[color="#FF0000"]EARLY OCTOBER 1862[/color]
Hello again folks! Sorry for the delay, we had an order mix-up which also set me back from doing this AAR. But now we are square again so this post I will try to just outline the current situation and we will begin again from here.
[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]
Here you can see the current situation in Virginia. The massive battle you saw turned out not to be too bad for us, although we did lose 2 full divisions we were able to promote Hooker, Burnside and....the other generals name is escaping me at the moment. All told I do believe that exlaime got the worst of that battle even though we took far more casualties, we could afford it.
From this picture you can see we are fully across the Rappahannock and one region away from Richmond. Lee has fallen back to Richmond this turn from just north of it so we will be taking 2 corps from Fredericksburg and moving into that region, as well as having Burnside move down one region below them. This will effectively have Richmond hemmed in by 4 corps, although I'm not quite sure what he has sitting south of Richmond just now.
In the far left-hand corner you can see our cavalry division. They will blow the Richmond east-west rails and make his way back to Charlottesville to protect the depot there. Basically we have accomplished our goals for this theater in this campaign season by engaging Lee pretty decisively while also getting across the river defense that the south can set up. Our next goal here will be to form at least 2 more corps, and see if we can't begin to encircle Richmond.
Little Mac and Hallack are both still in Phili training away on three new divisions and we will be recruiting more here in the coming months. We are also ordering 10 Rodman artillery pieces for the Richmond showdown if it comes to one.
[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]
This turn was a great success for our Tenn forces under Grant.
As you can see we were able to capture Memphis with Grant since Jackson went south, although our rail line north is being cut at the moment. We are in the process of recruiting a new cavalry division to help shore this problem up. In the Memphis capture both Lyon's and Thomas were promoted! Woohoo! Finally some real talented corps commander's out here. We will need them in the coming year.
Further east you can see our forces protecting the line up to Nashville. They are in a pretty good defensive position and all on rail lines leading north. This will be an excellent point to strike further south once spring comes around.
We have a small division dug in around Nashville and our cavalry division sitting in Bowling Green to thwart Forrest entering our rear.
[color="#FF0000"]Louisiana [/color]
Our offensive here saw some early success, until Jackson came calling. We were basically forced back south one region above New Orleans on the defensive. I doubt he will try anything here but hope to keep us bottles up. Our new approach will probably be to push south from Memphis next year if we can and maybe force him to withdraw back towards Vicksburg/Jackson. I highly doubt we will send anymore forces here because it would take a mammoth effort to kick Jackson out of his position. We will resort to maneuvering south behind him.
[color="#FF0000"]Far West[/color]
We managed to cut the supply to El Paso and with two divisions he decided to break out and head back into Texas. This was a big win for us, because he devoted two pretty good divisions to this area and we managed to take it without a major pitched battle. Chalk one up for tactical wins!
Overall I would say our 1862 campaign season was a huge success. We managed to complete most of our major objectives, except for in Louisiana. Even still, that forced him to send one of his best field forces to bottle us up, so that is a win in itself!
We managed to take Memphis/Nashville in Tenn and will shore up taking MC of the rest of West Tenn this winter with smaller forces if we can. This will also free up a division on guard duty in Cairo to head to Memphis and dig in, as we can now own the river with our fleet and some well placed artillery along the banks of the Mississippi.
In Virginia we saw a crazy battle that ended up in our favor even though we sustained heavy casualties. We have crossed the river and are now in control of most of Northern Virginia while also threatening Richmond itself.
The blockade % is setting at a healthy 75% and has been for a while. All in all I am happy with our Anaconda progress thus far. Bad weather is starting to set in, so both sides will probably sit back and prepare for next spring.
As for our spring goals, I think its pretty obvious we would like to take Richmond, but I am happy trying to surround it as well as that could be an interesting twist on things. We also look to push on Chattanooga as well as push south from Memphis to help free up our army in New Orleans. I think in the Far West we have gone as far as we need and will sit defensively in El Paso.
So that has gotten us pretty caught up so far and I look forward to bringing you more updates as the war progresses!