Suthin' Discomfut' REKM45 KEEP OUT!!

[Anthropoid]

This thread will be a C&P of a thread over in the Matrix/FoF/AAR section by the same title-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This will be an AAR of my PBEM against "rekm45" one of the other bootcamp members in the Am Civ War FoF ladder that just started up over at the Blitzkrieg Wargamer Ladder site.

Ron "rekm45" KEEPOUT of this thread!!

I am playing CSA, Coming Fury unbalanced. Since he is an FoF noob, I offered for him to set Union to have Power +1 but I'm not seeing any reference to this in the Prefs or Options. Is it not possible to handicap one side in PBEMs? If so, where do I see the setting?

I also suggested random general stats, and stats hidden, but he chose to have them visible and historical. Gives both of us an edge, but I think it gives me more (assuming of course he really IS a "noob" ). Also CSA emancipation is turned off.

First thing I want to say in case any non-gamers read this AAR: I am most definitely NOT, NOT, _NOT_ in anyway pro-Confederacy, nor any sort of "apologist" for the CSA. Slavery was and is one of the biggest evils ever in human history. The Confederacy was an unjust, exploitative, wrong-headed, indeed EVIL regime, and I am extremely thankful that they were defeated in real history. While the esprit du corps of the CSA was truly remarkable, it does not compensate for the fact that what they were fighting for was an evil cause, and that much of American society at that time (not just in the South) was deeply deluded with ethnocentric racist notions of white supremacy.

Now, having said that: this thread is NOT, NOT, _NOT_ for us to get in to a Flamewar about the merits of the CSA. This is MY AAR of me playing the CSA. I just wanted to get this in there as a disclaimer. Its a game. I'm exploring the whatifs of history, and trying to give my opponent a good challenge. I will try my best to win the game, but that isn't because I wish the CSA had won in real life. It is just a game.

No doubt I have just pushed all kinds of buttons: if you really feel you must respond to the above disclaimer clarifying my real life repugnance with the Confederacy, please have the civility to do it in a different thread here at Matrix, not in my AAR thread. I am only posting this as a disclaimer to distinguish my in-game roleplaying self, and my real-life self.
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The tahm fuh comprumise is now passed . . . the Northurn Ahgressahs have laid tha fanahl straw on the camel's back. We cannot [okay, I'm not gonna write in Southern dialect, just imagine it okay ] tolerate remaining within a "Union" with the abolistionist Lincoln, and his cabinet full of anti-Southerners in charge. The events of this past winter have given the Southern Man no option but to secede: starting with the Republican parties nomination of that abolitionist Black lover last summer, and including the farcical crooked facade that the northern states want to pass off as a "free election" last November.

We know that we are outnumbered and outgunned. The northerns have many more miles of railroad, many more arsenals to produce rifles, and at present the CSA has not yet been formally recognized by our British and French allies. But what we have by orders of magnitude far more important, and superlative to that posssesed by Billy Yank, is firey patriotism, and a faith that we are fighting for our very wah of life. We Southern Men are among the most accomplished military men in the world, and as your leader (President Davis) I intend to make the most of the precious resources in manpower, genius, and passion of our fighting force and their leaders.

We have already taken a number of steps in what will likely prove to be a long and difficult challenge to win and establish our independence from the Northern Abolitionist Aggressors.

