13h Battle of Gettysburg (Historic)
Posted by ken whitehead on Sunday, July 11, 2004 (CST)
A discussion of possible strategies.
I recommend that you wait until Rodes arrives before you get really aggressive against
good yank players. Pender's arrival with 18 infantry units helps a lot, but you
will be facing approximately equal to superior numbers for the early moves in the
game. There is safety in numbers and they should support each other.
You will require supply wagon escort against an aggressive yank cav commander. That
can be a minimum of as many as 4 dispersed units, if the whole cav division is in
the vicinity. The turnpike allows wagons to move 10 hexes a turn, so that helps
a lot. You must be vigilant as to where his cav units are. If you see that he is
using them to fortify Cemetery Ridge, then of course that takes a lot of rear guard
requirements off you. If the cav hovers in your rear, watch out! And you cannot
prevent him from hitting you at advantage, especially when Doubleday's division
arrives at the battle area. All you can do is make it expensive enough that he decides
to conserve the cavalry as a threat because you are constantly guarding rear and
flank approaches and "he cannot make enough off you". The yank commander needs to
avoid depleting cavalry numbers and accumulating fatigue in cav units, unless the
rebel gives him really juicy returns on the investment.
Heth arrives first. He will have 16 infantry to deploy. If the cavalry defends the
1st objective hex dismounted, by all means, push forward and melee them. Otherwise,
side step south to avoid the cav arty unit field of fire, and keep pushing toward
Seminary Ridge. That will also keep Doubleday from being able to use the road and
reinforce Wadsworth and Robinson quickest. They should look like a cloud of units,
if the yank keeps his cav mounted and threatening your flank and rear. Big regiments
to the front because you want to melee his elite units, cav and Wadsworth division,
every time that you can get sufficient advantage to kill them in large numbers with
your regular (C quality) infantry. Trading volleys against A and B (elite and crack
troops) will fatigue your guys quickly and you will lose troops faster than he does.
I like to kill his good guys at 150 to 25, but even equal losses are to his disadvantage.
We want those guys fatigued to the point that they also rout easily like his D and
E quality units. (green and militia)
Keep the big regiments out of range or LOS as much as possible and use them to melee.
A fatigue hit on Pettigrew's 850 man unit is much worse than a fatigue hit on Archer's
125 man unit. Four fatigues and your unit downgrades lowering its effectiveness
on fire or melee. Two rounds of play and you will likely be at 4 fatigues because
he will target your best and dangerous units.
Avoid making ranged rifle fire past 1 or 2 hexes distant. Heavily fatigued units
should not fire. Supply wagons are critically important in longer scenarios and
you can easily consume them at 4 or 5 units per turn, once A P Hill and Ewell Corps
are both in action. Consider the casualty and fatigue differential to each side
as to when you successfully melee as against trading volleys. I consider it a no
brainer.
There is so much more, but that is why I have been pushing for the War College.
You and others like you are exactly why the college is needed.
Col Ross McDaniel
I have usually found that the Rebel gains little by being overly aggressive until
Ewell starts coming in. The forces are to equal against Heth and Pender and the
Union position to strong. You really prefer not to drive them back early since later
they will be out flanked and have to retreat under fire.
Try to spread out you line to the right as you get sufficient force to do so and
use your artillery to clear McPherson’s Hill. Wait until you have eight or so batteries
then deploy them watching that they are in proper range. Then make it to hot for
the Yankees to stay. If they counter attack you may lose some batteries but artillery
isn't that useful to the Rebel so in the long run this will make your gun affective.
I usually try to position a couple of Heth's brigades to hit the 3rd division if
the opponent is foolish enough to march in column down Hagerstown road but a good
enemy won't do this.
When Rhodes arrives you can start advancing and stretching their flanks. Keep shifting
Heth right. Hopefully this will keep the cavalry covering their flanks and not running
around in your rear. Use artillery and some of the smaller brigades to cover your
right and rear.
Above all don't play my brother. He's a Lieutenant over there but like me he has
played these games for 30+ years and is very aggressive but he has only played a
few games in the club so his title doesn't match ability. But you will be happy
to know I caught one of his brigades and some artillery in Gettysburg town and ZoCed
them to hell . He surrendered at 6 PM.
Lt. Col. Kennon Whitehead
I wouldn't go so far as to say the Union can't be defeated since I have not run
into flawless play by the Union player . I usually find the Union player will execute
some kind of delaying action that will allow me to engage his forces in the open.
There seems to be some kind of general view that the Union must delay the Rebels
in the afternoon in front of Cemetery Hill or they will get there to quickly and
attack before XII Corps arrives. But, I think if you look back over old games, you
will find Rhodes arrives within a turn or two in front of Cemetery Hill regardless
of whether he has to step over some dead Yankees or not .
