topeverest
Posts: 3376
Joined: 10/17/2007 From: Houston, TX - USA Status: offline
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Cant play every day work gets in way. Here are the suggestions my experienced opponent offered As the Union, the first half year is primarily a gathering of forces, with some minor offensive action. There are several elements that I usually do: 1) Build a large army near Washington. Goes without saying. I usually fight at least once in 61. I generally keep McDowell in command since he is marginally better than McClellan. 2) Build a small-medium force in the Cincinnati area that can be converted to an army once you have another 3-star (I usually use McClellan) and an HQ. Neither side can enter Kentucky yet, but you will want to advance through the state once you can. 3) Build a medium sized army in Cairo, Ill. I reserve this for Grant to use once he comes in. Grant starts as a 2-star and will not move to a 3-star unless promotable. He must fight and win combats to do that. So be aggressive with him and give him a good sized force, even though it won’t be an army until he gets promoted (unless you want to assign Banks, Fremont or Halleck). The Cincinnati army must aggressively threaten Nashville to occupy the rebel army. Assume AS Johnston will have an army in Tennessee that he can use against Grant. But the rebels will not have enough troops to make two armies in the west immediately. 4) Build a small army in St. Louis for use in Missouri. Driving overland into Arkansas is difficult because you need to build depots in towns as you go, which requires supply wagons (two I believe to create each depot). A depot can project supply up to three regions. For the Union, late 61 and early 62 will be spent securing Missouri (or trying anyway). 5) There are minor theaters like West Virginia and the Far West (New Mexico/west Texas) that you do need to pay a little attention to. Probably Texas/New Mexico a little more so. You get Kit Carson as a general out there, who is fairly decent. 6) Once 1-4 are well under way, I usually build a corps or small army for use amphibiously somewhere on the Atlantic coast. This is usually March/April 62. I find actually seizing ports is the best way to blockade. 7) Build up the navy. The naval blockade boxes only can suppress 25-35% until you start taking ports. You can also blockade sea zones next to ports, but you usually need at least 8 naval elements to do that. That gets expensive. I noticed you have ships off of North Carolina – if there are not 8 elements (ships) in those stacks, they aren’t doing anything of value, other than attacking random Confederate ships that may wander by (assuming you have them set to offensive mode). But rebel ships along the coast will not happen for a while. You can take or leave this advice – this is just what I usually do. I also notice that you appear to have built a fairly large amount of militia? I usually do not other than to garrison. Militia are slower to march and do not fight well offensively. You can use them to secure cities if you wish, but I rather use regular infantry to secure Washington. You will get a scripted event that grants you like 6-8 brigades for the defense of Washington in spring 62 as well.
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Andy M
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