American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

<b>Tennessee Campaign</b>

Main Union objective in 1862 is the conquest of Tennessee. If the taking of Kentucky has gone on schedule there should be a large army in Paducah and a second one in Bowling Green posed to move into Tennessee early in 1862. Looking at the map below you will see the most dominate feature of Tennessee is how the rivers break it up. Control of these rivers is the first order of business for the Union and by the beginning of 1862 their ship production should give them the gunboat fleets to start taking control of them. On the west side Tennessee is bordered by the Mississippi. The primary objective here is blocking it and using fleets to support land attacks. But the more important one is the Tennessee River. Taking control of this river will cut Tennessee in half making it impossible for Rebel army covering Memphis to give or receive support from the one covering Nashville. While Union transport on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers allow the Union armies to be mutually supporting and quickly shift forces to exploit weaknesses.



So the first order of business when the Union gets initiative in 1862 is to get into position for the main attacks. The army at Paducah will advance into Humbolt. This along with fleets on the rivers will cut the main connections between central and western Tennessee. The army at Bowling Green will advance into its jump off positions along the Cumberland River by taking the northern regions of Tennessee (Clarksville, Gallin, and Livingston). These are shown on the map by dark blue for the main advances and light blue for secondary ones which are usually overruns.

The next phase of the invasion usually takes place in early spring and is shown in purple. Here the Union takes advantage of how weak the South’s armies are in early 1862 to capture the key central regions. Here the Union can take advantage of its ability cross rivers to avoid equal fights and pick off undefended regions until the Southern forces have to retreat to avoid being cut off. In my particular situation the main CSA armies were in Memphis and Nashville intending to contest these key regions. The Union took advantage of its larger forces to take first Shiloh by overrun then striking the weakly held Dickson region with the Grant’s main body. Meanwhile Lyon with the other army in Gallin attacked Nashville to pin it in place. Farragut meanwhile took a large fleet of gunboats and cleaned out the Tennessee River. The Nashville attack was defeated but with Memphis isolated from Central Tennessee the confederate forces had to pull back into Murfreesboro to keep from being cut off.

The Union response is to nibble away at the edges while concentrating troops for the main objective Nashville. They quickly overrun the small forces holding Cumberland, Tullahoma and Lawrence regions threatening the Rebel rear. Bragg responds to these by attacking and retaking Tullahoma. This is the event the Union is waiting for. Lyon send a force large enough to overrun Murfreesboro to act as a shield against any reaction from Bragg then strikes at Nashville with the rest of his army with reinforcements from Grant also overrunning it. Bragg counterattacks against Murfreesboro but is defeated.

Meanwhile Grant has shifted his main force to Shiloh so that he can both threaten Memphis and Corinth. While he is weakened by detachments the Rebels attack him at Shiloh and are defeated. Hoping this weakened them Grant tries to follow them back into Memphis with his own attack but it is to weak and fails. Now getting some of his army back he tries against Corinth since a victory here will cut off Memphis but is again defeated.

Thus ends the summer and beginning of winter and I suspect I am behind schedule. I think the Union should have all of western and central Tennessee by now since Southern armies are building rapidly during 1862. The Rebels are pulling Bragg’s troops back toward Corinth probably to avoid the supply costs of being in Tullahoma in winter. Grant luckily gets initiative in October and moves to take Memphis. He still doesn’t have the force necessary to do it because of the two defeats he has suffered but comes up with a tactic to do it on less. General Reynolds with nine brigades strikes at Corinth in a suicide attack to pin the main Confederate army in place there. Grant takes the rest of the army and attacks Memphis taking it.

The remainder of the year is used to rebuild forces and take the smaller regions along the Tennessee River bringing the Union control of western Tennessee and all the regions north of the Tennessee River.

