Restoring the Union - Burns (USA) vs. Pelette (CSA)

[Jim D Burns]

Game Setup

Our house rules:

Single regiment sized raiders (except partisans they can operate anywhere) in Border States only (TX, KS, MO, KY, WV, MD, DE and the far west), unless a leader is present in the stack then no limit to the size of the raiding stack. No raiding at all allowed in non-border states without a leader present. Controlling a city (your flag is flying there) within a state allows non-leader single regiment sized raids to be conducted.

All units within a single region, raiders or not, in regions north and west of the Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas/Texas line are limited to a max size of 3 elements.

If a region north and west of the Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas/Texas line contains a supply depot, or both a leader and a supply wagon are present, no stacking limits apply. A supply wagon or leader alone is not enough to exempt units from the stacking rule, they must both be present.

Fixed units are exempted from this rule, but must comply as soon as they become unfixed. Off-map boxes also are exempt from this rule.


In my last game I had some theories about doing an early maximum effort in industry builds for the Union to try and keep my war supply stockpiles so high that a shipping box stuffed with transports would see most of the income arrive as money. Well since then I think a new event has been added to the game that automatically reduces up to 50 war supplies per turn if your stockpiles are too high. This utterly negates any advantage to my idea, so I will not be doing any industrial builds at all this game except for arsenals which each bring in 2 money making their investment worth it due to the fact they pay for themselves rather quickly and will net you a reasonable profit over the course of the game.

Instead I’m going to set my goals for 1861 to try and achieve three main things from a production standpoint. Build all available 6lb artillery pieces, build all available naval transports and send 40 of them to the shipping box and finally I want to try and build the entire militia pools for each state once. In order to achieve this, my first big expenditure has to be on the first volunteer callup.

I need to spend the maximum amount of $2.00 per conscript, which should net me 750 conscripts if I have enough cash on hand the turn I select it in the ledger. In the past I’ve played it and not had the $1,500.00 saved beforehand and I did not see 750 conscripts appear, so I think it is important to save the money first before you play the option. It may be possible you will eventually get the conscripts if you save money after playing the ledger option, but I’ve not tested it and want to play things safe in a PBEM game, so I’ll be conservative with my money until I can play the first callup.

Once I have the conscripts paid for my next immediate goal will be to pay for the transports. The sooner I get them into the shipping box, the more money they will bring in over the course of the game.

The 6lbers goal is simply due to the fact I read somewhere on the forums that they will eventually auto-upgrade to 12lbers. If true it’s a nice savings in cost and the fact they are relatively cheap means they won’t compete with resources needed for my transport builds.

As a possible 4th goal I’d also like to try and build all available cavalry in some of the border states. IA, IL, OH, WV and PA all raise spontaneous regiments when raided (WV cavalry regiments raised this way are PA units) and if the entire cavalry pool is already on map, these spontaneous cavalry will increase the number of regiments you would normally see for their states in game. Given my opponents propensity for raiding however I doubt I can achieve this goal before he has already raided the states in question and spawned those troops I mention. But if I see a chance I may be building a lot of cavalry early as well.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 1 Early April

Not a lot going on. I play all money options in the ledger which will bring in $1,200.00 next turn. I also play the 1 draft and 4 requisition cards available to me.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 2 Late April

Lots of events fire this turn and my initial batch of Generals arrive in Washington. I give orders to send many of them out west.

The draft card attempt played last turn failed, so I try again this turn.

In Dallas the Sam Houston event fires and 2 cavalry regiments appear in Dallas. I seem to get this event a lot in games I guess the percentage chance of it firing has been increased from AACW1, as I don’t remember seeing it very often in the past.

The CSA plays a demonstration card at Philadelphia and I play counter-intelligence to try and remove it.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 3 Early May

General Banks arrives on map and is ordered to Boston to begin recruitment efforts due to his recruiting officer trait.

Arkansas and Tennessee both secede this turn.

General Schurz arrives in NY and is ordered to Baltimore to take command of the regions defense.

Fort Sumter falls this turn.

4 CSA demonstration cards are played this turn, I only have 2 counter-Intel cards so play them on two of the 4.

The main Union army arrives on map and I spend all available conscripts on replacement chits.

Near Dallas two CSA stacks appear close by, I’ve set my cavalry to hold at all cost.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 4 Late May

The Saint Louis Massacre event fires this turn and Lyons appears with his force. The Martial Law in Maryland event spawns an infantry brigade in Baltimore. Admiral Dahlgren and his Monitor appear via even in New York.

North Carolina secedes from the Union this turn.

Patterson’s army appears in the region of Allegany, it is fixed for one turn.

