I'll show them. (A slighty unhinged AAR)

[Drex]

Ididn't think the Brits were that good when I fought them. You just might be able to hold them off if you have a good Corp up there.

[Greyhunterlp]

Early December 1864 (turn 85)



Oh Dear. thats not good. but its worse when its followed by this.



The war is over! the British entering the war is to much for the union! they storm the Whitehouse looking for the fool that has led them to defeat. and they find lincon surrounded by bones and gnawing on the remains of some of the generals that had supposedly died on the feild of battle.

Myself I have escaped back to my own time, luckly for me, this has created a parrel dimention, and has no effect on my own timeline, but I can't help wondering what happened, reclaibrating the machine, I take a quick look at my america. "Mad Canabile" Abe Lincon is known and riviled as one of the most evil men in history, loosing the war and causing many deaths. the south is a puppet of europe, and the north has been sidelined.

somehow I don't think I'm going to be bragging about this one. ah well, theres always more dimensions, I mean, I have to get it right some time......

[Erik Rutins]

Tough luck with the British and the French both entering and your national will taking such a beating too. I assume you'll be focusing more on diplomacy the next time around? You fought a great fight and it was an outstanding AAR to follow along with. Entertaining and remarkable for the fact that you fought it out with detailed battles throughout.

I think you'll enjoy some of the 1.9.16d changes to the game and the scenarios, let us know about your further adventures in time! [8D]

[Greyhunterlp]

The Stats of the war.



as you can see, the army wasn't to bad at the end. fair if not exceptinal quality, but with some units taking excessive casualties.  - the Department of the West springs to the front with nearly 30,000 men becoming casulaties over the course of the war.



My Civil war was made up of 38 battles. of these I won 17 - or 45% - a little under a half. there were 8 Descisive battles during the war. of which I won one.  - The third battle of Fredricksburg. which was also the most costly battle of the war, with a combines loss of 51,000 men. about the same as Gettysburg, but several months later.



The only point I was really winning the war was in December 1863, Just after I won 3rd Fredricksburg.

What I Learned

1) Do not Annoy Your Governours - Seems simple. but I messed it up big style. once you annoy them, then its very hard to get them to like you again. and once they start opposing things, then your going to take some serious hits. as in point 2

2) Diplomacy Hurts - This is what lost me the game, but I think that its mainly down to the number of opposing governours. Once the old world starts sending in lots of stuff, your life gets hard, once they send in troops, it gets harder, once both have sent in troops, its game over.

3) Navel operations - There was one naval battle in the whole war. when the british fleet arrived, but I built no new ships, and had to few to blockade the confederates. and they were getting hundreds of units of supplys in via the blockade runners. I need to concentrate on this side of the game more

4) Generals are lead magnets - Seriously, am I just unlucky, or do civil war generals die quicker than a chicken in a Kentucky Fast Food restraunt (yeah I never did get my fried chicken). I was loosing one or two a battle, and it was hurting me.

5) better guns make all the difference the repeater rifles are the turning point for the union, but you need a lot of arsenals to make them. I should have spent more time building them than some of my other improvements - I had more Iorn and Horses than I knew what to do with by the end of the war, but I was always short on money, guns and labour.

6) land does not win the war This was a key mistake. winning battles has a bigger effect than taking land, I had half the confederate capitals, and even held richmond for six months, but it didn't put a dent in the south, killing 27,000 men at 3rd Fredricksburg did more to help than all the seiges.

Closing Comments

Well, That was fun, as I said earlier, I'm one of these sickos who plays above their level of skill - although in this case thats only 1st sargent. thats was the coming fury scenario, In case no-one guessed. and writing the ARR made me think more about my actions. and allowed me to see (in hindsight unfortunatly) where i went wrong. I won the war in the west, but unlike history, that was not the important theater in the war. I needed to smash Cleburn in North Virginia. and me fouling up the Diplomatic war lost me the game. without that, I would still have had a chance to defeat the rebels before the victory points started to rack up. I was too cautious early game, and I payed for it.

I hope You've all enjoyed reading this. just for your info, my count shows 444 pictures for about 60 meg. so I hope none of you are on capped net speed. I've had a blast wrighting it.

