Summary: Another craptastic battle led by Lee. Despite outnumbering the Union forces and despite the gallant efforts of his subordinates, Lee manages to, once again, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Total casualties include 4,632 Union and 12,871 Confederates. Our losses included the surrender of the 30th Confederate Infantry and its muskets.
Attachments
columbusMar63end.jpg (349.19 KiB) Viewed 825 times
Summary: After the defeat at Columbus, Lee was forced to retreat back to Dayton. Here he was advanced upon by four different Union armies. Only the bravery and competency of his subordinates saved his army, for he must have felt compelled to try and throw the rest of it away as well. The needless bloodshed continued, as casualties amounted to 5,863 Union and 7,408 Confederate. Despite the Union forces retreating from the field, the AoK was in no position to pursue and collected no spoils from the battle. In the span of two weeks, Lee managed to render ineffective the largest remaining Southern army group.
1. Got quite a few brigades last round, will try for a few more this turn.
2. Resource production is down, but I figured as much with my aggresive recruiting and my prioritizing brigades for reinforcements.
3. My April hit to camps shouldn't be terrible. I figure I will need to build about 5 more to even it back out again.
4. Need to start building a few more container units to hold the new brigades.
5. After that it is just spending resources on upgrading my current brigades. As I do that, hopefully I can level the playing field with some of the Union brigades.
SecWar Report:
1. Gen. Lee failed to move his forces into Cincinnati to rest and recover. He states that his army is in too poor of condition to move.
2. General Heth has moved his forces into Wheeling to begin a seige there.
3. Gen. Price continues to bombard St. Louis. He reports that they have destroyed roughly 50% of the cities fortifications.
4. ~10,700 recruits have been distributed to existing brigades.
5. Our recruitment efforts have produced six new brigades for service.
6. We have introduced a new corp container unit. We recommend production of several division containers in the upcoming weeks.
7. A Choctaw Indian cavalry brigade has offered its services to our cause.
8. We have begun to move the newly recruited brigades towards our existing armies to bolster their numbers.
9. Our raiders in Nashville were destoryed while attempting to destroy banks and other economical structures.
10. Our raiders in Wheeling were successful in looting several Union weapons depots. These weapons made their way back into the hands of our quartermaster battalions for immediate use in our brigades.
11. Our raiders in Indianapolis were unsuccessful in their attempt to devestate the local economy.
12. We have promoted Gen. J. L. Kemper to two-star general.
SecInt Report:
1. We finished building a camp in Topeka and a raider in Richmond.
2. We decreased our support from several governors by again requesting that they musted volunteer brigades.
3. Our administrative and logistical efforts has increased our casualty trickle-back, increasing our camp supplied replacement production by 33%.
4. New census numbers reported that we have lost 27 units of population to camp provided reinforcements, while 59 new units of military eligible men were counted.
5. Governor Letcher of Virginia has requested an iron works. Our chances of funding this mirror his support for this administration.
6. Aides for Governor Moore in Louisiana have stated the governor has defunded many of the states military engineering programs.
SecNav Report:
1. BR off the Georgia coast have smuggled in 35 units of hard currency to help fund our war effort.
SecState Report:
1. French trade support has decreased slightly.
1. A few more brigades have been mustered into the fight. The really good news is the invalid corp from last round. That puts me back over the 10k mark after the April pop camp reduction without needing to build more camps. This will free up all of my resources for research and brigade upgrades. Couldn't have come at a better time.
2. Resource production should be ok. Most of my cities fully recovered their populations. The only ones that didn't were the camp cities, which is expected, and the cities in states who's governors hate me. But even they came close to fully recovering.
3. Buell is baffling me. He refuses to seige Island #10, and without it, he cannot seige or plunder Memphis. I have never seen this before, but I will take a break when I can get it.
4. Lee's army getting pummeled was not in the plan, I can afford to trade land for time if need be.
5. Governor Moore in Louisiana hurting my engineering research sucks, although its better than opposing money production.
6. The only other build priority I have is a few divisional containers for some of the new brigades recruited. Some of my army structures are less than optimal.
How many more brigades do you intend to build?
I find that too many is no good either as that drains your economy really fast.
Congratulation on recieving the imo single most important research upgrade when you play as the CSA.
I don't intend on building any more brigades. Probably the only other ones that I will get are the emancipation brigades, which should be coming any turn now. My main focus is to not lose anymore men for a few turns until I can rebuild the strength of my existing brigades.
SecWar Report:
1. Confederate forces engaged Union armies in Wheeling and Fredericksburg. Details to follow.
2. Gen. price reports that the seige of St. Louis is progressing with rapid speed. He expects to have the town within the next two weeks.
3. Our new raiders have deployed into the Potomac river area and have succeeded in stealing 14 units of weapons.
4. Our raiders in Indianapolis succeeded in sacking many businesses in the area but were dispersed by a strong showing from the local militia.
5. Our raiders in Wheeling succeeded in stealing 8 units of weapons from local depots but they were destroyed by the attacking Union army in that area.
6. ~10,500 new recruits were hurried into our depleted brigades. We estimate another 220,000 men needed to fill out existing brigades.
7. Gen. W Preston has fully recovered from his battlefield injuries.
8. Gen. Pender has succumbed to the terrible injuries he sustained in service to the South.
9. The Creek Indians have volunteered the services of 2,000 of their warriors in support of the Confederacy.
10. We have recruited a brigade in Jefferson City. We recommend moving into Price's corp and rotating a depleted brigade there out to Jefferson City for rest and refit.
