General Simms,
An excellent thread, sir.
I, also, miss the tournaments (who remembers "Tennessee River 2000" - T2K?). As General McClellan has pointed out, though, one of the big obstacles to tournaments is that there are so many HPS ACW games available it's difficult to find one that enough people own to build a tournament around. That's a good problem to have.
Personally, I've always preferred blind un-historical scenarios, in which neither opponent knows what is coming at him, rather than playing actual historical battles. General Litton did an excellent job of setting some of these up back in the TS days. Now, with all the HPS ACW titles and scenarios, it's much easier to find a scenario neither player is intimately familiar with. Not exactly the same thing as a blind scenario, but a close second.
I've been thinking about the elimination of the Army of the James. A quick comparison shows the USA side of the club has had six armies and 14 corps, compared to the CSA side with only four armies and 12 corps. That means the Union has had to come up with four more commanders than the Rebels. I don't know for sure, but I rather expect there are more Rebels in the club than there are Yanks in the first place. My guess is the Union, at some point in the past, set up more armies in preparation for future expansion and the recruits just didn't come in as fast as expected. In other words, they may have just over-expanded. Eliminating an army could very well be just what is needed.
It would be interesting to know if actual recruitment numbers have dropped off, or if the rate of increase has dropped off. Other than maybe the Training Academy Commandants, I don't know if anyone in the club would even have this information, though. Ever since I've been in a position to start seeing recruitment figures, I've been (pleasantly) surprised to see new members continue to join.
Again, this is a wonderful thread. I appreciate these kinds of questions.
Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory
David W. Mallory
ACW - General, 3/2/I/AotM (Club President & Cabinet Member)
CCC - Lieutenant, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Department, Colonial American Army