Brother Against Brother -- Ultimate General: Civil War(Interactive)

[Brian Swartz]

Command Briefings

Army Structure

I Corps
** Wagner
---- Race(Infantry, Springfield M1855)**
---- Scales(Artillery, 10pdr Ordnance)*
** Durrell
---- Kemper(Infantry, Lorenz)*
---- Duryee(Infantry, Lorenz)*
---- Birney(Carbine Cavalry, Smith)*
---- Seymour(Artillery, 6pdr Field)*
** Loomis
---- Moody(Infantry, Springfield M1842)*
---- York(Infantry, Harpers Ferry M1855)*
---- Pease(Infantry, Springfield M1842)
---- Wright(Artillery, 12pdr Napoleon)*
II Corps
** McCook
** Liddell
---- Egan(Infantry, Springfield M1855)*
** Church
III Corps
** Lawton
** Ferrero
----- Baldwin(Shock Cavalry, Palmetto M1842)
** Elder

Wagner's Division

Race's Brigade

Col. Gregory Race will be a General soon; he is currently 81% of the way there.

Alter Ego: Coffee Warlord

Men: 1410
Experience: **, 25% to ***
Perks: Endurance Course, Marksman Training

Efficiency: 57
Morale: 78
Stamina: 69
Firearms: 75
Melee: 24

Weapon: Springfield M1855

Order has already been given to divert funding to the rest of the army, so that's what we'll do here.

Scales's Brigade

Lt. Col. Wade Scales is 93% of the way to full Colonel, which I imagine he should accomplish after his next engagement assuming the worst doesn't happen.

Alter Ego: Qwikshot

Gun Crews: 16
Experience: *, 91% to **
Perks: Physical Training

Efficiency: 41
Morale: 77
Stamina: 58
Firearms: 65
Melee: 14

Weapon: 10pdr Ordnance

Another round of doing nothing while we see what happens in Virginia??


Durrell's Division

Col. Rafael Durrell appears to be roughly 70% of the way to getting his general's star.

Alter Ego: ntndeacon

Col. Kemper -- 1148 infantry(Lorenz, *, 80%)
Col. Duryee -- 983 infantry(Lorenz, *, 80%)
Col. Birney -- 482 carbine cavalry(Smith, *, 54%)

Last time the instructions were take on some rookies but you want the ** available after the next battle. That probably means all vets here, but it's up to you -- I can take some newbies to increase numbers(and drive that experience number down a little more) if you wish.


Seymour's Brigade

Lt. Col. Walter Seymour has a ways to go at 39% to full Colonel.

Alter Ego: DavidCorperial

Gun Crews: 15
Experience: *, 77% to **

Efficiency: 38
Morale: 69
Stamina: 47
Firearms: 62
Melee: 16

Weapon: 6pdr Field

New weapons are always an option to at least request, otherwhise there's nothing to do here.


Loomis's Division

Col. Adam Loomis is about a third of the way through this rank, so he's got some ways yet to go.

Alter Ego: chesapeake

** Col. Moody -- 1506 Infantry(Springfield M1842, *, 18%). Still stuck without a leader.
** Col. York -- 1642 Infantry(Harpers Ferry M1855, *, 99%). Got a big influx last time out and I thought he's probably close to max. I was wrong -- York can command a max-level 2k unit. With the cost of the weapons and no more in the Armory he won't get that high, but we can keep adding.
** Maj. Pease -- 1584 Infantry(Springfield M1842, green, 61%). Command-efficiency limit reached.
** Col. Wright -- 18 Artillery(12pdr Napoleon, *, 54%). Two more more cheap guns in the Armory is nice to have in case something happens, but he's maxed out for now.


Egan's Brigade

Col. Darryl Egan is subordinate to Col. Liddell, II Corps 2nd Division. He's up a bit to 32% now on his progress.

Alter Ego: collegesportsfanms

Men: 1053
Experience: *, 65% to **
Perks: Endurance Course

Efficiency: 36(+2)
Morale: 54(+4)
Stamina: 55(+3)
Firearms: 46(+1)
Melee: 21

Weapon: Springfield M1855

Goal here has been to keep adding veterans with the same weapon. We've got 1665 of them in Armory so all the brigades that have them will get at least some additions, reducing the cost of new men.

Baldwin's Brigade

Lt. Col. Bryan Baldwin is 24% of the way to full Colonel. He serves in III Corps, 2nd Division, under BG Duane Ferrero.

Alter Ego: tarcone

Horsemen: 435
Experience: Green, 59% to *
Perks: None

Efficiency: 11
Morale: 9
Stamina: 10
Firearms: 16
Melee: 16

Weapon: Palmetto M1842

Still hasn't seen any action as he was fortunate(?) enough not to participate at Seven Pines. Unless there are weapons requests we'll keep working on increasing manpower. It won't go up a lot more; Baldwin's command-efficiency limit will hit at 494.


Fire away, gentlemen. Gaines Mill will commence late Wednesday(your deadline here) or Thursday. That's the plan anyway.

[ntndeacon]

1. Veterans lean still
2. Let's get the big guns
3 . Sell the farmers

[DavidCorperial]

The only thing I can think of is grabbing one of the better guns from one of the other units, otherwise hold pat.

[ntndeacon]

I request the 12 pdr Napoleon for Seymour. Unless he has a different idea....

[collegesportsfanms]

Holding pat on my end, it seems to be working fine so far.

[chesapeake]

Moody's unit needs a CO. There really should be a mechanism to get one. Is there really no competent major in the entire army that doesn't have a brigade command already?!!

Bank my money for now. When Moody's brigade gets a CO after Gaines Mill, I want them to have their weapons upgraded. If you feel that you need to add somewhere, you can add some troops to York's command. They should be vets, so increasing that unit will be expensive.

If you have open brigade slots, I think you're better off spending troops and money adding full 1500 men brigades. Certainly, that is more valuable that adding a few hundred more expensive troops to York's command.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

Moody's unit needs a CO. There really should be a mechanism to get one. Is there really no competent major in the entire army that doesn't have a brigade command already?!!

Pretty much, although Stewart doesn't have the whole Army, just part of it. Probably between a third and a half of it at this point. Way I understand it, the Barracks just represents those we have the ability to use. But yeah, there really needs to be a way to deal with this situation better.

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

If you have open brigade slots

I don't. We filled em all after Shiloh and elected not to go with more ArmyOrg. A lot of brigades are close to or at their maximum. About half of them are classified 'green' though, including most of III Corps.

[Brian Swartz]

It's looking like this is shaping up like a battle we are upgrading artillery for. With no other votes on the matter, the order is to invest reputation in the Parrots and sell the Farmers. Army Emphasis remains the same. Camp details will come this evening, but we got $26k+ from the sale, giving us about $136.5k to spend instead of $110k.

[Brian Swartz]

Camp Results

Whether due to orders or the command-efficiency limit, a third of our force was not eligible for any changes. I Corps added a bit of supply but other than that there was no overhead, as the officer situation has remained unchanged.

The request for Napoleons for Seymour made sense, and was approved. It's an upgrade on the same type of weapon he already has, and would have the benefit of freeing up more 6-pounders for other brigades that use them. II Corps' 1st Division(Col. McCook commanding) was of the right size and experience to receive the 20-pd Parrots. They now have all 11 that are available(6 via reputation investment, 5 via purchase). Between these two it was $37k+ spent, and the rest was deemed best used for adding to existing brigades given our continued veteran lean in terms of emphasis.

I Corps

Race's Brigade remains at 1410 per instructions.

Durrell's Division

** Kemper +104 to 1252.
** Duryee +105 to 1088.
** Birney +51, 533 cavalry now. With the max at 750, this is a pretty solid number.

Loomis's Division

** Moody does nothing, on account on being leaderless.
** York +67 to 1709.
** Pease was already maxed also
** Wright maxed as well.

II Corps

Egan's Brigade +182 to 1235.

III Corps

Baldwin's Brigade +59 to 494. That's the command-efficiency limit for you, so hopefully your first actual combat here will demonstrate something worthy of future investments.

On the final pass to use up remaining funds, we upgraded one brigade from the 42 Springfield to the 55s(BG George Tannatt's men), and then one from the Re-bored Farmer to those newly available 42 Springfields. It's a slow process, but we're gradually modernizing.

The final count is $9 left in the treasury, and 6,837 recruits. The total force now numbers somewhat over $35k -- it's been increasing slowly in these recent battles.

