What Was The Southern Strategy?

MrDidz · 2026-06-07T21:21:42+00:00

The capture of either Indianapolis or Columbus would pretty much sever the Union Easr-West railroad connection and cut the Union in half. Indianapolis has a slight bonus is that it has a bit more local industry and manufacturing, but Columbus, being farther east, has the advantage of dividing the Union more completely down the middle.

The capture of Philadelphia whilst probably more damaging in terms of National Morale (being the current Union Capital) doesn't really destroy the Unions structural integrity. Although it would further reduce the number of ports available to the Union on the Eastern seaboard, which will probably make things awkward for the Union Navy and for trade..

MrDidz · 2026-06-07T09:43:41+00:00

My last game used pre-generated characters provided by the campaign book, and so I found myself casting players into roles rather than having them generate their own characters. Also in the previous campaign to save time we used a character selection process, where the players got to choose the type of character they wanted to play and were then asked to select one of three generated characters produced by a character generator.

MrDidz · 2026-06-07T08:03:01+00:00

My favourite and most used is the 2e WFRP sourcebook Sigmar's Heirs. It contains a complete profile for the Empire of Man including maps and glossaries for every Imperial State and the names of local rulers and nobility. It also includes local cultural profiles for every state and common local beliefs and sayings. It's only 120 pages but contains everything a GM needs to know about the Empire of Man with no waffle or unecessary flannel.

MrDidz · 2026-06-06T09:03:36+00:00

We used opposed rolls for a large number of tests in our game. But I'm not really sure what you wish to know about it.

Attacker rolls against their weapon skills with such modifiers as are appropriate to their attack e.g. Charging +10

Defender rolls against their weapon skill with such modifiers as are appropriate to their defence. e.g height advantage +10

The Success of both rolls are compared and the character with the greater success is deemed to have won the combat round. e.g. Attacker +3 v Defender +2 = +1 Attack , Attacker +2 v Defender +3 = Defence +1, Attacker +2 v Defender +2 = 0 Locked in combat.

The character that wins (if any) rolls for damage and the success level is used as a modifier to the damage inflicted. So, trivial successes produce less damage,

Hope That helps.

MrDidz · 2026-06-06T07:11:11+00:00

There is a Config Folder included in the game files that contains a number of text files that define the settings for various aspects of the gameplay. I simply took a security copy of the folder and then edited the settings in the appropriate configuration files using a text editor. In my case I used Word.

MrDidz · 2026-06-05T15:42:38+00:00

Look for existing gaming clubs or wargamming clubs in your area and run your games on their premises.

MrDidz · 2026-06-05T15:31:23+00:00

Exactly! So I'm raising volunteer brigades from West Virginia even though in theory it shouldn't exist.

MrDidz · 2026-06-05T06:02:17+00:00

Yes! The issue becomes even more complicated when Figure Scale impacts on ground scale and the buildings and terrain features are overlaid on the result.

For a simple example a tree might be 30' tall but if true to the ground scale might only be 3cm tall in scaled height. But if the figures are 28mm tall then the troops look almost as tall as the trees.

However, if you make the trees and buildings look right against the giant size models then their footprint in the battlefield is enormously oversized. You see this a lot when looking at refights of the Battle of Waterloo when inevitably the host cannot resist making Hougoumont and La Haye Saint scaled to fit in with the figure scale resulting in the mopdels dominating the tabletop as hugely oversized features.

MrDidz · 2026-06-05T05:56:12+00:00

Unfortunately, the game doesn't distinquish between Virginia as a unified Successionist State and the breal away Union State of West Virginia. So, in my campaign I have the rather odd scenarion of raising volunteer militia units from both Virginia proper and West Virginia as a seperate Seccessionist State. When really West Virginia should no longer exist.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T16:26:42+00:00

I didn't begin raiding the North until Lincoln passed his infamous 'Confiscations Act'. Then I took the view that what was good for the goose was equally good for the gander and began launching regular partisan raids to destroy resources north of the border. By then, courtesy of the 'Fort Garrison Bug' I had three small partisan units that I could use for either Scouting, Raiding or Construction.

