Southern "Hold Them" Strategy in a Tea Cup

[Straight Arrow]

Southern “Hold Them” strategy in a tea cup.


The East is a solid defensive line at risk of being outflanked by sea.

The West is a mobile fight along rivers and rail lines with fixed points of defense that serve as fly paper.

The Transmississippi is a holding game that strives to tie down the maximum enemy resources possible.

The Far west is raiding and burning.

The Coast is a naked, one armed, lady trying to cover herself.


Comments? Challenges? Insights?

[Rod Smart]

Know the points of attack, and know where the enemy is coming from:
There are two points of attack in the west- down the river, and by land from Cincy to Bowling Green into TN. Put cannons on the rivers and an army in Bowling Green
The highway west of the Mississippi is from Fayetteville to St Louis, with a stopover in Springfield. Don't get distracted fighting for Oklahoma or up into Iowa.
- EDIT: Eliminate the Kansas highway. Use your Indians to destroy all those forts that lead from Leavenworth to Fayetteville. You want the Union to use the St Louis to Fayetteville highway.
Nuts to the far west. Burn the union stockade highway in '61, then hang out in El Paso till the war is over.



Lee was right- don't defend the coast at the point of attack. Keep your strongest, fastest, meanest 1,000 power division camped out on a rail line in the deep south. If you move fast enough, you can get that beast anywhere from New Orleans to Jacksonville to Wilmington in 14 days.

[ArmChairGeneral]

If you are playing Athena there is no need to Hold-Em, you can easily win by going on the offensive early and not letting off the gas. Humans, OTOH, won't roll over and die quite as easily as Athena, making Hold-Em a much more relevant strategy in PBEM.

[Ace]

You described my strategy

[Cardinal Ape]

When the invasion force first comes it will be in its most consolidated and strongest form. Eventually it will breach your lines. Zen-out with a cup of tea; maintaining patience while the blue tide spreads is tough. Avoid coffee and over anxious counter-attacks. Wait till you can see the whites of their eyes...

Use the fog of war to your advantage as best as you can. As Rod Smart said, there are a couple of good spots where you can park a large unseen response force.

[Gray Fox]

Have a shot of KY bourbon and do this:

[ATTACH]36267[/ATTACH]

[Cardinal Ape]

Don't mix coffee and bourbon or you will regret it in the morning. I'm not too sure if attack plan 'Bourbon' is Straight Arrow's style anyhow...

Even if you have no intention of assaulting Washington it may be best to pretend that you are. Losing D.C. is the biggest threat to the Union in the early war. If that threat is off the table then those resources normally devoted to the defense of the capital may find their way to New Orleans or some other vital location.

[Gray Fox]

Precisely. The spearhead of Southern strategy is to destroy Union morale. Taking the capital is the best way to do this. After First Bull Run, Davis sent word for the army to march on D.C., however, they were too dispersed chasing bluebellies all over northern VA. The opportunity was lost. Early tried it again as a diversion, but it was too late to matter. Keep the threat alive and then the other theaters will have a much easier time. If the Union player ignores the threat, then maybe you can knock over his apple cart.

"l'audace l'audace toujours l'audace"

[Straight Arrow]

@ Gray Fox,

When you commented, "l'audace l'audace toujours l'audace," were you quoting George Danton, Napoleon, or George Patton?

[Gray Fox]

I believe the statement originally goes to Frederick the Great and the others quoted him.

[khbynum]

I'll have to go with Georges Danton, who is credited with a somewhat more embellished version of the expression for which, as I recall, there is historical documentation. I always assumed it was Napoleonic until I saw the Danton version, but to be honest it could have been made up by any fencing instructor in Paris. Frederick was dead by the French Revolution, but his court language was French, so maybe he said it first. Patton wrote something similar, about a soldier needing only audacity to win, but I can't picture him speaking French.

[jjw509]

Ah Patton spoke French well. He gave a speech in French after the landings in France essentially saying like Lafayette came to the US to aid the revolution the US has come to liberate the land of Lafayette. He trained in France as a fencer and one was one of the few Americans to become a master fencer. Back in his cavalry days the Army sent him to France to learn from the best fencing instructors and come back and train instructors in the US Army. I do believe in the Patton Papers that Patton attributed the saying to Fredrick the Great but like you said it could have been anyone who said that. The surprising part of the Patton papers was not only was Patton a lover of France but he despised the English!

[ArmChairGeneral]

Off topic: Didn't Patton compete in the 1912 Olympic Pentathlon (fencing, riding, swimming, running and shooting)? IIRC the gold went to Jim Thorpe, with Patton finishing fifth after a controversial pistol result.

[khbynum]

I never come to this forum without learning something, for which I thank you all.

Thorpe won the traditional (track and field) pentathlon that year. Patton competed in the first of the modern pentathlons, as you defined it. He used a .38 rather than the common .22 and claimed that the holes were so big that one of his shots had gone through an earlier hole (I don't know why a .22 wouldn't do the same). The judges said he missed the target altogether, otherwise he might have medalled.

[Gray Fox]

If you jab a pencil into a piece of paper the hole is about the diameter of a .22 caliber slug. The hole a .38 makes is more than half again as wide as this. Some pistols just have really flat trajectories so the bullet goes right at your point of aim. Too many big holes at one point add up. It's not like you are Robin Hood and someone can tell if you split a shot. I've shot the center of a target out with a 9 mm.

They gave me Sharpshooter instead of Expert.