[Brian Swartz]

Gotta learn to start looking ahead more when giving advice. Appears we can only use two of our Corps here, and given the situation we might well have been better off expanding the army to have larger ones as we have only a dozen brigades in a Corps, not 20. I assumed(incorrectly) that all three Corps would be involved. In the next campaign I'll correct that with more foresight given the game's mechanics in this area, but we could end up overmatched here. With apologies to Grant and Baldwin, I decided to leave the greener men of III Corps behind. They'll have the right of participation in whatever comes after this no matter what; but if we're going to be outnumbered, let's do it with our best men. Ergo I Corps forms the battle line under Stewart, Heintzelman's II Corps are the reinforcements(most of it, a couple brigades will be left out).

With this distribution, contrary to the description here, we are outnumbered 2:1. We haven't faced such odds in a while, and we'll have to rely on the AI ineptness in attack and hopefully superior quality of arms and training to win the day. This could prove interesting ...







This is some ways to the southeast, and the line extends northeast off the picture as you can see. Looks like a decent, but far from impregnable, position.







I'm betting 'may' means 'assuredly will' here. Defending on multiple fronts is rarely trivial.







This is to the extreme southeast.

[Brian Swartz]

And now we're live. It's 1 pm, June 27, 1862. Wagner and Durrell's divisions are in the northwest, Loomis in the southeast at our intended defensive position. The only exception is that Seymour's guns are down there with Loomis as well. That suits me just fine since that's where I'll want them anyway. 33 of the 12-pound Napoleons between them, both with capable, reasonably experienced(*) crews. They should provide a quite adequate 'introduction' when the rebels reach us. We have fortifications set up for four infantry brigades. To start with it'll be the strong York in the middle, with the leaderless Moody on the left and the incompetent Pease on the right. Later I hope to move both of those into reserve positions, with the stronger brigades of the other divisions taking the line.

We have a 2-hour clock to start and scouts report that we out number them for now: no guns are yet on the field for the rebels and they have less than 9k total strength, while we're at well above 10k. Looking good really. For the delaying part we'll use Birney's cavalry, Lynch's skirmishers, and detach more from Pease to move forward and help them. They'll suck, but they are also expendable. Everybody else falls back to the main line at Boatswain Hill.

** 1:08 PM -- Birney reports lead elements of Ambrose P. Hill's Corps approaching. It has begun.

Soon it's clear that they have skirmishers. A lot of skirmishers. Far more than we have. We're retreating, only hanging around to ensure they don't over-run us before we regroup.

** 1:23 PM -- Time to figure out who we want where. I decide to place our sharpshooters under Durrell on the left(Kemper and Duryee), then Race and York on the right, our two most elite units(Race because of experience, York due to size and having the best weapons). That leaves Peace, Moody, and Trimble available for flanking/reserve duty, or dealing with the right flank if that presumed attack does come.

** 1:30 PM -- They are taking a reasonable amount of time working this way, but it's up to 16k total on the rebel side now.

** 1:46 PM -- They are starting to bring up their artillery. Time to form up. By 2pm pretty much everything is in position ... and we wait.

** 2:04 PM -- First shells from our artillery as the battle properly begins. They hit York on the right first. A quick flanking assist ends that quickly, and the kill ratio during the initial flurry is 10:1 in our favor. I'll take that.

Over the next hour, we endure a couple of relatively small and undetermined charges in the center and on the right, but nothing which does any serious damage. Then ...




Outstanding. Latest count is 25k for the rebels, more than twice our number. If they organize themselves propely(unlikely, but ... ) that could prove quite problematic.




York's lost about 150 men on the right, Race far fewer in the middle. Durell's riflemen on the left are bored, frankly.




** 3:15 PM -- Starting to look a little more serious here. I shift Moody, Peace, and Seymour's guns further to the right to support, but if they get the sense to do a massed assault here we could end up having a very bad day. Duryee still isn't involved but Kemper's gotten into the action now. The supply situation is still fine for the time being.

** 3:36 PM -- Only flanking feints by Birney's cavalry have kept them from crashing in on our right. I'm about to comment on how they are content to exchange volleys with us(volleys that we are winning due to our weaponry and fortifications) when this happens




Yes, run right into the most elite infantry brigade in the Union Army, backed up by sharpshooters on the left and artillery behind. That'll go fine for you.

Eight minutes later, they'd lost 329 men, Race 85. Not that this was entirely predictable or anything.

4:15 PM -- I'm informed that Ewell has arrived, possibly to threaten our left. Superb.




4:46 PM -- And so it is. Soon we have plenty of customers everywhere, but they push us back on the left while we are having all we can do to keep them at bay on the other side as well. If they retain a foothold on our side of the stream, we're in trouble. Peace has moved forward to try to plug the hole.

We have 9400 men left, trying to fend off over 30k. This does not look good.

5:01 PM -- With most of the rebels content to snipe from the woods on the other side of the stream, we've pushed them back.

5:27 PM -- Looks like the mentioned flank on the right has begun. Trimble and Moody go out that way, but I don't know if they can stop them. That's all I can afford to send though, or they'll overrun us here.




Outstanding. We should be flattered.

"We must hold until the end of the day!"

Apparently that's another 2.5 hours, until 8 pm. We might be able to do that. Then again, I might be a Chinese fighter pilot.

5:33 PM -- York breaks, and they charge on the right. All categories of chaos are breaking out there. Yeah, I'm going with the 'Chinese fighter pilot' option at this point.




** 5:55 PM -- Plugged a couple of holes elsewhere but I see no chance of holding on the right here. What the heck ever happened to those reinforcements from Heintzelman??

** 6:04 PM -- Now they show up. Took you bloody long enough!! Lynch's skirmishers have been shattered, and Trimble is basically trying to hold off three large Confederate brigades at once, while Moody alternates between doing something useful and running away like a cowardly fool. The main line his holding ... barely.

Heintzelman is sent in to reinforce McGhee hill(the eastern flank) and double-quick it.

** 6:07 PM -- Col. Andrew Kemper is wounded. Fan-freaking-tastic. So much for our center.

** 6:13 PM -- Longstreet's Division presses forward to crush our center. I'm thinking the critical moment has arrived, and I don't know that we can hold them.

** 6:31 PM -- York is pushed back again, but II Corps has begun to push against their incursion on the right.




It'll be a while before the artillery is in position and it's kind of a mess, but this should relieve the pressure significantly. Latest numbers are 19k for us, 37k for the rebels.

** 6:50 PM -- Having lost half his men, Col. Gregory Race is wounded. Awesome. A few minutes later, Pease routs for the second time on account of Pickett's Charge(a year early).

** 7:07 PM -- Having lost most of his protection from the infantry, Col. Wade Scales is wounded. I'm noting a trend here ...




In the center ... well, it's basically a complete and epic disaster. I gradually retreat our guns to keep them out of the worst crossfire and try to shift men this way from II Corps, but they've got troubles of their own and there's only so much that can be done.

** 7:38 PM -- Col. Oscar Duryee has been killed. Yeah, this war just got a lot less boring. There's quite a bit to be said for boring. Duryee died heroically, trying to save our doomed left flank.

** 8:20 PM -- The armies finally separate. We had our moments, conducting a decent attack on their artillery on the extreme right, but the last hour didn't change much. We weren't able to hold the Boatswain Stream and were pushed back, but not entirely defeated.

Ultimately, Gaines' Mill(in contrast to history), was determined a Draw. General Stewart's perfect record is soiled, and there will be many sorrowful families after this day.

[Brian Swartz]

Battle Statistics

Strength

Infantry: Union 20,545; Confederates 46,586
Cavalry: Union 843; Confederates 0
Artillery: Union 1925(77 guns): Confederates 3351(135 guns)
Total: Union 23,313; Confederates 49,937

Numbers may not win a battle, but they sure help. We found that out the hard way here.

Losses

Infantry: Union 6,721; Confederates 18,368
Cavalry: Union 84; Confederates 0
Artillery: Union 115(3 guns): Confederates 283(11 guns)
Total: Union 6,920; Confederates 18,651

I would have guessed our losses much higher. Almost 3:1 here in our favor. The rebels lost a lot, especially in the early afternoon, before finally forcing our defenses. What we lost though, was almost all high-quality men.

Units

** Race -- 1,548 kills; 1,007 losses. Those placed at the vanguard like this were just under terrible duress all day long. An elite brigade, decimated, and it's commander wounded.

