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Orphan_kentuckian
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Kentuckian vs. Charlesonmission-CSA POV

Mon Jun 29, 2015 6:22 pm

Hello folks! As many of you probably already know, Charles and I are locked in an epic battle for the soul of America via YouTube. However, seeing as how I am unable to watch the videos or view his thread (for obvious reasons), I have really wanted to have some feedback about our game and outline some of my own strategies and thoughts. So I thought I would make this thread to do just that. I'll give an overview of my decisions and welcome all suggestions and criticisms alike! I don't know if I'll turn this into a full blown AAR with pics or anything, but thought I'd at least have somewhere to post my thoughts. That being said, please do not discuss any of Charles actions or decisions in this thread or vice versa, lets keep it solely about the boys in gray. So without further ado, we'll catch up to where we are.

Overview

Virginia-
Basically my grand idea petered out when the large move on DC was blocked by mother nature herself. PGT didn't make it across the river in 15 days and Johnston didn't make it to DC on his forced march....both could have been inactive too of course. So that left me with a couple options, and I decided to attack Alexandria. I knew he would reinforce DC and if I didn't take it that turn it would be almost impossible to take it after he moved some divisions there. After that action, now my thought process has turned to trying to annihilate McDowell's stack, either by hunger or by force. I've had very little luck with the latter when playing this game, so I will attempt to take all of his retreat paths away from him and watch them wither away...that's the plan at least. After that I have settled on a defensive front here in NV. My initial thought was to try for DC and I wanted to put some pressure on Charles to reinforce this area, which he did with a few divisions from where I don't know, but that was my intention. I'm content to settle in defensively here for now. With a line running from Harper's to Alexandria, entrenched, behind a river and all within MTSG, I feel almost positive Charles won't attack here. Which will let me focus on other areas. Without DC this will probably be a long game, so I hope he wants to attack. That probably won't happen knowing Charles though.
Lee has activated this turn as well. I'll keep him here for now and send Johnston out west until Grant becomes a 3 star. Then wherever he goes, Lee will go also. :)

Mobile-
Here is the thorn in my side. As you probably saw, Charles sent a rather large invasion force very early to Mobile. At that time I barely had troops in NO and Charleston, much less in Mobile...so it fell easily. Ever since then I've been tempted to attack and take it back. However, I knew I would be defeated and I refuse to throw away southern lives with no chance for victory. That is all about to change though...at least I hope. When KY opens my whole western theater will be in a vice, squeezed from both north and south. I can't afford to have three separate forces operating out here...KY, Mobile and now Montgomery. So, I will rail Longstreet's command south, 1 region north of Meridian in the FOW to meet with PGT and Johnston where they will become corps commanders under PGT (who is 4-3-6 atm). Polk will take over PGT's stack north of Mobile as a corps, and then Longstreet's command will then rail south next turn and assault Mobile. Under who I don't know yet, we shall see. Two of the three leaders will then head toward Tenn/KY. Risky I know. If we fail in the attack and KY opens...I don't want to even think about it. Charles will know Grant is alone and could make a move south. But this is my thought process on the move...

Basically I'll have 60k men (if Polk MTSG) vs. I would say around 20k. My hope is KY stays closed one more turn and we can push the US out of Mobile. Then I could drop a mostly volunteer division with some arty to defend Mobile and immediately rail 4-5 divisions back north to Corinth for a potential Grant move. A division entrenched with arty should prevent him moving back on Mobile, at least for now. Polk with one division could then move over to a division I have south of Atlanta to watch any move from Montgomery. This would give me two divisions defending the route to Atlanta and close the Mobile front to Charles. Basically I would rather face two fronts than three and not have to spread my smaller forces out so much. If we can close Mobile off to Charles, it will then give me an extra division to take back to Tenn/KY. This is all a huge risk I know, but I feel like I have to at least try it now, while KY is still closed. I do have two divisions ready to be moved to Bowling Green to defend it, but I don't know if that will be enough if Grant happens to move that way. That's my story, and for now I'm sticking to it. :/

Missou-
Well the St. Louis grab was nice if I do say so myself. Either Charles forgot to raise the loyalty or didn't bother with it, I don't know...but it let me see he basically had nothing there. So Forrest swept in. I was going to just destroy everything there and move on...but I captured two ironclads in production so now I have to wait for them to finish, I just have to! I have 20k men there so I think we'll be okay for now. We are short on ammo though and only get 17 per turn from St. Lo, so it would take three turns to get back to 100%. My first thought is quick strike on Cairo, but I don't know. For now we are sitting tight.

Far West-
Well I screwed up here. I forgot to send units immediately to Tucson which Charles took advantage of. My thought was to have 2 good brigades 1 in Tucson and 1 in El Paso. But with Tucson gone I did the next best thing by basically destroying Carson's force and moving on Sante Fe. For now I have Van Dorn sitting in FOW with 9k men and 30 cannon (what a waste), but ready to pounce if Charles moves out of the boxes towards El Paso.

We can't really build anything at the moment so I'm ordering a few replacements and saving up to afford two large KY brigades immediately when/if KY opens up.

Sorry for the wall of text and no pics, but honestly I hadn't taken any up to this point but I hope that will change. Anyway, I look forward to any questions and discussions about the game and can't wait to actually watch the vids.....who knows when that will be though. :P

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havi
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Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:01 pm

Hola I'm watching closely......! :thumbsup:

DaddyRess
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Tue Jun 30, 2015 8:44 pm

I hav e to say, I am highly impressed with your actions so far in the game and studying your moves for some of my games.

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BattleVonWar
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Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:41 pm

You seemed to have a very formidable force early in this game. You also seemed to not fear any of Charles' unit placements. I rarely see someone leave Maryland/NV so lightly defended. Also though I rarely see a CSA put so many strong forces down so early.

Also you seemed to do extremely well will mobile units without losing much cohesion, ripping through Missouri/Kansas like it was nothing. I have done plenty of operations with Forest deep into enemy territory but I tend to lose cohesion very quickly. Also similarly you kept your cohesion very high through your Virginia Campaign. Any movement in cold weather tends to just stagnate my forces in game.

Rather shocked you managed to pull off swinging your units between Mobile/Eastern Tennessee and still managed to KO almost every front early. I tend to find CSA Forces very limited and can only perform maybe 1 or 2 limited offensives early. Or 1 Major offensive. Perhaps this is me seeing things wrong as the Union has weakened itself by splitting it's forces too much and then losing too many battles?
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863 ~~~

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Cardinal Ape
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Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:39 am

Good stuff Orphan_kentuckian.

It looks like you caught a break in Missouri, it seems Charles may have been tripped up by the veteran activation rule and lazy commanders. I've grown to like the rule myself, its a bit too easy as the Union in the early game without it, but it is hard to get used to.

That is not to diminish your good attack on St. Louis. Even if it didn't work it is good to make a play like that early against the Union. It helps to keep them honest in their back line garrisons. I would have immediately moved onto Cairo, but now that I know that you captured two ironclads there I am not so sure. I would have a very hard time leaving them behind too.

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FightingBuckeye
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Fri Jul 03, 2015 9:06 am

Two free ironclads would be a very good reason for staying in StLo, how much longer until they finish? And nicely done on the Mobile grab. It looked like you might've captured some more ships at Mobile? If so, what exactly did you grab?

Suidlander
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Location: South Africa

Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:48 pm

The South shall rise again. All the best of luck to the boys in grey.

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