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PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:50 am 
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Send the fleet in first and do your bombardment and then move the infantry in. If you reverse the order then you get the result you got.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"
Union Military Academy Instructor
Union Cabinet Secretary


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:03 pm 
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<b>Jun 1862</b>

Another amphibious landing but this time the Union played it safe and hit Jacksonville, Fl. Two militia units are created but my Leader, Baldwin, down there isn’t rated high enough to even use them. So the port falls and the Union navy moves back into the mouth of the Mississippi to close it. The South is now out of supplies. I will have to wait and see what that does to me. For sure it shut down my fort building. Hopefully sometime soon I at least get enough to finish the fortifications in Richmond and Petersburg.

Supply is something I don’t know how to control. Since I don’t have management of production I can’t affect how much I have being created. I am not sure if I have much control over how much is used by the armies.

I send Lee west to reorganize my defense of Memphis. I positioned him at Corinth to give him some flexibility and to build a mobile army around him. Nashville is probably a goner as soon as that massive army across the Cumberland gets initiative. I send A. Johnson east and Bragg to central Tennessee where I hope to organize a new army around him to defend Chattanooga.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:13 pm 
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by gcollins</i>
Halleck in a desperate move to try and bolster the government has sent a second expedition to the fort under Gen. McDowell. Lincoln was quoted as saying "if the expedition fails I feel the water is out of the tub".
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Gen. McDowell has to swim to safety of the covering gunboats. Lincoln is reported to be taking sponge baths now.[:D]

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:29 am 
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<b>Jul 1862</b>

Well my reorganized command didn’t last long. Gen. A. Johnston got hemorrhoids or something and quite for 7 or 8 months. I sent Bragg East to replace him and replaced Bragg with one of my best cavalry leaders, Van Dorn, because I had no one else qualified. The only good news on the leader front was Forest becoming available next turn and Longstreet returning from his wound.

My little testing of the waters in W.Va. paid off. No resistance was found in Charleston and it was taken without a fight. That worked so well I sent another one brigade command into Ashland, Kentucky to see if I get lucky twice.

Gen. Collins only got one activation this turn which grounded most of his huge armies. However, he put together a strong amphibious landing of some 14,000 men with fleet support and landed in Savannah. Unfortunately for him he picked the wrong city since I was using it to concentrate a force under Beauregard to retake Jacksonville. Instead of finding a garrison with some militia activations he found the little Napoleon with an army of 33,000 with 100 guns of support. Mansfield was killed and his force driven back to sea leaving 8,280 casualties behind.

The Yankee fleet still holds the mouth of the Mississippi cutting off my supplies but at least this time they paid for it with two ships sunk. I moved more heavy artillery in. Maybe I can drive them off.

For the first time since the war began I saw the total number of Union brigades drop from a high of 280 in May to 237 this turn. Gen. Collins didn’t declare a draft this turn. Maybe the Political status, dropped to 941, is beginning to hurt. He must get it above 1000 and win a major victory before winter to be able to declare Emancipation. It could be done in winter but much less likely. That will make Aug and Sep critical months for the union and their need for Initiative.

I wanted to make the situation even worse for them. Lee had the forces necessary to retake Humbolt but a critical force, his artillery reserve, failed to get initiative. The enemy having over 20 artillery units in its army I couldn’t move without them.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:35 am 
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The failure of the Amphibious invasions has dealt a catastrophic blow to Union morale and prestige abroad. Although the Confederacy is still completely blockaded, and supplies can only come in via Blockade runners, failure to land Union forces on the Rebel coasts is playing havoc with the political situation.

General Lyon receives the personal thanks of Lincoln for driving Robert E. Lee back and out of Paducah Kentucky. The Union navy continues to dominate the waters of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.

Emancipation of the slaves is not possible. The abolitionists in the north are screaming for Lincoln's resignation but without the political points at 1000 Lyon's victory in the west is hollow.

