Frustration, frustration. My generals will not ATTACK!

[Uncle John]

I realize that the strategic rating of a general has an impact on whether or not they can be active but this is killing me.

I am playing the grand campaign and am currently in June of 1862. I decided to spend the early part of the war trying to seal the Ohio River with militia and sealing the rivers. So of course, in October of 1861 the CSA broke through with a large army under Beauregard that cut through my lines like butter and took Baltimore. I spent a couple turns assembling an army and besieging Baltimore trapping more than 50,000 CSA troops in the city and now have more than 115,000 troops surrounding him. I reduced the city to rubble in March and only have to launch an assault to destroy the largest concentration of troops on the map. McDowell is my army commander with a 2-2-2 rating (McClellan was relieved after getting stomped in Harrisburg earlier in Beauregards invasion).

My big problem is that I cannot get the army to assault Baltimore! For 5 turns McDowell will not attack and of the 5 corps under him, I can never get more than 60% of them to attack which is not good enough so I have to keep calling off the attack. Trying to do it in synchronous movement with McDowell has yet to work either.

In the meantime the CSA has been building more troops and now holds Harpers Ferry and Alexandria and even sent Longstreet into Wheeling, VA. McDowell's. I am convinced that elimination of this force in Baltimore earlier would have allowed me to send roughly 100,000 men towards Richmond and relieve a great deal of pressure elsewhere. As it is I have been pretty much forced to watch about half my total army stand outside crab cake heaven with their thumb up their butt.

P.S. What is the opinion of the board members if I just abandoned my siege of Baltimore and just headed to Richmond anyways?

[Jabberwock]

Hi Uncle John -

1. You can reorganize to put more troops under the active generals.

2. The extended seige is working to your advantage. Bory's 50,000 should be getting pretty hungry even with the depot at Baltimore. Leave about 70,000 under your two <ahem> "best" available generals to continue the seige, assaulting when the enemy strength drops sharply. Use the rest of your available eastern troops to clear out northern VA or to assault Richmond.

[andrea84ta]

I'm currently playing with the USA, and I feel frustrated too with the inactivity of the generals, in particular in the east theatre. McClellan, Banks, McDowell ... I consider them really incapable . However all change in West front .. I kicked Halleck and promoted Grant and Sherman, with these 2 you can conquer all the country! After some turns some good generals appear also in the East, like Hancock, Meade, Reynolds.

[Rafiki]

Now you know how Lincoln felt....

[Uncle John]

Well, finally in late July I went in with two corps of close to 60,000 men who WOULD assault while the others stayed in defensive mode. I had close to 150,000 men by this time and Beau had roughly 40,000. It was costly, Whipple's corp lost 30,000 men in one attack, but I eliminated the force in Baltimore, freeing up those men. I immediately moved the bulk of my army to re-take Alexandria and get into the city to receive replacements. I still have roughly 120,000 men under McDowell. I plan on sendingt he healthiest corp of 40,000 men to Pittsburgh to pry that loose from Longstreet (Yeah, the CSA took Pittsburgh...sigh) while the replacements flow into Alexandria and once I get them back up to strength move south to Richmond while the 40,000 men towards Pittsburgh will move to Harpers Ferry and Winchester after disposing of Longstreet.

In the west consistent raids by the CSA into Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are about at an end. Grant, who had pretty much sat it out in Cairo finally got into the war when he cut off Johnston near Salem, IL and soundly beat him, earning a promotion while Sumner, who had been promoted to Corp commander under Halleck's Army of the West was licking his wounds near Bloomington, IL against Bushrod Johnston. Sumner's scores have gone from 3-1-1 to 1-1-3 and he is packing his bags. Grant is heading to Bloomington to take over the Army HQ from Halleck (whose scores are abysmal) while Sheridan will join Grant's old Corp which will go to Sherman and take over Sherman's division. Sumner's old corp will go to Rosecrans who has had moderate success dislodging the CSA from Rock Island,IL and central IL. In Ohio, the CSA under J.E.B. Stuart took Cincinnati from a large force (roughly 10,000) militia but only held it for one turn as a corp under Thomas with almost 14,000 men that was set up to cut off any Johnston move towards Indy (half of Illinois is on fire after his raid) swung south east towards Cincy and drove Stuart out with heavy casualties. Thomas is now at 3-4-9 in scores, not a great strategic score, but good enough and seniotr enough that he is heading east to take over the AotP from McDowell who has been pretty ineffective.

In the far west the CSA continues to pour raiders into Iowa. They are not a large force but they manage to put together 8-9,000 men at a time and I have not been able to organize my men very well. I did take Springfield, MO but raiders still abound. I may move Kearney and a good deal of cavalry to iowa to clean up the mess and then move on Fort Smith, Rolla (which I burned early on), Jefferson City and northern AK. I will have to solve the Tucson problem. I had 10,000 men under Keyes in Tucson which I thought was enough to hold it omly to have Van Dorn and more than 20,000 men kick him out.

I need to start taking some southern cities. Some advice requests.

1. How do I stop raids in the far west? Are there certain cities it is beneficial to take to cut down on the CSA raids?

2. I want to move Grant's army south along the Mississippi and was thinking of splitting the army in two on either side of the river with about 4 gunboats and just start taking towns. But i also realize that I will be extending my line pretty good. What would be a good Trans-Mississippi strategy?

3,Will moving the AotP south towards Richmond ease the raids into PA coming out of Harpers Ferry? How hard is it to HOLD Richmond once I take it?

4. Will I have to take all the territories on the western edge to cut Van Dorn's supply in Tucson?

This has kind of turned into a mini AAR, I will try to keep it updated. Thanks guys

[beefcake]

If the Rebs got Pittsburgh, you're probably in for a rough time. In one campaign, a Reb division of 10,000 men kept a 60,000 man Yank army at bay for three months. It is a very hard nut to crack if they are present in force.