WV raises militia and cavalry regiments in response to a CSA presence in the state.

At Dallas two CSA cavalry regiments moved into the region but no battle occurred. Intel shows Phifer’s brigade is under construction at Tyler just to the east. It appears my opponent wants to bring a larger force in to take the city. I’ll hold as long as possible before I flee north with the cavalry once it appears the brigade is finished and heading my way.

In a twist of bad luck, none of the volunteer brigades that randomly spawn early in game appear in Cincinnati, so McClellan is unable to use these opening turns to train any units (he’s fixed in place). I’ve begun building some militia regiments there to give him someone to train. Normally I’d buy more replacement chits, but I don’t like wasting his training trait for these opening turns.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 5 Early June

Lincoln’s Inaugural address event fires and I gain 1 NM.

The auto-event I discussed earlier about stockpiling too many war supplies fires and I lose some war supply, though I have no idea how much for sure I lost. A mouse-over of the war supplies icon at the top of the page says I lost 20 due to events or strategic decisions, so I assume I probably lost all 20 being reported to the event this turn.

Iron works produce 8 war supplies, so in order to cancel the full effects (-50 per turn when stocks are really high) of this automated event, I would have to build another 7 Iron works before I could count on a net profit for any future builds after that in game from the industrialization expenditures.

One Iron works building costs 100 money and 5 war supplies to build, so I would need to spend almost half a year’s worth of money producing ledger events before I was in the green on industrialization builds. I just can’t see the benefit of the huge expenditure just to get past these auto-events penalties, so I won’t be doing any builds other than the few arsenals that become available to build in 1862 (I build these for their money income).

I build a few militia regiments at various locations to use to merge with on map lone militia that are starting to appear. I also build a flatboat in Leavenworth to use later for building a depot there when it becomes active. The rest of my conscripts go to buying more replacement chits.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 6 Late June

Military balloons event fires and I get a balloon unit at Alexandria. I place it with the army stack there.

The auto-event fires again this turn and it looks like I lost 50 war supplies according to the mouse-over.

In Kansas cavalry and militia regiments are raised due to CSA troops in the state.

In southern Kansas I moved a cavalry regiment to both Fort Scott and Fort Baxter. The CSA also arrived with cavalry at these locations. The CSA took Fort Scott without a fight before my cavalry arrived and no battle was fought even though my cavalry arrived in the region by day 8 or 9 of the turn. My other cavalry regiment beat the CSA to Fort Scott and a battle ensued when the CSA cavalry arrived. Though I took fewer losses, sheer weight of numbers carried the day and my regiment retreated to the region north at Fort Baxter.

Both my cavalry regiments now have orders to withdraw to Lawrence Kansas where I’ll be consolidating all my forces in the area under Sumner’s command.

In Missouri Howe arrived at Jefferson City and took the capital without a fight. For some reason Humphrey’s command which had orders to rail towards Rolla and was set to arrive during the last move, stopped its progress in the adjacent region of Union MO. Humphrey’s command will march to Rolla this turn and should take the city. Lyons remains in Saint Louis commanding the defense there.

At Cairo Griffin takes command of the IL Volunteer brigade and is ordered across the Mississippi to assault Charleston. He should arrive in 5 days and I don’t anticipate any problems.

Admiral Farragut takes up blockade duties in Hampton Roads this turn blockading the port at Norfolk.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 7 Early July

I lose 35 War supplies to the automated event. With 780 stockpiled, it now appears the amount you lose is randomized somewhat, as I have more saved up this turn than I did last turn and I lost 50 in that turn.

The Great Comet event fires and I lose 1 NM.

Pay for Volunteers becomes available this turn. With 1900 money saved I have enough saved to select the $2.00 level right away and do so.

Northern Papers push for an offensive, I will be ignoring this event and will take the 10 NM hit in order to allow McClellan to get promoted to three stars.

At Saint Louis, Cairo and Cincinnati I order redoubts to be built via cards this turn.

My Flatboat is completed at Leavenworth KS and I order a depot constructed.

Rolla is captured without incident this turn and I order the rail line to be repaired. The CSA also destroyed the depot at Rolla when they fled.

Near Cairo Griffin took Charleston without incident and I order him into defensive posture there.

In WV Floyd’s command attacked the city and destroyed two militia regiments I had there. No NM is lost due to the defeat.

At Fredericktown reinforcements arrive and Milroy takes command of my stack there. I order a supply wagon burned to construct a depot. I now have a respectable 484 CV in the region and should be able to give Johnston’s Army of the Shenandoah a tough time should he get adventurous and try to take the town.

