American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

A lot of the small force movements I am doing is because of lack of large forces and Generals capable of commanding a large force. This will change in 1862 when Corps become available and commanders like Lee and Jackson. The large army is the primary force in the game for getting things done. These small forces are vary vulnerable to being destroyed like what I did to Morell's division.

The ideal force which we will see in mid 1862 is the four Corps Army laid out in classical Napoleonic diamond formation. This will allow the Army to cover a frontage of up to three regions and be able to respond to an attack on any one Corps by the whole army. This is where the leadership qualities of the Army and Corps is critical since they determine the odds that they will march to the sound of the guns. Such a Army will make an enemy penetration of Northern Virginia like McDowell just did impossible. And it will play hell with the Rebs in the West when Grant puts his army on the move.

Once I get to that point we will see more use of the "coordinated move" which is an option for Corps where all move together to reach a region at the same time. The game has a complex system of leadership bonuses, terrain effects, unit experience effects, and logistical effects which are difficult to quantify. Later I will try to see if I can show all these effects and how they come into play. Assuming I can figure them out.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 13 - Early October

Winter is coming. Hopefully not as bad as in Game of Thrones.

Joe and his AoS back at Warwick cutting off Norfolk and the Union AoP. The AoP has a power of 2111 now so they must be planning to head for Richmond. By combining all the independent units in Warwick with the AoS I can get his power up to 1750. Also expended a "Build Entrenchments" event on him to improve his entrenchment value. Not sure whether it did or not but I have his stack up to at least a 3 level.

I sent Whiting to drive off Morell. Beauregard is going to move back to Alexandria to see if we can keep it. Jackson is going to raid the North probably all the way to Gettysburg to see if he can draw off some of the Washington forces.

Out West Poke heads for Cairo since it "looks" undefended. Smith moves toward Lousiville on a similar mission. And in the Far West McCullock moves on Lyon's force at Ft. Coffee.

I also Printed Paper Money. South has lots of recruits but no money to build forces with them.

Execution:
Day 7 and 8 I had major battles between McDowell and Joe. Forces were near equal, so McDowell must have left a defending force in Norfolk. The South is victorious both times. The odd thing is at the end of the turn McDowell is still in Suffolk with Joe. Loses were on the order of 2,000 for CSA and over 5,000 for USA.

Union formed Army of the James under Butler (Force 1290) and moved to Alexandria chasing off Beau without a fight.
Polk reached Cairo without a fight but found a force of 340 with Grant in the fortifications. If I can find a way to reinforce them I might be able to hold the region and bottle Grant up.

Now for some game information.
Here is the pop up you get on McDowell's force when it was in Norfolk.


It shows information that the Rebel player knows about that force. The numbers may or may not be correct since I am playing with Fog of War.

Under General McDowell's name you will see the Required and Provided Command numbers of 17. Since they are equal McDowell is able to fully use his command.
Below that you have a list of each leader in the stack starting with McDowell. The stars indicate what kind of General they are. Followed by the numbers like McDowell's "(2-2-2)" which give each leaders activation, attack and defense modifiers. Hooker is the only good commander in the bunch. If the leader has a force attached to them you will see the name and two numbers representing their current and full power rating. Hooker commands the 18th Division with a rating of (468/468) which means its full strength with a power of 468.

Also listed are separate units attached to the army which include a Hospital, Balloon, some artillery and supply.

The "Pwr: 2111" is the total force's power rating.

Below this are some detection and hid values for the AoP. The first two are its ability to detect enemy on Land and Sea. The final "Hide" value is its ability to not be seen. The low "1" value is why I can "see" so much detail about the force.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 14 - Late Oct

Now I have some money, $561,000. Printing presses are handy. More recruits than I can build, 370, and reasonable War Supplies, 113. So I put a lot new brigades into production.
Joe will stay defense in Suffolk but I am sending him three new brigades from Richmond by rail. Jackson will head to Gettysburg.
I will try to reinforce Pope who has Cairo under siege. But no one can reach quickly and their is no artillery which would make winning the siege possible.
A. Johnston move toward Louisville now that he has combined with Hardie.

Execution
Day 3 there is a battle at Suffolk but does little to either side and ends in Stalemate. McDowell retreats to Norfolk.
Had some epidemics. These are random events that are affected by size of your forces and whether they have shelter (inside cities rather than outside) and what kind of terrain they are in. When you look at the details for the event it usually mentions what locations took hits for disease.
Alexandria surrendered to Butler costing 1 MP. That is the trouble with these automatic garrisons. They were locked so I couldn't with draw them.
The CSS Arkansas is active. Maybe I can go sink some river boats.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 15 - Early Nov

Weather beginning to turn bad. Oddly throughout Tennessee and Virginia but not way up north. In the West weather can be a killer. It shortens supply lines starving large armies very quickly.
I plundered Gettysburg to get some money then marked Jackson to move back to Fredericktown to avoid being caught in the weather.
Joe and his AoS moved on Norfolk in defensive mode with avoid combat on. I am hoping to get him across without a fight so he won't have to fight at a disadvantage. By adding all the misc. troops in Suffolk I got his force up to almost equal of AoP. I also sent Longstreet by rail to Suffolk as a back up.

