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Playing the "What If" game is hard with WDS games because we, the player, are always in command. So the hypothetical "what if Hooker led at Antietam instead of McClellan?" question is a moot point because we play the role of AC in both situations. Therefore, anything dealing with a commander in charge of something they weren't historically in command of becomes unworkable. That narrows it down to simply "what ifs" where repositioning of forces is done. Unfortunately, those are the most debatable and argumentative moves you can make. To redo Gettysburg and reposition Meade's army elsewhere in Adams County, PA, is hard because the place where all the roads meet is Gettysburg. It is just such a natural place for a battle. Or, if you look at Shiloh, Grant's army is already encamped on the most obvious ground in the area, there is not much you can do to change that which would make much sense historically. Another interesting thing about "what ifs" is the idea of making too small a change to where it simply doesn't matter. What if the Iron Brigade arrived one hour earlier at Gettysburg? Interesting? Maybe. But in a three-day battle the outcome will not hinge on that single variable. It is simply too small of an event to matter. Only in a short little scenario of 10 turns or so will that change really be materially felt.
All that makes creating "what if" scenarios very challenging because you can't change things which are too minor, you can't change how commanders might have moved (because you are the commander), and it's not easy to change the tactical deployments because, very often, the armies are already on the most obvious ground for battle on the battlefield map. Lastly, and maybe critically, the maps WDS gives us are not always large enough to cook up whatever fantasy scenario we wish to create. The map of Chattanooga is far too small to really accomodate the dozens of "what if" ideas that spring to mind with Rosecrans crossing the Tennessee River in 1863. Or, the dozens of ideas if there was a map which linked Corinth and Shiloh for the 1862 campaigns in Northern Mississippi. Again, the limitations of the maps plays a big factor in the "what if" options we have.
I kind of favor creating totally new "what if" battles rather than trying to tweak a historical battle just a little. Your mind can go wild with a new battle design and you are not confined to the traditional battlefield. Your main constraints are the battlefield maps themselves which often limit your options.
Overall, discounting all I wrote above, if I could create a large "what if" scenario it would take place between Corinth and Shiloh in March/April 1862. The forested terrain, the Tennessee River, the large armies, they would all combine to create an excellent battlefield area where anything might occur for a stretch of over 20 miles. Giving the Union side a base at Savannah/Pittsburg Landing, and the Rebels a base at Corinth, would anchor the two sides perfectly and give each a base to defend and an objective to achieve. Not to mention that the outcome at Shiloh is the most critical in the war (my opinion). A Rebel victory would have likely seen the end of Grant's career and the rise of Albert S. Johnston to the pantheon of Confederate heroes. The war in the west would have been materially altered and the outcome of the war might be totally different. Alas, the lack of a large WDS map makes this impossible to create.
_________________ Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012
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