** Durrell -- Kemper(1788 kills, 891 losses); Duryee(1601 kills, 816 losses); Birney(372 kills, 84 losses); Seymour(767 kills, 27 losses). The sharpshooters took major losses once again, although this time you had company.

** Loomis -- Moody(588 kills, 555 losses); York(2837 kills, 1230 losses); Pease(862 kills, 671 losses); Wright(884 kills, 20 losses). York's numbers are just ridiculous here.

** Egan -- 789 kills, 80 losses. In the limited time they were around, quite a good show.

No two ways about it, I Corps has been decimated. Stewart has a lot to rebuild, and the other two Corps will need to do the heavy lifting for a while.

Officers

Wounded were Col. Andrew Kemper and Lt. Col Wade Scales from Durrell's Divison, along with Col. Gregory Race from Wagner's Division.

There were also seven promotions, including Col. Gordon Wright(BG now), Col. Julian York(same), and Maj. Herbert Pease(Lt. Col.), all from Loomis' division. Two more subcommanders make General before him. Col. Allen Birney(cavalry under Durrell) is a General now also. I think having the brigade commanders promote easier than the divison guys is a rather striking design flaw, though I definitely still enjoy the game it is quite annoying.

The other three to get promoted were II Corps commanders.

Weapons

** Springfield M1842 -- 327 rescued, 1392 captured
** Re-Bored Farmer -- 17 rescued, 1318 captured
** Springfield M1855 -- 518 rescued
** 12 pdr Howitzer -- 2 captured
** Harpers Ferry M1855 -- 295 rescued
** Smith -- 20 rescued
** Lorenz -- 486 rescued
** Sharps Model 1855 -- 72 rescued
** Hunter -- 194 captured

We didn't capture all that much, mostly because they were attacking. I think you mostly capture weapons from territory you control at the end of the battle, which would make sense.

Rewards

** Career Points -- zilch, nada, nothing, zero. Gotta win. And for the first time, we(I) didn't.
** Reputation -- +1
** Funding -- $165k
** Recruits -- 11k

Duryee's Brigade(under Durrell) was completely shattered, as were Lynch's skirmishers(for the second time). Of more than 11k who went into the fight, I Corps retains 4,279. There's ... work to do, to put it nicely.

Scales and Race, take a seat over there on the pine pony and enjoy the next campaign from the sidelines. Everyone else will still be in action -- and the two of you will still have choices to make.

Next up we don't have another campaign -- we have another Grand Battle right away! And we need it to go better than this one ...




Malvern Hill. Shiloh gains up a 5% reduction, but failing to win Gaines Mill means the Confederate force will be larger(amount not specificed, it just says they have fresh forces preparing an assault). So that's probably pretty much a wash, and we figure to face a roughly 'standard' amount of resistance.

Took a look at the force distribution and it's 2 Corps locations at 15 brigades each. Ours are 12 each. It appears most likely that we'll be slightly outnumbered but nothing like Gaines Mill. Of course we'll be sending II Corps and III Corps to this.

Bottom line is that this just got a little real after a nice relaxing first year-plus of the campaign. This'll be our first 'quick' camp as there's only the one step with no Career Points to assign.

[chesapeake]

You did well to gain a draw after being outnumbered by more than 2 to 1. The losses on our side were also kept to a manageable number, which is even more impressive.

[Coffee Warlord]

Gimme all the painkillers.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

You did well to gain a draw after being outnumbered by more than 2 to 1.

*Bow*. If nothing else, it will make things somewhat more interesting for the next bit going forward.

Weapons Reference updated.

** Both types of Springfields have somewhat increased availability.
** More Sharps Model 1855s, the one most of our skirmishers use, are also available. We'll need them.
** Similarly, we have access to increased numbers of low-level cavalry and artillery weaponry. No significant change in those of higher-quality that are harder to come by, and no new weapons available. Given the quick turnaround here, that's understandable.

Officers

This needed immediate attention. Literally half of I Corps needs a new officer -- if you include the two brigades that no longer even exist. Col. Gerald Moody goes back to his unit, the one obvious choice. 14 new officers are available in the Barracks, from which we will need to replace Race/Kemper/Scales and then get new guys for the new units. That'll still leave nine, so that's fine.

For the two infantry units I chose the cheapest ones I could, as they are too small now to worry about any command limitation and I'm sure their wounded commanders would prefer funds go into new recruits and weapons. For Scales, I thought it best to get someone as similar to his skill as possible, so that we would be able to have a seamless transition when he returns. Good news is that you guys are only out for this one battle instead of a longer campaign. With these in place, I can say that half of the surviving I Corps brigades earned a unit promotion, so there will be some new perks to pass out. And there certainly won't be any need to add supply for a while. On that front we did well at Gaines' Mill -- nobody ran out of ammunition. That's pretty much it in terms of good news, but it is something.

[Brian Swartz]

Army-Level Choices

1. Emphasis -- Slight lean to veterans, over increasing numbers and/or upgrading weapons.

2. Reputation Investment

We sit at 39, which is a 'neutral' level with no morale effect.

** $50k funds(18 Rep.)
** 2.5k recruits(18 Rep.) -- These first two choices have the same cost, but half the benefit, as before. I'm not amused.
** Springfield M1855 x2000(7 Rep.) -- Several of our brigades use these, and they would make rebuilding I Corps faster and cheaper.
** Harpers Ferry M1855 x1750(7 Rep.) -- Similar but a hair better. Right now only York has them ... if we added these we'd probably expand to a second brigade using them, most likely Trimble or Race, the two best ones in the first division.
** BG Henry Slocum(4 Rep.)
** BG George Sykes(4 Rep.)

A little under 161k funds, 18k recruits, for the record. I expect to have extra manpower by the time we run out of money again. Recruits and the generals are advised against, the others are in the 'worth considering' pile. When it comes to generals, we now have five 'extras' at the brigade level, two below their optimal position of Corps Commanders. Suffice to say that as the army expands, we are not in danger of running out of top-level guys who can do the job. It's more the mid-level ones to handle large brigades that could prove troublesome. Still have yet to see a single divisional leader get wounded.

3. Weapon Sales

We have just under 3600 Re-Bored Farmers, and it probably boils down to whether we want to consider using them at all for I Corps. There are two other brigades possessing them but they will need very few due to command limit issues. We can get $5 apiece for those. I expect to use everything else that we have enough of to make a difference from a financial point of view.

[Brian Swartz]

Weapons Distribution

Infantry

** Re-bored Farmer(2 brigades, 3074 total, 2 green)
** Springfield M1842(9 brigades, 14629 total, 5 * and 4 green)
** Lorenz(1 brigade, 397 total, 1 **)
** Springfield M1855(6 brigades, 5749 total, 2 ** and 4 *)
** Harpers Ferry M1855(1 brigade, 528 total, 1 **)

Skirmishers

** Hunter(1 brigade, 261 total, 1 green)
** Sharps Model 1855(1 brigade, 454 total, 1 *)

Cavalry

** Cook & Brother(1 brigade, 316 total, 1 green)
** Palmetto M1842(2 brigades, 919 total, 2 green)
** Colt M1855(1 brigade, 310 total, 1 *)
** Smith(1 brigade, 453 total, 1 *)

Artillery

** 6pdr Field(3 brigades, 45 total, 3 green)
** 10pdr Ordnance(1 brigade, 14 total, 1 **)
** 12pdr Howitzer(1 brigade, 10 total, 1 green)
** 12pdr Napoleon(2 brigades, 32 total, 1 ** and 1 *)
** 20pdr Parrot(1 brigade, 11 total, 1 *)

[Brian Swartz]

Command Briefings

Army Structure

I Corps
** Wagner
---- Race(Infantry, Springfield M1855)**
---- Scales(Artillery, 10pdr Ordnance)**
** Durrell
---- Kemper(Infantry, Lorenz)**
---- Birney(Carbine Cavalry, Smith)*
---- Seymour(Artillery, 12pdr Napoleon)**
---- One to replace
** Loomis
---- Moody(Infantry, Springfield M1842)*
---- York(Infantry, Harpers Ferry M1855)**
---- Pease(Infantry, Springfield M1842)*
---- Wright(Artillery, 12pdr Napoleon)*
II Corps
** McCook
** Liddell
---- Egan(Infantry, Springfield M1855)*
** Church
III Corps
** Lawton
** Ferrero
----- Baldwin(Shock Cavalry, Palmetto M1842)
** Elder

I Corps

Our protagonist BG James Stewart is close to a promotion, around 90% it seems. When he gets there, we'll have a group decision on what his next perk will be.