At Dallas CSA military control has gone up to 78% in the region due to more CSA units reinforcing his cavalry he had there. This is going to force me to attack him if I stay so I order my force to evade and start to flee to the northwest.

A small fleet arrives at Fort Pickens with some reinforcements. I order the two transport units to build a depot there and the blockade fleet heads out to the Gulf Blockade box.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 8 Late July

For some odd reason the depot did not get constructed at Fredericktown. I put the supply wagon which was alone in its own stack into Milroy’s stack and order him to build a depot.

There must be some randomization in the volunteer ledger event code, as I only received 650 conscripts this turn. That or the new patch changed things, because in the past vs. the AI I’ve seen as many as 750 conscripts.

OK after writing the above I found the problem. The Expiration of the First Term event fired this turn and I lost 100 conscripts… ouch!

With the recent rash of CSA demonstration cards played (I perhaps was able to stop half of the ones he played), many of my regions are hurting loyalty wise, so I play all 10 Suspend Habeas Corpus cards in regions with very low loyalties.

At Dallas my cavalry made it out of Dallas and reached Jacksboro without incident by evading two possible battles. Dallas itself spawned a defensive militia unit, but I doubt it’s strong enough to hold as Phifer’s brigade arrived to bolster the CSA and the CSA now has 149 CV in the region.

In Kansas I moved three cavalry regiments to Mound city expecting a fight, but the CSA sat on their recently captured forts. I left 1 cavalry regiment at Mound City and ordered the other two to Fort Belmont. I then ordered the partially repaired damaged cavalry regiment at Leavenworth south to join the one at mound city.

In the east I’m a bit worried about the growth of Johnston’s Army of the Shenandoah at Strasburg. Last turn it reported a CV of about 600. In one turn it doubled to a CV of 1200+ this turn. I suspect my opponent created this large force at Strasburg in an attempt to shield it from my view, so I believe he plans an early war offensive either in the east or into WV. Unfortunately locked units and a lack of conscripts up till now mean I have nothing but what you see in the screenshot to oppose him.

I will be spamming militia builds like crazy in the east until our forces reach near parity. This turn I built 10 militia at Cairo and 8 at Washington DC. The Cairo builds are necessary to give me enough strength there to prevent that critical location from falling to a possible early strike there by the CSA. From now on all future builds will be in the east until my forces are fleshed out there.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 9 Early August

Congress enacts the first income tax law and also the confiscation act. The two events bring in a combined total of $400 money and 5 NM.

Camp Dick Robinson event fires and the presence of the units spawned by this event appear to have caused Kentucky to Secede (possible bug? I've never seen this happen before unless someone intentionally violates neutrality). Only 5 cities are in Union hands, Louisville, Harodsburg, Lexington, Clarksburg and Prestonburg. Everything else is in Southern hands and loyalty throughout the state crashes severely, I barley have any loyalty in the regions I control with a few regions around Louisville and Lexington at 22%-24%, the rest are at 0%.

I choose to raise war bonds and taxes via the ledger this turn.

With the large influx of cash this turn I take advantage and decide to go ahead and build out the entire force pool of ocean going transport ships. 40 units are built, 22 in NY and 18 in Boston. In a few turns these units will go to the shipping box and my income of money and war supply should see a significant increase.

I also build about 2/3rds of the available PA militia regiments before cash runs out.

In PA CSA General Johnson leads a cavalry brigade on a raid to the region of Washington PA. With his supplies half gone I expect he will probably head back to his own lines pretty quickly. I do send 2 cavalry regiments to Allegheny to protect the supply stocks, in case he intends to try and destroy the defending militia there and burn the supply.

In Kentucky I order Wood and 6 brigades of mostly militia to converge on Munfordville to take that city. I also order 2 leaderless brigades to cross the river from Evansville to take Madisonville. These two cities should act as focus points to any adventurous moves north by the CSA, so grabbing them as fast as possible is worth the risk of venturing forward without knowing what I may face.

It would have been nice to go after Paducah as well, but I simply lack enough troops at Cairo right now. The few troops I can spare (2 small militia brigades) are sent south to Reinforce Griffin’s position at Charleston. 10 regiments of IL militia are set to complete training at Cairo next turn, so I felt reducing my strength this turn was safe.

General Fremont appears in Saint Louis and he creates the Western Command (Army). Lyons small force is placed under his command and they remain on defense in the region. No other moves are made in MO.

In Kansas the CSA burned the two stockades he recently captured. My forces remain on defense with no moves being made there either.

Further south in the Indian Territory, the CSA beat my Dallas cavalry regiments to Fort Arbuckle (my units ended there move one region short) and took it without a fight. I order the two regiments to Fort Cobb instead. With a 13 day move, chances are the south can beat me to that fort as well, but at least I’ll be able to fight for the fort before he can burn it if we both end our moves there this turn.

