PBEM AAR - Long Live the Union!

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: regularbird

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

ORIGINAL: miller41

Just wanted to comment on what a great AAR this is and I am looking forward to getting this game. I kind of agree with Regularbird about Little Mac. Although he was very timid with his armies he was a great organizer and got his troops very ready to fight, which was a talent many other generals on both sides lacked.

Yes..., he was a fine organizer and his troops liked him and were ready to fight for him. Problem was HE was never ready to fight. Only a complete idiot could have managed to BELIEVE that Lee had him outnumbered 2 to 1 in the Penninsula..., or to have siezed a bloody, futile, draw from the "Jaws of Victory" at Antietam. The man was hopeless as a field commander...

Mike your assuming he knew everything that you know now. Yes McClellan had Lee's orders and if he would have just committed his reserve he could have probably carried the day. But you must consider that he just witnessed 3 major attacks repulsed thousands of his troops destroyed and was concerned that if his reserve was wasted then he was beaten. He chose to play it safe. I am no Mac apologist I just think it is hard to call a man an idiot who was well educated, loved by his troops and the only guy to even draw with bobby lee until 63. If you would like to say he made some bad decisions than I could definately buy that. But please remember hindsight is 20/20 and his pinkerton's were duoped by the csa as to there exact numbers and the loss of life was extraordinary.

Picture the scenario where Mac's, Burnsides, Hooker's, etc. orders fell into Lee's hands.....
Mac squandered an opportunity at Sharpsburg by committing his attacks piecemeal allowing Lee to shift forces as necessary.

I intended to go on about this, but this is not the right thread for this argument.

BACK TO YOU JCHASTAIN!
And may your wicked forces suffer horribly at the hands of the True and Just!

[jchastain]

And another 100K in the siege forces. Of course, those are unreliable for even leaving the current province as demonstrated repeatedly.

OK, let's think about this. My 75K against his 100K likely isn't a safe move. Generally speaking, the North can't stand toe to toe with the Rebs with even numbers. I've got a fairly good level of confidence in this army, but asking them to take on the combined corp might be asking too much.

If I added in the extra 100K in shock troops, that would likely do it. Especially if I took a turn or two to get them ready for the fight. The problem is that they will be encircling that fort for at least 3 more turns.

He really has left the entire west open by drawing all of his forces to Eastern Tennessee. That's where I really need to take advantage of this situation. I can't reliably pull troops out of the Nashville operation, so I suppose I'll just have to raise another round of troops for the job. I hesitated doing it before because of the upcoming elections, but I need to move against all this open territory. At least 4 states are completely undefended.

[jchastain]

I'll need a division or two in order to occupy territory. Let's build one in St Louis.

[jchastain]

And then its time to go nuts raising our army. There are several cities in page 1 that should be able to contribute. That's a division's worth right there.

[Grifman]

Reading your perspective on this war and your opponent's is very interesting to say the least. And I won't say any more than that

[jchastain]

And then another division plus some on page 2. That ought to get me the boots on the ground that I'm needing. They won't be worth much of anything in terms of quality, but I don't need cotton gin scientists to surround a city and wait for them to starve and surrender.

[jchastain]

OK, I need another Division now that I have so many call-ups going into effect.

[jchastain]

While we are scraping all the cities for forces, it seems silly to leave 2 garrisons in Maine in addition to the one in the fort. They need to come forward this turn while I still have my RR points available.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: jchastain
but I don't need cotton gin scientists to surround a city and wait for them to starve and surrender.

[&o]

[jchastain]

OK, now what to do with my forces. I'll pull Keyes back up south of Nashville for now. The 4th will try to get there too, but it will help them get out if we have friendly territory for them to enter. And that also gives me the rail lines leading into Nashville, and gets my forces close together in case I need to react to anything.

[jchastain]

OK. Time to look at supply again. It is becoming clear that this thing will last into 63. I need to begin conserving cash with armies that aren't fighting. When we get to winter, I can cut supply to noghting and really catch up with some of the investments I haven't been able to make, but I don't need to wait for that since most of the army is stationary anyway. Looks like the 18th needs some extra help though. I'll devote some of the savings to getting them up to high supply priority.

[jchastain]

The British diplomacy isn't going anywhere anyway. I'll bring it down yet another notch. Closing in on 200 money per turn with those changes. That'll give me some additional flexibility.

[jchastain]

He's up to something in the east. Maybe that little misadvanture wasn't such a good idea. I might should have let the sleeping dog lie. Oh well, I have troops being raised as we speak. That all I can do right now anyway. We'll just have to see where he goes with this little exercise.

[jchastain]

And another upgrade. Engineering this time. Hmmmm. What to choose? Can anyone say "no brainer"?

And with that, another turn comes to a close.

[jchastain]

ORIGINAL: Grifman

Reading your perspective on this war and your opponent's is very interesting to say the least. And I won't say any more than that

That's the fun of separate threads. It lets us share our thoughts and perspectives so you can laugh at both of us. When this is all over, I look forward to going through his thread and seeing just how wrong I was about a lot of things. [;)]

Also, I keeping thinking back to Hard Sarge's comments as we were just getting started.

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

ORIGINAL: Jonathan Palfrey

Thanks to both of you. It'll be useful to have an example like this when we get the game.

Naw, you not seen the two of them play

[&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

That statement was likely more prophetic than even he knew. I find the statement regarding Mac in this thread to be especially humorous. In a lot of ways, I likely resemble him and his style more than I probably should. Luckily, I'm not afraid to let everyone see my errors so that they might learn from them. And my only saving grace is likely that Gil is probably as bad at this game as I am. [:D]

[Grotius]

Well, my impression is that you're both making reasonable decisions given your respective views of the situation. That is, you both have reasons for your decisions. Anyway, it sure is fun to watch.

Forge of Freedom is very well suited for PBEM, if this AAR is any guide. I had been worried that the absence of the tactical layer would be missed, but the strategic game is surprisingly deep.

[jchastain]

It always starts as a nice quiet day. The siege is going well with another half off the defenses. Half way there.

Crazy Delawares surrenders? Ummmmm.... that's probably not a good sign.

[jchastain]

Drat! I knew he might be itching to attacking those sieging forces, but how the heck did he get there so fast? Not only was he in Chattanooga, but his army wasn't even together. I felt sure I had a turn before he could possible attack. The threat of disease made me keep my best army out of there. Now I see what a mistake that was.

Lots of green troops raised. I might need them for a different purpose than I first thought.

[jchastain]

A few things happened, but hard to care after what I just saw. I need to get to the map and look things over.

[jchastain]

As I feared. He came a long way to pull that off. OK, that changes everything. Time to go back to the drawing board.