Winter is having it's effect on both armies as units suffer attrition and some have to disband. The Navy is not without it's casualties as constant blockade in all weather claims it's share of men and ships.


Bg. General Gilbert Collins
Army of Alabama
III/I/2nd Brigade


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:07 pm 
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<b>Aug 1862</b>

I couldn’t tell what happened to my incursion into Ashland other than it didn’t succeed. I don’t know whether the Union didn’t get enough initiative or Grant just wanted to clean up loose ends in his rear. Maybe my annoying little attacks are having an affect. Any way Grant took his massive army of some 90,000 men even after leaving a garrison force behind and stomped on Gallatin, TN. There my stout defender unlike Pillow fought a stand up fight with a mere 6,000 men. They inflicted as many casualties as they took then retreated across the Cumberland. Grant also sent a smaller force to clean up on his western side taking Henderson, KY. The Union now controls most of Kentucky except a few eastern regions in the mountains and all of Tennessee above the Cumberland River.

The question is with the last non-winter turn of Sep coming up will Grant and his huge army cross the Cumberland and take Nashville or will he keep moving southeast around the Cumberland than turn back into central Tennessee or even go for Chattanooga? I suspect Nashville if he get the needed initiative. He needs a major victory to declare Emancipation. Unfortunately, the Union PP is now at 946 and the victory might not give him the 1000 minimum he will also need to declare.

Meanwhile on the water front Union gunboats move into the Tennessee River cutting off most of the state. It is now questionable whether Lee and his army in western Tennessee will be able to support the central area when its attacked. Further south Farragut tries to subdue the forts protecting New Orleans and gets his butt kicked. I had moved Artillery Leaders into Fort Philip. Apparently that gave my gunners the edge they needed and they sent three cruisers to the bottom.

On other fronts Beauregard hoping that the Union set back at Savannah will give him some breathing room shifted his army to Tallahassee in preparation to retake Florida.

But the main offensive will be carried out by Lee. This turn he gets initiative for all his command and his army of 90,000 I put together in Corinth moves north to retake Humbolt. For a change Gen. Collins will get to watch the gray and blue bars of the battle display rise and fall. This is not the safest move since if I lose the Union will have the PP they need combined with a Nashville victory to declare Emancipation. But if I win a victory in Nashville will not be enough and there will be pressure to reinforce Lyon’s army or risk losing Paducah as well.

I also sent Van Dorn with Longstreet who has returned to duty to Nashville to start building an army around them. This may be a mistake since they are not large enough to fight Grant but are large enough to give Grant a major victory if he attacks. I am hoping the move against Humbolt forces Grant to send troops rather than attack. A lot depends on initiative next turn, the outcome of Lee’s attack, and how much confidence Gen. Collins has that Lee can’t cross the Tennessee River to reinforce Nashville if he attacks there. We will see.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:10 am 
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<b>Sep 1862</b>

Things pretty much went as I expected. My attack into Humbolt resulted in a victory. Lee inflicting heavy losses including some 260 guns. Which brings up just how loses are taken in this game. Since the game has units as the finest grain of casualties it must take losses as units. What it does is treat a unit as a two step loss for casualty purposes if it isn’t untrained. If a unit takes a one step loss it is considered damaged and is removed to the nearest (sort of) production area for replacement the next turn. In the process it consumes supply and population points (1/6th of normal cost for new militia unit). Militia units on the other hand are destroyed by a one step loss. So the actual results reported for the Battle of Humbolt was:

Damaged: 15 Inf, 10 Field Guns and 1 Cavalry.
Destroyed: 1 Inf, 2 Militia, 1 Field Gun, and 5 Heavy Guns
Captured: 1 Field Gun and 1 Heavy Gun

The Heavy Guns were loss because they can’t retreat. Normally I wouldn’t use them in field armies but the Union player is stuck with the AI production which keeps making them even though they are useless to the Union player.

