Remaining Union Forces in the "Western Theatre"

 

We can now complete the Union position in the West. As well as Lyons' forces concentrated in  St Louis the Union has a further 6 militia strength points in Springfield, Illinois (so 6,000 militia). These can be represented as two "brigades" on the tabletop (6-4 PT NE). These should probably be supported by a battery of 1-5 SB-F PT which alternately could be designated as two Dedicated Gun attributes with the two brigade bases. 

There are a further 8 militia points of militia at Indianapolis which we will model in brigades as two 5-4 PT NE counters and one 6-4 PT NE counter supported by a battalion of artillery 2-5 SB-F P.

A final militia concentration of 6 counter points is located at Columbus, Ohio which would model similar to the forces at Springfield as two 6-4 PT NE DG brigades. 

It is worth setting out some more detail about the Union war aims in the West from the outset of the war and border State neutrality. Kentucky and Missouri were added as stars to the Confederate national flag from the outset of secession despite both States eventually siding with the Union. Kentucky began the war as a neutral however came out for the Union once confederate troops entered the State to support secessionist sympathisers. In our game Kentucky begins  and remains neutral until either (a) its neutrality is violated by either side or a (b) an appeal to the political table gives a result placing Kentucky on either side. The game has a complicated table which allows appeals for political results (such as foreign intervention) or overall victory based on battle victories and the attainment of other war aims such as territorial gains. 

When Kentucky joins either cause as a result of a breach of neutrality by the other side the successful side gains a one time boost of 50 personnel points. If Kentucky joins either side as a result on the political table then they will gain a 2-2 Militia unit on every friendly Kentucky City for each strategic turn thereafter. The Kentucky Cities will also begin to provide supply points if Kentucky secedes. Navigating rivers in Kentucky without making a shore landing will not be considered a breach of neutrality. Irrespective Kentucky supplied a large number of troops to the confederacy during the War e.g. the famous "Orphan Brigade" with its distinctive flag. 

Missouri will remain neutral until a successful appeal on the political table. Again the successful side will be able to deploy a 1-2 Militia unit of each Missouri City they hold on each strategic turn. 

Coming back to the overall Union strategy for the Western Theatre it would appear sensible initially to concentrate forces and secure the State of Missouri, defeating any confederate field forces if possible as well as occupying the Cities of Rolla, Springfield, Ironton and New Madrid which would then generate militia strength points each month throughout the game. The Union took care not to give Kentucky any cause to secede at the outbreak of the War. Eventually confederate troops movements pushed the State into the hands of the union. Ironically Kentucky was the home State of Abraham Lincoln. A similar stance should be adopted by the Union and this will prevent the Confederacy from gaining valuable space and resources in Kentucky. 

That concludes my run through of the map dispositions of the Union in the Western Theatre and the on table V&B brigade equivalents. We can now turn to the confederate forces in the same theatre together with one or two small Union garrisons or forts on the Western coast.

Union Forces at Cincinatti Ohio - July 1861

 

Above : Union Camp Photo (see site footer)

The start of the war finds McLennan represented by ***** 1-5-2 command counter based at Cincinatti not much more than a brigades worth of militia. In this case 2 points or counters worth of M1-2 which would each total 2 strength points on the table top. On the table top these then would be represented by a 4-4 infantry brigade stand PT/NE which would not lose that status until augmented back on the production spiral into regular infantry. I am not decided on whether Militia who are Green would lose that status for the purpose of exhaustion totals after undertaking combat. The PT/NE status is different from Green/Veteran/Crack status which really deals with their resilience total losses but there has to be some real differences on the battlefield for Militia  (e.g. they can appear really rather quickly off of the production spiral as opposed to regular infantry who spend a good 5 months drilling). There has to be some real quality differentials so the temptation for then to lose their green status should be resisted. Even a small say 25 % chance to promote from Green to Veteran and to improve their resilience and Morale after having taken or given casualties could render them too good an option for easy and fast recruitment. Militia should be just that - lacking in training and resilience and often poorly led. 

Above : Ironclads on the Mississippi 

As well as our 2,000 Militia troops McClellen finds himself with riverine transport in the form of an RT 40 counter and a supply train loaded with 4 supply points 

Overall attrition and Union Order of Battle for St Louis and Missouri under Nathanial Lyons - July 1861

 

Above : Union Parade (see site footer) 

I have probably seen off any potential readership with the level of detail in respect of deliberations around the rules for my campaign thus far. As a simplification I have discussed evolution of a system for using the minor monster board war game "War Between the States 1861-65" to run an American Civil War campaign with individual combats being generated for the tabletop using Volley and Bayonet from each weekly move. I have worked out over the last week the broad strokes for interaction between the game mechanics themselves and the tabletop. The translation in particular of divisional strength counters on the tabletop into the brigade manoeuvre units for the tabletop and the interaction of leader counters and how to account for things like artillery typically not represented in the Board Game but just modelled in. 

