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Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 10:27 pm
by Naturamix
Up to Late September 1863

I think I am close to driving a final stake through the Union's morale.

In the West the Federal troops continued to have a no-good, very bad time

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There are several examples similar to the above, but just this is shown for brevity. Largely as a result of these the Union (According to the objectives tab) is down to 87% land combat power relative to the CSA. The fact that Murtagks is weaker than me at all is of course a terrible position for him as the attacker.

The union forces in Eastern Kentucky all moved slowly northwards towards Illinois where they were joined by a new Corps under J Dix containing four divisions (new ones I think).

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Grant and Sherman have still not made it out of Kentucky as Beauregard has reached the Mississippi, but Berry got out. There seems to be a little supply in Illinois for Dix, Smith and Berry, but (particularly now with my cavalry in the rear) Murtagks' stacks are still low on it. Smith was kicked out of Cairo by Taylor. There isn't a depot anywhere near them let alone one with an uninterrupted supply line.

Since things are going so well in the west I felt happy detaching another two divisions (AP Hill and McLaws) to railroad to Lee for what I suspect will be the final decisive campaign of the game.

Murtagks seems to be going for broke in Virginia. In his position I would probably do the same, but in the process he has thrown McDowell's army into its worst defeat of the game.

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Lee is simply too well entrenched, and too good a general to retreat.

With the union reduced to around 7000 power in Virginia I feel confident in counter attacking.

Early has arrived with his three divisions and been re-designated a Corps under the Army of Northern Virginia.

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Longstreet will finally move across the river and take Manassas whilst Forney and Early advance up the Shenandoah to close the pincers around McDowell and his huge army.

I will force Murtagks into attacking repeatedly into these strong stacks or watch his army starve and if necessary I will finally move on Washington to crush the Union morale.

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:17 pm
by Naturamix
Up to Late Nov 1863 (West)

Victory is in sight. I have the union down at 52 NM so all that is really needed now is the capture of Washington.

I will just briefly include some pictures in the west to show that the Union has continued to have a terrible time there too.

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Another battle in Cairo with Johnston reinforcing Taylor really hit the union hard. At this point Murtagks started falling back into Indiana, but I caught Kearny's Corps on the way and managed to inflict casualties.

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Ironically as he moves away I am stripping the army of the Tennessee and Mississippi bare to reinforce Virginia, and my final drive on Washington.

The war in the West is more or less over.

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:32 pm
by Naturamix
Up to Late Nov 1863 (East)

In the East McDowell my plan to encircle the Union army worked a treat.

Lee took a bite out of a Union stack.

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Subsequently Murtagks threw his army northwards to try to break out of my encirclement and get back to Maryland.

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With all his entrenchment lost from movement and two more divisions having arrived from Tennessee I attacked from all sides.

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Unfortunately somewhere in the process I lost Jubal Early! I'm not sure if there is something with fast generals dying more often, or it may just be a coincidence that I lost both Early and Jackson.

At this point I chose to move through the Union army and advance towards Washington. As there was nowhere suitable to retreat to the Union army retreated south towards Charlottesville.

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I had not anticipated this position. I expected that they would retreat northwards and that I could take a few bites out of them along the way. At least they are now out of the way and out of supply.

Longstreet will double back to ensure that they don't recover whilst Lee at long last moves to overwhelm Washington's defenses.

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 9:31 pm
by Naturamix
Final Turn

The attack on Washington went like clockwork.

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With McDowell's army stuck in Virginia and out of supply there was very little to stop Lee with Magruder's and Forney's Corps from hammering Washington into submission.

With this victory the Union Morale dropped all the way to 0 and the game ended in a major victory for the Confederate States of America.

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GG Murtagks.

I will do a final analysis/roundup post when I have finally read his AAR which I may now do as the game is concluded.

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:30 am
by Naturamix
Reflections:

I think that the basic reason for a CSA victory was in the excellent results in the Western theater.

In the East things did actually go fairly badly for the CSA right up until the end. As I had suspected Murtagks wrote that he wanted to push hard for Richmond in early 1862. He certainly surprised me by bringing Grant over with his stack. That was probably the moment of greatest danger for me. After the defeats of 1861 I had much less combat power in Virginia. Had Murtagks hurled Grant at Beauregard in January of 1862 he may have taken Richmond.

I can see now in the AAR that Murtagks originally planned to naval invade Norfolk too. I suspect that he felt in the end that he couldn't afford to pull troops away from the over-land route.