Answering your questions:

1. Dealing with raids in the west is extremely frustrating. Other posters have offered strategies about how to deal with raids, and I've found the advice is good. Keep cavalry regiments in groups at strategic points that can respond to small raids. You should expect to lose towns frequently to the Rebs, but as long as you can keep them away from VP sites it is par for the course. They will keep raiding until you make it very hard to draw supplies from Indian territory or Northern Arkansas.

It is also a good idea to keep a division sized force near Jefferson City, MO. That gives you the ability to react to any large-scale moves towards St. Louis.

2. Dealing with Trans-Mississippi depends on how hard I can press my advantage. If you can drive the Rebs out of Springfield by the end of 1861, then you should consider a march south to Ft. Smith when the weather improves in 1862. Supply is crucial for any offensive moves in Missouri. Keep a few supply wagons stationed along the way until your depots can keep up with demand.

Regarding General Grant, I wouldn't send a corps west of the river unless it is really necessary. Arkansas usually falls into my hands within a few turns after taking Memphis, TN, since it makes it easier to use my navy to supply and support troops in Arkansas. But unless the Rebs show signs of fielding a large force west of the Mississippi River, anything bigger than a division is overkill.

3. Eventually, yes. If you manage to take Richmond and don't automatically win a National Morale Victory, then you will see fewer and fewer raids coming North.

Defending Richmond hasn't been a problem against Athena, since taking Richmond has always involved mauling the AoNV in the process. Still can't rule out the random event generating a new Raider unit from time to time, but the further you drive the fight South, the farther they are from their supply bases.

4. No, you won't have to take all of them, but the more you take the more they will starve. If you land a large force at Galveston or Matagorda, you might even entice Van Dorn to move from Tuscon to fight you. Be sure to bring supply wagons as well, since you may wind up shuttling supplies from the coast to your inland troops. Capturing Houston and Dallas should definitely get the A.I. to move from Tuscon to fight you.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Eugene Carr]

[color="DarkRed"]This should be a little easier after the next update since I introduced some additional permanently "fixed" militia units in all the vacant Level 3 cities or any other ones that start with a depot. This was done for AI assistance purposes.[/color]

I added additional depot guards a while back and it certainly seems to cut back on the long range raiding must reduce down on the lure of the undefended depot.

Interestingly some of my new units got selected for disbandment in 1862.

As regards inactive Union Generals I find some of them to be even scarier when they are active!

S!

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Eugene Carr]

I checked which depots didnt get a garrison then added them to the xls - basically duplicated existing units then changed name and location.

I wondered if there was an event that selected militia units at random to be disbanded because I have seen this with vanilla but maybe it is because the number of units in the pool is exceeded.

[Uncle John]

Well, things are looking up a bit. Thank you all for the advice on the Trans MS. I will definitely try the Jefferson City division and already trying to accumulate cavalry under Pleasanton in Des Moines to start cleaning up Iowa and MO. I wound up making a few moves different from my last post. Grant did take over the army of the west with Lyons assuming his old corps and Sheridan assuming his old division. I explored moving Thomas east to head the AotP but aftre realizing his seniority would be 17 once promoted to 3 star, I sent Rosecrans instead. Not as good as Thomas, but still an improvement, though the switch cost me 8 NM points and 158 victory points because I did not appoint McClellan (Little Mac is currently holding down the fort in Denver, CO.

Promoting Lyons to corp level paid immediate dividends as he has 33,000 men and is beating Johnston east across Indiana into Ohio and has pressed the attack home so well, his 32,000 men trounced A.S. Johnston's 42,000 men north of Vincennes and towards the Ohio. Thomas has another 30,000 men under his old corps and is moving west from Cincinnati while I have now lined the Ohio with guboats and ironclads, hopefully trapping Johnston on this side of the Ohio.

In western PA, Longstreet moved a division to Kierning(sp?) just NE of Pittsburgh and tried a cross river attack against Allegheny. Kierning was undefended so fell easily, but despite being outnumbered 2:1, Allegheny held fast bloodying Pete's nose. I have Keyes outside Pittsburgh and he has been joined by W. Franklins corp of almost 40,000 men from the Baltimore battle,

In the east I have cleaned up southern PA and Baltimore has fallen and I have even repaired the rail lines. Better generals are arriving in game (Meade, Reynolds, Slocum and of course my favorite, Sedgewick) and are replacing sub par commanders with Mosely stepping down in favor of Meade in one corp and Franklin stepping in for another corp. Whipple has kept his corp though he is unpromotable his scores continue to rise with each victory and I cannot replace him yet. I have Beauregard under siege in Mannassas now and it loks like he will fall soon. Once I get the CSa out of Pittsburgh I can move Franklin's corp to the Shenandoah, hopefully taking Harpers Ferry, Winchester and Steubens Depot and burning it all to the ground.

I have begun the move south with Samuel Curtis's command with 30,000 men moving south from Cairo into Paducah and now on to Columbia. I need to get some southern cities under my belt in hopes of increasing conscription companies. I may just give Curtis 3 supply wagons and have him make a run at Memphis with Lyons joining him once Johnston is vanquished.

The west is still a mess. mcCook, a good Indian fighter, took Springfield and Fayetteville with his force, but supply is getting thin so I may withdraw him to the St. Jo Leavenworth region to fight off Stew Wattie and Drews Cherokees and maybe once I can get three good independent divisions together I can advance along the west edge of the map to cut off Tucson, soutyh into NW AK and south towards Jefferson City and beyond to Rolla and Little Rock.

A few more questions:

1. In regards to supply, do I need to be running supply wagons back and forth to resupply units?

2. How long does it take a unit to convert a CSA territory into a US territory through occupation?

Thanks again guys

[beefcake]

Sounds like you are gaining a handle on your campaign.

1. The wagon shuttle service is only necessary in areas where no supply depots exist, or the supply network can't push enough to that location. If supplies aren't being pushed to a specific region and if you don't feel like building a supply depot nearby to fix the issue, then you should move the bulk of your troops out of that region ASAP. Otherwise you will need to shuttle supplies indefinitely.