This post will deal with a final rules point on attrition and then we can get stuck in to describing some of the forces on the map both in terms of counters on the strategic map and potential tabletop brigades and placing them under command.  I have had to be a little flexible to make it work. 

Attrition of Units 

I can still see a number of potential problems but not enough to delay starting to play with my current draft ruleset. One issue I am wary of is that casualty levels in battles could  be too high or too low between the two systems to balance the production and attrition of force levels. This is crucial for the confederacy who should be troop starved over time but not initially. 

I think mathematically the modelling should work. On the tabletop individual divisions have an exhaustion point dependent on their "mean" experience (Green through to Veteran and Crack) of between 40-60 % Once the total number of strength point casualties have been incurred on the tabletop a division will melt away and be unable to take further part in the action. If this happened on average at a 50 % level for a division and then a decent percentage of casualties were recovered overnight ( perhaps on average 50 % of the actual strength point losses dependent on whether you retain the battlefield) then total battlefield casualties (which could include dead, wounded and injured) could total c. 25 % of a  total division strength for a major encounter. This might seem high but there were other killers in Civil War field armies - disease could account for a full 5-10 % of all the troops over time. You were more likely to die of the measles than of a mini-ball on campaign. Equally desertion was a problem on both sides. The Army of Northern Virginia suffered a loss of 40-50 % of its potential troop numbers from desertion and sheer straggling from exhaustion in its first invasion of Maryland prior to the battle of Antietam in the Autumn of 1862. At those that reached the battlefield were resilient. If the attrition levels appear far too high I will simply increase by a small increment e.g. 10 % the post battle recovery rates. Ultimately this is a game and not a simulation and there or thereabouts is good enough. 

Above : Civil War Hospital 

Opening Forces for the Union 

My Civil War campaign will begin in July 1861.  There is a detailed deployment for the Union's opening positions with counter strength and location. As well placement of counters I will need to keep a separate master roster for each counter of its component battalions and artillery. I have read that for V&B campaign rules divisional artillery can either remain as independent battalions or be embedded within the individual brigades as dedicated guns at a rate of 2 stands being augmented DG for each strength point of Divisional artillery removed.  I will play it by ear but the main point is that an artillery battalion should be provided to each substantial division from the outset and in some circumstances corps artillery where that headquarters component exists as a counter on the map. The V&B campaign rules give a good indication of artillery types dependent on the stage of the war.  

The Union forces and resources then begin the game as follows :-

• The Union has a supply level of 350 points initially but receives an additional supply amount of 25 points for the cycle 7/61 through to 1/62 in addition to those points provided by Cycle Turn Record Track. 

Forces in St Louis under Lyons 

• The Union Missouri Depot is located at St. Louis near to the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. 
• Brigadier General Nathanial Lyons ** (4-2) begins the game at St Louis arriving there in command of the 2nd US infantry Regiment at the outset of the war to ensure that Missouri remained in the Union by force if necessary and in particular to deny the arsenal to the local confederate troops. 

