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Is there any advantage to the CSA invading West Virginia or Pennsylvania and capturing Taylor, WV or York or Harrison, Pa? Harrison is a strategic city, so the CSA would gain a VP each turn but is there any gain from capturing Taylor or York or Lancaster?

I am trying to determine if there is enough benefit to justify a risky invasion of the north in the eastern theater. The risk of a lost army is very great. And an invasion really is just a raid. The CSA cannot stay in the north for long which means the CSA will only gain a few VP's from holding strategic cities till they have to retreat. A few VPs gained for the potential loss of an army doesn't encourage an invasion.

Should there be one time events to the capture of US cities such as Taylor, York, Lancaster, Pittsburg, Harrisonburg, etc? Perhaps if an infantry force of greater than 2 brigades captures any non-strategic city such as York, Taylor etc, then the CSA receives, for example, 10 VPs and a national morale gain of 2 points?

Something like that might encourage a very risky northern invasion even if the CSA must retreat shortly afterwards. And the US would have to take an invasion seriously as well.

Any thoughts?

Jagger wrote:Is there any advantage to the CSA invading West Virginia or Pennsylvania and capturing Taylor, WV or York or Harrison, Pa? Harrison is a strategic city, so the CSA would gain a VP each turn but is there any gain from capturing Taylor or York or Lancaster?

I am trying to determine if there is enough benefit to justify a risky invasion of the north in the eastern theater. The risk of a lost army is very great. And an invasion really is just a raid. The CSA cannot stay in the north for long which means the CSA will only gain a few VP's from holding strategic cities till they have to retreat. A few VPs gained for the potential loss of an army doesn't encourage an invasion.

Should there be one time events to the capture of US cities such as Taylor, York, Lancaster, Pittsburg, Harrisonburg, etc? Perhaps if an infantry force of greater than 2 brigades captures any non-strategic city such as York, Taylor etc, then the CSA receives, for example, 10 VPs and a national morale gain of 2 points?

Something like that might encourage a very risky northern invasion even if the CSA must retreat shortly afterwards. And the US would have to take an invasion seriously as well.

Any thoughts?

Something like that would be doable.

The goal of most of these invasions was to gain manpower. Lee assumed that if Maryland was invaded, the population may show itself to be sympathetic (proff was at Baltimore) and men enlist to join the CSA. Also, the material gain from the capture of Union cities was substantial.

I can see two-tiers of invasions.

#1. What you determined being that specific cities on the border will give the CSA VP/NM should a large force capture them. This would be viable all game long, meaning that if you want to try and capture it in 1862 you could, or, wait until 1864. This event would potentially last all game, meaning that according to a player's timetable they could choose to gain these VP/NM points.

#2. I am thinking of mission specific. Announcing a campaign, with certain goals, by certain dates, resulting in material and manpower gain.

Take Antietam. The CSA player would have the goal of capturing Harper's Ferry West Virginia, Frederick Maryland and raiding York Pennsylvania (having at least 1 unit in the vecinity). This would give the CSA player a 'chance' at gaining War Resources and/or Manpower and/or Foreign Intervention (each would have a probability) if the player achieves goals in specific timeframes (i.e., they are warned that they have 6 turns to do the following mission, after 6 turns it will not count).

The failure of such missions could be a loss of National Morale (i.e., they proved too cowardly to invade, or were too weak to achieve goals).

I figure that each year of the war there could be one planned major invasion that the CSA is encouraged to undertake if the situation is right (if they are doing well). There should be a variation of mission, in case PBEM players use this, they know the goals (i.e., maybe an invasion of Pennsylvania in 1862, an invasion of West Virginia in 1863, and an invasion of Maryland in 1864).