[b]Late April 1861
Economy:[/b] Coming out of my game as the Union and having never played a game as the Confederacy for more than one or two turns the situation that presents to me is a sorry state of affairs. To start notice my per turn increase in money, conscripts, and war supplies. The only way in which the Confederacy is nearly equal to my enemy is oddly enough the amount of men I get per turn in potential reinforcements or replacements. Everything else is at a severe disadvantage.
My only industrialization effort in the first turn was some light industrialization in South Carolina, though nothing came of the effort. I’ll continue for now, but will probably stop all efforts fairly soon when my economic situation will dictate that war supply is more needed elsewhere such as to construct artillery.
Furthermore my supply network is at a disadvantage right now, though in my first turn I purchased 40 points of rail transports and 10 of river. As you can see this still leaves me at 2/3rds rail capacity and 1/3rd river capacity both of which need to be improved immediately if I want to have a good supply network while having capacity to shuttle troops around.
Draft: Call for Volunteers (144 Conscript Companies)
Financial: Paper Money Printing (206,000 Dollars, 4% Inflation, -1 National Morale Point)
Enemy Movements: Call for Volunteers, Total Blockade (-11 British Engagement Points, drats!)
Reinforcements: None
Replacements: 3 x Line Infantry
[u]Virginia Theater[/u]
Here’s Virginia in all her glory and my basic plan for 1861.
As shown I aim to advance forwards of Manassas and Winchester in the Shenandoah to hold a defensive line on the Potomac from Harper’s Ferry to Alexandria, both because it is a strong defensive line behind a major river and because it gives me a convenient location to threaten Washington - which will of course be taken if at all possible, which isn’t likely. Cavalry raids behind enemy lines into Maryland and Pennslyvania, to ascertain enemy movements and buildups, and to cut rails will be my major objective as we continue through the year.
Most of my forces will be detailed with that objective. Of smaller concern is placing another defensive force in Fredericksburg, which is vulnerable to a quick march from Port Tobacco over the Potomac. (Note to Self: Pursue this option against Roberts)
On the Peninsula another small force will be detailed to hold the James river region and attack Fort Monroe to prevent a build up of Union forces which could blockade Richmond, land forces at Norfolk, or generally cause problems.
Finally it should be undertaken very early to march at once into West Virginia towards Grafton to cause XPav to use many of this early units on defending that region instead of pushing them immediately towards the Army of the Potomac.
For this turn there is some news in this region. First of all we’ve captured Norfolk, not hard since the city was undefended. Some free units and the CSS Virginia should spawn here next turn. Elsewhere I attempted to advance on Harper’s Ferry with the single militia unit that was active, they weren’t successful even though they killed off half the unit, another assault is ordered for this turn as I have no reason not too.
In Richmond the Reserve Brigade (2 Infantry Regiments, 1 Cavalry Regiment) has also been formed, but is locked in Richmond for the time being.
[u]Attack on Fort Sumter[/u]
Our only large attack of the turn was the assault on Fort Sumter which was made without loss by three infantry brigades and two artillery units. Unfortunately the forts guns were destroyed in the attack, which I’ll need to replace at my own cost.
My units that participated in the attack will now make their way towards the Virginia theater, asides from the 2nd South Carolina Brigade which will remain at Charleston to act as a local defense unit in case XPav gets around to retaking Fort Sumter. The other forces - two infantry brigades (SC & GA), along with a cavalry regiment, two artillery batteries, and a supply unit will move up to Virginia, though this will likely take a month or two.
[u]Western Theater[/u]
Here are my plans for 1861 in the west. I don’t intend to care about Kentucky neutrality and this will only allow XPav to build up in peace. My goal is create a fairly strong defensive line along the Island 10 - Columbus - Forts Henry & Donelson - Bowling Green axis. This will require some offensive action to take not only Bowling Green, but also Cairo to destroy its depot and cause XPav some issues with supply before he can advance south along the Mississippi.
In contrast to Roberts in my own game I don’t intend to hold Cairo at all other than to destroy the depot and I’m sure my opponent will have learned from my mistakes to create a very strong river flotilla. It’s my opinion that my control of the rivers will be based almost entirely on my ability to keep forts on the rivers in my own control and as such the current ones will be emphasized and new ones further down the line will be made as soon as possible around Memphis and potentially Corinth.
Right now I’ve only got one force in the region - a new army under the command of Leonidas Polk (4-0-1). He’s got a small Tennessee infantry brigade and a regiment of cavalry, but they are locked in position for awhile. When they are unlocked they’ll move for Cairo with all speed to destroy the depot, then retreat to Columbus to assume the defense.
Further south in Texas I’ve got two cavalry regiments, one will take Laredo and the second will move to Dallas to prevent U.S. Army regulars to advance on taht town from Tucson.
[u]1861 Generals Pool[/u]
Got these fellas this turn and will be some of my main men for this year. A decidedly mixed bunch and only Gustavus W. Smith is promotable. He, Winder, and McCulloch and the best of them and will be used for my most important issues for the time being. I’ll probably pack John B. Floyd off to somewhere I’ll never see him again though.
Here are stats and movement orders.
Benjamin McCulloch (4-1-1) Moved to Nashville
John B. Floyd (3-0-0) Moving to Vicksburg
Bushrod Johnston (3-1-1)
Gustavus W. Smith (3-1-1) Moving to Winchester
Charles S. Winder (3-2-2) Moving to Fredericksburg
Felix K. Zollicoffer (3-1-0)
Daniel Ruggles (3-1-1) Moved to Memphis
W.H.C. Whiting (3-1-1)
