Over Christmas, I activated my copy of Campaigns of Robert E. Lee and played the Peninsular Campaign from CoREL for the first time, after it had been set up on the table for about 4-5 weeks. Clearly an interesting situation, and we'll see if we need to replace Johnston with Lee. The Union has 6 Activation points to spend in bidding vs 4 from the Confederates. That usually means the Union will get the first impulses but there will be at least 2 per side. Started out moving McClellan into an attack position on Magruder's blocking force near Yorktown, the logical move to make. Then I begin to see the problem. McClellan needs to roll a 1 to attack. If he fails, he retreats one hex, loses a step, and one morale level. Predictably, he fails the first time. No problem, McClellan has 5 Activation points per turn, and the Union replacement points can keep up with this type of loss. Johnston is still far from Richmond. Turn 2: McClellan fails again. If he fails again, most of his force will be broken. So I think about falling back to his landing areas to let him gain some morale - sorry, won't work. You need a major city for that. So I find myself trying to replace McClellan on turn 2. In fact you can do it, since he just lost 2 Morale Levels in one turn which qualifies him for replacement. The game really works! Or does it? While replacing him should certainly be a viable proposition, he did make it almost up to Richmond. Then I realised that in fact the game expects you to fight McClellan's battles the way McClellan did: you send out your troops and let them fight for you. So I started again. Turn 1: McClellan sends out Heinzelman with Sumner as subordinate to attack Magruder (Sumner is far better than Heinzelman but has only one star so Heinzelman commands). Like McClellan, Heinzelman fails his roll and falls back. His Administrative rating is only two, precluding another attack this turn. At the end of the turn, Porter and Franklin arrive by naval transport. So on the next turn, Porter is sent off commanding Keyes of IV Corps (the other one star leader apart from Sumner who started out with McClellan, and therefore the only one left who Porter can command). He moves adjacent to Magruder, but fails, too. This is starting to be bad luck, he had a 2/3 chance of making the attack. However, Porter's 5 AP rating means he can try again. This time we'll let Heinzelman attack the neighbouring entrenchments, so that if Porter doesn't make it, next turn there will be a double attack. (Probably the last chance to defeat Magruder's line before the ANV finally arrives.) Both Porter and Heinzelman attack this time. Even with the hit from his first rebound, Porter still commands an awesome 58 points, and with 5 guns total and his '4' Battle Rating should do well even against Magruder's entrenchments. He rolls a 5, resulting in 14 and 2R2. However he is again just slightly unlucky as Magruder rolls a 6, 1R2*. The Union morale is increased but since the Confederates have one hex retreat canceled, Porter again must fall back (he will make a great scapegoat in McClellan's dispatches if he's asked why there's no progress). However, Heinzelman's assault against the entrenchments to the south goes without a hitch; next turn he will be in place to launch his own attack. On the Confederate side, Magruder paid the price for his elan; he was killed in the battle. However that is a mixed blessing for the Union since no Confederate leader in the pool has an inferior battle rating. The replacement for Magruder is Anderson, who has a 4 instead of Magruder's 3. (However, Confederate WEPs are now down to 170.) By now, both Porter and Anderson are low on ammunition and have to keep replenishing after every battle. Anderson chooses to fall back towards Yorktown rather than counterattack Heinzelman. Turn 3: It's thawing again. McClellan doesn't even bother moving from his start position. Fortunately, Johnston's advance is also slowed to a crawl (I probably should have started him force marching). Heinzelman fails his attack declaration and retreats, but Porter finally manages to get a result that has neither side retreating. As a result, on the Confederate impulse, Anderson falls back from Yorktown rather than counterattack Porter's force. Ironically, Porter's subsequent assault on the entrenchments fails to gain any results. Turn 4: The weather is still Thaw. Finally, Porter takes the center of the Confederate line. Anderson prefers to fall back. On the next impulse, Porter marches adjacent and attacks. The ANV is actually within range now, but Johnston fails his reaction roll. However, Porter is again unlucky. For the fourth time, he causes two losses while suffering one, but again the retreat result is in favour of Anderson. Turn 5: Light Rain. Porter has pretty much given up; he waits at Williamsburg for McClellan to catch up and McClellan finally does. Johnston finally arrives and takes over first line duties from Anderson, who is sent west to cover the Depot at White House from Union naval assaults. He doesn't quite get there but it should be enough. Ironically, while it is