In NM I have a real dilemma developing. My units at Fort Craig are fixed for another 6 turns. The problem is they are burning 14 supplies per turn and only have 78 supplies left on hand. 14 x 6 = 84 supply, so by the time they unlock they will be completely out of supply and will already have started dying off. If weather is bad when they unlock they will have no hope of reaching Santa Fe, so their only option will be to build a depot at Fort Craig and hope it can pull enough supply there in time to save them.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 10 Late August

Hooker arrives in Alexandria this turn and I send him too Harrisburg PA to take command there.

Burnside arrives in Annapolis this turn and goes to Cambridge MA to begin recruiting efforts there.

Halleck arrives in Saint Louis and goes to Cairo to take command and begin training up militia there.

In the East Johnston’s large army appears to be on the move along with Jackson. If I had to guess he’s setting up for a strike via rail move on Morgantown (all he needs do is to change MC in Susquehanna MD and he owns the rail), so I’ve ordered a cavalry regiment down from Allegheny PA to try and set up to cut the rail in Allegany MD. With evade and defend/retreat orders I’m hoping he can slip past any CSA patrols.

Things didn’t go to well in KY. My units arrived at Munfordville but waited far too long before attacking (we are playing very long delay which I forgot about). By the time the battle got underway lots of CSA troops had arrived in the region and the battle that raged for 4 rounds saw CSA infantry brigades enter the fray on the 4th round forcing a draw. Had my guys got busy even one day sooner they would have easily repulsed the cavalry only force that they fought for the first three rounds.

Luckily I have plenty of force in the region to rail into Louisville to bolster the defense there. In addition 2 of my brigades started the turn in the region of Munfordville still, so the CSA won’t be allowed to advance until they push them out. I’ve given them passive orders and evasion and ordered them to try and fall back to Louisville.

The CSA moved a large 2 brigade force into Paducah, obviously he intends to fortify this region heavily, so I’ll be looking to try and force the issue if possible before he can solidify the position too much.

MO and KY remain on defense, no changes there.

At Fort Cobb the CSA was able to capture the stockade before my cavalry arrived, so no battle will be fought there. I order my cavalry to continue north to Fort Zarah, they should arrive in 14 days.

In the Western AZ off-map box the 4th Cavalry regiment arrives in the region but is unable to capture the Pima Villages town there. I order an infantry regiment south to take the town, it should arrive in 2 turns.

I build a mounted volunteer brigade in Santa Fe NM. I build 4 ranger regiments in Lawrence KS (I goofed here and forgot about our house rules on stacking). It was late, I was tired and I had spent the turn zoomed out placing tons of militia regiments over and over into the same regions, and simply continued the pattern by accident out west. I will comply with stacking limits ASAP once they complete building.

I build 68 militia regiments this turn, enough for 34 - 2 element brigades. With the completion of these builds, that empties my available conscript pools from the earlier callup. So until the next callup I won’t be increasing my overall army size by much.

Jim

[Q-Ball]

That is an interesting strategy building all the Militia Brigades....can you share your reasoning around that?

Militia does not fight well, particularly on offensive, so you are more or less committed to a defensive posture doing that, I think

As Union, you can train those to regulars, but it will take you into 1862 for that many

Good AAR so far

[Jim D Burns]

The Union really has no choice. And if you look at the available force pools, it is by design I think that the Union is supposed to build pretty much an all militia army early in game. If I were to build regular troops, I’d basically stay even with the South and not gain much of a numerical advantage. Historically the Union enjoyed about a 2-1 advantage from the outset, getting there in game is probably not possible, but you want to get ahead far enough that your offensive options are many.

The production in game is set up so the Union and South are almost equal in strength for much of the early war. If the Union hopes to ever gain a numerical advantage over the South it has to focus almost entirely on militia builds for the first couple of years in game.

The Union will eventually have 3 training officers on map, which means I’ll be able to convert a large percentage of these militia to regulars by the end of 1862. Enough that offensive operations will be more than doable, just not on a map-wide basis. Many of my troops will be defensive throughout 1862, but by 1863 I should have a very large and powerful trained army with a sizable numerical advantage over the South.

By 1863 I will have to switch most of my new production to regular troops, as time will be of the essence and taking time to train new builds will no longer be desirable. But by then I should hopefully have about a 3-2 advantage or better in numbers and will have started to hurt the South’s production abilities so keeping my forces larger won’t be as difficult.

