A turn to remember.

[mxsinder1]

Ok, here we go. The date was 1862, late April, the weather had finally cleared. I spend the whole of the winter organizing armies in Cincinnati and Louisville. I knew the south had a strong force in Lexington and that they would come out of the snow fighting at one of the aforementioned cities. I knew I had to take the fight to them, for they too had several months to organize an Army group under Bragg and I could see from intermittent winter scouting that they had at least 30 elements to contest me, though I was not sure what would come out of the organization process. So, with the snow on retreat, in Late April, I sent my Forces under Grant in Louisville east towards Lexington, close enough to force Bragg to show is last card. Would he go North at Cincinnati, where I had two strong divisions, but not nearly what Grant had managed, or would he come straight at me? I was confident I could manage a defense but as yet was unsure of his abilities. Or would he hold the city, I know he has artillery, but how much?

Nothing. He stayed in Lexington. Now is my chance to bring to bear a total combat efficiency in excess of 2000, under the command of my most competent general, with General Sherman as the Junior Divisional Commander in my force.

And Bragg did not put up the fight that I expected. 8900 captured. 45 elements fled of the 95 he brought to bear upon me. The screen capture is shown below. 36,000 casualties for the south. 7 morale points.

In the east, the south has 4 corps and an Army group circling the wagons near Richmond and a much depleted Stonewall Jackson leading attacks from the Rappahanock valley into the flank of my advancing corps in Manassas and Fredericksburg.

But the Southern forces are reeling from a bitter fight for Fredericksburg that cost me 4000 men and them 14000 men. I must press the issue or face a long siege in Richmond. It is time to gamble. I can press south from Fredericksburg with Banks' corps and temporarily leave it undefended to Stonewalls fast moving and deceptive tactics and I will bring Birney's corps in from Alexandria, but the city will be empty for a week, and I could be facing an offensive battle to regain land that I already hold. But Banks is in the lead and is my most fully outfitted corps under McDowell, who I have left in command, McLellan is running the western Corps in Winchester, VA.

I am expecting to hit Richmond hard, and though I suspect I will be driven back by the overall strength of her defenses combined with the amassed army of Northern Virginia, I am hoping to rotate each corps up a spot if my ploy works and move Banks to defensive duties in the following turn as Birney actually commands more divisions and is receiving more units by rail in the coming days upon his arrival in Fredericksburg.

They do the unexpected, a lone corps under the Army commander, Beauregard,attempts to repell me. the remaining Confederate corps all move south forming an assuredly weak defensive line closer to the North Carolina Border.

I now have Richmond under siege with what appear to be only 23 depleted and disorganized regular combat elements against 49 for the North and Stonewall has disappeared. Mclellan has swept the Shenandoah with no resistance. Hunter is in Charlottsville awaiting McLellans re-emergance and Asboth has formed a rear corps travelling with Army command and supply units to ensure the way is clear for reinforcements, ammunition and food.

I would love to hear some feedback. This is my 3rd game. 1st as the north, I won, but was very disorganized and inneficient. The 2nd as the South, I won by taking D.C. in December of 1961. I will have to turn Athena up in future games, but I am just finished with 1 year of play in my 3rd trip and would love to know what everyone thinks.

[arsan]

Hi mxsinder!
Welcome to the forums.
You should update you game. By your sceeenshots i see you use a pretty outdated version of the game. Which one?
The most current official patch is 1.11d
Download it form here
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=110224#post110224
You will find some new cool things like numbers of men/horses and canons engaged and lose for each army on the battle report, some bugs fixed on the battles routines... and Athena is supposed to have learned some new little tricks on the recent patches.
Regards

[mxsinder1]

Well, I must say, she actually played out some really neat tricks in February-April of this campaign.

I will have to update my game and see what happens anyway.

When winter broke in the East, which was early March, it appeared the way south was an empty road.

I even had a balloon just north of Richmond and I saw no troops between me and it, so, being cautious, I had a corps in Harper's Ferry, Alexandria(birney), 2 in Manassas(hunter/banks), and 1 division in DC with Army Group. I let Mclellan sit in Harpers Ferry until winter in the mountains was over, no use taking 200 hits from winter when I could sit and soak up replacements and cohesion and more importantly, Johnston was still there, albeit without nearly enough force to defend. Stonewall was

I Moved Banks forward to Fredericksburg, Hunter to the area inbetween winchester and manassas (had good weather for one turn) and let Birney sit in Alexandria just in case...