I think the major change I would now make to my strategy is increasing the weight of the attacks toward Memphis and executing them earlier. In early 1862 the Southern armies are weaker relative to the Union and a powerful drive toward Memphis, Shiloh and Corinth area would be more successful. The Central region is difficult to defend with the threat to the CSA rear that a force in Corinth would make. I think it might even be taken without a fight but even if resisted I doubt the South can effectively defend the regions while the late attempt at Memphis was almost stopped when executed late in the year.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

<b>1863: Jan Feb Mar</b>

The first few winter months of 1863 mostly see each side getting positioned for the main event in spring. The Union expands it’s hold on the Tennessee area by overrunning backwater regions like Huntsville(AL) and Clarksdale(MS). In the far West I take advantage of controlling Memphis and the Mississippi to overrun undefended portions of Arkansas including Madison and Arkansas Post in preparation for taking Little Rock. The Navy gives Grant tremendous reach. The Rebels decide to try to slow this down by counterattacking into Clarksdale but Grant reinforces it giving them a sound defeat.

In the East the grip on Virginia is strengthened and expanded as Richmond is slowly encircled. New Kent is taken linking the two armies there. On the coast I start testing the defenses. First a small amphibious assault against Tyrrell(NC) which is mostly just a swamp but threatens the railroads to Richmond. The next one is more ambitious and surprisingly works. I send a larger force against Port Royal which is a difficult to defend port because of its isolation from adjacent regions.

The winter is ended by reinforcements to the captured regions and the call for a new Draft to get my armies up to strength for the summer. As soon as it ends I will issue a call for Black troops to carry me through 1863 and victory.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

"Clarksdale(MI)"

Kennon,

How does holding Tennesse help you take a backwater region in Michigan (MI)? And, where exactly is Clarksdale, MI? [:p]

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos

The Union Forever! Huzzah!

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Al Amos</i>
<br />"Clarksdale(MI)"

Kennon,

How does holding Tennesse help you take a backwater region in Michigan (MI)? And, where exactly is Clarksdale, MI? [:p]

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos

The Union Forever! Huzzah!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

That's a typo, I should have typed MS. It's Clarksdale, Mississippi. It's a region just south of Memphis. Taking it allows you threaten regions below Corinth which in this case was where Bragg and 60,000 Rebels are hanging out.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

THE DYING CONFEDERACY

It's the winter of 1864-1865 and the Confederacy is dying. Hopefully I will be able to get a screen shot of the situation below. Basically though the Mississippi is totally under Union control and the State of Mississippi has been over run.

Union armies advance from the North West into North Carolina and only Lee and Beauregard stand before the Union forces trying to take Richmond and Petersburg. But as Sherman demonstrated 'the Confederacy is a hollow shell" and Union armies and independent forces roam all over Rebel territory at the whim of 'initiative'.

Richmond and Petersburg hold on but at this point it doesn't matter. The Confederacy is broken. The Union has brought the terrible nightmare of 'WAR' to the leaders who would make war.

Charleston, the hotbed of the rebellion defiantly holds on but all to no avail.

In game terms compared to history we are closer to April of 1865 rather than the winter of 1864. Confederate armies defiantly hold out in the mid west around Chattanooga and another army has invaded Kentucky but sunset of the Confederacy is not far off.



Bg. General Gilbert Collins
Army of Alabama
III/I/2nd Brigade

<b>1863: Apr May Jun</b>

Spring starts off with some cleaning up of loose ends and extension of my western Virginia advance. The Rebels are maintaining a very large army, probably 70,000 plus, at Corinth blocking any direct advance into the interior and in Virginia two large mutually supporting forces around Richmond area. I have decided on a different approach to leveraging these armies out of position. I plan to avoid a direct confrontation unless they attack and use my superior movement to take undefended regions and burn them to the ground. 1863 is going to be economic warfare.

The first strike in the west is to take Little Rock by striking across the recently captured road connecting to Memphis. Sherman is sent as well to Arkansas and expands the subjugation of Arkansas to include Pine Bluff and Camden.

Meanwhile most of Sherman’s army joins Grant’s for an assault on Corinth driving Bragg back. With Corinth’s fall Mississippi is exposed. Sheridan tries to expand the advance by taking Grenada but the Rebels counterattack retaking it.

Meanwhile in Virginia things heat up. Lyon’s army has been steadily eating up more of western Virginia by overrunning Appomattox, Staunton, Lexington and New Kent. The Rebels trying roll these back by counterattack against Appomattox, New Kent and even Fort Monroe. But as fast as they retake one area I advance into vacated areas.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

<b>1863: Jul Aug Sep</b>

July sees more regions overrun as Union forces mover into Monroe (LA) and Ferriday (LA) in far west and Appomattox, Lynchburg and Roanoke in Virginia. The Confederates mostly stay put but Bragg takes the largest Rebel mobile army to Decatur. He may be planning a diversion into Union territory.

