American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

CSA Turn 18 (7:20 pm)

Command Report

No routs is a good thing.

Daniel wasn't as lucky. Here is a screen shot at turn start.

Daniel had several regiments rout and he had to withdraw others.

Screen shot at turns end

Winder moves forward. A lot of units jammed up in the open area as they try to avoid the high ground in order to remain hidden. I placed a Cavalry regiment on the high ground to take a look around.

Magruder's AO at turn start.

I notice something odd. There is little union artillery in the area. I decide to start the attack with just a handful of brigades.

Magruder's AO at turn end

Magruder has bumped into a Union force that must have been preparing to attack me. We will see next run if I routed any. The fire was pretty hot for both sides.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

Great reporting as always! enjoying it!

_________________
Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

Thanks! Feed back is greatly appreciated.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA Turn 19 (7:40 pm)

Command Report

2 units rout

They routed in Magruder's AO


Screenshot at end of turn

I stick around to fight it out. Doesn't matter to much how it goes, it is all a distraction. Although inflicting some routs would be nice.

Jackson AO at turn end.

DH Hill is moving in from the west side of the map. Winder and Stuart are heading east. Supplies are starting to show up. The union attack has been pushed back. All seems right in the world.

Next 3 turns are going to be dusk turns. Hopefully I can get Hill and Winder in position then, or at least close. They will have 3 dawn turns also. I want a nice battle line on Daniels flank once it is light enough to see. I doubt I will move much at night, as I think night movement fatigue can be pretty bad.

Victory Reports at turn start and end. Score is moving in the wrong direction.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA Turn 20 (8:00 pm) Dusk- Visibility 4 hexes

Command Report


Jackson's AO at turns end

During Daniel's last turn (it was the last of the daylight turns) I saw a couple cavalry units heading to the area I wish to launch my flank attack from. Not sure why he is doing that now. In an email he hinted at an unusual rout of a unit. I hope I didn't rout a unit to where they can see my flank movement. That would really be some bad luck. Daniel also pulls his line back as I routed several regiments.

I pushed Ewell forward a bit. I want his guns to do some real damage in that area come morning. So far Daniel hasn't placed any guns opposite Ewell.

Whiting pulls back his lines a bit further.


Beaver Dam Creek AO at turns end

I begin to push AP Hill and Longstreet forward. The goal is to get over 60 guns lined up to batter his line in the morning. I want Daniel to think the attack is going to come here or from Magruder's AO. I am sending a good part of the artillery reserve to assist.

Magruder's AO at turns end

I pull back the troops. I think overnight I will keep them in the general area that they are in now. I have to keep Daniel guessing as long as possible.

The Victory Reports at start and turn end. I won't be posting any Victory Reports over the night turns unless something happens. As you can see the score barely moved this turn.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

You Rebs are some sneaky fellows

How fatigued will your troops get if you plan to move them overnight? Will you have time for some hardtack and coffee to rest before the assault?

_________________
Field Lieutenant
4th Infantry Brigade
2nd Division (Corcoran's Legion)
VIII Corps

It looks like they gain 10 fatigue per turn in which they move. It doesn't show up until the following turn. I think I will be able to give the boys plenty of rest and have them march plenty. I will be posting an update in the next day or two. Not much going on with the night turns but there is a little action. Daniel seems to like the night melee attacks.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA Turn 25 (11:00 pm) Night
Visibility-1 hex

I haven't posted the last several turns because there just hasn't been much going on since night fall.

Screen shot of Jackson's flank march

For the last couple turns Daniel has had a small (as far as I know) combined infantry and cavalry force skirmishing with Stuart's cavalry in the south portion of the picture. As far as I know he doesn't know about Winder's division just north of the skirmish, but damn they are close to each other. He seems to be on to my plan. He couldn't know the scope of it, best he can do is guess. So I am still hopeful that 22k men on his flank at dawn will be a surprise...a devastating surprise. If not, it is gonna be tough for me. He has interior lines and a good road network.

Surprise is the key along with an overwhelming concentration of force in this one area. If those happen I can roll up his flank, attack the Beaver Dam Creek line from two sides, and cut of his escape through the Gaines Mill area.