If you look at the victory point screen, on the bottom right they list the combat power of your opponent as a percentage to your total combat power on map. Right now the CSA is 80% compared to me (will probably drop lower once the militia is finished building), so this first big batch put me ahead by at least 20%. That percentage will go even higher once my training officers start to convert 6 regiments per turn to regulars.

So by mid to late 1862 I should have a considerable enough advantage that going on the offensive even if many of my regiments are still militia will see good successes.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 11 Early September

General Porter arrives in Cincinnati this turn and takes command of the troops there. I order McClellan to strategically move to Alexandria VA in anticipation of his promotion via event which should occur in the next few turns. He’ll create the Army of the Potomac there and replace McDowell’s Army of Northern Virginia, which will move to Pittsburgh.

The Union and Irish brigades both form in NY. The small one regiment Union brigade heads to Warren PA to act as depot guard there until a militia unit becomes available to take its place.

I order Meagher and his large elite Irish brigade along with the marines and a militia unit to board ships and head for Hampton Roads with distant unload orders for the region of James City VA to help Butler’s Army of the James (formed this turn) to capture the town of Hampton Roads in that region. With the large Southern armies currently demonstrating in the WV mountains, I anticipate my opponent has probably left the back door to Richmond lightly guarded, so I will try an early strike up the peninsula to try and take and hold Williamsburg as my first real offensive of the war.

If my opponent isn’t careful I will possibly be able to get roughly 1000 AV onto the peninsula by ships in the next month or two as all the recent militia builds start to come online. While threatening WV may be fun for him, I think the loss of 2 regions along the peninsula without a real fight is a huge strategic oversight on his part, as far as I can tell he’s left it totally undefended except for a garrison unit at Williamsburg.

I would gladly give up the entire state of WV if I end up in a solid defensive position just 2 regions from Richmond before the end of 1861. And with winter right around the corner, there’s a chance he may get his large armies trapped behind the mountains in WV all winter leaving a possible early strike on Richmond itself a very real possibility.

The other nice part about possibly getting Williamsburg is it allows my ships to sail up the York estuary on the north side of the peninsula, allowing me to get supplies and troops in via the Chesapeake Bay without needing to run his guns at Norfolk.

In WV my opponent moved Johnston’s army to Allegany MD, the very region my cavalry regiment moved to, so the way is open for him to bypass my cavalry regiment and make a move into Morgantown. No battle was fought, so I give my cavalry orders to cut the rail and move southwest to Pendleton WV.

As you can see in the screenshot, my opponent has focused a lot of his power in WV (at least half his strength in the east if not more I’d say). If mud hits trapping his units up here, I think he has really left himself open in the east. I won’t be sending much more stuff to defend here than you see, my tactic is to hopefully trap him in the state and take advantage of any bad weather to give me an opening for a winter strike on Richmond. Pittsburgh of course will get the Lion’s share of anything I do send to the region, as it appears that is his ultimate goal due to the pattern of rail cuts emerging around that city. I’ll be building up an army there to both stop its loss and threaten to cut off from behind any moves he may make into Ohio.

With his big army moving into Allegany and all the nearby CSA cavalry units apparently trying to surround the town, it’s obvious he is going to attack Morgantown, so I order the depot and rail to be destroyed. I have no real hope of holding the town and if mud does hit I don’t want him being able to stockpile supplies for the upcoming winter without first having to burn one of his wagons. I thought about simply leaving but with a river and fort level of 3 going for me in a mountain region, I may at least be able to cause him some damage. I also want to burn some of his on hand supplies to help use up the stockpile of 357/47 he is about to capture.

I am worried about possibly being surrounded and being forced to retreat south or destroyed outright, so I order Mansfield to rail to Union PA (1 day move so I should regain control before a fight at Morgantown) to chase away the CSA cavalry there. Hurlbut and Hooker are both ordered into the trenches at Pittsburgh.

In KY something really weird happened. Somehow Polk’s army was allowed to move north past my two brigades at Munfordville and those brigades remained at Munfordville even though their move order last turn was a 15 day move order to Louisville. This really puzzles me, the only thing I can think of is their evade orders somehow spent all their movement points in the region at Munfordville. But how Polk was allowed to move north past them without first having to fight them has me stumped.

Keyes and Polk fought a 4 round battle outside Louisville and Keyes lost, though no NM was lost. Woods was inside the city of Louisville so he is ordered outside and given evade orders to try and cross the river to Madison. I would have preferred to send him east to Harodsburg but that was a 2 turn move. Madison is the only region he can reach in a single turn. I split my river fleet near Cairo into two fleets and order one to each region adjacent to Louisville to try and block any pursuers from crossing the river.

