Restoring the Union - Burns (USA) vs. Pelette (CSA)

[Jim D Burns]

Hi Ace,

This is a one side only AAR, so strategy talk is fine and more than welcome.

West of Cincinnati? Are you talking about Polk’s stack at Louisville? If so I actually like that Polk is that far north. If you look back around the time I sent Grant to Madisonville, I discuss cutting the state in two and thus potentially trapping Polk and other forces north of Bowling Green.

Madisonville has been built up to a depot level 2 now and it will get the lion’s share of local reinforcements I’ll be building from the new callup. Bowling Green will be my first target in the spring and hopefully I will trap Polk’s forces around Louisville. If I were to force him to withdraw right now due to low supplies as he withdrew from WV, it would make taking Bowling Green a lot harder, I prefer the CSA stays spread out in KY until I’m ready to attack.

I did quite a bit of raiding during the battles in WV, but weather has been horrendous lately and I don’t want to get my cavalry stuck in the mountains during blizzards. The CSA has all but left WV now so there is no real threat to me there any longer, it’s just taking forever to retake the state because of the blizzards. I also think there is a new feature in the engine that automatically repairs damaged rail pretty quickly now, so raiding isn’t as effective as it once was. I know the rail Polk recently cut repaired itself before my cavalry regiment could arrive to fix it, so risking cavalry in bad weather for such little effect isn’t too appealing.

Beauregard’s CV is misleading, there is actually about 1500+ CV in Manassas right now, it’s just not all in one stack so you can’t see it in the screenshot. I would say the CSA is slightly stronger in the east than my forces right now. Once Hooker makes it to Washington we will have near parity again.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 20 Late January

Simon Cameron is replaced via event and I gain war supplies.

After playing a few cards this turn, I still have 1583 money stockpiled, so I can afford another $2.00 callup and play the event.

On the peninsula both Butler and Longstreet arrive in Williamsburg this turn, but no battle is fought. The CSA does however gain 30% military control, so it looks like he’ll now be able to pull supplies into the region. Butler remains on defense with hold at all cost orders.

In Hampton Roads Farragut and Dahlgren split the Union fleet into two (I moved almost all available ships there last turn). Dahlgren remains on blockade duties with a large fleet lead by the ironclad USS Monitor and Farragut goes to Washington with a large fleet lead by the armored frigate USS Hartford. Either fleet should now be able to deal with a southern ironclad should they be attacked by one.

Hooker again is hampered by bad weather and starts this turn way up north near Fort Ontario. I give up trying to use rail movement in winter and simply order him to move to the fort where he’ll await clear weather.

In KY Polk has moved to Harodsburg just across the river from Lexington. I guess my opponent is setting up for an attack on Lexington soon. I order General Veatch who formed his division at Evansville this turn to join Grants force at Madisonville.

Not much else occurring this turn, though a few of my new partisan units are ordered to cut some rail lines.

Jim

[Ace1_slith]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

West of Cincinnati? Are you talking about Polk’s stack at Louisville?

Pardon me, I must have lost my mind, I meant Smith's stack east of Cincinnati.
Venturing over Ohio river should be punished, both by gunboats, and some large rail going forces.

I know the rail Polk recently cut repaired itself before my cavalry regiment could arrive to fix it.

This feature was intended to help AI only, I do not know if they have changed it to help human player as well. If the rail self-repairs only a turn after it has been cut, then it makes not much sense to me? At least 2 turns should be in order.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Ace1
Pardon me, I must have lost my mind, I meant Smith's stack east of Cincinnati.

Two different screenshots spliced together, no one is in Ohio from the CSA right now.

Jim

[Ace1_slith]

You 're right[:D]

Interesting how two screen-shots almost match

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 21 Early February

French intervention in Mexico event fires this turn and I gain 3 NM.

With the callup of volunteers, I begin the turn with 972 conscripts. Low funds prevent a lot of new construction, I manage to build twelve militia regiments and two 12 lb. artillery units.

Edwin Sumner is promoted to two stars via event and General Sherman joins Grant’s forces at Madisonville.

