[color="#FF0000"]LATE NOVEMBER 1861[/color]
Grant was successful in Donaldson. There really wasn't enough there to destroy much, just the garrison units. We did capture the supply and a 10lber that was there though.
[color="#FF0000"]Virginia[/color]
Another round of sitting tight. We are still training in Harrisburg 4 elements a turn so its moving right along. Two full divisions under Hooker and Burnside are done and even under Little Mac they have a power floating around 750. Three more months of training under the headquarters unit will also help that.
We printed money last turn but aren't building anything else here for the time being. We switched our focus to the west to get some forces built up in case KY opens early next year, but I highly doubt it will.
[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]
We already saw Grants victory, but neither he nor Lyon's were promoted. They did each gain 2 seniority so I hope another successful battle will see them move up the command chain. I considered moving on Nashville immediately, but its muddy and his force needs to rest. I think we will just defend Donaldson for the rest of the year so we have a bridgehead into Northern Tenn so we don't have to wait on KY. If we can take the initiative here early next year, we might just be able to deny elxaime those awesome KY units in Bowling Green! Those large brigades and shiny 20lbers are a god send to the CSA.
Our naval fleet won't have enough time to move to New Orleans and unload. It will take us 12 days to reach our landing site but another 5 to unload I believe. We don't want to give our hand so we will move a little closer and hopefully remain in FOW along the coast, while we wait another turn to be able to move and land in one fell swoop. The force is losing cohesion however so we better hope he isn't defending north of New Orleans.
We are training 3 more divisions in Ohio/Ind/KY with a few units being made up in IA. I think so far we will have something around 6 divisions in Louisville by next year, with 2 under Grant and one in Cairo for the moment. We may even recruit more when the new year kicks in.
In Missou there is nothing to say. The weather is crappy and moving around out here is a death wish for both sides if your force happens not to be activated. Seems we are both content to just stay put.
Far West
Elxaime is making a few moves out here. So far I think it is just ranger elements, but they are moving out and gaining MC from what I can see.
On the home front we got some more railroad and again began recruiting heavily in the West.
We also got the 'YMCA' and 'capital defenses beefed up' events. This gave us 7 NM!
As a die hard confederate fanboy I hate seeing some of the events the North gets. Why even try to take Manassas? Why try to get close to Richmond? Your NM will just recover on its own and not to mention through events like this. Its a bit much I think.
[color="#FF0000"]***[/color]
As a side note; In my older PBEM vs. Charles that he posted on YouTube, I had him on the ropes early on and his NM was hovering around the 70's. Then he got these events PLUS the rare Trent event where it increased the Foreign Entry but gave him 10 NM! He received around 17 NM for literally doing nothing which in my opinion saved his bacon. I was sitting in the 130's! He shot back up to 90 something in just a few turns. It was a bit frustrating to say the least. I know that event is pretty rare, but there is a chance. Plus I have NEVER seen Foreign Entry get to 100. I know it can happen, I've just never seen it. I thought I had him when our NM difference was so big just because my attacks would have been more successful with the max cohesion bonus. Bah. I'm still kinda salty about it, but only because its on YouTube forever. lol. Okay Confederate fan biased rant off.
[color="#FF0000"]***[/color]
So, again we will hopefully be moving on NO in a couple of turns while everyone else around the nation begins to celebrate the holidays.
[color="#FF0000"]1862 Strategy[/color]
I suppose now would be a good time to outline my spring 1862 offensive plans. Hopefully NO will fall, if not that will mess up the plans a bit.
In Virginia I will more than likely send Rosecrans here to command (Grant stays in the west) and we will move the highly trained and formidable 2 corps out of Harrisburg toward NVA. I think we will push on the Shenandoah to cut off that region to end any flanking maneuvers he may try and use against DC. We will reinforce Leesburg and Alexandria with divisions each and they should be able to MTSG with each other in March.
We will also begin recruiting forces to reinforce the NO front. We want to send another Army commander down here as well and actually push north quickly, unlike historically.
[color="#FF0000"]West[/color]
With reinforcements arriving in NO and and our push from there, likewise we will look to try and cut off KY by moving on Nashville. My goal here is to reinforce Grant, move on Nashville and look to cut rail lines leading south with partisans and loose cavalry elements. From Louisville we will push south taking MC over KY, esp Bowling Green and the rail lines, while leaving residual forces dug in inside Louisville and my hometown of Lexington.
I will also move on the west bank of the Mississippi (which will happen late this year) to take the last Missou town he can recruit elements from.
With these massive offensives I'm sure everything will not go according to plan, but I look to be aggressive and actively seek to engage Elxaime. If there is one thing I've learned playing as the CSA, its that having to spend resources constantly on replacements most definitely frustrates your ability to field more forces. My goal is to attack Elxaime whenever I can, of course aside from strongly fortified positions. Those I will seek to flank, with hopefully superior forces and number of corps commanders at my disposal.
Pushing up from NO and south from KY/Tenn should put tremendous pressure on Elxaime in the west and hopefully make him recruit heavily here rather than in VA. (again watch Charles' YouTube series, as he did this to me, very well I might add! I was forced to rail back and forth to check his advances!)
Taking the Shenandoah should let us avoid the large force he has in Manassas but we will see where he positions his boys when the year turns over. I hope to go straight at Winchester with 60k well-trained men and around 300 cannon. Should he reinforce heavily in Winchester, we will look to flank through Fredericksburg or Culpepper.
So those are my plans. Again I'm sure all that will change, nothing is as easy as it sounds. However, out of all these plans my main focus is to engage him wherever we can, while trying to avoid attacking heavily entrenched positions. If we can catch smaller corps and attack with greater numbers, his MTSG forces won't have the entrenchment bonus and will be less effective defensively while taking heavier casualties. This is what we want.
We shall see!