almost inconceivable that the Union troops should still reach Richmond (half the scenario is already over), they do have a comfortable lead in victory points due to the Confederates having suffered double their losses, and the death of Magruder. However, turn 6 is more Light Rain and because he is trying to bring McClellan to bay, Johnston bids for a single impulse that results in his not moving at all. The same, ironically, is true of McClellan. Turn 7 should see more action. On Turn 7 it turns to full rain. Anderson ends up back covering the White House Depot. The Union actually bids 4 again to enable McClellan to fall back a bit (not too far, one doesn't want to run out of retreat space). Of course he rolls high and fails. Johnston is more decisive (MR and BR of 4) - he closes and attacks! This results in an attack at strength 92, modifier 10, and defense at 111+ (actually 135), modifier 10. McClellan's higher ML doesn't help him as he's already maxed out on the FERT columns. Both sides roll a 1 (in the end only the Confederates lose a Gun). This means a result of 2R for the Confederates and 2R2 for the Union. So Johnston retreats. Both sides fill up with ammunition. The Confederates sponsor a wagon at White House (a railroad depot). On Turn 8, the weather finally clears up. The Union bids 5 to retreat and McClellan almost makes it back all the 4 hexes to Fort Monroe. Johnston only manages 1 MP and decides not to move outside his supply range while the wagon has not arrived. However, he decides to call for Anderson who manages 6MP out of White House. On the second impulse, McClellan (predictably) does not move, while Johnston leaps forward. The wagon arrives in its position SW of Yorktown and Anderson joins up with Johnston. Johnston uses his second AP to join Anderson in and his last AP to try and launch an attack. He succeeds. Now, with Anderson, the Confederates are suddenly on the same strength level as the Union, and with his two Guns, they have a modifier of +13 compared to the Union's +11. Johnston rolls a 1, McClellan rolls a 4. Initially I read this as a "3R" for the Confederates and a "3R2*" for McClellan - McClellan triumphs again! (Although in game terms this outcome would again reduce the Union lead by 1 point.) Even if in a completely defensive manner - but this is how one must use him. Now if he just marched a bit faster... Then I realised that I had overlooked the minor river between the two positions. This means a -1 column shift for the Confederates. It also means a -1 shift for the Union but since the Union gets a +1 shift for the better morale they stay on the same column and their result stays the same. However, the Confederate result gets changed to a 2R4, making them the victor of the battle albeit at the cost of losing another VP, at least initially. (Perhaps people are beginning to see a pattern here. See "Analysis" below for my thoughts on those two combat results.) Anyway, since McClellan had retreated to within one hex of Fort Monroe, the 2 hex retreat result is it for him - he cannot conduct the full retreat and per the rules his army is captured. Game over. Should have left a bit more space. A weird aspect of the is that retreating into Fort Monroe wouldn't have saved him since the entrenchments' retreat-canceling effect only applies to troops that are attacked in them, not those that retreat into them. Since other games treat fortifications in that fashion it seems like a sensible houserule. In that case the battle outcome would merely have served to cement the Union lead before McClellan ignominiously pulls the door shut for a marginal victory. After I finished I found out that I had been playing the Cav superiority rule wrong which would have given the Union an additional -2 modifier in the battles against Johnston. Oh well. After finishing this, I thought I'd play something else but by the next morning my interest level was again so high that I started setting up the 2nd Manassas scenario. Stay tuned... Markus Last 3 games played: Patton's Best, October War, Campaigns of Robert E.Lee --------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ --------------- "Bakayaro! Bakayaro!" ("Stupid Bastards! Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942 After mastering the initial difficulties with the Peninsular Campaign scenario (which it turns out were due to my having to learn the historical lessons), I like the game even more. It moves fairly well and while there is a lot to keep track off, as with most other operational systems there are not that many actions per turn to execute, so it moves at a fair clip. Overall this seems to be a very effective ACW counterpart to Zucker's Napoleonic stuff with actually fewer rules. And although I have not really had an opportunity to use them in solo play, the fog of war rules are cool. As in the Zucker games, it's easy to keep information about who's where away from the other player, and which other game allows you to hire Pinkerton agents or launch observation balloons to find out who you're facing? One thing that works ok but (as usual) seems it could stand