What the Union did in the West AAR

[Ol' Choctaw]

Did you get Nashville at last? Didn't see it in the screen shots.

One can see that doing what the Union did is fully doable and a bit more...

You still have about 8 turns left to get it all done.

[Ace]

No I did not. He parked AoT in the area, and as long Grant is in the West Tennessee, I cannot get it. I parked Lyon between Nashville and Chattanooga, but it does not seem to affect his supply. Overall I think it is too easy too be cut off from supply lines and still manage to produce enough food for the army at the front. I think we need hard supply setting for additional historicity here. I could have tried to blow Nashville depot with partisans, but it seemed to gamey to me.

The Union can do it with ease. Did you see I didn't need any spectacular moves or big victories to do it. I have division landed on FtMacon, and Thomas outside Nashville (not in screenshots). So, 2-3 more turns needed at most.

[Ace]

11 months has passed since first shots were fired in South Carolina. And the South is loosing heavily.
Kearny has secured FtMacon. From there, he can either land at Wilmington, or Norfolk in the following turns.
Heinzelman has advanced from Pulaski to Savannah. He did not finshed of Confederate defenders there, but is surely close to achieving it. My blockade is at soaring 85%, in 62. This is excellent.
Grant is advancing eastwards through northern Alabama. I have scouts securing rails on his advance route. Next turn, he'll be ready to assault either Nashville or Chatanooga.
Mississippi has been secured for the Union by taking Vicksburg, credit to JK. Mansfield advancig form the Baton Rouge.
Nashville has shown to be a tough nut. Some inconclusive fighting in the area. Thomas has justified his nickname, he inflicted heavy casualties on A.P. Stewart before retreating because of low ammo (sever more minor skirmishes in Nashville county not shown here).
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[Ace]

General Veatch tried to reinforce tired Thomas troops, but he lost his way in the area and run into advancing Confederates instead of merging with Thomas forces. After resulting disaster, all my units in Nashville have retreated. But overall, my situation is good. I have Lyon and Grant within striking distance, and Johnston AoT is north of Cumberland, unable to cross the river patrolled by Union gunboats.
Sherman has been detached form Grant army to secure Decatur. This has enabled Grant's AoT to establish rail connection with Lyon corps south of Nashville. Situation is looking good for the Union.[ATTACH]26920[/ATTACH][ATTACH]26921[/ATTACH]

[Ace]

The snow has finally thawed, and I have fulfilled objectives set in this AAR. I have done more in the West than the Union in RL. Here is the report.

Day 2, Cheatham caught my retreating forces from Nashville, punishing them good.
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At the same time Breckinridge tried to lift the siege of Mobile, to no avail. Marshy terrain worked in favor of my marines here.
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I am clearing up Arizona desert as well. AI tried to break off from siege here.
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I have landed sailors on the Texan-Mexican border. There will be no more trade with Mexico for the Confederacy.
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[Ace]

I have ordered convergence of all forces to Nashville. Lyon will arrive on day 5 (with only 1,5 division), while McClellan and Thomas should arrive on day 6. McClellan is strat rating 2 (thanks to Grant propping him up). while recently promoted Thomas is strat rating 3 has formed Corps this turn and still has no bonus from his superior, Grant himself.

There were lot of iffs for this battle. Coming from 3 different regions, I could not coordinate them, and surely either McClellan or Thomas will be inactive, delaying their advance even more. One thing I was sure, even if I loose this battle, Grant is set to arrive on day 10, with 2 more divisions to carry the day.

The battle report shows my victory on day 5. It does not show how close it was. I had to look at the slider showing Lyon outnumbered for 3:1 in the first round of combat. Then active! McClellan MTSGed ! on round 2, than finally in the last round inactive Thomas showed to finally convince Cheatham to retreat.
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All Grant had to do is to mop up resistance few days later.

