Kentucky Invasion Behaviour

[Caltone]

I'm playing the Apr '61 campaign as CSA. It's early Jul and the Union attacks my small force at Lexington which consists of a brigadier, cav, supply, and the locked Kentucky militia that start there. All my forces are in 1 stack.

Early in the turn (maybe day 4?) I lose a battle. It looks like I do not retreat but the union takes Lexington. Later in the turn, around day 12, I lose another battle there which ends up eliminating my small force.

I think that plays out fine but in the next movement phase I see the headlines of Kentucky attacked by CSA and Union Ky militia is freed.

Is this WAD? I think the Union was the agressor here and Ky should side with me.

[Rafiki]

Since you aren't saying; are you playing with the latest patch? The Kentucky events had a series of problems in earlier patches, but should have been sorted out some time ago.

[Caltone]

Sorry, playing with 1.07b

[Rafiki]

That's what I figured you were, but wanted to ask, just in case

AFAIK, the way it's supposed to work, is that as soon as one side attacks militia units in Kentucky belonging to the other side, Kentucky sides with the non-attacker. Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with the exact technicalities of the events.

[Jabberwock]

If a Kentucky militia unit is unlocked due to retreating before battle from a superior force, and then later attacks something, it counts as aggression against the side that controls that militia unit. The initial attack/retreat does not. Its unlikely that something like this happened to Caltone, but I thought I would post it in case it might help someone with deeper understanding diagnose the issue. There is still some mystery surrounding the Kentucky events.

[Caltone]

Sounds like you're on to it though Jabberwock. I'm pretty sure all my units were in the same stack.

Is it possible to "retreat" from inside a city to the province? If that is the case, then I probably experienced what Jabberwock wrote but still seems like I got the short end as I was attacked first (this all occured within the same 2 weeks.

No worries though as I am going to restart, I think I also had the 1.07b that was marked 1.07a when I ran the above.

[McNaughton]

The only issue I have is that the AI always attacks first, it is easy to get the AI to attack (just sit back), and voila, you get Kentucky on your side. Maybe the events could be tweaked to have it more variable, that attacking may not be a 'bad move', or possibly it being the 'good move'. There should be positive gain in taking action, not sitting back and letting the AI make a fool move, when it is just trying to play the game.

How about, if you attack a militia unit, chances are you have a 60% chance of Kentucky joining you (with a 40% chance the plan backfires). This way, attacking gives you better odds at getting Kentucky, but not guaranteed. Also, sitting back could just give Kentucky to your opponent.

[Jabberwock]

In RL it was all about propaganda and spin control. Grant was moving on Columbus. Pillow new this and got there first by two days. So Grant switched destinations to Paducah, and made sure all the Kentucky newspapers got plenty of information about the Confederate "invasion", and Federal "response".