American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Some weeks ago I placed a post in the PBEM opponent forum finder with the intent of finding players interested in a multi-player engagement at one of the 1st Bull Run scenarios.
My simple plan was for three Union officers each commanding a Division and two Reb players (one each for the Army of the Potomac and Army of the Shenandoah) to fight the 40 turn sectional version of the battle that features no fixed units...but under the special condition of team members having to observe a strict prohibition on communication regarding the game situation once the game had commenced.

Possibly the single biggest unrealistic factor in these simulations...or pretty much any wargame for that matter...is that the degree of situational intelligence afforded to a player(s) is at a level the historical commanders could only have dreamt about. Command friction is usefully increased under multi-player conditions...but the fact remains: If the enemy hits the far end of your line and shatters the Corps under the command of your friend, you still see it the moment it happens, you still see exactly how it affects your own command...and coordinating a response remains a relatively easy task.

The Gods-eye view of the battle map is a fact of life that we are stuck with. Nothing to be done there. But the limited ability of commanders to communicate instructions and intentions to one another during a battle was something that I felt could be easily created.
The main means of communication at that time was by courier bearing written or verbal information. Messages became lost, confused, misintrepreted and even sometimes blatantly ignored. Some commands were unclear or physically impossible to carry out. Magnificently complex plans often degenerated into chaos and confusion once the wheels were set in motion. Micro-management in single player games is inescapable and whilst multi-player games offer more friction between players, it still allow for quite close interaction, at least in most teams.
Easy I thought! Remove all communication entirely and set the boys to it...we are all "Generals"...so surely everyone will know exactly what to do all the time in any given situation? I thought that by reducing our ability to communicate to a level below even that enjoyed by real commanders but benefitting from the greater visual intelligence it would create someting like the correct balance for a realistic fog-of-war environment.

I took overall command of the Union side and specific command of Tylers Division of 4 Brigades, whilst General Sands took Heintzelmans and General Mullins took Hunters. I laid out my general guidelines before commencing (As any commander would) and gave these officers loose directives as to what I wanted them to do. 1st Bull run is a modest affair in scale and duration. 40 turns or so should be just right to prove my point...or not.
Well, we stepped of into turn #1 and presently run into a bit of a traffic jam. My march down the Warrenton turnpike brings me into contact with General Sands' command. Nudging across my front as they head toward the objective I assigned them. No problem...same thing could happen in any multi-player game. Just try to stay out of each others way and not leave any guns or wagons blocking roads through wooded hexes etc...a couple of turns delay in total, no worries.
Meanwhile, General Mullins is off to the North-west heading out cross country to effect a crossing of the Bull Run creek to the right of General sands' advance and...but wait! what's this? Where the hell is he going? I said cross the creek in close concert with myself and Sands. General Mullins if headed off to Sudley springs it seems...aghast and frustrated, I watch in horror as turn after turn his Division heads that way. Nevermind, I continue on my way and begin to deploy to cross the creek via the fords below the stone bridge. General Sands is to force a crossing at the bridge itself...Mullins, that old Banshee, is meant to cross in support via the fords just above. Who knows what the Rebs are doing...I'm more worried about what my own side are doing for once.
The Rebs: General Paul Kenney and Michael Gandt may have an easier task ahead of them. The Rebs have a significant numerical advantage in this one and some useful Cavalry. I wish there had been a scenario that included the Divisions of Runyon & Miles...but that would have added another two players to the Union side. Too late now. I know the Renbs have never played as a team before, they haven't had much time to liase...maybe we can force a wedge between them and single out Colonel Gandt as the junior officer for a beating. Some of the rebs have a long march cross country to join the fight. I've met General Kenney on the field before several times...I think I can handle anything he might have planned.
Then praise be! On turn 9 or 10, Mullins turns about and makes directly for the fords as instructed prior. I see...it was a feint under observation. I'm not sure I approve, I'd rather he had got straight across sooner. Nevermind...he'll soon be engaged.
In fact, both my Union comrades are deploying in a manner I'm not entirely comfortable with, but again you get that in multi-player games and it's not for me to dictate their placements.
My own lines look nice and neat and that's all that matters...I'm over the creek first and pushing for the Portici residence and the objective on the little knoll. There are an awful lot of Rebs deploying in the tree line to my front. I know I'm outnumbered...but for once, numbers don't seem to matter as there are two friendly Divisions maneuvering in my right rear. They've forced the tardy Rebel warband out of the way and they'll be directly on my right...but wait, no. There isn't room and that big wooded area is going to cause trouble, it'll slow us down somewhat. I see it! Pull in my left and draw my units through the woods to join the other two on the other side of the trees...they'll see my intent as soon as I move that way, whats more is that I'll be able to get there quicker than the Rebs and then we can all hammer whatever we find on that flank then turn to face whatever comes at us.
Reb Artillery fire has caused me routs and disruptions already and the number of butternut scoundrels to my front is really quite worrying. Still, my guns are on the ridge and I can still continue my movements and...
...Oh, hang on you two. You MUST have seen it? if I did! Don't push units forward like that unsupported...You MUST have seen that the Rebs have Infantry in the dead ground in front of their Artillery?

