North and South Chapter Five · 3:38am Jan 23rd, 2023
More battles, today, huzzah.
We begin near Alexandria, where Luna, Twilight, and Trixie, are about to fight Hampton's Legion, one of the best equipped rebel armies right now. (Also present, the state militia) Honestly I'm just lucky that the AotS was just a bit out of reinforcement range, or I'd have legitimately been outnumbered, and this fight would probably have ended differently.
I like to think I could have won that battle, but I doubt I'd have preserved my army as well as I have, in that case.
Oh hey we're fighting at Manassas Junction-hey wait a minute...
Today's deployments. I could have probably tried holding the river, but there's about twelve various crossing points, including pontoon bridges. The rebels could have easily - and the AI would have - flanked around me and caused problems. Instead, we form up around the hill overlooking the river, and make our stand there.
With some infantry assistance, my small group of scout cavalry see off the Carolina Militia, infantry and cannons both. I then pull my cavalry off the field, as they took ~40 casualties in that engagement and I want to preserve the unit.
Day two begins pretty much the same as the first day did deployment wise, though I did shift my cannons off to the left so that they could fire effectively onto the enemy line of advance.
Rebel Cavalry pushes up on me first, and I see them off after a few minutes' shooting.
Finally, we wrap the right flank inwards as the infantry advances at my line, eventually causing a mass rout of the confederate line. Could have been better, but could have been much worse considering the quality of my troops and of theirs.
That said, a win is a win, and I'll take it - and their cannons.
We keep half their cannons; meaning the others were likely broken from the fighting, and the rifles are nice to keep, too.
Our first victory with over 20% enemy casualties on rebel soil, woo! This gives them a minor morale hit, and us a minor morale boost. It's nice.
Like in the story, the CSA decided to bypass my line and capture my line of supply in an attempt to force me out of central Virginia, so I sent Lightning Charm (with Wind's support if needed) to deal with the situation.
And yes, since we're assaulting them, they're getting the good, high, defensive ground around the town. If these weren't the regulars, I'd be worried, but with them being the trained regulars, this is quite doable - Lightning Charm might be a snooty, obtuse officer, but she knows her craft well and is quite good at her job.
Our big-ass cannons open up first, far outranging the confederate guns. For reference, our thirty pounder parrots have a range of 3000 yards. The average 10lber parrot (and 3-inch rifles) have a range of ~1800-1850 yards.
We push the confederate left readily, as the infantry uses a fenced cornfield to approach the rebel line. You can see that they've built some minor fortifications, which complicate things slightly, but are no more than a speedbump for our regulars at the end of the day.
If they were needed, Tempest's Corps is here now. I should be okay without them, but I get them marching forwards just in case.
Cherry meanwhile, pushes in the confederate right, folding that section of the line.
Meanwhile, we squish the rebels between the infantry and the cavalry, until they break. As with in the story, Cherry's Cavalry decided to charge in on those units, and took nearly half her force in casualties. She got most of them back, albeit with injuries, but they'll need some time to reconstitute into a fighting force.
Regardless, victory is ours, with much better 1:4 casualties compared to the rebels. Considering the two forces that fought (minus Tempest's Corps) were roughly even on numbers, this is quite good.
Cherry Berry becomes unpopular, leading to me replacing her with another officer for the time being, until time passes or I can find another less important unit to stick her in.
Finally, we unlock parrot rifles this month; now we can purchase our own parrots, of 10lber, 20lber, and yes, 30lber size. We'll buy some of those when feasible, but that's all for now.