Execution:
Day 7 McDowell decided to attack Joe. Light casualties for a draw living both armies in Norfolk.
Butler moved on Manassas. Beauregard ran away leaving Butler besieging a small garrison.

Got an event saying extensive field works ordered built in Warwick. I assume this was my "Build Defensive Works" action I took back on Turn 13. Have to remember there is a delay in these.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 16 - Late Nov

Sending the AoP(Beauregard) back to Alexandria and reinforcing with Jackson's division. Hopefully this will make Butler leave Manassas.
Sending Longstreet to reinforce Joe at Norfolk.
A. Johnston to take Louisville.

Execution:
Butler attacked Manassas. Didn't take it but weakened the militia holding it. I was hoping he would lack initiative to do anything. Slim chance that Manassas will hold out long enough for my occupation of Alexandria to have any affect.
Worse at Norfolk. While Joe fought a battle that stalemated he again retreat south instead of to Suffolk. McDowell marched into Suffolk though.
At least out west things went according to play. Albert took Louisville.

Couple of Observations on Games AI:
It doesn't seem to be paying much attention to Kentucky. Lot of marching around in Indian territories but not a move in some time in Kentucky and Cairo which I am besieging.
AI doesn't seem to be repairing railroads. This is more serious. I noticed it in the old game. The CSA player could destroy the North's railroad network and the AI would not respond with simply rebuilding them. I will have to watch this and see if I can verify it then bring it up to AGEOD.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 17 - Early Dec

Trying to repair Suffolk/Norfolk situation by sending Joe to take Norfolk while McDowell in Suffolk.
Likewise, send AoP to take Alexandria while Butler in Manassas. Sending Jackson to reinforce him there.
Trying to get more men and artillery to Polk besieging Cairo. A besieging force doesn't do much damage to fortifications unless they have artillery with them. There are enough Yankees in Cairo to hold out a long time if they have food.
The CSS Arkansas is available at Memphis but not fully up to strength.
Winter is covering more states. Have to watch out for starvation and disease.

Execution:
Beauregard attacked Alexandria but got stalemate. I have noticed the new game makes it much harder to take a fortified city even if held with small units. Don't know exactly how it is handling the change but rarely has a city fallen on first try even if defended by a single militia against an army.
Day 7 Butler attacks Alexandria but is stalemate.
McDowell went to Surry on the James. Don't know whether the AI is marching him overland to Washington or he is headed to Richmond.
My reinforcements got to Polk. Now to see if I can do any damage.

I will probably do a summary of the situation for 1861 either on Late Dec or Early Jan depending on how the game handles the year change.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 18 - Late Dec

Invested in Rail Pool - cost me $75k and 50 War Supplies. Suppose to increase rail by 25. Next turn it jumped immediately from 69 to 94. It still leave me short of the minimum requirement of 113 for moving supplies. This will get more and more critical as larger armies are fielded. Especially to handle the demands of supply and moving armies. One of the strategic advantages the South has in Virginia is they can use rail to shift an army in one day across the state.

Also used a "Requisition" event to see if I could wring some money and War Supplies out of Richmond area with out taking much of a popularity hit. They loved the south a 100% before and after.

Still trying to get Polk to cause some damage to Cairo. Ideal is to besiege a well fortified town until the entrenchment value is reduced some before trying to assault. But Polk won't do much. Sending more troops.

Joe to assault Norfolk. Beau to assault Manassas.

Execution:

Battle of Norfolk - says stalemate but the out come was Norfolk retaken.
Battle of Manassas - again stalemate but was still taken.

Union AoP move to James City chasing Magruder out to Williamsburg.

A force in Surry can cross the James River to James City without boats. A player can determine what moves are valid by selecting a region and pressing the "Shift" key. Color coded lines will be drawn between all the adjacent regions showing what moves are valid and if they cross rivers.

It being end of year a whole lot of events become available again. I can call up volunteers, Mobilize, issue bonds and taxes. Also received about fifteen generals who are badly needed. I a large number of leaderless forces.

End of Year Status:

114 Morale, 831 Victory Points, $246K money, 163 Conscripts, 148 War Supplies, 94 RR, 28 River, 4% Intervention, Losses: 22445, Captured: 5400.

The game also reports the relative strength of 114. I think this is a ratio of Union Power factors to Rebel.

The Union has 89 Morale, 850 Victory Points, Losses of 34,259.