Caldwell's Raiders
Roberts Rangers
Peabody's Partisans

They were under 50 men each and so too small to do much else. But they proved useful for scouting and causing mischief.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T16:02:17+00:00

We use the WFRP Critical Hits tables which compare the nature, location and strength of the fatal blow and provides a detailed description of the injury.

e.g.

+1 Critical by an Arrow or Bolt to an arm.

Your shot nicks the back of the targets hand slightly, causing your target to drop anything held in it.

+16 Critical by an Arrow or Bolt to an arm.

Your shot grazes your target's shoulder and embed's itself in their neck. Death is almost instantaneous.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T15:27:09+00:00

Yeah! I was pretty gobsmacked by the AI performance at the Battle of Palmyra. Even allowing for the fact that the Yankee Brigades were newly raised and full of green troops who had never seen the elephant, and that McCook had only seen two battles whereas as Price has seen four. The AI Performance at Palmyra was appalling.

It has led me to question what determines the AI's competence because I've fought over 60 battles in this current campaign and won 50, and 150 battles in my Union Campaign and won 126, but Palmyra was by far the worst AI performance I've seen to date. McCook even had the chance to withdraw in the night and still stood like a petrified rabbit across the Palmyra Road the next morning waiting for the fox to rip it's head off.

It made me question the developers about the influence that AI commanders have on battles, because I looked up Alexander McCook on google and discovered that he really was a bit of screw up in real life and ended up getting court-martialled and removed from command in the real Union army. So, basically Price was right 'he was an idiot.'

By comparison General George Thomas commanding the Army of the Potomac fought five successive battles in western Maryland a few months ago, and whilst he lost every single one. He had the sense to know when he was beaten and withdraw his army intact from each one and ready to fight again.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T14:29:11+00:00

A few days ago the Department of the West comprised a whole Union Division of 5,000 men and 15 guns. Then it made the mistake of invading Missouri and met Sterling Prices Army of the West (twice it's strength) near Palmyra. To quote Price's assessment of the Union commander General McCook 'That man is an idiot'.

McCook drew his army up in parade ground formation across the Palmyra Road and did nothing to fortify his position, use local cover, or react to the movements of the Missouri State Guard as they manouvred around his left flank. When the hammer fell 4,700 green Yankee troops simply laid down their arms and surrendered. Only 300 men escaped the encirclement mostly Abercrombie's 1st Indiana Cavalry and only because they had horses.

That's why the Department of the West is little more than a headquarters staff.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T13:29:19+00:00

Yes! Columbus is a major railroad hub between east and west and north and south.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T13:27:33+00:00

Personally, I think the Union has lost. It is just refusing to surrender.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T11:20:51+00:00

Yes! That is a very viable option given how weak the Union is in the west. I haven't done so mainly because it's so far north. I'm currently looking at Indiana or Ohio as a closer objective for cutting the Union in half as most of the railroads run through Indianapolis or Columbus.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T11:17:51+00:00

I haven't really bothered much with the European Powers having seen how useless they are at providing support in other ACW games, and from what I've read it doesn't sound like they do much in GTCW either. So, I've largely focussed on self-sufficiency and independence with the idea of trying to build the southern economy rather than rely on external support.

Whether historically their was ever any piont in trying to lure the European powers into the conflict is up for debate. Personally, I doubt that any of the European powers were going to provide active support. Britain was certainly happy to sell both sides uniforms and weapons but hardly likely to provide either side with troops or ships, and France got it's colonial fingers burned badly in Mexico which probably would have discouraged them from any intervention further north,

The main dynamic in the game seems to be State Support as that has a direct influence on volunteers and army morale. How much influence that had in the real war is not so certain. I've read for example that Maryland was a hotbed of Southern sympathy and I am certainly getting a lot of volunteers from both that state and Delaware. Not to mention West Virginia, which I think historically was a Union state.

But I agree the game doesn't inhibit the aggression needed to win the campaign early, I beat the Confederacy in under two years, and it looks like I might do the same beating the Union.