Note that when an army retreats there is a potential for the victor to capture guns. In this case I picked up two units. To add insult to injury my forces turn around and used the heavy gun for ship bombardment sinking one of their gunboats.

September being the last month of summer campaign season it isn’t surprising that the Union goes on the offensive. They apparently weren’t lucky with initiatives but the all important Grant got it and invaded Nashville. My little army under Van Dorn, outnumbered two to one, didn’t have much of a chance but did give a stand up fight. They inflicted almost 15,000 casualties along with 30 guns hit at the cost of only 6,520 men. But Grant won and my gamble of leaving a force in Nashville didn’t pay off. All I did was give the enemy a victory to balance against Lee’s. But we end September with the Union Political Points well below the 1000 they need. And to make the attack it doesn’t look like they reinforced Paducah sufficiently.

So Lee goes once more on the offensive this time entering Northern territory by advancing into Paducah, KY. In the East things are quiet so Beauregard goes on the move as well advancing against Jacksonville.

Hopefully these two offensives will succeed without problems and winter will shut down any serious response by the Union. My guns in the forts on the Mississippi were too much for the Union navy so they withdrew opening the Mississippi for trade once more. Maybe I will even have surplus supply next turn.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:53 am 
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The winter of 1862-1863 was a bad one for both the army and navy. Ships and transports can be lost at sea but there isn't much you can do about that.
Lincoln in a desperate attempt to change the military situation shuffles the command structure. Grant and Lyon are the only army commanders that are giving him victories so they stay in command of the western armies. In the east, McDowell had to go and is replaced by a hopeful "General Curtis" from the west. "Old Brains Halleck" takes the fall for the inactivity in the east and General McClellan is raised to theatre command.

"McClellan may not fight, but he excels at teaching others to fight".

The year 1863 looms ahead. If the Union cannot retrieve it's fortunes this year we fear that the southern confederacy will become a permanent reality.

Bg. General Gilbert Collins
Army of Alabama
III/I/2nd Brigade


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:24 am 
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<b>Oct 1862</b>

The news from my offensives launched in September were all good. Beauregard took Jacksonville without any trouble and Lee after a hard fight drove Lyon out of Paducah. Besides securing a much needed port and region this should put considerable pressure on my opponent to withdraw troops from Grant’s huge army in central Tennessee.

The first winter turn sees the Yankees only taking on minor operations. They take advantage of the almost complete lack of opposition to seize another piece of Kentucky sending troops into London regions but Kentucky is still neutral since I have Paducah. This means its treated as enemy territory for the occupying troops which reduces their chance of initiative and increases other costs. Down south the Union navy tries again to take Fort St. Philip and permanently close the Mississippi. But I have quite a force there now including eight heavy guns. The amphibious assault is thrown back and two ships damaged. In other areas Union gunboats take out my one heavy gun at Shiloh but my heavy guns in Humbolt damage one of their gunboats.

My string of successful offensives in the West by Gen. Lee have offset Grant’s successes and put pressure on the Union manpower pool. There number of active brigades falling to the lowest since January of 1862 while mine are at their highest thanks to the good recruitment year of 1862. For once they don’t out number me by two to one, just 1.5:1. Gen. Collins finally gives in and makes a draft call. But this with my victories pulls his political point pool down to 840. The draft will lower his militia cost to six PP for two months but then it will be 1863 and if his PP pool is still below 850 it will jump up to 27 plus the post draft penalty. The pressure will be on for the Union to accomplish major victories in spring of 63.

My problem on the other hand is supply. Without more I can’t build fortifications around Richmond and Chattanooga that I will need to protect these areas and keep my armies free to maneuver. I need to figure out how the supply systems work and what I can do to reduce the costs to my armies otherwise attrition is going to destroy my armies faster than the Yankees during winter.

Attrition is a percentage probability calculation that uses a formula:

((W+E)xS)/T

where:
W = 2 for winter (1 otherwise)
E = 1 if in enemy territory (0 otherwise)
S = 5 if unit unsupplied (1 otherwise)
T = 1 for all but militia and mounted units which is 2.