Above : General Lyons 

• On the map at St Louis is positioned XX 3-3 which we can roster as a Regular Infantry Brigade 6-5 (a higher morale and not PT/Poorly trained NE/No Elites deisgnation to represent battalions of the 2nd US Infantry Regiment/Regular US troops. The confederates will also get some stiffer troops at the outset and one or two early upgrades to create units such as Hood's crack Texans. I have ordered a bonny blue flag in 10 mm. Coming back to US army regulars there were at the outset of the war 16,000 regulars, most of them stationed in the West to deal with frontier issues with the indigenous population of the region. While some officers resigned to join the  confederacy the rank and file Federal US Army mostly just took up the Union cause. Only commissions could be "resigned" as such. I am not aware of how many private soldiers might have absconded to take up the confederate cause. The V&B campaign allows the Union side 12 strength points spread across 3 separate 4 strength point brigades with morale 5. Given the counter mix I will model these as 2 brigades of 6-5 troops - one in the East and one in the West, 
• The other troop points at St Louis are all Militia (12 points of them) so 12 x Militia 1-2 points. For Militia as with all "green" troops I have decided that these will not automatically lose their PT/NE designation which is usually dropped after 6 months for new infantry brigades (i.e. those raised at the outset as regular infantry). Militia will only lose the PT/NE status once augmented through the Campaign Production process to become regular volunteer regiments. This is a cheaper way to produce masses of volunteer infantry battalions and the delay as the counter is paroled back onto the production spiral to re-emerge in a few months will represent the training in camp. I can decide whether those units should emerge without PT/NE status. That might seem sensible although they would still be "Green" for the purpose of Divisional organisation (i.e.  operate on 40 % exhaustion levels). For now the counters will represent collections of Militia units from across Missouri, Iowa and Kansas. 
• So this totals a further 12,000 troops. Once Militia counters are "Placed" they retain integrity. The total troop numbers in St Louis were historically around 15,000 troops for the Union at the outset. I will split the points into three Militia 4-2 counters. Should they get caught in battle as Militia troops one counter can produce two brigades 4-4 PT NE and the remaining two counters a further four similar understrength brigades representing collections of volunteer militia regiments. Militia do not attach to Corps headquarters as "divisions" in the strategic game and it is likely that the points will simply get augmented to form regular volunteer infantry divisions in due course. 
• There is also an X 1-4 cavalry counter which probably represents elements of the 1st US Cavalry which appeared in the theatre shortly before the battle of Wilson's Creek. On the St Louis Corps which is described for the start of the V&B campaign has a small 2-5 cavalry brigade attached as Corps troops. These will operate as Light Cavalry under the rules and dismount as a linear base. With one point they can operate as skirmishers. In any event they begin equipped with rifled carbines which roll 3 dice at a long range of 3 ".
• Finally as we have the equivalent of around two divisions in troop numbers (15,000) we can assign a 2-5 SB-H PT (heavy smoothbore - probably Napoleon 12 lbs) and 2-5 SB-F PT (Field smoothbore) to the XX 3-3 counter and the remainder of the militia counters respectively. 
• Further West in Jefferson City at the confluence of the Missouri and Osage Rivers sits an XX 3-3 counter which I will model on the battlefield as a single 6-4 PT NE Brigade for now but without attached divisional artillery unless I took an option to split out the 2-5 SB-F PT attached to the St. Louis based Militia as dedicated guns. I could add a DG to the the XX 3-3 in Jefferson City and a further 3 sets of DG designations to the Militia brigades. Or I could just add a single DG to one of the Militia and retain a divisional 1-5 SB-F PT battery (each strength point breaking down into two DG. 
• Other resources at St Louis include an RT 40 counter. Unarmed riverine transport which can ferry troops or affect a crossing point acting as a ferry. There is also a mobile supply train counter stocked with 2 on board supply points. The rules for the supply web are faily complex. Essentially supply can be broadcast by rivers and rails lines but as soon as an army strikes away from those arteries even by road they will require local supply with them in order to prevent attrition and to give meaningful combat. I will need to provide a battlefield effect to model being out of supply having regard to the board game rules. 

Above : Wilson's Creek 

Historically Lyons is heading for a run in with the  Missouri State Guard under Sterling Price at the battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10 1861 leading the Union's "Army of the West". Quite a moniker for what was around 5,000 volunteers at that point. The 2nd US Infantry was despatched to the East as it fought at First Bull Run. 

Lyons did not survive the  battle was an early and rare success for the confederates in the West. If he lives beyond the end of the August 1861 turn we are already in the realms of the A-historical and counter factual. "What if Lyons survives ?". He has an initiative of 4 and a combat modifier of + 2 making him a very useful divisional leader both on the map and tabletop. A ** general can lead a division and a separate brigade - so two counters only I believe under the map rules. In this situation I expect that Lyons would command the higher cohesive infantry XX 3-3 counter as well as the cavalry X 1-4 unit. That's useful in the Western theatre in any event. 

Leadership in the Campaign

 

Above : Mclellen (see attributions below)

Perhaps the last thing I need to consider before I can possibly throw some counters on a map and set up my rosters of starting forces is how the War Between the States rules on leaders and my table top V&B battles will interplay. How and when does McClennen appear on the map and what will his board wargame counter translate to on the tabletop ? What abilities will they have on the tabletop as a result of their abilities at the strategic level. 

The strategic rules come complete with a set of counters which model 2 star to 5 star leaders right through the war. 2 star leaders are capable on the map of commanding a division plus one brigade (a X 1-3 or X2-3 counter). A 2 star leader can take temporary command of a Corps in the event that the corps commander becomes a casualty. 3 star leaders can command corps. 4 and 5 Star leaders may command either army or corps headquarters counters (which appear in a piecemeal fashion during strategic turns at historically appropriate times). In addition they are able to amplify command to separate commands held by 2 or 3 star leaders or further individual brigade or division counters up to their command span. 2 and 3 star leader counter have an initiative and a combat value (in that order) and 4 and 5 start leaders have an additional middle value of their command span. 

