American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

There is a number of historical mini-scenarios in HPS Gettysburg--from one brigade to just over a division per side and usually 4-6 turns. I am looking for an experienced Confederate general officer who is willing to play some of these scenarios, say LRT, Devil's Den, Wheat Field, maybe Culps Hill, with a reasonably quick file turnover (any turn would certainly take less than a minute to complete) and the following rules:



yes, old-style with phases, and please no column melees. I am just interested in finding out if there is any chance for these mini-scenarios to produce roughly the historical outcome. And having some quick fun with the new game.

As we said in the old days, send a courier to my tent if interested.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS
Commandant, Union Army War College

General Walter,

I would be willing in engage you with the options you presnted. I actually prefer the old style phased turns as opposed to the new do it all in one phase option but I seem to be in the minority on that.


Col. Robert Hinkle
"Hinks Brigade"
1/I/AoA

Col. Hinkle and I just finished Little Round Top (HISTORICAL 1.2.4). Went pretty much the historical way. The Rebs made it a short distance up the hill, then their attack stalled, by turn 5 they were low on ammo and exhausted and began to fall back. A Federal counterattack in turn 7 cleared the slope. The Rebs avoided a major defeat by a mere 14 points (-236).

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS
Commandant, Union Army War College

We completed Devil's Den (HISTORICAL 1.2.3). A crushing defeat for the Union; Ward's brigade ran on turn 3, never to return, and left all the cannon behind. Poor gunners, they just got walked over by the Rebs. Has anyone ever wondered how the guns made it up there, considering that they can't move on rough ground? Same for LRT btw, where they are even situation dead in the rough hexes, on a ground they can neither move into, nor leave.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

I am game for one of the scenarios. Drop me a line

MajGen James Brammer (cyoress1@hotmail.com or fordstoo@aol.com)[?]
Army of Georgia
III Corp

Thanks, General--Col. Hinkle has agreed to play until we run out of tiny scenarios. That's good enough for me for the time being.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

Col. Hinkle and I completed Culp's Hill (HISTORICAL 1.2.1). A Union minor victory. I first thought that with the problem indicated earlier (one of the totally powerless and defenceless batteries is deployed in the frontline in a forest where it can't get away) this would be another certain victory for the Rebs. Some early routs by the boys in blue seemed to confirm this. However, the forested hills strengthened with breastworks proved a hard nut to crack for the Rebs, and a mass rout of the bad guys on turn 5 saved my ass--just barely. Why do Rebs rout? Because it was night. Normally I wouldn't fight at night under any circumstances, but clearly in this case we had to.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

We did Opening Fight (1.1.1)--a Union minor victory because Wadsworth's boys refused to rout. I think there may be a little design flaw here in that the Rebs start at a draw and a Union major victory (-500) would require the boys in blue to inflict 1250 more casualties on the Rebs than they take, which in four turns is outright impossible. There are no objectives to take for the Federals. The Rebs, however, can achieve a minor victory by taking one and a major by taking both 500 VP objectives. Seems to me this scenario should start at a Reb major defeat to make sense.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

Completed The Wheatfield (HISTORICAL 1.2.5). It was a mess, everyone on my side was constantly routing, the batteries on the northern map edge were disrupted from T2 on because naturally the first routing unit had run through all of them, and had to withdraw (over the map edge, there was no other way out ... I don't quite like that option, but then the deployment never gave these batteries any other chance).

The Rebs didn't take the Wheatfield or LRT though.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

Do you get the impression that these tiny scenarios would be better covered at the company level (EAW scale), with 5 minute turns & maps three times as large?

Col. Rich White
3 Brig. Phantom Cav Div
III Corps ANV

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Richard</i>
<br />Do you get the impression that these tiny scenarios would be better covered at the company level (EAW scale), with 5 minute turns & maps three times as large?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Likely. Actually my opinion is that at least some of them don't make good PBEM games at all.

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

We did "Early and Barlow" (1.3.1). A pointless scenario for PBEM to be honest. A highly motivated Reb force just routs a mostly E quality Federal force that starts already pressed into the corner of a map that features solely clear level ground (save for a single knoll on which the usual doomed frontline battery is located).

Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College

If anyone's interested in trying out a version of the Early & Barlow scenario using the old Age of Rifles engine instead of Gettysburg I'll send them the file I've created. AoR tends to offer a significantly tougher defence than the HPS ACW engine, especially if the defending player has time to dig in.

Col. Rich White
3 Brig. Phantom Cav Div
III Corps ANV

Gentlemen,

Col. Borling and I, have undertaken the Mission to play all the Mini-Scenarios, in sequence.

Some appear interesting, and balanced, NOT all battles are.
However, Historically, Not all battles were.
Sooo...

These appear Realistic in that context alone.


They do make for very quick games, and certainly give a quick and dirty introduction to the game mechanics, and allow combat almost immediately.
(For those of us who are blood-thirsty for Combat..Grin)


Col. Mark W. Zapp
3/2/I Corps
AoG, CSA