My 2 leaderless brigades took Madisonville and are now just 2 regions away from Bowling Green. The only reason I didn’t order them south to cut the rail there this turn is due to mud (26 day move).

As I suspected the CSA has started to build a redoubt at Paducah by playing a region card. It will be complete in 5 turns, so I need to get a force together before then to try and take it.

In Kansas my ranger units are built and are given orders to move west to garrison the stockades of Fort Kearny and Fort Riley (2 ranger units at each). The fact the stockades change hands out west without a fight is really annoying, there should be a 100% chance at least a small 20-40 man garrison unit appears or something. That or create a small garrison unit we can build to use ourselves. As it is I will use rangers and later partisans when they appear to garrison what few stockades I have left. I don’t think one garrison unit has appeared to defend any of the 8-10 stockades he has already taken, garrison die rolls appear to be going decisively against me this game.

At Fort Zarah my two Dallas cavalry units are ordered east to Fort Riley to take up the defense and recover cohesion there. I would have kept them at Fort Zarah, but there are simply too many CSA ranger units around them and I can see at least 2 stacks of cavalry chasing them a bit further south. I don’t want to get them isolated and destroyed so far away from my other forces in Kansas. Once I can get enough cavalry built to at least match all the CSA stuff I’ll venture back out into the wastes, but for now I want to keep everything close together around Lawrence, though I will use my rangers to try and keep his rangers from taking the whole west if possible.

In CO I build 2 militia regiments in Colorado City and order the Colorado Mounted Volunteers unit to Fort Lyon.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 12 Late September

On the peninsula Hampton Roads was taken without a fight. Meagher joins Butler’s Army of the James and it has orders to assault Williamsburg, it will arrive in 10 days. With a respectable combat power of 392 and no command penalties, I think he’d need a minimum of two well lead combat brigades to stop Butler from capturing Williamsburg.

McClellan arrives at Alexandria and he gets his own stack in the region so he can begin training militia.

In WV Johnston arrived in the region around Morgantown on day 10, but no battle was fought. Either our long delay setting prevented a battle from occurring, or perhaps he intentionally set Johnston to defend with evade orders to prevent attacking across the river. No military control shifted to the CSA, so I assume the second explanation is more likely as his army is far larger than mine and I assume an offensive posture would have given him some control in the region over the 5 days he was present. This turn he won’t have to pay a river penalty so I assume my losses will be higher.

For some reason the destroy depot order did not get executed and the depot remains. I order McCall to again try and destroy the depot. I have McCall's stack selected, so the red regions are regions he may not move to due to control issues.

North of Morgantown Mansfield arrived in the region on day 1, but no battle is fought and the CSA cavalry remains in the region with me. I do maintain MC with 81%, so as this turns screenshot shows McCall should be able to retreat either towards Pittsburgh or Wheeling. Mansfield is not active so I cannot order an attack.

Last turn Smith’s CSA cavalry stack was at Steubenville OH and they cut the rail there. For some reason he moved him east back into WV to Washington WV where he had already been and cut the rail before. His stack shows to be completely out of supply, so he is going to get hammered with supply hits this turn. I order a single cavalry regiment from Wheeling to move southeast through Fairmont then north to Washington. Hopefully it will run into Smith and force him to stop in Union territory again and prevent a probable move south and cause even more supply damage again next turn.

In KY Wood made it across the river into Madison. I order him north to Indianapolis with some damaged brigades to go into the city and recover hits. My decision to divide my navy to stop pursuers from crossing the river did nothing to stop Zollicoffer from crossing over into New Albany. I order the fleet to recombine and also order my 2 brigades that just left Munfordville to board the fleet. Unless Polk failed to activate, I expect he’ll capture Louisville this turn.

Grant appears at Cairo and I order him and 2 regular regiments south across the river to assume command of Griffin’s stack.

After all my ranting last turn, 3 garrison units appear in stockades out west this turn. I order all three out of their stockades to assault the CSA units in their regions. It is pointless to leave them inside, due to the fact all the CSA needs do is move to another stockade this turn and return later to perhaps take the stockade for free then. This way at least I may finally cause some damage to his units that are capturing the entire western theater at an alarming speed.

At Santa Fe the 1st Mounted Volunteer brigade finishes training and is sent to Las Vegas.

The 5th US infantry regiment arrives in the Western Arizona off map box and captures the town of Pima Villages. I now have some small supply generation ability in the region to keep my troops fed there.

Jim

[Q-Ball]

Jim, what are your plans for coastal warfare?

