Friday, July 1, 2022

War For The Union - Part Eight

End of December 1863 and with the Confederacy being split in two, Lee was forced to act.  Braving the icy waters of the Potomac he massed his whole army for one grand attack on Washington.  The Union had not been paying much attention and the fortifications must have been run down.  Aided by his better generals and roll of a ten the Union fell back.  Lee then went on to assault the fortifications and another roll of a ten saw them taken with ease.  Game over.

The final situation in the East

Union attempts to force the Mississippi had been woeful.
Farragut continual threw ones while the Confederates...

The operations at Pensacola and in Texas had been touch and go,
but the Union had finally got them under control.
At the top of the image can be seen the Union troops from the Western Theatre,
getting ever closer.

The West.
Nashville has fallen and the Union were starting to exploit this gain.
Grant was still bashing away for little gain at Memphis.

I can't help feeling I was doing things wrong, not by the rules or in terms of my overall strategy, but in some of my tactical responses, particularly naval and cavalry.  The game is available on Vassal and if I could find the time I would give it a go solo (although the fog of war in this game made it nice and challenging and so would be missing solo).

Additional Commentary and Observations 

This is an edit of material that Richard, who played the Confederacy, provided.

It would have been interesting to play on into 1864. 

The Confederates were a spent force in the west. With the collapse at
Nashville and the rapid advance to Chattanooga, there was precious
little between the Union and Georgia and the Confederate heartland.

Chattanooga could have held for at most a couple of turns.
There were 4 factors defending and there was very little in terms of reserves
to draw on, plus with a railroad rate sinking to 3 factors, it would
have been extremely difficult to reinforce. At most it would have been a
delaying action through the Cumberland Gap to slow the Union advance to
Atlanta, to try and build up a little bit of strength at that city.

Likewise Memphis, although it now had an improved fort, there were
a mere 8 factors or so left. Probably might have been able to
hold out for another turn or two at most. Mobile could probably have
held on for 2-3 turns and Vicksburg and New Orleans perhaps for another
6 before they could be attacked.

With a little bit more naval activity on the Mississippi, the Union would
easily have had the Confederacy divided in 1864.

So by about July 1864 the Union would have been starting their
march into the South Eastern States.

The Confederacy is considered conquered if it has less than 30 Supply
Capacity and is divided. For illustrative purposes, holding Virginia and
North Carolina pretty much gives the Confederacy 30 SC. It would have
been interesting to see if that could have happened. Obviously a
plummeting replacement rate would have significantly assisted the Union
in mopping up whatever resistance there was.

In terms of the loss of Washington, whilst a morale boost for the
Confederates and demoralising the Union in the short term, with exposed
flanks and a sizeable Union force on the flank, it would have been
difficult to exploit the gain. The Union is able to regenerate so
quickly that it would only be a short term set back, particularly as the
Confederates would have had to detach at least a Corps to shore up the
"west". After that it would be another desperate holding action for
Virginia. The Union holding hex 5904 adjacent to Washington 
seems critical to reduce the risk of losing Washington.

Nevertheless, possibly the Union really can't lose, it's just a matter of
how long the Confederates can hang on really, so it's a game that will
eventually produce an historical result.

The Union navy being able to do a landing at Shiloh
and the threatening of both flanks of the Nashville and Memphis
positions would have made a critical difference. Once they have occupied
that central area, both Nashville and Memphis were essentially untenable
positions. The Confederate then has to consider abandoning them and leaving
just a sizeable garrison to slow the Union up a little and preserve a little
bit of strength for later, as mentioned above, the Confederates were
nearly completely spent in the West. It was actually amazing to see how
that whole theatre pretty much unravelled in the space of 3 turns.

The Union Navy is pretty much unstoppable (even with lucky battery
gunners). It doesn't matter how many ships get damaged or  sunk,
there are always more coming. Eventually it's going to find a way through.

The Confederate Navy is really frustrating, it can't really hurt the
Union fleet because most of them are 2 factor and the Confederates are 1.

Overall the game has merit. 

It really doesn't take any longer to play than other games, even taking
account of the extra admin and after all it is a 48 turn game, so it's
going to take a while. It just seems to play slowly, because
there is only a handful of combats to show after moving all your stuff
around/placing reinforcements/replacements.

There are scenarios based on each year to explore. 
The Campaign game can certainly be played again. 
Having invested a lot of time learning how to play, 
it would be good to really leverage that. 

Supplementary

And some further observations by Richard on options.

The Union needs to be and can afford to be aggressive, both with land and naval forces.  Matching the Union historically in 1862 and clearing out Nashville and Memphis seems like an absolute must to give them any chance of matching the historical timetable. Obviously landing at Corinth sooner rather than later is going to force the Confederates to have to at least quarantine that area which will divert forces and reinforcements from the Nashville and Memphis areas.

Coastal invasions in penny packets doesn't seem to achieve much. Probably best to sustain a single more significant landing at a suitable spot such as Mobile/Pensacola. Galveston and Texas are limited because there are no railroads in that area linked to the rest of the network.

The Union really needs to press on when it comes to clearing the Mississippi of batteries. You can easily absorb the losses if any. Remember, despite being very lucky with the batteries the Confederates only ever managed to sink a single ship which the Union got straight back in the replacement phase. The Union lost their nerve a couple of times when they weren't having success against a particular battery. (Reminiscent of the Entente Naval to force the Dardanelles. Just a few more attempts and they would have been through as the Turkish forts were out of ammo). Also the luck has to run out sooner or later. Getting control of the Mississippi is really crucial to forcing a collapse in the West.

The Confederates would be hard pressed to come up with something that looks like a "win"  in the form of major territorial gains. There just aren't enough troops (they can only have a maximum of 100 SPs, not counting State Militia) to be able to sustain an offensive and have sufficient forces to cover flanks. It's more about how well they slow up the Union which is reflected in the "Victory" conditions forcing the Union to keep pace with historical outcomes - as it's a foregone conclusion that the Union will eventually win, but since it's a game they have to give the ability for the person playing the Confederacy to win. Even if you "win" as the Confederacy it's highly likely that you will have lost all of the west and be clinging on to Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina if you were doing really well. There would have to be gross incompetence on behalf of the Union if there were any sustained advances into Union territory especially in the eastern states.



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