Learning as USA..An open Discussion AAR on the April 1861 Campaign

[seydlitz_slith]

Over in Ohiio I am dealing with the Rebel Cavalry raid...

[seydlitz_slith]

New this turn, things are heating up around Paducah....

[seydlitz_slith]

Finally,
Out west I maintain my position in Dallas, and meanwhile I have detected Rebel Cav from Texas up at Topeka. I send my 3rd Cavalary to intercept them from their position in Creek territory.

On the naval front, the Monitor is finished, and I immediately order her to Hampton Roads.

Builds:
I am kind of at a crossroads here. I am not sure what will happen the next few turns, so I want to hold on to some cash. However, in keeping with my strategy to choke off the South and then force her to spread her defenses, I choose to build the following:

5 marine units
4 rivier monitors (inMD)
1 Armored Frigate (New Ironsides)
4 more blockade flotillas

This should leave me with a planned balance of $195, 563 manpower, and 103 war supplies.

Time to end the turn.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 7...

[seydlitz_slith]

Meanwhile, over on the frontier...

[seydlitz_slith]

Still working to contain the Ohio raid...

[seydlitz_slith]

builds and naval info...

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

Turn 7...

You should keep the transports with him. They act as supply wagons and allow your fleets more time to remain on station. Also it usually takes 4-6 ships (any type) to blockade that stretch of river and a blockade will prevent raiders and armies from crossing into your territory. Hover your mouse over a river section and it'll tell you how many more ships are needed to successfully blockade it.

I have seen the number needed change though (some areas needed 4 ships in 1861 and now need 6 in 1862), so be sure to check from turn to turn to make sure you're maintaining enough ships on station to prevent crossings.

Jim

[Pdubya64]

Hello all. Good discussion on learning the basics with the Union. AACW has taken up most of my play time for the past three days and it seems the toughest part to get used to is just how "grand" the grand scale of the war is (in the game of course). SO many choices and about the only way to deal with it is come up with a plan to get organized from the get-go. Some of this is gonna be "duh" stuff, so bear with me...

[ol][*]First thing is get the latest patch and apply it to AACW. Then start AACW and set the options with help from the tooltips & play both of the tutorials. Be patient, you may have to start over if you miss moving a unit like I did the first time. The tuts can be a bit dry and lengthy, but they do get the job of familiarity started. It is still easy to forget the steps needed to do things like combine units, etc. so again, try to be patient.[*]If, like me, you are still waiting on your hard copy of the game to arrive, pull up the PDF file on the rules (the original in the /docs folder) and change it to "full screen" mode in adobe reader; it scales very well and is much easier to see and read. Navigate with mouse or arrow keys. Read though the rules once for familiarity and again for comprehension. I found opening a AACW game up can help here too.[*]Either print out (best) or open on adobe reader the additional files in /docs- in particular the reinforcement and leader files. The reinforcement files will help you anticipate what is coming "online" in a given turn and more importantly, where. This is very helpful in minimizing the overwhelming feeling AACW can give you as you first climb aboard. The leader file will do much the same for your all important leaders. Remember that the Combat Values (X/X/X) coorespond to strategic/offensive/defensive.[*]Print out or view the latest manual from online. It isn't as flashy as the original, but it is mostly up to date (rev20 from June 29). Then print out the readme.txt and find out what has changed since the latest patch. All the modifications should be in one file, back to the original 1.0a in April.[*]Pick your favorite side and dive in! I started the whole campaign in April of '61. It might be better to do a shorter one if only for the reason of having many more units (and leaders that will be activated!) and give you chances to play with organizing your Armies, Corps, and Divisions/Brigades and all their various elements. Just be aware that if you choose the whole war from the start, there is very little to do in some respects. This is good and bad. It is good because you can play around and try things up to the point of saying "well, THAT didn't work!" and exiting out only to start again. It is bad because you don't really understand that historical parameters are what is driving the limited amount of options available to you in the first three months. But that is OK, you soon will.[*]I suggest going to www.wargamer.com and reading Trotter's review article. He sheds some light on things that make for good "ahah!" moments after you have a small amount of time invested. There are sure to be others as well as all the posts here and at AGEOD's forum. Use them![/ol]I am going to post a similar thread on my experiences with the Confederacy, as they are where I have concentrated my efforts to learn. Keep up the posts guys, good stuff!
PW

[seydlitz_slith]

Wow, thanks for the advice. I didn't realise that. I will send them back down to join immediately. I did notice that the Rebs have moved up significant numbers of their own gunboats, and forced Foote back to Paducah. 

[Pdubya64]

Jim, will the transports "count" towards the blockade count or are they considered non-combatants?
I would definitely send them if the supply situation wouldn't let them stay on station long. This is one aspect I have yet to play around with much- looking forward to it.
Thanks.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Pdubya64

Jim, will the transports "count" towards the blockade count or are they considered non-combatants?
I would definitely send them if the supply situation wouldn't let them stay on station long. This is one aspect I have yet to play around with much- looking forward to it.
Thanks.

They count as a ship. Another point I forgot to make is that the ferries stockpile a small amount of supplies (assuming you control them, only land units can switch control of ferries), so if you have a transport with your fleet adjacent to a ferry crossing it'll draw supplies from the ferry and you can virtually stay on station all campaign season. Works the same way as supply wagons outside of a city, when they draw supplies from the city, which allows your army to remain outside during winter while the supply wagon absorbs the hits and replenishes the supply in the same turn.

The only limiting factor will be cohesion, you'll have to revisit port once in a while to recover cohesion, but supplies will remain pretty full.

I try to keep a 6 ship fleet (at least 4 gunboats per fleet) at each ferry and each RR crossing point. It tends to reduce raids into my interior significantly. It also prevents surprise attacks by large confederate forces that were unseen at turn start and cross the river to grab a poorly defended city of mine.

Units can cross at non-ferry and non-RR crossing points, but they can’t trace supply across them I believe. I’m not 100% sure though.

In the winter some areas of the river freeze up, so raids will pick up there, but from about Kentucky south you can keep a blockade going all year round.

One last point, transports act as a supply wagon for land units in adjacent land areas, so if you’re cut off, station a fleet next to your troops to keep them in beans and bullets. This is especially important during naval invasions, keep your fleet on station until after you secure a city, or your troops will starve real fast.

Of course just like supply wagons, transports supplies will dry up as well. So make sure you bring enough transport ships to last several turns.

Jim

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 8... VP 287 NM 86

[seydlitz_slith]

New develpments in the east...

[seydlitz_slith]

Down in the Hampton Roads area...

[seydlitz_slith]

The maneuver in the Ohio area continues, but it looks like the excitement of the raid is coming to a close.

[seydlitz_slith]

Jefferson City Missouri...

[Gem35]

I'm still going to post some screenies of troop organizations, with me working weekends, I can continue during weekdays while you folks may be at work.[;)]
Look for some possibly tomorrow afternoon into Tuesday.
thanks guys and great reading seydlitz, you seem to be doing well.

[seydlitz_slith]

Down around Texas...

[seydlitz_slith]

ORIGINAL: Gem35

I'm still going to post some screenies of troop organizations, with me working weekends, I can continue during weekdays while you folks may be at work.[;)]
Look for some possibly tomorrow afternoon into Tuesday.
thanks guys and great reading seydlitz, you seem to be doing well.

That would be fantastic. Seeing how youa re setting your stuff up will also help me out. As I say, I am kind of feeling my way along here, and all help and comments are welcome.