Naturamix (CSA) vs Murtagks (USA) Covid Lock-down Game 2

[Naturamix]

Turns 47-48,

Murtagks has had university exams, but hopefully we will be able to continue in the coming weeks.

Gilbert got to Corinth first and managed to beat up the first CSA division that arrived, but he then retreated when Forrest turned up.

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With these forces from southern Mississippi Tennessee looks very secure.

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Unfortunately I won't be able to stay in place forever, as some of these troops will undoubtedly need to move south to check Butler.
I hope to use my central position between Union forces from Kentucky and New Orleans to hold the advance of both using less numerous forces.

In Missouri McDowell took some hits form lack of supply, but pushed me out of Jefferson city.

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The critical thing is to hold St Louis and so ABJ's stack is holding position to be conservative.

In Texas Freemont attempted to break out of Galveston.

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I am building fresh artillery in Texas and fortunately had some new brigades that could move to support the siege.

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Any forces used to destroy this Union invasion force can subsequently be redeployed to the Mississippi theatre with relative ease so it's worth the investment to destroy both of these full divisions to even out the odds with the Union.

As the main campaigning sequence approaches the confederate strategy has to be to hold onto my victory point lead (still being extended passively) so that the Union has to make increasingly reckless plays to break my morale or lose by VPs. I will then hopefully be able to defeat a few large Union assaults and inflict mass casualties on the north to break their morale.

[Naturamix]

Its nice to see a new AAR in 2021!! love this game.






https://www.hqwargames.com

Thanks

[Naturamix]

Turns 49-52 South,

As spring '63 has turned to summer the Union has been oddly quiet.
I pulled Forrest down from Western TN to block Butler's route north.

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My approach will be to keep the Union guessing as to where this powerful stack will be and so hopefully restrict advances both north and south.
In Alabama Bragg finished re-opening Mobile bay to shipping and earned a promotion.

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Bragg will probably take the stack under AP Hill at Corinth as the latter is still 1* and will remain that way (he becomes markedly worse on promotion).
Bragg's traits are not great, but he is the best option available as commander for a Corps-sized force.

In Texas the Union army under Freemont made a few futile attempts to break out, but remains under siege in Galveston.

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If I can finally choke the life out of those Union divisions it will allow the redeployment of 1-2 experienced divisions of confederates to Mississippi to help hold on to Memphis, Jackson and Vicksburg. I have built more artillery to try to improve the performance in the siege, but there is still no sign of a surrender.

[Naturamix]

Turns 49-52 MO & TN

There was some action in MO between Shelby and Sheridan & the CSA unfortunately came off worse.

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I'll have to pull back to St Louis.
I see that McDowell has built a depot and secured supply. He appears to be moving East, perhaps to attack St Louis.
AS Johnston will railroad out to block the river crossing and try to catch the Union army moving across it.

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I am also blowing the depot in Rolla in case the Union army tries to capture it.

In Tennessee the Union army remained very static, but I suspect that this is the most likely place for them to make any further advance given that my defences are lighter.

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Bragg will move to reinforce and will hopefully be able to hold the Union advance.
I think Murtagks has to make some sort of play with the Army of the Tennessee towards Nashville as the highest value commanders (Grant and Sherman) shouldn't just sit still indefinitely.
Hopefully JE Johnston can deliver another victory as he did against Murtagks' previous offensive.

[Naturamix]

Turns 53-55 South West,

Just as it looked like Freemont might be weakening, Murtagks decided to double down and sent Hooker to Texas.

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The Union attacked the CSA stack from outside and inside the City.

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The TX stack has been reinforced during the siege to include a reasonable number of guns and regular infantry replacing the militia that initially garrisoned the state.
Murtagks amazingly decided to move Hooker into Galveston in the hope of merging all his forces into a single more powerful stack.

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This is an amazing gamble given that if they run out of supply in there the whole stack could surrender to half the number of confederate forces, or at the very least he has to throw himself against the CSA's well-developed works outside the city.
It will all rest on whether he can push back Jones' stack over the next few turns.

In LA the Union navy took out some gunboats unfortunately.

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I'll see whether Butler intends to advance or not.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 53-55 Northern Fronts,

I moved Forrest back up north to meet Rosecrans' advance into Tennessee.