You wrote about sending a column to attack Memphis with three supply wagons. As long as your navy controls the river, and if you keep your troops near water's edge with a few river transport fleets at hand, they should never have serious supply issues.

There is a toggle button on the mini map in the bottom left corner of the screen. That can help you see where your supply network is lagging behind. It is also a good idea to build up excess capacity with your Rail and Naval networks. That way supplies can keep moving around the map without issue.

I strongly encourage you to look for other forum posts about supplies and supply distribution. There is a lot of useful information already posted here.

2. Very slowly. I can't find the post which explains the control calculation, but somebody explained it once in the these forums. It is based on the number of troops in a region and how long they stay there. Milita units don't count for control until they are upgraded to regular troops. Capturing VP sites and winning battles that impact National Morale levels will also make territory conversion go much quicker. In some cases, I've captured Richmond, VA with a few corps of the AotP, and within a few turns the region is more than 50% loyal.

[Uncle John]

Well, lack of supply did bit McCook in the butt. After taking Fayetteville with roughly 5,000 men and leaving about 1200 militia behind in SPringfield, McCook ran out of supply and Springfield fell. I tried to move McCook back to Leavenworth but that fell to Van Dorn and winter set in. Attacked in IT and unsupplied, McCook's troops were too weak to fight off the CSA and were decimated with McCook meeting his demise (at least I can't find him anywhere on the map anymore or in the ledger).

The AotP did manage to take Alexandria back, in large part because Beauregard transferred out and took command of Forney's old force near Louisville. They joined up with Johnston's force which was retreating towards Louisville and bloodied Lyons nose pretty good. Lyons has retreated to Vincennes. I believe I now have the army cut off in southern Ohio as I have ironclads and gunboats lining the river and control all the crossings with at least militia and a 30,000 strong force on the north side of the Ohio by Louisville, Louisville beeing held by a full division and Lyons now reinforced by 9,000 more troops under Sickles. I still am not sure of Johnston/Beauregards strength so I have sent a militia unit out as bait.

Pittsburgh fell the first assault resulting in the complete destruction of Longstreets force of more than 22,000 men. the attack was headed by Franklin's corp (now force as he is out of army command range) he was joined by McAuley's division of 9,000 and a division of 12,000 from Allegheny that attacked across the river for an attack force of better than 60,000 men. he CSA still holds Wheeling but I do not expect that to last.

Curtis's command with 30,000 men has taken Paducah and layed siege to Columbia in the dead of winter and despite suffering almost 20% casualties managed to take Columbia by early January.

Elsewhere in the east Manassas has fallen and I have Rosecrans AotP and more than 150,000 men ready to march south. I plan to recall Franklin to take care of the Shenandoah Valley and then start destroying rail lines while the AOTP with Meade, Howard and Whipple's corp moving on Richmond in one strike. I'm not sure I will even stop to take Fredricksburg. I have built marines to help with river crossings, have roughly 3 supply wagons for each corp and feel I am ready to move once the winter breaks.

My big gamble will be in the west. I have decided to pretty much attack it from two sides. I am assembling militia and an infantry division in Des Moines under Jeff Davis that will move south, re-establishing US control over territories (I will have to alter this plan after learning that militia units cannot establish control, they can be useful guarding the river still) The infantry division will move towards St. Jo's and try and dislodge Van Dorn and another force of 5,000 CSA from Council Bluffs and Leavenworth and Lexington, MO. I have Blunt (sp?) and his indian fighters near St. Jo's and I have Mansfield and roughly 5,000 men in St. Jo's and Keyes and 3,000 men in Omaha. the addition of the Iowa division should help. I am also assembling a large division+ of zouaves and cavalry. A full 17 unit division in Brooklyn under Hancock and Doubleday. They will take about a month or two to train (I moved an officer with master trainer 1 to Boston where the bulk of the new troops are) and will then move to Brooklyn where I am also assembling a large fleet of transports and ships and once they are ready they will set sail for an invasion of Galveston. The goal will be to take the west edge of the map with Galveston, Houston and Dallas the initial goals. This should allow me to startve the troops out of Tucson (A smaller force now taht Van Dorn has moved into Kansas) and then reinforce them with another division from Iowa to take Fayetteville, Springfield, Ft. Smith and Little Rock. COmbined with the force moving south along the mighty Miss, I should have the west under control. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Cdr. McBragg]

1. How do I stop raids in the far west? Are there certain cities it is beneficial to take to cut down on the CSA raids?

After many sad lessons, I made it a policy to destroy all the villages in the west, including Kiowas and Fort Smith, Kansas. This eliminates them as shelter and supply and leaves you with less to garrison. I found that the two cavalry regiments at Forts Leavenworth and Gibson can accomplish this in a couple of months, and then swoop down to Arkansas and grab Fort Smith if it is undefended.

The whole purpose of the western campaign, as far as I understand it, is to move a modest sized army from St. Louis to Little Rock. Once that's accomplished, rebel demonstrations in the west are mere vandalism, more costly to them than to you.

Winter is murderous in Missouri and northern Arkansas, so secure the Springfield-Fayette-Ft. Smith axis and let the winter fight for you.

[Le Ricain]

It is probably worth mentioing that it is important to keep the supply lines open (under US control) between Fayetteville and Jefferson City. This means that each province along the way needs to garrisoned with militia at least to allow supplies to flow to the depots. I believe you need to have 20% minimum control of the province to permit passage of supplies through it. I suspect that is what happened to McCook.

[Uncle John]

Any opinions on how many troops I will need to hold that Ft. Smith, Springfield Lafayette axis?

You are probably right that McCook perished due to lack of supplies trying to make his way across the NW AK plains in winter already low on supply. Too bad, he was a pretty good Indian fighter.