As you can see being unsupplied in winter is really bad for most of my units having a 8% chance of attrition. Note the “Eâ€


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:13 pm 
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<b>Nov 1862</b>

The Union made a lot of probing attacks some of which I don’t know the purpose of. The one against Ft. St. Philip was another test of tactics for naval and land combined operations but did not work. A small forces attempted to test my troop levels in Charleston, W.Va. and found them sufficient. A small force moved against New Kent, I guess to see if all of the ANV would react. I just sent D. H. Hill and his command to turn them back. There some scattered gunboat actions between ships and forts but of no consequence. All and all a very calm month.

On the supply front though I am hurting bad. I had almost as many units damaged by attrition as we recruited this turn. I still haven’t found a way to get my supply in balance. Part of the problem is I don’t control my production (AI handles) and it doesn’t seem to be over concerned with it. But I can’t build fortifications unless I have a surplus. Until I do Richmond is very vulnerable.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:19 am 
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<b>Dec 1862</b>

The Union makes a major attack to retake Paducah. Lee responds but may be badly out numbered this time. My cavalry hasn’t been able to penetrate Cairo due to winter so I the force moving against me has a big “?â€


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:20 am 
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<b>State of the Disunion</b>

It having been a year and a half of war and a new year starting (1862/1863) I thought I would give a summary of what has happen and what I see coming.

Throughout the half year of 1861 the Confederate cause looked bleak. The Union army was growing by leaps and bounds almost out number the Rebels by 3 to 1. The South had a huge coast line to defend against seemingly unlimited ability of the Union to drop troops in. The Rebel attempt to claim Kentucky for the most part backfired allowing Union troops to move easily into key areas. The command situation in the South was a disaster. I had neither enough generals qualified to fill in the commands but lacked effective leaders at all levels. To make things worse I lost my two best commanders, Jackson and Longstreet, over the course of the year.

1862 started look like the Union would be unstoppable but as better leaders like Lee became available and my recruitment began filling my army’s ranks things started going the Confederate way. I was able to restrict the Union in the West to just Kentucky and block every move into Virginia. Almost all the attempts at amphibious landings were turned back and the few that made it ashore were later driven off. Most of the year New Orleans was held and more importantly the Mississippi River access for trade held.

I still had a chronic problem with maintaining good leadership. Outside of Gen. Lee I had no quality Army or Theater commanders. Gen. Lee after winning some key defensive battles in the East was sent West where he went on the offensive driving on of the Union’s major armies clear back to Yankee land. In the process pushed the Union Political state down into the low eight hundreds costing them recruitment and the ability to declare emancipation in 1862.

However the year ended on a sour note. Lee was pushed back out of Kentucky. The Mississippi was blocked by gunboats shutting down trade. And, worse of all the Confederate supply situation went into negative territory and does not seem to be coming out of it. I have already given up building forts and raising cavalry both badly needed to sustain the fight against Union drives into the Southern states.

Also much of my success is due to I think the defense being easier to learn and play than the offense. Gen. Collins is still testing what he can and can’t do but as the recent defeats show he is learning. All I can hope for is the gains I have made will make it impossible for him to overcome them. The most important one being blocking his chance for Emancipation. Not only does this prevent recruiting Black Soldiers who cost only six population points as compared to normal militia’s cost of 24 in 63 and 30 after but tags on an additional 3 Political Points penalty each turn until it is declared.

The Confederate challenges for the new year are many and difficult. The command situation must be improved but I don’t have enough political points to promote the needed Leaders so I will continue to labor under inadequate commanders for the jobs. Supply will only get worse as the Confederacy loses territory with its production to the Union advancing armies. And, with militia costs doubling to 12 in 63, I will have problems fielding even the three armies I have (Beauregard commands little more than a small Corps). To stop the huge Western armies I will probably have to feed all my troops into Lee’s army or at least keep the two Western armies close enough together they can support each other. Defending wise there is no way for the Confederacy to fight for central Tennessee or Northern Virginia. The river system in the West makes one dangerous to do and the closeness of the Capital and withdrawal of the best leaders and men make the other not likely. New Orleans might have to be sacrificed as well. Once the river is blocked I can’t afford the detachment of so many troops to hold it.