In a previous turn when the CSA appeared on the peninsula with its large army I purposefully did not blow up the depot as I was worried it might interfere with a possible combat there. I had told my opponent I intended to blow it up but didn’t so combat could occur without incident and asked my opponent to blow it up when he captured the region (I had expected to lose the region). This turn it appears no combat will be generated so I decide to blow up the depot as it isn’t fair that I continue to gain its benefits when I expected my opponent to have blown it up as that was my stated intention several turns back. If I manage to hold the region for a while I’ll build another depot later.

In the east it appears the CSA has moved a lot of his known combat strength away. I no longer see the large stack that was in Strasburg nor about 1000+ CV from Manassas. I have to assume he’s moved it south to smash into Butler. If he does hit Butler with a huge force, I’ll immediately head south with everything I have in the east to see what ground I can gain. From what I can see now both Manassas and Harper’s Ferry will fall, I just need the reassurance first that he won’t be able to smash into me with a large reserve force hidden just out of my view in the FOW on the turn after the turn I attack his two regions.

In KY the CSA has moved two stacks close to Madisonville and I send Grant’s force to hit the larger of the two in the region of Muhlenburg (think it should be spelled Muhlenberg) to help earn him some seniority points. With a 2-1 CV advantage he should win the engagement, though severely bad weather may hamper his efforts as he won’t arrive for 13 days. Veatch’s division remains at Madisonville on defense.

At Cairo Rickett’s division is finished training and he is sent south to replace Griffin’s division at Charleston. Griffin returns to Cairo for training.

Nothing changes further west.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 22 Late February

Union Counterfeiter event fires and I gain 2 additional counter-Intel cards to play each turn. This should allow me to now keep pace with all the CSA Demonstration cards being played each turn.

We print paper money via the ledger again this turn.

Mansfield attacks Wheeling WV and retakes the state capital.

One of my partisan units is destroyed in GA. I order another partisan unit in the state of GA to attempt 2 ambush raids via decision cards, it is also ordered to try and cut the rail.

In KY Grant loses the battle at Muhlenburg due to low cohesion. I should have known better than to attack in bad weather. Luckily Grant is only 1 day away from Madisonville and will have a good 8-10 days to recover cohesion during the next turn before a CSA unit could possibly pursue, so I think he’ll be able to hold. I order him to join Veatch’s division in the level 4 forts instead of going into the city.

In northern KY it appears the CSA is beginning to withdraw from the area, so I order units to advance. Buell who arrived in Cincinnati OH this turn forms the Kentucky Department army and goes to Lexington KY. Foster’s command advances from Columbus IN to Louisville KY. Nelson’s division advances to Harodsburg KY.

There is nothing to report about further west this turn.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 23 Early March

Northern paper push for an 1862 offensive event fires this turn. I already have more than 40 elements within two regions of Richmond, so hopefully another two turns will see the threat of losing another 10 NM go away.

General War order 2 fires and I must keep 48 regiments adjacent to Washington DC for 2 months or lose 50 VP. I’m not sure I’ll be able to meet that requirement. If leaders are counted as elements then I’m ok, otherwise I would have to abandon one of my entrenched positions along the Potomac River which I am not willing to do, we shall see.

Corps commands become available this turn and I create quite a few across the map.

On the peninsula the Union fleet bringing in Hooker’s division suffers weather damage and apparently so do Hooker’s troops who failed to unload as ordered and have very little cohesion left. I order the fleet and Hooker’s division to Fort Monroe to recover.

The only real news this turn is in Kentucky. Grants forces were beaten at Madisonville, and apparently prevented from retreating by a large CSA fleet. It’s only Early March 1862 and two CSA ironclads are already operational. The fleet also has 8 gunboats and 1 cottonclad, so my opponent has been busy building up his river navy. My small Union navy has no chance vs. the CSA fleet, but I have to try and allow Grant to retreat, so I give my fleet orders to evade and head into the same river region just north of Madisonville. If my fleet manages to remain undetected, I can load Grant’s troops next turn or perhaps even cross over to Evansville, though I’m not sure if the presence of my fleet unblocks blocked movement or not.

