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I am have a bit of a problem with Beauregard. He is obsessed with Fortress Monroe. He's has attacked the fort the last 3 games then given up. This latest game he's hanging on like a bulldog. He is slowly chipping away at it.

But I'd like to call a point of order. Just how could the CSA besiege Fortress Monroe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe
Check out the wiki with a picture of the Fortress, there is no away it can be approached by the land. Perhaps a bit of tweaking is in order?

I have even attacked Richmond to pull Beauregard away from Fortress Monroe, and it's November 1861 which blows my mind, but I was beat back by Lee. But wasn't Lee digging forts along the North Carolina coast, actually in September he was in West Virginia. Anyway.

Any thought's on this? If I play against a human perhaps a house rule that no attacks against Fortress Monroe.

It's actually better as designed, regardless of reality, IMHO.

The South can be a credible threat here - I've lost it against the AI once or twice and it is a Major Pain to have it in CSA hands.

The North must put some credible force here. It doesn't let the North have a built in impregnable base two marches from Richmond. So this and Pickens do merit some attention.

Put a fleet there set on bombard. He will take enough losses to make it not worthwhile. Also a couple of strong brigades in the fort might change his mind.

What usually discourages him in my games is blockading both estuaries. He can't stay there with limited supply.

I believe the AI sunk the Monitor and another Ironclad I had there since Beauregard has heavy guns in his stack. The CSS Virginia was there but gone now and I saw no combat report about there being a sea battle.

I that like 10 regements in the fortress for 11,000 troops.

Addedum; actually I think one of my ironclads was sunk due to lack of supply.

To defend Fort Monroe, usually you only need a complete division well entrenched, but with two divisions the enemy has no real chance of taking it.

In the game that I'm playing now, I have only one division there and until now it has been sufficient. In fact, every time the AI ​​attacks me there, it suffered huge losses. In addition, its ridiculous obstinacy is giving me a lot of points of NM and experience points to the general in command and my troops.

Look at this pictures.


Regards!

Ethan wrote:To defend Fort Monroe, usually you only need a complete division well entrenched, but with two divisions the enemy has no real chance of taking it.

In the game that I'm playing now, I have only one division there and until now it has been sufficient. In fact, every time the AI ​​attacks me there, it suffered huge losses. In addition, its ridiculous obstinacy is giving me a lot of points of NM and experience points to the general in command and my troops.

Look at this pictures.


Regards!

This is all well and good but all this is happening before I can create Union divisions. Now with Beauregard besieging Fortress Monroe I can't get anybody else inside. I seem to have enough units to make 2 division but I only have Butler there so he can make maybe one division.

Oh, I have restarted the game since I have having trouble supplying my fleets. I think both my monitors off Fortress Monroe were destroyed due to lack of supply, with it besieged I could not draw supply from it's depot.

Hi Capt Cliff!

In your next game, try to carry your units there (brigades, artillery, etc.) in the first turns in order to avoid this situation (siege). And if you can, choose a leader better than incompetent Butler. At least a 3-1-1 general.

Good luck and enjoy playing!

Even if besieged you should be able to transport reinforcements in there, just group your transports with some combat ships and set them to evade combat. the whole stack will still get hit but the combat ships will take all (or at least most of) the damage and your reinforcements will get dropped off inside the fort.

wsatterwhite wrote:Even if besieged you should be able to transport reinforcements in there, just group your transports with some combat ships and set them to evade combat. the whole stack will still get hit but the combat ships will take all (or at least most of) the damage and your reinforcements will get dropped off inside the fort.

I know it's possible to do that, but if you get ahead of the enemy (in this case, to the AI​​ you will have your forces in the fort before the battle and you will fight in defensive posture, because if you carry your reinforcements there when the fort is under siege you may have to fight in offensive posture, which is more harmful than if you fight as the defender.

Ethan wrote:I know it's possible to do that, but if you get ahead of the enemy (in this case, to the AI​​ you will have your forces in the fort before the battle and you will fight in defensive posture, because if you carry your reinforcements there when the fort is under siege you may have to fight in offensive posture, which is more harmful than if you fight as the defender.

