CSA Missouri Plan

[ArmChairGeneral]

Warning, long post:


Another thread about cavalry inspired me to write down my CSA Missouri strategy, since cav and cav-likes play an important early role. I have been very successful against the AI even at the highest difficulty settings (Colonel, attrition, fixed in place, activation and detection bonuses, etc.) when following this plan, and I hope newer players can benefit from my experience and veterans can offer critiques. Some, all or none of the stuff below will apply for human opponents, and sorry in advance for being so long-winded.

Missouri:

If you are going to contest Missouri as either side it is critical to win Springfield; without it the CSA cannot access the MO build pool and will have difficulty bringing enough regs and arty into the region to be able to prevail, so the CSA cav that start in the theater have to carry more than their fair share in and around Springfield to stave off Lyons and Co.'s early push. You start with a lot of cav and cav likes, (Indians, partisans, bushwackers, rangers infiltrating from Texas, etc.) a lot of militia and not very much infantry and artillery. These forces are mainly located in Fayetteville, which is 1-2 turn from Springfield for cav and 2-3 turns march for artillery and militia/infantry. The opening battle for Springfield decides the MO theater, and is the second most important part of the map in the opening turns (after northern VA).

My plan:
First, deny supply lanes around Springfield: Destroy the Rolla depot by building a militia in Rolla on the first turn MO is activated so it can destroy the depot there on the second turn and skedaddle to Springfield before forces from St. Louis can capture it. Concurrently, send small stacks of one or two elements (of Cav and cav likes) to capture and burn as much of the stockade chain running NW from Fayetteville towards Leavenworth as possible focusing on the ones closest to Fayetteville. (I use O/B or O/G postures when moving into stockades: if the garrison does not spawn I auto-capture them, otherwise my guys do not engage the garrison or stick around to fight other troops protecting the forts.) If these task are both accomplished, any Union forces later trying to approach Springfield will be out of range of friendly depots from the NE and will not be able to resupply from- or flee for cover to- stockades to the West. Burning those stockades also secures Fayetteville from most harassment and flanking. Also concurrently, (this stuff is all happening on the first turns MO opens up) I queue up an infantry brigade and an artillery in Springfield. Two infantry brigades are even better, but early resources are constrained and Virginia is important too.

Second, I organize the militia in Fayetteville and send almost all of them to Springfield, hoping the weather will let me get them there and in supply in time to meet Lyons. After denuding the stockade chain for a turn or two I quickly get all the cav I am able up to Springfield to get organized along with everyone else for Lyon's arrival. He doesn't mess around, and will usually get to Springfield right as the infantry and arty I started in Springfield finish building and the rest of my troops make it to the party.

Third, win the battle (he will have to attack, so you have the advantage). If I can get as much of my starting PWR into lvl 2 entrenchments in the Springfield region as I possibly can with I am almost always able to hold him off.

If Lyons is defeated he will then have to retreat over several regions of difficult terrain with low cohesion while beyond supply range (pray for mud to compound his problems). You probably won't be able to surround and stack-wipe him, but he will run back to St. Louis with his tail between his legs leaving you in firm control of Springfield and its build-pool, and well positioned to later take Jefferson City and eventually St. Louis.

Be sure to concentrate all effectives [color="#DAA520"]in the region and not the structure[/color] for this initial battle: the Springfield supply situation cannot withstand a siege, and if you split your forces into parts you risk losing the initial battle and getting bounced out of Springfield, in which case you generally lose the theater.

Along the way you will need to do something about the abysmal supply chain to Springfield, which is a solvable problem, though only barely.

Shelby is hands down the best leader in the theater, but unfortunately he has low seniority so you will be relying on McCulloch, Price or Van Dorn to lead when you are concentrated, but bear in mind that Shelby is still a great division commander and any division makeup he commands is very potent (infantry, artillery, etc.) while his combat cav bonus passes to the whole stack no matter what. The CSA has to constantly juggle leaders, stacks and division compositions to suit the situation at hand in this theater, but has the potential to profit from finesse and targeted micro-management.