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He has an independent army command of around 10 divisions threatening Memphis.
I'll try to give battle on favourable terms.

In MO, McDowell moved to Rolla and may try engaging AS Johnston without a river penalty.

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I think it's worth receiving an attack as the casualty ratio should be favourable defending hills in a dug in position.

Lastly, Alexandria finally fell to Longstreet's siege.

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Murtagks doesn't show any sign of moving in Virginia and there really isn't much point in sending the ANV north into the Union entrenchments.
I'll simply wait and see what the Union does.

[Naturamix]

Turns 56-57 Texas,

In Texas Murtagks finally managed to dislodge the siege of Galveston.

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My chance at forcing 2 divisions to surrender slips away.
Nonetheless the large commitment of Union forces to Texas has advantages for me. I have only 2 divisions to meet their 4 and so can tie down disproportionate numbers.

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Houston's depot was burn before the CSA retreated.
Last time I forced a retreat by cutting the Union's supply and I intend to make that easier this time.

Jones made a stand at Houston, but was beaten back.

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Wade Hampton has just spawned in the east and I will send him to Texas to lead the stack in more mobile combat.
A 2 star general can't be spared for the front, but Wade has great strategic rating and should be well suited to tying down as many Federals as possible.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 56-57 Northwestern Fronts,

2 of my cavalry got badly mauled by walking into Union forces unfortunately.

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Mutragks shifted Rosecrans' army east towards Corinth and splitting off my Corps in Memphis.

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In hindsight it may have been better to reinforce Forrest and give battle, but no matter.
I suspect that he will move on Corinth, but I have noticed that the terrain is rather muddy.
I will move Forrest across and he should hopefully get there in time to assist Bragg's stack.

The other big even was that McDowell attacked St Louis at great loss.

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I very much hope for more of these battles as 1864 approaches as the CSA's best chance is to win during the Union's higher defeat threshold (60 NM). The Union is currently at 77 so hopefully Murtagks will throw a few more questionable attacks against me.

[Naturamix]

Turns 58-60 Southern Front,

In general these turns didn't go all that well for th

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e Confederacy.

The Union fleet inflicted another defeat on the CSA fleet.

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It lost me 4 NM, these fleet battles always surprise me in their cost in morale, despite the losses being in my favour.
Butler has at least stayed resolutely still in the face of my much smaller force, which is great.

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In Texas I've been pushed back, but I now have a good commander.
Hooker went to take the fort, and I'll see if I can retake Houston in his absence.
It's a risk, but I think worth it to keep tying down the Union and preventing 4 divisions + Jo hooker from redeploying to the Mississippi theatre.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 58-60 Northern Front,

I have to commend Murtagks on his play in Tennessee.
Having taken the rail line between Memphis and Corinth he moved East and I followed him with Forrest.

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As he still controlled the rail line he could then simply use it to move back west to threaten Memphis and prevent me from reinforcing it.

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I think that once the connection was lost I had to accept losing at least one, and despite it's ironworks, Memphis has less of an effect on my mobility, as the Corinth rail junction is crucial to maintain the link between Tennessee and Mississippi.
I abandoned the city without a fight.

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I hope that I can now force a favourable engagement as the Union continues to advance.
I have invested a great deal in cavalry as I know the values of cutting supply chains to hold up a superior Union army.

With these gains Murtagks has overtaken me in victory point rate, and made significant progress on national morale.

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It looks like I may have to hold out until the end of 1865 to win on victory points.
Indeed the only criticism of Murtagks' strategy is that it is relatively conservative.
Though he has outmaneuvered me and gained ground in two theatres, he needs to take more land more quickly if he wants to avoid an eventual CSA minor victory.
The winter snow should set in soon and we will go into 1864 with the Union very much on the clock.

[Naturamix]

Turns 61-63 South,

In Texas Murtagks moved hooker out, so I tried to cut his supply and attack Houston.

Hampton attacked unsuccessfully, but Murtagks accidentally attacked him with cavalry, that he was trying to secure Galveston with.

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Wade Hampton had to pull back to the western side of the Brazos where he can get some more supply.