Now the problem is how to take on the Yankee that uses long range artillery to keep
Rhodes out of column and the threat of cavalry to slow Rebel advance. The Rebel
will find this player well placed on the heights with lots of artillery support
and cavalry on the flanks. I haven't run into this player so I can't be sure of
the solution , but here is my opinion.
Wherever the XI Corps is there is an opportunity. Usually the Corps is on Culps
Hill with maybe some I Corps support. An attack against Culps Hill has a number
of advantages. First the woods give you cover from the Union artillery and second
the right flank will probably be in the air at some point. The draw backs are it
takes a long time to move through those woods and the XII Corps comes in nicely
to support that flank.
My favorite is the other flank . The broken ground where Cemetery Ridge runs into
Plum Run is an excellent place to attack with the intent of taking the Taneytown
Road and turning the Cemetery Hill position. If you are moving fast enough you may
have Pender into position for an actual attack up the ridge line before XII Corps
can show. The one time I have been able to use this strategy I had Rhodes holding
a long line across the front of Cemetery Ridge (two brigades on each side of Gettysburg)
with Early pressing Culps Hill to attract some of the XII Corps. I attacked with
Pender toward the Road then turned left toward Cemetery Hill. This rolled up their
defenses and left most of their artillery pointing the wrong direction. Next I reinforced
the attack on the left of Cemetery Ridge with Anderson who pushed across the ridge
almost to the other side. By night I held all of Cemetery Ridge but Cemetery Hill.
At that point my opponent surrendered .
I will have another interesting test of this strategy against Robert Frost but we
are playing his modified Corinth system of Gettysburg which fights quite different.
In this case we are in the night turns. I have reached the Taneytown road but have
not turned the Cemetery Ridge position (except the lower broken ridge). I have Heth
facing the III Corps across Emmetsburg Pike. Pender is actually occupying part of
Devils Den, Wheatfield and Plum Run area. I have basically a large "V" with one
side facing III Corps and the other side Cemetery Ridge. I am down though 2000 men
mainly due to Frost's artillery system that is 5x more powerfull than Corinth and hurt
me bad during the advance. But I have stuffed two fresh divisions, Anderson and
Johnson, into the apex of the "V" for the morning assault. We will see what happens
soon.
Col. Kennon Whitehead
My approach is to try to destroy or at least cripple the enemy army. If you accomplish
this then the terrain objectives are easily picked up toward the end of the game
. If you drive head on toward VP hexes you will usually find the enemies strongest
defenses being thrown in your way. You may take the hex but at such cost that you
can't hold it. Gettysburg is a good example of this situation. The Union doesn't
need to hold the VP hexes on Cemetery Hill and Culps Hill; he needs to make the
Rebel bleed his army to death taking them. The Rebel will find they are very poor
defensive positions when out flanked my massive Union forces on the second and third
day.
First Bull Run is another good example since the VP hexes don't even represent tactically
good terrain. If either side gets obsessed with taking and holding these hexes during
the first half of the game they will usually be defeated.
Col. Kennon Whitehead
Sounds like your initial opening is pretty much how I would do it with some small
changes. I usually send Pettigrew and Brokenbough to the right with some supporting
artillery. This covers against any cavalry raiding and, if Doubleday comes in and
tries to make the run in column, a force to punish him severely. You should be able
force Doubleday to have to fight or take the long way home.
I usually put a large concentration of artillery on Herr Ridge to punish the Union
on McPherson with Davis supporting mostly on the right and Archer spread out on
the left. I use Archer to push down into the valley to prevent Union advances and
cover Rhodes eventually. You have to be careful of a Union counterattack during
this time since you are so spread out.
Once Pender arrives though get aggressive. You want to draw the Union into a fire
fight so he will be pinned in position when Rhodes comes on. How you deploy Pender
depends on what the Union is doing. If Doubleday fights and is reinforced by cavalry,
shift Davis that direction. If Union stays up front on McPherson’s Ridge, encourage
it by holding back until you see him start to withdraw. Have Pender and Heth deployed
for quick pursuit so that you can quickly engage his withdrawing troops. If the
Union withdraws early, have Heth follow watching for traps. The objective here is
to control the Chambersburg Pike so Pender can move in column as far as possible.
The Rebel objective after Pender is deployed in line and before about 3 PM is to
try to engage the Union in the open and pin him in place with disorders. Once he
withdraws onto the Cemetery Ridge line things change. Save that for another post.
The general objectives for the morning with Heth are to cover Pender and later Rhodes
arrival so they can enter the maximum distances without deploying, cover the right
and left against cavalry incursions, position artillery to get maximum effect (Rebel
rarely gets to use artillery offensively so take advantage of the Herr Ridge vs.