Many of our patriotic Governors have communicated to me their enthusiasm for our cause, and their eagerness to support mustering efforts in their towns and villages. Unfortunately, despite our manly Southern traditions of an aristocratic officer corps, we are sadly lacking in basic Training Grounds to bring our eager common men up to high military standards. Consequently I have allocated some of our Federal funds to the city of Petersburg to build a Training Grounds so that the men of Virginia may be trained as they muster to bear arms for the cause. Unfortunately, this will be the only internal development that we are able to afford at this time. Simply purchasing and requisitioning enough firearms for our frontline troops to have basic weaponry has depleted our stocks of money, labor, and guns. We have a meager stock of iron and horses on hand, but we will certainly need to raise a great deal more resources if we are to have any hope of playing the successful role of David to the Union Goliath. I have directed our two Runner Captains to set about feeling their way through the Union blockades that now lie off our majestic coastlines. I have directed them that 20% is an acceptable level of risk. Sadly, we do not at this time have sufficient funds to commission a third blockade runner from the shipywards of Norfolk . . . perhaps in the months to come . . . however our primary goals in the next few months (turns) will be to get every one of our brave brigades properly accoutered with weapons of war, and to get Training Grounds built in the various states which are offering to provide Musters but which lack such training facilities (TN, LA, AL, GA, and SC).

Our finest military unit, the Army of the Shenandoah, has been placed under the leadership of T. Jackson, now a Lieutenant General of the CSA. General Jackson's Corps has been reinforced with a couple of our finest brigades and I have given orders to him to execute a forced march directly north into Western Maryland where feeble-old General Pattersons Corps may be smashed with a quick surprise manuevah . . .

The army of the Potomac has been placed under the command of General Johnston, and General Beauregard has been transferred west to take control of Dept Number 2, the 2nd Army of the Confederacy. The Army of the NW under Major Gen Early, the Army of the Peninsula under Major Gen Longstreet, and the Dept of Norfolk under Major Gen Anderson, R.H. have all been attached to the Arm of the Potomac to repulse the Northern invaders back across the Potomac. Brig Gen Toombs has been promoted to Major Gen, and given command of the 7th Div which remains under the command of Johnston's Army of the Potomac.

In the West, Major Gen Prices MO State Guard has been reinforced with the few available brigades in the area, and several of our solid Brigadier Generals have been sent via rail post-haste to join General Price in his Crusad against the JayHawkers and German-Lovers of northern Missouri and the Territories (Hill, DH; Clark; Withers). Brigadier Hardee has been promoted to the rank of Major General and given command of Army of the West. Gen Hardee will have Brigadiers Bee and Bartow under his command. The Army of the West has been directed to move into the Ozark province where General Lyons SW Dept is lurking and to cause as much ruckus as is humanly possible. Let the Jayhawker-Lovers smell suthin powduh and feyul suthin steyuhl . . . Major General McCulloch has been reassigned to Dept #1 which has been brought up the Missisippi from New Orleans and sent north toward Paducah to engage in a feint.

Gen Loring, formerly in command of Army of the NW has been transferred to a strategically vital post in commanding the 4th Division, which has been detached from General Beauregard's Army and sent along with Dept #1 to execute a feint.

Major Gen van Dorn & his Dept of Texas division is make its way north along the crooked tracks of the Texarkana region. We intend to reinforce Gen van Dorn's Div at the earliest possiblity and send them across into Yankee territory where they long to wreck havoc.

In the deep south, Gen Anderson SR has been assigned to Army of Pensacola under command of Major Gen Bragg. Army of Pensacola has been reinforced with the brigades available in the area, and ordered to besiege Ft Pickens.

One other point of which our patriotic citizens and readers should take note. Some of our Generals who have shown through their years of service a certain lack of Initiative or expertise, have been reassigned to command vital garrisons where their lack of initiative may not prove to be such an impediment to their successful defense of Confederate soil. In some cases, a careful review of these means service records actually warranted their demotion to a lower rank. In the interest of the dignity and honor of these men, their names will not be published herein.

Let it be known: our goal is total victory over the Yankee aggressor. Every Man, Woman, AND Child of Dixie will be expected to do his duty to his or her utmost. To expect anything less, would set the stage for an eventual outcome that is far less glorious than the full potential of our Magnificent Confederate States of America, where the spark of Liberty, the untainted fabric of Propriety, and in the name of our heavenly father, the proper Great Chain of Being remain firmly and forevermore in place.

May God bless us in our crusade of freedom, to break the chains of our money-grubbing Yankee opressors foravah . . .