Both sides begin with a small  roster of leaders. For the confederacy  (Initiative - Command Span - Combat Value) :-

• J Johnston **** (3-3-1);
• Gustave Toutant-Beauregard **** (3-3-1);
• Magruder ** (3-1);
• Polk *** (2-1); 
• Price *** (commanding the Missouri forces described in a previous post) (2-1) 

There are 33 additional leader counters that appear between August 1861 and June 1864. Robert E Lee is appointed overall commander with 5 stars and some decent statistics in June 1861 - prior to that he had an unsucessful  junior command in the early moves in West Virginia and then acted as an advisor to Jefferson Davis and focused on the engineering defences for Richmond.  

On the Union side they begin with the following :-

• Butler **** (0-1-0);
• Lyon ** (4-2);
• McClellan ***** (1-5-2); and
• McDowell *** (2-0) 

A further 40 or so leaders are then generated from July 1861 to May 1864.

The star ratings, initiative and command start data will be useful for command and control on the map for strategic moves and the construction of field commands. In terms of actual battlefield performance I need to look to the V&B rules and campaign and House Divided campaign supplement to see what leadership effects need to be modelled on the table top from any counters present during a combat encounter. In general terms a set number of units or the units under a leader can move based on a chit draw from a pool for each weekly turn phase governed by the year in question or additionally by the a roll against an individual leaders initiative. The general rule is that you need to use up your free moves for individual "forces" first (counters, or the counters under the command of a commander) before rolling against the initiative value for each leader. So for Beauregard below you can either use one of the handful of free force moves allowed for the month or roll a 3 or less after then. The implication is that a side should make sure that any priority movements are given automatic moves as there is no guarantee that a particular leader will be able to move after. You are not permitted to ascertain which leaders will have initiative and then to provide free moves accordingly. It seems a good system forcing a proper consideration of priorities within a fixed resource of "focus" and "talent" within each sides command structure. On the union side any history of the war is replete with examples of Abraham Lincoln hounding his commanders to activity only to be faced with continued stasis. In the Western theatre the inability of confederate commanders such as Braxton Bragg to follow up any tactical success on the battlefield with strategic movement to secure a meaningful victory cost dearly. 

Within the V&B rules table top rules command bases operate at the Divisional, Corps and Army level. Those bases can apply command to a grouping of stands within 6 inches or 6 inches of each other. I will need to decide whether a force without a senior command stand available should have a generic two star general provided to it. I think not - leadership was a clear and decisive factor within phases of the war. At times certain leaders would just not behave in an aggressive way. At other times a good cadre of available leaders were able to create clear strategic and tactical advantages by the use of rapid and effective marches. Units that lack command on the battlefield will suffer a series of detriments :-

• They are unable to move closer to an enemy (i.e. they will need to simply remain on the defensive or withdraw from the battlefield);
• Movements are reduced by half and cause disorder - disordered units out of command not being able to recover from that status;
• Out of command units can never become "stationary" - a designation which provides a firing bonus; and 
• Artillery is not able to limber or unlimber - I expect it might be liable to capture then

Units are able to have commanders attached. This confers a + 1 morale bonus but does cause the potential for a casualty on a die roll of 6 if casualties occur. I think it could be possible to use the actual combat value which varies from 0 to 3. A handful only of leaders have values of 0 or 2 or 3 - the vast majority confer a + 1 bonus.  But higher value/starred leaders should not be leading individual combats such as George Meade at Gettysburg. I will then roll a D6 if a casualty occurs with a roll or 1-2 being killed 3-4 being wounded and unavailable for D6 strategic turns and 5-6 being captured. Captured leaders can under the rules of the strategic game be substituted or "paroled" as a replacement leader for any potential leader that the other side wishes to deploy. i.e. you can provide a lower ability leader on parole. Presumably the union player would keep Robert E Lee under lock and key for the table remainder of the war. This would at best cause a delay for a better commander appearing as a side can withdraw leaders from command. 

Stands which are in command are able to lose any temporary disorder status on the expenditure of half of their movement allowance. Units with a permanent disorder marker rout (essentially if a disordered unit suffers further disorder). Routing units can be rallied if simply touched by a command stand.

I do not propose to use the combat values of leaders to confer advantages on individual units for shooting or melee. The ability to stand a result of pressure or "Rally behind the Virginians" because Jackson is "standing there like a Stonewall" is the effect we want. Equally Hood who is + 2 for combat on the map will stiffen his Texans to persist with an advance through a hail of musketry. The major ability of commanders on the field then will be to allow a ORBAT to simply operate and to rally routed units and increase resolve of morale. The absence of leaders will prevent a side from executing anything other than a static defence or withdrawal - i.e. not to apply a mobile battlefield strategy and again that feels accurate. At the map level leaders will be crucial for efficiently moving large bodies of men in concert which will simply not be possible without them. 

Apart from some detail from the rules around promotion for morale and specialist equipment and exhaustion levels in troops - recovery of casualties after battle or between battle days I think I have now considered or covered the bulk of the rules I will need to get the system to operate. 