So considering these, my plans for 1863 are to try to avoid giving the Union the victories they need to declare emancipation. In 1862 I did this by defeating their advances. In 1863 I may have to rely on giving up territory for time. In the West I will draw my defensive line from Memphis to Chattanooga. In the East it will be behind the Rappahannock River. On the Coastal areas and Mississippi it will be around small mobile forces who will try to selectively drive back Yankee incursions.

Now to the war and see how things work out.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:40 am 
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by KWhitehead</i>
<br />[b]<i>Side note: The Unit display which shows a summary of all unit types for both side in game, appears to give actual numbers. This is how I have been tracking the size of the overall Union forces. This turn it took a mighty drop from 248 Infantry in Nov to 204. This put into question my assumption that it shows both sighted and unsighted units. But it also shows more than I know I can see. There is a little mystery here, hopefully I can come up with an answer.</i>

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

With the FOW on the Units screen will not give you the correct figures for your enemy but an approximation that could be lower or higher depending on the whim of the computer. It is supposed to reflect the the fact that intelligence could get close but never exactly right.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"
Union Military Academy Instructor
Union Cabinet Secretary


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:57 am 
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STATE OF DIS-UNION FROM THE UNION POINT OF VIEW

Kennon's analysis of our game is accurate. I will add some insight from the Union point of view.

1862 is a critical year. If the Union is not 'winning' the war in that year then they are in fact losing it. The political point system IS the key to victory and this must be kept as close to 1000 as possible. If the Union is continually sliding below this figure, they can't win.

Exacerbating this situation is the fact that every turn the Union loses 27 political points while the Confederacy loses only 9. It's a small amount but it is three times what the Confederacy loses. On top of all that losing a large battle adds political points to your enemy and loses points for your side.

Once the political points are sliding down, you had better do something to change the direction or defeat is staring you in the face.

I am very pleased with the game historically. It seems to reinforce all my reading of the conflict, but there are some 'areas of concern'. I say 'areas of concern' because I am loathe to cut down a game of this complexity when I have not even concluded a single game against a human opponent.

I'm a little worried about the Union Amphibious Capability or I should say the ability of the Confederacy to respond to it. I'm going to mention New Orleans in particular because it is the biggest concern to me but some of these arguments would also hold for other port cities on the coast. But New Orleans presents some real difficulties.

For those of you not familiar with the real campaign it was one of the earliest of the war and was so successful that it is strange that it is not remembered as well as the great land battles of the war. Herein is probably the reason why it is not remembered in that it was the "Navy's Show". In a nutshell Fort Jackson and Fort St. Phillipe on the Mississippi located just south of the city protected the city from capture. There was a small Confederate fleet involved but in the end passage of the forts by the Union fleet would doom the city. This is exactly what happened.

When the Union fleet battered the forts and ran past them the city had no choice but to surrender. Nobody needs be told that the city is almost below sea level and when Farragut's fleet literally anchored at the docks the city had to surrender or be bombarded at point blank range and be destroyed.

In game terms it is possible to capture Ft.Jackson and Ft. St. Phillipe but if someone can tell me how the city of New Orleans can be captured itself, I would welcome an e-mail.

Theoretically, you just move in an infantry force. But the movement points to do so are so expensive that in practice almost no Union commander can do so. Except perhaps a Grant or a Sherman but they don't come until later. Historically Benjamin Butler was the officer who captured the city but technically the city had already surrendered to two naval officers who bravely debarked and demanded its surrender.

