Thought I would show you guys the 1862 portion of my current July full campaign game.
1861 - setting the stage...
1861 wasn't a very good year for me as the Yankees.
In the east I got pushed out of Harper's Ferry but was able to hold Manassas.
In the west I was able to take Lexington and Clarksburg, Ky.
In Missouri I took Jefferson City, but failed to take Rolla.
In the far west, I was constantly on the defensive.
1862 So we arrive at 1862...
The battleplan was to take Wincester and Fredericksburg in the East, which I did.
In the West I wanted to take the rest of Kentucky and Forts Henry/Donalson. I failed to take the forts, but an opportunity presented itself and I was able to lay seige to Nasville. The siege there is a long one and ongoing, requiring a huge logistics effort to keep Grant supplied during the winter by shuffling supply units back and forth from Harrison, IN. Also it became apparent that Grant would need siege artillery to take Nasville, which as the year ended was nearing completion.
In Missouri and the far west, the situation remained fairly static, though lots of raiding was going on.
So here is the animated AAR of my campaign during the year 1862:
The animation is a little difficult to understand
, however, you get the general flow of things by watching it.
In the east, Harpers Ferry was attacked from two directions, put under siege and fell. This was then followed by attacks against both Wincester and Fredericksburg, both falling to sieges.
In Kentucky, it's a little more difficult to explain, so here is a map...
The three phases of the campaign were...
I - Grant's army and Wallace's corps moved on Bowling Green where a large battle occured. Johnston was defeated allowing me to take Bowling Green. At the same time, to protect my eastern flank, an amphibious assault was launched from Lawrence, OH to secure Flyod, KY (shown in the insert on the right of the image).
II - Grant pursues Johnston to Clarksville, where an another large battle took place. Grant again overcoming Johnston. Simultaneously Wallace moves northwest to attack Polk, as I now had gained a central position, splitting the two main armies of the confederacy. Raiders from Huntsville attacking my rear area, were countered by a small offensive from Lexington leading to the capture of Huntsville. Wallace finally catches up to Polk after a circuitous march and is defeated at Forts Henry/Donalson. This defeat, I believe occurred because of the intervention of a rather large confederate fleet. Interestingly, I had a fleet there as well... which didn't participate in the battle.
III - As Wallace retreats back to Clarksville, Grant continues his pursuit of Johnston and another large battle is fought at Nashville, also a yankee win, but forcing Grant to withdraw as well to Clarksville. There the two corps rested a bit, and then with Wallace in position to hold off Polk, Grant again attacked Nashville, again winning a large battle and putting Nashville under siege.
Thus ending the year 1862.
Some comments
* Though the rebs kicked my butt in 1861 at Harper's Ferry, holding Manassas created a huge problem for Athena as it cut supply to the Shanandoah valley. I watched that winter as a number of reb armies starved or attempted to move about to the north into the mountains, for no apparent reason. Their armies went from green to yellow to red without meeting any opposition. The way the map is setup, holding Manassas means an almost inevitable fall of Wincester if the Yanks hold Manassas. I would recommend that the "Shanandoah Valley" (Wincester and Warren) have a far greater forage capability such that a large army can survive there even though there is no railway to supply it.
* Though Grant's corps has participated in four major battles, only a couple regiments show one star of experience... strange.
* In Kentucky Athena did a reasonable job. My greatest fear was that Polk would send a corps to reinforce Johnston at Bowling Green. Johnston actually had enough forces to check me there, but probably due to poor organization, I was able to win. Once I had captured Bowling Green, there was no other choice for Polk but to retire, which he did.
* Overall, strategically Athena is doing a good job, though she does need some help (especially around Wincester as the amount of forces the confederates lost to starvation made taking Fredericksburg a cake walk). She is also particularly good at raising plentfull forces which is good, but I was never really forced into making really hard decisions economically (print money) to buy enough forces to overwhelm them because of my awesome
success on the battlefield.
This is a super game!!
I just love the decisions it forces you to make, the army building (which is mind boggling but very kewl) and the strategy. It needs some tuning though...
Am having a totally great time with the game.
Ray (aka LAVA)
leure: Wonder why that is... it was on the river to the west of Donalson... maybe in need to be on the one to the east....