I now feel ready to deploy the initial counters on the map and describe and analyse the starting position which a fairly detailed depiction of the two side stances in July 1861. 

Exciting doesn't describe it ! See you in hell Johnny Reb ! See you in hell Billy Yank ! 

Converting Boardgame Counters to Units on the Tabletop

 

I am continuing today to consider the way in which the board wargame War Between the States 1861-65 can be used to refight the entirety of the American Civil War as a campaign with large tabletop encounters using the Volley and Bayonet Road to Glory system. 

Brigade Units in Volley and Bayonet 

The first step is to consider what we need to convert from counters onto  he tabletop to recreate a battle on using Volley and Bayonet ("V&B"). The basic building block of a civil war army was a Company often recruited locally within States to build up usually battalion strength Regiments of around 750-1000 men. In the South these were often raised initially from States Militia which pre-dated the war. Some oversized Regiments contain two or more battalions. Over time Regiment strength could drop as low a a couple of hundred men but a typical Regiment might have an active strength of 3-500 men in the field. Several Regiments, again from the same State or States grouping were organised into Brigades with varying strengths of 1000-3000 men. 

The basic manoeuvre unit in V&B are those brigades represented on the table top by a 3" square base. I am using a tray with 5 mm lip and an insert area of 60 mm x 40 mm. making a total base size of 70 mm x 50 mm (2 3/4" x 2 "). These are populated by my standard 20 mm square infantry bases. Six will fill a base but I am also considering the use of 20 mm square flocked blanks to lower the number of figures needed for large battles or to signify strength or morale levels or "disorder" markers within units (a neat way possibly to avoid a lot of signage on the tabletop).

V&B does not however track a unit strength through the removal of bases or by marking figures. Instead each army has Order of Battle formed as a roster. Strength points within individual brigades are recorded on the roster and represent around 500 men each. The strength points are in the form of tickboxes which can be crossed off as casualties or battle attrition wears down each unit. As well as strength a battalion will have a "morale" level against which it will test when in combat for disorder/routing and so on in certain situations (for example after losing a melee or facing close range musket fire or artillery canister).

So a unit might appear on the roster as :-

Jackson' Brigade M5 [  ] [  ] [  ] [  ] [  ] DG 

The signifier DG indicates Dedicated Guns which provides an additional combat dice for close range canister shooting at 4" (400 yards) and melee.   Another indicator on the roster might be PT which restricts movements a small amount and reduces the number of combat dice and allows a +2 modifier to the more seasoned opposition in a melee. 

So armies on the tabletop will appear with a roster after whatever conversion takes place from the stepped infantry counters on the map. The only counters which operate to represent to Brigades on the map  however are the X 1-3 and X 2-3 stepped infantry counters. 

These brigade counters can be sloughed off from divisional strength counters XX 3-3 to 10-3 which throughout the game should (unless annihilated) retain their integrity or identity. A divisional counter can be augmented in certain circumstances but cannot be broken down into smaller divisions of units other than by the process of sloughing off individual X 1-3 or X 2-3 counters. As an example then if we look at the V&B scenario order of battle for Pea Ridge we can see that the Missouri State Guard  under Sterling Price will need to have 3 infantry brigades on the table top (Little & Slack's brigades and the Missouri State troops) with 3, 3 and 6 strength points respectively.  

As a counter on the table top we could decide that  the Missouri State Guard on this "roster" could be created from the infantry perspective as a XX 6-3 counter. My belief is that a single step on a divisional counter is roughly 1,000 men so the 12 step points of infantry here would convert to 6 x 1,000 men step points for the division. 

So far so good. The obvious issue is however that there are no artillery counters in the board game save in respect of siege guns and siege trains in the later war which are a special counters generated to deal with fortifications and fortresses when these created throughout the war. 

Production and Personnel Points in War Between the States

I don't think that the problem is insurmountable. Troops and other resources such as river transports and flotillas are generated on a production spiral in the strategic phase of each 4 week cycle using the currency of production points and personnel points. I think it's imperative to stick to the production point and personnel point system. There is a clear track for the development of the war economy of the North within the game and also a system for call ups and Drafts to generate personnel points and this has an effect on political points which in turn links to victory conditions and other issues such as e.g. Kentucky neutrality or the intervention of France or England in the war. On the confederate side production points are generated and used based on the number and importance of cities retained and if they are ports whether they are blockaded. The system is very elegant and laid out so I do not want to alter this. For example throughout 1861 Richmond and Nashville produce ten supply points each month, Memphis and Nashville five and New Orleans a further ten. By 1864 (if retained by the confederates which historically would not have been the case except for Richmond) the same cities produce 40,30, 25, 35 and 40 respectively. Such supply can be taken by the union if they can repair or join the cities to the North by a rail line. As well as the major cities supply is derived from a long list of more minor cities and towns and ports. Interestingly these produce supply on a monthly multiplier and for Cities this will vary dependent on whether it is harvest time. Ports provide import supply which is more consistent as long as blockade conditions for the City is not met. 

