Doug Murphy - 11:46am Feb 5, 1998 PST (#1338 of 1402)

Here is a playtest report of Williamsburg 1862, a new design from Ivy
Street Game:

In most of our playing of scenario 2, the Union is generally stymied.
Let me travel across the "front" with my comments. In one of our first
playings, Hooker ran straight at Ft. Magruder and attempted to cross the
abatis. Removing the Horse artillery from the game is key here because
it keeps the Rebel from siting 2 arty units in Magruder where they can
keep Hooker at bay all day. Arty in the fort above usually "bounces"
Hooker back, even if one Union unit successfully remained untouched to
clear an abatis hexside. Hooker has to rush all his infantry units at
the abatis from 4 hexes out then hope for at least one to remain the
turn to clear a hex. Because of the "facing" rules, he can usually
accomplish this rush, but even if the hexside is clear, it's tough to
run up to try to get around the fort. In one game, we "bled" Hooker's
units to nothing attempting to do just this. Usually after a rebuff of
all units against Magruder, Hooker regrouped to either 1) head back down
the road and attempt to head north past the swamp and join Smith's men;
2) attempt to "infiltrate" through the forest or up the Allen Plantation
road to clear the abatis along that road at the edge of arty range.
Stoneman's cavalry can usually clear that hex successfully, then it's a
race for Hooker to get in and out of the lower Ravine before Anderson
can man the forts above or Jenkins can shift out of Ft. Magruder. Both
options 1 and 2 can work for Hooker. Option 1 reinforces the "main"
effort; and 2 can stretch the Confederate line.

With Smith, an attack in the 2 abatis hexsides north of the Yorktown Rd
and south of the forest & stream hexes can succeed. It depends on the
deployment of Anderson and artillery. Confed. arty in the small fort
above those hexsides, combined with arty in Magruder can stall the
approach somewhat, but usually the Magruder units are busy with Hooker.
In one memorable game Anderson deployed from Williamsburg (another key
rule change) in that "gap" north of Magruder and Stuart crossed Cub
Creek to take the Federals in flank by Whittaker House. Retreating units
from the arty were hit by the Rebel cav. Smith had to deploy a unit to
block the north road. But Smith can break through the abatis, albeit at
cost, especially if Anderson deploys from Williamsburg against Hooker in
the Ravine. If Smith is successful, Magruder is flanked and the rebels
must retreat. The second option for Smith is to demonstrate in this area
and head north for Cub Creek. This risks defeat in detail vs. the
advantage of "stretching" the rebel line. With no abatis to clear, even
when faced with a few Confed. units, Smith can cross the creek and begin
to threaten the town. Another key for the Union is to get Couch early
(we played allowing Couch to show up as early as 0930). This gives the
Union enough units to reinforce Smith in the "center" or head north for
Cub Creek. Given victory conditions that encourage the Rebel to Hold and
not attack, this can have an added advantage. Make sure Heintz. goes
along in the south w/ Hooker and Keyes with Smith or Isolation will hurt
the Union. In one game, Hooker got isolated near the Allen house and
consistently blew his effectiveness roll for a good couple of hours.

We cut out the Orders tables from the Org charts just to cut down on the
large pieces of cardboard lying about. We also wrote in the turn record
along the hexside at map edge with notes about Casey, Couch et al
entrance. This eliminated another sheet of cardboard but this is just
because our playing style is "minimalist."

On the Rebel side, a typical setup was to put Jenkins and an arty into
Magruder, with another arty to its north. Longstreet starts w/ Anderson
in town. Most games saw Stuart deployed either south to exchange
"bounced" with Stoneman or north to guard Cub Creek. In most games, one
of Anderson's bdes usually went north too...but some question arose to
how a unit so out of touch with the rest of the "division" should be
treated. We played that it had to separately do an effectiveness roll to
deploy further south. Anderson usually deployed w/ Longstreet towards
Magruder able to move south against the Ravine if Hooker threatened or
more likely plug the gap north of Fort M. This gap must be plugged as in
some games, Anderson dallied a bit too long near the Ravine and Smith
broke in to hit Magruder in the rear and then push Anderson back towards
town. Don't keep Jenkins in Macgruder too long. If Hooker's coming up
from the Allen road, Jenkins should shift toward him. In several games,
Jenkins sat in the fort too long and was hit and killed from the rear.
The key here, especially with Card 1 is the early entrance of Hill. We
defined 'attack' for the purpose of Early's entrance on Card 1 was any
"firing" by the rebels. Hill's entry, if the Union has not successfully
broken through the abatis has a big effect, especially if Union
reinforcements are a bit late. Hill deploys in the center usually just
in time to plug a hole in the abatis line. Beware the tendency to ignore
orders to advance to the attack against the abatis. Let the Union come
to you in the forts.

With Card 2, the game is very short. Just once did the Union break
through before noon. This happened with a late Anderson & Hill
deployment, and a simultaneous Hooker and Smith breakout. Smith crushed
Anderson as he was coming up and cleared Jenkins and the arty out of the
forts while Hooker stalled Hill. Then with Couch and Kearney, they
pushed Hill back into town around 1100. We were a bit puzzled about the
difference with Card 3 and 1. We figures correctly that Card 3 calls for
a Confed. attack with Hill at any time...but it still didn't really pay
for the rebel to do so...it just gave him reinforcements early enough to
completely stop the Union.

We played 12 games of scenario 2 in all, the Rebels "won" most of the
time. It is a very fun game where the Union and Confederates have many
options to fence with one another and the random chit activation makes
every game different.

I deleted a host of questions.