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I'll keep going for Galveston to try to damage the Union stack. I have some troops there that will repair the rail, potentially allowing Hampton to move their in 1 day if Murtagks let me have it. Meanwhile I'll interdict supplies from Fort James with Rangers.

In Louisiana Murtagks is massing for an attack.
With 4000 power sitting their against ~1500 of mine he has to do something sooner or later.

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My ironclad fleet is unopposed as Murtagks sent his fleet away somewhere.

[Naturamix]

Turns 61-63 Tennessee and Elsewhere,

Murtagks made a very big deal in the chat about my stray division under Wharton.

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It's just the mixed light raiding brigade that spawns for the CSA in Tennessee (has indians, cavalry, horse arty and some infantry). I was planning to go for Island 10 to blow the depot, but Murtagks blocked the river.
Instead he can retake popular bluff MO just to hurt the Union supply and help keep St Louis in supply for the CSA.

On the main front Murtagks walked Sumner into Forrest (I railroaded in to catch him and managed to preempt a move.

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Other than that nothing happened.

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I saw Farragut's fleet move back to the East.

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I was initially worried that Hooker might be on it, but I subsequently spotted him with Butler.
Not sure what Murtagks is planning. It could just be repairs, but I'll look to my Richmond defenses in case he goes for the Richmond naval invasion.

[Naturamix]

Turns 64-67 Texas,

In Texas my cunning plan to get outside Galveston with Hampton's stack worked, and I even got a notification saying the Pope recognised the CSA (helpful if divine intervention is needed later).

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Murtagks subsequently tried to push me off the coastal city and failed. The union force also took a defeat from a CSA counterattack.

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This left Texas in a very favourable position for the CSA.
With the Union force under Hooker gone, the CSA has retaken both Houston and Galveston, and if the Union fleet doesn't show up to rescue Freemont, he will be in a very poor position for supply.

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I sent some ironclads from the Mississippi fleet to block any escape attempts by water, but it's always a risk if the Union navy shows up again.

[Naturamix]

Turns 64-67 Western Theatre ex TX,

Butler and Hooker finally decided to assault Hardee's position.

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The CSA was forced to retreat, but inflicted significant casualties.
This allowed me to promote Hardee as he retreated by river to take up a new position.

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I then raided New Orleans with Morgan's cavalry and ripped the rails.
I think one of Murtagks' big problems is the way he doubles back for small problems and is over cautious, as Hooker's whole stack went back to defend New Orleans.

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Van Dorn is just sitting on Batton Rouge with 200 power of militia and cavalry (and the retreat stance on) without being attacked for all this time.

Another place where this shows is Eastern Missouri.

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Murtagks has a good 2 divisions chasing a free spawn brigade of raiders. He made a big deal in the chat about catching and killing them, which is great if he wants to try it.
A few infantry and cavalry are keeping 2 fully-armed Union divisions busy and away from anything important.

Kirby Smith is trying to take Ft Pickens to drop the blockade percentage, hopefully it won't take too long as it would be good to finish his division and send it to Mississippi.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 68-71 Southern Front,

I tried to take fort Pickens, but the defense was too strong.

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Will have to try again with reinforements.

On the other hand the Texas front went very well.
Freemont's 2 divisions were slowly chewed up by lack of supply and could be easily pushed off Galveston by an attack from Hamton's stack.

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Murtagks then decided to send 2 (I think) divisions under Joe Hooker back (again for the 3rd time I think) to rescue Freemont.

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There are probably 2 full divisions and 2 badly damaged divisions on Matagorda.
Whilst the Union has this large force committed I'll be careful since I don't want to lose my advantage by a poorly thought-out attack, and in any case I have the objective cities.

This may present an opportunity in Louisiana, which is now much-weakened without Hooker's stack.
I'll see if I can catch Butler out of his works with Hardee whilst Morgan's cavalry interrupts supplies from New Orleans.

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[Naturamix]

Turns 68-71 Upper West,

In western Tennessee the huge attack I had been waiting for finally happened.
Murtagks pushed Rosecrans' entire army into Corinth to dislodge Bragg and Forrest.

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The second attempt did it.

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I again failed to destroy the depot before retreating, but otherwise I am reasonably happy with the outcome.
Large casualties were inflicted on the Union, and the next line will be drawn along the railroad in northern Alabama.
At this stage of the war the Union will always be far superior, but I can make them bleed if they want to take enough victory cities to win.

