PBEM AAR - Long Live the Union!

[jchastain]

It appears Montgomery is undefended. I'll move the corp down to capitalize (something I am relieved he hasn't done with my depleted rear cities).

[jchastain]

And the second Army will move to Yazoo. Because I still control the river province, I can extend my reach from there. My hope is that he'll chase me, but if not I'll just focus on grabbing land in Arkansas with this depleted unit as I work my way back home through a route other than right through his main army.

[jchastain]

That's it for now.  All-in-all, I'm now officially worried.  He controls the seas.  We're in a stand-off in the east.  Out west, I suspect I he now has the upperhand and he can potentially land a crushing blow on Sherman in Nashville.  I've lost a lot of men.  Willpower is low.  Support from the governors is mixed and I've been ignoring them for way too long.  I've currently behind on both the technology and diplomacy fronts.  And time is not on my side.  At what point do I cut my losses and let these rebels do as they want?  Perhaps my last ace is emancipation, but I shutter to think of giving them another pile of troops to work with when my own ranks are already so depleted. 

[jonreb31]

Hold in there. [;)]

[jchastain]

The siege in Cumberland is going very very well now that it is finally going. Everyone should pay close attention to the difference between this result and what we were seeing earlier. Having the proper engineering and artillery makes a HUGE difference.

[jchastain]

Defense reduced to 1! I came THAT close to capturing the fort. That one point means I can't take the city this turn. Darn. Luck isn't blowing my way at present. Oh well, at least I am absolutely sure I'll take the fort this coming turn.

Looks like he attacked my Navy in harbor and won yet again. Before this is all over, I might not have any Navy left to reinforce. Looks like he won another battle with the junk forces and I lost another dozen brigades. That was a total waste. I've given his boys a lot of combat experience and reduced my ranks significantly.

[jchastain]

And just when things seemed to be at their lowest, disease hits Cumberland river. heh heh. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. OK, this'll hurt.

[jchastain]

The pain continues. I haven't done the math, but at a rough glance I seem to have lost at least 25% of my largest army. Ouch.

[jchastain]

That's a lot of losses and some lost disposition to boot. At least he didn't come after me. Let's hope that remains so or else I am really in trouble.

At least we end on some good news - we made some progress with diplomacy.

[jchastain]

One more piece of good news - he only destroyed the siege army. The corp escaped to Montgomery before he got there. OK, now I'll unload several brigades into the city and watch it turn a lovely shade of blue. That ought to get his attention. I'll unload the remaining brigades into the fort in Pensacola just to let them resupply. And then I'll move the empty armies to the river where they will die off. Good bye corp. At least those were some of my worst containers that I'm sacrificing.

[jchastain]

The western siege army is empty but didn't go away. Looks like a bug. I'll move it over a province but I suspect it will die off this turn as well and leave an explosion of officers as we saw in Florida.

[jchastain]

Not much else to show because there's not much else to do. I'll buy some weapons for a few AoP units and try to upgrade weapons on a few more ships to see if I can make him pay for the carnage he's causing, but that's it. The main action is in Nashville where I am just continuing the siege and hoping his Montgomery gaffe will keep him busy long enough to let me take Nashville.

One more upgrade. I'm not sure this will help much, but it can't hurt...

[jchastain]

I wish I could report otherwise, but the war is all but lost. Only desperate last straws remain within my grasp.

Let us begin with some good news though. Ft. Donelson was destroyed and the road to Nashville is now open.

[jchastain]

And now on to the more sobering reality. Some forces remained in Montgomery and did not make it to Pensacola and they were engaged and destroyed.

The truly bad news though is that he attacked Cumberland river and the results were even worse than I feared. nearly 40,000 of Sherman's army was destroyed. There is precious little left of the only proper fighting force I was able to field. National will is now nearing the outermost limit of negativity.

[jchastain]

And a few others details that honestly don't much matter at present. sigh.

[jchastain]

Looking at the strength graph, it is obviously just how badly we have suffered of late. In the past 18 months, I have turned a remarkable manpower advantage into a substantial deficit.

[jchastain]

So, as a final measure of desperation, there is nothing left to do but emancipate. That will address my diplomacy disadvantage. It will raise my National Will back somwhat (while not helping him much since he is near the top of the chart). And it will make his manpower advantage even greater. Frankly, I don't see this really solving my problems, but there is precious little else left to try. I'll be left with a fairly hefty cash advantage since diplomacy will be helped and since I have significantly fewer troops to support, but I fear there will not be time available to use it to rebuild my army in the manner that will be required to win this war.

[jchastain]

Sherman will move to Bowling Green to hopefully score some cheap experience. At this point though, my options are severely limited.

His Navy went to harbor - perhaps out of pity. I'll start the ironclad I've been wanting to build. I'll need at least one more after that to stand any chance at sea.

[jchastain]

And I end my turn with a Naval advance. It almost feels like the game is mocking me now. But I should be thankful since I am trying to put together a defensive navy. An invasion in New England would truly seal my fate once and for all (or more precisely would seal it even tighter then it already is.)

[Joram]

Hang in there jchastain!  Don't give up on the Union!  [:)]