Inaugural Challenge FoF AAR

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

To facilitate the catch up programme I’m going to run several turns into 1 report, hopefully by now viewers will, from the screenshots, have picked up enough about the minutia of the game (I will stick bits in where appropriate) and what is necessary to run a Nation, therefore I will try and open the focus as it were to give more info re the military side, so lets start

Out West

I thought last turn was a bit weak in the West, I had in fact, in line with my ‘Confuse, even if you can’t conquer’ policy, done more movement than reported for last turn.

With regard to the far West my intention is to hold the line along the Arkansas river (Little Rock), using Twiggs div as the holding force, as there was a fair bit of Fed movement west of the Mississippi river and Freemont in Cape Girardeau was in striking distance of White River I had Van Dorns Texans move to support Twiggs around Little Rock.
Polks slimed down Army of the West I had leave Memphis and faint toward the Cumberland Gap via Hatchie and the Upper Tennessee River (while there are exceptions most of the time div, corps or army containers can only move 2 provinces a turn) this was a diversionary move to hopefully either fix Freemont in the Cairo area, or draw him away from the far west. That roughly sets the scene out West for turn 8.

Well, I succeeded in drawing Fremont, a bit too much in fact as he bounced AoW in Hatchie on Polks move back to Memphis. Fremont brought c42,000 to the field to face Polks c13,000 in the ensuing Battle of Hatchie Polk lost over 2,000 men mainly in the rearguard which held long enough for the main army to get into Memphis, the Bgd then considered its job done and surrenders to the feds. Despite this embarrassing defeat AoW remained in good spirits (ie Normal disposition).

However having draw Freemont away from any immediate involvement in the far west, ie east of the Mississippi river; this did present me with another problem.



As previously with Abingdon, I now had a vulnerable gap between Confederate forces. Fremont however is in much better position to do some serious mischief as he is on the Railway network. By quickly striking at Selma (ungarrisoned, industrial city, Iron & Labour) and Alabama he could do a fair amount of damage to the Reb economy, or he could choose to drive south along the Mississippi river and create mayhem in Mississippi & Louisiana making me pull AoW and Twigg after him, thus leaving the Union forces in the far west an open gateway to the south-western Confederacy.

Well by now my assessment of Fed strategy was that they would try and contain Rebs without forcing too much confrontation while they build up their naval power (by clicking on Fed cities I can see they have built 2 naval collages and at least 1 new shipyard + on the replays I have seen at least 1 Ironclad, ie they have a fairly well developed naval development underway), and on land nibble away it Reb provinces where they can.

So I judge that Fremont will not strike out in some bold raid into the Confederate heartlands, + another factor that affects us both; time wise we are now in early Nov, come December the winter weather sets in and movement becomes really difficult (even rail movement sometimes gets affected), so Fremont could find himself stuck down south and eventually surrounded. Nevertheless I move 2 Georgia garrisons to Selma as a holding force should he prove me wrong, the Mississippi cities & forts around Jackson/Natchez are already garrisoned.

Now looking at the map I notice that on and North of the Mississippi river feds have a lot of ungarrisoned cities, including State capitals (capture of cities reduces National will by -1, state capitals by -2).

As it is relevant I will step back here to explain part of my overall strategy for the game. I don’t build camps before the 1st April population boost (from AARs etc over at FoF Matrix this would be seen as heresy by most Reb players!). The April population boost is affected by National will (NW) so a big + NW will give a better return for population and help replace population Mustered or used by the camps, conversely a –NW will reduce the population boost, and this is very important to note, + or – NW also affects the standard of new Musters/conscripts and the ‘Will to fight’ in battle (it also has a knock-on effect to diplomacy I think). So an important part of my early game strategy is to reduce Fed NW while at the same time building up my own.

