Wilderness Test Battle
Ken Jones and I played out the first day of the Wilderness to see if I could demonstrate how out gunned the Rebels were. He played the Rebs and attempted to hold the two key roads, Orange Turnpike at Saunder's Field and Orange Plank Road at Parker's Store.
My premise was that the Rebels are so out numbered that even with their quality advantage they cannot attempt to fight the historic battle. Their only real chance of even surviving the scenario is to withdraw a board edge and entrench so they have no flanks. I proposed in my alternate scenario some changes that I think would allow the Rebels to fight along the two roads.
The reason I say they can't fight in the open and even try to contest the map is purely based on numbers. While the Rebels have a quality advantage in practice this gives them only a 10% bonus in combat. There is an additional bonus in being able to stay well formed and not route but it is harder to quantify. Careful play by the Union player can minimize this even if the Route Limiting option isn't used. On the other hand the Union has a two to one advantage in manpower and that does translate into a 100% bonus in combat. But it to has an additional bonus in that it gives the Union player enough men to hold a line while extending the flanks enveloping the smaller Rebel army. This effect is readily demonstrated in the fight for Saunder's Field that occurs mostly on the first day.
By mid morning of the first day the Rebel army has two concentrations of almost equal strength, about 14,000 men each. Ewell with almost his whole Corps (less two brigades and a couple of regiments that come in at night) easily takes Saunder's Field and the trail system around it. And, further south Hill with only two of his divisions, Heth and Wilcox, hold the critical road junction at Parker's Store. There is a small cavalry force further south which is more or less checked by the small Union force under Wilson.
Both infantry concentrations suffer the same problem but Ewell is the one to first suffer it's fate because it is so near the Union releases. But the math of the situation is what really determines the out come. Both forces have about the same numbers, 14,000 men plus artillery. For 14,000 men to attack and drive the enemy they need to form a continuous line at near maximum stacking in order to concentrate their fire power. This turns out to be less than 20 hex front. Likewise, when they want to go on defensive and entrench they will have problems holding a line of more than 20 hex. Once the line is fully entrenched with breastworks it will be strong enough to use smaller stacks in but during the first day if they want to have enough men in the hexes to build breastworks and fully entrench during the night they need maximum stacking.
Ewell's force has only 30 units with a strength greater than 200. Since the Union stacks can break any line that is held by less than 400 men unless their are significant terrain bonuses to help protect it, the count for 400+ stacks is near 24. This isn't enough to even attempt to create a circle of fortifications around the three VP hexes near Saunder's Field since the two bigger ones are separated by 13 hexes. It takes 18 hexes just to form a four hex sided defensive hexagon. The problem here is that unless you are playing without the Isolation option on these fort like fortifications easily fall. But either way it turns the Wilderness scenaio into a bad joke on Civil War combat if the only viable strategy for the Rebels is to form a circle or fortify the corner of the map. This being the first scenario in the campaigns that try to follow Lee's strategy it makes them unplayable as well. Playing a string of scenarios where one side can only survive by either withdrawing from the map, if that is allowed by player rules, or fortifying a corner and waiting out the clock really isn't a game.
Now a summary of the game play:
Jones spends the first three hours pushing his line of battle up the two roads. The Union doesn't attempt to even slow this down much. Once back into the woods east of Parker's Store the two cavalry the Union has can slow the Rebel advance to a crawl while reinforcements are marched over. I send Robinson's V/2 division to block the Plank road. The V/3 division (Penn. Res.) is available to the NE of Parker's Store but is fixed. If the Rebels push that direction they will activate this division early. However, even with them the Union is out numbered. The active ratio is some 14,000 Rebels opposed by 5300 Yankees. The Union plan is simple. Fall back if pressed, slow the advance with skirmishers, and wait for II Corps. Jones doesn't press the issue but stops once he has good artillery positions to dominate the open area east of the store and starts digging in. This pretty much all the Rebels can do on the Plank Road.
To advance further only exposes them more to being out flanked. It isn't until Noon that the Pen. Res. activate bring the Union forces up to 8,800.
The Orange Turnpike however is much more active. The Rebels push east along the pike taking all three of the objective hexes along the pike. Here the Rebel run into a dilemma. Pushing further exposes their flanks to the soon to be activated V and VI Corps divisions. Going to far may activate them early. Jones settles for creating a double fortified line. One along the east side of Saunders Field and a shorter one along the West side. This stretches his limited resources for throwing up breastworks. Initially the Union does little about this. Griffin falls back keeping skirmishers out to prevent contact. It isn't until 10 AM with Wadsworth's and Wright's division releases does the Union have enough active units to do anything. By 11 AM 14,000 Rebels are opposed by 15,000 Yankees.