Once division formation happens (by which time if everything goes to plan I already have Springfield safely under control) I make a division for Shelby with most of the cav, the mounted volunteers and any HA I have on hand. This isn't really a scout stack (I keep a couple of loose cav for that purpose) more of a light combat stack. Union Athena is constantly moving her forces around and a mobile Shelby division has the speed, weight and patrol to waylay lone brigades and militia elements as she shuttles them through the regions north and west of Springfield. If it is going to see large scale combat (full sized enemy divisions in battles for Springfield, Jefferson City or St. Louis) I like to merge this division into friendly infantry divisions rather than fight in a pure cav/cav-like stack next to the infantry.

From Springfield it is easy to capture Jeff City. Interdict the rails between it and St. Louis to pressure supplies in Jeff and to slow down potential counter-attackers or defenders trying to rail in from St. Louis. Once you take Jeff, entrench yourself outside the structure and build a flatboat depot or two there to supply the position. From there amass your forces and use scout stacks to establish rail control to St. Louis. Building a stockade in the region directly west of St. Louis provides a nice protected supply point rail connected back to Jeff City from which you can stage attacks on the city itself. A stockade there has the further benefit that should you lose a battle in St. Louis the stockade will draw your retreating forces safely to the west rather than allowing them to retreat to the region south of St. Louis where they would be out of supply and very poorly positioned.

Even once I build out the MO force pool and swing everything from AR that I can muster, I sometimes still need to transfer a division from TN to carry St. Louis, (usually one built in and around Memphis) which I am not afraid to run past the guns at Cairo if I need to use the Mississippi River to get them there. If you (like me) bring JoJo or PGT into the KY/TN area after Lee takes command to reduce army crowding in VA, then ASJ is available to shift into MO to provide enough CPs to power the eventual push on St. Louis.

Capturing St. Louis itself is often predicated on being fairly active in KY. If your TN forces can make a quick push to Louisville and use the forward build point to create a threat to the Indianapolis/Cincinnati area, the AI will be too preoccupied defending those high interest cities to commit to a successful defense of St. Louis. If you leave KY, IN and OH uncontested the AI will shift many of those troops to Missouri.

[Durk]

I understand you play primarily or even exclusively versus AI, but the strategy you have outlined is also sound in pbem play, also. While the Union might have a slightly better response than AI presents, creating to opportunity to build Missouri units is important to anchor this part of the map. In pbem there is not a guarantee of success, but worth the chance. If Jefferson City can be held, the diversion of Union forces is beneficial. Additionally, with the new year, the raising of partisans and copperhead forces can really tie down the Union in the West.

[Gray Fox]

As always, an interesting read from the ACG.

As an actual flesh and blood Union player, my strategy is to hold St. Louis. The rest of "Misery" is of little use. If you want to build units in MO, then you would need a large garrison to protect the locations where they are forming. Otherwise, I would occasionally dispatch a force to take said locations and destroy the defenseless unit cadres. This force would be of whatever size necessary to succeed. I would strike and then move back to St. Louis.

[Rod Smart]

My MO plan:

Step 1- burn everything
Step 2- concentrate in Springfield
Step 3- be prepared to retreat to Fayetteville, and hold there until '65

Goal is to focus troops and resources elsewhere.

To accomplish step 3, I like to send a training general (Hardee I think?) to take advantage of dozens of militia units sitting still for years. Once Lee is unlocked and Stonewall and Longstreet are promoted, I'll send defensive Joe Johnston out here to play defense. Due to the unorganized nature of piles of mis-matched units, a three star is required for adequate CP points.

If I do end up capturing St Louis, its because my Tennessee armies made a left at Paducah and found undefended territory.


You are correct that Shelby is the best general in the area, but like my previously stated goal, I use his awesome-ness elsewhere. If my goal is to capture DC in '61, he's one of the best division generals available. If my goal is to play defense, his quick march trait is perfect for my 1,000 power division that sits in Atlanta, and can quick-respond to any seaborne invasion.

