American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

NOTE: If you haven’t already read the post Total Casualties in the ACW series games – Thesis, you might want to do that, as it provides background for this discussion.

Paddy Griffith’s analysis of a ‘typical’ ACW firefight points to the duration of the firefight being driven by the ammo available to the combatants. With an average of 40 rounds per man, the firefight was usually over in an hour, once everyone was out of ammo. Additionally, there are plenty of examples of entire brigades needing to resupply after about an hour’s worth of fighting (eg Burnside after Matthews’ Hill at 1st Bull Run, Chalmers after defeating Stuart at Shiloh).

The current ammo depletion rate of 4% per ‘shot’ will allow a unit to fire an average of 17 times before it is even LOW on ammo, let alone out of ammo. That is almost 3 hours of continuous shooting…pretty good for 40-60 rounds. I would propose that a more realistic depletion rate should be 11%. At that rate, after an hour of fighting (6 shots: 3 defensive fire & 3 offensive fire), a unit would have a 50% chance of being low on ammo. That is still probably a little generous, but I think it is a good balance between playability and realism. I could be talked into making the rate 15%, which would give a unit about a 50% of being low on ammo after 40 minutes of fighting (ie 4 shots).

In addition to increasing the expenditure of ammo, resupply needs to be a little more difficult. Currently the system models a resupply system that can distribute ammunition to hundreds of men instantaneously. This seems highly unlikely, given that ACW rifle ammo was packed as individual rounds in 100 lb boxes of 1000 rounds. To resupply a 400-man regiment with 40 rounds per man would take 16x 100 lb boxes. That is a lot of carrying and distribution to accomplish in zero minutes over a distance of 500 yds (4 hexes).

Basically, the current resupply system, even in the rare event a unit does run low on ammo, does not drive normal ACW behavior. Which would be to disengage and find somewhere out of the fight to resupply.

I would propose the ammo resupply range should be reduced to 2 hexes, from 4. Additionally, as part of the resupply check, a unit that was actively engaged in combat (either fired, or was in melee as the attacker or defender) should not be able to resupply.

Admittedly, this will drive an increase in supply wagons in the game. The end goal is not to run armies completely out of ammo, after all. There isn’t much historical precedence for that. Scenarios should probably have supply wagons for each brigade, as well as some extra at division, corps and army level. Each brigade should have between 1-2 reloads on hand at the start of the battle, depending on the situation. As the battle progresses this will drive some supply decisions as to who gets the extra supply from higher echelon, and some forethought into getting ammo to where it will be needed.

Requiring units to stay closer to supply will have the added benefit of modelling more accurate ACW behavior because it will reduce the likelihood of success when sending units off on far ranging flanking maneuvers, completely untethered from their supply lines. Additionally, if there are more supply wagons, players will have to be more cognizant of their flanks and rear to ensure that if they do get into a fight, they won’t run out of ammo before the enemy does.

Bottom line: Increasing the ammo expenditure rate while making resupply a bit more difficult, should decrease the duration of individual combats. This in turn should bring the overall casualties in a battle down to levels more in line with the historical results.

Lt Col Matt Clausen
1st Brigade
3d Division
V Corps
Army of the Potomac

I'm glad you mentioned Paddy Griffith. I have the book you mentioned as well as the more detailed Battle Tactics in the Civil War. He provides excellent analysis in both of Civil War battle tactics.

I suspect that if you increase the 4% to 11% yet provide extra supply wagons you will end up with the same situation.

In Battle Tactics of the Civil War Griffth provides a quote from a Civil War veteran:
The enemy had fallen back a few rods, forming a solid line parallel to our own ... For half an hour we poured hot lead into each others' faces. We had forty rounds each in our cartridge boxes, and probably nine-tenths of them were fired in that half-hour.

Griffith also analyses average ranges across the War:
Seven Pines - 68 yards;
Other (61-62) - 122 yards;
1863 - 127; and
1864-65 - 141.

As you discussed in your Fire Combat Analysis post I think the issue is range much more than ammunition supply.

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

I agree that simply increasing expenditure while also increasing supply will probably not result in much change by itself.

It was the increased difficulty in getting resupplied that I felt would reduce the duration of combat. As I think about it, I believe I failed to mention that a unit should have to remain stationary for a turn as well, to get resupplied.

So to get resupplied, a unit would have to meet the following criteria:
1. Started the previous Movement phase within 2 hexes (or even adjacent) to a supply wagon, and did not move from that hex.
2. Did not Fire in the previous turn (that's both Offensive AND Defensive fire).
3. Did not participate in melee in the previous turn (as attacker or defender).

This would make attackers fall back to get resupplied and defenders keep a reserve to cycle units into the fight while others are getting resupplied. I think it would drive natural pauses in the fighting or at least bring the intensity down a bit.

Thanks for the feedback. I enjoy bouncing ideas off fellow wargamers, even if I'm sure we won't all agree.

Lt Col Matt Clausen
1st Brigade
3d Division
V Corps
Army of the Potomac