First Real CSA game - a PBEM!

[GraniteStater]

Well, other than one short game on Normal against the AI, in which I took DC in Oct61, Game Over, I just surrendered to Longshanks in my first real game as the CSA.

I resigned in Aug63. It was an April61 Start w/KY. Essentially, Longshanks was active, especially with his Navy that was a huge factor in his Victory. By the end, he was in the process of taking Richmond, had finally secured the line Memphis - Nashville and had essentially taken TN, had knocked TX and AR out and was besieging a Fort in New Orleans.

The killler, though, was the lack of manpower near the end, next to nothing. You can't run a war on 50 companies a Turn.

From the start, Longshanks was always actively threatening from Ft. Monroe, taking over the James River and being a pain in general. By the fall of 61 he had knocked me back from northernmost VA and the Valley, whereupon I fell upon the line of the Rappahannock. I had built Forts at Richmond, Charlottesville, and New Orleans. I was able to hold this for almost two years.

Longshanks won the war out West, denying me a chance to take Paducah and possibly build a Fort there. I had a major loss when Hardee with a Division stormed St. Louis, only to meet with Stalemate and an ensuing chase and disaster, immortalized in the folk ballad, Hardee's Pursuit. I put Lee out West in command of the Army of the Mississippi, one of the only two Armies I had. He held Paducahland against the invader for over a year with Forney's Corps. AS Johnston and "GW" were the other Corps under Lee, defending lower KY and TN.

It was static for a long time near Paducah and Ft H&D, although he held the latter in force under Thomas, who became an Army commander for him. He led the breakthrough against Lee, because he sent Grant east, which turned out to be a winning move for him by the summer of 63.

All in all, a most instructive game. I did some modest Industrializing to get a kick start and then relied on my Runners, who did most excellent, not one was sunk and they stayed out long enough. In the end, his numbers and catching up in Leadership cemented it, because by the spring and summer of 63, I had taken appalling losses in some battles, ones which were on favorable terms, but his Leaders were now my equals and his formations were too numerous and too large.

I think that I should have oriented all things to a more aggressive stance; the only way the South can win, that I can see, is on NM by capturing DC, beating up the Union armies a lot, especially in VA, and trying to gain NM through Victories and destroying enemy units. Either that, or try to survive until the Election of 64 on the best terms you can.

[Longshanks]

Thank you for the compliments! This was my third PBEM, second as Union. Even though GraniteStater was in his first as the CSA, his play belied his lack of experience. As you can see from his accurate description, he was able to hold some major lines. Oh, I was tempted so many times to assault them, but I played the waiting game, denying him access to my lands. Stuart and J.Johnston still went after DC twice, but had to turn back both times, while Sidney Johnston had to give up a march toward Louisville. Instead I built up slowly, eventually to outmanuver him, especially in VA. My goal was to force him to attack me, or retreat to protect his lines. I nearly always accomplished these goals.

In the West, I invaded KY, lost Bowling Green briefly, but turned away all incursions. I took Ft D&H and Island 10 pretty early, and those fights gave me Thomas as an Army Commander, which turned out well, because I was seeking defensive strength there for a while and he sure gives it. Only Hardee drove me crazy, taking Quincy IL until I sent an reinforced Corps to destroy him, which really only managed to chase him toward the South. Only GS can tell you for sure, but I tried mightily to use my navy to prevent him from crossing out of Illinois and thus starved all those poor men. I think in that I succeeded. In the meantime, Grant earned his corps stars in KY, and his Army stars in Missouri. Then he was promply send to Washington, where the quality of the generals got better VERY quickly.

We played with no mobilizations in 61, a Southern partial mob in Jan 62, followed by a Union Partial mob in June. After that, up to you. This gave GS a bit of a bump on me in unit creation, but I did do one thing that paid off big. I built all those Gatlings, keeping four in the East and two in KY/TN. They were always in a stack with the biggest and best divisions.

In VA, I finally crossed the river at F'burg with Burnside's corps into the empty region just to the right of it. This force had two big divisions with 4 artys or so, one of which was the Gatlings. After I crossed, he sent Jackson against me, but I chewed him up. My Gatlings killed so many rebs they earned two stars each in that fight. I didn't even know that was possible. I also always kept an engineer with any advanced unit, to get that level 1 entrenchment so fast. I'm sure that helped. He chased Burnside's force down to the peninsula, but had to give up his river line, which I flanked all during the Winter of 62 into 63. Finally he had to give up F'burg, which I took without a fight as I recall.

Slowly but surely, the gap in losses climbed. First 10,000, but by the end it was over 60,000 more losses for the CSA. That's no record, but I basically lost no units during the entire game, so my army just kept getting bigger, while GS struggled to keep up. By Summer of 1863, I had no 20 lb arty left to build, hardly any cav left to build, and so on. Some states had all their good infantry built out as well. I began the "swarm" phase, sending fast movers and cavalry corps deep into AL, MS, NC and elsewhere to cut lines, take depots and ports or at least threaten them. For the most part GS had to let me go where I wanted.

As the summer battles commenced in 63, our NM were about even. GS was holding ground much better than the CSA had done historically, but the clear weather allowed me to manuever my larger army finally. In several battles I took advantage of mismatches and sometimes GS counterattacked. I won nearly all those fights. My units and generals kept getting stars. Several combat units had 4 stars and 128 cohesion. Naturally, the NM began to shift heavily in my favor, which merely fueled the steam roller. A series of tough losses by Lee to Lyons at Memphis during the Late Aug 63 turn ended it. During that turn, we fought 9 major engagements at Memphis (2), in middle TN, in MS (2), at Little Rock, at Richmond (2) and in F'burg. GS won some of those, losing over 21,000 men to my 18,700, but he had 64 units destroyed. In those battles, I gained about 10 net NM. After that, it was all over but the shouting.

As in all the PBEMs, I learned several new details in this one. Of course, my brain is fried and I don't recall them at the moment! I'll add them later, I hope.

I really enjoyed the game with GS, who is a tough opponent with humor, a very good knowledge of history, literate, and willing to turn game turns around at 2 AM (something I can't do!)! I highly recommend him as an opponent.

[John Sedgwick]

Sounds like you guys had an interesting game. Makes me wish I had the free time for another PBEM... I had a blast with my first one. When I have time, my next PBEM will probably be the WIA 1812 scenario, though I foresee coming back to AACW again and again... it's just a ton of fun against a human opponent.

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

Makes me want to play a new PBEM. Longshanks knows not to attack entrenchments and that sounds like the difference. You win this game by maneuver. I would like to mod my next game to have lower entrenchment bonuses. I'll try it against the AI and see how it goes.

[Longshanks]

Longshanks knows not to attack entrenchments and that sounds like the difference. You win this game by maneuver.

Amen, brother. But I've had to learn that the hard way, with many a whuppin'!

[Mickey3D]

Longshanks knows not to attack entrenchments and that sounds like the difference. You win this game by maneuver.

I agree, the North should definitively try to manoeuver to avoid head on and costly attacks on retranched Confederate with corps support...but he should not hesitate to strike a blow when ratio is in his favor : suffering losses is not a problem as long as the south suffer more or at least the same amount.

[Ol' Choctaw]

That depends on the time in the war and the NM of the sides.

The north never has trouble with money but it can sure run short of manpower.