So with the above in mind and a state capital (Jefferson City,Missouri) and St Louis within reasonable striking distance before winter sets in, I decide to leave Fremont alone and drive for the undefended Cities. To this end I detach Hardees Tennessee div from AoW and use him as the spearhead by thrusting deep into fed occupied Missouri to Herculaneum, Polk with the remainder of AoW is more circumspect and in order to keep in touch with Memphis till I see how Fremont reacts, moves to Cape Girardeau (a side effect of this operation is that if both provinces turn Reb Red then unrest is likely to ensue which will hinder any fed movement and also effect supply to the fed forces in the far west).



Next turn Hardee moves on Jefferson city and will capture it next turn as there are no fed forces near enough or strong enough to intervene.

But as Fremont still sits in Hatchie and next turn brings winter I don’t want Polk stuck off the Railways and so pull him back to Memphis, also from the map I see feds mustering in St Louis which would mean when Polk arrived at St Louis it would have a garrison and I would have to lay siege to the city.

Again looking at the map I see the threat in the far west is reduced somewhat as his forces out there are hit by attrition (lack of supply?) so I pull Van Dorn out from Little Rock and reunite him with AoW in Memphis. Cape Girardeau goes into unrest Herculaneum doesn’t.

This turn (9) I have quite a few builds

Mint in Charleston

Engineering school in Raleigh

RR in Natchez

Hospital in Columbus SC; this is to extend my Hospital coverage to the Reb heartlands and the Atlantic seaports in case of Amphibious landings in the region.

44th SC Inf with the ANV I buy 2 Bgd cavalry attributes for to give ANV some cav next turn and take advantage of the cavs scouting bonus.

Musters are ordered at Selma & New Orleans.

Jefferson City falls and even though most of Missouri is under fed occupation Missouri will on the appointment next turn of a Governor be returned to the Confederacy, this means Feds will get no economic benefits from there conquered provinces.

Now it is my assessment that I would not be able to hold Jefferson City should feds make a determined attempt to retake it, so with that in mind I intend to get what I can out of it while the going is good, I therefore order a conscription, which will use up 2 of its 3 population and also try to impress 30 horses at 60/30 the combination here I hope will spark unrest which if I am lucky will spread north of the river, part of my actions over the coming turns will be a scorched earth one in Union lands hopefully causing lots of unrest and thereby hitting the fed economy & limiting movement.

I now have a string of Reb Red provinces west of the Mississippi from Memphis to Jefferson city the later is particularly important as it means I can spread the Red North of the Mississippi- Missouri river. Now I could push Hardee north of the river to start the scorched earth policy.

Instead with the idea of closing off Fed forces in the far west from their supply I send him by rail (now in Winter months) south of the river to Rolla I will then try force marching the div to Westport and then Topeka the undefended state capital of Kansas

Quickly back to Memphis where AoW goes into Winter quarters in the city, leaving McCulloch 15,000 strong Arkansas div to try regaining Hatchie (Fremont has retraced his steps and reconquered Cape Girardeau , I don’t force march him at the moment (extra march attrition + fatigue on entering Battle) if he goes he goes, if not ...
Well the new gov is in place in Missouri and the city is now defended by its own conscripts, the impressments failed twice (even down to 40/30!) and didn’t cause any unrest.

Hardees successful invasion of Rolla & Westport however do and also spread it to Herculaneum, so fed forces in Arkansas & Osage are now blocked from supply from the Mississippi and have Hardee about to pounce on Topeka, they respond by starting to move north which means if I can force march Hardee into Kansas I may have to fight for the city in a weakened state and outnumbered on his own ground.

Time to be sneaky and disappear so I backtrack Hardee through Jefferson City and finally move Reb forces north of the Miss-Misouri river and onto the Railway in Little Dixie.

Thats me caught up for Out West the screenshot below shows the forces there at the end of turn 13 (the Confederate div shown in Springfield [if it got there, I’m awaiting the file to see] is a stripped down MSG consisting of 2 cav Bgds under Hodge & Stuart)



To be continued.

In the next exciting episode folks we shall see what’s happening in the Central & Eastern theatres, which will include major battles and a surprising siege.

All the Best
Peter