Dawn is at 4am

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA Turn 29 (3:00 am) Last Night Turn

Command Report

Men are getting some rest and the sergeants are getting the men organized. Fatigue recovery is good. Jackson put a stop to the flank march a couple hours ago to let the men get some sleep on the side of the road. He feels he already has enough men in place to handle things at first light. The wagons continue to move since they have fallen way behind.

Jump Map

Things look good for in the morning.

Jackson's AO

Winder is in position. DH Hill has one brigade in position and the others are not far off. Next turn is dawn with a visibility of 4 hexes. I hope to see some yanks still occupying their positions. Intelligence has reported union troop movements so it isn't looking good.

Beaver Dam Creek

AP Hill and Longstreet along with much of the artillery reserve is in position to attack across Beaver Dam creek at first light. This is about 30,000 troops and over 100 guns. The beaver dam position is a strong one but I don't think it is strong enough to hold against that kind of numbers.

Victory Report

I have a long ways to go to get a victory but I still have about 50 turns or so. I just hope that Daniel is still defending forward at dawn. I'm ready for some action.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA turn 30 (4:00 am) Dawn: Visibility 4 hexes

Command Report

Units were resistant to rallying last night. I had one unit that routed at dusk and still isn't rallied. More on that later.

Jackson's AO at turn start

I didn't see any yanks across the low ground from Ewell. That was a bad sign.

Jackson's AO at turn end

Stuart had run into some Yanks and that made me hopeful for a brief moment. That hope was dashed once Ewell crossed the low ground and found the union trenches empty.

Beaver Dam Creek turn end

Empty union trenches were found at Beaver Dam creek. AP Hill moves troops across and Longstreet advances as well.

Looks like I am going to be pursuing the withdrawing yanks for the next few hours. I doubt they got far nor that they have a dug in line. Daniel moved to many troops forward yesterday to have had them working on an alternate defensive line. Or at least that is my hope.

Screen shot of a unit that refuses to rally

This routed unit has been routed for 7 turns. Neither Longstree nor Lee seem to be able to rally it. The brigade commander was 5 hexes away, not sure if that is too far. Shouldn't make that big of a difference even so. That unit should have rallied. I had something similiar happen in a 1st BR game Daniel and I played. One regiment refused to rally for about 10 turns even though Beauregard was parked on top of him. I finally gave up and was going to forget about the unit. I moved Beauregard off and the next turn the unit rallied. Maybe the same will happen here, I will move Longstreet and Lee off and the unit will rally. Seems like a bug to me, once is odd but twice in 3 games is like a bug.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

Regarding recovery from rout, from the manual:
These Modifiers are applied to this value to result in the final Morale value.
• If the unit is stacked with a Leader of the same organization or a higher
organization as the unit and if the Leadership rating of the Leader is higher
than the Morale value, the Morale value is set equal to that rating. If the
Leadership rating is already equal to the Morale value, then 1 is added to
the Morale value.
• If it is a Night turn, then the Morale value of the unit is divided by 2 with
fractions rounded up (for example 5 becomes 3).
• If it is a Day turn, then the Morale value may be affected by Corps and
Army Leaders in adjacent hexes using the same process for Leaders in
the same hex.

So you see recovery from rout at night is problematic especially if the unit is of low quality. If it's day stack it with the brigade/division leader it belongs to and let an army/corps leader be adjacent, that should finally bring it out of rout.

_________________
Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

I believe the -2 to morale at night is the culprit. What I really hate, though, is that routed units continue to accumulate fatigue at night, even if they don't move.________________

_________________
MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA

Even if nothing is done to them or done with them? Interesting...

_________________
Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."

CSA Turn 31 (4:20 am) Dusk

Command Report

Units are recovering from the disruption caused by the abatis along Beaver Dam Creek

Troops move forward with little contact.



Notice that one regiment is still routed. (approximately 3 hexes east of Mechanicsville)

Magruder takes a peak over the first ridge and see nothing.

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West

CSA Turn 32 (4:40 am) Dusk

Command Report


Units continue to move forward



Regiment still has not rallied

_________________
Lt. Col. Thomas Wayne (Iddings)
6th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps
Army of the West