[Rod Smart]

As always, an interesting read from the ACG.

As an actual flesh and blood Union player, my strategy is to hold St. Louis. The rest of "Misery" is of little use. If you want to build units in MO, then you would need a large garrison to protect the locations where they are forming. Otherwise, I would occasionally dispatch a force to take said locations and destroy the defenseless unit cadres. This force would be of whatever size necessary to succeed. I would strike and then move back to St. Louis.

I agree. A strong Union push gets you nothing of value. After building a decent army, you take Springfield and Jefferson City and Fayetteville, and then are stuck months of marching away from anything useful. I'd prefer to hold St Louis and Cairo and use my resources elsewhere.

Which against requires a similar strategy to my CSA strategy:
1- Burn everything,
2- Hold in Springfield,
3- Be prepared to retreat to St Louis and stay there till '65.

[ArmChairGeneral]

As the Union I play philosophically pretty similarly to you guys, but I stay pretty aggressive during the early turns: Missouri is one of the best places to get early promotion generating wins for key generals, and that usually involves battles for Springfield. I often don't even bother with Fayetteville unless I am just doing it for fun; once you can maintain Springfield the theater is pretty much sown up.

The Springfield buildpoint is important to a human player, but CSA Athena doesn't seem to make great use of it, so denying it to her is not as important as the promotions are. A few early setbacks will pretty much prevent her from ever being able to contest the theater effectively.

As an aside, CSA Athena doesn't know she needs to burn the Rolla depot. I sure would like to know how to script agents....

[Durk]

Interesting. So if you primarily ignore Missouri, except St Louis, how do you know how much force to protect St Louis? It seems a ripe plum to me!!

[ArmChairGeneral]

Gray Fox said

As an actual flesh and blood Union player, my strategy is to hold St. Louis.

Do you mean that this is what you would do against a human, against Athena, or both?

Durk said:

Additionally, with the new year, the raising of partisans and copperhead forces can really tie down the Union in the West.

Any tips on how to get the most havoc for the buck?

[ArmChairGeneral]

Rod Smart said:

Which against requires a similar strategy to my CSA strategy:
1- Burn everything,
2- Hold in Springfield,
3- Be prepared to retreat to St Louis and stay there till '65.

1- and 2-:

This is pretty much what I do as the Union against CSA Athena. In the early game, the CSA is gonna have like what, two and a half kind-of-weak division-equivalents total in the theater, plus Stand Waite that you need to deal with? Fayetteville draws her interest, so she probably won't be willing to commit all of that force to Springfield like a human CSA player would, especially if her attention gets drawn west by activity along the stockade line, so the Union can definitely build a stronger stack for Lyons (or better yet Grant with Lyons under him) that can win in Springfield relatively early in the game. Depending on how big the win is and how much is in the garrison when it inevitably surrenders, you can get enough to promote both generals on top of getting essentially permanent control of Springfield.

3-

Absolutely, but I usually don't have to. As a human CSA player it is hard enough to be effective in this theater without Springfield, the AI is definitely not up to the task. At some point she probably will make some ill-advised attempt to retake Springfield from Fayetteville, but if she fails is vulnerable to stack-wipe, and even if she wins then like you say, whatever, fall back having done your job by making her commit too much to an unimportant theater.

Related thoughts:

CSA Athena has high interest in Springfield, so can be counted on to act accordingly, even when it isn't her best play (see 3- above).

The Union AI pretty much tries to do this strategy (take Springfield early and then play defense).

Some of the other scenarios are set up so that Missouri plays out differently than in the April '61 start, and in some cases are much more challenging for the CSA player.

[Gray Fox]

Durk, I have a Division entrenched in St. Louis and several other cities along the Ohio. This serves as a shield in the "West". I then have a Corps sized stack in reserve. So if a CSA player/Athena wanted to move a large force far away from VA to assault St. Louis, then I would probably say "Thanks!". I might even offer St. Louis as a gambit to gain Richmond where the Confederate forces should be concentrated. That's where my Union forces will be concentrated.

