A few questions

[kc87]

Playing as the C.S.A in the full length campaign. I sent Johnston's army from the Shenandoah to reinforce Beauregard's Army at Manassas, Johnston's army was on offensive posture and Beauregard's on defensive. McDowell arrived to attack Manassas around the same time as Johnston, but only Johnston engaged him, Beauregard's force just sat there. Should I have sent Johnston in to Manassas in defensive posture? Would both Army's support each other had I done this?



Second question. I tried to attack Fort Monroe before it could be reinforced using a few infantry regiments and the artillery and siege mortars captured at Norfolk. They had a large naval force in the water outlet beside the fort. It would not allow me to move to siege the fort stating that the fort's artillery stopped any movement from my forces. Are there any possible ways to attack Fort Monroe? I know in real life it was highly unlikely due to the mount of heavy artillery there.


Thanks for any input

[FightingBuckeye]

You always run the risk of not having all your forces engage if you have multiple stacks not within the same army/corps structure in the same region. From my understanding, a unit with attack orders will seek out the largest enemy force and try to engage that. If it fails some checks to find said force; it will try to engage the 2nd strongest force; and so on until it either engages a force, a force engages it, or it has run out of enemy forces to attack. In your case, a couple of things could have happened. Johnston's army could've been larger, McDowell may have failed to engage Beauregard's army, or Johnston may have sought out McDowell as per his attack orders.

You'll need much more than that to successfully siege Fort Monroe. I'm a little confused about the message. Did your artillery or did Fort Monroe's artillery prevent the movement? Were you trying to cross over from Norfolk or going down the peninsula?

[kc87]

Thanks for the fast response. Is it possible for an attacking force (McDowell) to revert to a defensive posture in enemy territory with no military control if an orders check is failed?

My force was moving down the peninsula, the message stated the enemy's artillery prevented their movement, I assumed it was the fort's but there was also a large naval force there last turn.

[FightingBuckeye]

Not sure about the message about the artillery, but I'd assume it was the fleet's. I've never tried attacking Ft Monroe myself, but I don't think its guns would've stopped your force. If you go to the James City region (right next to Ft Monroe) and press shift while ensuring you don't have a unit selected, you should see a spider web of different colored legs shoot out to various neighboring regions. The colors tell you what kind of movement would be involved to get to a nearby region. You should see a blue leg pointing at Fort Monroe. Enemy ships at the Hampton roads sea zone will block movement at a 25% chance per element with a maximum of 90%. So if there's a decent sized enemy fleet in that seazone, they'll stop you cold 90% of the time. Keep in mind they'll also stop you from moving back out 90% of the time. It could be easy to have a force trapped there and start running out of supplies. Its too easy to reinforce Monroe, keep a fleet at Hampton Roads, or even drop a force behind you and completely isolate your force. You should be fine in a game against the AI, but you might want to rethink your decision if you're playing against a human opponent. Either way, it might be a long siege and you'll likely need a larger force. Best of luck