Oh dear. The Reb attack hits us on the right flank like lightning from a clear sky. Defensive fire might just have dulled the edge of the attack if it were a phase based game...but this is MP so we're on turn based for ease of play. Defensive fire is laughable. The Rebs seem to be operating closely. Both commands must be involved. Generals Mullins and Sands have both suffered routs and it has opened some cracks in the line. Repeat that for the next few turns and the situation looks very black. Didn't figure that happening. General Mullins must be cursing me leaving him stuck out there on the flank. I'll pull back and over and we can rally and back-up across the stone bridge. It's damned tricky with our units intermingled like this now...can't afford to block the retreat of any friendly units...and who is this coming? Ah, the reb Cavalry behind us as I feared.

Well, after a promising start things just went from bad to worse very quickly indeed. I've never understood Reb complaints about balance in HPS 1st Bull Run...but that's another argument. The ridiculous situation created by inadequate defesive fire in turn based play cannot be ignored though. Something needs to be done? maybe a patch to increase the firepower across all the pdt's? Still, it is 1861 so big routs should be a possibility. Things would have played out quite differently if we'd been under phased conditions though.

Bottom line is...I think the "no communications" condition added something to the gameplay. If it worked here it would work elsewhere. I'm not sure it would be ideal in some of the much larger games spread over many days...but I think maybe have players able to communicate at the end of each game day would solve that...or only when Army/Corps commanders are actually in a hex together. There was deinitely friction...but mosr players are very familiar with 1st Bull Run. It does rely very much on both sides faithfully observing the rule...and in itself it does make file exchanges feel a bit "odd"...unable to simply chat about whats happening. I wonder if anyone else has given it or something similar a try?

I'd love to see someone do a "Sickles" and wander off out of line of his own accord and I've recently had experience in a multi-player game where I saw an opportunity and had to liase with a team-mate to exploit the situation. It would have been very different if I'd only had my own forces to rely on having been unable to gain the support of friendly forces in a co-ordinated attack.

Here's to confusion to the enemy...and plenty for your allies too...

Brigadier-General Jim Wilkes.
2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, XX Corps.
AoC. U.S.A.

There is a communication rule that can be implemented to add realism to battles. I was introduced to it through my brigade commanders, Matt Perrenod, Dierk Walter,Mike Dean and Niall Murphy who use it in MP play. This rule allows unlimited communication between commanders who are in the same hex but outside of that, a courier is required. This courier moves at 24 movement pts per turn. Its a matter of if you wish to give an order,etc. you would count the hexes between your commanders hex and the leader you wish to contact and divide by 24 (rounding up). If you are two turns away your message would not be sent until that second turn. Your message would also have the time it was written and the arrival time shown on it. I'm sure one of the other Generals could eleaborate on it better than I but this communication rule works well.

