Attacking Ft Monroe

[p35flash]

I am very frustrated here. I'm playing as the CSA and I want to seige/attack Ft Monroe from Hampton Roads. However, the game says I cannot reach Ft. Monroe from Hampton Roads.

Can anyone tell me why? Can anyone tell me how to assault Ft. Monroe?

[Durk]

You need to control the water crossing. You must sortie a fleet and push back Union control.

[Rod Smart]

Its an island. Control the water crossing

The attachment FortMonroeAerialBestView_612.jpg is no longer available

Good luck to you. Its a tough nut to crack.

[Merlin]

Don't try this against a player; they'll just let you in and then drop the entire Union fleet behind you.

[HidekiTojo]

Real life CSA didn't bother trying to get fort monroe. It was and in-game is very easy to prevent any kind of breakout indefinitely.

They overall had a good grasp of how to fend the union armies off and it's all about what we in the wargames business and in the irl military is referred to as: Economy of Force.

This is applicable to csa most of all, it should be your guiding philosophy, your golden rule.

Always try to accomplish your goals while using as little resources as possible.

Your goal is to fend off the union armies, taking a brigade and some artillery and sticking it opposite fort monroe keeps it from being any kind of threat and thus youve sealed off a potential invasion route. You do not have infinite manpower, war supplies, general supplies, and rr capacity to transport that and all your forces too.

You have no need to take the fort bc with only a small investment in resources youve rendered it harmless.

If you try to take it on the other hand, you're going to have to use a huge amount of precious resources to accomplish a goal that in terms of winning the war will have virtually no meaningful impact.

Economy of Force.

Hope this helps a bit to understand!

Welcome to the forums btw you'll be a great general in no time!

[Smitzer52]

Does the Union get a penalty when trying to cross from Ft. Monroe to the peninsula? Does it cound as river crossing?

[HidekiTojo]

Its just a river crossing so crossing to and from ft monroe gives a malus.

[Smitzer52]

Thanks, I wans´t sure of this. Not very familiar with map tooltips yet. I tried the exact scenario you advised not to and yeah it was a major disaster for CSA. But I kinda feel that unless I take it Union will just land a superior stack and advance. So I can commit 500CP stack there and it will be doing nothing or try take a fort. Which I did and then got my stack blocked...and lost Virginia...so not a good plan.

Would apreciette some defense tips on this like: size of stack(CP), how many ART and which one? Is it worth building a fort there or will entrenchment level do? I realized I am very poor on the defense and simple can´t hold ground against even ods.

[Gray Fox]

The peninsula is tricky. If you dig in at the region right next to Fort Monroe, the Union player can land in the region west of you and cut your force off. Then he has a straight shot to Richmond with no more rivers to cross. I don't recall that region's exact name, but that is where you should entrench a primarily infantry Division with an extra Division of just artillery. Entrenched artillery is more accurate. This force is fly-paper. Your main force should be targeted on D.C. If the Union player lands a large army at Fort Monroe and then proceeds to lay siege to your stack, then Washington should be ripe for assault. Good luck!

[p35flash]

Lesson learned. Assaulting Ft. Monroe is a waste of resources. I've just entrenched at Hampton.

[ArmChairGeneral]

Or better yet, entrench where the RL decisive battle of the Peninsula campaign took place (Seven(?) Pines), in the region one east of Richmond down the Peninsula. From here you can put in a smallish force to entrench and then drop any sized force you need into those entrenchments if the Union attempts to advance up the Peninsula. This blocks the land approach to Richmond, gives you visual coverage over most of the Peninsula (to give you a turn of warning to know they have landed). Then you can easily contain any shenanigans coming out of Ft. Monroe aimed at Richmond. The regions further down the peninsula are irrelevant: they don't give VPs or production or anything to either side and are not worth fighting over, and are difficult to supply/reinforce from Richmond. You could try to entrench some guns at the tip in order to put more guns on the sea zone around Monroe; this force is easily cut off however, as noted above (although I think you can use river movement to go north if they get cut off rather than up the peninsula or along the James River, which is controlled by Monroe's guns.)

The main benefit to taking Monroe is that it lifts the blockade of Richmond, your largest production center. Unfortunately, it is very hard to do successfully without committing a large percentage of your forces and risking being cut off if you fail. You will need several divisions; the default garrison is in the 300 PWR range, bring at least 1200 and some big cannons and even then it is not guaranteed.