Bound for Glory: TimoN(CSA) vs. nmleague(Union)

[TimoN]

...here's the rest from the event report. Disease struck in the Cumberland river. Luckily hospitals reduced the casualties a great deal.

What worries me is that Georgia's governor is asking something again. This time I am sure that I can't fulfill his request. I made a mistake giving in the first time.

[TimoN]

In the east both of my divisions failed to move into the Ohio. First I move Ripley from East Ohio River to Columbia. Early starts in Parkersburg and he has to go thru East Ohio River, where he drops the weakest brigade to garrison the town, and continues to Columbia. I have to capture that town. If I get it, whole Ohio production will be halved from nmleague. I don't know if he has yet realized his mistake. There are plenty of other empty towns in the north as well. Lets see if I can capture few more. That would delay his advance for many months.
In East Ohio River I mustered one brigade more to garrison the town. Two brigades should be enough to hold that town for awhile.

Lee's AVN leaves Rappahanock and is trying to reach Shenandoah. McClellan sits in Franklin and I bet he is trying to move south. I have to be ready to engage him.

[TimoN]

Near Kentucky Jackson moves his corps to capture Bowling Green. My aim is to capture Kentucky's capital and reduce nmleague's horse production.

Johnston takes his division to protect Knoxville from McClellan's moves.

[TimoN]

In Arkansas I am ready to start offensive. My cavalry division is close enough so it can reach White River. I move my 17th Division to there as well. Cavalry division is led by van Dorn who has cavalry rating of "excellent". I promoted van Dorn to 2 stars so he can lead all his brigades.

[TimoN]

There was no changes in income screen so I decided to provide you a shot of my governors. Clark wants a bank and Brown wants training grounds. I am unable to provide any of them. Two governors support impressment and one supports musters.

From Union side I see he has four important actions from governors. Money production, Iron production, Engineering research and Training research are supported. He has a clear edge in this matter.

Runners were set:
45I 80/10
65I 80/10 (the same was available last turn but we didn't catch it)

Mint was started in Austin and raiders were set to steal weapons (11W 65/16).

[TimoN]

Late February 1862

For some reason I lost the first page of the event report. Anyway it told me three important things. First was a battle won in White River, Arkansas. Yippeee!!!! Cavalry arrived just in time to save the day. I didn't destroy any of his brigades but I can assure I don't quit before they all are destroyed.

Second was a battle lost in Knoxville. Something came down there and drove off Johnston's division. Luckily there were no casualties.

Third and the worst thing was the destruction of my raiders. I don't know when I will be able to build a new one.

The second page of the event report is shown below. Looks like USA troops are on the move again, but the best thing is that I finally managed to capture Columbus, the capital of Ohio. I bet nmleague is cursing his mistake leaving the town ungarrisoned [:D]

[TimoN]

This is the battle report sceen.

In Knoxville the only bad thing is that one of my legendary brigades dropped its Minie rifles.
White River battle was a success for us.

[TimoN]

In Arkansas it's time to attack. 17th division is still in quite low supply level but I take a risk. It moves to Ozarks with orders to avoid battle. Cavalry division with higher initiative is ordered to make support move with orders to start battle.

I am still not sure if I can operate my troops this far from the railroad. The supply levels dropped immediatelly when I left the river province. Anyway I will try it.

[TimoN]

Near Kentucky the army from Lexington came down to Knoxville. I set Jackson to cut his supply lines in Appalachia and then hope that I later catch him in the Knoxville. I reinforce the Jackson's Corps with the Johnstons division. I have one empty division container that will be filled with the garrison troops from south if possible. Soon it's also time to muster some troops before April population boost.

I brought also on garrison brigade to Chattanooga from Georgia. I want the towns to have two brigades so that they last atleast couple of turns.

[TimoN]

In Virginia-Ohio theather Lee's army I going to move Franklin and is going to challenge McClellans army if it's still there when Lee arrives. I added the elite division to Lee's army and some brigades from the 10th division. 10th division with one brigade is sent to safe in Fredericksburg.

In Columbus Ohio Ripley leaves three brigades to guard the capital and then moves to Sandusky to create RR connection to Cleveland. Early's division goes directly to Cleveland to capture it. I start muster immediatelly in Columbus to even further strength the garrison.

[TimoN]

No changes in diplomacy settings. As you can see, my net money income is really poor. I have set all my groups to battle readiness and that cost's a great deal of money. I hope that the gains will be worth it.