Wagner's Division

Race's Brigade

Col. Gregory Race is apparently still stuck on 81% due to the injury. Major Derrick Tannatt temporarily replaces him.

Alter Ego: Coffee Warlord

Men: 415
Experience: **, 32% to ***(+7%)
Perks: Endurance Course, Marksman Training

Efficiency: 66(+9)
Morale: 89(+11)
Stamina: 73(+4)
Firearms: 92(+13)
Melee: 31(+7)

Weapon: Springfield M1855

Accuracy and morale are pretty much as good as it gets. Problem is there aren't many left. $52-$53 per veteran, not counting the weapon price. Could take on as many as 79 rookies and stay at 2-star status. That would lower the price to a little under $48 each.


Scales's Brigade

Lt. Col. Wade Scales is still at 93% it appears as well. Lt. Col. Evander Hunt replaces him.

Alter Ego: Qwikshot

Gun Crews: 14
Experience: **, 16% to ***
Perks: Physical Training

Efficiency: 57(+16)
Morale: 88(+11)
Stamina: 61(+3)
Firearms: 80(+15)
Melee: 14(--)

Weapon: 10pdr Ordnance

If we stick with the same weapon, it'll be about 2k for replacement men and we may or may not have enough for another 5k to add a 15th crew. Otherwhise we can try for a different one. Meanwhile you need to pick your second perk. Tactical Training(+50% rotation speed, +25% cover, +200% stealth); Gunnery Training(+10 Firearms, -10% Reloading Time); or Shooting Training(+10 Firearms, +10% Accuracy).


Durrell's Division

Col. Rafael Durrell appears to be roughly 80-85% of the way to getting his general's star. It shouldn't be long now.

Alter Ego: ntndeacon

Col. Kemper(temp. Maj. Herman Grose) -- 397 infantry(Lorenz, **, 6%)
Col. Birney -- 453 carbine cavalry(Smith, *, 74% -- +20%)

You are short a brigade now and need a new infantry one. You can go with Lorenz again and try to rebuild, or perhaps a lesser weapon to start with until they gain some experience -- that will build numbers faster. For Kemper, we need a second perk to be decided. Assault Course(+10 Melee/Morale/Stamina); Firearms Course(+10 Firearms, -10% Reloading Time, -10% Accuracy); or Marksman Training(+10 Firearms, +10% Reloading Time, +10% Accuracy). Also your artillery:


Seymour's Brigade

Lt. Col. Walter Seymour is a lot closer now, 80% of the way to full Colonel.

Alter Ego: DavidCorperial

Gun Crews: 14
Experience: **, 3% to ***

Efficiency: 44(+6)
Morale: 81(+12)
Stamina: 50(+3)
Firearms: 76(+14)
Melee: 16(--)

Weapon: 12pdr Napoleon

Not quite as good as Scales' boys in the 1st Division, but with the upgrade given to Napoleons you're back in the spot of best defensive artillery unit around. Very minimal reinforcements needed to your existing crews. You can add up to two more crews at about $4600 each for veterans. Rookies will sink you back down to 1-star status. Possibly would end up adding one gun at a time due to the cost but you're not slated to be in the next fight anyway.

Also time for another perk here. Same choice as Scales has if you look above for that. Note that both Col. Durrell and yourself have a vote here for what that training will be.


Loomis's Division

Col. Adam Loomis continues to progress slowly; he's halfway there now. One wonders if the war will end before he gets his star.

Alter Ego: chesapeake

** Col. Moody -- 973 Infantry(Springfield M1842, *, 81%, +63%). Wanted a weapon upgrade before; that may still be possible but seems less likely to happen right away. Really high morale(82) but no other ratings above 45. They don't run away from a fight, but can't do all that much to win one either. At least their Colonel is back.
** Gen. York -- 528 Infantry(Harpers Ferry M1855, **, 56%). About 70% of them died at Gaines Mill. Those who remained are considered the most elite infantry in the Union Army. 97 Firearms, 82 Morale, 71 Efficiency. Stamina(39) is still quite low though, interestingly enough. Not enough randomly marching around the battlefield I guess. Need a new perk here(see Durrell's Division, it's the same second-tier infantry choices).
** Lt. Col. Pease -- 940 Infantry(Springfield M1842, *, 26%). No ratings at 40 or higher so they aren't really good at anything yet, and efficiency of 20 still sucks. More than twice as good as they were before though, across-the-board gains for the most part. First Infantry perk is needed: Discipline Training(+10 Morale, +5 Efficiency) or Endurance Course(+10 Stamina, +5 Efficiency, +10% Speed). They've run away in every battle, yet they keep on keeping on and might make something useful of themselves yet.
** Gen. Wright -- 18 Artillery(12pdr Napoleon, *, 82%, +28%). You're now in charge of two Generals. Weird. Almost 4k apiece for new crews and you need about 1700 for replacement men for the ones already. On the other hand, the options is here to eventually max out once the funds are available.


II Corps

Egan's Brigade

Col. Darryl Egan is subordinate to Col. Liddell, II Corps 2nd Division. Moves up to 49%, so he's halfway to getting his star.

Alter Ego: collegesportsfanms

Men: 1158
Experience: *, 80% to **(+15%)
Perks: Endurance Course

Efficiency: 42(+6)
Morale: 58(+4)
Stamina: 60(+5)
Firearms: 50(+4)
Melee: 21(--)

Weapon: Springfield M1855

Didn't see the big gains in ability that others did, but then you were only there for the tail end of Gaines Mill. More action is expected next time out. A little under $32 per veteran not counting the weapon; you could take a large number of rookies if desired to get numbers faster at lower skill.


III Corps

Baldwin's Brigade

Lt. Col. Bryan Baldwin is 24% of the way to full Colonel. He serves in III Corps, 2nd Division, under BG Duane Ferrero.

Alter Ego: tarcone

Horsemen: 494
Experience: Green, 59% to *
Perks: None

Efficiency: 11
Morale: 9
Stamina: 10
Firearms: 16
Melee: 16

Weapon: Palmetto M1842

Sitting around is apparently the thing for him. I'm confident that finally changes at Malvern Hill. You're at max. until more experience is gained and we can't afford to invest in a better weapon for green horsemen, so there's nothing to be done here. You need action, and are about to get it.


Time to rebuild -- Commanders, tell me how that'll be done and in what way. Malvern Hill needs to go better for us to get back on track, and I think our odds are good in making that happen. Aiming for a Wednesday evening camp.

[chesapeake]

We're going to win the battle of Malvern Hill, and after being so undermanned at Gaines Mill, I think we need to plan to invest that point from winning in army org so that we can add new brigades to each division. With that in mind, I think we need to plan ahead and not sell muskets that we'll need to outfit several new infantry brigades.

Marksman's training for York's unit. It is going to be hard and expensive to reconstitute this brigade, particularly since vets cost a lot more for a 2* brigade. I suggest adding as many rookies as you can without losing a star and seeing where that gets us. Since I Corps is out of the next battle, we can see what kind of money and needs we have after Malvern Hill.

Refill Wright's brigade but no new guns.

Pease's brigade needs discipline training. Badly. Fill up with rookies but keep the star.

I would still like Moody's brigade to get a weapons upgrade. Blend vets and rookies to keep them at at least 50% towards the 2nd *.

Thanks!

[DavidCorperial]

I'll go with Gunnery Training and let you make the call if I add any Vet crews right now.

[Coffee Warlord]

Keep us at 2 stars, and get as many men as we possibly can.

[collegesportsfanms]

Gunnery Training right now, and you can fill me up with some rooks if you think that's best.

I've admittedly been swamped with work and haven't given this a lot of attention, so I'm open to suggestions for what to do.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

We're going to win the battle of Malvern Hill

Glad you're sure of it. I was thinking it's likely, but ... in any case there are no changes to the army-level stuff. Time to do the math for camp.

[Brian Swartz]

Camp Results

The basic situation here is that III Corps is nearly maxed out everywhere. That meant most of the resources would go to I & II Corps. As a general rule, if a brigade was new to a certain rank(*, **, etc.) they added as many rookies as possible. If they were most of the way to a new promotion, they held with veterans in order to get that new ability soon. This seemed to me in keeping with the spirit of instructions given.

Race's Brigade -- 184 added, roughly evenly split between rookies and vets. Now at 599 strength. Long ways to go.

