Inaugural Challenge FoF AAR

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

From turn 14 late Feb,

Out West.

Hardee failed to get on to the North bank in Little Dixie, retrospectively probably a good thing as the feds have responded with some vigour to the fall of Jefferson City and are converging from all sides, see the screenshot below.



Time for Hardee do a strategic withdrawal (i.e. run away), so hopefully slipping his Tennessee div through the closing net I move him via Upper Missouri river to Council Bluffs and then hopefully on to Cedar falls; going for the undefended Des Moines, a state capital, is tempting but he could be intercepted there and forced to fight on unfavourable ground + part of the behind enemy lines thing is to draw fed units away from my main areas of invasion/action, Des Moines is too close.

To hopefully get Hodges cav div safely across the Ohio-Missouri river area I push Polks AoW from Hatchie into the Lower Tennessee River adjacent to Bowling Green. Hodge in Bowling Green with Lees 16,000 strong 3rd Corps I set to support Polk in so he arrives after Polk while still having Lee protecting his back in Bowling Green, Lee is then set to support Hodge into Lower Tennessee River to ensure he arrives last. Hodge is now ordered to strike at the undefended state capital of Illinois at Springfield.

Confederate forces in the Lower Tennessee River province, minus Hodge now number c42,000 I am fast developing a sizable army that will be able to take on feds on their own ground, it is my intention now the threat in the far West has been alleviated by Hardees incursion into Missouri, to bring up Twiggs Louisiana div via Memphis to join with AoW around Cairo, I shall after a brief faint with Johnstons AoT joining ANV in Fredericksburg, rush him by Rail back to the Cumberland gap area to link with AoW.

Meanwhile I reorganize my Western forces, putting Massa Robert in command of AoW and shifting Polk to command 3rd Corps. AoW then will advance on the strategically important River/Rail connection at Cairo.

A quick aside from the military stuff turn 14 saw Gov H T Clark of North Carolina come out in support of French diplomacy this will give me a 15% boost to whatever I set moneywise towards French support. Also that turn, being reasonably up on Horses I decided to order ‘Raiders’ recruited in Nashville. While I have little faith in their lasting long given their PBEM handicap, I will see if they can cause some mischief for demonstration purposes, (just don’t hold your breath). Due to shortage of acceptable targets at sea I doubled up Georgia Peach & Carolina Pride to seek 50 money @ 60/10 in Apalache Bay (there are a lot of cargoes passing through those waters, and it’s been quite a good hunting ground). Rounding of the turn I carried out some more improvements to Coastal Forts and Mustered in Charleston @ 85%, while again Impressing in Jefferson City for 40 Iron @ 80/10.

Back to the ‘Guts & Glory’ stuff, Hodge only made it as far as Kaskaskia north of Cairo turning the province Reb Red and causing unrest, I am now a little uncertain about pushing him to Springfield due to the way fed forces are deploying, so I decide to entrain his Neddyboys and send them against the undefended Chicago. I also alter Hardees target from St Pauls the State capital of Minnesota (hey folks, you are also getting a geography lesson in these reports, and at no extra charge!), to Madison Wisconsin primarily to be able to effect support to Hodge if necessary but also to take out the Naval collage there and for supply purposes, to be near a Reb City ie Chicago. Supply behind enemy lines is fraught with problems and should it fail and brigades end up with no supply they will surrender enmass at the 1st whiff of gunpowder. I am hoping that by setting both Hodge & Hardees divs to ‘High priority’ supply and being in the vicinity of a Reb city (ideally with the province Reb Red as well), I will be able to keep them in supply.

With some moves still to come below is a screenshot of the Military Groups overview.



Lees AoW detaches 4th Arkansas Bgd which moves into Bowling Green to hopefully act as a block on any proposed fed advance through that province, 1st Mobile grs is also detached and sent to bolster the garrison at Ft Donelson. AoW is set to avoid battle and moves on Cairo where, as it’s defended, I will be able to set ‘Plunder’.

My aim for Cairo is total annihilation, I want it destroyed as a staging post for fed incursions, either into the Cumberland gap or down the Mississippi river towards Memphis, + as destruction of Mansions effect National Will (NW) and Cairo has 2 I look to gain some NW points with their destruction.

Late March sees the production of a 2nd Muster in Charleston & 1 in Galveston, there I take the risk of mustering at 75% with only 3 population in the hope the April population boost will give me back at least 1 to keep that cities production on line, I also conscript in newly acquired Chicago in order to have a garrison there and free up Hodge for mischief elsewhere, here hoping that as Chicago may not stay Reb for long that the population boost doesn’t produce there.
In the ongoing battle to win hearts and minds across the Pond I put another 8gp towards silk stockings and stuff to woe the ‘Other European nations’, this raises my chances with them to 56% (those poor Southern Belles doing the ‘Grand Tour’ over there must be quite exhausted).