[Rod Smart]

Interesting. So if you primarily ignore Missouri, except St Louis, how do you know how much force to protect St Louis? It seems a ripe plum to me!!

There's the coastal guns in Cairo to damage anything headed up the river, and hopefully more guns in Paducah, New Madrid, Island Number 10, etc.
Overland is slow going. Its a two turn march from New Madrid, a four turn march from Fayetteville, and a turn and a half march from Cairo. There's plenty of time to railroad in a corp from the Kentucky/Tennessee/Ohio theatre.

I use St Louis as one of my build/train points, when I have Halleck, McClellan, and Sigel going. And as a jumping off point for any small raiding parties I'm sending to Kansas/Oklahoma. So there's always at least a division worth of troops there, even if its a poorly organized mess of a stack.


I'll also garrison the Missouri and Kansas towns, so any raiding party is going to get caught up fighting for Lawrence and Columbia well before they can get to St Louis. But that's personal preference. Raiding parties annoy me, so I spend more resources building backwater garrisons and quick-response forces than is probably needed.

[Durk]

Durk said: Additionally, with the new year, the raising of partisans and copperhead forces can really tie down the Union in the West.

Any tips on how to get the most havoc for the buck?

The key is timing. Maximizing Copperhead forces means striking while loyalty is still high enough to do things like drop a Copperhead force into St Joseph and a few other towns. Raise partisans with rail destruction in mind. The rail passage over the Mississippi into Missouri is one key. And do not be shy. This is a one time effort unless success follows, so a half dozen Copperhead drops and the same in partisans.

Missouri is not the only place to use this play. Delaware, West Virginia and, of course, the mountains where Virginia and Tennessee almost touch. But Missouri is the greatest potential theater for mayhem.

[Durk]

Very interesting thread. I am responding to all in this singular note: (I know we are mixing pbem play with AI play, but that is ok - a lot of stuff works in a similar manner)

I forget the attraction of "On to Richmond" versus the Anaconda Plan for many gamers. As the CSA I am often successful in establishing the line of the Potomac as a defensive barrier. This barrier with a mobile force to quash any seaborne invasions makes a tough defense. This also releases enough forces to allow for a full Kentucky campaign. This Western Army in Kentucky is enough that any diversion in Missouri opens the door to Louisville.

Early capture of Jefferson City can happen as sufficient CSA forces start in Missouri and Western Arkansas. What they lack is leadership. While most any two star leader is adequate to the task, sending Beauregard or one of the Johnstons seals the deal.

One key for the South is to be able to build the Missouri and Kentucky units in the reinforcement pool. These units add a number of solid units which can otherwise not be a part of the game.

Last thought, St Louis is not an impossible target to take, especially after the fall of Cairo.

[Captain_Orso]

I learned to play the Missouri game by the school of hard knocks, starting all the way back in AACW.

The issue the Union has in CW2 with the South along the Missouri-Kansas line is that small forces can wreak havoc on the Leavenworth-Kansas-IT-New Mexico supply line, by using Fayetteville as a jump off. Fayetteville is a natural bottleneck in the area. To control Missouri, the Union has to control Fayetteville.

I don't find much danger in the Confederates taking Jefferson early on. The only supply line to Jefferson the South has is through Springfield, which is very tentative. The Union, on the other hand controls the Missouri River, giving them Saint Louis, Lexington, and Leavenworth as supply bases, which for the South are even more tentative than Jefferson.

By Autumn, the Union should at least be close to taking Fayetteville, and you can expect Kentucky to be in play, or close to it, at which time Missouri becomes secondary, because Louisville, Lexington KY, Bowling Green, Nashville, and Memphis are more important to both sides than Fayetteville and Springfield. By this time the North should be leveraging their economic power to dictate where the fight is.