some slight improvement is the CRT. Now, others have pointed out that the CRT, while supposedly scaling up naturally (after all, it's fire strength based), doesn't. Either that, or some constant factor (perhaps terrain effects or leader ratings) screws it up. Otherwise there would have been no reason to introduce the FERT modifiers in Army of the Heartland. However, I've found another bit that irritates me, and that is the regularity of loss and retreat results. The CRT is arranged in bands: First results that cause no loss, then results that cause one loss, then results that cause two etc. Within each of those bands, retreats start from low (none or 1 hex) and go higher up to 3 or 4. The loss results give VPs and increase morale. The retreat results make you win the battle and lower enemy morale. The bands are cleverly chosen just so wide that over any D6 spread of outcomes you will get an average increase of retreats with higher fire columns *and* higher modifiers. And yet, that means within each band, there will be only one switch in losses, i.e., on average losses and retreat results will be inversely related. And that means that the guy who causes more losses typically loses the battle. This was most noticeable in Porter's attacks as described above. I played two large battles with Johnston attacking McClellan. In these, because I inadvertently omitted McClellan's army reserve guns, the Confederates actually had a modifier advantage (4 Guns+4 BR+3 Cav Sup -1 rain=10, against the Union 6 Guns+1 McClellan BR -1 rain=6). And twice, on equal or higher rolls, they caused double the losses (catching up VPs) but lost the battle, as Porter had earlier. Now, is that intentional? I'm not sure. (I'd love to hear John Prados' view about this.) It would be trivial to fix - simply roll *two* dice for each side, one for losses, one for retreat (similar to what's done in The Legend Begins, a game I greatly admire). The question is whether that could mean too much of an advantage once battle is joined. On the other hand, isn't that what normally happened? You feint a lot, armies come together, more likely than not an army is crushed either in the encounter or in the ensuing pursuit, Here this outcome seems to be very difficult to achieve. So unless someone convinces me it's a bad idea, I'll give the two-dice method a try in the next scenario. As an aside, the above point in the game (where I lost track of McClellan's guns) was where I started using Army of the Heartland markers on the leader tracks instead of the original Campaigns of Robert E. Lee ones. For those who do not know the game (but I've probably lost them anyway by this time), forces keep track of their morale, remaining orders, remaining ammo, and artillery by markers on numbered tracks. This works fine except that in CoREL, all the markers have the same orange background and are distinguished among themselves only by text and little Rick Barber drawings. The Barber drawings are beautiful to behold when examined up close, and the markers stand out nicely from the unit counters. However, when trying to get an overview of the situation, such as adding up all the guns of the leaders in an army before a battle, increasing morale, or deducting ammo, having to distinguish between the markers really muddles up any chance of quickly picking up the needed info. Even with monochrome markers, a lot more could have been done to differentiate types, e.g., shading their background in different shades of gray (such as gun counters: black background, morale counters, orange background). I actually thought about applying some shading (similar to the way I filled in the gun outlines of my Landships counters to make MG units stand out from rifle units which is absolutely critical and was a royal pain before I marked the counters), but with Army of the Heartland that problem has been solved. Even better, the AotH markers are completely generic over each type, unlike the CoREL markers which had a few sets of separate "Army" and numbered "Corps" markers - a nice idea but turns out to be a real pain during setup as you hunt for the correct markers. I haven't played enough yet to understand all the tactical nuances. What I found interesting is that the game seems to provide no incentive But to engage in multi-hex attacks. So are multi-hex attacks only for those cases where one cannot fit all forces in one hex? But then the example in the rules would seem to be based on bad play, why doesn't Meade simply pull the other two forces in and run one attack at 108 with total modifier of +16?? Let's check the outcomes. Since we only want to compare average results, we'll simply add the outcomes of *all results*. (To come up with average results, divide losses and retreats by 6.) Total Average Hancock: 28, +9DR: 8R15** 1.3R2.5 Meade: 30+1 shift, +9: 9R14* 1.5R2.3 Reynolds: 42+1, DR +7: 8R14* 1.3R2.3 Total: 25R43**** 4.2R7.2 (2/3*) Lee 1: 63+1, DR +13: 16R17* Lee 2: 63, DR+13 : 15R15** Lee 3: 63-1, DR+13: 14R14** Total: 45R46***** 7.5R7.6 And now the single attack: Meade 108, +16: 22R17* 3.7R2.8 Lee: 63+1, +13: 16R17* 