Runners:
35M 60/30
35I 70/30

Laboratory was started in New Orleans and RR station in one of the southern towns.
I decided to start Barracks in Richmond as I will need more corps containers.

By the way, any comments are welcome to this thread. Whether it will be about the writings, pictures or strategies they all are welcome. One thing I noticed that my pictures are little bit too large to fit my laptop's screen of 1024x768. Does it cause problems to someone else too?

[PlacidDragon]

I dont own the game (yet), so i cannot really say anything about the strategy (not knowing fully how the game works i mean). I am using the AAR's as a sort of preparation phase, getting to know the game before i buy it.

The writing is informative and interesting to follow, and if i was to miss anything, it would be the story from your opponents perspective (he has just started typing one, so that should be fixed soon enough)

The images show up fine here (within the borders of the screen), but i have a resolution of 1280x1024 (LCD monitor).

Keep up the good work [:D]

[TimoN]

Early March 1862

Ok, the next turn. I don't have the screenshots available here as I did the turn very late last night. When I get back to home from work I'll add them here.

Event report started with two magnificent battle victories. In Ozarks, Arkansas, my 17th and Cavalry divisions were able to drice off the Union army causing it over 6000 casualties. My troops suffered less than 600. My troops are in good condition and I'll continue the chase to Fayetteville.

In Franklin, Virginia, Lee's army met McClellan's army and won a glorious victory. Casualties were 10000 vs. 1000 to my favor. The next obvious step would be to continue the offensive.

There were also two small defeats for my side. First was in Zanesville and second one in Columbus. The casualties were minimal. What had happened is that the Early's division tried to take a route thru Zanesville to Cleveland. They were intercepted by Union army in Zanesville and retreated to Columbus. In Columbus another Union army had moved in and it also defeated Early, who now had to retreat into East Ohio river. I should have plotted the route thru Sandusky to Cleveland, now Ripley is sitting in Sandusky after capturing it. I'll try to move Ripley to Clevaland. Early is unable to provide any support for awhile.

Then the DISEASE struck me. The worst thing happened. It struck Lee's army in Franklin. Franklin has no railway connection and therefore it is not protected by hospitals. I suffered horrible casualties to the disease. I must have been those rotten Union corpses that spread the disease. I took a calculator and counted all disease losses. 11732 CASUALTIES. Can you believe. What first seemed to be a marvellous victory turned out to be a terrible loss. Now my AVN brigades are in poor condition and after moving through two provinces and after battle they are almost out of supplies. McClellans army is safe for now and what's also bad that I can't move to Ohio to relief the siege starting around Columbus. I was forced to withdraw Lee's army to railroad province to be protected by hospitals and to be resupplied. I wish I get it back to action quite soon. It will be needed in Ohio.

Finally I was so shocked about the disease losses that I forgot to build anything with my resources. Actually is pressed the END TURN button accidentally. No real harm was caused as I will have double more resources next turn to be invested. Luckily I did the blockade runners first in the turn.

That number "11732" haunted me the whole last night...

[TimoN]

Last page of the event report. I removed the high toll of disease losses. I can't bear to watch it.

[TimoN]

Here's the battle reports. This is the report I like to watch.

[TimoN]

In Arkansas I try to catch the running Union troops in Fayettefille or in Osage. Lets see if I can pull this off successfully. I really would like to destroy that Union army when it's far away from help.

[TimoN]

This was the supply situation of the AVN after the battle and the disease. Notice that my 8th elite division still has high supply values. It joined the AVN just before the battle and it didn't have to march that far.

[TimoN]

This is the situation at the end of the turn. AVN is resting and Jackson's corps are trying to engage Union army in Sparta or Bowling Green.

[TimoN]

Late March 1862

This is the last page of event report for this month. There were no battles so I didn't catch nmleague's troop in Arkansas or near Kentucky. First page was full of muster attempts that I did last turn. I start the muster in Early March because if they fail then I have another chance in Late March before the April population boost. I had 10 successful musters and 7 failed. I will try those 7 again this turn.

Everything else is nice but that Brown's bastard tries to ruin my efforts. Just last turn Florida's governor started to support my weapon's training and now Brown decides to oppose it.
Five buildings came ready and I conquered five provinces. Top of all both of my runners received shipments.

[TimoN]

This is my research situation which I promised to show you long time ago. So far both sides are without upgrades. I should be getting training upgrade this turn. I will pick Indian training if it's available.

I am behind in Logistics research, but it should grow quickly now that I got few labs ready.