Lt. General Thayer's experience - from the Rebel perspective - reveals the following <i>irregularities</i> (with the current version of the Antietam grand battle scenarios).
<ol type="1"><li>USA 6-gun batteries generate more lethal FIRE integers on The FIRE Combat Results Table than CSA 4-gun batteries / 2-gun sections / 1-gun pieces. Only breaking down <i>all</i> batteries - or a code "fix" - can <i>level the boys' playing field.</i></li>
<li>Large USA units in line typically generate three to six times higher casualty results on Tiller's FIRE Combat Results Table - just like their 6-gun battery complements - than the smaller mix of Rebel units - a FIRE Combat Results Table, curiously, which does not appear anywhere in the Users-Manual or Parameter data?
To be sure, blistering / withering Union fire can be somewhat counter-balanced by modifying CSA morale ratings or increasing CSA Brigade and Division officer Command Ranges, etc.., but since CSA and USA command ranges are now the generic equivalents, this too merely shifts play in the direction of favoring large Union regiments over smallish Confedertate ones during the fire combat phases. Please, scroll down to review "solutions".</li>
<li>A patient Union Commander will a-historically thwart McClellan's otherwise historically faithful, time-dependent release of a Corps-en-echelon offensive battle plan - simply by waiting ... waiting ... waiting until multiple corps have been released - at which point, a perhaps, perfectly micro-managed assault - in perfectly a-historical cooperation and coordination - may be directed upon any chosen joint point-of-attack along the Rebel's perimeter. This, however, would not prove the "Historical" contest I had in mind - whether playing North or South.
(There appears to be nothing in the rules that prevents / penalizes such a waiting tactic, yes? no?</li></ol id="1">
<u>Solutions</u> -- aka, what we can do <i>today!</i>
First, setting aside concerns, regarding Tiller's crew "eliminated" subset routine - because, we must, assuming we want to play these games <i>today</i> - i.e., not tomorrow,
<ol type="1"><li>Enforce the breakdown of <i>all</i> Union / Confederate gun <i>batteries</i> into respective sections / pieces to <i>level the playing field</i> - until a code "fix" is well in view.</li>
<li>Limit Large Line combat unit Fire via some kind of
[url="http://www.affpiano1002.qwestoffice.net/acwhr_mainframe2.html#IA2"]Fire-Through-Hexside (FTH) Qualifiers[/url]
(Actually, given there's no ideal / perfect "house rule" override at our disposal witin the context of a "fixed" code, we really don't care whether you borrow directly from our current solution or come up with other(s). Please, feel free to publicly share any with the greater community, if you please. Thank you.)
In any case, without enforcing more physically qualified - realistic - Fire-Through-Hexside SP threshold limits when targeting <i>through</i> a single hexside measuring approximately 41.7 yds across, rebel and union fire combat exchanges will never meet on a more level playing field - acknowledging that Union small-arms fire will, still, prove to have the upper hand, given their sheer manpower superiority - but, just <u>not</u> in the same devil-may-care manner as forever witnessed on Tiller's default battlefield from 1995 to the present.</li>
<li>Given the code and scnario design we're dealt and to address the Union-waiting-game tactic, <i>any</i> and <i>all</i> ideas must be considered, assuming there are those still among us who are wont to explore the <i>historical</i> battle possibilities near Sharpsburg in 1862.</li>
<ol type="a"><li> Increase "battlefield doubt" via [url="http://www.affpiano1002.qwestoffice.net/acwhr_mainframe2.html#II"]Command & Control: 'Friendly' FOG[/url] constraints. That is, <i>enforce</i> Friendly FOG restraints upon all "out-of-command" - i.e., as opposed to officially "detached" - troop / brigade officer / division leader initiatives relating to movement and offensive combat.</li>
(Only if one has been living in a cave should recognition of an historically-based "Friendly FOG" model come as a surprise to any one.)
<li>Open to suggestions.
-- i.e., whatever could be employed to historically <i>limit</i> or compel just how Union Corps might be 'obliged' to attack-en-enchelon - i.e., "piecemeal".</li></ol id="a"></ol id="1">
<u>Notes</u>:
To Compare and Contrast
<ul><li>Richard Berg's <i>Great Battles of the American Civil War</i> series of games employs a clearly printed out "Fire Combat Results Table" - something Tiller no longer provides? - that intuitively generates combat results based on the <u>total</u> number of combined guns directed at an enemy target / hex.
--Berg's Fire Combat Results Table <i>levels the playing field</i> - Tiller's does not.</li>
<li>Under Berg's model, multiple 4-gun rebel batteries may freely combine #guns to form a single attack, just as any number of 6-gun yankee batteries may.
--Unlike Tiller's model, "three" 4-gun CSA batteries shall always equate perfectly to any "two" union 6-gun batteries - under Berg's FIRE Combat Results Table - acknowledging quality, range, "rapid fire," or other factors must still be applied.</li>
<li>As for gun crews being "pinned," "routed," and/or "eliminated" in combat - Berg's model treats all gun "crews" as identifiably separate from their ordnance.</li></ul>
In every case, however, a review of Tiller's FIRE Combat Results Table will confirm what hobbyists, crack scenario designers, and determined editors alike already know,<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">We go to war with the screwy FIRE Combat Results Table we have - not necessarily the ONE we must have, assuming, we still want grand <i>batteries-en-masse</i>.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Fld. Lt. D. Shoeless, CSA
Secretary of the Cabinet (Ret)
1st Tenn Provisional Army
<center><i>From a certain point onward there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached.</i> --F. Kafka</center>
|