The 1862 Virginia campaign was probably a defeat for me in that I lost more men (including Jackson) but on the other hand Murtagks never really made much of an offensive against me despite having greater strength. I would move Jackson, he would move to encircle him and then I would get out again. Repeating this cycle just wasted time which was great for me as I had committed fewer forces to this area. Given the number of troops in Virginia that were drawn away from other areas he may have been better served by keeping Grant there and trying to use this great army under a good leader to crush me, but in the end the theater was not decisive even though it was going in his favour.

In the West on the other hand the CSA did well. Capturing St Louis in 1861 set me up extremely well for the rest of the game. The fact that I could raid supplies in Illinois and that I had another great city with loyal CSA citizens gave me a good start.

It also meant that Murtagks kept moving about 3000 power back and forth to deal with just two fairly bad divisions under JE Johnston. Keeping these away from Grant without having to fight them was fantastic.
This all laid the groundwork for Grant moving into Western Tennessee and slowly dying due to a lack of supply.

Murtagks said several times that he thought that I was too aggressive. This did sometimes work to prevent him from taking the initiative, but he is correct. I at times acted recklessly particularly in the East where I lost a lot of troops by attacking things I shouldn't have with Longstreet. I also invaded the Union in 1862 without any clear objectives and lost more men than Murtagks during this campaign. It was probably a mistake to undertake it.

On the other hand (in my opinion) Murtagks has the reverse problem; he is not aggressive enough. I think Murtagks constantly wants to concentrate overwhelming force against my units to completely crush one force at a time. This is not an intrinsically bad way of looking at things, but some of the game mechanics really punish him for it. The fact that I could often get out of the way, such as with JEJ, meant that sometimes I would not allow it to come to battle when the odds were too much in his favour so it was just a waste of time. Heavy entrenchment bonuses also offset numbers such as against Beauregard in Tennessee.
On the strategic level I think he may have had better luck if he opened more fronts against me. After Butler retreated from NO there were no naval invasions. This was fortunate as the rest of the CSA coast was completely undefended. Personally I like to open a lot of fronts when I play as the Union.
Murtagks also doesn't pay enough attention to supply lines. I exploited this rather ruthlessly in the West.

One of the most fun parts of the game for me is the narrative that gets built of each general so I will run through a few of my favourites from this game.

The MVP of the CSA was clearly Beauregard. I think that this battle with Grant marked the point where the war really started to turn in my favour.

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Murtagks wrote that he thought the river crossing was what disadvantaged him, but I suspect it was probably the greater entrenchment that Beauregard received between Grant's two attacks.
An honorable mention should go the Early who became a Corps commander after this battle and charged around Tennessee keeping the Union back before meeting his sad end just before victory in Virginia. F.

Longstreet had a bad time through no fault of his own because I kept sending him to stupid places. Poor guy lost seniority for being blamed for it all. My bad...

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Another honorable mention goes to Richard Taylor for taking and holding Cairo which was the final nail in the supply line for the Union's Tennessee armies.

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The CSA starts with three good or great army commanders (and one mediocrity), but decent Corps commanders are really difficult to get. One doesn't want to rely on Polk. Getting Taylor and Early promoted seems to be one good way to cope, but there were many others in Virginia who didn't get a chance to shine until right at the end.

Lee only needed to crush McDowell when victory was almost certain, but he did strike the final blow by taking Washington.

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Was a terrific game with my friend Murtagks. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Naturamix

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:53 am
by Citizen X
Thanks a lot for an entertaining AAR. Same goes to Murtagks.

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:57 am
by Naturamix
Thank you :)

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:09 pm
by Nikel
Do you plan to play any other Ageod game, with AAR included?

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:07 pm
by Naturamix
Yes we certainly do, but we will give ourselves (and the forums) a bit of a rest from our writing for a few weeks first.

Edit: oops sorry, misread your question. We have been thinking about trying revolution under siege, but I think we both find CW2 much more polished and neat as a two person game than some of the others (like to end all wars which we have both played individually)

Do you have a recommendation?

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:11 pm
by Nikel
OK, thanks :)

Which game?

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:18 pm
by Nikel
Oh, you edited your post.

Well, any you own and like :)

Re: Naturamix(CSA) vs Murtagks(USA) Also Late to the Afterparty

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:20 pm
by Naturamix
We will probably do another CW2 aar before a different game. But it is certainly possible that we try and then write up another.