I give Grant defend orders with the evade button active. Hopefully he can evade combat long enough for the Union fleet to arrive at the crossing point (2 day move). If not Grant will probably be forced to retreat to some other region and become trapped in KY. I play a scorched Earth card at Madisonville, which should give 50 of Grant’s elements a 20% cohesion boost. I’m not sure if the card takes effect this turn before combats or next turn though, so it may not have an effect.

More worrying is there is another very large stack of CSA land troops just south of Madisonville, so it appears my opponent is going over to the offensive. I order Buell’s small army to rail to Evansville to set up a defense.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 24 Late March

McClellan is removed as Commander in Chief event fires this turn. I can see no disenable effects and assume this is just an historic flavor event.

Total disaster on the peninsula this turn. Jackson arrives with another army boasting 2400+ CV to bolster Longstreet’s army of 1700+ CV and Butler is easily defeated, though no NM is lost. With the CSA having over 4000 CV on the Peninsula I have no chance of stopping him from completely driving me out of Fort Monroe now (does anybody think 1800-2000 CV behind level 8 forts can win vs. 4000+ CV?). Due to the hold at all cost orders, Butler’s army is in tatters and will need quite a few turns to fully recover.

I guess the trick now is to see if I can evacuate Butler without losing my army in the process. I order Butler to move into the fort in passive posture, hopefully he can recover enough cohesion to resist for another turn should the CSA make it to the fort this turn.

In KY Grant was attacked again this turn and easily beaten, I lost 1 NM for the battle. Luckily for me however, it appears my opponent didn’t leave a very large fleet in the Evans Ford river region, as whatever fleet was there retreated when my fleet arrived. So Grant now has a clear path across the river north and he is ordered into passive posture with orders to march across.

From what I can see it looks like my opponent divided up his fleet and tried to blockade every single river region around the area of Madisonville to prevent Grants escape and simply forgot about my fleet. Had he left just 1 ironclad at Evans Ford, his plan may have worked. The Union river ironclads finished building this turn so perhaps not, as 5 of them are headed to Evans Ford now from Cincinnati, and may have been able to force the issue there even if he had trapped Grant for another turn at Madisonville.

It appears the CSA has about 1600+ CV in Madisonville now, so hopefully my fleet prevents their crossing north this turn to hit Buell before he can fully dig in.

The other 5 river ironclads that finished construction this turn and Porter and his ironclad are ordered to Cairo.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 25 Early April

33,000 + CSA troops under Jackson pursued Butler’s army and Butler lost another battle before he could leave the region of Hampton Roads. Butler begins the turn in the region at Fort Monroe and I place him inside the fort with passive orders. Hooker’s division has recovered from the weather damage he suffered at sea and he and the Fort’s garrison have a CV of 774.

I’ve sent all nearby ships with transport capacity into Fort Monroe this turn. Hopefully I can lift Butler’s entire army next turn, unless he recovers enough to give me hope the fort can stand up against Jackson. With the region outside the fort being swamp and the weather being mud, chances are Jackson won’t be able to hit the fort this turn and Butler may be able to recover enough to hold it after all, we will see.

Longstreet remained at Williamsburg but did not attack, so it appears my opponent is trying to get my two garrison units there to surrender. If they do surrender there is a chance I can lose 1 NM, so I order the garrison outside to get it killed off in battle and avoid the NM hit. This is a problem with the siege results in game, one or two small regiments should not cost me 1 NM. It is far too severe a penalty and forces players to do these kamikaze suicide moves simply to avoid the hit.

In KY Grant is still trying to escape north and is beaten in another battle this turn, though no NM is lost. Two naval battles are fought at Evans Ford. The first one is between Foote’s wooden fleet and a CSA fleet under Admiral Buchanan with two ironclads and various other ships. Even with the wind gauge in his favor, Foote is easily driven off and he retreats to Evansville. The second battle is fought between my 5 leaderless ironclads and Buchanan’s fleet. It is a Union victory and Buchanan retreats after suffering some casualties.

With the ford still in Union hands, Grant will be able to escape KY this turn as he is just 1 day away from Evansville. I order him to continue moving to Vincennes to enter the depot there and begin R&R. I order the ironclads into Evansville to recover cohesion. Foote’s fleet is ordered into Evans Ford and back to Evansville. Hopefully this will block any CSA attempt to cross the ford and also allow the fleet to recover some damage as well as most of the turn will be spent in port.

