American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

This looks like a fun battle to play. My only comment would be that the map is too large. One beef I have about scenarios that do this is that they could easily use a "sub-map" that uses only that portion of the overall map that is truly needed.

Nice set of YouTube videos, guys!

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Optional Rules I Use in WDS ACW Games:
(by column from left to right)
Column 1: All ON except for Man. Def. Fire; Column 2: All ON except for Alt Fixed Unit Rel.; Column 3: All ON except for Art.Capt. & Prop.Op.Fire

The map is not as large as it first appears.

On the left, Big Black River (uncrossable water) effectively makes all the land east of it of no consequence. A lot of the land to the west of it is also unimportant as the terrain makes for very slow progress if you are looking to head south. It took us most of the game to move two cavalry units through the difficult terrain west of the river to move towards Bethlehem Church (an automatic victory point for the CSA).
On the right there is Baker Creek (uncrossable water) which can only be crossed at two points (one in the north and one in the south) which effectively removes another third of the map. As the CSA we were able to send some cavalry units in that area to threaten a crossing in the south. Fortunately, the threat worked and the USA briefly diverted infantry and artillery towards the crossing along Mann Road; units that could have bought even more pressure on the main line which was struggling to hold along the Telegraph Road. Sending infantry through the eastern side of Baker Creek would have meant that they were out of the battle as they could never have returned in time should they fail to cross over using the, easily defensible, Mann Road Bridge. [The crossing in the north was also an easy one to defend for the CSA.]

Additionally, scenario design and the victory conditions of the battle meant that the action had to be concentrated between Smith Road and Telegraph Road. Victory Conditions included:
Union unit enters Edwards' Station - Automatic USA Victory;
Confederate unit enters Bethlehem Church - Automatic CSA Victory; and
Flying your flag at the other three objectives at the end of the battle - Victory for the side having two out of the three.
Unlike Objective Hexes in the standard scenarios in the games the objectives in this scenario do not have a simple VP bonus. This creates a whole new level of importance for them. It's probably a significant reason why many of these custom scenarios are decided by one side exceeding their casualty limit rather than winning by objectives held. Due to their placement, controlling a majority of objectives is a very hard thing to do.
The casualty limits also impose a degree of realism to the games. As alluded to in the analysis, rarely would a real-life battle continue if it suffered even the percentage losses our sides amassed. Before losses reached such a point, one side or the other would usually withdraw 'to fight another day'. Early on in the analysis, we see that one CSA brigade suffered a massive 86% in casualties while another less than 1%. That's also realistic. I recall Shelby Foote mentioning in one episode of The Civil War how, in a battle, you could have a situation where a regiment or brigade 'got in a tight spot' and suffered horrendous casualties. Due to the way in which regiments/brigades were formed this meant that following a single battle a town somewhere could find that they were no a town with no young men.

Good scenario design helps to make a very enjoyable game. Thanks Blake.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Good game. Thank Blake and all players.

1. The most dramatic moment in the double-blind mirror game for me is when Rebs and Yanks respectively found that Yanks are more heroic than usual and that Rebs cannons are more terrifying than usual. lol

2. Center objective is exactly the key to this battle. It is indeed a good design. But if there is no objective in the center, will the center still become the key? It seemingly will. The side that controls the center, the circle of trails, holds the initiative and more strategy choices.

And therefore, as for the issue of fair/mirror game, a bargaining chip that cannot be ignored is the terrain around the center objective in favor of CSA artillery deployment.

3. Objectives are an anchor. At first glance, it looks like many games end in casualty limitation, but at least this one is driven by objectives. The side that can't win through objectives ends up being passive and have to take a risk at a high cost before admitting a failure.

4. I am curious about if the USA has a chance to win by concentrating the major force to the east from the beginning and breaking through the Telegraph Road, to take control of Edward's Station (automatic victory) or to take the initiative at least.

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BG Ashdoll Ren
3rd Division
II Corps / Army of Northern Virginia

"Days and weeks of sheer boredom, interspersed with times of stark terror!"

Yes, objectives drive the game. This is why a 'strategic' victory must be considered before a 'tactical' (points) victory in such a scenario.

I think #4 is a very real possibility (which would eliminate #2 as a certainty in the endgame). Such things would depend upon positional options selected by the two sides at the beginning of the battle and then the fortunes of war that follow thereafter.

"No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force." Helmuth von Moltke (the Elder).

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Watched the whole battle play out! Congrats to the winning side! Good job by Blake as always of creating and telling the story of what happened. These kind of actions are really fun to play!

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Major General Tim Reneau
"Gator Alley"
2nd Div, 2nd Corps
Army of Tennessee
Commanding