McPherson Ridge position), and watch for the Union to make mistakes.
Union mistakes I usually see that you can severely punish are Doubleday trying to
move down the road without deploying, Doubleday deploying but still trying to advance
on the Rebel right or move across the front to get to the I Corps, regiments being
posted in front of McPherson's ridge (great artillery targets), and staying to long
on McPherson's ridge usually trying to cover for Doubleday.
I usually press Doubleday because it tends to lead to more mistakes by the Union
player trying to cover his arrival and movements.
Col. Kennon Whitehead
Throwing another opinion forth. For me the goal is the Federal army not the Objectives.
It is extremely rare for a game to go till the 149th turn, thus objectives don't
matter. Ammo, and cannon shells, and fatigue. I would rate as secondary, Objectives
last. For that matter most of the hills are great defensive positions for the Union,
not as great for the CSA. I access my progress by subtracting Objectives from Victory
points--if at the end of Day 1 I have a Major Victory--I feel I have a good chance.
Brig. Gen. Laabs
Unless you are both newbie’s making wild and unscientific play, IMHO you need to
take the 3 Cemetery Ridge HVP (high victory point) objectives and Culps Hill to
have a chance of lasting 3 days. I prefer to play Battle of Gettysburg BGG 13a/or
h. I have failed to take all of Cemetery Ridge only one time. Still I lost one game
where I took Cemetery Hill, The Angle, and Culps Hill after I ran out of artillery
ammo near the end of the 2nd day. With your best play against a competent yank,
you will still run low on ammo for dozens of units and you may easily go dry on
artillery ammo. On my 3 mirror matches, when I play as the yank, it has never been
close. My strategy on this battle is to be careful and super aggressive on the 1st
day and demoralize the opponent into surrender by piling up 4000+ points. That works
best against an opponent who does not know about his ability to recuperate against
a deteriorating rebel supply situation. I will e-mail snapshots of turn 68 on my
game vs. Gen Kelly Ross posted on this forum (1120hrs 2nd day) for those who are
interested and let me know.
On the shorter scenarios such as "Out of the Mist", of course there are different
requirements and you won't run out of supply so badly.
Col Ross McDaniel
Hills are just big piles of virtual dirt . In terms of your real objective, destroying
the Union army so it can't destroy you later, they only represent a bonus to the
defender. If the Union player defends Cemetery and Culps in depth the Rebel can
easily destroy his army taking them. If the Union player has conserved his forces
and concentrated on defending the high ground rather than trying to delay the Rebel
advance, I find the best tactic is to turn the position's left (from Wheatfield
side).
As the Union player I have never lost the hills to head on assaults. But as the
Rebel I have forced the Union to surrender without a single unit on Cemetery Hill.
Col. Kennon Whitehead
If you try to take the Hills the union will defend the hills and that hands the
advantage to him. I take the town of Gettysburg and the hills to the north and ridges
to the west of Cemetery Hill and Culps Hill leaving a defensive line out of LOS
as much as possible then as fresh rebel units arrive attack the peach orchard and
wheat field area by early-afternoon of day one disrupting his reinforcements before
they can form a healthy defensive line. If your opponent doesn't surrender at the
end of day one...an attack on C. Hill from the south is much harder for the union
to defend and you will have him covered from three sides S-N-W so as he turns to
defend from the south you can add pressure from the other two sides.
This will be harder to do with an overly aggressive Yankee, but if your opponent
is happy to dig in on the hills facing north and west half your job is done.
Col. R.A.Weir
I must say I agree with Col. Ross...Take the hills and the ground around them, this
will give you excellent reinforcement routs, as well as take away your opponents.
This solves the Rebel problem of taking forever to move from one hot spot to another...plus
those VP are nice to have.
Another good idea for the first day is to cut off Doubleday, this can be done with
a relatively small force (I used a large one); and will force the Yank to take the
long way home. I forget who mentioned doing this to me; his name is in one of my
post. I enjoy denying my opponent more men.
But there is nothing more enjoyable then the freedom of movement felt after destroying
his cavalry. I have only done this in one battle. And it was totally my opponents
fault.
Fld Lt Andrew Vernier
I will be glad to take up the challenge but I think the disagreement is more over
emphasis than strategy. I don't think the Rebel should get overly fixed on the VP
hexes at the expense of damaging the Union army so it can't fight. When you have
broken the Union army the Hills will fall, he can't defend them. If I had
to make a choice where my 3000 VP's come from I would rather it be from dead Yankees
than from Hill tops . But I think if you have 3000 VP's due to killing Yankees you
are probably also on the Hills. The reverse isn't true. If you have 3000 VP due
to taking the hills but you lost 3000 VP in casualties doing it, you aren't going
to be there long.
