Gulf Coast Campaign

[kennonlightfoot]

Gulf Coast Campaign



The shutting down of the Mississippi ports is critical for the long term success of the Union. While they can be blockaded quite effectively by occupying Ship Island and putting in 2-3 cruisers in the sea zone, placing ships in the mouth of the Mississippi results in 100% shutdown of trade.

The Confederates start the game with forts already built in the regions of Ft. Jackson and Ft. Philip. These forts are indicated on the map by the two gray pentagons. Given time they will reinforce these forts with infantry but they don’t have any way to move by strategic movement directly to the forts. So the very first Union move is block the river and prevent reinforcement of the forts. This is done by moving a large fleet, I gathered every cruiser I could spare for the job, and moved them their as indicated by the read arrow. I immediately attacked the heavy artillery in Fort Philip reducing it. This move was followed up by also placing enough transports in the sea area to support a four infantry amphibious landing against Ft. Philip capturing it.

Having all these ships in the area allowed me to follow up over the next few turns with further invasions to support this one and close more Gulf ports. The light blue lines show these. One landing against Ft. Jackson so that the Rebels couldn’t place Heavy Artillery there to harass the blocking fleet. Pensacola was also taken by amphibious assault. This is an easy one because it has no population or manufacturing centers to create militia when attacked. Since I don’t plan at this time to attempt to take Mobile I also landed troops on Dauphin Island. Placing one infantry and one heavy artillery on the island along with one or two blockading cruisers effectively shuts down this port. Even better would be putting ships in Mobile bay but I probably don’t have enough to take on his heavy artillery there.

This is the quick work done during the first few turns of 1861. For the time being the rest of the Gulf (Galveston) is handled by blockading fleets. I haven’t come up with a effective method of taking New Orleans itself. I don’t need to take it to shut down trade but eventually something must be done since it is a major link to the west through St. James region.

Refer to AAR for more info: 2nd ARR WbtS Whitehead(USA)

[Sluggonics]

This is a good strategy-- I had pondered how far to take assaulting the Gulf Coast region in those early turns.  My question is how many cruisers should you commit to the river, and how soon?  I assume you want to move them all in bulk and make one large assault, to avoid having cruisers get picked off turn by turn?
 
It also seems that the largest cruiser fleet, sitting off of Washington D.C., can't actually get to the Mississippi Delta on the first turn.  Blocking the river with the three cruisers you can get there lead to damaged cruisers from artillery.  But don't we need to get cruisers into the river immediately to disrupt supplying the forts?

[kennonlightfoot]

I believe the Rebels start with one Heavy artillery in each fort so entering the first turn is not a good idea.  You don't have many cruisers at start so you don't want to risk them.  I strip the entire east coast of all cruisers but a group to block the gunboat in Norfolk.  Usually I leave the lone Union gunboat and two cruisers with a good defensive leader there.  All the remaining ones I take to the Mississippi with at least two good attack naval leaders.  I have forgotten but I think its about six cruisers that I enter with.  It's best to hit with overwhelming numbers so you can quickly reduce the fort's heavy guns.  The main constraint is to attack before the first production heavy artillery starts showing up.
 
Now for the Rebel counter (AI won't do this).  Move both Heavy guns to Ft. Philip.  Move you lone gunboat with a leader and a transport to the entrance to the Mississippi between the two forts.  Use strategic movement to move two more heavy artillery (three if you can find them) and at least three infantry into Ft. Philip.  Get you best artillery leader that can handle four guns into the fort.  And, wait for those Cruisers to show up.[:D]

[Champagne]

Seems to me that the CSA should be able to reinforce Ft. St. Philip with Heavy Artillery via Strategic Movement on the very first turn of the game. Perhaps the game program should be patched to allow this to happen.
 
Let's recall that the game starts in July, 1861.  If the CSA grand strategy called for early reinforcement of Ft. St. Philip, then, this movement could have gotten underway WAY earlier than July.
 
Perhaps the CSA player should have the ability to freely set up some Heavy Artillery to start the game instead of being frozen into the fixed opening set up with which the Union player is intimately familiar?

[Champagne]

No comments?

Hmmm . . .

[rmday]

You can move riverine transport into the mouth of the Mississippi. Then, you can move whatever you like into the two forts on turn #1.

[rmday]

For the Gulf Coast campaign, I have had a lot of success (against the AI on Challenging with FoW) by invading one MS Fort and bringing in artillery. Then, I invade Baldwin and bring in artillery. After that, I scoop up Pensacola and Galveston. The Gulf becomes a Union bathtub. I do this at the expense of an early Virginia campaign that was mostly doomed anyhow.

[GShock]

Your plan takes into account everything but the enemy factors in the 2 forts which are not scoutable. Against a human player this is a decisive difference on whether your 4 units will make it with that assault or not. Twiggs is generally in NO and could also be in either fort as AC ruining the pie. [;)]

Do not underestimate the VA campaign, that's where the most VA production is located and it's worth a lot of VP. Next patch could bring in some surprises both in this particular theater and in the NO area. [:)]

[kennonlightfoot]

Against the AI I have found little problem taking the forts around the Mississippi.  The AI is very slow to send in infantry so usually the second turn a fleet can go in, clean out the river region and reduce the artillery in at least one fort.  Infantry can then be landed to take it.  Against a Player its highly questionable what will work.  When I play the CSA I usually move my gunboat and transport into the river region next to the forts so I can use strategic movement to quickly reinforce the fort with more heavy guns and infantry.