Supply points are expended to generate divisional counters but also hoarded in central and map based  depots from which they are broadcast to feed and equip armies through intact rail lines and clear waterways. They can also be moved tactically by rail and river or by mobile counters that follow armies in the field. These localised supplies can be captured or raided. Field army headquarters (I will tackle leaders and headquarters counters in a separate post) can carry up to 2 supply points which is generally enough to support the local supply attrition required to give battle. 

This locational based economy helps to drive the campaign and the war aims of the North as it seeks to choke the South out of the war. The South in turn needs to husband and protect its resources. 

What to do about Artillery ? 

I come back to the question of the unrepresented artillery. This is where I really need to lean on the V&B campaign rules to see how many and what type of artillery units you might typically expect to see represented within a corps. There are also some quite neat considerations for cavalry within the game which I think I can make work. In the V&B game new units are raised as whole corps. A whole box in the V&B campaign can create a corps fours times a year with caps dependent on territory held and battles won. I do not think that I will follow that into my campaign as generally counters are created as divisions in the Decision Games system.  Price's Missouri division could be created as a XX 6-3 counter for 18 personnel points (3 per infantry strength point) and 12 supply points. 

In the V&B campaign a union division within an early war, July 1861-March 1862 Corps consisted of three 6 strength point Pooly Trained/Morale 4 Brigades on inception. So 18 strength points which is 9,000 men split between 3 brigades of 3,000 men. There are two divisions in a Corps but for each division there is an allotment of divisional artillery - one division is given a 2-5 SB-F PT battalion of artillery (smooth bore field pieces) and the other division a battalion of 2-5 SB-H (heavy smooth bore pieces). I think then the rule could be that (alternating) each divisional counter should be given divisional artillery battalion perhaps at a ration on average of one battalion for each 6-9 step points of infantry created. 

There are two Union corps at the outset of the war in Pittsburgh and St Louis that enjoy some corps attachments in the form of small cavalry brigades and headquarters attachments and that can easily modelled within the parameters of the counter system, Each placed division would need to be tracked for its attached artillery but in any event individual brigades will need to be tracked within counters so that morale upgrades and other "promotions" can be applied - as well as losses that may no be even across the individual tabletop brigades making up and on map strength pointed counter. 

A similar ratio can apply to newly formed confederate units but perhaps with a heavy preponderance in the early war of smooth bore artillery. The Army of the Valley begins with one or two augmented brigades and horse artillery. It retains a small cavalry attachment. 

There are some other ripples to consider out but if I apply the correct basic artillery ratios and types of pieces then perhaps I can apply a general rule that for every 6 points of infantry in a map division or corps a relative number of artillery will be present which can be tracked and replaced commensurate with infantry replacements. When Army headquarters with directly attached cavalry and infantry reserves an army reserve of artillery a similar ratio could also be attached.

Avoiding A-hystorical Monster Corps and Armies

There is one other point to mention. In order to prevent the creation of monster armies of 300,000 strong which did not exist (the largest field army on the confederate army was 90,000 at one point at the seven day battle and a little over 100,000 strong on the union side in several instances) there is an absolute limit on the number of large counters per side in the War Between the States game. So no more than four each of XX 10-3 and 9-3 counters, and eight each of XX 8-3 and XX 7-3 counters. The average size of a division was around 7,000 which modelled as three brigades would be no more than one 6 strength point and two 4 strength point table top brigades.  On that basis I will aim to raise new divisions around these typical and limited divisional strengths and also include a single rostered artillery battalion in each counter at the outset. 

Cavalry should be self regulating in its appearance as corps are expensive and their HQ counters rare. They would require then event direct leadership before they can formed. Army HQ's can house directly attached cavalry divisions 

When it comes to losses these can be tracked on the counters and the roster and the system has a highly detailed system for recovering a certain percentage of strength point losses at the end of battle days based on issues such as whether you hold the field or retreat disordered etc. There will be a fair amount of book keeping  as the on map counters and the on table brigades cannot convey all of the information required. It should be good though to follow divisions through the war and name the regiments comprising brigades and track their battle records and status upgrades and progress. A raw green regiment raised as part of a brigade in 1861 could go on to be the battle thinned core of a veteran brigade making the last stand of the confederacy at Appomattox courthouse in 1865. I should be able to write new regimental histories.

The subject of my next system discussion will be the creation and interplay of leader counters between the map and their table top Volley and Bayonet avatars.

See you in hell Johnny Reb. See you in hell Billy Yank. 

