Monthly Archives: November 2019
Civil War II – An After Action Report! Part 3
1-15 June 1861 (Turn 5)
Summer brings with it clear weather. Normally, this would be an excellent time for an offensive-If the Union army was ready. However, it is not. With the concentration on building up the navy, the Union has only 1.3 times the Confederate land power, a ratio that is insufficient to engage in significant offensive action. Also, many of the Union troops are untrained. The Union also lacks sufficient artillery and supply wagons to venture deep into the Confederacy. And most critically, the Union officer corps is insufficient for a large offensive operation. There are too few officers to command the units I am building and most of them lack the strategic rating needed to reliably move when directed, or adequately command the units they are assigned. This means that any Union offensive will be disjointed, with some units moving, while others stay in place. Further, most formations will be operating at a significant movement and combat penalty, since my officer pool has few officers that can command more than two brigades without penalty. Thus, any offensive action will have to be made en masse, with a large body of division-sized units marching short distances to ensure that some of them reach the objectives. This situation will improve with the addition of divisions in the Union TO&E in October and corps in March 1862. However, until these are available the Union is significantly hamstrung in its offensive capability.
By: Tripoli,
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Civil War II – An After Action Report! Part 2
In the excellent book “How the North Won”, Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones describe the first months of the war as “the two sides steadily grop[ing] towards military preparedness.” That is an apt description of the first few months of my game (April-May 1861). At the start, there are few Union military units and almost all are fixed at various garrisons throughout the US, making military operations impossible. Further, there are no generals to lead them. Lacking both manpower and generals, my initial moves are limited to beginning to build the Union military. However, the economy of the Union is not geared for supporting the rapid buildup of the military. In particular, building naval units requires large amounts of war supplies. The current Union production of war supplies effectively limits naval expansion to only one naval blockade flotilla a turn, along with a few brigades of infantry and possibly a unit of artillery.
By: Tripoli,
Civil War II – An After Action Report!
In this multi-part AAR of Ageod’s Civil War II (“CWII”), I will be playing as the Union. I have very little experience in this game, so I will doubtlessly make a lot of mistakes along the way. I’ve set up the game with the following options:
Tripoli,
Space Beast Terror Fright, oh my!
A little background…I was there when the FPS was invented [que the angels singing], Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament, in the beginning I played them all. Sure, time has marched on, reflexes have dimmed, no more snatching the pebble out of the master’s hand. However, Two hours of play time with Space Beast Terror Fright (“SBTF”), or as I like to call it, “how I can die a dozen times in a half hour simulator”, and an impression has definitely been left on me with a giant kick to my ass!
