War Between the States - 1861

The 1861 campaign is critical to both sides. It sets the pace for the rest of the game. Errors here will dog you the rest of the war.

USA

First Command - Get Grant and put him in Cairo. Get Halleck and put him Cincinnati and make him an AC. Move Lyon to Cairo. McClellan and McDowell should be placed in D.C. and Fort Monroe. Some people bring McDowell west to form a third army group there once enough units are available. I tend to leave him in the East at least through winter to help initiate amphibious landings.

Second is Production - You must bring your navy up to par as quickly as possible. Switch New York to all ironclad production. Start production on as many cruisers as you can. Also start some transports so you will have them available for the winter amphibious operations. A few gunboats on the East coast isn't a bad idea either. In the west you have two main ports capable of gunboat production so put them on it immediately.

To get your army going immediately call a draft on the first turn. The Union has a leadership problem. Both in terms of quality and quantity assuming you aren't using the extra leaders for subordinate rule. You need to increase your number of administrator/engineer leaders relatively early so you can secure your rear areas and prepare to build depots and forts as you advance.

CSA

Command - Oddly the South is the one that lacks Army calibre leaders. I make Joe Johnson a Threater Commander and send him to Memphis. This leaves you two AC's and the loss of a lot of Political Points if you don't fill the spots. Look around for anybody with a high Political rating that can be made AC and do it. You can get rid of them later when you have decent commanders to use and the points gained having them will offset those lost getting rid of them.

CSA Production is a real problem. You have to balance the need to supply your armies and make fortifications against the need for future production through adding factories plus the need for ironclads and artillery. There is no "one" solution to this but here are my recommendations. Put ironclads in production at New Orleans and Memphis. These will help you control the Mississippi a little longer especially if Memphis survives long enough. Put factories in production in Little Rock, Mobile, Charleston, Wilmington, Atlanta and Richmond. Keeping an eye on your need for supplies to build forts try and work in a few heavy artillery.

The key to the South surviving is keeping its supply up and building lots of fortifications. You will have a dozen places you need forts but only have three Administrator/Engineers to place them. You will need to fortify your Kentucky/Tennesse line so it can't be overrun. You will need to fortify your coastal regions so they won't tie so many troops down garrisoning. You want to get all your level two fortifications in place before supply shortages make it impossible. You want to create large cavalry forces so you can neutralize enemy armies by destroying their supply. Balancing these needs will determine how good a strategic commander you are.

Missouri

USA - You want to keep this area from drawing off troops. Springfield is the key to the region. Send a cavalry in on the first turn to overrun it then reinforce it with at least five brigades. You can take the other areas at leisure but keep in mind that Missouri doesn't become part of Union until all are taken. If you can spare a good leader later and an engineer to build fortifications and supply depot you can use Springfield to launch attacks into Arkansas. I usually build up the cavalry unit their to three brigades so you can keep presuure on the South. The only other thing going on in this area is your Theatre Commander (TC) is usually based out of St. Louis. St. Louis requires four brigades to garrison it. Keep them militia so you can use the TC's trianing rating to upgrade them.

CSA - For you the region Fayetteville that connects to Springfield is the critical region. You want to keep an active force here to block any Union Far Western offensives. Most of Arkansas is of little value but Little Rock is. You will want to start building a Factory there so later it can produce war matterial when the Far West gets cut off from the rest of the South. Between Bowie, Tx and Little Rock you can build a forminable Western Confederacy to tie down Union troops. If the Union player fails to keep his defenses up in Springfield you can open a third front here.

Kentucky

The invasion of Kentucky during summer of 1861 is one of the critical campaigns that take place. Obviously the USA player wants to accomplish it quickly and the CSA player wants to upset his plans and drag it out. The map below illustrates the two strategies:

USA

The brighter blue dots and arrows show the initial concentrations of Union troops and their first move on invasion turn. The initial invasion is limited under the new rules and only requires a relatively small force since you can't use overruns or amphibious attacks you are pretty much restricted to taking three areas. On the turn before the invasion you should concentrate large armies in Cairo and Cincinnati. These groups should each contain a Army Commander and as many high attack leaders as you can find. You should also include a lot of small groups built around minor leaders. In Cincinnati it is critical that you concentrate all your available cavalry in one leader groups. I usually spend July turn getting all the troops I can spare moved to the two cities and attack on the August turn.

