American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

The Battle of Carthage, July 5, 1861 (Historical) Weather rules(02 Carthage_histscn_W.SCN)
I played the version "02 Carthage_histscn_W.SCN", this is just like the original scenario but with weather lines added to the PDT.

Points of interest:
- As interesting as it sounds the scenario doesn't seem to play out historically. The big difference between the Union troop scale(companies) and the map(125 yards per hex) & time scale(20 minutes) seems problematic. Alone the fact that there are 14 Union infantry units of which just one at a time can use road movement forces the union force to stretch out unbelievable far on the road. Another problem is that in this IGO-YOUGO system the attacker can choose the point of his impact, and with the max stacking still at 1000 the Confederates usually just mass for a single point of attack and break the Union defense which can not react to the Confederate movement because of the turn length and because the Union can in this case barely bring more that 2-3 companies against the attacker, This is a problem because the biggest Union unit has just 65 men what can at best deal 8(8.125) casualties but a 50:50 chance to trigger a moral check only comes at 25 casualties. So turning away a confederate assault even with 3 companies is unlikely as the Confederates has some really huge units of over 200 men. These huge units also give him the advantage of using road movement better has he can bring a huge portion of Confederates onto a small strip of road while the union has to stretch out to really use road movement.
- Are the 413 unaccounted cavalry under 8th Division correct? Shelby is named but the rest is unknown. Would be good to check this, every Confederate less gives the Union a better chance even if it's still very slim.
- Why is the scenario so long? It should end with Sigel reaching Carthage and retreating under the cover of the night to Sarcoxie. There is neither a need nor a reason to let it run into the next morning.
- Why are there normal objectives that lure the Union player into holding ground? Sigel intended to get away not to hold ground
- Besides this the scenario maybe needs some house rules, usually the Confederate cavalry will overtake the Union and will slow or block the Union movement to Carthage so that the Confederate infantry can catch up. At that point it's just a matter of numbers as there are more than 4 times as many Confederate as Union troops.


Recommendations:
- A different approach seem necessary to see if that plays out better, currently there is no way that Sigel makes it back, he will rather be overwhelmed in some turns.
- I suggest to put 2-3 Union companies together so road movement can be used better and to at least halve the turn length to allow the Union to concentrate in reaction to any Confederate attack.
- Limit scenario to turn 37-38, at maximum to turn 40.
- Add timed objectives plus an Exit Objective at the southern map edge so that the battle can play out along the road and beyond the river.


Weather version specific:
- Sunset is at 20:41 and dusk ends about 21:11, again one can likely add some minutes to let night turns start at 21:20.
So the line:
Night (100% at 21:00 07/05/1861) Visibility: 1
should be at 21:20 and the PDT dusk setting has to be adjusted.
This is of importance for the end of the scenario that is recommended to be if night sets in.
(Based on UTC-5, TZ: America/Chicago DST CDT)

_________________
Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."