Shenandoah Valley

[Colonel Dreux]

For those of you who play as the Confederates, do you try to defend the Shenandoah Valley or do you let the Union more or less do what they want to in that part of Virginia?

Historically, the South chose to defend the valley and keep it nominally free of Union of control. However, at times the Valley was open to the Union. Jackson had to leave to join Lee's forces east of Richmond in 1862. The South never controlled Winchester or Harpers Ferry unless they were going to invade the North.

Since ACCW plays differently than in real life, it is best to leave divisions or corps protecting the valley or is better to move Jackson and his troops to like Fredricksburg? Thoughts?

I'm always torn about what to do in the first moves of the game. I play defensively, no trying to sack Washington early on, and never know if it's better leave the Shenandoah or stay there and wait for a larger force to attack Jackson or Johnston's force.

[Doomwalker]

Against the AI, I try to defend the valley. Sometimes I need an army, sometimes just a brigade or two. It all depends on how froggy Athena is feeling at the time. Athena loves to move forces toward Richmond through the valley. So keep an eye peeled for incursions into your territory from this direction.

[Colonel Dreux]

Against the AI, I try to defend the valley. Sometimes I need an army, sometimes just a brigade or two. It all depends on how froggy Athena is feeling at the time. Athena loves to move forces toward Richmond through the valley. So keep an eye peeled for incursions into your territory from this direction.

Thanks for the response. I've noticed this as well. One of the more interesting things to happen in a recent game was McDowell's Army side-stepped Jackson in Strasburg, marched through the mountains and came out down by Rockbridge. I put a couple of cavalry elements in front of him around Charlottesville and he never moved forward from there. He staid in place during the winter and by early spring time was down to one red dot in strength. Never fought a single battle with him.

[Doomwalker]

He staid in place during the winter and by early spring time was down to one red dot in strength. Never fought a single battle with him.

I know what you mean. I have seen several groups of "resources" just dwindle away because the supply line killed them. I love those mountains.

[Jim-NC]

In my games, Athena always tries to use the valley to get to Richmond (or Petersburg). I find it not worth defending the valley, as I can then funnel union troops into a kill zone (cut them off , and let the army starve). I then get to kill the survivors for few losses of my own. You just have to make sure the union troops get stuck in/near the southern end of the valley and not take Richmond (spoken from experience )

[Tex Willer]

In my game, Virginia is a 24H open space for USA Armies!
They send to me 3 Armies and 10 - 12 corps in the same time, so I started a new strategy:
2 Armies and 5 corps, every army fighting a single corp each time each turn, a corp in reserve each turn, and in a year I have clean all Virginia, destroyed all the enemy forces, and made thousands of prisoners and many WS
We were outnumbered in Virginia, but we were much more than them in a small part of it.
The only problem is to mantein a strong force in Richmond, the only town that I must defend at all costs. (Once I loose it but soon re-gained)

[Brochgale]

Against AI I always defend Shenandoah - as a suppossed bread basket it should be consider politically calamitous not to. AI does seem to make some strange moves in not engaging me in Shenandoah at Strasburg but slips round me but I always have a large division at least at Charlottesville to cover any Yankee moves to west of Richmond.

Agaist my nephew in my PvP games he is so scared of attacking Jackson and JJohnstone that he tends to leave it alone - untill he has built relatively large forces to deploy there. Especially as he knows that I will usually counter attack with Jacksons Corps into Maryland if his attack fails as it usually does.

However he did smack me once in Shenandoah when he sent everything he had against Jackson and Johnston utterly destroying both Corps and killing Jackson and wounding Johnston - it does sort of knock the stuffing out of you that one.

But against AI always defend it, against another player well that is open to debate. I wonder if any of the programmers and moders have considered CSA losing Shenandoah as a political event with loss of NM etc. Probably to hard to work that one maybe.

