A couple of weeks ago I obtained a copy of Ivy Street Games' At all Hazards, a very low level operational game on the Cold Harbor campaign: half a mile per hex, four turns per day plus one night turn, units are divisions, supply, fatigue, and stragglers are tracked explicitly and supply is replenished from supply units following the army (that are then used up). Sequence of play is using chitpulls (a chit per corps, plus a chit for the supply wagons on each side, leading to nice traffic jams). Overall, this looks to try something similar to what Clash of Arms' Armee du Nord/Iena system or Kevin Zucker's "Days" system does for Napoleonic times. I would argue that this system works better than Zucker's although the conditions in the ACW were of course different. Can't tell since so far my only exposure to Armee du Nord is through John Best's comments here although I have read Ed Wimble's ideas on why he designed the games the way he did and that was interesting enough to probably make me buy them eventually. Well, I liked what I read in the At all Hazards rules enough to set up a game of the introductory scenario, Haw's Shop, and played it through. It starts with both sides' cavalry units in contact and infantry marching up in support. The victory conditions essentially revolve around losses and (in this scenario) pushing the other side back. In the campaign and larger scenarios of course, how close the Union gets to Richmond is a significant factor. 6:30: The Confederate cavalry moves first and attacks Sheridan's cavalry at Haw's Shop in a short an indecisive battle. F.Lee's cavalry takes a step loss, everybody else is disorganised and suffers some stragglers. The Union cavalry starts digging in. 10:00: Both side's cavalry is busy digging trenches; the Union finishes first, while the infantry corps are marching towards the battle. The Confederates have the longer way due to their cavalry's initial advance towards Haw's Shop and must conduct a forced march. They arrive rather winded but cannot yet quite take over the battle line. Now all depends on whether the confederate cavalry can finish their entrenchments before the Union II Corps arrives. 13:30: Hancock moves first and the II Corps marches with two divisions against the right of the Confederate line before their defenses are entirely ready. Hampton realises that resisting the attack would mean being smashed and retires. His cavalry flees through the lines of Rodes' advancing infantry, stopping to regroup behind the Enon church. However, the other cavalry brigades finish their trench preparations. The Union cavalry opposite them could have interfered but with their lines already resting on Haw's Shop the risk of becoming vulnerable by a failed attack seemed to high. I realised a bit belatedly that Hancock could have sent Birney with the 3rd Division around to do the same thing on the right flank. Rodes, warned of the presence of the Union infantry to his front, digs in, while Ramseur and Gordon advance from the march to cover his flanks. 17:00 The Confederates begin to dig in on the wings, but Hancock's attack comes first. He sends Birney around Ramseur's flank in a forced march and a 3:1 attack goes in on the Confederate right flank. Ramseur pulls back after some skirmishing. At this point both sides' troops are almost exhausted and the attackers are disorganised after their advance. In the meantime Sheridan's cavalry has resupplied ammunition. At night, both sides rest, though Ramseur's men do spend part of the night feverishly digging trenches since they expect an assault in the morning. Also, the resting means that both sides will be required to have most units spend a turn resupplying the next day. 6:30: Ramseur finishes his trenches and Gordon's division falls in on his side to protect his flank. The Confederate main line now runs E-W in front of Enon's church. When it's Hancock's turn, he has two options. Send Birney around to the other flank to attack the cavalry (but his men are still not quite recovered), do a full assault along a line that's now 2/3 entrenched, or send Birney alone against Gordon's unentrenched troops. He chooses another alternative and sends Birney on a force march through the woods behind his line, all the way to Pudney's church. That completely changes the complexion of the battle - now the Confederates are outflanked. Of course, Birney's troops are again tired and he is now far from Hancock's supply train. 10:00 As it turns out, Birney's flank march has decided the outcome. At this point, the final result would be a draw. Birney gets the first draw and has a headstart in digging in. (Time of the second photo.) The Confederates would dearly like to dislodge him, but to do so would risk losing Enon Church and turn the battle into a Union defeat. As long as they hold their position, Hancock's other two divisions will be too weak to overcome Early's smaller corps. Conversely, although only one cavalry brigade is between him and the Enon Church, Birney cannot leave Polly Hundley's Corner or Hampton's brigade will simply reoccupy it. The rest of the day ends in a standoff waiting for the arrival of the main armies. Very enjoyable system. Some people might find the record tracks fiddly, but at division level, there are not that many units to keep track of. I really liked the interplay between fatigue, stragglers, and supply. You are constantly on the lookout what you can expect your troops to perform and this enforces a very historical pace of actions as you realise you have to let them rest, or replenish, or reorganise depending on what you have done with them and how you have driven them during the day and the previous days, and if you're unlucky, all three. Frontal assaults, especially of course against entrenched troops, are appropriately bloody, but if you manage to turn a flank you can still lever a strong force out of a good position. There are some draft command rules that look good but are not openly available. The only disadvantage is that the system, at this point, has no fog of war, but it would be easy to introduce some sort of hidden force markers that replace a corps or any unit when it is out of line of sight. Actually, the real disadvantage is that the game is out of print and at this point it seems as if Hampton Newsome won't do any further games. Which is really a shame; he is a real asset to the hobby with a unique and clever vision. His brigade level games (there were four or five I think) had a rather elegant order system although I think the orders were not prescriptive enough to really make a difference. Will have to dig these out again and try them at some point. Markus Last 3 games played: Gunslinger, ASLSK #1, At all Hazards --------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ --------------- "We've got them now." -- last dispatch to General George Crook by General George Armstrong Custer _______________________________________________ Consim-l mailing list Consim-l@mailman.halisp.net http://mailman.halisp.net/mailman/listinfo/consim-l