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It's August 1861 and I am beginning to think that I am losing the campaign more or less automatically. The CSA is racing ahead of me in about every department. Foreign help is at 47/100, their NM is 112 to my 84, and they gather 55 VP from cities each turn to my 38 or something. It appears I can't do anything about any of those. What pushes these figures so high, I wonder? Two embargoes on cotton, fine, I called for a blockade twice, didn't help me any (wonder if it actually hurt me). My NM took a 10 points hit even though I *did* advance into Va. as requested. I have two corps on the Rappahannock. How deep should I have advanced, all the way to the Gulf? And anyway, that's what brought me to 84, what brought them to 112? And how can they get more VP from cities even though the Union is so much larger than the Confederacy?

And of course I have masses of troops, but no generals to command them ... and those I have do never activate and their only special traits are being hated by about everyone and moving slower than a snail in dry weather.

In short, unless I am missing something, this war will end in a CSA victory by November at the latest ... without any combat. With combat, it will probably be over in September.

Relax. Follow history: no offensive until 1862. Build your armies, invest in blockade fleets, expand your industrial base. Wait until 1862: in the West you will have Grant and a few other good leaders. In the East, you should get a massive army which will be maybe badly commanded but very much superior in strenght to CSA.

You should then begin to get back some objectives...and a little more luck in political matters..

Go West... Grant is wonderful to win victories

The "Forward to Richmond" event confuses a lot of people. You must put ten units in an area between the Wilderness and Petersburg, Appomatox and Tappahanock. That's all south of the Rappahanock. You have to keep the units there for three turns. The Hanover region doesn't count for some reason, but Charles City does. Most players don't bother trying it in PBEM, just take the 10 NM hit.

The blockade probably did hurt the FI number. Bad luck there. Use the option anyway, unless you get to about 75 FI. If FI is approaching 100 (or whatever the FI limit is in your game), you may want to try using it again as a desperate gamble. 55% it helps, 45% it hurts. It always gives a little $, VP, and NM.

It is actually pretty normal for the union to be in this situation in mid 1861. You have to find a way to win battles and take strategic & WS cities somewhere. Clovis is right, the West offers more opportunities. Going after some deep south ports is also a good way to tighten the blockade, and draw the enemy away from the front line. If you can hurt the rebs infrastructure and economy, they will be forced to take more of the options that hurt their NM and VP. There are a few events coming up that should help your NM slightly. In PBEM, don't expect to regain the VP lead before 1863 (or later).

Just be patient. As the Union....time is on your side. The longer the campaign lasts....the more chance you have of winning. That is if you are able to make small advances here and there.

Land a sizeable army near Norfolk - that will confuse the South. Then on to Richmond.

GlobalExplorer wrote:Land a sizeable army near Norfolk - that will confuse the South. Then on to Richmond.

Edenton (Currituck), or Suffolk (Warwick) are good targets. Petersburg is nice for knocking out the depot there early, but riskier than the others. Just be prepared to backpedal fast if the counter-punch is too heavy for you.

The principle is to win by giving the rebs too many fronts to defend by using your RR and ocean transport capacities. You should always be advancing somewhere.

Build an attack force with a good general (One general I use is Hancock, well I think it is Hancock, 4-4-2 I think the general have in stats) and attack New Orleans. That will give you a strategic city and will bolster the war effort. Remeber to transport the attack force with Farragut and put him on "evade" when passing by the forts protecting New Orleans.

I usually also build some smaller attack forces that starts with attacking confederate costal forts to lure away confederate forces from their eastern armies.

Clovis wrote:Relax.

Alright! That's good advice, albeit hard to follow.

Follow history: no offensive until 1862.

Yes, well, that's rather against my nature. Leaving the initiative to the enemy. At least I need Missouri and Kentucky! Especially the latter, before the Rebs become entrenched there in force. leure:

Guess I'll learn to have patience here. It *is* enlightening in its frustration. Learn to feel like Lincoln felt.

Jabberwock wrote:The "Forward to Richmond" event confuses a lot of people. You must put ten units in an area between the Wilderness and Petersburg, Appomatox and Tappahanock. That's all south of the Rappahanock. You have to keep the units there for three turns. The Hanover region doesn't count for some reason, but Charles City does. Most players don't bother trying it in PBEM, just take the 10 NM hit.

Thanks! Where does one get such info?

It is actually pretty normal for the union to be in this situation in mid 1861. You have to find a way to win battles and take strategic & WS cities somewhere. Clovis is right, the West offers more opportunities. Going after some deep south ports is also a good way to tighten the blockade, and draw the enemy away from the front line. If you can hurt the rebs infrastructure and economy, they will be forced to take more of the options that hurt their NM and VP. There are a few events coming up that should help your NM slightly. In PBEM, don't expect to regain the VP lead before 1863 (or later).

Excellent advice, and comforting too. Thank you!

Kotik wrote:Build an attack force with a good general (One general I use is Hancock, well I think it is Hancock, 4-4-2 I think the general have in stats) and attack New Orleans. That will give you a strategic city and will bolster the war effort. Remeber to transport the attack force with Farragut and put him on "evade" when passing by the forts protecting New Orleans.

Yes, I know ... but I sort of dread the complexity of an amphibious operation. The naval aspect of the game is the one I have least experience with ... and this sounds like unduly high risk for a naval greenhorn. <shudder>

But, we live to learn.

The CSA is racing ahead of me in about every department

The CSA received intellegence reports regarding your whiskey stockpile.

And anyway, that's what brought me to 84, what brought them to 112?

They found your whiskey stockpile.




Good questions, Heldenkaiser. n00b here, so I'm learning a lot from the responses. Great game BTW (two thumbs up).

Heldenkaiser wrote:Yes, I know ... but I sort of dread the complexity of an amphibious operation. The naval aspect of the game is the one I have least experience with ... and this sounds like unduly high risk for a naval greenhorn. <shudder>

But, we live to learn.

Go for it Hel. I've been playing the game for almost a year and recently launched my first amphibious invasion - it's nerve-racking! Make sure you have plenty of supply - transport ships in an adjacent sea areas help if you can keep them there.

As you say - we live to learn.

Cheers, Chris

Heldenkaiser wrote:Thanks! Where does one get such info?

I originally got it by reading through the event files and the Areas.ini file.

The events are:
evt_nam_USA_PapersPushOffensive1861Warning
evt_nam_USA_PapersPushOffensive1861
evt_nam_ArmyinVirginia

The meta-area is:
$Close_to_Richmond

It may be easier to understand in the DB:
AACW_inc_USA_Events17.xls
But I'm not sure where areas are defined in there.