Oh yeah, I know, just wanted to make sure Capt Cliff knew he could still get troops into Fort Monroe if he were besieged. It's always better to be a step ahead of the enemy

Personally, I've taken to just loading up the NY, NJ and MD volunteer brigades that the Union player receives and transporting them down to Fort Monroe as soon as those units get unlocked along with a couple of coastal artillery units, that usually seems to be enough to "trick" the Confederates into not assaulting head on for awhile. Coastal artillery is really key for positions like Ft. Monroe and Ft. Pickens, you still need to reinforce with actual troops but loading some extra coastal artillery into those places will do wonders to ward off attacks (or cause the Confederate AI to drastically reinforce their assaulting armies, thus leaving other areas lightly defended)- the AI seems to only see the combat value and doesn't take into account that an assault will only attack the defending troops.

wsatterwhite wrote:Oh yeah, I know, just wanted to make sure Capt Cliff knew he could still get troops into Fort Monroe if he were besieged. It's always better to be a step ahead of the enemy

Personally, I've taken to just loading up the NY, NJ and MD volunteer brigades that the Union player receives and transporting them down to Fort Monroe as soon as those units get unlocked along with a couple of coastal artillery units, that usually seems to be enough to "trick" the Confederates into not assaulting head on for awhile. Coastal artillery is really key for positions like Ft. Monroe and Ft. Pickens, you still need to reinforce with actual troops but loading some extra coastal artillery into those places will do wonders to ward off attacks (or cause the Confederate AI to drastically reinforce their assaulting armies, thus leaving other areas lightly defended)- the AI seems to only see the combat value and doesn't take into account that an assault will only attack the defending troops.

So you load them on transports or just move them there by rail and sea? I am more perplex that I lost my ironclads due to lack of supply, the depot had to have been blocked.

To prevent, or at least delay, losses of ships always keep a transport with your combat ships. Every turn, check the supply status icon of the fleet. Before it gets to the point where only two turns of supply are left, either return to port, or get a new transport in there. You should almost never lose ships to lack of supply.

Capt Cliff wrote:So you load them on transports or just move them there by rail and sea? I am more perplex that I lost my ironclads due to lack of supply, the depot had to have been blocked.

I always use transports, usually I have a couple of individual transport units based out of Annapolis (my general staging area) that just move reinforcements to my coastal defense locations and then I have a big fleet with Farragut, some strong combat ships (I like to use all the armored frigates for this purpose) and a couple of transports that I use just for amphibious assaults and transporting units into besieged areas (like your Ft. Monroe example).

One thing I would suggest is making a strong blockade of the James River a major priority- send some of the stronger ships that you receive for free there and build some extra ironclads as well. Obviously you'll also want to make Norfolk one of your first early priorities, take the city as soon as you can spare the troops and then reinforce it with some coastal artillery as well.

I always ship some of the volunteers, some militia and at least four of the first newly raised brigades (2 large and 2 small from NY and New England) with additional artillery to Fort Monroe as early as I can. That way I have the nucleus for two divisions once those become available. That's more than enough to defend Monroe against any attack...

Once you are secure you can shift some of those troops down to Fort Pickens and replace the departed by newly raised units (essentially Fort Monroe is my assembly point for all operations along the seaboard including the New Orleans invasion). You can also temporarily use one of the Monroe divisions to land at Norfolk etc.

By the way, Butler is good enough for the job at hand and you will have to give him some kind of post anyhow. of course I always ship him divisional commanders from the 61 or 62 pool so Butler is free for an Army HQ at some point to avoid clashes over seniority...

I have needed to do very little against the AI to hold Ft. Monroe. As I said I usually blockade the James and the Rappahannock as soon as I can.

It keeps the AI from putting much of a force in that zone and seems to make them abandon the most of Northern VA.

I always ship some of the volunteers, some militia and at least four of the first newly raised brigades (2 large and 2 small from NY and New England) with additional artillery to Fort Monroe as early as I can. That way I have the nucleus for two divisions once those become available. That's more than enough to defend Monroe against any attack...

I arrived at this, also. It's a good use for these, although I learned recently that LtInf is good for discouraging pursuit diuring a retreat.

I try to mix each division with at least one element of each type of troops excepting marines/navy which gets at least one per corps if I can.

See new thread on Force Composition.

GraniteStater wrote:... I learned recently that LtInf is good for discouraging pursuit diuring a retreat.

Due to its value of police (2), Light Infantry also helps you to gain military control more quickly.

Ol' Choctaw wrote:I try to mix each division with at least one element of each type of troops excepting marines/navy which gets at least one per corps if I can.

As I don't know if I will need to use my divisions regardless of a Corps, I think is better to include a marine/sailor unit for each division, so I will always benefit from its pontoneer ability (besides his offensive value, assault value, discipline, cohesion, etc.)

It depends on the side I am playing and the area they are engaged in.

The north may be able to do this with the eastern army but doing it in the middle area or out west is kind of hard.

I may load one into a division but not try to put one in each division.

I do try to include elites in each division for bonuses but river crossing is by stack. Be it a Corps or loose units with a leader.

Ft. Monroe would seem to be a wonderful place for Gatling guns, right?

Chaplain Lovejoy wrote:Ft. Monroe would seem to be a wonderful place for Gatling guns, right?

only if the rebs attack it. Put the gatlings whereever the rebs are likely to attack you.