August sees a burst of activity as the Union armies get initiative everywhere. Union forces overrun Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and even move into Alabama. Regions taken include Grenada, Van Buren, Tupelo, Tuscaloosa, Jackson, Meridian, and Natchez. Almost all of Mississippi is put to the torch. In the East the Union extends its surrounding of Richmond by moving through the western regions by penetrating deeper taking Greensboro (NC) and Wytheville (VA). The Rebels counter attack taking back Fredericksburg in the East and Huntsville (AL) and Tullahoma (TN) but this isn’t enough to stop the march into the south. It looks like Bragg is definitely making a bid to take back central Tennessee but that leave me free to burn the south.

September is more of the same with Decatur (AL), Demopolis (AL) and Steele Bayou (LA) falling. The Rebels try to stop the onslaught with counterattacks into Monroe, Roanoke, New Kent, and Livingston. Most are successful but I am destroying the infrastructure of each region as I take them leaving them a shell. Bragg continues his move north with an army of at least 70,000 taking Murfreesboro. I start shifting my armies to trap him there. Winter should turn his invasion into a mud march.

So far the Union strategy of picking off undefended regions and laying waste to their factories, resources and railroads is working. The Rebels lack the force to retake them while garrisoning others so each round ends up with more under Union control and a steady advance in Union Political Points standing.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

<b>1863: Oct Nov Dec</b>

Winter doesn’t stop the onslaught of Union troops. In the West New Orleans is taken. Sheridan cuts a path through the middle of the South taking Birmingham, Gadsden, and Rome(GA). Confederate General Bragg continues his northward march through Tennessee into Kentucky taking Glasgow then turning more eastward and safety by moving on Lebanon (KY) and London (KY). With most of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama in ruins, both Grant and Sherman turn to give chase conquering the regions taken by Bragg as they close in on him.

Meanwhile in the East the Union’s grip on Virginia and North Carolina is tightened. Attempts by Lee to break the ring forming are either fought off or the region retaken as soon as Lee’s army moves on to another area. With another amphibious landing by Sickles to take New Bern along with attacks into Raleigh and Goldsboro the ring is extended solidly from Fort Monroe through western Virginia into North Carolina and the coast.

The end of the year sees the trapped armies starving. Over 15 brigades are damaged just in December. Lee makes a desparate try to escape back into North Carolina but Lyon moves an army of 80,000 to block him practically destroying his army of 35,000 with loses over 19,000 and 90 guns. In the West Grant closes with Bragg reinforcing the troops defending Lebanon and retaking Glasgow. Bragg is now backed into the mountains where his army will probably starve to death.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

<b>1863 Campaign</b>

I have made one large map showing the whole year because of how fast the South fell apart. In particular I wanted to show the affects of overruns and how my whole strategy revolved around it. At the end of 1862 I had a good Political position having 1135 points but position wise I was behind relative to the real war. I had Memphis but not the key region of Corinth which proved to be the gatekeeper to the south. In Virginia I was still north of the Rappahannock River with little to show for a years worth of fighting there.

Then came the strategy of Overrun. What I planned to do was avoid Major Battles and concentrate on automatic overruns or protected attacks (CSA can’t reinforce) against regions. To facilitate it I found that I could destroy infrastructure (railroads, factories, and resources) on the fly just by entering the region and expending some excess movement points on destroying them. I didn’t even have to win the fight for the region to render it charcoal. Even though the Rebels immediately counterattacked I found I was picking up more Political Points by taking regions than they were regaining by Minor Victories against the small garrison forces that ended up in those regions.



On the map I have colored coded the movements and battles during the year with lighter colored arrows for the overruns and darker for ones that required battles although usually minor ones. I have also marked each battle with a pentagon. Red ones were from my attacks and purple ones were from CSA attacks. The size indicates the relative size of the battles. The blue ovals show my main army positions in January. The Rebels are shown in green and their general movements during the year are shown with green arrows.