I am well ahead in Morale. While it is no where near what it would need to be to win, 200 I think, Morale Points affect all kinds of things through out the game. The most important being the replacement rate of casualties. Generally whenever the game has some automatic factor like recovery rates that occur each turn the MP is used in the calculation.

Also it gives you some padding to use for buying things since many actions like Mobilization and Taxing require the use of MP and VP.

The game has a leveling feature in that if nothing is happening to improve or worsen Morale then it will tend to go back to average. For me this means it will not stay at 114 unless I continue winning battles. The side effect of this is it better to expend MP rather than let it attrition away.

Which brings up the question how do you win. The old game could only be won by getting the MP over one of the victory levels. The VP system was broken. I is also very difficult to get it to 200 or the Enemies below their minimum except when certain events occur. One of these that favor the South is Lincoln's election. It temporarily lowers the threshold so that is when you maximize your attempt to run up the Morale. When we reach these points we will discuss them further. But for the Union capturing Richmond is the biggy so the South must prevent this at all cost.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Do you get to assign all those generals yourself? Would you fill slots from top down or bottom up? Are you prohibited from assigning a superior BrGen to a division, say, if a mediocre MajGen is available?
During the war the professionals, graduates of the military schools, got the higher jobs. Is any of that factored?
J Ferry
LTC 2/20th Corps

The only game restriction is that the General must be two star to command a Corps and three star to command an army. During the game one and two star general can earn promotion through successes on the battlefield. In the old game this showed up as the option to promote them to the next level. Some are scripted (no one would otherwise consider McClellan and Butler). Some like Lee are three star but locked until an event unlocks them so they can take command.

The game mechanic that keeps you, particularly the Union, from putting together the "A" team is the political system. Every General has a rank rating within their level of 1, 2 and 3 stars. They have a political rating as well which helps determine their rise in ranking. In the game McClelland is ranked 1 in the three star generals. If you attempt to create an army without choosing him as the commander the game will inform you that there is a political, National Morale, and Victory Point penalty for doing so. I haven't had it come up yet as the Rebel side but in the old game for the Union it was substantial. Enough so that the work around was to try to get enough armies that you could promote all the incompetents and send them to backwater operations. Every once in a while you might bite the bullet and assign a Grant to immediate Army command and take the hit. It was like 5 Nation Morale points in the old game.

The same system applied to Corps level. Since the game doesn't distinguish between brigade and division you don't run into it until you promote a one star general to two. And when you assign them Army command. I don't think there is any penalty for assigning a lower seniority two star to Corps. For the Union they spend much of 1862 and first half of 63 trying to get the Sherman's moved up the command latter. The South has a different problem in that they don't get as many two and three star generals to choose from since they have tighter limits on the number of armies they can form.

There is some strategy to putting Generals with high initiative/attack/defense ratings into situations where they will win and gain ranking. It is a slow process though. Generals can also get wounded and killed pulling them out of the pool (wounded will come back). The old game had a parameter attached to each General that would affect the odds of this happening. Hood and Jackson are a little prone to getting shot.

The game internally tracks a large number of factors for every type of unit in it. It is so complex that it is impossible to predict using them. Most you have to reduce to this guy is better than those and this unit is superior to others. I will get some screen shots of these later it just takes a lot of images. The detail pop ups on units and leaders usually have four or five tabs showing additional ratings. Plus the experience of every leader and units is factored into their ratings and tracked.

They also put in a little blind luck. Whenever you promote a General there is no guarantee that his ratings will stay the same. For the first turn they are reduced significantly and then the next they may go to the same level as before but there is a chance they will be different. I am playing this game with historic levels but you can change that to historic randomized or completely random. A leaders ratings will also sometime improve from winning battles and gaining experience.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Thanks for the pics. I just recently picked ups AGEODS Napoleonic campaigns series and it does look intimidating, but looks like a good balance between detail, ease of use, and realism. Do the Rebels have any sort of bonuses to help them counteract the Union advantage in logistics and supply?

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Lt. Col Joe R. Matthews
6th Brigade/3/III
Army of Northern VA

The South generally has better Generals and higher quality troops. But mostly they have the advantage of fighting on friendly regions which can be drawn on for supplies and intel plus interior lines which makes coordinating defense easier. To invade the south the Union must create a system of depots and controlled regions wherever their armies go. These depots must be at least every three regions to keep supply moving to the army. The rivers in the west make it easier as well as coastal cities. But any move against the interior exposes them to defending long supply lines easily cut by cavalry.

One of the tactics for the Southern side is building up the experience level of their troops by fighting small easy to win engagements. Once their leaders and brigades get high experience levels they are difficult to defeat. The Union usually has a big change over of leaders and men during 62 and 63 that keeps their overall experience level low.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

I will be covering two turns (full month) per post from here on.

Turn 19 - Early Jan

Call for Volunteers w/o reimbursement since I have little money.
Called for Taxes and War Bonds to raise some.

