AAR RJH (Union) vs Jon Pyle (South)

[rjh1971]

And what about the East, well I attach all the militia created last turn after declaring a draft and redeployed McDowell to Washington seeking he gains initiative and thus all other Unit Commanders. Notice that there are a few leaders with just one unit attach, those I plan to use for amphbious assault on islands. I will explain why when making the landings.

[rjh1971]

Finally a screenshot from the production screen, with all production going on.

[rjh1971]

Jon decided to evacuated Clarksville and Gallatine and since my AC in Bowling Green had initiative I was able to overran both counties. Clarksville was harder to crack due to three militia and Jon had built a fort so I requiered to commit more troops than expected to cast them out, if Jon had left some other units and a good leader Clarksville would probably still be in Southern hands. On the other side all three militias created were unharmed and retreated in good order to be back fighting in the next months. Gallantine's militia wasn't so lucky and it was destroyed.

[rjh1971]

In the previous screenshot you might have noticed a red horse with a yellow border, it means that I'm not currently meeting the garrison requierments and partisans may appear. Partisans may attack supplies and rail, and if they grow sufficiently strong may attack enemy combat units and even take control of the area, this will happen when at least 9 partisans remain in the area after attacking the enemy combat units AND there are no remaining enemy ground units (inf, mil, cav, mtn, art or hvy art) in the area then
- the area changes side
- the partisan value is set to 0
- One Militia of the new owner of the area is created there
The screenshot shows the view you get when you press the "view nation button" There is a hotkey to fullfil the garrison requierments that will bring available units to the region, it's actually very handy

[rjh1971]

On the West front McDowell was unable to achieve initiative nonetheless Scott did get it, that allowed the few Unit Commanders to be able to conduct amphibious assaults, in order to do so a unit must be attached to a leader with initiative and either: 1) start the turn linked to a theatre commander with initiative, or 2) start the turn in the same area as an army commander with initiative, also the units must start in a coastal or a region with major river. A leader with amphibious initiative will have waves under their red initiative arrow in the unit pop-up box, red circle in the screenshot.

[rjh1971]

A militia/infantry has a cost of 4 amphibious transport points, so it is 16 amphibious points I must have in the landing area (number to the right of the slash), on the other sea regions the units pass by the normal fleet transport points are used (number to the left of the slash) I have decided to invade Florida, for several reasons, one it is not heavily defended (with FOW on you wouldn't now, but chances are still high that it wouldn't specially so early in the game), it has a factory so that' we reduce even more the South's lower industrial capacity, Jon likes building some factories, they pay off later in the game, factories can be demolished (never destroyed and can be repaired) but not moved, and also the PP are 17, iirc I'm actually wrtiting this without the running the game) which is not bad, another factor to bear in mind is that landing units cannot overran, this means that Jon could move troops in the reaction phase, but without FOW I could see there are no troops near enough to assist repel the landing.

[rjh1971]

This screenshot shows the units have landed ut comabt will be resolved in Jon's Reaction phase.

The reaction phase is trigered when a combat situation exists in a region that could not be overran, that is if Union and Confederate ground units coexist in at least one land area. When this happens the opposing player will be able to move his units under some special rules into the combat zones and after comabt is resolved he will go on to his movement phase. The reaction phase is of great importance specially for the South for the Unionists will get more than a surprised by troops that had not been localized. This of course with FOW on.

[rjh1971]

In the screenshot below you can see different symbols used in the uniots pop-ups:
Binoculars – Unit has been spotted either via enemy cavalry scouting or by its firing in combat
Pick & Shovel – Denotes that leader has constructed a fort or depot this turn.
Breastworks (x) – One level of entrenchment per symbol showing (1 or 2).

You may have asked how do units and leaders interact. Units to be able to attack must be attached to leaders. A leader may attach a maximun of units determined by his command rating, therefore Lovell may attach up to 9 units under his leadership and presently has 5. You do not produce militias, the game does it for you,

"Confederate Militia Unit Creation
Confederate militia units are automatically created and placed on the map at the end of the Confederate production phase. Confederate militia units are created if an area has six or more population points and five supply units in movement range. Five supply and six population points will be consumed and a militia unit will be placed in the area. The population cost for recruiting militia will increase if the Confederate player’s political points fall below 900 (1 added for each 100 points below 1000). If supplies are not available in an area then a militia unit will be created using no supplies and double the population cost.

Union Militia Unit Creation
Union militia units are created in a manner similar to the Confederates except the population cost may vary. The normal population cost for Union militia is 18. If the Union player declares a draft then the population cost will be six for two turns and increase to 21 for four turns. Rules are the same for supply cost. The population cost for recruiting militia will increase if the Union player’s political points fall below 950 (1 added for each 50 points below 1000)."