The other group of new union ironclads did not make it to Cairo and are still 7 days away, so Porter will remain at Cairo awaiting their arrival.

Not much else to report on this turn. With the two new ironclad fleets being on map our CV ratio is now 69%, so it confirms that naval power is part of the calculation (think it was about 81% before they came online). I wish naval and land values were separate, as I suspect the Union is actually weaker than the CSA in overall land CV on map right now.

I predict I will not be making much headway in 1862. I still have about 700 conscripts in my pool yet to build, so eventually my army will grow quite a bit more this year. But the recent CSA callup builds should be coming online soon, so I won’t be that much larger than the CSA by the end of 1862. 1863 will probably be the first year I can start making serious gains in game, at least I hope so.

I will continue my plan of building all militia with this current crop of conscripts, but after that I will switch to almost 100% trained troops. I need to start building some serious firepower in the form of lots of artillery and naval units and the cash I spent on the $2.00 callup bounty has prevented me from building expensive units with lots of firepower thus far.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 26 Late April

On the peninsula Jackson has disappeared probably due to low supply. Butler’s army has recovered significant strength and is now reorganized into four full divisions and boasts a CV of 1860. Once all the hits are recovered by his units, I suspect he will be near 2000 CV, so I think I’ll remain and try and hold the fort. Even if all 4000+CV from the CSA troops in the area show up and attack, frontage limits should give my troops enough of an advantage to survive long enough to evacuate if needed. I’ll keep my naval transport in the fort to allow me to escape immediately if things go bad in the first fight.

This also gives me an amphibious capability for Butler’s army, so if he only comes back with 1000-2000 CV I can quickly land behind him and try and starve his army before he can react to save it. I'm also mulling over an amphibious strike on Norfolk with the entire army.

In KY Grant finally escaped, but my naval move with Foote’s fleet into the Evans Ford region was a total disaster. Shore bombardment wiped out the wooden fleet and wounded Foote who relocated to Metropolis IL. Luckily he was immediately available and I order him to Louisville KY where he will take command of the 5 ironclads I’m sending there from Evansville.

This outcome demonstrates to me the utter futility of building wooden ships in game vs. a human opponent. I will not be building any wooden river bound combat vessels and will focus all naval builds on ironclads or Tinclads. I just hope transport ships are protected from shore bombardment when stacked with ironclads else I won’t have much supply ability for my river fleets.

The CSA now has over 2000 CV in Madisonville, so I rail in another 2 divisions this turn to join Buell’s army at Evansville. That should give Buell close to 1300 CV, so if they arrive in time he may be able to hold.

Out west Van Dorn’s cavalry force attacked Canby at Fort Lyon and forced him to retreat. A garrison unit spawned inside the Fort and prevented its capture however, so I move a militia regiment from Colorado City to the region to try and burn more of Van Dorn’s supplies. Canby is ordered to Denver for R&R.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 27 Early May

On the very turn I begin to look at possibly hitting Norfolk, my opponent reinforces and all hopes of an invasion are shelved. I send out some ships to recon a few of the east coast cities and also send a fleet back into the York Estuary to get a look at what he has at Williamsburg.

At New Albany IN Forrest appears leading a large cavalry division and defeats Woods small cavalry division. Woods retreated to Louisville and I give him command of Keyes old infantry division. Keyes was promoted to 2 stars via event and gets command of a corps. The old 2 star Corps commander Foster is given some cavalry and sent via rail to Salem IL to chase down partisans.

At Madisonville the large army under Forney has vanished and I only see Johnston’s force of about 500 CV. I assume Forney will probably go on offensive in KY, so I move my ironclads out of the exposed city of Louisville and send them to Cincinnati to recover cohesion instead. A CSA fleet which now contains 4 ironclads 1 cottonclad and 2 transports is in the Fall Creek region so we may get a naval engagement.

Rosecrans appears at Cairo and I send him to Saint Louis where he will take over the Western Command army from Fremont.