This allows me to promote Bragg to 3*. I have never done this before in civil war, but given that I lost Beauregard (through my own incompetence) I badly need a new Army commander to cover the Louisiana-Mississippi front.
Bragg has 2 bad traits, but with decent stats will have to do. Hardee can be his Corps commander.

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To get back to the main body of the army of Tennessee Forrest will have to go on foot and take up the entrenched position at Tuscumbia. Bragg will reinforce Hardee in Louisiana with 2 divisions whilst the other and the artillery loop around through Georgia to rejoin Johnston's army.
I suspect Murtagks will follow up slowly, but he may surprise me.

The other important event is that the Union is getting ready to try to retake St Louis Missouri.

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AS Johnston's stack bombarded the passing Corps on the river, but is nonetheless outnumbered on land.
It may be that the city cannot be held, and so I have tried to prepare a route south to retreat if necessary, via popular bluff. Hopefully large casualties can be inflicted on the Union first.

Lastly Murtagks finally realised that he was just chasing some raiders around.

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It was good whilst it lasted.

[Naturamix]

Turns 72-74 Missouri,

Murtagks finally struck in Missouri.
McDowell's huge army arrived across two turns and hit AS Johnston's works twice.

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Somehow AS Johnston held on to his position and inflicted a good number of casualties on the Union force.
I thought that he would probably retreat and so I blew the St Louis depot.

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At this point I don't think Murtagks has the strength left to shift me, but I am in a dangerous position, cut off from the rest of the CSA.
If I were Murtagks I would cut off AS Johnston's supplied and retreat routes, reinforce the army and try to destroy the CSA army completely by preventing retreat.

I will use cavalry and partisans to harass the Union and try to keep a line of retreat open. I had built more supply wagons for the army in case he has to cross open ground on foot, and Popular Bluff is now back in CSA hands in case it can be used as a base on the retreat.

[Naturamix]

Turns 72-74 Tennessee,

Rosecrans chased Forrest and prevented him from taking the short route to northern Alabama.

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This left too many CSA troops in Mississippi with northern AL/southern TN open.
I had a couple of turns of carefully juggling railway points to get Forrest and most of his and Braggs divisions round the long way to southern TN.

Some of them arrived in time to stop Rosecrans at Tuscumbia with heavy casualties.

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This leaves the CSA somewhat regrouped and the Union army spreading out to occupy northern MS and western TN.

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I have Hardee in position with 2 divisions to block a southern advance by the Union, and Magruder blocking the route into AR.

Although it's tempting to try to catch an isolated force, at this stage I think it's better to play it safe and hold position.
Murtagks has shown a marked tendency for caution and I'm likely to pull a CSA victory out of the bag on the current victory point trajectory (I have a >1500 point lead and the gain per turn is about even, switching back and forth every now and again).
I think Murtagks has to go big and take risks to break the CSA morale if he wants to win, so I'll play defensively.

[Naturamix]

Turns 72-74 Sea Front.

Murtagks has 5 divisions sitting in Texas and not holding any victory cities, which is great.

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I will watch them carefully, but I won't bother them if they just sit there.
I suspect Murtagks is about to withdraw some of them back to the LA front as I have brought the front back to the gates of New Orleans.

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It would be too risky to attack the city, but Bragg should be able to make the Union bleed if they want to regain their old position and threaten Jackson.
I'm still amazed that the skeletal forces that held the area were able to prevent Baton Rouge from falling to the Union.

[Naturamix]

Turns 75-76 Mississippi and Missouri,

Murtagks kept putting pressure on Missouri whilst trying to push out from Corinth in Mississippi.

AS Johnston has managed to hold his ground outside St Louis far longer than I would have thought possible.
This is a great result tying down McDowell's army whilst continuing to bleed the Union.

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In Mississippi Murtagks pushed Forrest again with Rosecrans.

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Although battles like this are defeats, forcing the Union to suffer for every inch of ground is a good result, and Forrest is now in a good position defending southern Tennessee.