This means militia will be created in different regions all over the map. To avoid moving them all to the regions where leaders are and attaching them afterwards a hotkey were implemented to do this:
"Shift-f – Fills up unit with the leader’s type of units (inf/mil, cav/mounted, artillery, naval) and some artillery. If CSC’s are in use and available will also add leaders. Admin and Engineer leaders may not use this function.

Ctrl-f - Fills up unit with the leader’s type of units (inf/mil, cav/mounted, artillery, naval) only. If CSC’s are in use and available will also add leaders. Admin and Engineer leaders may not use this function" This hotkeys are most useful and make for a quick OOB

[PyleDriver]

Heres a view of CSA positions in the west. Because of the Unions early invasion of Kentucky, I withdrew my forces So. of the Cumberland River for better defence. I built a fort in Nashville, and positoned Johnston's Army (McClullouch and Early) at Fort Donelson I can react to the east or west. I've kept Hardee and Polk also in reserve in Memphis, to counter the threat of Lyons army. You can see I've got Hardee training militia with his high Infantry Training Rating (itr). Last month he was able to train 4 of the 6 militia to regular infantry.



Training ratings range from 1-4, four being the best...I am hoping winter sets in soon, to allow me time to train, build defences and activate better leaders. Leader Initiaitive drops greatly in the winter.

[PyleDriver]

In the East it has been calm. I have Beauregard's army (Jackson, Longstreet, and Ewell) in reserve, poised to react to any attack. Remember unspotted units have a +3 on attack and -1 defence, which impacks battles greatly.

[rjh1971]

Union Oct'61

Since only Mclellan positioned in Clarksville but not Lyon in Paducah gained initiative in the West I declined to launch further attacks with my troops in that scenario, nonetheless I used the cavalry to overran Poplar Bluff (Missouri), Newport (Arkansas) and henderson in Kentucky. They are not key positions but Jon will probably have to draw forces to Arkansas to avoid further overruns, not many but a militia or two. So far I over 1000 Political Points (PP) meaning that I could proclaim the emancipation and the recruitment of black soldiers the moment I achieve an Strategic Victory (A Strategic Victory is awarded to a victorious attacking player if the defending side has over 20 + die (10) units in the area of the battle (not committed units but all units in the region). A Strategic Victory is awarded to a victorious defending player if the attacking side has over 20 + die (10) units in the area of the battle. The winner of a Strategic Victory is awarded 20 political points. The losing side of a Strategic Victory loses 10 political points.)

When the EP (Emancipation Proclamation) is declared, the Confederate Political Points increase by 100, all remaining neutral Border State regions become Confederate controlled regions, with the
Confederate player getting political points for these territories. If there were any Confederate controlled regions in Kentucky prior to the change of neutral regions to Confederate controlled regions, there is a 50% chance that Kentucky will become Confederate aligned. The Confederate controlled region(s) must have a road or rail to trigger an alignment change. Once the EP is declared, black population will begin to
be added to the black population pools. Also, the cost of Confederate Commerce raiders will increase from 30 to 45, and Confederate free trade will be reduced by one supply point per port. Starting January 1863, the Union loses three political points at the start of each turn that the EP is not declared.

In the screenshot notice Jon has positioned his troops in order to react to any attack, forcing him out of Humbolt isn't going to be easy, same hing applies for crossing the Cumberland river

[rjh1971]

In the East McDowell did get initiative but rather than attacking Manassas I decided on taking the islands this will be useful when I will blockade the South's ports, thus denying the South from much needed supplies that come from Free Trade: Free trade is represented by the arrival of supply units at friendly ports. For a port to receive free trade supplies there must be a path through major river and/or coastal water areas that leads to an open ocean area. If access to the port is unobstructed then the port will receive a number of supplies equal to three times the sum of the region’s resource centers plus factories plus one plus one additional for the Confederates unless the Emancipation Proclamation has been enacted. , when an island is controlled and has 20 or more supplies (a depot) then the blockade values of all ships in the coastal water area are doubled.
So amphibious landing are under way, the South has nothing to do the Union always rules the Sea.

[rjh1971]

In this image you can see how good the Southern leader ratings are, being four the maximum, first number is for infantry attack, second for defense and third for movement, when the leader gets initiative he adds his ratings to the units under his command.
Jon has again placed his army to react in any direction, this of course you wouldn't know when FOW is on, and the South would then deliver some nasty surprises...
Leaders can be wounded, killed or be taken prisioners, if wounded or captured they will be out of play for a random period of time (months, each turn is a month).

[rjh1971]

Finally a commerce raider was sunk after moving four cruiser to hunt it, Jon has two more being built. This is the way the South has to harm the Norths Free Trade.