Scales' Brigade -- Random selection of Perk fell on Tactical Training. They'll be better at using cover and will be able to turn the guns faster, which is sometimes useful. Between needing to commission a replacement commander and reinforcements for the existing weapons, they hold at 14 crews.

Durrell's Divison

In the absence of any instructions, we continue with the most recent orders.

Kemper -- Replacement CO in Grose, Marksman Training selected at random. Took on a few rookies, mostly vets. +186 to 583 men. It's a start.
Hoke -- That's Maj. Jason Hoke to you, leader of a new brigade of infantry. They'll get Re-Bored Farmers for now. Once they prove themselves, they will be given something better, probably the Lorenz imports. This brigade satisfies the dire need the Corps has for boots on the ground, starting at 1625 men.
Birney -- Adds 79 veterans, for a total of 532 horsemen.

Seymour's Brigade -- Gunnery Training as requested, and one crew added for a total of 15.


Loomis's Division

** Moody -- 476 added, roughly an even mix, to 1339. The request for improved weapons is denied for the time being. The price tag is high, over $35k, and Stewart has deemed the money better used for increasing our numbers given the recent losses. A similar amount was spent on new weapons, but it was felt bringing most of the units still using Farmers up to the baseline capability of the '42 Springfield was a better use of funds.
** York -- Marksman's Training per orders. Added 394 reinforcements, about two-thirds of them rookies going down to the bare ** level. This leaves the brigade at a considerably less inadequate number of 922.
** Pease -- Discipline Training. Maybe now they can fight for more than an hour without running away. We were able to add almost a thousand men here, up to 1864. Most of the new ones are rookies.
** Wright -- Reinforcements to maintain maximum readiness with the 18 crews, no additions.

Egan's Brigade

145 men added, to a total of 1303 men. Note that there must have been an error in paperwork filing. The training request is vacated, since there was no current training available here.

Baldwin's Brigade

As indicated in the briefing, there was nothing to be done.


Summary

I Corps is up to 8,631 men, just over double what it was just days ago. The quality is not what we would like in some instances, but that can be improved over time. II Corps has just under 12k, III Corps is pushing 13k.

The treasury($19) is basically gone once again. Took a nice healthy bite out of our recruits, but still almost 12k remain there. Plenty of men.

[Brian Swartz]

Main decision is who to place in the main line and who to have as the reinforcement Corps? Grant's III Corps needs the experience; they'll take significant losses I expect but they have the manpower to absorb them. They go in the 'Defend' position, while Heintzelman's II Corps, now our best of the three, will deploy as needed when they arrive. Hopefully sooner than last time.

Estimated total force is 36k with 107 guns for the rebels, 27k with 68 guns for us. So they are a third larger. I like that better than double, but we certainly can't afford to be careless. I also very much like the sound of the words 'heavily fortified' in this case.







A long ways to the south-southeast.




This is between the two previous positions.




They are crazy, no doubt about that.




So just defend everything then? Sure.




Let's hope it works out that way.







Hey, I thought you said this was going to be easy ...




Whoever's writing this sees threats everywhere despite our supposed strong position, that's for sure.




Stand your ground and don't move away, but be sure to defend these six other key locations. Umm okey-dokey.

[Brian Swartz]

** July 1, 1862, 1:00 PM. Our objective is hold the place where we are, 'North Malvern Hill', for a little over an hour. Hopefully that means Heintzelman shows up sometime just after two. The nearby forest on the east looks like a good place for Baldwin's cavalry to keep watch -- across the stream we'll put some artillery as instructed, with Rains' smaller group of horsemen.

Four big infantry brigades, but all carry the 1842 Springfield. Two artillery units, a total of 24 guns in all, basic 6-pounders. Getting the drift here? This is the first major action for III Corps, and they look the part. Total numbers have 9k Union, 21k Confederate in the vicinity to start. I don't like those odds -- they better improve. We've got enough earthworks set up for three brigades, which leaves one for reserve.

** 1:05 PM -- We spot the rebels right away, and there's no possibility that our artillery is going to get across the river to those woods in time. That whole idea is abandoned, though the cavalry will head over and try to annoy their flank.




On second thought, how about no. Looks like it would be very easy to get trapped over there. We'll come back across and stay focused on this location.

** 1:26 PM -- The battle has already been underway for ten minutes. Three of Rains' men were taken out by artillery on their way back, but that beats the heck out of losing all of them.




** 1:38 PM -- Canfield's position on the right has already been compromised. Note that fenceline he's supposed to hold, and the right angle it forms at one point. That's not real helpful, because it makes it very likely that he'll be the victim of a flanking attack. What say we pull Leslie over there to support him, and just have both brigades form up in the trees. We have already survived one charge straight up the center quite easily, and sent that infantry brigade fleeing much the worse for their attempt.

Meanwhile I'm told to brace for a general attack. Yeah I kinda got that drift already. The third division has arrived(two infantry, more cavalry, and skirmishers). I'll attempt to have them do something vaguely useful.

** 1:49 PM -- Baldwin performs his first task; getting shot at in the forest while the infantry reforms over there. Not what we were looking for but it keeps them out of the trees, and soon we're in position.

** 2:01 PM -- Cpt. Andy Carruth, commanding the smaller artillery unit, is killed. They've lost only 11 men, half a crew, and it's mostly just bad luck. I pull both gun brigades back a bit, but they need to be close to the line to be effective.

** 2:06 PM -- Col. Andy Wright, commanding our brigade on the left, is wounded. Grrr. Custer, recently arrived as part of 3rd Division, will take his place on those earthworks. Enough with the bad-luck CO injuries already.

Then reports come in that Hill is coming at our center, while Huger's Division is coming up in reserve for the rebels. Fan-freaking-tastic. Also the new timeframe is two more hours. Better not be that long for Heintzelman to arrive. 32k of them now against 13k of us. This is having a very Gaines' Mill feel to it and I'm not a fan. Casualties aren't very heavy(yet), and are in our favor, but it's only a matter of time if we keep losing leaders and stay outnumbered like this.




** 2:16 PM -- Anderson charges on the left, but they'll need more than that to move us. In this kind of fight there aren't many times where cavalry is of much use, but Benning here is in position for a nice counter-charge. Takes out 50 of them over the next few minutes, but even that was expensive as the other rebel infantry find the horsemen to be good targets and take out two dozen of them.




** 2:55PM -- We're getting attacked everywhere and holding so far, but I'm particularly concerned about the left here. Those trees are providing them cover and they are making use of it reasonable well to mass close to our lines. I send Baldwin over here as well for counter-charge duty and focus the artillery on any exposed confederates. Grant will hang out over here for the time being as well as all the infantry we can spare. Seems to be the key spot on the battlefield at the moment.

** 3:02 PM -- Well that didn't go well. Custer was wounded and routed, Benning surrendered, Baldwin wounded and lost most of his command, and yeah the whole thing basically caved in.

** 3:41 PM -- Our whole position has collapsed. The only chance we have now is try, somehow, to form some sort of coherent defense and hold out until II Corps arrives. And they'd better damn arrive. We're in disarray and full retreat.

** 3:45 PM -- I'm instructed to hold until nightfall(fat chance) and that 'the rebels keep coming. They've got courage alright!' Courage? To attack an enemy that is retreating and unable to form a coherent battle line?? Shiloh required courage. This requires merely sense.

** 3:53 PM -- Hood flanks across the bridge to the east, and I desperately rush cavalry over that way to help ... and then we are finally now getting our reinforcements. About bloody time. Heintzelman better get his arse up here, because we're going to lose men by the hundreds if not thousands if he doesn't. Orders are basically that I don't give a damn about the terrain, double-time and get here freaking NOW.

** 4:01 PM -- Baldwin's charge breaks Hoods line, buying us valuable time and even more importantly a vague chance at forming a defensible line. At the moment they've suffered terrible losses and not killed too many of the enemy, but that was big nonetheless.




Most of our infantry is to the west here, cavalry tries to handle the east, Ledlie and MacIntosh repositioning to form our flank over here for the moment. Heintzelman is coming up, but not fast enough.

** 4:13 PM -- We keep most of them from coming down the east, but not all. Hagood and Egan are first on the scene over there. Congratulations boys! Come on down!! You're the next contests on 'Let's Shoot A Yankee'!! They arrive literally just in time. Five minutes later and McIntosh, and who knows what else, would have been attacked on three sides. As it is they took a sandwich volley but somehow managed to not rout. No clue there but kudos to them.




