Reply With QuoteEdenton captured
3 Militia killed for 3 Conscripts lost
SE of Nasville a Rebel Volunteer Regiment destroyed for the loss of a Conscript Regiment
One militia and one cavalry unit mopped up in south-central Tennessee. Conscription imposed in the Confederacy.
Edenton captured
3 Militia killed for 3 Conscripts lost
SE of Nasville a Rebel Volunteer Regiment destroyed for the loss of a Conscript Regiment
After the "Bloody Summer" of 1862, a strange quiet descends upon the theatres of war, as both sides lick their wounds and prepare for the next round. Civil unrest in a number of southern cities - caused by the imposition of the military draft - has been suppressed, while the Confederate Congress considers imposing Martial Law.
West of Tallahassee one Rebel Conscript and one Volunteer unit are destroyed as well as one depleted Volunteer unit in the woods south of Nashville.
Little action to report, except one Yankee infantry unit captured on the Richmond-Chattanooga Line.
Rebel Fortress on the Tennessee river captured for the loss of two River Gunboats.
In the east Williamsburg is captured. One Rebel Conscript and one Militia unit destroyed for the loss of 3 Federal Conscript units.
A New Year dawns, after twelve months of some of the bloodiest fighting in scenario history (81 units lost for the Confederacy and 145 lost for the Union since the start of the scenario, most in the summer and fall of 1862).
Two years have passed since the scenario began, and three years (36 turns) are left. In the remaining time, the Union must capture at least 12 objective cities for a marginal victory, or 16 for a decisve one (there are 20 all together). So far, they have managed to capture only one (Nashville). Still, they are not too far behind the historical result of the Union at this point in the real Civil War. So far, the scenario is delivering near-historical results.
Two US frigates are missing off the Bahamas. They are the USS Gorilla and the USS Lemur. Confederate agents report than the Neutral States will no longer join the Confederacy, even if the Union issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
One CSA Cavalry unit on the Tennessee River and one on the road between Nashville and Decatur destroyed.
Dacatur captured
1 Militia, 1 Conscript and 1 Zouave unit killed for the loss of 2 Conscripts.
One CSN Transport caught of the coast of Wilmington and sunk along with its cargo.
A Yankee warship, and several other unidentified units are sunk by a mysterious Confederate ship, in a confused night battle off the port of Apalachicola.
The Governor of Alabama has written to President Techdavis, expressing alarm about the capture of Decatur by the Yankee army.
Hi Drew,
How does the game work for you mechanically, so far? Does it have the right balance between offense and defense? Casualties and production? Movement and terrain costs? Is the tech tree interesting, with realistic progress? How about special units, ie. engineers, slaves, spies and trade units? Role and function of leaders? City improvements and wonders?
Anyone else who may be following things is welcome to comment too.
So far I would say that the game works very well and is giving historically accurate and fun gameplay. I would spend a little more time working on the cities food and shield production rates. Some of my large industrial cities have been starving and their production is low, whilst other cities I have never heard of before grow at a fast rate and have better production.
I still think that adding a few more engineers and slaves and allowing them to build railroads (roads) would be realistic. If you only had half a dozen engineers half of them would be tied down repairing pillaged RR whilst a few could be put to use building small extensions to the RR system to ease communication problems etc... There wouldn't be enough of them to allow vast new railroad systems to be constructed, just some minor branch lines.
I'm having a blast, even though my plans are being stymied and I would probably do it all differently if I could start again
Ouch, this really hurts. I was saving these for the rainy day when I broke my vow to stay away from playing PBEM's and used them to sucker punch someone playing the Damnyankees.
1. The brave Confederates can almost certainly capture Key West at the beginning, complete with its strange barn-like structure containing a huge brass contraption of cogs, gears, pistons, wheels and other strange devices. A steam engine seems to drive the wierd machine. I estimate that, once the thing is cut up and melted down, there is enough brass for more than 1000 Reb field guns.
2. I wonder if the events to obtain British recognition are working quite as intended. Unless I was unbelievably lucky, capture of any trigger city seemed invariably to bring up the recognition popup. Simultaneous capture of more than one trigger city resulted in a corresponding number of popups. I'm not 100% sure of this one.
3. Very interesting game.
Excerpts from the Manual of the Civilization Fanatic :
Money can buy happiness, just raise the luxury rate to 50%.
Money is not the root of all evil, it is the root of great empires.
