PBEM AAR - Long Live the Union!

[jchastain]

I think we can safely assume this scouting report is a bit off. I hope the messager that brought this fiction to us didn't get paid for it.

[jchastain]

OK, the org plan in the west is to trade a few forces around while I have the chance. By my count I have a total of:

2 Inf Brigades Quality 4.00+
3 Inf Brigades Quality 3.00 - 3.99
51 Inf Brigades Quality 2.00 - 2.99
18 Inf Brigades Quality <2.00
3 Cavalry Brigades (all good quality)
2 Artillery Brigades (also good quality)

Consulting the manual...

A USA Army can hold no more than 35 brigades (and no more than 8 direct attachments)
A Corp can hold up to 15 brigades
A Division holds up to 5

So...
I'll ensure my primary army has it's full compliment of 35 brigades. I could do that with 7 full divisions, but I'll stick with the 8 that I have to reduce the chaos for now. I have 8 Inf with 3 or better quality, so I'll assign one of those to each division as a core. Since those are the units that will have the Improved Springfields, that will also help balance supply. For this army, I'll also use only my best divisions containers to ensure there are no "bad" skills that would otherwise reduce supply availability.

I don't want to use any brigades with a quality level less than 2.0. The one exception I am making is the Iron Brigade. Something about those boys just tells me they have the potential to grow into something special and I want to give them that opportunity. I'll spread the artillery across my divisions for ammo/supply reasons, but I'll concentrate the cav into a single division so that I can assign a commander with Cav skills.

Here is what it looks like when I'm done. Hmmmm. I count 36 brigades. Hardly a big deal, but I suspect someone used a ">" instead of a ">=".

[jchastain]

None of the 3 stars have a decent initiative. I may have promoted the wrong people assuming my corp would be within an army instead of a separate unit. I might have to remedy that and demote pennypacker. The others can keep their rank and still command divisions. In fact, I believe that makes them slightly more effective.

I'll put the worst of the worst into that corp and use them as a sieging force only.

[jchastain]

And then the secodn army gets what's left over. This will generally be a sieging army, but I will use it in combat support for the big fights. It is my "tweener" force.

[jchastain]

In the East we have another mess. Time to deal with it before something big happens.

[jchastain]

Again, I'll create a garbage corp with all of the rejects. My, whis is one motley bunch for Slocum.

[jchastain]

And here is the reconstituted Army of the Potomac.

In the east I had:
3 Inf Brigades Quality 4.00+
2 Inf Brigades Quality 2.99 - 3.99 (I moved the border just a pinch to let the second one in)
19 Inf Brigades Quality 2.00 - 2.98
18 Inf Brigades Quality < 2.00 (most of whom went to Slocum)

There was only 1 Art Brigade supporting the Inf.

Again, AoP kept the best divisions. Even then, several brigades spilled out into the Army itself. We need at least one more division within the army. The AoP doesn't have the punch of the Army of Kentucky, but at least it isn't a complete slouch. I suppose I could commit the corp with it, but I have a hard time seeing it do much good. Eventually I'll either need to move that out west to gobble up territory faster or at least create a diversion for him to deal with. For now, I'll leave it here to appear stronger than I really am.

[jchastain]

Let's go ahead and get that additional division we need in process.

[jchastain]

We'll look at supply once more. We're still spending a lot on Supply, but it is coming up nicely. This expense should come down considerably next turn - especially if we just march the whole army down to Nashville with the express intention of just sitting there.

[jchastain]

And checking the income situation... yeah, we're fine.

OK, looks like that's it. I think the worst of the crisis is behind us and we're quickly coming back into position to take the offensive yet again.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: jchastain

Again, I'll create a garbage corp with all of the rejects. My, whis is one motley bunch for Slocum.

You should rename this one to Eleventh Corps.

[jchastain]

ORIGINAL: AU Tiger

You should rename this one to Eleventh Corps.

Heh heh. Didn't do so this last turn, but I just might do that.

[jchastain]

At first glance, things are pretty quiet. Once again he has my railroads shut down. That is costing me a lot of men in march attrition and he likely knows it.

[jchastain]

81K reinforcements needed. I need more camps.

Finally, a good turn in diplomacy. The funny thing is that it comes after I cut my investment back to almost nothing. And lots of governors want things. What's new?

All in all, no real worries in this report.

[jchastain]

The map though is another matter. He backed out of Nashville last turn and then reoccupied it in a big way this turn. The fort is down to half strength and my army is coming back to reasonable strength. On the other hand though, he is well concentrated and on the defense with a massive fort in support. To be honest, I'm not sure who would win that fight. Is now the time to roll the dice?

[jchastain]

Ummm... where did the ANV go now? OK, now I am officially worried. Is it even possible that he would take them to Nashville? Even assuming I took the province in the initial attack, would he then come back at me with everything he had? And what would I be able to accomplish in the east while we was distracted? Fredericksburg would take forever to conquer. But Shanandoah might be a back door to the goodies. I still don't know what he's up to, but I think getting the AoP up to Cumberland gives me the most options going forward. I'll leave the junk corp in Washington.

[jchastain]

I can't obsess about the ANV, but it is obvious he is concentrating in Nashville in the west. I'll leave my main battle army up there. If he comes at me, at least I'll be on the defense and perhaps we'll just stare at one another across the river. The lower quality army and corp can ravage mississippi and parts south. I might even be able to make it to New Orleans. Either he will be forced to divide his forces and leave a more vulnerable force in Nashville, or I'll gut his economy. It isn't the plan I would have chosen, but I don't see a better option right now. In the mean time, I need to begin focusing on strengthening the army. No more junk troops. I need to focus on high quality units from here on out and build up some camps to fill the missing ranks.

[jchastain]

I went ahead and put a camp into production. That's 2 in process now. I thought I had a cap of it... but.... err.... well..... ummm.....

End of turn and we have another advance option. Looks like our big guns advance is leading to some real tangible results now.

[jchastain]

And I can now replace the 3 star slot I freed when I demoted Pennypacker. Orme is now leading the corp, so he'll get the nod.

And that's it. I'm a lot less confident than I was a few turns ago. He's wily and I just can't seem to get a chance to fight the battle I really want to fight. I know have 2 huge armies bottled up and afraid to act. Am I nuts? Probably. But if I lose a big fight now, I'll never recover. Time isn't on my side, but I've got economic muscle he doesn't and diplomacy is finally working to where his oversea support should be drying up big time.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: jchastain

Time isn't on my side, but I've got economic muscle he doesn't and diplomacy is finally working to where his oversea support should be drying up big time.

I don't understand why time isn't on your side. Is there something I am missing?