Oh yeah, and feel free to point out any mistakes that I missed in my above list. We only learn from our mistakes, and as me grandad used to tell me, "a fools a fool until hes told" - well that and "there all mad except me and thee, and I 'aint to sure about thee" but that doesn't apply that well here.

Yours,
Grey Hunter.

[WallysWorld]

Grey Hunter, thanks very much for the interesting AAR. [&o]

It kept me really interested and entertained while I wait for my copy of FOF to arrive in the mail.

[Drex]

Very well written and very well fought. Hope you do one with the new patch.

[BigJ62]

CSA perhaps?

[Walloc]

Thx Grey_hunter for a very nice AAR.

Im very happy to see that u have learned stuff. From reading ur points i totally agree. Especially as u write how issue 1 influence issue 2.

Having 2 governours oppose france or UK makes all ur monitary attempts to keep them from the war in vain.

54% being the max monitary minus 30 from 2 governours = 24%. Meaning CSA doesnt even have to try hard to get them on board. If CSA has a governour or 2 supporting them it goes totally crazy.

From a cost benefit analyzes IMO dont let governous go into negative territory and those that are keep them happy. IMO its simply a NO NO, considering the limited cost it costs to avoid it.

I much enjoyed reading the AAR i hope we see more,

Rasmus

[Greyhunterlp]

ORIGINAL: BigJ62

CSA perhaps?

Yeah, I plan to do the CSA next, with the same settings (bar the patch). but I plan to do something a bit different thats requiring more prep work.

[jkBluesman]

Something different? So you will not knock out Davis and Lee? The South will not get you fried chicken for sure. All the CSA may offer is tobacco and green corn.

It was really fun to read and I hope your preps will not take that long.

[Yogi the Great]

Yes, thanks much for the great and complete AAR!
 
Also thanks for your wrap up and suggestions of where you went wrong.  Some us need alll the help we can get.

[Greyhunterlp]

Thanks, Its good to know people enjoyed it. - and its always great to watch others play a game, its a good way to learn. shame there are fewer AAR's, and even fewer who can get to the end.
 
Also a shame that my computer died on me last night. loosing all the prep work for the next AAR. I should be able to get a new system sometime next week. (thank god for savings) but it'll be a bit longer until I can rebuild the work I'd done.
 
The confederacy will rise though. that much is certain.

[ChuckK]

Encore!  Encore!
 
 

[netjam99]

I enjoyed your AAR, you did a fine job on it.

[Zakouski]

That was a great and interesting AAR ! Thanks a lot [&o]

It was fun to read, full of tips, rich in action and suspense [8D]

[Greyhunterlp]

Thanks.

New computer has arrived, (finally) and I've got FoF and Photoshop back on, now to restart the prep work for the confederate side.

[Greyhunterlp]

Just flicking through the AAR to get some ideas before I start the next one and I came across this.

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

Grey Hunter,
Great AAR you have going. I thought you (not to mention your devoted fans) would like to know that it looks like we're going to be having an AAR contest once the new patch goes gold. Nothing officially announced, but it seems that first prize will be a cavalry saber. Note that this is absolutely not a reason for you to stop with this one, of course. And I'll also say that as far as I'm concerned (and I'd be one of the judges), the concept of going back in time, incapacitating Lincoln, hiding him behind a fake wall and then taking over is your intellectual property, so if anyone tries to use that one they'll be starting off with a substantial penalty...

I this still going to happen? If so I'll hold off on the next AAR untill then, if it was just an idea, I may well throw myself into the next one this weekend.

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, we're planning to announce the AAR contest next week.

[Gil R.]

The formal announcement will provide all the details, but I'll add that the contest will not involve people writing up massive, multi-page AAR's with 60 megs' worth of screenshots. There will be a limit of just a few thousand words and a relatively small number of screenshots. (This will keep the judges both sharp and sane.) So, you (or anyone else) can certainly work on a major AAR in addition to preparing an entry for the contest -- in other words, don't let the contest hold you up from starting a new AAR, since the sort of AAR this thread features and the sort that will be submitted for the contest are quite different in scope.

[Greyhunterlp]

Righty ho!

One over the top After Action report coming up tommorow morning!
Stay Tuned for something a bit special.