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The CSA hasn't managed to inflict any crushing defeats to hit the Union morale in a while, but inflicting casualties to delay the Union invasion allows me to run down the clock into 1865.
I suspect from the current victory point and national morale totals, I should be on course for a minor victory, but I must always be alert for a sudden attempt by Murtagks to win a full victory by some aggressive gamble.

[deguerra]

wohoo, this is back always love reading this!

[Naturamix]

Thanks
Murtagks is a diligent university student so there are gaps when he has an exam coming up as I don't want to lead him astray

[Naturamix]

Turns 77-81 Gulf Front,

Murtagks gave up on his attempts to take Texas and pulled Hooker back to New Orleans.
With Texas secure I brought Wade Hampton back to the CSA heartland by boat down the Red River.

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I think I'll need every last man hanging on to the heartland to run out the clock on the Union.

With Louisiana reinforced, Murtagks started to push Bragg's Army.

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Initially Bragg held on, but was overwhelmed eventually.

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This front would probably be doing much better if I still had Beauregard's excellent defensive skills, but oh well - entirely my own fault.

Bragg had to take the river to move back to one of the militia stacks preparing entrenchments and in the meantime Hampton received Hooker's charge up the main MS railroad.

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Hamton will have to fall back.

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My plan will be to use Bragg to hold on to Jackson and Vicksburg whilst Hamton and Van Dorn harass the flanks of the advancing Union army.
If Hamton can get to Baton rouge (which I abandoned, thinking Hooker was about to take it) then he can constantly threaten the Union supply line whilst holding on to one more victory city.

[Naturamix]

Turns 77-81 Other Fronts,

Elsewhere the fronts were reasonably calm I managed to lose some cavalry to a Union corps.
Whoops.

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On the positive side, Shelby managed to inflict a defeat on some Union cavalry in MO.

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The Union forces continue to sit outside St Louis, and so I have managed to keep it for far longer than I thought would be possible.

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I saw Murtagks concentrate Grant's army in TN and so I prepared to receive a flank attack by promoting Cheatham and sending him to take a Corps on the eastern flank of Nashville.

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I had judged Murtagks' play correctly, but on seeing his approach guarded Murtagks decided not to attack.
Subsequently I noticed that Grand had been moved away from the TN army.
I suspect that one of two things is about to happen. Either Grant is going to finally destroy AS Johnston's army defending St Louis MO, or Murtagks may be sending him east to finally make a play for Richmond.

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My overall strategy is to run out the clock and win on victory points. I'm still well ahead (>1.5k) with a slight advantage in the passive gain rate.
To break me, Murtagks will have to go all in and attack everywhere - if so Virginia will almost certainly be a target. I am therefore beefing up my defenses by buying all possible artillery.

It will be winter 1864 before Murtagks' knows it, and if he is to win he will have to take some big confederate cities.
The clock is ticking.

[Naturamix]

Turns 82-84 Along the Mississippi,

Action was limited to MO and Arkansas.

Murtagks pulled a cheeky naval invasion by river into Littlerock, and unfortunately just beat Magruder back there.

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These divisions can't be thrown back by Magruder on his own.

In MO Murtagks finally moved Grant away from the static Union army in Tennessee and used him to fling AS Johnston out of St Louis.

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Not much I could do about that. I am nonetheless glad that the CSA held the city well into 1864. It moved the frontline away from the CSA heartland and tied down a very large Union army.
As Wharton's raiders took back Popular Bluff, Johnston should have no trouble retreating back into the CSA heartland whilst well-supplied.

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A reasonably large cavalry battle may be the CSA's last hurrah in the state of Missouri.

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In LA, Butler and Hooker came to a halt south of Bragg's works.

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Hampton managed to get to Baton Rouge, to hopefully deny the Union its VPs unless they commit to a costly attack.
I also have Van Dorn's cavalry cutting the rail line to Butler's army.
As I hoped at the beginning of the game, the trek up from New Orleans into the Mississippi heartland can be made very painful for the Union with a stubborn defense and constant harrying of the supply line.

We are well into the autumn of 1864 with a hefty CSA VP lead.
I just need to run out the clock

[Naturamix]

Turns 85-88,

As we headed into winter there was continued manoeuvring, but no large-scale engagement.
In Arkansas Murtagks squeezed Magruder from the east with Little Rock cut off in the west.

