Coastal invasion(s)

[Rod Smart]

I know there's no "best" strategy, and doing what you have more fun with is the best strategy, but what do other people do as the Union along the coast?
Presumably New Orleans is the first target. But after that?
- Massive army invasions on big targets, like Charleston?
- Corps level forces in medium targets, like Jacksonville?
- Division level forces on lots of small targets, like Tampa and Texas?
- Put some real forces in Ft Monroe and march up the peninsula?
- Is it 'cheating' to take Matagorda and take away the cotton card?
- I've been targeting the cities, then cleaning up the forts. Am I doing it backwards??

[ohms_law]

It's absolutely not "cheating" to take Matagorda. That's the whole reason that they chose to make it an RGD, rather than just have it as a decision in the ledger.

Anyway, I tend to favor lots of smallish landings on targets of opportunity. That's what the Union did historically, anyway.
If you concentrate on, say, New Orleans, then the Confederate player can concentrate his forces. Generally speaking, the defense can almost always repel amphibious invasions if the defender has notice of what's coming.

[Gray Fox]

Well, we have the record of the political goals that were set historically and we have military strategy. Guderian said "Don't poke it with your finger, smash it with your fist!" Unfortunately, he was not born yet and the Union could not figure that one out alone. So the Anaconda Plan was chosen and then sort of no longer chosen when the newspapers didn't like it. Then New Orleans was taken...with no follow up exploitation. An army that did not over-run the South sat in NO as a garrison. If you play with attrition on, then every stack you move or leave out in the open costs you. So you can move a lot of stacks to places all over the map and find that you ran out of replacements, or you can concentrate on what really matters most and do that to the exclusion of everything else. It's called economy of force and is one of those military strategy things that politicians can't fathom.

I usually do a peninsula run to meet the event that requires you to get to within 2 regions of Richmond (a political goal) and then do a Normandy level invasion with 100k troops (no finger poking). Good luck!

[pgr]

I usually do a peninsula run to meet the event that requires you to get to within 2 regions of Richmond (a political goal) and then do a Normandy level invasion with 100k troops (no finger poking). Good luck!

Of course GF, you could just say in period and say your doing the Peninsula Campaign level invasion I mean Little Mac did bring 120K (not that he did much with em...) and no US waterborne operation was that big until WWII.

I would say it depends on what you want to do. If you are thinking in-terms of making the Blockade stick... then I would suggest taking NO (which will do wonders for your blockade %) and focus on taking and holding coastal forts that blockade. It's a nice budget option.

Now I have nothing against invading with corps and armies....jest make sure you know where you want to go next. NO as the springboard to take Vicksburg...or Wilmington as a base for a big push up to Richmond.

So the answer really depends on what you are trying to do big picture.

[ohms_law]

Gray, you do realize, I hope, that the Union took... well, just about every port in the South other than Wilmington and Charleston, before taking New Orleans, right?

Taking New Orleans lead to all but the remotest portions of Louisiana falling to the Union. Lincoln reconstructed the State by executive authority before the war even ended! Louisiana played a pivotal role in how reconstruction proceeded after the war.

[minipol]

Taking NO immediately takes away some needed resources from the CSA.
That alone makes it a valid target without first attacking the smaller less productive ports.

[grimjaw]

I used to take the Florida coastal cities on the peninsula, but they don't really get you anywhere. One can be useful as a shorter distance launching point for invasions of the eastern coast, but otherwise I've given up on Florida beachfront property.

Now I focus on New Orleans, North Carolina and Georgia, and sometimes Galveston.