But I did find that it is repeatable.
So, here is the story.
It came about with a bone headed move on my part. A bit of a bridge too far, Civil War style.
It is summer 1861 and I wanted to bust things open, as the Union player. I wanted a short war.
I built a siege force in New York but ran short of money. But still I wanted to use what I had and not wait for divisions and lacked the conscripts for more infantry Opening up Kentucky was too much of a drain. So instead of having a strong corps sized element I had a little more than a full division.
Still, I was determined to use it some where. Instead of reinforcing Ft. Monroe like a sane person I saw an opportunity to blockade the whole of the James River and drop the force in the rear and tie down most of the CSA Army. That part worked a bit too well.
I figured Richmond was a bit too much to bite off so I went for Petersburg and assaulted it. I won the battle with no losses but the next turn Beauregard shows up with two other detachments. Their power was about 800 while mine had dropped to about 150. He didn't attack that turn but I found I was blocked from moving.
I had no intention of losing the force and 4 leaders so having no avenue out I tried to run to the boats.
That is when I discovered the problem. I thought maybe I would die before I got there but it was the only chance I had. Well, it didn't work that way.
After ending the turn the game got to that spot on day one and promptly froze. I clicked the mouse and it crashed.
I reloaded twice with the same result. So, I backed up two turns and landed in Richmond, with the plan to high-tail it back to my lines near Fredericksburg.
I landed and planed to leave the next turn but that didn’t work either. Beau was there with his buddies and I was locked in place again, so I tried to run to the boats again. Well, the game froze again.
Therefore, I conclude that if you try to load on boats when surrounded the game is going to freeze.
I did get out of the mess. When I saw they couldn’t make it alone I had to run everything I had in reach into Richmond by rail. Yes I had a rail link. Everyone got there. Several got routed out but the bulk of my eastern army was there and won the final round. Except the next turn they were surrounded except for that little rail link, which I dutifully used to run everyone back to Fredericksburg.
I fully expected to die and were it not for the game freezing I would not have gone back to earlier turns or sought other solutions. But it never even occurred to me just to sit there and die.