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Magruder has been made a Corps under AS Johnston.
They will continue to retreat towards the CSA heartland.
If possible I'll try to retake Little Rock, but that woudl require a mistake on Murtagks part.
Failing that they can continue to threaten the area if they can get far south enough to use Camden as a supply base.

On the positive side I finally managed to blow up the Memphis depot with some partisans whilst Murtagks left it unguarded.

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The union pushed south with Howard's Corps towards Meridian.

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I managed to pre-empt the move and rushed Bragg to the city, but there was unfortunately no large scale clash between the two stacks (some militia did get killed though.

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Murtagks is doggedly outflanking my stacks as much as possible to try to take ground without an engagement, but if I play carefully I will hopefully catch him out at some point.

On the strategic level the CSA got some bad news as Lincoln was re-elected by the Union.

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I have never played a campaign this long before, so it will be fun to see how some of the events affect the gameplay.
The election does mean that my window to break the Union morale is definitely closed (they have even overtaken the CSA on national morale).

We are now in Early December 1864, so Murtagks has little over a year to either break the CSA morale, or overtake on VPs.

He will need to make an average of at least 56 VPs more than me from here until game's end in order to win.
Certainly doable with some large victories, but from cities the Union is only 8 per turn in excess of the CSA.

The ball is in his court.

[Naturamix]

Turns 89-91,

As we entered 1865 there was a slight rise in tempo.

The biggest even was that the Union unfortunately managed to catch 2 CSA raiding stacks.
RIP (though Van Dorn did just survive with some troops)

243_Van Dead.png (2.79 MiB) Viewed 15117 times

242_RIP Raiders.png (2.53 MiB) Viewed 15117 times

On the other side of the ledger I rolled a success on a partisan raid on the Corinth depot

239_Less talking more raiding.png (4.57 MiB) Viewed 15117 times

With Memphis and Corinth depots destroyed, the Union will have to invest some precious supply wagons if it wants to keep pushing forward.

The CSA ironclads caught the Union brown-water navy in Arkansas in two battles (one shown for brevity).

241_Navy.png (2 MiB) Viewed 15117 times

With less than 1 year left there won't be a decisive change in naval control (I don't think).
Lastly Murtagks may make this the first game in which he controls Springfield MO at the end (though Shelby might hang on)

240_Springfield.png (1.85 MiB) Viewed 15117 times

I think Murtagks' reluctance to play for the state of MO (understandably due to the horrible supply situation) has hampered him in the past, so maybe this advantage will be lost to me.

I'm generally trying to preserve VPs. I even chose not to issue war bonds, given that there aren't many good units left to buy. I also did some regional development just to try to keep ahead with the tiniest extra bumps those decisions might give me.

Murtagks now needs 66 VPs per turn in excess of me to win the game.

[Naturamix]

Turns 92-95,

I finally managed to catch Murgaks out in Mississippi, with Gilbert going face-first into Hardee's works.

245_Hardee Win.png (2.17 MiB) Viewed 14855 times

This was the result of a cheeky last minute railroad reinforcement to some works maintained by militia.

246_Mississippi.png (3 MiB) Viewed 14855 times

Murtagks was also forced to fall back with Howard's stack from eastern MS and so the Vicksbug - AL railroad is secure for now.

In Missouri Murtagks finally took Springfield, and so Shelby has to fall back into AR, there isn't much left in that state either.

244_Springfield.png (2.39 MiB) Viewed 14855 times

Thinking about strategy from Murtagks' perspective, I think he must be about to make a play for Richmond.
Grant has moved back to Cairo IL after chasing AS Johnston back into AR.

247_Grant.png (4.5 MiB) Viewed 14855 times

Given that he has<20 turns to make up ~1500 VPs Murtagks has to go for broke and take the CSA capital.
I suspect a naval invasion of Richmond will be coming.

I am therefore moving some of the Missouri troops all the way to the eastern theatre to ensure that he can't snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in this way.
Murtagks is also concentrating Rosecrans' army, but an attack here is less serious as I have depth to retreat into.

248_rosecrans concentration.png (2.93 MiB) Viewed 14855 times

[Jerzul]

These AARs have been amazing (I spent the last couple of days catching up). I hope this one isn't dead! It's so rare to see a game go on this long!