A Northern Strategy

[Otay]

Haven't played FoF in a while so I am just getting back into it. Currently playing Sergeant level as the North but am not satisfied with the way things are going. It is 1864 and I think I am on the verge of losing. I have 4 Armies assembled with about 50-70K men each spread out in the country (two in Virginia and two in the west). I am facing three confederate armies of roughly equal strength. The problems I am facing are lack of money, lack of governor support, and lack of manpower. Not sure why my governors are at best non-committal. I pretty much give them what they want and have only used impressment once or twice and only in states that will support it. I am wondering the following: a) what is the right number of camps and where should they go? I have about 10 and don't think that is not enough; b) should I go ahead and promote all my generals to their historical rank once they become available or should I let them experience combat to get some experience; c) how do I end my money problems? I have mints (at least one, but often two or more) in money producing cities. My diplomacy is very small. I have found that my infantry and ship support are expensive but see no way around that; d) did I make a mistake with emancipation? I emancipated the slaves as soon as I could and have been behind ever since - even saw diplomatic support go up for the CSA - not historically accurate. Is there something I am missing or not doing right. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Otay
a1) what is the right number of camps
a2) and where should they go?
a3)I have about 10 and don't think that is not enough

b) should I go ahead and promote all my generals to their historical rank once they become available or should I let them experience combat to get some experience

c) how do I end my money problems? I have mints (at least one, but often two or more) in money producing cities. My diplomacy is very small. I have found that my infantry and ship support are expensive but see no way around that

d) did I make a mistake with emancipation? I emancipated the slaves as soon as I could and have been behind ever since

I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability although I usually play the Confederacy myself.

a1) I think a concensus is that your total reinforcement strength should be above 10.000 men every turn
a2) Two schools here, either place them all in a few cities with a high population to get the most recruits from every camp, or spread them around all your cities in a manner which means they will not reduce population to 0 in any city. I tend to go for the first option myself.
a3) That seems a tad low, yes. I will keep building camps untill I reach atleast 5k reinforcements, and then only stop producing them if I get the "invalide corps" upgrade.

b) Not quite sure what you mean here. Are you playing with random, hidden stats? If so, give them some combat to see how their skills are. If you are playing with historical ratings, promote the best generals to fthe highest ranks (Grant, Thomas, Sheridan etc)

c) As the Union, your only interest in diplomacy is to deny foreign intervention to the Confederacy. There is no need to invest money here if the South does not have a high rating. Are you using your ships? If not disband some of them (A bad idea if you intend to go for the Anaconda plan ofc). Brigades in cities and forts do not pay upkeep, so those not needed can be placed in forts and cities. Also, have you looked at and streamlined your economy? You say you are low on cash, how are you on labour? If you have a surplus here, switch more cities to monetary production. And also, 1 or two mints is not alot, you need to buildaccording to the demands on your economy, you can not demand the economy to suit your building wishes. Also, are alot of your populations depleted? If so, that city does not produce anything.

d) Short answer, yes! I am always happy when the Northern Agressors sign the Amencipation Declaration, it gives ALOT of new brigades to the Confederacy. Even states that started amongst the Northern Agressors but have later on been liberated by the CSA will produce brigades for the Confederacy if the Declaration is signed. To me this should ONLY be used as a "hail mary"-pass when the Europeans are about to declare war or Northern national will is painfully low. As to the Europeans getting mroe sympathetic to the CSA after the declaration is signed, this sounds wrong. Are you sure it was a result of the declaration and not just a lucky roll that saw the increase?


Terje

[Otay]

Thanks. I am using the Anaconda strategy and have 4 ships (mainly frigates) in each fleet with each confederate port blockaded. I have noticed that CSA is not getting any money and few materials from Europe. Is this the result of the blockade or something else? What do you mean by CSA high or low rating with regard to diplomacy? Currently, CSA has roughly 9 VPs and a high NW.

[terje439]

Can be several reasons for the CSA not to recieve anything from Europe:
1. Their blockade runners have been sunk
2. (and this happens way to often) All the available spots to pick up resources from Europe are located in the Great Lakes, problem with this is that the CSA cannot get their runners there, and it seems the location of the goods do not change untill atleast one has been picked up (I know I have had games where the goods were located in the Great Lakes from -63 and out the game...)
Have never been subjected to the Anaconda plan properly so I am afraid I do not know if that will cut off European resources as well.

High diplomacy rating. By this I ment that CSA diplomacy has worked so well that the French or British are about to enter the war on their side. (I do not use diplomacy tbh, so I do not recall what the different levels of diplomacy are called)

Terje