American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

How do you feel about the Vicksburg camapaign game? I am playing my first campaign with Paul Smith and was wondering what folks thought.

I have been doing some reading on the campaign and was surprised to learn that the Confederate forces in the theater actually outnumbered the Union forces that landed south of Vicksburg and began the march inland towards Jackson. CSA General Pemberton never fully concentrated all his available troops into a field army and General Johnston never was able to link up his reinforcements with Pemberton apparently. There were really a lot of mistakes made by the CSA in what did not necessarily have to be such a one sided campaign.

So does the game and campaign tree provide such an opportunity for the Rebs to amass a large field army and challenge Grant on egual or greater terms? or does it pretty much follow the strategic choices by the CSA historically?[?][:D]

Lt. Gen. Ed Blackburn
II/VI/AoS

"Forward Bucktails"

For the most part, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the overall campaign for Vicksburg. It seems very much geared toward the historic choices and troop concentrations. I have played two campaigns - one just ended, one still fighting - and saw all of one division from the relief army join Pemberton, but even that is problematic because Johnson is not included so that extra division has no commander except division level, which leads to unrealistically higher chances of routing due to no moral being passed down - they are in essence always out of command.

That said, I was able to acheive a major victory in the campaign that has ended in what appeared to be fairly equal numbers in the final large battle. The other battle that is still going I don't know - too many trees and hills to see very far. [8D]

The maps I like, however. I just wish the battles were more competitive. The Reb has basically zero chance to win any of the early battles, and then by the time you get to a battle that has close to equal numbers, the campaign ends right afterwards! A bit of a letdown to me. [V]

Regards,

Brig. Gen. Alan Lynn
2nd Div, II Corps, AoA
VMI Training Staff

God Bless <><

I also am a little dissappointed. Because of the historical blundering on the Rebel part, a dearth of "what-if" scenarios to compensate is questionable at best. As a result, not a fun disk for the South.


Sincerely,
Brig Gen Dwight McBride
1st Brigade ("The Regulars")
2nd Division/V Corps/AOP/USA

Echoing all of the comments above. "Vicksburg" as the Confederates is very dull fare indeed. Very unbalanced scenarios. Battles like "Raymond" where you have a brigade against a Corps!!!

Overall a bad choice for a disk in my opinion using the HPS system.

The campaign tree for Vicksburg as layed out is a rather pointless affair. The best Rebel strategy in the first few scenarios is to put his troops in column and march as rapidly as possible off the map. This will give him the best chance in the "final" battle of Champion Hill or its variants.

I think the designer made a mistake forcing the CSA side to follow so closely Pemberton's mistakes. Also the victory conditions reflect actual performance rather than relative to historical performance. So battles like Port Gibson always are going to be Major Defeats except against the AI. However, some the individual scenarios, especially variants, are worth playing.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
III Corps, AoM (CSA)