The objective of the first invasion turn is to take Paducah using at least four units, invade Lexington with a small infantry unit(s) plus one unactivated cavalry, and to take Louisville with one of your cavalry units. Don't move your AC's. Leave them in the Union controled cities with all the troops not needed for the invasion. Except for Paducah the South doesn't have the force to attempt a counter attack. Since they can't get overrun odds you can easily use reaction movement to stop any attack. This turn you will have your first wave of draft troops. Pack them into Cairo in particular with a lesser amount going to Cincinnati. Grant will be your key leader so give him all the troops you can and the best of them. You should have one other "3" leader with Grant at Cairo and two "3" leaders at Cincinnati. Make sure they have adquate forces too. Put in more cavalry in Cincinnati and be sure to keep plenty of one and two unit groups in both locations.

The first turn is a sure thing for the Union. The second phase of the invasion is going to be tougher. Here you are trying to overrun as much of Kentucky as you can and take Humbolt before to South can build up its defenses. The darker blue arrows show the general movement for the second wave. Note the ones from Cairo. This is why you wanted Grant and an AC here. Hopefully the AC gets initiative and if not Grant. If you are lucky you can make a major move against Humbolt with these forces. If not you will have to settle with moving into Paducah and preparing it for next turn invasion of Humbolt. A secondary force will go out of Cairo to use amphibious invasion to take Henderson.

The Cincinnati area has quite a different problem. They have a vast area to invade with small forces. There success depends on how many troops the South sent in to defend the regions of Kentucky that are up for grabs. If you get initiative you can use your large infantry groups to overrun or take the first line of adjacent regions. These include Bowling Green, Lebanon, and Ashland. If you are lucky and can take any of these by overrun you open the way for your cavalry to strike deep into enemy territory before they can get in occupation forces. This is the reason for having all those one unit cavalry groups. If any get initiative they have tremendous reach. Use them to try to take Glascow and London regions. You may even reach into Tennessee. Against the AI it is possible. Most players will put in some blocks.

CSA

I don't recommend the CSA player attempt it's own invasion. It is usually better to build up your forces behind the shield of Kentucky as long as the USA player lets you. On the map the red dots show where I place my defenders. The largest being in Humbolt with supporting units in Memphis ready to react. If you can somehow keep the Union out of Humbolt during the summer you have a chance to hold Memphis. My defense of Kentucky consists mostly of placing speed bumps in the Union way so they can't get overruns. I send every available cavalry unit to the border regions so that on my turn after the Union invasion I can send them deep into Kentucky to overrun all the neutral regions. I try to get a small infantry force into Bowling Green so they have to attack to take it. Maybe the South will get lucky and they won't have initiative. Put two cavalry units in Livingston and Cumberland. You will need one to take the adjacent area by overrun so the second can go deeper. You have no AC's in this area so you are dependent on cavalry doing the invasion since it doesn't need initiative. You can move infantry in where you can using regular movement. You will be surprised how long you can keep the Union away from Nashville without any significant force there.

Virginia

USA

The new rules give incentives for taking the offensive here but generally I don't recommend it. On the first turn there is a special bonus for attacking Manassas and a -10 PP if you don't. I usually make the attack with McDowell but mainly to draw the CSA forces into Manassas and take away their strategic movement during their turn. Otherwise it is a toss up since you could use the turn to take two of the neutral Maryland regions and do some command rearrangements. After that I usually just build up my defenses in Harpers Ferry, Frederick, and Washington. Both to prevent any northern invasions and to maintain a threat on this front. But my primary mission in 1861 is to provide forces for amphibious attacks. I do this by putting McDowell in Ft. Monroe and McClellan in D.C. I then form up a lot of small unit groups, 2-3 infantry, in both locations to maximize the odds that someone will always have initiative for amphibious operations.