[Ace]

Lots of action in the East as well, and a nice opportunity to study corps combat system as well. I originally arranged McDowel's army located in Culpepper into 3 Corps led by Milroy, Hamilton, and Dix. I had another Corps led by Franklin at Manassas.

Originally, I ordered them all to advance one region towards Richmond.
Beauregardchose to hit me hard in Culpepper, with Magruder Corps leading the attack. This is where I made my error. I split my Army into 3 weak Corps rather than 2 large ones. In the first battle, he hit Milroy Corps while inactive Hamilton and Dix did not participate at all (although in the same region). McDowell has been asking for help all day long, but to no avail, they had orders to march to Richmond, and they had no intention to turn back and chase away rebels forces. The battle was going rather badly until Franklin from Manassas came in to save the day. Neither side fought in entrenchments, and this was bloody, the bloodiest day of the war. Although declared a stalemate, seeing he can get no help from his subordinates, McDowell ordered an organized retreat towards Manassas.
The combat report says 60.000 Union men, but actually, all up to last two rounds, there were only 15.000 men of Milroy's corps fighting it out.
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But that is not all. Facing a threat of court marshal, the following day Hamilton and Dix turned around, changed posture in now Confederate held Culpepper and attacked him. They suffered 35% penalty for being inactive, but shear number of their men has convinced Beauregard to retreat and fight another day.
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[Ace]

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I control most of Tennessee, key cities in Louisiana and Mississippi. Chatanooga, Mobile and Savanahh are being besieged, and I have manpower advantage in Virginia, coupled with some lousy leaders as well. So, I have shown how to do what Union did in RL up to 62. Is there interest in continuing this AAR to show how to convince CSA to throw the towel?

[Njordr]

Is there interest in continuing this AAR to show how to convince CSA to throw the towel?

Yes!

[Q-Ball]

Very nice AAR in terms of style and showing a few tricks, I learned from reading. I applaud the effort.

Game balance is an important subject, and while this is helpful for those who play vs. Athena, respectfully I don't think we can draw any conclusions from it vs. the living. We could run an AAR over the simliar timeframe as CSA and "Prove" that the CSA can launch and successfully sustain an invasion reaching the Great Lakes.

Notwithstanding your excellenct play, I personally don't think a Union player can attain these gains against a reasonably competent CSA opponent.

[Ace]

I completely agree with you. It cannot be done against competent human player. Do we wish it can be done against human player. I do not think so. Part of the gaming is to try to do better than history. Ton of ink has been spilled in books that cover the subject on Union historical failures in the East, how they could have done it better. But, not enough has been said about how Confederacy led an appalling effort in the West. It failed to capitalize on wast territories Union had to cover (to conquer and hold area as large as Europe was not an easy task). And CSA failed to capitalize on it because their high command was lousy. By high command I mean Davis himself, as he failed to set up any functional War Department that would coordinate its forces. For example, lot of praise has gone to Grant how he drove a wedge between Pemberton and Johnston at Jackson,MI. But, do we now that Johnston did not had the authority to order Pemberton to coordinate with him. What kind of Theater CiC is that. That is appalling command structure. That is why Union did what it did in the West. Since I presume we take roles of Lincoln and Davis in this game, we do not want to make same mistakes. The game only sets up same resource advantages to each player as in history.

[pgr]

Overall I think it is too easy too be cut off from supply lines and still manage to produce enough food for the army at the front. I think we need hard supply setting for additional historicity here.

I think it's a good idea. Is it worth thinking about nerfing the production of depots? Simply have them push and pull stuff around the map?

[Q-Ball]

Do we wish it can be done against human player. I do not think so.

I don't either, I think it's fine the USA cannot in-game. It just is important when Union players compare their progress to history, it probably won't compare well. It's similar to WITP in that way; Japanese in-game are more powerful than RL, and everyone is OK with that

To your other point: Davis was a terrible micromanager, and ran the Presidency like he was Secretary of War. The CSA had a leadership advantage at times on the ground, but the real leadership advantage, at the top, belonged to the USA.