My force of 10,000 zouaves 3 arty batteries, 2 horse artyy batteries and two cavalry units are enroute to Galveston from Brooklyn under Doubleday. John Logan has a division (about 2/3 strength) about to move on Bloomington, IA (yeah, I had lost that too, it had gotten pretty bad) Mansfields forces finally died due to lack of supply I think (I was hoping they would hold on until relief arrived) Pleasonton's cavalry has almost opened up a supply path from Des Moines to St. Jo to Blunt's force still hanging on with a 77 pwr force. He is opposed across the Missouri River by Quantrill's 117 pwr force. Pleasonton should even the odds a bit. Not only that, but the infantry under Jefferson C. Davis (about a 1/2 strength division) moved out of DesMoines west to Council Bluffs, helped Erasmus Keyes, who was in Omaha, kick the CSA out of Council Bluffs, retake Sioux City and now they are moving down the river on each side towards St. Joe wher they will link up with Blunt and Pleasonton to defeat Quantrill in Leavenworth.

Following that my hope is that Logan, who I think has enough to take Bloomfield back, will move down to Jefferson City and open up supply. as suggested thank you, Pleasonton, Blunt and either Davis or Keyes will combine to move on Springfield, Ft. Smith and Fayetteville after re-taking Lexington. With Logan taking Jefferson City( and Rolla) I hope to have a nice link to Doubleday's force in Texas. My big worry is Tucson. Van Dorn now commands the CSA Army of the West with a corp under Braxton Bragg with a 559 power.

1. What do I need to do to cut off their supply and start degrading that force? Do I need to take all territories along the western edge of the map? Do I need to just take Houston which seems to have the only rail line to Tuscon? If I have to occupy all the western territories I don't think I have enough to hold off any attack from Van Dorn.

2. Will the march from Tucson to the west edge make much of a difference to Braggs force in terms of casualties?

3. In my attack on Leavanworth I have a few seperate units converging from the north, I'd like to surround and destroy that force. What is best? Surrounding and coordinating a simultaneous attack (taking seeming advantage of multiple fronts) or assembling one strong stack while the others hold and attacking that way? It looks like I may have a total 2:1 advantage in the area barring any reinforcements for Quantrill)

I may have to assemble another division in New York and ship them to Galveston.

In Indiana, A.S. Johnson's force has been destroyed, though his HQ is still in Dubois, IN. I have a light infantry regiment and a militia unit trying to attack him and hunt him down, but he just stays there and I can't engage him. The guy died in battle in real life, in game he has been cut off and on the run in OH and IN for 2-3 months and I still can't getthe guy?

As always guys I appreciate the comments and advice and hope you've been enjoying this somewhat jumbled topic (on my part only)

[beefcake]

1. Taking Galveston, Matagorda, and Houston should be enough to get Van Dorn to meet your force in Texas. If that doesn't shake him lose, then I think owning Ft. Smith, Dallas, and the cluster of towns in the SW corner of the map should make it hard for them to stay supplied. But I would expect Athena to respond to your Texas Expedition by moving Van Dorn to fight you immediately.

2. Not knowing the supply and weather situations, I'll say the Tuscon to Houston march won't hurt them much. It will shake their cohesion, but they should still have plenty of fight left in them. If your division isn't close to 600 points in strength, you should definitely bring addiitonal divisions to bear against Van Dorn.

3. If you rush troops in small formations to a point already held by a stronger enemy, you run the risk of "defeat in detail." It would be safer to converge at a nearby location, then attack in one stack. Alternately, you can move into Leavenworth with a force of equal size, lay siege to the defenders, then quickly bring in the rest of your troops. Personally I'd go with the 1st option and just crush them into a butternut stain on the Kansas prairie.

I don't think you'll catch A.S. Johnston unless you send in cavalry.

[Uncle John]

Just a quick note.

The force under Doubleday (which totals about 290) arrived outside Galveston after a 20 day voyage from Brooklyn. I magine my surprise when I found a CSA fleet containing a a division under Forney with about a 300 power ALSO landing at Galveston!

How the heck did they know I was coming?

Also beefcake, I think you are right. Van Dorn has a corp under Braxton Bragg in Tucson that is about 550. I have already started assembling another expedition in Atlantic City to reinforce Doubleday.

I don't where Athena keeps getting these forces. I had cleared some Indian troops out of the Fort Laramie area and hold Sioux City Omaha and Council Bluffs along with all western territories save Tucson and somehow Birney and his 330 division showed outside Laramie. The CSA now has a force of 400 in Leavenworth to match mine in St. Joseph. Hopefully ithas been drawing them away from the Mississippi and Potomac.

[Uncle John]

Another quick note. While it may have been that the forces that took Ft. Laramie, WY were visible to me because I had nobody near it. It appears that the CSA force under Richard B. Anderson and Bushrod Johnson (same force) moved from Ft. Laramie WY to CHicago, IL in a maximum of two turns. This would be the raid of all raids. I am in a bit of trouble as I stripped down IL pretty good to reinforce Grants Army moving down the mighty Miss.

Working from West to East.

In Galveston, I do not know where Forney's force has gone, but Doubledays force besieging Galveston was attacked by Benjamin Cheatham and fought it off quite easily. We are still besieging Galveston.

In western MO and Kansas. I managed to get some supplies to St. Josephs's. I'm hoping it will help, especially Pleasontons cavalry that is almost wiped out. I did manage to take Bloomington and sent a small regiment to Rolls that took it with no opposition and John Pope's force of 6600 men moved from St. Louis to Jefferson City also taking the city with no opposition. If I can open up a supply route to St. Jo's and take Lexington in the process as well as hold on for 4 more turns, I can do a volunteer call and build another division in Iowa and hopefully lock down KS, MO and IA.