CSA

The CSA problem to is to correctly read the Union player's intentions in this area. You don't want to keep any more troops in Virginia than needed to counter the Union moves here. It isn't a place you can easily go on the local offensive like the West provides. Don't defend Winchester and Manassas. I usually put Stuart's cavalry in Manassas where he can burn enemy supplies and railroads. If attacked in force he can easily retreat. The reason for this advice is that these two locations are to far from central Virginia and North Carolina. Your force in Virginia must cover both Viriginia and the North Carolina coast so you want it more centrally located. Even as far south as Petersburg or Appomattox. If you let the Union pull you into Manassas don't be surprised to see it followed by an attack against the North Carolina coast.

Amphibious Operations

USA

The new rules put a damper on amphibious operations through September by doubling the transportation costs. This pretty much limits your invasion forces to two units. But the Union still needs to be testing the South's coastal defenses to keep them honest. You are just limited to regions that have little or no militia generations. Once this limitation rule no longer applies you want to strike at as many targets as you can during the winter of 61. To prepare for this I usually put 4-8 transports in production so I can increase my amphibious force size.

The South's vulnerable coastal regions are the ones that either have no militia mobilization capability or are difficult to reinforce from adjacent areas. If the South is placing their forces properly this usually rules out the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina coasts. But you may still want to test them if you think they are stripping their defenses or moving the mobile forces out of range. Against the AI some of these regions like Port Royal are usually easy to take. The important ones that are lightly defended include Jacksonville and Pensacola. The Forts around the mouth of the Mississippi are a special case that I will discuss separately. Two key areas that have large mobilizations but are difficult to reinforce are Austin and Galveston. They will require large forces with plenty of ship support to take but have a high return in damage done to the South.

After these come the regions that have little value but if part of a grander plan for invading the deep south are worth while. These include Biloxi which will help you cut off New Orleans, Baldwin which can be part of support for Pensacola and drive toward Atlanta, Tallahassee which supports a drive into Georgia, Waycross can also be used to expand a diversion out of Florida, Georgetown can be used to cut off South Carolina from Wilmington, and the North Carolina regions (New Bern, Tyrell, and Elizabeth City) can form a second pincer against Richmond.

CSA

New Orleans

Below is a map of New Orleans and its surrounding regions. New Orleans is critical during the first year of the war because it is the entry point for four ports as well as controlling access to the Mississippi from the ocean. It has two forts guarding the entrance to the Mississippi which is the critical region R1a. Backing this up is New Orleans itself positioned in a swamp and Baton Roughe with its level two fortifications.

USA

The North wants to at least block the Mississippi to cut off supplies. Fortunately for them it is easy if they can take the critical river region, R1a, before the South can protect it. To do it the Union needs to quickly shift 4-6 cruisers into the river. Expect to take loses since the South will probably put heavy artillery in the forts. The new rules make it a bit more difficult by moving the Union ships out of reach of the region for the first turn. This means the South has one turn to build up their defenses. The advantages of taking the river region is it immediately blocks trade to all the Mississippi, it opens the threat of sending ships up the Mississippi to other targets, and it makes it almost impossible for the South to reinforce the forts. Once taken you can pick off the forts at leisure.

Taking the river entrance accomplishes 75% of what you want to do in this area. You will have to decide whether to continue the largement with attacks against New Orleans and Baton Rouge but be warned they are extremely difficult to take by sea.

CSA

This area is a thorn in you side. If the Union makes it's attack correctly you have little chance but if you decide to fight it go all the way. Move two transports and your one lone gunboat into R1a so you can move all your available heavy artillery into one of the Forts. I usually pick Ft. St. Philips to base my defense off of. There is an advantage to Fort Jackson in that if you can withdraw from it into Lousisana. But this also makes it vulnerable to land side attacks from Lafayette. Odds are that you will either defeat the Union feet or lose all your artillery. But if you can manage to hold the entry until you get an ironclad you might be able to keep the Union out of this critical area for the first year.

The question you must always ask is it worth the costs. Not only in men to defend it and artillery to stop the ships, but supplies to maintain them since anytime you don't have a transport in the river these areas will cost you extra supplies. Also a sizable force to support them is required. Against the AI you can usually hold this area and the trade wil compensate you for the costs. Against a player it might be better to concentrate on building up Baton Rouge and New Orleans and stopping them there.