Out west Van Dorn remained in the region outside Fort Lyon but did not attack. I move the garrison outside the fort to join the militia regiment and give them both hold at all cost orders. With his supplies already half gone Van Dorn has to fight or flee this turn.

In NM my opponent has moved the main force he has in the area under Baylor into the off-map boxes and arrived outside Tucson this turn. I take advantage of Carson’s Ranger ability and order him to assault Mesilla this turn. There is a cavalry unit one region north, so Carson may not reach his goal, but I’m confident he should be able to take the city this turn or next.

Carleton’s division is ordered south from Los Angeles, but is so far away he won’t reach Tucson for many months.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 28 Late May

Free Land event fires and it states I gain 5 NM and lose 20 conscripts, my NM now is 92.

My naval units sent south to check Sothern defense strength shows my opponent has strong forces defending his ports even though he has more CV than I on the front lines. The south is simply too strong to contemplate a naval move in 1862 that would have any hope of being able to remain ashore.

My fleet sent into the York Estuary does show he has moved most of his 4,000 CV away and only a stack of 942 remains on defense. I order Butler’s army to march up the peninsula again to see if he can’t dislodge the stack.

At Louisville Jackson appears leading 25,000 men and crushes Keyes small command of 11,000 men, Keyes is killed in the battle and I lose 2 NM. I order the lone militia regiment that spawned inside Louisville outside of the city walls to prevent losing 1 NM when it surrenders. With the loss of Louisville, Lexington is now indefensible and I order Williams to abandon it and sail his division to Cincinnati.

At this point I realize I simply don’t have enough strength on map to seriously oppose any determined Southern offensive in the west without stripping my defenses around Washington first, so I order the fleet at Cincinnati to flee north to Pittsburgh and prepare to just fight a fighting withdraw in the theaters west of WV until I can grow my army strength large enough to stop him. I’ll try and get in behind my opponent and snipe at his supply lines as he advances, but I simply don’t have the strength to stop any offensive move he chooses to make right now.

At Fort Lyon Van Dorn defeats my small militia force and takes the fort. He appears however to have been plotted to move away as the fort region is empty of CSA units this turn, so I order my militia regiment to return to try and retake the fort before the CSA can return.

In AZ Baylor arrives at Tucson with 3 ranger regiments and defeats my infantry regiment to retake the town. With Baylor off in AZ, Carson easily defeats the militia regiment and artillery regiment defending Mesilla and captures the 6 lb guns in the process. Carson needs some rest after the fight, so I’ll wait a turn or two before trying to take El Paso.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 29 Early June

Policy on treatment of prisoners event fires and I gain 1 NM.

On the peninsula Butler with strength of about 35,000 attack’s Huger’s force at Williamsburg of almost 14,000 and Butler loses the fight costing me 2 NM. Butler’s army starts the turn in the region of Hampton Roads and I leave him there on defense to recover.

In KY the south made no moves north this turn. Grant arrived at Columbus IN to take command and I now have 2 reasonably sized stacks of 1200+ CV at Evansville and Columbus. Cincinnati however is weak with just 600 CV for defense. Once the divisions shattered at Louisville last turn recover I’ll send them there and I should have enough strength then to make a fight of it for that city as well.

With so much strength deployed defending my central states, Cairo is still pretty weak with just over 1000 CV in two stacks defending the areas near that region. Additional militia regiments are on route to Cairo however and hopefully I will have enough strength soon to make Cairo’s defending stack in excess of 1,000 CV. Until then I feel a bit exposed here given how strong the south is, so I send Porter’s fleet to Saint Louis to prevent its possible capture.

Missouri is pretty weak with the entire state probably having less the 1,000 CV for defense. Saint Louis being the largest stack in the state with just 350+ CV.

At Fort Lyon it appears Van Dorn beat my militia unit to the region and he is now inside the fort. I give my regiment orders to evade and send it back to Colorado City.

Having recovered most of his Cohesion, at Mesilla, I order Carson’s division south to capture El Paso. I leave the captured 6lb guns behind and send a cavalry volunteer unit from Valencia south to Mesilla to help defend that city.

