American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I am not an intense Historian so I ask those more knowledgeable

Do the HPS and BG systems over emphasise Melee?

Colonel Tony Best
Army of Georgia

IMO, there were actually very few melees involving hand to hand combat in the ACW. For that matter, even in the earlier periods of the Napoleonic and the Early American Wars, when the use of the bayonet was emphazied, there were not that many actual melee combats. Usually one side charged and the one side took off in the opposite direction. So the inflicting of large numbers of casualties in a melee is probably not very historical. However if a unit is surrounded and meleed I guess it could be viewed more as surrender. [:D]

Lt. Gen. Ed Blackburn
II/VI/AoS

"Forward Bucktails"

Only if you consider a melee to actually be hand-to-hand combat. If so, then yes. I tend to think that melee also - or more likely - represents one side closing upon the other to very close range and either the defender waivers and pulls back (attacker wins the "melee") or the defender holds and the attacker retreats (attacker loses "melee"). Close combat was common in the CW - lines getting within 50-100 yards of each other. Since a single hex represents 125 yards, it would be very possible for two opposing lines to end up in the same "hex" only 50 yards apart vying for control via rifle fire without ever coming to blows with clubbed muskets and bayonettes. This is what I feel "melee" more accurately represents in these games, and since that idea is completely historically accurate, I don't mind it. The fatigue penalties - especially in the old BG system - more than make up for it. If an opponent wants to get restless and melee a lot, let them. I'll just make sure my stacks are big enough to win most of them and let him wear down his army with high fatigue - especially usefull in HPS where melee fatigue is better represented as a result of the combat, not as a flat 2 FA points no matter what. A 600 man unit should be able to push a 100 man unit out of most hexes without much trouble, etc.

Regards,

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

God Bless <><

Hi, Colonel,

I don't know how often soldiers engaged in hand to hand combat, but there has to be some mechanism in the game to enable the attacker to seize a hex, and in this system melee is it. Envisualize it any way you want, as a short intense firefight in which one side or the other gave way or as an affair involving bayonets and bowie knives, somehow you need to be able to get over that wall, seize that battery, or capture that isolated unit. Otherwise you can literally find yourself banging your head against a stone wall all day long as the defender replaces units that rout with his reserves. The number of casualties inflicted in this affair is negotiable, but given the unrealistic (from a historically tactical perspective and in my humble opinion) stacking and ZOC practices, I think melee results in the game are reasonable.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA