Yankee go home! (Erik Rutins not allowed)

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Pford

Maybe the right strategy is for the Union to aspire to bleed the Confederacy and not worry excessively about victories the first year or two. But so far Erik seems to be accomplishing neither.[;)]

Erik has had some tough breaks, to be sure, but the strategic mistakes (or lost opportunities) of allowing me to gain Kentucky without hardly a shot being fired, along with eschewing a draft in 1861, compounded his troubles. To be honest, I don't have anything with which to compare, but here are the reports from the military units screen, as of the start of my half of the November 1862 turn. I've overlaid the damaged and destroyed stats to the right of the on map and production stats. Keep in mind that since we are playing with FOW, the numbers for Erik's forces are an estimate and the actual numbers on map are possibly some 25% to 50% higher, depending on what he has unspotted and in reserve.

The casualties do favor me, but other than militia losses, not by that much. The CSA naval and heavy artillery losses should be combined and compared with the Union naval losses. The leader losses to the CSA have been much higher than those to the Union.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Seventeen, November 1862. A quiet turn. Here's the final SitRep screenshot.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Eighteen, December 1862. The SitRep for the start of the turn. No Union attacks to respond to. However, my supply situation is again critical and Erik's cavalry raiding is causing me grief. I have to keep spending supplies to repair the rail line into Humbolt since Sheridan's raiding has been so effective.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Eighteen, December 1862 continued. The final SitRep for the turn. Despite the tight times, Christmas is celebrated in the South.

As a fair warning, I will be giving Erik "permission" to view the first page of this thread, since enough turns have gone by that he will not be seeing anything that will be of real use to him. If he posts replies to anything that I wrote, they will of course show up on later pages, which he has agreed to not peek on. Just to let you all know, in case you see him logged into the thread. I wouldn't want y'all to think that the Yankee dog had no honor...[;)]

[Erik Rutins]

Great write-up so far, James! Thanks for inviting me to read the first page.

ORIGINAL: Grotius
You seem to be off to a great start. I'm surprised Erik didn't invade Kentucky at least in September 1861. In my game against the Union AI, it invaded Kentucky in August, and it easily rolled through the state, knocking me back on my heels.

I really should have. I made two decisions early on to try to do things a bit differently than the usual. The first was to see if there was any upside to holding off on a draft at the start (I wanted to see if the normal volunteer stream would be enough to hold me until 1862, by which time I expected my PPs to be up higher) and the second was to hold off on Kentucky in the hopes of getting the CSA to switch it to a permanent Union state. Let me say now that I would advise all of you NEVER to try these two strategies in combination.

When James made a major effort in West Virginia, that drew off what forces I had been gathering for Kentucky and my lack of a draft didn't give me enough reinforcements to both handle West Virginia and invade Kentucky early. So I ended up completely surrendering the initiative in Kentucky. By the time I realized that I really had to move in, my initiative rolls were also poor enough that I didn't have much that could.

So those two bad strategic decisions on my part really created a lot of pain that's still ongoing. I went off the rails a bit tactically as well as I realized how bad my strategic situation had become and I ended up doing a few too many hasty attacks at what seemed like targets of opportunity, just about all of those ended badly. I'm in a pretty deep pit now, but I've reorganized and changed my priorities and will be trying to salvage a victory or at least only a marginal defeat.

Regards,

- Erik

[JAMiAM]

Turn Nineteen, January 1863. A new year, and a new hope. Erik's bad luck with initiative continues and only Halleck and Lyon get it. Lyon tries an invasion of Elizabeth City.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Nineteen, January 1863 continued. The results from the battles. My artillery roughs up the Union Deep Water fleet in the Mississippi and Lee barely repulses Lyon. We did figure out the situation with the blockade not affecting the Mississippi River ports. Apparently naval attrition had damaged a transport in the supply chain and his Cruisers were not supplied. Unfortunately, that puts me behind the eight ball again, with respect to supply. All of my factories are producing supply now, and probably will throughout the rest of the winter.

[Grotius]

I made two decisions early on to try to do things a bit differently than the usual. The first was to see if there was any upside to holding off on a draft at the start (I wanted to see if the normal volunteer stream would be enough to hold me until 1862, by which time I expected my PPs to be up higher) and the second was to hold off on Kentucky in the hopes of getting the CSA to switch it to a permanent Union state. Let me say now that I would advise all of you NEVER to try these two strategies in combination.

Well, I'm glad you tried something different -- it gives us all food for thought. As you say, one or the other strategy might've worked alone, but both together has proven a bit painful. Still, this thing isn't over yet. If your generals ever start getting the initiative, the tide might turn a bit...