2.7R2.8 Obviously, far better (relatively) for the attacker to go in one attack. The only reason to do it this way would be to achieve faster attrition, but since each Union step loss typically means more combat points lost per step than for the Confederates, attrition at a 1.5:1 ratio is not really a game the Union wants to play. Just out of curiosity I tried out two (cumulative) shifts instead of one (max) for each subsequent attack. Initially I remembered that one of the problems of the CoA operational ACW area movement series was that flank attacks made no sense given the way the combat system worked and wondered whether same principle was at work here.) Let's take a look at the outcomes in this case. Hancock: 28, +9: 8R15** 1.3R2.5 Meade: 30+2 shift, +9DR: 10R13** 1.7R2.2 Reynolds: 42+4, DR +7: 11R13** 1.8R2.2 Total: 29R41****** 4.8R6.8 (2/3*) Lee 1: 63+1, DR +13: 16R17* Lee 2: 63-1, DR+13 : 14R14** Lee 3: 63-3, DR+13: 12R13* Total: 42R44***** 7R7.4 Closer, but still strongly favoring the defender over the attacker despite massive attack superiority. 7:4 would have been considered a very good chance at a battle victory historically, but here that's not the case. We would need to replace by a doddering 2-rated leader to give Meade's forces (well led with an average leader BR of more than four!) the advantage. Come on, three armies converging under excellent leaders will need a total dolt to even achieve a stalemate? That sounds a bit strange. Originally I thought the FERT was set up so that column shifts merely express "brute force" and the factors that affect it, while the dieroll modifiers express force multipliers (such as leader quality, cavalry, and artillery). Unfortunately that's not true, trying a +/-2 DRM gives us exactly the same results since the results simply shift up one row with every column we move to the right. The only exception are some rare results in the top left quadrant. This is an interesting point: Why then does the FERT bother with column shifts *at all*?? All combat modifiers could simply have been expressed by DRMs. (Ironically that means it is possible to express the FERT in two tables with about 50 entries instead of 300, I'll post that version of the table on my website. It's almost as if someone was trying to hide the regularity.) Anyway, multiple attacking forces do seem to be undervalued given that we need separate attack dierolls anyway and so it is difficult to pull off (let's not forget that even with those three excellent leaders, there is about a 50% chance that one of them will not participate, something the example elegantly omits). I'm undecided yet whether this is really a bug or (given the scale of the game, where coming in from different hexes might mean a flanking force comes in a day or so late) a feature. An interesting option would be to force the defender to apportion his force to the separate attacks in any fraction chosen, and ditch all the "combined battle" FERT shifts. That change would both increase the importance of accurate scouting, and correspond more closely to how multiple attacking columns did affect the defender, *if* we assume such attacks were coordinated. (And I think we are supposed to think they are, otherwise why have the separate Declaration of Attack rolls?) Ultimately the question is whether the game system assumes that such multi-hex attacks are (a) desperate measures by forces that can't manage to hit a foe from the same hex, or have to march separated so as to guard their supply path, or (b) successful but hard-to-coordinate attempts at outflanking. With one-day to multi-day impulses it's hard to tell, but it seems as if (a) is the designer's assumption here. Have to do some more playing to try out how often these situations really occur. Markus Last 3 games played: Patton's Best, October War, Campaigns of Robert E.Lee --------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ --------------- "Bakayaro! Bakayaro!" ("Stupid Bastards! Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942 This scenario has a really interesting starting situation. McClellan starts out close to Richmond, but in Richmond there's Lee who's almost as strong. In the north there is Pope, but he's weak right now as two of his corps are strung out westwards (protecting his supply line? Not sure what they were doing there). To make it worse, they're led by those fumblers, Banks and Sigel. Porter's V Corps is being transported north and won't be available on the first turn. (Interestingly enough, it's 20MP from Harrison's Landing to the Depot at Falmouth north of Fredericksburg, so McClellan can move from one to the other while staying in supply. Of course at his low Movement Rating, that may take some time. The depot is guarded by a single division in Fredericksburg. Also, this scenario differs from the previous one because Union and risk. Confederate morale are now the same, the Union War Efforts Point (WEP) level is almost as low as the Confederate one, and Confederate Operational Effort exceeds the Union one. Overall, this indicates that the Confederates will bid four to get the first move - the Union position is just too inviting, both the Fredericksburg position and Sigel's Corps in the West. The Union bids two - ending up with an initiative of 1 might lead to no one moving, it would be just too great a risk. So the Confederates move first. Both Lee and Jackson reach their targets without a problem. D.H.Hill is sent to the southeastern defenses of Richmond just in case McClellan gets funny ideas. Lee attacks and Jackson doesn't even have to check. Not sure if he's not a bit too highly rated in this game, I don't think he should come off better than Longstreet really, and his total ratings are better than Lee's! Lee attacks the single division but decides not to use his guns. At 37-1+4 he rolls a 4 and scores a mere 1R. The Union troops also roll a 4. Ironically they miss a '*' result because they get a column shift because of their higher morale. Well, that'll teach them. They retreat across the Rappahannock. The morale of the ANV is raised and the Confederates occupy Fredericksburg. Lee has two APs left, which will enable him to try and cross the river if no one comes to the aid of the defenders. Next, Jackson's attack on Sigel. Jackson, unlike Lee, decides to use his guns. (He has enough ammunition for two battles, and he also has an order left to try and get back to his start location if he doesn't get an immediate advantage.) He also has cavalry superiority. This means he attacks at 67-1+6+3+6=67+14DRM vs Sigel's 25+1-1+2=25+2DRM. Jackson (rolling a 1) gets a 2R3 result, Sigel (rolling a 3) gets no result. As a result, Sigel is thrown back beyond Thornton's Gap, while Jackson takes possession of Jerryville. On the Union Impulse, McClellan (whose easy path to Washington is now blocked) does not even quite get to the gates of Richmond. Sigel manages to inch a single hex closer to the depot at Front Royal, Banks merely elects to fall back from Thornton Gap rather than attack Jackson, and Pope decides not to move at all. Heintzelman and Reno march south from Washington but will be too slow to reinforce the Falmouth Depot. Lee now has the choice of forcing the river at Fredericksburg or trying to get across the river at Falmouth. Jackson can decide to stay where he is or grap the Depot at Front Royal. (The disadvantage of that is that his supply will have to rely on the Depot; the advantage is that he will cut Sigel and Banks completely off from their LOS.) It turns out that this doesn't matter as Jackson does not get enough MP's; he falls back to Culpepper. Lee smashes the division and crosses the river. The Depot at Falmouth now cannot be relieved by Union troops, so in its Impulse, the Union destroys the Depot to avoid its capture. Franklin is sent off by McClellan to test the defenses of Richmond, both he and Hill take losses but there is no ground gained. Sigel does not quite link up with Pope but at least gets within reaction range. Heintzelman and Reno fall back on Alexandria. Both sides spend a lot of WEPs on replenishing ammunition. Porter arrives in Washington and is given command over the newly arrived reinforcement division. Turn 2: McClellan's previous turn's maneuvering has led to Lee being just in reach of Harrison's Landing if he should roll 18 MPs. That is so juicy a target that one cannot let it pass. Therefore the Confederates gamble on this happening and bid all 5 OE immediately (they can't rely on a 4 OE bid because the Union has more WEP). This means they will only get one Impulse but then, Jackson, who has the better targets around right now, couldn't conduct two set piece battles anyway. (Although, as it turns out, he is so well placed against his current crop of enemies that he could easily run the -2 risk of an attack from the march.) Indeed, Lee rolls the 18, races back south, and marches into Harrison's Landing while himself remaining (for the time being) in Full Supply. Actual Capture is not possible though as he doesn't have a wagon with him. Anderson rolls a 3, remains behind, and decides to attack the Union cavalry unit in the vicinity. He fails and falls back to Falmouth. Likewise, Hill's sortie is a bit of a disaster - with 13+3 attacking Franklin with 37+8, Franklin suffers no loss while subjecting Hill to a 1R3. However, that will be Franklin's swan song as it seems unavoidable that he and McClellan will have to retreat. Jackson only rolls a 12 and despite Lee's now being engaged near Richmond, decides to try and go for a direct assault on Pope in Warrenton, who has only one Corps with him right now. (This is made more spicy in that he can only remain in Full Supply by inserting himself between Sigel and Pope). Jackson with his 67+15 versus Pope's 38+8 seems pretty good. Pope in fact rolls a 1 and loses a gun, achieving a 1R2. Jackson rolls a 6 and gets 4R3, throwing Pope out of Warrenton and (as importantly) capturing level 3 Depot that Pope was sitting on. This will compensate for his being out of full supply. Pope is forced to retreat northwards. (Actually Jackson has few options - if he sends Pope to the northeast he could conceivably pin him in place until Porter comes in, and to the