I didn't know why, but it appeared the AI was retreating. Johnston was almost all the way back up the Shenandoah, Stonewall was outside Richmond, Beauregard, Magruder and Bonham were inside it, and the other forces they had were between Charlottesville and Richmond and did not appear to be too big of a threat.

Well, I took the bait and took Fredericksburg. They had 2 full divisions worth of men there, but that's it. I think I scored 10,000 casualties and gave up close to 7,000 to take the city. But not knowing what was in store, I figured it was worth it. So I had moved Hunter's corps to Fredericksburg to resupply and stay out of the weather as bad weather returned west of Alexandria, so I decided to get them towards Richmond and made it a 2 pronged attack on Fredricksburg.. though they arrived late and did not factor in the battle. I moved McLellan into Winchester instead, control, points, depot, all that. I moved, as I said, Banks to Fredericksburg.

At this point I moved Birney to Winchester. I was thinking I would secure the right flank so that I could send McLellan down the valley and bring him around to pince Johnston in a couple turns at Charlottesville.

Current Sitrep: McLellan/Winchester, Birney/Harper's Ferry, Hunter and Banks/Fredricksburg, Army w/division in Alexandria.

Appear Stonewall Jackson with full Corps in Stafford, VA. He had crossed the Rappohanock and come from the East. Also, there was a much more sizeable force already in Charlottesville that I was unaware of (distance, scouting) and they had moved northeast towards Manassas.

Not caring if they advanced North, and realizing that was not their intention as they would be out of supply as soon as they entered Maryland, I sent Birney back to Alexandria and added a 2nd move to Stafford in case I got lucky, even though the rail lines had been cut (by me, a long time ago) and he was going to be able to make it on day 12 (14 to stafford). If Jackson heads North, it's Checkmate in 2 as he would capture 12 supply units and cut off supply to two corps. I wasn't sure what he would do, even if Birney arrives on day 14, he takes Alexandria back, and maybe the supply, but Stonewall scores a huge victory, and I am not sure with the cohesion loss for Birney if he can actually force him back into Stafford or Manassas.

Because of Stonewalls good position, and the threat of a 2nd Confederate corps coming to his aide, and also cutting off supply, instead of chasing Stonewall with Hunter, I sent Hunter back to Manassas, he could get there in 2 days, well before anyone else, if I sent him after Stonewall or to Alexandria again because of Stonewalls perfect geographic win, Hunter would be out of the action for 2 turns (19 days) with travel and could be forced to meet Stonewall in the open field and potentially with a 2nd core in manassas to support him.

I picked Athena's pocket.

Hunter arrived in undefended Manassas on day 2, and the confederate reserve force arrived on day 4. It was a slaughter. They were routed and useless, fleeing back towards Charlottesville and I held the town with my corps mostly intact.

Stonewall arrived on day 10. And with the Army group one territory away with an extra division I spanked him something solid. He fled back down the Rappahanock and on day 14 Birney arrived in Stafford and Stonewall retreated further to avoid conflict.

Sit Rep: Banks/Fredericksburg, Birney/Stafford, Hunter/Manassas, McLellan/Winchester.

Next (2) turns had no combat.

In April as I attempted to regain some cohesion and prepare to move on Richmond as I could not leave their weakened forces to regroup. Birney moved to Fredericksburg. Hunter back towards Charlottesville and with the clearing weather, McLellan started up the valley. I converted the spare division to a Corps and finished filling it's ranks.

The following turn I prepared for the attack on Richmond, Birney went East of Fredericksburg, Banks - south, Hunter is north of Charlottesville and Mclellan is west of it. from there, you can go to the beginning.

I'll have to let you know what happens once I knock Lee out of Richmond.

[tagwyn]

How can you effectivly utilize Banks, McCllean, and Hunter, all duds, with any expectation they will move efficiently? apy:

[johnnycai]

Tagwyn,

Banks has the 'recruiter' ability. Put him in a high-level city (New York, Philadelphia, etc.) and he will give your 5-9 additional!! conscript companies per turn. In the early game, he can be your defensive corps commander in Washington (after Scott retires) since he needs to be inside the city to do his recruiting. McClernand and Burnside are the other Union recruiters generals.

McClelland has the 'trainer' ability. So he can train conscripts upto line regiments. His strategic rating makes him one of the worst Army commanders so the goal is always to get Grant/Meade/Thomas/Pope/Sherman promoted so you can use them to lead actual fighting corps, then you can leave McC to training and in some non-important defensive role. Early in the game is where you will have to use him as an Army commander and only high strategic rated generals (eg. Grant) will be activated enough under McC army command to be useful.

Hunter is one of many low-stat but serviceable US division or brigade commanders.

Hope this helps and addresses your question.