The first thing to note is lack of major battles. In the West my attack against Corinth was the only major battle until I blocked Bragg’s northward movement at the end of the year in Lebanon, Kentucky (shown by the red arrow). In Virginia there were more major battles but over the same regions as they changed hands multiple times. These battles acted more to keep the armies protecting Richmond fixed in place while the surrounding regions were overrun.

The first half of the year is shown by light blue (overruns) and dark blue (attacks on regions) since the winter months had little activity other than preparation for spring. For the most part they were side shows while I built up my armies for the main assault. I sent forces from Sherman and Grant into Arkansas to take Little Rock then expand out occupy all of Arkansas. The aim of this was to turn the flank of the large Confederate army, over 90,000 men, holding Corinth. I finally provoked a reaction and they send a force of about 20,000 against Clarksdale just east of Corinth. I threw 60,000 men in reinforcements against it positioning me for an offensive against Corinth. In May I struck with the combined armies of Grant and Sherman under Grant and defeated the Bragg at Corinth. This kicked in the door and all hell broke loose.

The summer assaults show how bad things shifted. The overruns are in yellow and they spread through out Mississippi as I burned it to the ground. I followed these up with attacks against the small forces the Rebels send southward to stop me. These are shown in what is suppose to be orange but looks a little brownish. By the end of summer I held most of Arkansas, parts of Louisiana, almost all of Mississippi and Alabama. In the East I pressed on down the valley following the railroad to Knoxville and into North Carolina. Meanwhile Bragg first withdraws to Decatur then finding he can’t stop the invasion of Mississippi decide to see if he can draw me off by heading northeast into Tennessee and Kentucky. Eventually I do follow but just to retake the regions he used and wait for starvation to destroy his army.

Winter sees the tightening of the grip around the armies I have now isolated. The movements are shown in light brown for overruns and dark brown for attacks into regions. Sheridan pushes straight through Alabama to Rome, Georgia. New Orleans is finally taken. Grant and Sherman move their main armies after Bragg waiting for a chance to complete the kill. The red arrows show the final movements into 1864 as they follow him into far eastern Kentucky. Bragg’s army is down to about 30,000.

In Virginia the battles are more complex as Lee tries to break the ring and Lyon and Hooker try to tighten it. Regions are won and lost but each round the Union ends up with a few more net ones and the ring tighter. Finally a landing at New Bern on the Coast gives my armies rail access and a solid defensive line. Lee makes one last attempt to break out attacking Raleigh with most of his army some 35,000 men now. Lyon throws 82,000 men to block him soundly defeating him. With 19,000 casualties and 90 guns lost along with Generals Longstreet and Stuart his army falls back to wait certain death the first time I get initiative.

The thing to note from this campaign is how easily the South was overwhelmed once things came undone. I can’t be sure whether this was due to unusually high initiative for the Union and/or being able to call extra Drafts and Black recruitment gave me the numbers to do it. But August is a good example of what was happening in the West. I overran or attacked 11 regions. The Rebels were only able to counterattack 2 which they won.


LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

Kennon,

Do you think the game has much replay-ability? It appears from this AAR you've blue-printed the perfect strategy for Northern victory. Is this so, will most games now be somewhat rote if players follow your plan?

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos

The Union Forever! Huzzah!

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Al Amos</i>
<br />Kennon,

Do you think the game has much replay-ability? It appears from this AAR you've blue-printed the perfect strategy for Northern victory. Is this so, will most games now be somewhat rote if players follow your plan?

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos

The Union Forever! Huzzah!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I think the game can take a number of turns so it should have good replayability. It's to early to be sure whether the plan I outlined is as good as it seems. Gen. Collins hasn't played the Confederate side before so some strategies that worked against him may not work the next time. I suspect 1861/1862 are the critical years that determine whether the Union has the strength to do what I did in 1863. Because of the Political Points I accumulated early on I was able to make three Draft calls and Black Recruitment early and never suffered any Militia penalties. This gave me an army of 250 brigades by mid 1863 (about 500,000 troops).

I think the game will swing back and forth as to who can win until the players for both sides get the tactics down. And we have yet to try the advanced rules for leaders.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)