Baton Rouge, just up the river surrendered immediatly after New Orleans once the Navy appeared. In game terms this is impossible. I have not been able to figure out any way the Union can move infantry forces ON THE RIVER as amphibious invasions. You may in fact may not be able to. If you can, I have not figured it out yet.

My concerns with the Amphibious forces are that they can be achieved by the Union at a tremendous cost in resources but when finally assembled could be defeated by a local muster of confederate militia which occurs automatically at the defence site.

It seems a bit much that a large Union force moving hundreds and hundreds of miles by sea could be defeated so easily by local defence forces. All that I have read about the Confederacy has stated time and time again that the confederacy was almost completely helpless to stop Union Naval invasions. They could contain them perhaps when they landed, but they could not stop them. They had no navy to do so and Naval intelligence had not advanced to the degree where exact landing sites could be known in advance.

This is a dual edges sword I know. I'm an old Reb at heart. But I want the Confederates to be able to do things that they could do, not things that they couldn't to balance a game. There are other ways to do that.

I'm also a little concerned about ironclads vs land heavy artillery. It had long been a naval maxim that '4 guns on board' are equal to 'one gun on shore'. The Union navy started with this is mind. But it was soon found that this maxim which held true in the Napoleonic Wars did not hold true for this new age of Ironclads. The Union navy soon found out that Ironclads, although taking some damage did not have to fear the land batteries as much as they did only 40 years before.

In game terms the Ironclads seem to be about the equal of heavy land batteries. For fortress cities like Vicksburg it seems to work fine. But for indefensible places like New Orleans it does not.

In our game, I tried a number of fairly large amphibious invasions (larger than the historical ones) and every one has failed. Not one Union soldier is on the Rebel coasts (except for the islands) which fall more or less by default. But even those take tremendous resources to occupy.

The Confederacy has been blockaded for the entire period we have been playing. Kennon says that he has felt the loss of resources but from the Union point of view it has not diminished the size of his armies. This is 1863 and the confederate armies are still quite large. If they are wearing tattered uniforms, I don't see them because they still fight like the devil.

Although I have the three critical border states of West Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky, it hasn't really done anything. I'm not any closer to victory than before. The only advantage is geography. In that the fighting will tend to be on the borders of those states and in the interior. But the fact that these three states were prevented from joining the confederacy doesn't seem to help the Union much.

Of course THE LOSS of them means he is going to lose big time. So the Union doesn't have an option here, HE HAS to secure the border states. The confederacy doesn't.

Last of all we have the fact that the confederacy is on the strategic defensive. They don't have to 'win' . They just try to 'not lose'.

Learning the Union I think is a bit tougher. They have all the resources and 'goodies'. Naval fleets, ironclads, transport fleets etc.. But another big thing is initiative. If the Union doesn't have it. they will lose. So there is a built in 'luck' factor that does favour the confederacy. If they don't get initiative, they may have a tough time of it and will lose territory and resources. But if the Union does not get it, they will lose the entire war.

It's 1863 in our game now and I'm predicting Confederate Independence.

Oh, I should mention the economy at this point. Kennon and I have used the AI handling the economy. But to simulate the war properly players may have to manage it. The AI does a credible job but it may not be enough to change with the fortunes of war. Presently I have tons of heavy artillery units that are useless to me. If I had handled the production I would have allocated resources differently than the AI.

I say it again. This is a terrific game




Bg. General Gilbert Collins
Army of Alabama
III/I/2nd Brigade


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:23 am 
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General Collins, sir.

It sounds as though the game reflects the war very nicely. Until the turn around of '63 many 'in the know' did think the CSA may turn into a long lasting state.

I like that the rebellion merely has to not lose, to win. That pretty much is what I see as history's pattern, if an established government cannot defeat a rebellion, then itself collapses.

As for the amphib thing... is it possible your invasion attempts were 'too big.' I don't have the game yet, so this is just a very wild guess.

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos

The Union Forever! Huzzah!


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