Along the Miss, Sumner's Corp (he took over Curtis' command) continues to move downriver, taking Fort Number 10, Columbia and Charleston. Kearney's 12000 man cavalry force leapfrogged ahead and after meeting stiff resistance at Memphis, turned on Covington, taking it under siege, they plan to assault in early June 1863. After taking Fort 10, Francis Steele moved from Paducah to Humboldt, laying siege there, they will also assault in June '63. Sumner has leapfrogged Pleasonton with a much stronger force of almost 30,000 men and attacked Memphis, capturing 3,000 rifles and 1,000 men, but the city is still holding out. meanwhile, Grant's Army HQ and Lyons large corp of 44,000 men has layed siege to Ft's. Donelson and Henry with a bit of support from Andrew H. Foote's ironclads and is slowly but surely reducing it to rubble.

In central Ohio, with the CSA seemingly shifting forces in TN Thomas prepared to move right down the rail line from Louisville to Bowling Green, only to have Beauregard pop up near Clarksburg, Thomas has now left a strong division in Louisville and moved NE to Cincinatti to cut off Beauregard.

R.E. Lee finally made an appearance, taking over command of a force that had taken Grafton, WV. In response, Don Beull moved to Pittsburgh Wheeling and formed the Army of West Virginia with two corps of Franklin and E. Ord and roughly 50,000 men. Combined with Daniel Butterfield's force of 7,000 they swooped down on Lee scattering his forces. After fixing the rail line in Grafton Buell left Butterfiekld behind and took Franklin and Ord by rail to an area just west of Harpers Ferry and after a short battle retook the important gate to the Shenandoah.

In the AotP Rosecrans continues to justify his promotion to army commander. With 3 corp (Meade, Whipple (who is now 3-5-3 and my most successful general) and Howard Rosecrans moved straight past Fredricksburg for Richmond and with a force of 115,000 men beat Jubal Early's corp of 34,000 and now Richmond is under siege.

On the down side, Leonidas Polk, now in command of the Confederate AotP has attacked Alexandria which is being held by Milroy's corp and has breached its defenses. I'm hoping I can take Richmond, hold it with one large corp and turn the other two on Fredricksburg to establish supply and atack Polk. the next call for volunteers and mobilization should enable to fill out the army and reinforce that line.

P.S. Pinkerton showed up, I will have to look up just what the heck he can do for me since he did very little of value in the real war.

A few questions

1. I am worried about the narrow line from Cairo to Memphis and am worried about having 12,000 CSA troops showing up near Colmbia to cut me off. I'd like to leave troops behind to secure my line, but I need the troops to attack cities such as Memphis. I am trying to clear a path between Ft. Donelson and memphis (Humboldt, Covington, etc.) What is a good balance to guard those lines and should I even worry about it?

2. I moved a supply wagon into St. Jo as supply seems to be a constant worry for them. In particular peril is Pleasonton's cavalry which has three elements almost completely red. Will supply, in and of itself help restorethem or will I have to putthem in the city and buy replacements?

3. Any advice on how to deal with the CSA raiders (actually a good sized force) outside Chicago?

Thanks as always.

[GlobalExplorer]

We know about Lincolns agony. Even Lee said something like "I could end this war quickly, if I could only get my generals to carry out my orders."

In the end, this is one of the best features, best ideas of this game, maybe it should just be implemented a bit differently in the future. Like presenting how General X got sidetracked again with building a bridge for a week, or how McClellan did not order an attack because he felt outnumbered 3:1, and demanded two additional corps.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Uncle John]

An update:

Well a lot has happened and much of it good though it looks as if it could turn on me at any minute,

Starting from west to east

In the far west a second front has opened up. Doubleday and Reno's force landed near Galveston and immediately laid siege to Galveston. The entire stack of Doubleday's division, Reno's division and Stonemans small cavalry force fought off an attack by David H. Hill from Houston. Forney's force that landed near Galveston the same time that I landed near Galveston (I still don't know how the CSA knew I was going there) moved off towards Matagorda and went down to about half strength. I suspect the other half is near Houston with D.H. Hill. After taking Galveston, bioth Reno and Doubleday were promoted to 2 star generals. Stoneman is currently on a raid northward with the cavalry (47 pwr). he has taken Dallas and Henderson, TX and is moving on Milain. i don't hold any hope of holding those, but it could draw some troops off of south Texas. It turns out DH Hill is holed up in Houston under siege by Reno now with a force equal to Reno's.

In Iowa and Kansas. Logan has taken Bloomfield, IA and is now laying siege to Lexington while the situation in St. Joe's has eased a bit. I moved Pleasanton and his beat up cavalry up to Council Bluffs to get replacements while keyes and jefferson C. Davis have reinforced St. Joe's to the point that Quantrill will not attack it. As a matter off fact, after I brought two ironclads up the Missouri River Quantrill moved off, allowing me to retake Leavenworth. I have now sent Blunt and his Indian cavalry to probe towards Lawrence, KS. If I can take that I can turn some of those forces towards reopening suply to St. Louis and Des Moines. I really do need a strong division to quickly regain comntrol of alll the wayward territories controlled by the CSA in Iowa and MO.

Along the Mississippi I have made some gains. After three turns Ft. Donelson fell and I have had smaller divsions scooping up the small cities between the Mississippi and Cumberland Rivers down to Corinth. Ft. No. 10 fell to Sumner;s division, Pleasanton leapfrogged to take Covington and Sumner leapfrogged him to attack Memphis which fell in 2 turns in part, I think, due to the addition of 2 siege artillery pieces. After taking Ft. Donelson and Grierson taking Clarksville with his 5,000 horsemen, Grant moved on Nashville. At the same time I moved the infantry and militia along the Ohio forward to the river near Bowling Green with Thomas and his corps taking the lead after a nice battle near Cincy. Thomas was on the north side of the Ohio near ouisville when Beauregard and roughly 25,000 men showed up just west of Clarksburg, KY. Thomas moved quickly to Cincinatti and beat Beauregard there (Yeah rail!) and popped him good. Beauy lost roughly 2/3 of his men trying to cross the Ohio and take on the unexpected Thomas. After driving him back to Bracken, KY Thoams followed up with his corp of 33,000 and was joined by Granger's command of 8,000 out of Clarksburg and they drove Beaury south of the Cumberland. Thomas moved on Bowling Green and took it without much of a fight. In the TN-KY theater at least the CSA is back on its heels.