Tactically the hills are important because they dominate the road net. The Union
on them is able to limit movement of the Rebel army. The Rebel on them allows them
to split the Union into its two reinforcement areas. However, taking the hills should
fit into an overall strategy for defeating the Union army and not be the primary
objective of your battle.
Col. Kennon Whitehead
I don't disagree with your latest post. I just believe that one cannot afford to
relinquish those 2500 points when the rebel will run low on ammo and artillery fire
during the 2nd day and the damn Yankee will still have ample supply into the 3rd
day. The point differential is equivalent to having lost 6250 extra infantry. Holding
those hills will also keep their yank garrison at a defensive advantage while he
masses his already greater numbers attacking against starving rebels.
Col Ross McDaniel
In my very short career here, I have been or am currently involved in 19 games at
Gettysburg. I think I would side with Kennon. The VP looks very enticing. But, I
believe the destruction of the US Army should be considered paramount. Particularly
the US I Corps and 1st Cav Div. Destruction of their ability to fight for the VP
hexes will force them to yield them to the CSA.
Some hours of analysis show that at the CS Forces are basically outnumbered until
Ewell arrives at 12:20 day 1. From then until 7:40 AM day two the CSA advantage
in total manpower will crest at
11625 men at 1600 hours of day one. In the next hour Union reinforcements via the
Baltimore Pike starting at 1620 will drive that advantage to just under 1000 over
the next hour and a half.
Driving up the fatigue on his A & B quality troopers will negate to a large
extent his ability to hold the standard positions on the hill. Worth noting also
is that by start of day two CSA have twice the number of batteries of artillery
as he has. Ammo for both Small Arms and Artillery are standard, way too little of
each.
Total CSA Arty Ammo 1400 vs 1900 US
Small arms Ammo CSA 72 units on 9 wagons, USA 120 units on 20 wagons. This gives
them twice the resupply sources as the CSA.
I have found that after Ewell arrives the Federals are forced to yield all the VP
hexes North and West of THE HILL. (5 hexes worth 700 points.)
Having tried the unthinkable and futile Frontal Assault, any mediocre US player
will be able to hold both Culps and Cemetery Hill's. There appears to be two paths
that will negate his positional advantage. One swinging Ewell east around town towards
Culps, and Hill south and east towards the round tops.
Culp's Hill is hard to gain due to the elevation, woods and entrenchments you are
sure to find there. I have rarely seen the 1st Cav anywhere except on the Union
right covering his flank and Culps Hill. His Black Hats are normally at the angle,
or the North end of THE HILL. This is a vulnerable spot, but it is not as soft as
the Round Tops. Typically defended by III and V Corps, and by mid-morning on day
2, lots of artillery. In fact, from 0600 to 0620 (two turns) he will bring on 19
more batteries. Most will be right in the Round Top Region.
If you are successful in pushing Hill into the Round Tops area by end of day one,
you put a large burden on the Federalists to protect the vulnerable guns (High VP)
with most of the units he needs to build his reserves behind his lines. Did I mention
that this area contains 900 VP on just four hexes?
A small point I have noted, and would certainly be glad to hear any contradicting
information on is the ability to inflict more than one casualty hit (from Small
Arms) against any units. It seems that unless adjacent and without significant Fire
Modifiers (Rear, Column) it seems that you only get One Shot to damage his troops.
While Artillery seems to fare better, I have found that after the first Fatigue
or Damage hit, it is more likely to run out of ammo then to get another hit in the
same turn. Does anybody feel the same way? It seems that it is easier to keep looking
for a single fatigue hit per turn against his exposed troops. At best in three hours
his unit without Melee would already be at Fat Lvl 9, and basically useless for
anything except CSA VP's. (ahem, the same goes for our troops.)
If CSA can hold the Round Tops in conjunction with the VP normally surrendered,
we have reached 1500 VP (Major).
I totally agree with BG Laubs on the Tactical Advantage of ALL the normally defended
Federal positions. There are of greater advantage to the Union, due to LOS restrictive
terrain on the south and west sides of all the High VP positions. They are Very
good for the North, and only fair to good for the South.
Colonel Whitehead is certainly correct that the greatest advantage to the south
from gaining the HILLS is that the North then has Three Reinforcements Roads all
separated by either significant CSA forces or distances. This is worth more than
the Height/LOS advantages.
All in all, as General Levy once remarked, "Winning at Gettysburg is a bugbear to
accomplish"!!!
But, it is not impossible, I Hope!!!
Col. Mark W. Zapp
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