At Los Angeles the CA militia regiments are finished building and they join Carleton’s division with orders to head south. Boasting a CV of almost 300 now, Carleton should have no trouble capturing all the off-map box regions to his south.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 30 late June

On the peninsula Robert E Lee has arrived and taken command of the CSA troops defending Williamsburg. Butler’s army has recovered enough cohesion that I think he’ll be able to defend the Hampton Roads region should Lee attack.

The big news this turn is in the East. The CSA has abandoned Harper’s Ferry and cut the rail line in that region, so I assume he won’t be coming back. I’m not sure why he left, but perhaps he was having issues with supply. I order troops forward to take Harper’s Ferry and Leesburg.

My opponent has also pulled back a lot of strength in KY as well. I can see about 1,000 CV in Madisonville and just two small stacks at Louisville and Lexington, both totaling less than 1,000 CV. I’m starting to think my opponent may be having major supply issues.

I haven’t tracked his industrial builds, but I don’t think I’ve seen many if any notices about him producing any factories, so maybe his huge army buildup is draining his supply stocks. That or he’s consolidating a huge force somewhere in the FOW to use to hit me in a powerful offensive move soon. I know he’s got several thousands of CV I’ve seen in the past currently unaccounted for somewhere. If I had to guess I’d say at least 6,000 or more of his CV is not visible to me right now.

Carson’s division assaulted El Paso this turn, but was forced to break off the attack due to low cohesion, so the city holds out.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 31 Early July

Even though I fought a back and forth campaign along the peninsula for many months that threatened Richmond, I lose 10 NM this turn via an event decrying the lack of offensive operations during 1862 because I was forced out of Williamsburg on the turn the event checks strength requirements. My NM now sits at 82 and I immediately get another event threatening another 10 NM loss if I don’t fulfill another 40 element requirement on the last turn of October. By my count that’s three 10 NM penalty events that have occurred for the Union in the first year and a half of the game.

The requirements of these last two events need major work, it should not be arbitrarily tied to a specific turn, rather it should be fulfilled if at any time between the event and its completion I meet the requirements. I actually found myself pondering how to game the event by waiting for the turn in question and conducting an army sized raid on a region to fulfill the requirement since you get no credit for efforts made during turns in the interim period. I then smacked my forehead in frustration as this has nothing to do with the civil war and would never be something commanders from either side would contemplate doing. Fix it or remove it I say as right now it just feels like a gamey gimmick to force down Union moral and adds nothing to the immersion factor when you think about trying to simulate the civil war.

R.E. Lee disappears from the Peninsula but Huger remains commanding his corps of approximately 1,000 CV. Butler is largely recovered and sports a CV of 1700+ now. It should rise back to 2k+ soon as damaged regiments recovered more of their lost hits.

In the East I’ve taken Leesburg and Harper’s Ferry has a small militia regiment inside the city that is now under siege. I order Hamilton’s Corp from Leesburg to Winchester. Milroy’s Corp remains on defense at Leesburg to dig in. I’ve ordered an engineer unit there from Washington to speed up the digging.

KY remains stagnant this turn, though Jackson did return to Louisville with his Corp of roughly 1,000 CV. Forrest moved to Clarksburg KY apparently to drive out R. Johnson’s small division that took the city last turn, though no battle has been fought yet.

The Indian leader S. Watie and his large force of Indian troops arrived at St. Charles MO this turn and captured the city there due to extremely low Union loyalty (15%). In another turn 16 regiments of MO militia should finish construction at Jefferson City and Lyon will then be able to leave and Pursue Watie. L. Wallace’s Corp shall remain behind to command the militia and defend Jefferson City.

Out west Van Dorn drove my militia out of the region around Colorado City, but unlike Watie, Union loyalty is high and Van Dorn was not able to capture the town. I order the damaged militia regiments to withdraw to Denver to join Canby’s division.

In TX no progress in made in the siege of El Paso this turn.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 32 Late July

The CSA shoots its fantasy homing torpedoes at me using a mine card in Hampton Roads and damages 5 ships. This damage is going to cost hundreds of dollars in replacement chits to repair.

In the east both Winchester and Harper’s Ferry are taken this turn. I play cards to help my units dig-in in both those locations along with Leesburg.