[Curious]

I certainly hope that this is going to be continued in the not too distant future.  I wouldn't inquire if I didn't find it informative and enlightening (and I need all the information and enlightenment that I can get).  In other words, keep up the good work, please.
 
CB

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Curious

I certainly hope that this is going to be continued in the not too distant future.  I wouldn't inquire if I didn't find it informative and enlightening (and I need all the information and enlightenment that I can get).  In other words, keep up the good work, please.

CB

Yes, I'll continue adding to this. Erik and I have got about four or five more turns played. As soon as the boards are fully functional again and I can post the screenshots, I'll try to catch up to the current game position. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

[JAMiAM]

I ran into a bit of a problem that indirectly affects this AAR. My Raid (data-striping) array for my home computer took a dump when one of the Raptors failed this morning. In the middle of my turn with PyleDriver, no less. The screenshots that had accumulated on that system are now unavailable to me for the foreseeable future, and perhaps permanently.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Twenty-Two, April 1863. This is one of the few screenshots that I had that weren't on the home system when it crashed. Better post it now, before any more bad luck hits...

This shows the Confederate Reaction to Grant's attack at Humbolt and the forces arrayed there. Sherman has overrun Harpers Ferry with the Death Star...err, I mean the Army of the Potomac, that came out of hiding (probably from Baltimore), and overwhelmed the fort that I had there.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Twenty-Two, April 1863 continued. This shows the battle results in Humbolt. Grant finally had his day, and Bragg slinks back to Memphis.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Twenty-Three, May 1863. This shows the forces arrayed in the Battle of Winchester, where Lee is reacting to Sherman's attack out of Harpers Ferry.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Twenty-Three, May 1863 continued. The results of the battle - a win by Lee.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Twenty-Three, May 1863. A screenshot of the Political situation. As you can see, Erik is squarely behind the eight-ball here, with a significant deficit to overcome. Also, it might be noted that none of his AC's got initiative this turn, despite the good probabilties for them to do so. Sherman's attack was probably just whichever local divisional and corps leaders that gained it, with Sherman thrown in for good measure. Erik has had terrible luck in motivating his generals. He must be sending Grant (and the others) the wrong brand of whiskey...

[JAMiAM]

Turn Thirty-Two, February 1864. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, there is a lot of history missing here, due to my hard drive crash. Erik and I have been knocking out a turn, or two, a day, and between that blistering pace, the game with Jon, and the forums being moved to the new servers, I missed out on the chance to post them while I had them...

Over the course of those turns, Erik had taken Manassas, with Sherman defeating Lee in a huge battle that saw the death of Jackson, and another wounding of Longstreet. The Confederate leader pool had taken a major hit, and the ANV lost a lot of its power. Later, a turn ago, I believe, Sherman was able to take Winchester, where I was able to operate for several turns with Wade Hampton raiding the depots at Manassas and Harpers Ferry. This screenshot shows the results of Sherman trying to move into Staunton, opposed by Lee and the ANV. Erik tried another small attack at New Kent, but Longstreet, recently recovered, reacted into the battle from Richmond with a single artillery unit. Though it was shot out from under him, the defenders still drove back the weak-spirited attackers. Staunton, however, was a much bloodier affair.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Thirty-Two, February 1864. This screenshot shows the situation out west. Erik has made some progress here, with Lyon taking the important bits of Texas, and the tag team of Grant and Thomas, slowly making their way down the Mississippi. There have been some extraordinary battles along the way. Corinth has seen several. Though things are finally starting to open up a little for Erik, the way to Georgia is still blocked, Tennessee and Kentucky are still mostly mine, and time is running out. The bad news is that my shortage of manpower is becoming critical. With so many battles resulting in me losing too many of my precious infantry, I don't know how well my armies will hold up, once good weather hits, and Erik gains some momentum.

[JAMiAM]

Turn Thirty-Three, March 1864. This screenshot shows the situation during the Confederate Reaction Phase. Erik has both Grant and Thomas pushing at Grenada and Corinth, respectively. I have a tough choice to make in which battle to oppose...

[JAMiAM]

Turn Thirty-Three, March 1864 continued. This screenshot shows the battle results, and should be entitled "Every silver cloud has a grey lining." Though I won at Grenada, I have a situation developing with Bo's right flank being opened up by Thomas' control of Corinth. Though I neglected the screenshot after moving, I was able to strip enough units from around the Confederacy to put small screening forces in both Tupelo and Decatur. Also, I was able to steal enough supplies, and have been slowly building a small stockpile, to afford forts in each of the regions.