Apples and Pears - Cardboard and Lead as it Applies to Movement

 

I am nothing if not enthused by my idea at the moment. It's a bit like when I decided that I would start to take a picture of every bird in the world. I got as far as 400 after a few years  logging them online in two websites - there are 10,300 in the world. I haven't given up but the logging of it online has reached a hiatus for now for several years. Work took over and birdwatching became a holiday based thing. 

My great big stupid idea with wargaming then is to try to get two entirely different games to work together to reproduce the entirety of the American Civil War on both a detailed continental map and the tabletop. To play the grand strategic operational level board wargame - The War Between the States 1861-65 by Decision Games (with some sensible modifications and inclusions for historical purposes) but some or all of the time to transfer the resulting battles from the map to the tabletop using probably Volley and Bayonet miniatures rules in its newest "Road to Glory" format (already over 15 years old). They are still highly regarded and widely used. 

So essentially to get this :- 

To work with this :- 

The Boardgame itself is of Medium complexity which is good because we don't want to get too bogged down and is of "High" suitability for Solitaire play. How you split your mind to play both sides of a battle game is worthy of a post all of its own.  I will tackle that in due course but another time. Likewise how do you "unknow" information in a game which might be hidden (e.g. intentions or off map detailed dispositions). This is a separate issue - the difficulty with playing solitaire "ab initio" without a complex bot to control one side. Play a COIN game by GMT like A Distant Plane which recreates the political and military situation over a decade in Afghanistan  and there is a detailed system for automating the other side. Likewise I have a fantastic simulation of the Battle of Britain by Decision Games especially designed to allow you play as either the RAF or the Luftwaffe against a fully automated opponent. Incidentally I have taken to playing the RAF game in its full Lion/Eagle 2 player format on my own as taking the decisions for either side at the same time from the information that you do or only should have is a fantastic intellectual exercise. You take out bias of knowledge as much as you can and just don't kid yourself. I believe I am well able to cut my mind in two and to see both sides but we all have biases sometimes. Why do we do this ? For the story and the adventure and the intellectual interest. A little bit of bias if you are passionate about a situation or commander is not a fault. As long as you are not re-rolling dice as you don't like a result for "team Me part 1" then thats fine. Bad dice rolls happen.  Of course you will root for the RAF when its squadrons are stretched. But that will be because you have been consistent in your strategy of focusing on the radar network and the airfields as the Luftwaffe "team Me part 2" and the political and command targeting system in the games allows you to do so. It is a fantastic game for solo play in all its formats. 

Coming back to my new putative system my initial thought is simply to start by playing the game from its first turn in July 1861 in its full Campaign format with initial set up, resources and political stance on the part of Kentucky neutrality  (I assume if you have read this far you are interested in the Civil War to a certain degree) and then to address the obvious issue of how to transpose the resulting clash of counters from a tabletop perspective.

I'll take the rest of this post to answer some obvious questions for myself but I want to start with the map and movement and especially movement into combat and how that might transpose to the tabletop. 

The Map 

I'll start with the map. The map comprises the bulk of the theatre of operations both "East" and "West" including obviously the important areas of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, the whole span of the Mississippi from North to South, the Atlantic seaboard for conducting detailed blockades and Naval troop passage by the Union and the trans-Mississippi of Texas, Arkansas and so on. I think all that might be missing is a small part of the Far West around New Mexico which saw some limited and fairly small scale actions which were ultimately unsuccessful on the part of the confederacy but which would have little or no bearing on the conduct of the war in the two major theatres. The map at this scale will allow that grand March through Atlanta to the sea by Sherman taking full account of the topography.  A Union army trying a frontal assault "On to Richmond" is going to have to contend with the natural barriers of the East/West flowing rivers  such as the Potomac, the Rappahannock and the James. Topography and communications is all.  have added an ordinary size pen to get an idea of its size on my study floor. From Vicksburg on the lower Mississippi in Alabama to Washington is fully 1,200 miles. 

Looking at the detailed map you can see why I would prefer to move armies or Corps on this rather than the abstracted box system that is supported A House Divided  Board on the Volley and Bayonet webpage. I will give you an example of why. 