[Colonel Dreux]

In my games, Athena always tries to use the valley to get to Richmond (or Petersburg). I find it not worth defending the valley, as I can then funnel union troops into a kill zone (cut them off , and let the army starve). I then get to kill the survivors for few losses of my own. You just have to make sure the union troops get stuck in/near the southern end of the valley and not take Richmond (spoken from experience )

That happened once as I noted above. McDowell bypassed Jackson's command force in Strasburg and parked himself at the southern end of the valley and never moved forward. By spring time his army had starved to death.

[Colonel Dreux]

Against AI I always defend Shenandoah - as a suppossed bread basket it should be consider politically calamitous not to. AI does seem to make some strange moves in not engaging me in Shenandoah at Strasburg but slips round me but I always have a large division at least at Charlottesville to cover any Yankee moves to west of Richmond.

Agaist my nephew in my PvP games he is so scared of attacking Jackson and JJohnstone that he tends to leave it alone - untill he has built relatively large forces to deploy there. Especially as he knows that I will usually counter attack with Jacksons Corps into Maryland if his attack fails as it usually does.

However he did smack me once in Shenandoah when he sent everything he had against Jackson and Johnston utterly destroying both Corps and killing Jackson and wounding Johnston - it does sort of knock the stuffing out of you that one.



But against AI always defend it, against another player well that is open to debate. I wonder if any of the programmers and moders have considered CSA losing Shenandoah as a political event with loss of NM etc. Probably to hard to work that one maybe.

I definitely would not want the latter to be part of the game. The South never really lost control of the Valley until the very end of the War. They just had to leave it open at different times when they needed to concentrate manpower elsewhere.

Thanks for the tips, by the way.

[Jim-NC]

I try to never let the enemy army starve to death I always attack at the end to get the extra stuff (like captured arms), and experience.

[Doomwalker]

I try to never let the enemy army starve to death I always attack at the end to get the extra stuff (like captured arms), and experience.

I love getting those stacks stuck like that. They are just ripe for the picking.

[husky1943]

Ahh, the valley....

I play the Federals, and each time, I have tried to hold on to Harper's Ferry. If I can hold there, I try to attack south down the valley, and as soon as the AI tries to parry the attack, I come Southeast out of West Virginia and try to hit the South (Johnston, Jackson, Bee, Lee, whoever) in the flank or from behind with the Army under Banks (since the other guy gets fired so fast.) It worked about 60% of the time.

In other words, beware the valley - it's like you throat, you leave it exposed at your own peril.

[kglorberau]

I feel like a noob but have to ask.....Who or what is Athena? Im gonna guess it is a nicname for the AI??

Kglorberau

[Rafiki]

Im gonna guess it is a nicname for the AI??

It is the name the AI has given itself (or herself, as it is now )

[kglorberau]

Thanks Rafiki,

I find that the AI is usually pretty good, but sometimes erratic in its strategy. In my recently completed CSA Grand Campaign the AI would send Armies or Corps singularly in deep attacks....leave themselves camped at a city or depot or region.....and then begin to wither away. The AI would eventually extract the Corp or Army before it became completly destroyed, but I found it strange it would just sit there, waiting for me to get reinforcements to the area.

Other times the AI would land a large force, march inland (usually an amphibious landing in Alabama, heading north, etc) but then leave without attacking anything. Strange....

Now granted I did play on easy since it was my first game (learning the mechanics of the game, etc) and the game took me 2-3 months to complete, and I eventually won. Question- If I start a game on easy or moderate difficulty, can I bump it up to hard mid-game?

Just courious, as I plan to start another game as the USA to see if I can beat Bobby Lee in Virginia, and Johnston in Tennessee...

Kglorberau

[husky1943]

Ciao kglorberau,
I don't know if you can change the difficulty of a game mid-game. Good question, though.

I believe the reason Athena (you two have met) goes on these deep raids is because she knows that she will be overwhelmed by sheer force soon, and if she doesn't attack she will be wasting her starting advantage in superior generalship and victory points. She could be trying to prompt international intervention. She then "sits" because her force is so low on cohesion, it takes a while for the force to recover (and they recover even slower while in enemy territory). If you have the attrition rate set to "historic" then she would lose men through desertion and sickness even faster when the cohesion is low.