West Virginia is secured, Lee was driven out of Grafton and Franklin and Ord's corp moved by rail to the area north of Harpers Ferry under Buell's army command. They took Harpers Ferry easily enough, driving A.S, Johnston (yes he escaped Ohio) east into Frederick, MD. In the meantime, Rosecrans AotP marched straight past Fredricksburg and defeated early's army of 37,000 men (Rosecrans had three corps of almost 120,000 men under Whipple, Howard and Meade). Rosecrans laid siege to Richmond which fell in early July 1863 after fighting off a counterattack by Early. Rosecrans also used Minty's cavalry force of 5,000 men to cut off the rail southwest of Richmond and tear up the tracks. This where it got interesting. After the battle of Richmond, the entire AotP in Richmond was in supply trouble and down to a 300 pwr. At that moment, Pemberton showed up in Petersburg with a force greater than1,700 or roughly 60,000 men. It was not looking good and the only thing standing between Rosecrans and Pemberton's large force was Minty's cavalry. Also, 7,000 men led by Wheeler moved behind Rosecran's and set up outside Alexandria. I immeaditaely ordered Franklins' corp detached from Buell in Harpers Ferry and moved by water to Fredricksburg which appeared to be lightly defended. I also halted Bank's division from embarking for Texas from Atlantic City and move them to Alexandria and pretty much gatherd up whatever forces I could to relieve Rosecran's. For some reason, Pemberton did not attack Richmond or Minty for that matter. I also started building two large division in New York to move towards Richmond as well.

This turn turned out be one of my worst. Bank's did move to Alexandria, lifting the siege by Wheeler. But when he trie dto move into Fredriscsburg, it turned out that the 60,000 men under Pemberton had moved there. This did not bode well for Franklin's arrival with 35,000 blue clad troops. They got WIPED out. Not a single survivor and all the division leaders scattered. they did manage to drive off Pemberton but the casualties were enormous. Of the 6 corps I had in that theater I was down to 5. I figure it was because they arrived by sea. Not only that but Stonewall Jackson appeared in Winchester with a sizeable corp and retook Harper's Ferry. The only real good news was that Rosecrans's army was only temporarily weakened. With a ton of replacements ebing bought and reinforcements dribbling in, he is now back up to 80,000 men.

As it stands now I have assembled 24,000 men in NYC and given two division commands to Buford and McClellan. They will move towards Alexandria and either on to Richmond if they still need help or to the Shenandoah if they are OK. The next two divisions go to Texas and Iowa.

[Uncle John]

OK,

Heading into 1864 (it's late Dec. 1863) and things are looking alright. Especially now that I have come upon another volunteer call and partial mobilization option. I will have a question on that in a moment.

In the west I have finally cleared Iowa and almost all of MO and taken Springfield. Jefferson C. Davis moved from Des Moines with a 1/2 strength division to St. Joes, Pleasanton cavalry survived the cutoff supplies (I moved a supply wagon in their to keep them from being destroyed due to lack of)) John C. Logan gathered together a full divisipon from units in IN and IL and moved to Quincy IL before working his way west along the RR taking Bloomington, IA and Lexington, MO while opening supply lines to St. Joseph, MO. John Pope, who had been assembling the odd upgraded militia and odd regiment in St. Louis finally moved out with a force of 8,000 and moved on Jefferson City and Rolla. This time the CSA response was not very strong as they are now fully occupied in 5 areas, the Potomac, Tennessee and the Mighty Miss, Galveston, TX and the KS-MO border. I was able to follow up with militia and light infantry to garrison the towns I took and then move on Springfield. Pope (without artillery, oops) laid siege to Springfield in early fall and the defnders hung on through October and November. By November I had also assembled a force of 6,000 men under Pitzjohn Porter (when he could finally be bothered to be activated) and moved them to Springfield as well and the town fell in late December. Since early October I have spent a good deal of time re-occupying territories and turning them back to the Union to ensure the supply flow.

Along the Mississippi valley the Union with Sumner's corp has moved as far south as Bolivia, AL and Samuel Curtis even made a detour west to take Little Rock, AR. It is in this area and the Potomac that the CSA has attempted raids but I have cut a swath from the Ohio to Corinth west to Memphis that I control and I have planted a large 12,000 man cavalry division under Phil Kearney right in the middle of it and he has managed to crush any incursions. Longstreet even had a force of 5,000 men that was quickly cut off and wiped out. Grant's Army is holding Nashville and once I build some garrison units I plan on moving him southeast to Winchester, TN to join Thomas' corp and then march on Chattanooga and Atlanta.

In the east I think I have put out the fires. I had four large corp in the area and some took a beating, including Franklin, whose corp of 30,000 men was wiped out when he landed in Fredricksburg and was waylaid by Pemberton and his 60,000 man army. Thats what I get for transporting them there by sea. That still left 10,000 men in Harpers ferry under Ord and Rosecrans AotP with 30,000 men corps under Meade, Howard and Whipple in Richmond, VA. I also had Nathaniel Banks and 10,000 men available. They were finishing up training and preparing to disembark and travel to Galveston to reinforce Doubleday/Reno's divisions, but when Pemberton showed up in Petrsburg with 66,000 men I diverted his corp to the CSA capitol. Banks took a beating on his way down there, running into Robert E. Lee on a raid near Baltimore, but he still managed to get to Richmond with 6,000 men and join Whipple's 12,000. Rosecrans moved Meade and Howard north to relieve Alexandria and D.C. I was confident that together they could match anything the CSA had, especially when it appeared that Pemberton had split his forces to attack Alexandria and D.C. First Rosecrans and his 63,000 men relieved D.C., driving Pemberton back towards Manassas. Then I gambled and decided to move Rosecrans Army to attack Winchester, VA. Moving there from D.C. Rosecrans encountered Ewell and 17,000 men just north of Manassas and massacred Ewell's corp, taking 7,000 prisoners.