northwest he would be next to Sigel. Even Sigel might be able to generate a single MP to join Pope.) In the Union Impulse, there is an interesting question to answer. Franklin has enough ammunition left for one assault on the currently manned but not reinforced entrenchments, but that won't give him the city (where a reinforcement brigade will appear to reinforce the city militia). And McClellan obviously has to start to fall back immediately on Fort Monroe, but with only one Corps accompanying him, without Franklin he will be easy prey for Lee. So Franklin has to start falling back as well. Predictably, McClellan refuses to budge from his location at Glendale, but Franklin manages to generate 4 MP, sufficient to fall back and rejoin the Army of the Potomac. In the north, it's Sigel (out in the open) and Heintzelman (now in Alexandria) who don't budge but Pope manages enough MPs to join with Sigel and give himself the semblance of a fighting force. He's also protecting the Manassas railroad, while Banks, in an impressive display of energy, finally leaves Thorton's Gap to fall back on the Depot in Front Royal. Porter is racing out from Washington and makes it to Centerville, so Pope's LOS is secure for now. The Union unsurprisingly decides to deplete Harrison's Landing, which will give Lee one Devastation attempt at the end of the turn. (Thus, he will have to decide between attacking McClellan or first maximizing Devastation.) On top of everything, this turn, Strategic attrition hits the Union pretty hard, with both McClellan and Pope rolling badly and losing two steps (McClellan, because he is in Combat Supply, and Pope, because he rolls badly). Finally, the Union has dropped below the Confederates in WEP level due to its double Impulse. Turn 3: The Union has to go for multiple Impulses because it cannot rely on McClellan getting moving in one Impulse. So it bids 2, the Confederates bid 3. Lee marches to Malvern Hill, to attack McClellan down its slopes. Jackson destroys the remainder of the Depot at Warrenton rather than split his force. He moves to just north of Waterloo and prepares to give battle to Pope again. Lee attacks McClellan with a strength of 42. He gets a -1 for the woods, a +1 for superior morale. He gets a total +13 DRM for guns and his battle rating. McClellan, who could not replace his losses as he's not in Full Supply, fights back with strength 61, and a modifier of +6 for his guns and battle rating. Lee rolls a 4 and McClellan a 5, giving Lee a 2R3 and McClellan a 1R4* result, making McClellan the victor of the battle, but bringing the Confederates up to 10 VP. Jackson attacks with a current force of 69 and a modifier of +12 (no more cavalry superiority!). Pope now defends with a strength of 50 and a modifier of +9. With rolls 4, Jackson gets a result of 3R and Pope a 1R4*. Meaning that yet again the side with weaker strength, worse leader, lower modifier, and same dieroll has won the battle and Jackson would have pushed back 3 hexes. In the next game I'll definitely be playing with a separate retreat dieroll. Jackson retreats all the way to Brandy Station. In fact this may be the moment to lose Pope, just fall back and complete the destruction of McClellan. In his Impulse, Pope collects Porter but can't do much more. Banks, still protecting Pope's LOS, is allowed to go Inactive. McClellan, in desperation, tries to Force March, and succeeds! This enables him to crawl all of three hexes to the Charles City Courthouse. In fact though this is not a bad outcome as now he is merely one hex out of supply range. If Lee, who still outshines him in morale (and now ammunition), attacks him again, most likely he'll push McClellan back into his supply range. This hatches a nasty plan. 2nd Confederate Impulse. The plan works, at least as far as movement is concerned. Jackson follows McClellan's example, (easily) manages a Forced March, and sweeps 24 hexes down from Brandy Station to cut off McClellan's retreat. An epic march, and McClellan is now caught, with limited ammo and outside supply range, between Lee's and Jackson's pincers. That will be interesting. In other Confederate movement, Anderson marches from Fredericksburg to Gordonsville to garrison the Depot and is Inactivated there. McClellan now defends with strength 47, 6 guns, and has no cavalry. Lee attacks with 41+8 guns +1(morale) -2(woods and town) +5(leader)=41+14 against 47+7. Jackson has pretty much run out of artillery ammo and so attacks with a mere 35 (halved for force march)+1(Stuart's guns) +1(combined attack) +1(morale) -2(woods and town) +6(leader) +3(cavalry)=17+10 against 47+4 (-2 Confederate cav superiority and the FERT shift). Lee rolls a 4 resulting in 2R4, and McClellan a 6, resulting in 1R2. Jackson rolls a 6, giving a 2R, and McClellan a 2, resulting in 1R. Therefore the Confederate total is 4R4 and the Union one 2R2. McClellan has to retreat through Jackson's ZOC, losing another ML and another step. Two divisions are destroyed, he ends up with six divisions left, only one of which is not broken. In the second Union Impulse, Pope drags himself one hex