Cover doesn't matter all that much here. Push the bastards back, or at the very least don't collapse. That's about it. They're trying to flank on both sides and we can't let them do that. Meanwhile the rest of III Corps is coming up and estimates are that we have about 22k, 27k for the rebels, on the field. That's actually a potentially sustainable amount if we can get everyone in the field in reasonable positions.

** 4:24 PM -- I'm told a Col. Leroy Elder is wounded. That's rather confusing because I have no unit led by an Elder right now.

** 4:30 PM -- We're making headway on the flanks, but not looking good in the center. Rains, not a particularly large brigade but more skilled and better-equipped than anyone in III Corps, is sent that way to reinforce things.

** 4:38 PM -- In another bad-luck casualty, Col. Darryl Egan is killed though 90% of his brigade remains.

** 4:42 PM -- Looks to be a battle of wills here. Can they crush us in the center before the surge of III Corps down the right flank turns them? Tannatt, Hagood, and Egan are the key 'hinge' on that side, pushing ever further forward.




This is important as well. Wharton(skirmishers) and Carruth here ensure no further flanking nonsense across this river. It was in the fight to control our side of this crossing that Egan fell.

** 5:50 PM -- Officers have gotten hit left and right for the past hour, and brigades regularly routing in the center only to be reformed. Nonetheless we had enough to give better than we were taking and gradually push them back, but the hour was growing late.




Continually we pressed forward, pushing the splintering rebels backwards, but there were not enough hours in the day. We'd lost too much in the mid-afternoon, and darkness fell before we could regain our original position(northwest banner in this shot). Malvern Hill is judged a DRAW, a second in a row.

[Brian Swartz]

Battle Statistics

Strength

Infantry: Union 23,251; Confederate 31,922
Cavalry: Union 1296; Confederate 0
Artillery: Union 1700(68 guns); Confederate 2603(107 guns)

Total: Union 26,247; Confederate 34,525

Losses

Infantry: Union 10,853; Confederate 17,567
Cavalry: Union 401; Confederate 0
Artillery: Union 367(13 guns); Confederate 13(1 gun)
Missing: Union 263; Confederate 0

Total: Union 11,884; Confederate 17,580

Definitely the closest battle we've had in terms of casualties. We lost a lot of men today, though most were raw recruits.

Brigade Performance

** Baldwin -- 72 kills, 239 losses. Yikes.
** Egan -- 992 kills, 325 losses.

Losses were horrific for some of the III Corps units. Canfield had 1822 kills, but sustained almost 1200 losses. Another unit had about 1500 both ways. Seven different brigades lost at least 900 men.

Officers

It was the worst battle of the war so far for our leadership. Ten were wounded; one general, multiple colonels of both ranks, and one captain. Killed in action were Col. Darryl Egan, Maj. Tyrone McIntosh, and Cpt. Andy Carruth. Against that were just two promotions:

** Col. Clyde Canfield is promoted to Brigadier General.
** Cpt. Adrian Truex is now a Major.

Weapons

** Palmetto M1842 -- 255 rescued
** Sharps Model 1855 -- 46 rescued
** Springfield M1842 -- 1954 rescued, 1114 captured
** Springfield M1855 -- 560 rescued
** Hunter -- 40 rescued
** Palmetto M1842 -- 662 captured(same name as the first weapon, which is the cavalry one. This is a rifle)
** Re-Bored Farmer -- 489 captured
** 6pdr Field -- 4 rescued
** M1841 Mississippi -- 318 captured
** MJ&G Type II -- 355 captured

Rewards

** Career Points -- None. Sorry chesapeake, I guess we have to wait.
** Reputation -- +1(40)
** Funding -- $168k
** Recruits -- 11.3k. So basically we broke even in terms of manpower.
** MG George McClellan joins our command as well. We'll have to find a task for him at a lower-level until we have a Corps ready for him.

What now? Well it's time for the 2nd Manassas Campaign, which is a trio of battles covering the last week of August 1862. There's a gap of almost two months after today when both armies lick their wounds.




The rebel army continues to gradually grow. Unfortunately we cannot say the same for ours. I will say that either due to scripting or some other cause, they have been much better in pressing home attacks when they've had the advantage in these last two battles. I've been a little surprised -- definitely saw less ineptness on their part. May have been a patch I overlooked or didn't notice? Regardless, we will definitely be giving the Confederates more respect, esp. when outnumbered.

Looking at the army size allotment going forward, in our next battle at Kettle Run, we are permitted 1 Corps(7 brigades). The one after is 1 Corps(10 brigades), and then the next Grand Battle, 2nd Manassas of course, allows 4 Corps(20 brigades each). Ahem. We have 3 Corps with 12 brigades each. That ... is a 'situation' needing tending to. But we need career points in order to do so. I would say this is a critical point in the campaign. We need to do well in these next two battles, build up our numbers, and expand the army. If we don't ... well, we could be dreaming of a draw at 2nd Manassas.

[Brian Swartz]

Weapons Reference updated, no Career Point decision to be made.

** MJ&G Type II has been added, though we don't have enough of them to be useful yet.
** There's enough for one brigade to potentially purchase the Pattern 1853 Enfeld now. A British rifle that appears to be equal if not slightly superior to the Springfield M1855, for a hair less in terms of price.

Otherwhise it's the usual modest increases in supply of this or that, more Springfields of course, but nothing that's really going to change things a lot.

Barracks

Things were really busy here. With all the officers we had wounded, I've got to spend quite a bit of money on replacements whether I feel like it or not. I also noticed something overlooked before; we did have our first division commander wounded. So that is a thing for certain, just a rare thing. Col. Leroy Elder(III Corps, third Division) in this case. Seemed rather obvious to put McClellan there. Then Race, Kemper, and Scales from the I Corps were put back in charge of their original brigades.

That left three officers free to cover a dozen vacancies(13 if you count the fact that we need to replace the one cavalry unit that was captured). They went to the most capable brigades in need of a new leader, which meant II Corps.

If you're looking for good news, we still have 14 able man in the Barracks(13 after we fill the open brigade spot), even with 10 in the 'Wounded' column. There are also nine brigades that qualified for promotion perks. Overall a little over $7k was spent, 4-5% of our funds for this camp, on commissioning the new guys.

[Brian Swartz]

Army-Level Choices

1. Emphasis. Still leaning slightly to veterans over increasing raw numbers with rookies and weapon upgrades.

2. Reputation Investment. We're at 40, providing a +1 boost to morale. The following options are available:

** $120k(18 Rep.)
** 5k recruits(18 Rep.)
** Springfield M1855 x 4000(15 Rep.)
** Harpers Ferry M1855 x3500(15 Rep.)
** Burnside x 500(7 Rep.)
** 20pdr Parrot x 6(6 Rep.)
** BG Josh Reynolds(6 Rep.)
** BG Winfield Hancock(4 Rep.)

Don't ask me why Reynolds is worth more than Hancock; maybe he starts with more experience. Lots of weapons options here, including the Burnside for the first time. Definitely better than any cavalry weapon we are currently using, but whether it's worth the cost is another matter. Perhaps conserving our reputation or going for one of the infantry rifle options or even the cash would be more useful.

[chesapeake]

By my count, we have about 23K reinforcements after the battle? We need to get those men in uniform.

The new rifles are very tempting. I'd be inclined to jump at the Springfields to outfit 2-3 veteran units that need them so that we can restore the decimated units more cheaply. It would really depend on how many weapons we had in inventory. I know we've got ~3K older Springfields from Malvern Hill that will take care of a lot of those reinforcements.

The risk is that we'd be letting our reputation drop quite a bit. But since we are about to embark on a big streak of victories, I think it is a risk we can afford.

[Brian Swartz]

Do I understand correctly that you are voting for switching emphasis from veterans more towards getting the recruits out there?

On the details, as of this moment we have $160,687 in the bank and 23,159 available recruits; you were right on in terms of what we have available.

Weapons Reference has all the new stuff, but to summarize here as it affects what you said, the relevant available infantry weapons:

** 5531 Re-Bored Farmer
** 3068 Springfield M1842
** 662 Palmetto M1842(that's the one slightly better and more expensive than the Springfield)
** 300 Lorenz
** 560 Springfield M1855

These are the ones we can buy significant quantities of beyond this if we need to. Either one of the infantry-rifle Reputation options would make it easier to add numbers to our better brigades -- IF we can stomach the price.