Our lines are static from WV to IL. In MO Lyons has been given orders to try and pursue Stand Watie’s troops who ended their move in Boone MO adjacent to Jefferson City.

In CO Van Dorn arrives one region outside Denver, but with the addition of the three militia regiments from Colorado City, Canby’s small division has grown strong enough that he should be able to hold the capital.

In NM two CSA ranger units tried to take Mesilla but my volunteer cavalry unit and the captured Texas 6lb guns managed to hold destroying one of the ranger units in the fight.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 33 Early August

Not a lot going on across the map to report on right now. We’ve reached a kind of stalemate where neither of us is strong enough to attack the other so we just sit on our lines.

In MO Stand Watie evaded Lyons and moved to Vienna MO. I give up trying to pursue him and just give orders to try and cut him off as his supplies are low and I assume he’ll be withdrawing south.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 34 Late August

The Great Sioux uprising event fires this turn and I gain 5 NM. I’m required to send 3 brigades or their equivalent to Minnesota within 2 month or I lose 25 VP. I’m not sure what a brigade equivalent is, is one single element unit considered a brigade, or does a unit need two or perhaps three elements before it can be considered to be a brigade? Can a whole bunch of single element units meet the requirement, or do I need a lot of multi element units? The requirements of this event really need to be better explained.

In the east I get a glimpse of Jackson near Staunton VA, so it appears he’s left KY and is returning to the Shenandoah Valley area.

Due to the over-powered partisan card that allows partisans to destroy depots, I’ve been forced to lay down a lot of flatboats this turn to give myself enough ships to upgrade my depots to level 4 all along the river systems where I have large bodies of troops. It is simply impossible to defend against the partisan cards in the rear areas, which make partisans far too powerful. Whoever designed some of the cards in AACW2 really failed to think things through.

There is nowhere near enough money in the game to make up for the high cost of the damage some of the cards do. I mean 1 level 4 depot costs 360 money 80 conscripts and 160 war supply to replace if it is an inland depot, and I’ve lost several level 4 depots to partisan cards already. Couple that with the damage that Sea Mine cards can do every time the guided missiles hit a fleet and you’ve used almost a year’s worth of income to repair damage from just these two cards… Either put enough money in the game to deal with damage, lower the cost to repair the damage, or take the dam cards out.

Van Dorn appears to have given up his ambitions in CO and moved on Fort Zarah defeating my three small regiments there. Luckily a defender spawned inside the fort and I still hold it at turn start.

Not much going on across the rest of the map. 1862 is winding down and the Union is nowhere near strong enough to start any offensives. Looks like 1863 is going to be a quiet year while I try and finally get ahead of the CSA in the land strength race.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 35 Early September

Sink the CSS Alabama event fires and I gain 5 NM. The wording of the event makes me think I will be penalized if I don’t sink the ship, though no penalty is specified. Currently it sits in the shipping box, so there is nothing I can do to intercept it except hope for a really good die roll.

The emancipation proclamation event fires and I choose to emancipate. With NM currently at 96 I should get a good number of conscripts and hopefully foreign entry will be pushed back close to zero (currently it sits at 27).

On the peninsula Beauregard arrives to take command of the CSA troops at Williamsburg and they now boast a CV of 1500+. Butler is almost fully repaired and has a CV of 2100+, but even when fully repaired he won’t be able to take down Beauregard so we’ve reached a stalemate on the peninsula.

With the recent arrival of some good one star generals, I’m busy swapping out all 3-1-1 one stars from my eastern forces with these new generals.

In MO Sand Watie and his Indian troops has appeared and retaken St. Charles again. I won’t bother pursuing him as he’s too fast for me to catch.

In the west, instead of attacking Fort Zarah, Van Dorn moved northwest and attacked two of my ranger regiments defending Fort Ellsworth. Van Dorn crossed a river and was defeated, but I think we’ve found a bug. Even though each ranger element only has 150 men listed, the combat display shows I defended with 1650 men, far too many for the 300 men total I had in the battle. I checked every stage of the battle, no other elements were in the fight but the two ranger elements. Also shouldn’t the ranger units have some cavalry as part of their force composition?

Jim