southwards and McClellan manages (with Force Marching) to move one hex towards Fort Monroe, finally reaching a point on the Peninsula where he can no longer be cut off. McClellan's resulting Morale loss is sufficient to have him replaced at a cost of 5 WEP (+1 since all leaders in the Pool need to be breveted to replace him). (The VP totals are now 18 vs 7 in the Confederate favour.) For once the Union is in luck, since the replacement turns out to be Reynolds. The Union also Inactivates Heintzelman and Reno but still ends up with a WEP below 70, about 10 points below the Confederates. Turn 3: The Confederates bid 3, the Union 4, hoping that Reynolds will stage a clean getaway. However, despite force marching, he, too, only manages a couple more hexes towards Ft Monroe. Pope marches one more hex south and is then Inactivated. Fortunately, on the Confederate side, not everything moves smoothly either. Lee is slow in getting off the starting block and only Jackson makes contact on the first Impulse. Jackson attacks with 67+6(guns)+6(BR)+3(cav sup)+1(morale)=67+16 versus Reynolds' 40+8(guns)-2(cavalry)+4(BR)=40+10. Both roll a 1, resulting in a 3R2 for Jackson and a 1R4* for Reynolds (sound familiar?). VPs are up to 21:8 now, but Jackson must retreat two hexes. 2nd Confederate Impulse: Now Lee is moving full tilt, but Jackson barely reaches the hex NW of Yorktown with the 6MP he rolls. Lee attacks with 43+5(guns)+5(Leader)+1(morale)=43+11. Reynolds defends with 26+6(guns)+4(leader)=26+10. Jackson attacks with 64+5(guns)+1(morale)+3(cav)+1(FERT)+6(Leader)-2(Hasty attack)=64+14. Reynolds defends with 26+6(guns)+4(leader)-2(cav)-1(FERT)=26+7. Lee rolls a 6, resulting in 2R3, Reynolds a 1, giving 1R2. Jackson rolls a 2, giving 2R4, and Reynolds 4, giving 1R2. Total result: 4R7 for the Confederates, 2R4 for the Union. This sends Reynolds reeling back 3 hexes; Keyes is sent back to the Pool as IV Corps is totally destroyed. VP totals are now 25:10. Lee, however, is also wounded, but as it turns out, only at level 1. At this point, with 6 turns remaining in the scenario, it seems possible to go for a decisive victory. However, Strategic Attrition costs Lee and Jackson 3 steps (Pope loses 1), and Union WEP Level is 66 vs 47 Confederates. Time to save ammunition! Turn 4: Reynolds finally Force Marches the AOP into Fort Monroe. Lee leaves Kemper in Williamsburg to defend the Peninsula, and D.H.Hill is reactivated to eventually join him. Lee (wounded) makes it to Hanover Junction, but Jackson reaches Fredericksburg. With Richmond guarded by more troops than Reynolds has available, going back on the offensive does not seem useful, but presumably a Confederate Decisive can be avoided. Jackson easily sweeps the guarding cavalry away from the Rappahannock bridges, but Lee is slow to come up. It is clear that Reynolds will ship the entire AOP to Washington on the next turn. In other words, there is a 2-3 Impulse window of opportunity. If it fails, Jackson will be caught on the wrong side of the Potomac. Ah well, let's go for it. (I'd never have done this in a ftf game. Given lack of knowledge about the situation in Washington, I'd probably have gone for another pincer attack on Pope just to rack up the VP totals a bit more.) Jackson rolls a two and in a dramatic refutation of the "you only ever want to bid for one Impulse anyway" argument, effortlessly marches across the Potomac, where my hapless Union deployments (Heintzelman in Alexandria, Pope around in Bealton north of Brandy Station) do not affect him in the least. In retrospect it's unforgivable that I left the line between Centerville and Alexandria free of troops. Jackson attacks at 66+5(guns)+6(Leader)+3(cavalry)+1(morale)-2(city)-1(minor river)=66+12. Wadsworth defends with a hapless 10(halved for Inactive)+2(leader)+4(Garrison guns)-2(cav)=5+4. Jackson rolls a 4 for 2R4, Wadsworth a 3 for no effect, and is summarily evicted from the capital. Now Jackson merely has to hold it. (This was when I decided WEP levels on both sides were getting low enough that I might want to start Foraging.) Lee manages to get to Falmouth and starts a Depot there. He is still accompanied by one Wagon that will allow him to start a Depot as far north as Falls Church, VA, from where Jackson could be put back into supply. Turn 5: The usual Confederates 3/Union 2 ploy (the Union cannot rely on a single roll moving anyone). Lee is OK again but still feels a bit weak, he doesn't make it to Falls Church. On the Union side, the machinery starts creaking into gear (but a very low gear) while Reynolds observes helplessly from the sidelines as his army is shipped north. Wadsworth activates but moves only one hex. Pope needs a War Department Order and then moves only one hex, but miraculously all his Corps commanders activate on their own. Heintzelman does not Activate, but Reno does, so Heintzelman orders him to detach and Reno moves over to Fairfax to try and block Lee. (This is made more interesting by the fact that Reno and Heintzelman are actually in Combat Supply.) Lee's marching performance is decidedly lackluster again (rolls