 supplies and 6 ammo on hand my cavalry should be in good shape once they reach it in 14 days.

Ambrose Burnside appears in Annapolis and he has the recruiting officer trait. He boards the USS Seminole and is sent to Boston to begin recruiting efforts. So far with McClernand in Chicago and Banks in Cambridge my per turn conscript income is 41. Not a huge boost from the 33-34 it started at, but it does equal about 1 militia regiment per turn which equals 12 two element brigades a year. So adding Burnside should bring it up to about 18 extra two element brigades a year. That’s enough to form up two divisions.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 11 Early September

Ironclads become available for production this turn. At Norfolk Confederate general Johnson and his brigade make the first attempt to take the empty port city. 2 garrison units are rolled and the battle ends in stalemate. Hopefully the AI can take it this turn.

At Philadelphia Johnston does not move or attack and ironically now that he is totally out of supplies, his combat value went up from 694 to 709... replacements maybe? He does have 95% MC in the region so maybe that is what occurred though it seems very illogical. I’ll continue to leave him alone in hopes he returns home.

The big news for the turn is Beauregard pursues the Army of the Potomac to Alexandria and another large battle ensues. This time the Union wins it, and I’m guessing it’s probably due to our total superiority in artillery 108 guns to 24 guns. The Union wins 2 NM for the victory. I thought about counter-pursuing, but our listed CV of 500 is far outmatched by Beauregard’s 914.

All the militia regiments built a few turns back become active, but more than half of them are hemmed in northeast of New York due to Johnston’s presence at Philadelphia. I’ll consolidate them all at New York until he leaves or I decide to kill him.

At Cairo Halleck arrives to take command. He gets busy training the 16 or so militia brigades I have there using his training officer trait. By spring of 1862 I should have a lot of first line infantry units trained and ready to head south down the Mississippi under Grant’s command.

McCulloch leaves Missouri without attacking Saint Louis and marches to the southwest and ends his move at Fort Wayne in Indian Territory. There are still two leaderless Confederate brigades in open country. One southwest of Rolla the other southeast of Rolla. Milroy leaves the walls of Saint Louis and takes up defense outside the town again.

With the two Texas cavalry units arriving at Fort Arbuckle, Texas is abandoned. Fort Worth still has its garrison unit inside the fort, but with 0% ammo on hand it’ll fall as soon as it’s assaulted. The two Confederate cavalry regiments are still outside the fort behind level 3+ forts so they may just starve the garrison out. 28 supplies are left and the garrison uses 2 per turn.

Shields arrives at Fort Pickens and takes up the defense. There is now a CV of 449 behind level 8 forts. The two transport ships begin constructing the depot and the blockade fleet heads to the gulf blockade box. At this point it will take a major effort for the Confederates to take the fort. With the new depot, it is also going to be a great staging point to launch land invasions into the Confederate underbelly or support naval landings in Louisiana.

Jim

[Rekm41]

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

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 12 Late September

General Grant appears in Cairo this turn, he’ll join Halleck’s stack and wait for some militia brigades to be trained before he goes on offensive. He also needs some artillery and cavalry, so I’ll be seeing to it some get sent to Cairo before offensive ops begin.

Beauregard returned to Leesburg through Manassas and retook the town. I hope this doesn’t cost me 10 NM, I’ve ordered McDowell to Manassas and then back to Alexandria in a repeat of the move he made a few turns ago. It’s an 11 day round trip and McDowell isn’t activated this time. Also His stack has only recovered somewhat from the recent fighting and his CV is only 879 to Beauregard’s CV of 1098.

With the recent militia builds completing their training, the stack defending Washington now has a CV of 537, so I feel much better about any direct assaults on Washington Beauregard might try than I did the last time.

At Philadelphia Johnston’s force again stuck around, but this time he finally caused some hits (5) to my garrison stack inside the city. He lost half his CV to supply hits, and now has a CV of 335. I doubt he’ll live much longer. If he doesn’t move away this next turn I’ll send down the militia stack from New York to try and push him back south before he totally disappears.

I spent some time looking over the map and found I needed to build just a few more militia units out west. I built 4 militia regiments in NM and 2 militia regiments in Golden City CO. There’s a gold mine in Golden city and the region was undefended. NM troops are almost all cavalry, so I wanted some infantry to garrison some of the empty cities around Santa Fe. I also built nine 10lb parrot artillery batteries in various states.

Jim