I am spending the rest of the winter replacing lost units and building new divisions and have a couple of questions.

1. I know I have to have the unit in the city to receive replacements, but how fast are casualties replaced? With the volunteers and partial mobilixation along with the 110 conscription units I get per turn, I have more than 1400 conscript companies to build new units and reinforce old ones. Assuming I have my damaged units in cities, how long does it take for replacements to arrive? If I build enough line replacements, will they all heal in one turn or does it take more time?

2. I am leading in National Morale 158 to 69 and am getting 53 victory points to 40 for the CSA. However I am trailing in victory points 3452-2145(Mainly because I keep promoting good generals ahead of bad ones). How much will victory points affect the outcome?

[Mangudai]

In my experience the best way for the Union to play trans-Mississippi is to implement the infamous Order No. 11 as early as possible. Historically the Union destroyed all structures in counties along the Missouri Kansas border.

I destroy the depots at Springfield and Ft. Smith as fast as possible. That prevents the rebs from moving a division sized force in the west. I destroy the indian villages and the remaining depots west of St. Louis for good measure. Then the Union can hold the Missouri River with a few militia and cav.

For the Union to send an infantry division to Ft. Smith seems like a waste to me. It's worth a few VP's, but hardly matters. Supply is a serious problem and easily cut by rebel cavalry. Cohesion, health, and speed are a problem especially in the Ozarks during winter. The enemy has many turns worth of warning to reinforce Little Rock before you can get there. I much prefer to raze the Missouri Kansas border and reinforce the Mississippi. Having a division for amphibious operations in the Gulf is great too.

[Uncle John]

Well, the game is over. My overall strategy worked though with a large number of mistakes along the way.

My overall strategy from the start was to exert pressure on the Confederacy on all fronts and keep up the pressure and bring the Unions superior resources to bear. I guess I did this in the end and it paid off.

In the west I finally was able to subdue the cavalry raids when I took ft. Smith and Springfield. I eventually made use of fremont by creating an Army of the Far West under the inept general and a corp under John Pope with three divisions, a full strength division under Pitzjohn Porter, and two half strength divisions under Lewis H. Wallace and Jefferson C. Davis. I felt I needed a large force to take towns and peel off units to garrison those towns and keep the cavalry raids from re-taking them. I also felt I would need a large force to deal with Van Dorn's Army of the west in Tucson with a large division under Braxton Bragg. I poised Pope's corp at Jefferson City and waited for my seaborn invasion of Galveston to occur. I felt this would draw off many CSA troops and it did. The invasion force, under Jesse Reno and Abner Doubleday along with a cavalry force about 115 pwr) under Stoneman successfully took Galveston. The force was in trouble early on as Reno's force equaled roughly 380 pwr and was faced with a confederate force of 200 inn Houston under Forney and a force of 180 in Matagordo. Leaving a small force to defend Galveston Reno struck Matagordo with good effect and then defeated Forney in Houston. That pretty much took care of most of the CSA forces in the Texas theater. I eventually built up another half strength division under McDowell (I had to find something for him to do, he was hanging out in Detroit) and in summer 1864 put to large cavalry forces under Wilson and Custer into Galveston. The infantry, under Reno (McDowell stayed behind with 4,000 men to hold Galveston) moved along the coast picking off Beaumont and other cities enroute to New Orleans. Custer, Wilson and Stoneman along with Robert Minty who moved to Dallas from Iowa with more cavalry, fanned out and started scooping up smaller towns in Texas and Louisiana. The terrain and distance between cities made this an ideal task for cavalry. Meanwhile Bragg still had roughly 8-9,000 men in Tucson under Van Dorn so I moved Pope's force of almost 17,000 men from Fayetteville to Dallas and then to Tucson, besieging Van Dorn and eliminating his army. In Arkansas, Samuel Curtis split off from Sumner's corp with 10,000 men and moved on Little Rock after taking Bolivar. Once that was secured and militia moved in to garrison it, he moved west, taking Shrevport, Milian(sp?) and then moving back along the river to take Henderson and the cities NW onthe river from Vicksburg. Curtis wound up the war a 2 star general who made good use of his time in a remote theater.

Along the Mississippi Sumner finally got his act together. He had been relieved of his corp in 1862 after getting his butt kicked by A.S. Johnston outside of Springfield. IL but was given command of the 19th corp soon after the Union crossed the Ohio into western KY and took Island No. 10. Sumner redeemed himself. Working with a bit less than full strength corp at time (usually right around 30,000 men) he linked up with Kearney's cavalry division and took Memphis. Other Union forces moved along the Cumberland to take all CSA cities between Memphis and Decaturville. Sumner sent various divisions to take the cities across the Mississippi with the support of the ironclads that had been blockading the Ohio River. After fighting off a few division strengths to dislodge him by the CSA, Sumner made camp in Bolivar in winter 1863 and spent the winter garrisoning the towns he had taken in KY, TN and AK. In March of '64 Sumner sent Kearney on a raid from Corinth down to Jackson, MS, hitting a couple towns along the way and hoping to draw off forces from the defense of Vicksburg. With two batteries of Siege arty and 29,000 men, Sumner then moved by river to Vicksburg and laid siege. this almost ended in disaster as the CSA was apparently building a new corp in Mobile and moved them towards Vicksburg. After three turns of siege Sumner still had not breached the city and attempts to bombard the fort resulted in atotal of four ironclads at the bottom of the river. SUmner was isolated (Kearney's raid had netted almost nothing as he was ill-supplied) and Hood attacked. Sumner beat Hood's 34,000 men with his now 27,000 but was not in good shape. I then moved Kearney to join Sumner and started moving a division from Nashville under McPherson to reinforce Sumner. the reinforcements arrived in time to defeat Hood's second attack and this pretty much spelled the end of Vicksburg. Shortly after taking the city, Curtis' force took the cities on the river NW of Vicksburg. Oddly enough, Sumner, though a senior officer, never did get promoted to 3 stars. The CSA did mount one last offensive, moving a corp towards Memphis to take back a major objective and cut off the southern gains, but 2 new divisions and a new fort were waiting for him and the CSA called off the attack after a costly victory south of Memphis that cost him almost 40% casualties. By this time I had moved three ironclads to the area to start shelling his troops. the war ended with that force depleted and cut off, but still probably the largest CSA force on the map.