a 6!) but it is sufficient to bring the ANV (or rather its Right Wing since the much stronger Left Wing is in Washington with Jackson) in contact with Reno's IX Corps. With 27+9 or thereabouts against 15+4 the outcome is not greatly in doubt, and Lee gains an easy 1R3 against Reno's 1R. Reno retreats to Vienna, but that means Jackson is still cut off. In fact Reno manages to move to Falls Church in his own Impulse to make sure he is blocking the Georgetown Bridge. Jackson Reactivates(DR of 2), to start Devastating Washington. As a result the Union player needs to Deplete it. Even so he loses 8 WEP at the end of the turn and will lose another 8 next turn before Depletion goes through. The Army of the Potomac lands in Baltimore. Turn 6: Again the well known 3/2 bid (I suspect this would vary quite a bit more in a ftf game). Lee, leaving a brigade behind to guard the Depot at Fairfax from a possible attack from Pope, attacks Reno and drives him into Arlington, opening the route to Jackson through Georgetown. Pope uses one AP to detach Porter. Porter duly marches forward to attack the Fairfax Depot. Reynolds force marches south from Baltimore but does not quite make it to Washington. Reno decides to retreat from Lee and slide back under Heintzelman's command rather than attack the ANV. Pope manages one meagre MP and decides to march south to attack the approaching Anderson rather than sit around doing nothing, but falls back in the end. Porter does his job and takes the Depot at Fairfax so that the Union troops are now supplied around the south of Washington. This was the point to which activities had progressed by the point where I realised that Washington had, by the rules as written, become a Confederate Supply Source (because it's a Major City Port) so that it was entirely sufficient for Lee to move into it and then beat off all comers. Conversely, there is an obvious attack strategy - Pope crossing the Potomac to the north and attacks from Georgetown and Reynolds from Bladensburg. Since both sides could repair losses at the same rate, I decided to leaves things as they were and just assume that Pope could actually collect everyone nearby for the western part of the climactic battle. (Banks needs to stay at Front Royal since that's where Pope's supply line comes from and it has to be protected from Anderson.) At this time Pope commands a force of strength 82 with 7 guns and Reynolds of 33 with 5 guns against 96 Confederates with about 16 guns, a leader rating of 5, and the morale shift. Neither side would have cavalry superiority in the case of Pope's attack, so we have the Confederates with 96+18 (-1 for a minor river) against Pope, and +21 (+3 cav and -1 FERT) against Reynolds. Pope (morale 1): 82+7+4-2(city)-1(stream)-3(broken units)=82+6 Reynolds (morale 2): 33+5+4-2(city)+1(FERT shift)-2(cav)=33+6. Doesn't sound so good for the Union. Rolling the die means 4R (DR1) and 5R* (DR5) for the Confederates for a total of 9R2*. Pope rolls a 1 (1R2) and Reynolds a 2 (1R2) for a total of 2R3. That means Lee is the loser and loses an ML, but he and all his subordinate leaders get one back for causing more losses. Also, since Lee started out with ML 6, he has no problem in dropping one level and thus nullifying the retreat hex. (In fact with 9 step losses Union strength, which was already riddled with half strength units, will be shot.) Also, Reynolds (ML 2) misses his '*' result morale check with a roll of 5 and has to fall back from Bladensburg, leaving Lee to crush Pope in the next Confederate Impulse. So, effectively, the game is over. ------------------------------------------------------ Definite conclusion: If you have McClellan, you have to play him like McClellan! Never stick your head out. Be cautious, in fact if possible keep retreating all the time. Let the Confederates attack into the mouth of your massed guns. Keep replacing losses. Keep sending troops once you're back in Fort Monroe, and hope Pope is able to handle Jackson. Definite conclusion #2: Always protect your capital. The main reason this scenario turned out to be a Union catastrophe rather than a marginal defeat was because I twice underestimated Confederate marching abilities and overestimated Union ability to react. "Protecting" means: have blocking forces in the way so that an attacker at least runs into a ZOC. Don't give two Impulses to the other side unless you're sure no prize is unprotected. Definite conclusion #3: Jackson is overrated. Make him 3-5-5 in the next game. Overall, that means I had two Confederate and one Union victory in the scenarios I've played so far, and at the Peninsular one would have been a Union victory if I'd placed McClellan more carefully. So, when I try CoREL again, it will be interesting to see how Lee does on Union soil. However I think I'll give Army of the Heartland a go before that. Markus Last 3 games played: Patton's Best, October War, Campaigns of Robert E.Lee --------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ --------------- "Bakayaro! Bakayaro!" ("Stupid Bastards! Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942