SecInt Report:
1. No news to report this fortnight.
SecNav Report:
1. Our BR's have brought in 30 units of money.
SecState Report:
1. France has increased her support for the Confederacy.
Summary: I have a shot of the beginning of the battle, but it was so close I forgot to snap a shot of the conclusion because of my excitement of winning. It was another massive bloodletting, but the boys in butternut managed to hold them off. Total casualties amounted to 12,813 Union, including two captured brigades, and 11,787 Confederates. Gen. Ransom was wounded leading his men in a counterattack. We also have looted 2 brigades of Springfields, 2 brigades of Minie rifles, 2 brigades of muskets, and 1 brigade of European muskets from the abandoned Yankee supply wagons.
Attachments
fredApril63start.jpg (298.23 KiB) Viewed 827 times
Summary: No pictures here. We would have been on the offense, with a depleted army, and barely a numerical superiority. I decided to retreat the boys and hope for the best when it came to surrendering brigades and losing weapons. No brigades were lost, but I did lose a brigade of Springfields and a brigade of Liege rifles.
1. Even though I won in Fredericksburg, I am going to be forced to retreat Weisiger's army. It has been bloodied to a pulp and like Jackson's, is now utterly incapable of fighting another battle. I will retreat him back to the James River (Richmond) province. That will buy me at least seven or so turns to rebuild while the Union runs wild in eastern Virginia.
2. Jackson's army is rapidly rebuilding, but that is at the expense of reinforcing my other main army groups. A few more turns and I will need to turn the recruits back to Weisiger.
3. I will keep a small stream of new men going to Lee and Heth.
4. At this point, All I can do is trade land for time to rebuild my forces and mount another round of defenses. With the impending loss of Fredericksburg, and Buell's endlessly growing army, I do not think I can force a victory point win. My only option is to focus on holding out until Nov. of 1864. This is achievable.
5. The Union is still vulnerable in the Ohio Valley. If I can buy a few turns worth of time there, I can probably catch the computer making the aggressive error and make him pay for it. If I succeed in that, the Union will be forced to back Buell out of Memphis or lose a good portion of the Midwest.
SecWar Report:
1. Gen. Price reports a successful seige. The city of St. Louis has joined the Confederacy. The last remnants of Union control are being removed from a state that has rightfully declared its intentions to join our cause.
2. Gen. Heth reports that he has engaged the enemy in Kenawha. Details to follow.
3. Gen. Weisiger has withdrawn his forces to Richmond where he is expected to rest and refit over the next several months. We can only hope that the spring rains slow the Union advance into the Fredericksburg area.
4. Gen. Jackson is reporting a continuing strengthening of forces in the Army of Tennessee. We have accordingly shifted our reinforcement priorities to Gen. Lee's and Gen. Weisiger's forces.
5. We have upgraded the arms of many of our regiments with standardized muskets.
6. ~10,500 new recruits have been dispersed to existing regiments throughout the South.
7. Disease struck our garrisons in Mobile and Montgomery. We estimate around 500 men died from the contained epidemic.
8. Our commanding generals are reporting widespread improvement in the efficiencies of their respective chains of command.
9. Our raiders in the Potomac River area have reported the destruction of many Union banks in the area. Our economists worry that the destruction of that many Federal notes may actually help improve the inflationary situation in the North.
SecInt Report:
1. We began construction of two banks in Baton Rouge and an Armory in Austin.
2. We began recruitment of raiders in Lexington and raiders in Norfolk.
3. We completed a raider in Richmond and an Armory in Mobile.
SecNav Report:
1. Our BR's have smuggled in 40 units of weapons off the shores of Delaware.
SecState Report:
1. European military support for the South has increased somewhat.
2. French diplomatic support for the North has increased. On a scale of 1-10 we rank their support of our enemies as a 7.
Summary: Gen. Heth led his men in a valiant stand in the mountains but the incompetency of some of his divisional commanders and lack of qualified brigade commanders doomed his army in the close struggle. The fight could have gon either way, but a few lucky rallies by the Union ensured the defeat of our forces. Lost in the fight were three brigades captured in addition to the one sided casualties. Also lost were several brigades of weapons.
1. Losing 3 brigades in Kenawha was not in the plan. However, despite the casualties, Heth's Valley District forces aren't in that bad of shape. Since they retreated into Cincinnati, I will shuffle the better units from Lee's command to see if I can counterattack at the opportune time. The downside, is that with the loss of Kenawha, they can cut my trans-Confederate railroad.
2. Jackson continues to rebuild as does Weisiger. Buell seems stuck trying to loot Memphis, while not laying seige to Island #10. I can only think that it is a big somehow.
3. St. Louis has joined our cause with 10/14 MP still available in the province. I am contemplating draining it dry before the Union makes a concerted effort to counterattack.
4. Once Jackson's army is replenished, I should probably move forward and do an aggressive seige on Nashville. An all out assault would be costly, but it could cause havoc with the Union forces near Memphis.
5. I expect the Union to move into Fredericksburg this turn and start the capture of N. Virginia.
6. I ended up building one extra armory. Right now, my focus is to use spare resources on unit upgrades. I am consistently winning and losing battles with 2 to 1 casualty margins. Not in my favor. For fighting primarily a defensive campaign, that is not a good sign.
7. Overall, the strategy for the next four turns or so is mainly a wait and see approach.