It seems like the Union can make some progress early using the US Navy in terms of limiting CSA production, or otherwise causing trouble

The risk is that units with their backs to the sea are vulnerable to being destroyed. You can mitigate that though by taking advantage of Swamp terrain, where it's going to take alot of Rebs to overcome a dug-in stack. And even then, you may have time to pull them in an emergency.

Another thing is fort busting. It takes a little time, but I found if you use divisions of about 10 elements or so, and include a Siege Mortar or two for extra heft, that's enough to crack a fort. I think including a USMC unit helps keep cohesion on landing. Takes a couple turns; land, wait, then attack, but works consistently. Holding the fort isn't too tough, you usually get a free garrison unit to help.

Looking at the map, there are some good candidates for quick landings:

-Ft. Pulaski: Perm blockade of Savannah
-Ft. Sumter: Perm blockade of Charleston
-Jacksonville: VP city, depot, swamp, and it's likely to be complete undefended. Also port for your ships.
-Apalachicola: Easy to seize armory there; probably won't be defended at all, so easy take. You can couple it with taking Ft. Gaines, which opens up possible move on Talahassee and that plantation up the river.
-Ft St. Phillip: Taking one of the forts at the head of New Orleans blockades the port, cutting production in half. It's almost impossible to re-take these, given bad terrain.
-Galveston/Houston: Great thing about this area, no rail to rest of Confederacy.
-Matagorda: Cuts-off Cotton exports to Mexico

Anyway, what are you thinking here?

[Jim D Burns]

I plan on a strong naval build program to stuff the blockade boxes with ships eventually, but not until I can stabilize the front lines. The south is very strong and until I can make offensive moves like the ones he’s making now a costly mistake for him, I have to focus my production on the army buildup race.

I will be building a river ironclad fleet as soon as I can afford it, as I don’t want to lose control of the rivers. Blockade fleets will also be queued up occasionally as well.

I will also hit his forts when time and available infantry allows. The problem is CSA counter-attacks may destroy all my efforts, so I want to build enough stuff to try and leave a garrison in any fort I capture of about 5000-6000 troops with a supply wagon and perhaps an extra artillery unit in addition to whatever artillery I capture. So the army buildup race will determine how fast my fort campaign can progress.

I also want to make naval moves my main offensive moves in game if I can. Slugging my way down the east coast overland will be a costly bloody affair. If I focus on defense instead and try and make many decent sized landings all along the coast, it will force my opponent to divert more and more stuff away from the main fronts.

Thinking of this from the South’s perspective, imagine a two or three division sized force landing on land at all your major port cities. Defending against something like that would be a nightmare and take a true defensive genius to prevent total eventual collapse.

To pull it off I’ll probably not try and do it piecemeal, instead I’ll focus on small fort attacks until I have an extra 6-10 divisions I can send out all at once via amphibious landings. Then I’ll hit as many port cities as I can and the sheer number of targets he’ll need to defend will prevent him (I hope) from focusing enough power in any one area to push me back into the sea.

Anyway those are my thoughts, but as the game unfolds I may have to abandon my ideas completely. Against a human you just never know what to expect as this game is proving to me. I never imagined the south would be so aggressive in WV due to the single rail line leading in (very easy to cut) and mountainous terrain there. And let’s not forget the distance from a friendly southern depot along that rail means hardly any supply will ship in to the state via the auto routines. Yet I find myself defending the state from Southern aggression.

The Kentucky secession caught me by surprise as well, but the impending loss of Louisville rests solely on my shoulders. I simply didn’t think a southern player would want to move north of Bowling Green without first protecting the tenuous single rail line leading north from possible flank attacks, so I made the decision to try and take Munfordville and got slapped for it. Ultimately I may be able to isolate a lot of his stuff north of Bowling Green since my guys sit just two regions away from it now, but for now I’ve paid a price for not correctly predicting human behavior.

Imagine if the south has reinforced all his forts when I start my attacks, I may get hammered or be unable to assault them directly. You just never know what to expect, which of course makes the game a blast vs. human play.

Jim

[Aurelian]

I think you'd be better off with Hooker and Burnside, when you can make divisions, taking coastal forts.

That way they could earn promotion to Corps commands.

[Q-Ball]

In my opinion, his invasion of West VA, while causing you some fits in the short-term, I think you are correct in that he is giving you a gift in the long-run. I don't understand it at all.

First, sustaining this from a logistical standpoint is impossible for the Rebs. He will need a) a line of depots from the Shenandoah Valley, and b) the rail capacity to keep stuff moving. There is no chance of sending supply wagons back for more items. It takes a month to reinforce or move anyone in or out of this area. When the bad weather hits, he will start to die from hunger if he doesn't withdraw.