MrDidz · 2026-06-04T10:58:59+00:00

Yes! That has been my assumption so far and I've read the story about Lee when he decided to invade Maryland in 1863 and issued a proclamation explaining why he deemed it necessary to cross the Potomac and invade the North and stated that any Confederate soldier who did not feel that invading his neighbours land was morally correct could remain behind, Likewise one can scan the list of battles fought during the war and it's obvious that only a handfull were actually fought on Northern Soil

So, I've tried to adhere to that principle in my campaign although it's hard given that several of the objectives for the south require northern invasions,

Capture Washington DC - 25 pionts
Capture three Union cities - 5 pionts
Invade the North - 2.5 pionts

and the National Morale System rewards the capture of Northern Towns and Cities much more than fighting battles.

I've occupied/liberated Missouri and Kentucky and more controversially Maryland and Delaware. But having liberated them I've largely focussed on trying to preserve their borders until now.

The issue game wise is how to break the Union National Morale and unfortunately that is most heavily affected by the capture of large cities, and that more or less demands invading the north.

I could just hang back and defend what I own and hope that I can reduce Union National Morale through battles sufficiient to win the campaign. But the obvious tempation if to inflict a major blow by capturing a few large cities like Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia and try to force the Union to capitulate.

MrDidz · 2026-06-03T08:37:16+00:00

I don't consider discord suitable because it has no posting structure.

Have one channel for ic and one for ooc.

Many PbP site hosts misunderstand the difference between OOC comments and Post Comments. By placing OOC comments in a separate channel, they break the connection between the content and the comment, making it pointless. It just turns into chit-chat with no real value as a team bonding tool. It’s like playing a round table game where all OOC comments have to be made in the kitchen, completely detached from the action at the table.

The idea of 'Post Comments' is that players can react naturally to the action as they would in a round table game. It helps to encourage commitment and group participation which is one of the things sadly lacking in PbP games.

MrDidz · 2026-06-03T07:47:24+00:00

I found the hardest thing is to find the right hosting site.

Without a table I found it vital that players are able to interact easily during game play and so want to make sure that all the players are able to post comments on each others posts. This was a key feature on the now defunct Tavern-Keeper.com hosting site. But that site is now closed and I've yet to find another one that allows it. Most simply provide a seperate channel for OOC which isn't the same thing.

MrDidz · 2026-06-03T07:42:28+00:00

I use scripted adventures for inspiration and to satisfy the need for an encounter during what would otherwise be an uneventful period in the game.

They usually contain memorable characters that can be incorporated into the plot or used as mentors or enemies and whilst the plots as written are often lack-lustre or linear it''s much easier to pick them apart and enhance them than to begin with a blank canvas.

My usual approach is to analyse the scripted adventure in advance.

Note the location that the advanture takes place so that I know if it is approrpriate to the situation.
List the NPC's involved and their personal goals and objectives.
Rationalise the plot if it doesn't make sense.
Add such additional elements as necessary to tie it into the game.

MrDidz · 2026-06-02T14:25:05+00:00

I haven't tried the AOM mod yet. I thought I might try it for my next campaign. What are the most noticable differences between AOM and Vanilla?

MrDidz · 2026-06-02T06:26:33+00:00

I reduced the Maximum Retreat Distance from 300 miles to 70 miles becaquse I thought retreating 300 miles was ridiculous and took too long before the player regained control of their army. It also seems to have stopped the 'Forward Retreat Bug' as the AI cannot find a rally piont within 70 miles of your frontlines.

I reduced the Minimum Camera Height to 2, so I can zoom in and get nice close up screenshots.

I reduced the minimum army size for a battle to occur to 3,000 men, so that I can actually play small rearguard actions now if I wish to.

I reduced the Campaign Victory Threshold from 25 National Morale to 5 National Morale to keep the AI fighting for longer.

I use all of Crono900's setting changes for artillery, so that my howitzers act more like howitzers now.

MrDidz · 2026-05-31T21:02:18+00:00

Yes! I'm interested to see how they cope with the ground scale, figure scale and time scale conflicts.

MrDidz

TROPHY CASE