American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

OK ...the inquest into my showing as Reb on my 3 day Getty battles would fill pages, so I'll try and keep it brief:

Kennons just handed me my ass with my heaviest EVER gaming defeat as a club member. I knew that a phase based game as Reb was going to be tough but it was a severe drubbing. The sting is only lessened by the knowledge that it was my first time out as Reb and hopefully the lessons will not be lost on me.
The Supply & Artillery situation was a very rude awakening which I will be relieved to not have to repeat.
Don't feel I made many specific "errors" as such, rather that my entire approach to the affair was mistaken from the outset. Stayed just about on top of things for Days 1 & 2 but events fell apart rapidly on Day 3. Overwhelmed might be the best one-word verdict.

Experience in the other two (turn based) games saw a major defeat against Ross McDaniel and has me currently on a major victory against Glyn Hargreaves as Day 1 reaches it's climax.
Useful lessons learned from Ross once more. So whilst I remain convinced of the significance of Reb Infantry superiority in turn based conflicts, I'm no longer so adamant regarding it's decisiveness. It would appear that tactics should provide the answer to all problems.

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

As Gen. Wilkes noted, the ANV has been completely wiped out. We stopped at noon on the third day with the Rebel army down to about 20,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 225 guns with no ammo for either guns or infantry. The AoP still numbered 54,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 307 guns. My artillery ammo supply was still almost as large as the South starts with on day one. I still had adaquate supplies of small arms.

I didn't use any Hail Mary tactics since I wanted to show the Union army could stand toe to toe with the Rebel army for three days. The trick is on day one not to get trapped into losing the battle. If the Union army is intact on the afternoon of day two, then they have a sure win. All I did was keep contact, let my artillery do the work, and if the Confederate tried to stand I would just use my superior numbers to out flank his position.

In our battle this lead almost to equal casualties throughtout the first two days and into the morning of the third. About mid morning of the third day the Rebel army just could counter the flanking movements fast enough and they closed around 10,000 men. After that it was just clean up.

The one interesting thing I did find out from this battle is the two armies have about the same amount of small arms supplies. The Union has about 20 men per supply point compared to 18 for the Rebels. I think we on the Southern side think we have less because having to be constantly on the attack during the first two days tends to use it up fast. The Union being on defense just doesn't burn up as much ammo.

General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
2/3/IV AoM (CSA)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by KWhitehead</i>
<br />The one interesting thing I did find out from this battle is the two armies have about the same amount of small arms supplies. The Union has about 20 men per supply point compared to 18 for the Rebels. I think we on the Southern side think we have less because having to be constantly on the attack during the first two days tends to use it up fast. The Union being on defense just doesn't burn up as much ammo.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thanks for this information, General. What you are saying here is that the resupply of ammo for small arms in the Gettysburg scenario is half an issue per man. Historically, the Confederate policy was 120 rounds per man, or two resupplies in addition to their basic load of 40 rounds. I believe the Union policy was 200 rounds/man. At Gettysburg, the Confederates actually expended 26 rounds/man. The theory is that they were able to supplement their basic load with ammo gleaned from the battlefield on the nights of the 1st and 2nd. In my experience, the single biggest limiting factor for Confederates in the Gettysburg scenario is the paucity of small arms ammunition. You are saying the Rebs get about a quarter of the resupply capacity that they ought to. For the Yanks it is even worse. But I would cheerfully triple the Yank supply if the Reb supply was just doubled. And that would give them about half of their historical supply.

I can think of no battle where the lack of small arms ammo played a role except where a force outmarched its wagons (Pea Ridge, Kernstown, 2nd Manassas) or the wagon was misdirected (Bowen's Division at Champion's Hill).

MG Mike Mihalik
2/4/I/AoMiss/CSA

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by mihalik</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by KWhitehead</i>
<br />The one interesting thing I did find out from this battle is the two armies have about the same amount of small arms supplies. The Union has about 20 men per supply point compared to 18 for the Rebels. I think we on the Southern side think we have less because having to be constantly on the attack during the first two days tends to use it up fast. The Union being on defense just doesn't burn up as much ammo.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thanks for this information, General. What you are saying here is that the resupply of ammo for small arms in the Gettysburg scenario is half an issue per man. Historically, the Confederate policy was 120 rounds per man, or two resupplies in addition to their basic load of 40 rounds. I believe the Union policy was 200 rounds/man. At Gettysburg, the Confederates actually expended 26 rounds/man. The theory is that they were able to supplement their basic load with ammo gleaned from the battlefield on the nights of the 1st and 2nd. In my experience, the single biggest limiting factor for Confederates in the Gettysburg scenario is the paucity of small arms ammunition. You are saying the Rebs get about a quarter of the resupply capacity that they ought to. For the Yanks it is even worse. But I would cheerfully triple the Yank supply if the Reb supply was just doubled. And that would give them about half of their historical supply.

I can think of no battle where the lack of small arms ammo played a role except where a force outmarched its wagons (Pea Ridge, Kernstown, 2nd Manassas) or the wagon was misdirected (Bowen's Division at Champion's Hill).

MG Mike Mihalik
2/4/I/AoMiss/CSA
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

HPS supply doesn't really relate to actual rounds carried by men but more a statistical number. We just seem to have more problems than the men did in the Civil War because we fight our units almost continously which they didn't.

I came across some ordinance studies that showed almost no battle required the expenditure of much over 20-30 rounds per soldier. There were local shortages due to a regiment being caught in a particularly long and nasty fire fight like the Mule Shoe but never any army wide problem with ammo. The standard 40 rounds per soldier was more than adquate for most battles.

Other little tibits of knowledge (I am picking up a lot of these in the process of designing my own game). The ANV fired 4.5 million rounds during Gettysburg giving them a hit ratio of 1 casualty per 150 shots. I don't have my reference in front of me but the average fire fight took place at less than 100 yards in spite of the rifle. This number was still less than 120 yards during WW I. Makes you wonder if they wouldn't have been more effective if armed with sling shots.[:D]

What the HPS game system needs more than more ammo wagons added is finer control of the expenditure of ammo. If you they gave small arms a three level setting like artillery and for both made the medium setting not random but a percentage of weapon range, it would allow the player to better control his ammo useage. Then if he ran out it would be his own fault.

General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
2/3/IV AoM (CSA)