Back at home I order a RR at Shreveport, a Mint at Wilmington and a Plantation at Jackson Mississippi, Jefferson City is again asked to provide resources this time by impressments of 30 Labour @ 85/30 (ironic really, at the start of the game 2 of my */10% impressments caused severe unrest yet Jefferson City I have bleed without mercy and it still refuses to go into unrest!).

This turn I had an important upgrade, that of Indian recruitment, this increases my chances by 50% to add Indian Bgds (50% chance of being cav) to Confederate Armies.



Well 4th Arkansas did themselves proud in Bowling Green although forced to retire into the Cumberland gap, they took on Banks’s entire US 3rd corps comprising 11 Bgds and came out on top in the casualties ratio.



AoWs siege operations against Cairo, didn’t destroy any Mansions but did gut the provinces Capitol, this means that nothing can be produced in Cairo till its rebuilt at a cost of 50 each money, labour, iron & horses, with its defences reduced to 4% and the province certain to go Reb next turn I again set AoW to plunder and set it to ‘Seek battle’ whereby I will gain the terrain defensive bonus should feds try to relieve Cairo.

A quick look at Cairo before it becomes (hopefully) a burnt out wreck, note the lack of a Capitol building and the blank spaces for produce, money, labour etc



And heres how it shows on the reports



Meanwhile Hodges cav have been gallivanting across fed territory to Vandalia where in the true spirit of that provinces name their destructive presence causes the province to go into unrest, unfortunately the newly commissioned Quantrill’s 1st Btl Raiders only got to Vandalia and so did nothing (as an aside Raiders have a % chance of stopping fed movement in any province they are in). Hardees Tennessee boys have completed the capture of Madison and that city, like Chicago & Jefferson City (now back under fed management) will now be conscripted & impressed into the ground before its likely recapture

A word here about National Will, I have discovered through a query on the Matrix FoF site, that there is a bug in the game that fails to let capture of undefended cities gain the attacker +NW, even worse, upon recapture by its original owner the city does grant +NW to them, this is something of a bummer for me as part of my game strategy was dependent on raising my NW through such captures by small fast moving divs behind fed lines, I will now have to have a ‘Scratch & think’ about the situation, the one thing in my favour is that fed recapture of these cities will be defended by home city conscripts and in the process of recapture the cities defences will be significantly if not completely reduced thereby giving me an easier chance to, in my turn, recapture the cities. After note Jefferson City has finally gone into unrest for 4 turns so the feds will still not gain any produce from the state of Missouri!

Before wrapping up Out West let’s see what happened with the April Population boost.



Well not bad at all 17 population to spread around my cities, Galveston is now back up to 3, but conversely Chicago also got 2 pop and is now nearly fully stocked again, hopefully I can hold onto it long enough to drive the population down again through conscription, only time will tell. On that screenshot you can also see how NW was affected by the recapture of Jefferson city.

Right to bring us up to date Out West, AoW should hopefully (I use that word a lot because to reiterate, Movement in this game is never a foregone conclusion) be up to its full operational strength of c73,000. That is if the final element ie Hodges 1st corps manages to join Lee around Cairo.

AoT after its brief sojourn with ANV came back West by rail via Abingdon to the Cumberland gap, there Johnston detached Holmes 1st corps and moved into Fort Donelson. Holmes has been set to Avoid battle and will try to join Lee at Cairo via the Lower Tennessee River. Hardees div I have set to garrison Madison while the new conscripts defend Chicago, Hodge moves onto Wabash in the hope of turning it Reb Red and causing more unrest, Quantrill will deploy to the north of him in Terre Haute, were as it is next to a Reb Red province ie Vandalia it should create some mischief.

That brings me completely upto date for Out West as I wait for the return file.

In passing I must say you are a quiet lot out there ... err Hello! ... Ah yes, someone is there I saw the curtains rustle, ... greetings.

Compared with the AARs over at Matrix it’s been positively funereal here, no criticisms, no compliments (we like them!), no freshly printed £5 notes (we like them even more!! See, 2 exclamation marks), nothing; please don’t be shy say something lest I think I’m boring the pants off you all! ... Mmmm, maybe I shouldn’t have suggested that ... exit Peter stage left with worried frown quietly muttering to self.

All the Best
Peter