Well friends, things did not play out perfectly in this turn. There is room to recover my losses, though. I'm sure you all can guess what I'm talking about. Richmond is no longer in my control. However, I'll talk more about this in a minute.
Longstreet was successful in taking Alexandria. With my full army of 82,000 behind him, I'd hope so
.
For some heroic or idiotic reason, Butterfield send a suicide cavalry charge straight into Beauregard's lines. Two of the cavalry regiments were destroyed. I'm guessing Longhairedlout was slapping his face for this accident.
Well here it is. The disaster at Richmond. All of my unlocked units were able to escape, but I did lose several regiments of infantry and militia. I did underestimate my enemies strength a bit. I calculated his troops with lowered cohesion so it gave a low end estimate.
Just as a side note, when I calculate enemy troop numbers, I'll usually multiply the power rating by 15. This gives a pretty accurate estimation assuming that they are at full cohesion (something you have to watch out for).
This is just a little piddler battle. I'm guessing this cavalry was meant to cut the rail at Louisa. Good thing Jackson was there to set things straight.
Ok, so here's exactly what happened last turn. At day 4 Kearny arrived in Richmond and took the town. Lee along with an army HQ, naval engineer, and some supply wagons retreated into Buckingham. Jackson engaged the cavalry at Louisa at day 8. At day 9, Jackson arrived in Richmond in defensive stance. Kearny WAS in offensive stance, but actually retreated before engaging Jackson; however, he did not retreat out of the region. This means that my opponent retained control of Richmond for the turn.
The impact of this mishap is that now my NM sits at a lowly 74 while my opponents is at 141! This is a consequence of not moving my capital. Another consequence is that my money supply has been reduced to 35/turn. I will not regain my regular money capacity until I regain Richmond or I pay to move my capital. I have opted for the latter because I'm not giving up on Richmond yet.
Amazingly, the event to release Lee has fired on the turn that he fought a battle and would have been released anyway
. I'm not one to complain, though. When life gives you Lee's, make Leemonade
. Because Lee is unlocked and I just happened to have an Army HQ waiting for him, I've assigned him the Army of Northern Virginia and switched Jackson's corps over to his army. Smith and Longstreet will stay with Beauregard for the meantime. I do plan on switching them to Lee's control soon, tough.
Jackson has been given what he wants. Orders to drive the Yankee dogs from the streets of Richmond. His command still hasn't fully recovered from Alexandria, but Kearny's corps is in no better shape. I don't have 2:1 odds, but I think Jackson's veteran divisions will make short work of the Green Federals. The fate of the South now rests on Lee and Jackson's shoulders.
After the loss of Richmond, Buchanan sent his ships into the James to avoid capture. I think this is a classic case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire." Buchanan now faces a massive Union fleet with few places to hide. I've decided to sent him South to the port North of Petersburg. He has evasive orders and I can only hope the Northern guns don't catch him.
In Northern Virginia, I've taken the town of Alexandria. This will give me some much needed time to recuperate from the recent battle. A. P. Hill has conveniently arrived this turn. I've taken this opportunity to give Kirby Smith's division to Hill. As you may have noticed from my previous post, Smith has been given command of the 3rd confederate corps.
Some development of note is that the enemy across the river have taken quarters inside the city of Washington. If I had advanced across the Potomac last turn, I would have a healthy siege on the town right now. Of course, there was no way of me foreseeing this and I can't risk trying to trap them inside Washington now in case they opt to come out of the fort while I'm marching toward them. If this happened, my forces would be sent sprawling back to Alexandria and risk loosing everything that I fought to gain.
The Federals have reorganized their forces into two main corps under Pope and Rosecrans. Each has about 1500 worth of power. I'm guessing the enemies strength is somewhere in the ballpark of 50,000; matching my current forces at Alexandria.
It seems that a militia regiment has been recruited at Harper's Ferry, so my little invasion by Van Dorn was not quite successful. Since Van Dorn's cohesion is so low, I've decided to keep him in defensive stance and initiate a siege of the ferry.
Out West, Forrest scared Humphrey's cavalry across the river. Not exactly the direction I was looking for, but oh well. I'm sending Forrest back to Nashville with evasive orders in case Berry's 3 divisions come marching after them. Lee's cavalry will ride down to Humphrey's position to hopefully scare them back to Kentucky.
I've decided to keep J. Johnston in his exposed position one more turn. I just hate to lose those level 4 entrenchments
. If Grant does march against him, his force will be facing 7 enemy divisions against his own 2.
Now, I've decided to post another picture of the objectives tab just to give you an idea of how much the NM has shifted the past two turns. You may recall that last turn my morale was at 122 and the enemies at 91. Now the tides have turned for the worse. It is a dark day, indeed, for the Confederacy, but the good people of the South can see light in the distance and can only hope for the best.