MG Drex Ringbloom,
Cdr, 2nd Div "Corcoran's Legion", VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah

We've been using this for years. It makes for enjoyable and at times frustrating experiences. Actually we use 36 MP btw.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
USA CoA-elect
[url="http://www.home.datacomm.ch/dierk.walter/2VIIIAoS/persrecord.htm"][/url]
"... and keep moving on."

Hehe. I stand corrected, 36 hexes it is. IMHO this is more realistic than no communication at all.

MG Drex Ringbloom,
Cdr, 2nd Div "Corcoran's Legion", VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah

No communication is an interesting idea. Probably not a good choice for large multi day battles but when you consider a "real" general had no idea what was going on outside of his immediate command it is probably better way to simulate it.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

My thinking was that the Gods eye view of the battle map more than makes up for the loss of ability to communicate...resulting in something like the right amount of fog-of-war for a "realistic" experience.

Brigadier-General Jim Wilkes.
2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, XX Corps.
AoC. U.S.A.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Digglyda</i>
<br />My thinking was that the Gods eye view of the battle map more than makes up for the loss of ability to communicate...resulting in something like the right amount of fog-of-war for a "realistic" experience.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

In our MP games we have the rule that no commander, especially not the overall commander, may react to anything that his own troops cannot "see", unless it has been reported to him by another commander. I think we come pretty close to realism there. The problem being with commands that tend to be spread all over the map; that's usually me with the cavalry corps. It would require a certain amount of schizophrenia to have me send delayed messages myself say as Buford to Pleasonton before I know what's going on on Buford's end of the map, so we skip that. But with a certain amount of good will, it really works.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
USA CoA-elect
[url="http://www.home.datacomm.ch/dierk.walter/2VIIIAoS/persrecord.htm"][/url]
"... and keep moving on."

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The problem being with commands that tend to be spread all over the map; that's usually me with the cavalry corps. It would require a certain amount of schizophrenia to have me send delayed messages myself say as Buford to Pleasonton before I know what's going on on Buford's end of the map, so we skip that. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I don't even know if this is possible, as I haven't played a multiplayer match yet, but such units should be detached from the central command, and instead report to the local commander. That's generally what happened, as units were placed on detached command in with other generals. This could have the benefit of causing players to react a little bit more selfishly, which is more historical.

Again, I don't even know if that's possible. But it'd be cool if it were.

Lt. Dylan McCartney
IV Brigade/ I Division
XIV Corps
Army of the Cumberland
Union Army

There was another problem with the real courier system that could pop up using the communication rule: It was not uncommon for a commander to receive written orders from more than one superior and sometimes the orders were not only contradictory but out of sequence due to one of the couriers getting lost or having his horse shot from under him. (this could happen if one of the commanders miscounted his hexes).

MG Drex Ringbloom,
Cdr, 2nd Div "Corcoran's Legion", VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah

Of course nothing beats an umpired MP game. [:)]

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
USA CoA-elect
[url="http://www.home.datacomm.ch/dierk.walter/2VIIIAoS/persrecord.htm"][/url]
"... and keep moving on."

"Of course nothing beats an umpired MP game." - D.S. Walter

Well except a 'white cane' special. Hard to find enough German Shepards for one of those, though. [8D]

MG Al "Ambushed" Amos, Commanding Officer
4th "Amos' Ambushers" Bde, 1st Div, XX Corps, AoC, USA

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br />Of course nothing beats an umpired MP game. [:)]

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Perhaps when the oob's are unlocked I may do another one of those. I just can't get into using Corinth 1.01 anymore. For those of you who aren't sure what Gen Walter is referring to you can check these sites.

http://home.comcast.net/~krmiller8/srmp/

http://home.comcast.net/~krmiller8/mp2/



Gen. Ken Miller
3/VIII
AoS