On the defense of D.C.

[Gray Fox]

In another thread I showed a force that the Confederate player might assemble to threaten the Union capital in 1861. This is what I would do as a Union player in response.

A Brig unit with two ship elements placed in the river area between Alexandria and D.C. (called the Potomac river) stops all direct Confederate movement over the coastal water areas of the entire length of the Potomac. P.S., I had the brigs set to Blue/Green.

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In the pic, the cavalry (or any other CSA unit) can only cross upstream to the west.

To defend against this, I have constructed a stockade in Montgomery, MD and Butler has an entrenched army of two Divisions of infantry (one understrength) and a Division of artillery with a few batteries. The stockade allows 25 elements before overcrowding, hence dictating the small size of the force.

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Most importantly, the stockade also enables Butler to exert a Zone Of Control (ZOC) of 133. Even Beauregard's considerably stronger army is pinned down and cannot attack Washington until he reduces the stockade. To further clarify this, Beaurregard can only move to Leesburg. None of the regions in red may be entered directly due to the stockade's ZOC. So, Beauregard assaults with Longstreet and Jackson vs. Butler with Hooker at 2-1 odds. The Army of the Potomac should have a field day.

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However, a stockade with a light division of entrenched Union artillery tells a different story.

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Nothing is wrong with your screen. This is not a very common result, to say the least. However, I did the assault several times and no change.

So the defense of the Union capital can be stiffened with a couple of good tactical tricks. A lightning assault by the Confederacy is rendered much less dangerous in the process. Since Athena now seems capable of forming artillery Divisions, perhaps these simple tricks can also be added to her Union strategy.

[minipol]

Nice info, thanks for that Gray Fox.
For me, it shows I lack knowledge of ZOC.
Hopefully strengthening Montgomery is something Ageod can put in Athena's routines.
Small price for the Union to keep the early threath at bay.

[Ace]

Every strategy has an anti-strategy. If Beauregard had 200 instead of 81 cannons, Union would risk loosing an entire division to surender. An error CSA did in RL all to often.

ANd, If Bory ditched his supply wagons, he would be free to advance regardless of the stockade.

[Captain_Orso]

Every strategy has an anti-strategy. If Beauregard had 200 instead of 81 cannons, Union would risk loosing an entire division to surender. An error CSA did in RL all to often.

That's true and why forts can be nothing better than speed bumps. But at least Lincoln would be rid of Butler

ANd, If Bory ditched his supply wagons, he would be free to advance regardless of the stockade.

How does that figure. I'm confused.

[Gray Fox]

Neither force was optimized, so we can discuss what might be the best stockade defense or fort buster stack. Like the friendly bear, I believe that the ZOC will stop an advance no matter what.

http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Zone_of_Control

"As a result, it is virtually impossible to bypass large enemy fortifications."

[Ace]

I 'm sorry I mentioned supply wagons, I only assumed wagons have low evasion value and are bound to be blocked by fort. I was wrong about that. But there is a way to bypass forts. Forts exert increased ZOC value. But, if the force attempting to bypass it is not too big, they can march through enemy ZOC as long as their evasion value is above 4.
Here is the example:

Big combat stack
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Smaller combat stack
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[Gray Fox]

Ace in your example, Longstreet marches to a region that was not blocked, i.e. marked in red. This is of course, always possible.

I have added more clarification of what the red regions mean in my OP.

Let's take Longstreet's force with an evasion value of 5 from your post and put it in Montgomery MD in my OP with Butler's ZOC of 133. From the equation in the link I posted:

Patrol value / Evasion value = MC value of areas that may be entered

or

133 / 5 = 26.6% MC needed

Longstreet could evade the stockade and enter another region directly if the CSA had at least 26.6 % MC in the destination. However, all of the red colored regions in my OP have 100% Union MC.

Large stacks usually have an evasion value of 1, so they would need their own 100% MC in the destination region to evade the ZOC of a fort/stockade.

P.S. To further demonstrate the power of the stockade, I made an optimized Confederate force. This is a stack with 180+ cannon mostly in an artillery Division led by Longstreet. An artillerist and a cavalry General are present. All the Divisions are at full strength and led by Generals who no longer suffer from assuming command. Odds are 3-1.

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The Cofederate force is again unable to advance on D.C.

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For this assault, I had not changed Butler's force one bit from the OP.

[Straight Arrow]

Sounds like this would be a superb way for the South to channel the North's movement into the Confederacy.

[Ace]

That's the beauty of it. If you want to bypass fort, you have to scout with your cavalry ahead and make some MC in front of you. There are countless possibilities and neither strategy is the best. But relying on forts is a risky strategy because of the posibility of surender. I had a game as the Union where PBEM opponent lost entire Army of the Potomac when it surrendered inside Manassas .

[ArmChairGeneral]

I really like to build stockades in aggressive positions for their cover, supply throughput and accumulation, defense bonus and for the fact that if I retreat from battle in adjacent regions the stacks tend to retreat back to the stockade. Now I will also be thinking about their ZOC influence too, thanks to the clear explanation and illustrations.

There are usually not any magic bullets in AGEOD games so a counter exists for just about anything you can come up with. My criteria is not whether something will work every time, but whether I can make it work right now, and stockade ZOC is definitely going into my toolkit, as is MC busting to free up movement options.

I think I would have a better understanding of ZOC and ability to take advantage of ZOC in my games if I could tell how it is affecting enemy stacks. It would be useful to be able to tell when an enemy stack is constrained by my own ZOC. Obviously, this is not directly available in the interface (unless I am just missing it) so does anyone have any tips on interpreting ZOC information and using it to tell if and how an enemy stack is constrained?

[Gray Fox]

Stockades, forts and redoubts are expensive. I only build them with a depot that can store up a pile of supplies to sustain the garrison during a siege. The addition of a Supply Wagon, either 2 or 4 element will reduce the chance that the garrison will surrender to 5% according to the Wiki. So don't expect a garrison to last forever. In my OP, If McDowell were to maneuver a force into Leesburg, then Beauregard's army laying siege to Montgomery would face possible annihilation from withdrawing in battle due to no retreat region (unless the new MC rules have added magic to the game). So do the garrison thing right, have a relief force available and recognize when a force laying siege has made a really bad mistake.

The CSA can also make use of ZOC from stockades, forts and redoubts. Three stockades are available in 1861, If the CSA razes Leesburg and Falmouth, then stockades at these two locations would be most useful. The harbor at Falmouth would allow the construction of a cheap depot by way of a flatboat, although Leesburg would require a large Supply Unit for this purpose. The Army of the Potomac should have no problem holding Manassas in 1861. Unfortunately, to build a stockade here, the depot must first be razed and then the town. This doesn't make much sense, but a redoubt can be built on the existing town/depot in 1862. Further west, Gibson and Henry TN can similarly be augmented with depots and stockades in 1862 creating a line of ZOCs from Island 10 to Dover TN. The fifth and last stockade then available, if built in Humphries TN would extend this defensive line with the cities along the Cumberland. Forts are quite expensive, but it might be wise to keep some 6-lbers with a supply unit available to be railed into a trouble spot for a quick strongpoint.

A game mechanic to reveal the evasion value of an enemy stack does not exist. However, a little tinkering with one's own stacks can give a pretty good approximation. With a cavalry "brigade" of four elements in a stack with a Union General as Division commander, I can get a unit with an evasion value in the twenties. At the other end of the scale, a Corps/Army stack almost always has an evasion value of 1. Bad weather and rough terrain may give a slight evasion bonus, so again, no hard answers are easy to come by. However, a line of Stockades with ZOC of 133 with all regions to their immediate rear with MC of 100% my way, should stop a large stack with evasion of 1 in its tracks and also prove somewhat sticky to smaller infantry brigades.

Finally, a Union stockade in Montgomery and Carroll MD (with a garrison containing a depot and Supply Unit) in 1861 should prevent the Confederate blitz that I have advocated in the past as long as a naval blockade of the Potomac river is in effect. A redoubt in Baltimore in 1862 should create a very tough defensive position overall.

[ArmChairGeneral]

Thanks Fox, that is exactly the kind of thing I was asking about. Interesting about the fort-chains. Do they give 133 ZOC all by themselves, or is that with garrison?

[Straight Arrow]

Yes,

Thanks to Fox and Ace for reexamining well traveled ground and coming up with a possibly game changing technique.

Well done.

[Gray Fox]

You're most welcome! I'm not much for defensive strategy, so I apologize for ignoring this so long.

Actually a stockade with even one single element has a ZOC of 133. The link I posted from the Wiki explains it. The patrol value of the garrison is:

(MC% in the region X fort level X 100)

Some pre-war forts are level 2, but stockades, forts and redoubts that you can build are only 1.

So 100% MC times 1 equals 1, times 100 is (you guessed it) 100.

This is further increased by one tenth the entrenchment level, which in my OP was 4. However, 100 times 1.4 equals 140, so the 133 must be the max allowable ZOC.

Note that an enemy force co-located in the region with the stockade/fort/redoubt will eventually reduce your MC and thus the ZOC, but as long as your rear areas have 100% MC, then the enemy force laying siege is still restricted in movement. In the OP, Beauregard eventually reduced Butler's ZOC to 7, so that the Army of the Potomac could move to a region that had at least 7% Confederate MC, but only Leesburg satisfied this requirement. Thus, your "Maginot Line" should have a rear area cavalry force ready to counter any infiltrators gnawing at your MC.

P.S. In further tests with the OP situation, I retreated Beauregard to Leesburg. Next I moved a single cavalry element set to Passive/Retreat if engaged (Green/Green) evade combat. The element could move freely through the stackade region. So I tried a cavalry brigade and it was also successful at evading the stockade. Finally, I tried an infantry brigade with an evasion value of 7 set the same way. It was able to evade the stockade and enter the Annapolis region. However, the brigade was then unable to re-enter the stockade regions as they were now in red. So a recon in force is possible through a stockade region but it is a one-way trip for large infantry units.

***

To close out this defense of D.C. plan, I have one last piece of advice.

Grant becomes available in October '61. I immediately rail him over to Baltimore and give him command of an elite infantry Division equipped with a Marine element. He then assaults Fort Clark off the coast of NC. This coastal fort is an actual island for game purposes and cannot be easily reinforced by the CSA player.

Taking it seals off access to the coast of VA and northern NC (i.e. the chokepoint depot at Garysburg NC) from southern ironclads. Later this coast can be invaded and an army there supplied by the Union.

So the capture of this fort is important and Grant's success there will get him promoted to 3-star with enough seniority to get the sixth Army command in April '62. By January of that year the new 3-star should be in D.C. as commander of a small but strong force inside the redoubt of the Union capital. Come April, he takes over the army securing Prince George. Now your best commander protects your greatest weakness.

I have a pic indicating that Grant's command radius from Prince George allows him to positively influence Corps commanders as far south as Norfolk. So Grant can defend Washington, threaten Northern VA and make Kearny/Rosecrans into even better Corps Commanders in his army as they take Williamsburg and march up the peninsula on Richmond.

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Good luck!