Had my first naval attack against fortification at Cairo to see how the game handled. The old game this was our right suicide. You usually lost every ship whether iron clad or not. This game they did a little better but still the game heavily favors forts over ships. Grant at Cairo took 2 hits. But the ships took 32 hits sinking three and damaging the CSS Arkansas. Won't try that again.

I also used one of the "Decision" event creating militia from Copperheads in certain areas of the North with high Southern sympathies. This allowed be to take control of the region of Charles, MO which is a key rail link between NW and St. Louis. Plan to use this some more to cut off Kansas.

Turn 20 - Late Jan

Got money, $1M, but now have only 265 conscripts, so called for a partial mobilization.
Used extra money to buy some internal improvements raising both Rail and River pools as well as building Powder Mills in Carolinas to increase War Supplies.

A. Johnston defeated Grant at Cairo taking the city. This will be critical since Cairo controls three rivers. If I can get some big guns up there and hold it, it will hurt the North bad.

I received a number of reinforcement events which illustrate one of the changes in the new game. I received Forest's 7th Tenn Cav and the Orphan Brigade. These type troops come in independently of drafts and call for volunteers. The old game did it for units like the above but this game relies more heavily on "historic" raising of brigades rather than giving the player enough recruits to raise generic ones.

I also received a number of messages letting me know that leaders like Hardie are now promotable. The old game had a filter that allowed you to see a list of all leaders in order of their seniority with promotable leaders highlighted. I haven't found the equivalent in this game which makes this task a little more difficult.

The AoP disappeared. Longstreet is moving to reoccupy James City but that doesn't tell me where this large formation went off too.

Here is the leader detail display for Beauregard:



This is the most useful one because I know what the numbers mean.
It shows the seniority "1/6" which means he is number of one of the six three star generals I have.
It shows the Strategic rating of 4 which means he has a 4/6 chance of having initiative each turn.
His Attack bonus is a poor 2.
His Defense bonus is a very good 5.
These bonuses are passed on to troops under his command.
He has a political rating of 62 which means he has a lot of political support which is why he is 1 of 6.
The two icons in the lower left are special bonus straights he has.
The first is "Deceiver" which gives his force a +1 hid bonus.
The second is "Fort Defender" which gives him a +1 bonus when fighting in fortifications.

The other tabs show additional information but I am not sure how they apply. They may just reflect his immediate HQ attachments but I really don't know.

Combat:


Mobility:


Various:

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Turn 21 - Early Feb

Still having to limit my movements and stay in cities to avoid excessive winter attrition. Longstreet tried to reoccupy James City but McDowell's army now back to 2000+ power returned and sent him packing to Williamsburg.

I got siege hits on both Ft. Pickens and Lexington, Ky. These reduce the defensives making it possible to eventually take them.

Turn 22 - Late Feb

Sending Joe's AoS to Williamsburg but even by train it will take two turns. So also sent a fresh brigade from Richmond to Longstreet.

Increased the Rail Pool again. These points are badly needed when you start moving Corps size formations around.

Day 1 - Battle of Lexington - Unfortunately K. Smith defeated breaking the siege.
Day 11 - Battle of Fort Gibson - another CSA defeat but at least not driven off.

Sieges were broken on both Lexington, KY and Ft Pickens. Ft. Pickens will be a problem if they move more food in because I can probably only take it by starvation. I am trying to raise some fresh brigades in Florida and Alabama to send there. But they really need a General of Army level.

Normally my long term plans for South are to send both Joe and Beauregard elsewhere as soon as Lee can take command. The West needs two Armies to handle the wide front of fighting along the Mississippi and in Kentucky. Although against a real player Kentucky is usually easily overrun by the Union so the second Army is in Louisiana. The fourth Army goes to S. Carolina and Georgia to watch for invasions.

Had an event saying the CSS Virginia launched but since the Union captured Norfolk earlier I doubt this will happen. Apparently some of their historical events aren't really linked to what is happening in the game. Just informational.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)

Simply awesome, Ken!
Do you keep a bunch of written notes to keep things straight?
J

Yep, up to ten pages now.

The game manual tells you the basics of how to play the game. Mainly which menu, icon, tab, etc. will access this or that, but it does little in telling what the result will be of a particular action. It takes a while and quite a few games to connect how building a powder mill or stringing telegraph lines (you can do this by regions) will affect the game long term. For the South internal improvements are the big question mark. They are expensive but they may keep you in the war in the 63 and 64. So how much resources to commit to long term versus raising armies in the present is it worth.

In the old game there was little point to these long term decision other than building railroads. The new game has made it a better investment but it is still difficult to determine how much and when.

Luckily over on the AGEOD forum there are some people who know how the mods work and can dig under the hood for this kind of information. When I start seeing some I will repeat the better ones here.

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General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)