Campaign Planning

I should also mention that I do think it was arrogant of Gen. Stewart to put III Corps in front for the last battle; we would have struggled either way but rather than trying to get men experience, it's clearly more important right now to win some battles and preserve our men. Therefore the most prepared Corps will take the field from here on out. It's a photo-finish at the moment between I Corps and II Corps; probably going to be II Corps this time due to the way the brigades are picked for these, I Corps for the one after that, giving III Corps time to lick it's wounds and recover before 2nd Manassas.

[Brian Swartz]

Weapons Distribution

Infantry

** Re-bored Farmer(1 brigade, 1625 total, 1 green)
** Springfield M1842(11 brigades, 10112 total, 10 * and 1 green)
** Lorenz(1 brigade, 583 total, 1 **)
** Springfield M1855(6 brigades, 4414 total, 4 ** and 2 *)
** Harpers Ferry M1855(1 brigade, 922 total, 1 **)

Skirmishers

** Hunter(1 brigade, 101 total, 1 green)
** Sharps Model 1855(2 brigades, 561 total, 1 * and 1 green)

Cavalry

** Cook & Brother(1 brigade, 294 total, green)
** Palmetto M1842(1 brigade, 264 total, green)
** Colt M1855(1 brigade, 377 total, 1 *)
** Smith(1 brigade, 532 total, 1 *)

I should mention we may well be switching out the Cook & Brother unit here(III Corps, 1st Division) as we haven't captured any more of those weapons and can't buy any more. As is we don't have enough for that unit to grow and develop.

Artillery

** 6pdr Field(3 brigades, 33 total, 2 * and 1 green)
** 10pdr Ordnance(1 brigade, 14 total, 1 **)
** 12pdr Howitzer(1 brigade, 11 total, 1 green)
** 12pdr Napoleon(2 brigades, 33 total, 1 ** and 1 *)
** 20pdr Parrot(1 brigade, 12 total, 1 *)

[ntndeacon]

I'm still for the slight lean to wards veterans. I am also very wary of dropping our reputation too much. Certainly we don't want the brigades to lose any of the expertise they already have.

[Brian Swartz]

Command Briefings

Army Structure

I Corps(BG James Stewart, 90%ish)
** Wagner
---- Race(Infantry, Springfield M1855)**
---- Scales(Artillery, 10pdr Ordnance)**
** Durrell
---- Kemper(Infantry, Lorenz)**
---- Hoke(Infantry, Re-Bored Farmer)
---- Birney(Carbine Cavalry, Smith)*
---- Seymour(Artillery, 12pdr Napoleon)**
** Loomis
---- Moody(Infantry, Springfield M1842)*
---- York(Infantry, Harpers Ferry M1855)**
---- Pease(Infantry, Springfield M1842)*
---- Wright(Artillery, 12pdr Napoleon)*
II Corps(BG S. Heintzelman, 55%ish)
** McCook
** Liddell
** Church
III Corps(MG Ulysses Grant, 15% or so)
** Lawton
** Ferrero
----- Baldwin(Shock Cavalry, Palmetto M1842)
** McClellan

I Corps

Wagner's Division

Race's Brigade

Col. Gregory Race is at 81% and returns to action.

Alter Ego: Coffee Warlord

Men: 599
Experience: **, 25% to ***
Perks: Endurance Course, Marksman Training

Efficiency: 57
Morale: 75
Stamina: 64
Firearms: 80
Melee: 23

Weapon: Springfield M1855

$43-$44 per veteran, not including the weapon. Up to 121 rookies could be added while maintaining perks, reducing that to $36-37.

Scales's Brigade

Lt. Col. Wade Scales is also back, still at 93% to promotion.

Alter Ego: Qwikshot

Gun Crews: 14
Experience: **, 20% to ***
Perks: Physical Training, Tactical Training

Efficiency: 57
Morale: 88
Stamina: 61
Firearms: 80
Melee: 14

Weapon: 10pdr Ordnance

5k per veteran crew, $1.7k(weapon price) for rookies. Two more to max out at 16 for the current experience level.


Durrell's Division

Col. Rafael Durrell appears to be roughly 80-85% of the way to getting his general's star. It shouldn't be long now.

Alter Ego: ntndeacon

Col. Kemper -- 587 infantry(Lorenz, **, 23%)
Maj. Hoke -- 1625 infantry(Re-Bored Farmer, green, 51%)
Col. Birney -- 532 carbine cavalry(Smith, *, 74%)

Hoke is maxed out for the moment. He may or may not be in line for Springfield 42s before the next battle you are involved in. The other two here can take on new men.


Seymour's Brigade

Lt. Col. Walter Seymour is a lot closer now, 80% of the way to full Colonel.

Alter Ego: DavidCorperial

Gun Crews: 15
Experience: **, 3% to ***
Perks: Logistics, Gunnery Training

Efficiency: 44
Morale: 81
Stamina: 50
Firearms: 86
Melee: 16

Weapon: 12pdr Napoleon

Most accurate artillery in the army and best defensive unit for sure. One more crew is permissible, at about $4.6k.

Loomis's Division

Col. Adam Loomis continues to progress slowly; he's halfway there now, perhaps just a hair over. One wonders if the war will end before he gets his star.

Alter Ego: chesapeake

** Col. Moody -- 2449 Infantry(Springfield M1842, *, 63%). Still looking for that weapon upgrade. Morale is down to 72 with the recent rookie additions but still quite a strength, with the other ratings in the 46-50 range.
** Gen. York -- 922 Infantry(Harpers Ferry M1855, **, 0%). Still the only unit with this weapon, and rebuilding.
** Lt. Col. Pease -- 1864 Infantry(Springfield M1842, *, 0%). Not very good yet, but there are a lot of them and they are adequate at a basic level. Still has room to grow.
** Gen. Wright -- 18 Artillery(12pdr Napoleon, *, 82%). New crews are $3850 each for vets.

II Corps

Nobody left here right now.

III Corps

Baldwin's Brigade

Lt. Col. Bryan Baldwin is wounded; Wade Siegfried is the cdaretaker.

Alter Ego: tarcone

Horsemen: 264
Experience: Green, 66% to *(+7%)
Perks: None

Efficiency: 12(+1)
Morale: 29(+20)
Stamina: 15(+5)
Firearms: 17(+7)
Melee: 20(+4)

Weapon: Palmetto M1842

Not that much positive happened in the first battle but they did make themselves known at a key moment, preventing the rebels from turning our flank. Minimal XP gain but the skills did grow some aside from efficiency. Not counting the weapon, veterans are $23 each, rookies $10 each.


You're on the clock, everyone. With Thanksgiving coming up I won't be proceeding until after the holiday -- Saturday probably, so you have until then. collegesportsfanms, you are once again without a chair after getting yourself killed. If you want back in, just tell me what you want and I'll give you a commission and let you know the situation for your new unit.

[Coffee Warlord]

Keep the reinforcements coming, keep us at 2 stars.

[DavidCorperial]

Up to you on a final crew.

[chesapeake]

I have no problem generally maintaining the current effort to maintain stars of experience with veterans. When I say that we need to get men in uniforms, I think we need to win the next battle and invest in army org. We need to rebuild units where necessary, but we also need several new brigades filled with these new recruits. We were outmanned by the rebs at Gaines and Malvern Hills. Primary focus needs to be on fixing that.

For my division, after growing Pease's brigade to 2k, focus on growing back York's unit. 1500 men for a veteran brigade is plenty. Moody and Wright are fine as is.

[ntndeacon]

we need reinforcements, but keep Kemper's at 2 * and don't go below 50 toward the second star for the cavalry. I am in favor of giving Seymour the extra gun!

[Brian Swartz]

FYI patch 1.09 came out yesterday and is considered the final one by devs. A major emphasis of it was AI improvements(flanking, setting up proper battle lines, etc.). That's something that's definitely improved already from the time I began this project. We could continue find some challenges going forward, but we'll see.

[Brian Swartz]

Camp Results

I Corps

Race's Brigade -- +215, pretty equal numbers of rookies and vets. 814 men now.

Scales' Brigade -- Holding, decided not to add any more crews here due to needs elsewhere.

Durrell's Divison

Kemper -- +294, just over 100 of them rookies. Now at 877.
Hoke -- Due to the number of Springfield 1842s we have, I decided to upgrade here from the Re-Bored Farmers since we could do it for free and still have some to spread around elsewhere.
Birney -- +58 veterans. Per your instructions I could have gone with rookies, but he's good on numbers -- by far the largest cavalry brigade in the army. 590 now.