However, the only fighting occurs along the pike when my skirmishers spot some sections of line without breastworks. A small fight breaks out resulting in a few hundred casualties to each side. This is mostly a distraction. The two V Corps divisions spend most of their time making their own fortified line extending in a arc from the trail to the north, through the pike and south to the open area. The main plan is initiated by Wright moving NW through the trails that the seeming endless number of detached Union regiments had already scouted and secured. They then turn west to pass behind the Rebel position.
At noon Getty's division and the Penn. Res. activate. The Penn. Res. move towards the store from the north but only to feel out the line with skirmishers. Robinson's division does the same to the east and in the process forces the Rebels to fall back on their main line near Parker's Store. On the Plank road the Union is still out numbered by 14,000 to 8800 so little action occurs down here other than some artillery duels until late afternoon.
Up north though there is a lot of activity but not much fighting. Getty's division brings the northern force up to 23,000 which handily out numbers the Rebel's 14,000 but Getty is sent westward to form the northern side of what will be a complete surrounding of the Rebel forces. Wordsworth's divsion starts extending itself westward on the southern side of the Rebel position. Here is where the lack of units in the Rebel force undoes them. They can't hold enough frontage to stop the flanking forces. Lacking that they try to fortify a horseshoe like position around the primary objective hex west of Saunders Field. But this shortens their line considerably allowing my divisions to move in and create an encircling fortified line.
By 2 PM Wright has been spotted but the Rebels have no mobile force to stop him. By 3 PM he has crossed the turnpike and is moving east to close up the encirclement. The Union now has 32,000 active men against 13,000 Rebs (some losses from skirmishing). Rickett's divsion with another 5,400 men has released and marching to assist Griffin's division. It isn't until 4 PM that I close the gaps and start the attack. Ewell's entire command goes into Isolation.
At 4 PM the Infantry casualties are 1404 USA to 1869 CSA which reflect how little fighting occurred during the day. By 7 PM Ewell has ceased to exist and the casualties are 6,586 USA to 15,061 CSA. And additional 76 guns have been taken. Three Rebel divisions are no more except for two brigades that come in late belonging to Rodes.
Once they went into isolation Jones tried first a break out to the south which almost worked but since he could see how thin I had made that line because I feared a move west he shifted the attack to the east along the pike. This was a bad choice since by then my last division of the VI Corps had come up along the pike and easily stopped it. But really there was little he could do once Wright's division reached the pike. Any move could be easily countered and my shear numbers crushing the Rebels.
On the Orange Plank Road not much combat is happening but I ran the game out to the 9 PM (Night) turn to see what the positions would be. I started pealing off unengaged regiments from the Orange Turnpike fight as early as 6 PM. My misc. units were moved along with artillery to block the Pike at Locust Grove in case the tardy Rode's brigades want to do something. The rest of the VI Corps regiments started slowly disengaging as Ewell was crushed and moving west on the Turnpike then south at Locust Grove. V Corps regiments started moving southward to join the forces north of Parker's Store.
By 9 PM Hill's force at Parker's Store was close to being Isolated. The V/1, V/4 and V/PR divisions were forming up north of the position. V/2 division NE of the position. II/3 division SE of the position. The II/2 division had moved up from the south to take position to the SW. By morning these forces would link up in the west completing the Isolation of Hill. Rickett's VI/3 division was held in reserve around Locust Grove. Getty's VI/2 division and Wright's VI/1 division formed a road block for Anderson. Barlows II/1 division does the same of Longstreet. In addition their are two cavalry divisions and the artillery reserve supporting the forces. This give some 40,000 troops surrounding Hill's 14,000. 16,000 blocking Anderson's 7,000. And, 10,000 blocking Longstreet who will have 10,000 men with him.
Hill will probably last two hours then the troops there will turn on Anderson and Longstreet. Assuming these forces don't fall back to the map edge and dig in very quickly the entire ANV will be killed to the last man. Probably at a total cost to the Union of 10,000 casualties. All the scenarios that follow will be a cake walk.
_________________ General Kennon Whitehead Chatham Grays AoT II/1/3 (CSA)
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