Joel Billings -> AAR RJH (Union) vs Joel Billings (Confederate) - Confederate POV (1/28/2008 6:12:49 AM)
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I’ve just begun a test PBEM game with one of our testers, rjh1971 (Rafael). I plan on posting a report of the game as it’s in progress. I’ve asked Rafael to avoid reading this thread since we’re playing with Fog of War and my posts will divulge sensitive information. You’re welcome to post questions as I go along and I’ll try to answer them (and other testes are free to jump in and answer questions as well). Rafael may at some point post his own Union thread and if he does, I ask you don’t give away any information to either of us that we shouldn’t know. We’re playing the full campaign scenario that starts in July 1861. I’m playing the Confederate side. We’re playing with the Fog of War game option on, but we’re not using the optional Sub-Commander or Limited Command Point Recovery rules. That means we won’t be dealing with attaching what are basically divisional commanders to higher-level corps commanders, and we have greater flexibility to switch units between different leaders. Playing without these rules makes for a quicker, simpler game but does cause some loss of detail and realism. Most importantly we are using the Random Leaders and Unknown Leader Ratings Optional Rules. This means that many leadership ratings are randomized at the beginning of the game (instead of being historically based), and that most of these ratings will be unknown to us until the leaders begin to use these ratings during gameplay. There are rules regarding the randomization that generally favor some of the Confederate player’s early war high level leaders, so the Confederate player usually has a leadership edge early in the war. By using these optional rules both players face the historical difficulty of identifying leaders that are suited for Army command, and those that are suited for Theater command (more of an administrative role). This can be a painful but ultimately rewarding process and makes for added game replayability. The Union first turn followed a familiar script, with McClellan taking Grafton in West Virginia and a force of unknown size seizing Springfield, Missouri. My main concerns at this point are protecting Virginia and the various Atlantic and Gulf ports. Kentucky is neutral and the Union will suffer a big political hit if he invades it too early so I’m willing to keep fewer troops in Tennessee for now. I’ve also pulled most of my troops out of Northwestern Arkansas since any move there would be far from a railhead or river. One of the first choices I had to make was who to promote to Army and Theatre Command. I started with one Theatre Commander (Samual Copper) while I’m allowed two. I started with three Army Commanders (Joe Johnston, Albert Sidney Johnston and PGT Beauregard) while I’m allowed up to four. The key statistic for a Confederate Army Commander is the Defense Rating (cannon ball bouncing off a wall, can range from low of 1 to high of 4). The only other commanders I have with the required 11 command points to be named as an AC are Twiggs and Polk. As I don’t know their defense (or attack) ratings, I elected to promote Polk given he has a higher infantry value (3) which will help some in combat. I considered promoting AS Johnston to theatre command given his 2 defense rating, but decided to go with only one TC for now as I didn’t want to risk Twiggs as an AC. ASJ has a high infantry value and a high command rating (18) which can be very helpful in combat. To be made a TC, the leader must be a 3 or 4 star general and I want to see how well my leaders fight before I promote them. I can live without a TC for now, especially while Kentucky remains neutral. I will pay a small price in political points for leaving this post open. [image]local://upfiles/1268/4259D348EC7F439691113C92FB799163.jpg[/image]
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