Ulysses S. Grant had the most fun. After easily taking Nashville Grant sat for quite a bit in '63 waiting for Sumner's corp to catch up on the march south, but when he did, Grant moved his large army (120,00 men when he left Nashville and moved towards Winchester, TN After taking Winchester and Chattanooga Grant was almost unopposed in Rome and made quick work of the division in Atlanta. Grant's Army was comprised of 4 corp under Lyons, Lewis Wallace H. Berry and Isaac Stevens. Sherman was a division commander but never really managed to advance much, only getting his 2nd star on the last turn of the game. i wanted to recreate the "Sherman's march to the Sea" and having just read how Sherman burned Atlanta and the depot andthen took off, I did the same. Sending Lyons and Berry along the RR line leading through Augusta and on to Savannah, and Wallace and Stevens along the line that went through Macon (with a detour to Columbia for Wallace) then on to Dublin and rejoining the other two corps in front of Savannah. I was going to burn everything along the way and make the South realy experience the war. But, being a total idiot I did not have adequate supply wagons to make the trip. realizing my mistake about three nanoseconds after I burned the Atlanta depot I started building wagons in KY and Ohio and shuttling them forward. The march met little opposition along the way and Grant's army was in front of Savannah when the CSA surrendered.

In the east Rosecrans turned out to be a very able Army commander, helped by very good corp commanders. Meade, Whipple( a non-promotable general who won just about every battle he was in) Howard and Nathaniel Banks (SOmebody had to garrison Richmond) cleaned up the area around Richmond and fought the last major battle of the war. Using synchronous movement, Rosecrans moved the AotP around Petersburg towards Suffolk and ran head on into 40,000 men under Robert E. Lee (Who didn't get his 3rd star til late in the game I believe). With a better than 2:1 advantage and both armies between the Chowan and Meherrin Rivers, the final major battle was fought in Sussex, VA with Lee's forces decisively beaten and routed towards Suffolk and Norfolk. The AotP laid siege to Norfolk soon after and captured 11,000 men when Norfolk surrendered.

In the Shenadoah, George Thomas took over the Army of West Virginia from Buell, garrisoned harpers ferry and Winchester, VA and struck south. Scooping up Lynchburg and not fighting a major action until laying siege to Raleigh, NC, which fell in 45 days. From there the two armies linked up with the AotP pretty much cutting a swath along the Atlantic Seaboard 3 towns deep and Thomas, with a smaller army, moving the same direction as Rosecrans, but more inland. Thomas had three corps in Lumberton and along the SC border when the CSA finally admitted defeat.

the Confederates surrendered in December of 1864.

This was my first full campaign and full of mistakes and surprises and many peopple here offered information and advice that was helpful.

Things that worked

1. Constant pressure on all fronts. This helped out because, really, the only way to stop the raids into IL, OH, PA and IA is to take the supply away from the raiders and that means invading the south. If you decide not to advance until you have stopped the raids you will be perpetually putting out fires. Advancing is what will stop the raids.

In the end, Athena was forced to put out fires all over the map when I advanced with my larger army. Athena had to devote resources to the Far west and Texas as well as the Trans MS and Virginia. She really had too few troops to stop all advances so some were tougher, like MS and VA, while others were met with little resistance, Grant in TN and GA.

2. Ironclads on the river did help stymie the raids into Ohio and IN.

3. Sigel and Halleck. Two good training officers. After I replaced Halleck with Grant for command of the Army of the West I moved Sigel to the east in NY and Boston and kept Halleck in St. Louis and Chicago. I tried to build in Boston quite a bit so that they would all start out in one city and I could put them under Sigel and Halleck's command and train faster. This allowed me to rush reinforcements to the fron sooner and snuff raids by the CSA quicker.

What I screwed the pooch on on a regular basis.

1. Supply. Still not 100% familiar with the rules and I reckon I built maybe TWO depots the entire game, usually just keeping supply wagons with corps and armies. As a result of this dunderhead move I lost quite a few men and divisions. It could have cost me Grant's Army and Sumner's Corp and the game. As it was, in the end I wound up having to curtail my invasion of east TN due to lack of supply. This especially hurt me in the west where McCook led a successful attack on Springfield, MO. only to be reduced to nothing due to lack of supply. McCook wound up dying trying to get back to Leavenworth in 1862.

2. The west. It took me too long to solve this one and amybe I did the right thing, I kept up a little pressure, but supply to St. Jo and Lawrence was a constant problem, I didn't destroy the Indian villages fast enough and I nveer really organized more than a token force to invade MO until it was late in the game. Building a good cavalry force with horse arty early to put out raids and a good infantry division to wipe out Springfield and ft. Smith would have been a smarter move possibly, though, in the end, I had almost COMPLETELY conquered the west.

3. pay more attention to the ocean-going navy. I never paid them much mind except when I was shipping troops to Galveston. I built some blockade squadron's but was never really sure if they were meant for the blockade box? Or the actual blockade of specific ports

4. Support units. I never built a hospital, an observation balloon or much other support. i did build 4-5 marines once I learned through this forum, that they could help crossing rivers.

Thanks all for the responses, I had a blast with this game and look forward to trying it again on a harder level (this was on normal)