Second, what is the objective? Wheeling is worth VPs, but unless he can take and hold Pittsburg, there is no economic gain. Sure, he is causing you fits and tying down some Federals, but couldn't he be doing that in Viriginia or Maryland?

For the Confederacy, this can be little more than a giant raid. In the meantime, Washington is perfectly safe, and if you choose a big movement into Manassas or other, he cannot counter with troops from W Va...they are stuck

I would provide only enough resistance in W Va to make him use ammo and otherwise fight you, but if he wants, let him march to Lake Erie. In the meantime, make some hay in Virginia

In my game vs. Michael, I not only didn't reinforce W Va, but I didn't see a point in staying with Floyd's men.....

That's my 2 cents.....

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 13 Early October

Northern Papers howl due to my not taking Manassas and I lose 10 NM. McClellan should be promoted because of this in a turn or two. My NM now sits at 82.

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

I gain more river and rail points, and the events immediately become available again. I play them both again.

The charter Ocean ships event becomes available and I do not play it. As far as I can tell it gives you 1 light warship replacement chit and 5 transport replacement chits for a cost of 75 thousand and 1% inflation. If I were to buy the chits myself, I’d only pay 67 money, 11 conscripts and 36 war supplies. I just can’t see the event costing me 8 money and saving me 11 conscripts and 36 war supplies as being worth it for the 1% inflation growth. Does anyone know if this event does anything else like add units to the map or something?

Four large brigades appear on map this turn. The Excelsior, Old and Philadelphia brigades appear in the east and go to Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington. The Regular brigade appears at Cincinnati and goes to Lexington KY to join Nelson’s command.

Division commands become available this turn and my forces begin the process of forming up.

The Army of the James took Williamsburg and is ordered to dig in. I build a flatboat in the region to be used later to build a depot there. Three additional militia brigades are sent via naval move from Washington to bolster the unit. Combined with the units already on hand it will give Meagher a fully fleshed out division with 18 elements when he is able to form one.

In WV McCall is attacked at Morgantown and he succeeds in retreating from battle right away and just one round is fought, losses are extremely light. Unfortunately according to my opponent something weird happened with the retreat logic. Apparently he retreated west to Fairmount, he then retreated again (no fighting) back to Morgantown because Jackson and some other cavalry units were present in the region of Fairmount. He begins the turn in Morgantown marching towards Fairmount 5 days out. I cancel the order set him to evade and order him to march north to join Mansfield’s force at Union PA.

The fact my opponent moved Jackson further into WV towards Wheeling tells me he wants to try and take that city. I order the two closet cavalry units to join Morell’s division at Wheeling. With a division now formed up Morell’s CV has gone up to 356 and is effectively 321 due to command penalties. The two cavalry units should get him close to 400. A mouse-over of the stacks at Fairmount Show a combined total of 661 CV for all CSA units present, so I think I should be able to hold, especially since it appears supplies are critically low for at least one stack there. Morell is given hold at all cost orders.

In KY Louisville did not fall so I guess Polk was inactive last turn. He did manage a breach on the city so the garrison unit will probably surrender this turn. I don’t want to risk the NM loss due to surrender, so I order it outside with assault orders to try and kill it off.

Nelson formed a division at Lexington and now has a CV of 249 (224 displayed due to command penalties). The Regular brigade arrives in 3 days via rail and should add another 150 or so to his stacks CV, so Nelson should be able to stop Polk (displayed CV of 408) if he makes a move on Lexington.

Zollicoffer cut the rail at New Albany and has disappeared. I order Wood in command of a small cavalry force down from Indianapolis so he can repair the rail next turn. My 2 leaderless brigades are aboard Foote’s river fleet and are ordered west to Evansville for rest and recovery.

At Evansville the locked forces become active this turn and are ordered across the river to Madisonville to join the two brigades there.

Out west I order my rangers to Fort Ellsworth and Fort Larned. The garrison units that spawned last turn caused some damage to a few of the CSA units and it appears they may have to go to ground to recover their damage, so I want to set up for a possible counter-attack south with my rangers. My Dallas cavalry are ordered south to replace the rangers who were defending Fort Smith.

I order the 5th US infantry regiment in the Western AZ off-map box south to the Eastern AZ off-map box. He should arrive in two turns.

My 40 transports have arrived in the shipping box and this is the first turn they brought in income. A total of 62 money and 48 war supplies are brought in. That’s 70 more items than the 40 per turn my merchant vessels alone were bringing in, so not quite 2 items per transport unit. So a rough guesstimate is it will take about 2 years to pay for the cost in money to build them before they start to see a profit. Sooner if I can keep my on hand cash stocks very low and cause most items brought in each turn to be money instead of war supply.

Jim