In my game as the Rebs at Civ Webring it took a few turns after the capture of St. Louis for the British Recognition event to kick in. I think that after that I got the message again on another turn, though I can't guarantee that.
One Tiger Zouave unit surrounded and forced to surrender north of Decatur and one Rebel Volunteer unit in Corinth destroyed.
Good point about Key West. I did consider a descent at one point, but Drew found my transport. The Confederates only start with 2, and can't build more. Still, I think I'll add a fortress. John, are your cryptic references to pistons and gears possibly referring to the Key West International Airport, with direct flights from New York and Boston?
I'll check the British recognition events, though it's unlikely to be triggered in this game.
Also a good point on city food and shields. There are some anomalies, and if you could keep a record, I'll try to fix them when we're done. Having said that, big cities are harder to feed than small ones, something that's built in to Civ2 and intended in the scenario as well. I usually build a few food caravans to feed New York and a few other big cities.
Are you using many trade units, btw? Trade with Canada can be quite lucrative for the Union, as can trade with the Bahamas for the south, if you can ever get there. Have you found spies useful? (you can answer these questions later if you wish.)
Still no on building new rail lines, though.Sorry. If you've ever seen Aggie's close attention to infrastructure to support his single-minded offensive thrusts, you will appreciate how much potential for ahistorical, balance-destroying, brilliant mischief there would be. (See my paper "Frustrating Agricola")
For me, the trickiest parts of the design are balancing offensive and defensive, and production and losses. So far, I think it's about right, although the Union army seems mighty big, and growing much faster than I can kill it.
Leader casualties are too high, at least for the Confederates. Given the size of the Union armies, even the most carefully executed Rebel offensive can only kill a fraction of one, leaving the attacking generals very vulnerable to a counter-attack. I originally included one-time resurrection events for the named leaders, with a 6 month delay (eg. Gen. Lee is only wounded). I took it out, and cranked up the random generation of generic leaders to compensate. I think it would work better the way I had it at first. What do you think?
So far, I'm fairly satisfied with the design, and having fun.
Oh Abe, you might want to put something in that there zip file.
techumseh quote #1: "Good point about Key West. I did consider a descent at one point, but Drew found my transport. The Confederates only start with 2, and can't build more."
Key West can be reached by either transport. Good luck to any Damnyankee in finding a Reb transport in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
I would NOT recommend trying to do it with the east coast one.
techumseh quote #2: "John, are your cryptic references to pistons and gears possibly referring to the Key West International Airport, with direct flights from New York and Boston?"
No, flying hadn't been invented at the time. But, as everybody knows, teleportation had just been discovered.
Excerpts from the Manual of the Civilization Fanatic :
Money can buy happiness, just raise the luxury rate to 50%.
Money is not the root of all evil, it is the root of great empires.
Drew, the zip file is empty.It does not contain a save file.
I can't play my turn.
Please repost it.
Thank you.
A smokescreen if ever I saw one! I will be re-doubling my patrols around St. LouisI'll check the British recognition events, though it's unlikely to be triggered in this game.
I stumbled across the Rebel transport early on. When sending out my initial patrol I just looked in places where I would tuck away a hiding ship, and would you Adam and Eve it - there one was
The danger or re-spawning Generals is that players will adopt my tactics in the game at Civ Webring and fling them headlong into battle. If they win and survive then great. If they cause chaos but are lost then no worry, in a few turns they will be back!
The Union does indeed have a much larger army and a more capable General than myself may be able to steamroller the Rebels fairly easily. However the Union if compelled to attack deep into enemy territory and risks being mauled by counter attacks once the direction of their advance becomes clear. The Confederates are under no such pressure and can wear down the Union troops as they did at Corinth and in Tennessee. I think we should wait and see the final outcome before drawing any conclusions.
I had intended to stick to General Scott's (if I remember the name correctly) Anaconda Plan. However my own urge for action mimicked that of the US public of the time and I broke my own plan to launch several premature attacks. It would be interesting to see how the game would play if the US player stuck to the plan and built up an overwhelming force before attacking. It might not be as much fun, but I think it would be quite effective.
The snow melts and buds are on the trees. Otherwise, little news.
The resurrection of named leaders (only) would be an "onlyonce" event, so one would still have to be cautious with them, particularly because the chances of generic leaders being created would be less.