Seymour's Brigade -- A rare over-rule here. CO doesn't care, division commander wants the extra gun, but who knows what we might capture next battle to possibly get it for free, and more importantly we have a lot of depleted units that need the money. Seymour holds where he is.

Loomis's Division

** Moody -- No changes per orders.
** York -- The division orders resulted in more than 90% of the funds being available here. +287 veterans, for a total of 1209.
** Pease -- +164 veterans, maxing out at 2000.
** Wright -- No changes per orders.

III Corps

Baldwin's Brigade

145 more cavalry were added, to a total now of 409.

Summary

We used up all the Springfields we captured, and bought a lot more -- of both types. I Corps and II Corps are a little under 10k each in total, with III Corps rebounding to about 8100. Approximately 28 thousand in all, about 5-6k below where we were a few months ago but a lot better than things looked after Malvern Hill.

The treasury is spent again($57) with 17,228 recruits in the pool and growing. Not much in the way of weapons that anyone uses. 10 12pdr Howitzers, which isn't quite enough for a new brigade to get them.

II Corps is still looking a bit better than I Corps -- in the first couple of divisions there are still three infantry brigades with less than 900 men. The other one are all raw recruits. Definitely think Stewart will benefit from a little more time to prepare for the next battle. II Corps has a couple of weak brigades as well but things aren't as dire there. Heintzelman remains the guy to hopefully remind the rebels what it's like to crawl away from the field of battle in utter defeat.

[Brian Swartz]

They say we slightly outnumber the enemy, with nearly a 2:1 edge in artillery. But Heintzelman will only have a couple divisions, not his entire Corps, so who knows.







The last two battles we've defended, and met with limited success at best. Perhaps today's counter-attack will change the momentum.

[Brian Swartz]

** August 27, 1862, 4:03 AM. It's still very dark out here -- even the sun isn't up yet. Not particularly verbose in the instructions. As you may have noticed, there is a steep ridge east of the rebel position. Instead of attack along it's slope, I'm going to try to seize those heights. At the outset, there are five infantry brigades(two decent-sized, two small, and one max). A couple are high-quality. We've also got one of our better cavalry units and the long-range 20pdr Parrots under Root. Those would do very well indeed on that hill. Devin's horsemen will lead the way, and if we can secure a position there, we may well be in business.

** OOC Disclaimer: I did this once and got a draw, and replayed it here. I didn't know how limited the time was going to be, and it's such an arbitary cutoff in terms of the info given(nothing about reinforcements, still very early in the morning, etc.) There were no big surprises 'spoiled' for me or anything, so really all that changed the second time is that I knew I had a hard time limit to race against.


We have two hours to get this done. Call it 6 AM for the deadline.

** 4:10 AM. Partway up our side of the hill and no sign of trouble yet. Recon parties indicate the rebels have 9k men in the area and 24 guns, two thousand more than we have and double the artillery. If we do outnumber them, it hasn't shown up yet.




** 4:14 AM. Coming up on the crest of the hill, Devin's cavalry comes under fire from enemy artillery. He'll slide to the northeast behind the ridge, but I need him to find a reasonably secure sighting position to pinpoint where they are so Root can give them a piece of his mind -- and his ammunition.

** 4:21 AM. He finally does so on the edge of some trees. Any approach we make will be over open ground, so I'm hoping to use the elevation to our advantage. The three larger infantry brigades will be in front, two smaller ones in reserve.




** 4:52 AM. Mostly in position on the hill, and we don't have time for any more subtle maneuvering. I spread out the infantry in a long line, Root's artillery focuses on their guns, and everyone moves forward. Hopefully we can sweep them down.

** 5:02 AM -- Devin is surprised by some skirmishers to the north, but soon makes short work of them. Meanwhile the rebels start to give way. Carruth's large brigade stays in position, while the others increasingly look to swing around to the north.




** 5:21 AM -- A little over a half-hour to go and they try to form a defense in the trees ahead of our objective. Trimble breaks here, and we can push forward more. This could be close.




Or not. Just 15 minutes later, a lack of co-ordination on the Confederates part allows us to get into the trees, while Devin sweeps into their artillery on the flank. It's over. The forest makes for a good defensive position, and we mostly hold there, keeping the rebels off to the south. Our supply lines here are safe now.

A small one, but a VICTORY nonetheless.

[Brian Swartz]

Battle Statistics

Strength

Infantry: Union 5,974; Confederate 8,809
Cavalry: Union 451; Confederate 0
Artillery: Union 300(12 guns); Confederate 600(24 guns)

Total: Union 6,725; Confederate 9,409

It was not numbers, but seizing the high ground and general co-ordination of troops that made the difference today.

Losses

Infantry: Union 789; Confederate 2,527
Cavalry: Union 127; Confederate 0
Artillery: Union 0; Confederate 420(16 guns)

Total: Union 916; Confederate 2,927

We decimated their artillery and did well on the infantry comparison. Cavalry continue to take heavy losses, but between the skirmishers and guns on our flanks, they still did very well. Either way I'll take less than a thousand casualties quite happily after the last couple of battles.

Brigade Performance

** Carruth: 393 kills, 454 losses. They had the toughest job, holding the weakest position as the southern end while we swung around to the north.

** Tannatt: 698 kills, 93 losses. On the other end of the spectrum, coming down the steepest part of the hill is a favorable task

** Root: 243 kills, 0 losses. The artillery exchange was very one-sided.

** Devin: 217 kills, 127 losses. We'll need more of them once again.

** Hagood: 804 kills, 204 losses. Right in the middle of the thickest fighting pretty much the whole way.

The smaller units(Hunt, Rains) were kept out of most of the worst of it, and only had 38 casualties between them. They should definitely be stronger in the future.

Officers

We didn't lose any!! Also, Col. Mark Rains is our latest General now.

Weapons

** Springfield M1855: 161 rescued
** Springfield M1842: 218 rescued
** Colt M1855: 61 rescued
** 12pdr Napoleon: 5 captured. How about that.
** Palmetto M1842: 132 captured
** Re-Bored Farmer: 314 captured. Good to see the rebels still using these. That definitely helped overcome their numbers.
** Sharps Model 1855: 60 captured

Rewards

** Career Points: 1
** Reputation: +4
** Funding: $135k
** Recruits: 7.9k

[Brian Swartz]

Career Points Briefing

Been a while since we even got to do one of these.

** Politics(4) -- Increase gold and recruits from + 10% to 12.5%.

** Economy(0) -- Increase weapon discount from 0 to 2.5%%.

** Medicine(2) -- Increase casualty recovery rate from 4 to 6%.

** Training(6) -- Increase the discount on veteran recruits from 15% to 17.5%.

** Army Organization(4) -- Increase the maximum size of the army. We currently have a max of 2 Corps, 3 Divisions, 4 Brigades, and 2000/Brigade. This would give us a 5th Brigade in each Division.

** Logistics(1) -- Increase starting ammunition from +5% to +10% for all brigades.

** Reconnaissance(4) -- Currently we know the enemy army size going in real-time, and while I haven't used it much yet, what Corps/Division/Brigade we are facing. The next level will give us more detail on the individual units they are fielding, described the game only as 'partial info', whatever that means.

Put in yer votes now gents. We proceed on Monday.

[ntndeacon]

Army Organization!

[Coffee Warlord]

Army Organization would be nice, but do we have the manpower and money to support it?

[Brian Swartz]

Manpower definitely; we have 25k recruits right now. That's almost as many as we have in the field(about 27k). Money-wise, it'll add 9 infantry brigades. Most of them will be infantry, and we have 7.5k Re-Bored Farmers we can throw out there if nothing else. So in this particular case I don't think it costs that much money.

I try not to lean too hard on pointing people in the direction of a particular choice, keeping my 'hands off the lever' so to speak. I will say though if we go into 2nd Bull run with 36(current total) brigades -- the max there is 80 -- we are probably going to have a disaster on our hands. It's hard to say for sure because it's one of those where the rebels start small and will get more men later, so I can't get a good read on what their total force will be, but being outnumbered by that much will likely result in a bigger catastrophe than the barely-saved battles at Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill. Granted the rebels did win the battle historically ... but I would think our goal is to not repeat that .

[DavidCorperial]

Army Organization

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by DavidCorperial

Army Organization

Logistics

[chesapeake]

Army Org. Best to do it now so we can blood some of the new brigades at Thoroughfare Gap.