I think we've both fallen victim to a "Napoleonic complex" in the handling of our armies, resulting in massive casualties, but because of industrial production and internal rail communications, no decisive results. I don't see any evidence of a massive Union naval building program, which no doubt explains the very large Union armies. It remains to be seen if they will be able to crush the south by a direct approach on land.
Corinth captured (again)
One Zouave unit, one Militia and two Conscript units destroyed for the loss of two US Conscript units.
Also one CSA Cavalry unit north of Corinth surrounded and destroyed.
In the Atlantic the US Navy's patrolling finally pays off. A CSN Frigate is located and sunk.
Martial Law imposed in the Confederate States. Conscripts are now arriving at the front in reasonable numbers.
One regiment of Union regulars was overrun northwest of Chattanooga.
BTW, was the Yankee Dept. of the Interior ever planning to announce that the City of St Paul, Minnesota had been captured by our heroic allies, the Sioux Nation?
I hadn't even noticed
Kentucky and West Virginia throw in their lot with the Union. Federal troops enter Louisville, Bowling Green, Frankfort, Lexington, Parkersburg, Covington, Morgantown and Wheeling. There are some skirmishes with elements loyal to the Confederacy but overall the operation is swift and relatively bloodless. 16 Neutral Militia units surrender or are destroyed. 2 Federal Conscript units lost.
In the east Norfolk is captured after an amphibious landing. 2 Rebel Militia units destroyed as well as a CSA Cavalry unit to the south-west. Further south a careless US Navy Frigate captain blunders into the Rebel Coastall fort of Savannah and his ship is sunk.
Out west Federal troops retaliate against Sioux raiders. One Sioux unit is killed and the Sioux nation develops Sioux Uprising.
On the Mississippi Memphis is captured. Federal troops are surprised to find the city guarded by only one local Militia unit. Another column to the east takes Tupelo which was held by one Militia and one Conscript unit. A Zouave unit to the east of the city is also destroyed.
Another Rebel river fort to the north of Memphis is destroyed for the loss of two Federal River Gunboats.
Puzzled by the lack of serious resistance the Federal generals send out scouting parties to the south and west. Two sizeable Confederate forces are found occupying defensive features on the roads to Grenada and Meridian. It is believed these blocking units have been set up as a delay the Union advance and allow the Rebels to launch a counter-attack to retake Memphis and Corinth and catch valuable Federal leaders in a trap.
On the road to Grenada the Battle of Tallahatchie River begins. 2 CSA Volunteers and 1 Conscripts are killed and 2 US Conscripts are lost. Federal forces take up positions on the south bank of the river overlooking the Rebel army in the cotton fields on the other side of a creek. A larger battle is expected and Federal troops fortify their positions in expectation of the inevitable Rebel counter.
Memphis was abandoned since the appearance of a new yankee army, moving south from Illinois, had turned the Confederate army's position in SW Tennessee, forcing a retreat. This was an unusual piece of sound strategy on the part of the yankee army.
Meanwhile, Confederate morale has been restored, and conscription is working well. In the west, 2 yankee cavalry units were surprised and captured. In the east 2 artillery and 4 regular infantry regiments were destroyed, as Lee prepares to retake Norkolk.
In the south, rebel newspapers are calling the yankee army milling around in the triangle Apalachicola-Albany-Columbus Ga. "the largest self-supporting prisoner of war camp in the Confederacy".
The shock loss of Des Moines and Milwaukee shocks (and shames) the Federal government into action in the west. Milwaukee is retaken. Hannibal and Rolla are secured with the loss of four Neutral Militia units and a probing attack is launched against Kansas City with one Neutral unit being destroyed.
On the Mississippi front the Federal Army pauses to allow reinforcements and heavy equipment to catch the front units up. Federal General Rosecrans tells the Northern press he does not want to lose initiative but is concerned that an overextended vanguard could easily fall prey to a Rebel counter-attack.
In the east Norfolk receives an influx of seaborne reinforcements including the veteran Irish Brigades who are reportedly itching for a fight and eagerly anticipate the Rebel counter-attack
Humpf. I resemble that remarkOriginally Posted by techumseh
This was an unusual piece of sound strategy on the part of the yankee army.
EDIT: I mean resent
Little to report, other than one yankee cavalry unit killed in Mississipi and one in Alabama, plus a militia and an artillery unit killed NW of Chattanooga.
Last edited by techumseh; May 5, 2010 at 23:10.
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