A full turn cycle comprises four weekly phases within which we will deal with movement and combat. This is preceded by a strategic phase and there are 13 turn cycles in each year totalling 52 weeks (so just less than a month). This is a simplification but a counter representing an infantry division or brigade dependent on strength has 3 movement points (cavalry 4) which would allow it a potential move of 6 hexes by road in a weekly movement phase. A confederate infantry division retreating from Norfolk to Petersburg during the peninsular campaign  of 1862 would need 3 1/2 movement points to cover 7 hexes - the additional hex coming by using the forced march rule and resulting in possible attrition (stragglers and such along the way). An alternative would be to travel by rail from Norfolk to Petersburg providing of course that the rail line has not been cut at some point. Rail movement is covered with the award of  monthly rail movement points each of which can carry a single strength point within a division (1 to 10 points in steps on the counters) I think 20 hexes. Rail points for the North are abundant while for the confederacy these are a resource to be husbanded. They represent the availability of box cars and rolling stock as well as time and distance. A final option is to move the men by water up the James estuary - provided of course that the tidal waters were uncontested by the union Navy which at this time they were not. When Norfolk was given up historically the Merrimack (an ironclad) was scuttled and the union Navy was able to shell the defences of Richmond until driven off by Confederate batteries overlooking the James River. In any event the loss of the Merrimack represented the loss of a navigable James river. No movement then by water from Norfolk to Petersburg but it is potentially an option if the confederate invests in riverine or blue water naval resources. So nuance, options and some complexity. 

On the similar area of the House Divided map there is a box for Richmond and a box for Petersburg with the single option of a rail line (I believe the rail lines allow a speedier passage for a certain number of troops). A further single blue line for water transport connects Petersburg to Yorktown to the Northwest with a further and separate single rail line going on to Richmond. This is obviously simplified and very abstracted. The boxes are representing zones in effect. 

The same piece of water used to connect Petersburg and Yorktown potentially also connects Norfolk and Yorktown in the simpler map. Using the fuller map in my game I would need to position river transports or flotillas to transport men using the waterways. With a clear passage through water something like 40 or 50 hexes can be traversed in a week. The detailed map also gives an option to build fortifications at some point or points along the Peninsular as the confederates in fact did in 3 places on the approach to Richmond. In the simpler campaign an army can fortify but this is then transposed to the table top as works in inches. The option of a number of defence lines along the peninsula would not be invaded. On the more detailed map an army would have an option to leave behind a whole division in those newly built defences or to "slough off" a brigade (1 or two counter steps) as a roadbump to slow an advance. The options gain become far more rich. 

Looking at the detailed map it appears to be laid out in 10 mile hexes and this is where it gets exciting for a Geographer.  The ground scale in Volley and Bayonet is 1 inch equals 100 yards. That means (exactly) that a mile is 17.6 inches which we could approximate as 18 inches. In theory a hexagonal table that was approximately 15 feet in diameter could contain the entire 10 mile hex at scale. Thats obviously not practical or workable (or is it for a Ghettesburg type battle as a one off on separate tables split so that you can get into the middle ? the best I can probably manage just now without taking over our whole formal living room is about 12 feet by 6 feet. That would still represent 30 per cent of the hex area which is good enough for me. 

Ordinarily if the two adjacent hexes have no obvious restrictions on movement between them it should be possible to simply 'generate' a battlefield by reference to obvious lines of communication on the map. There are various further systems for this including terrain cards for foot square sections of the table which are either chosen by the defender who may or may not be able to select their terrain to a certain degree or it can be randomised. It should be possible to take account of the hex type e.g. if it looks like a heavily wooded hex then a Wilderness encounter might take place with limited tracks and so on. This ground has been covered by others before and I can very much lean on their work giving credit where credit is due. It is a fantastic pursuit. The terrain will be the same for both sides - it should be chosen to create an interesting and historically realistic battle. The main thing will be to clearly mark lines of communication, railheads if appropriate and so on. 

There are perhaps three more points to make. Where there is an attack across a river then ordinarily in the board game this would place the attacking force at a further significant disadvantage as to how its strength was tallied and applied to combat charts. The combat strength of a counter is  halved. To represent this disadvantage I would suggest that (a) the table top represents the hexside as well including a significant river so that (b) the attacking units are required to find a ford or bridge. I can do some investigation as to the state of the river and crossings at the time. This kind of scenario is most likely to occur in the area around Richmond where the topography and troop numbers get congested and are extremely important. There may be the scope for engineering operations and pontoons like at Fredericksburg. In the West there should be plenty of options to cross major waterways which will not all run East/West for either party. As the confederate player I cannot think why you would want to make a contested river crossing in the West but let's see. You will need to slip across the Mississipi at times which usually needs a major crossing or a ferry. 

The second consideration will be how the rules will work for units to support an attack or reinforce a defence. In the board game it appears that only the attacker can do this by combining units from one adjacent hex only to attack a mutually adjacent hex. This would appear sensible and could be modelled on the tabletop by a flank attack using e.g. a road if one exists. So in the real world a Corps marching in parallel will be able to march to the sound of the guns. There is a fairly complex system though involving initiative to attack and command. No unit may attack unless it is properly under the command of a leader with the appropriate level of command span. Within the game leaders amplify their command span by using headquarters counters such that say a 4 star general with a command span of 2 should properly be able to command two sets of divisions housed within properly led Corps Headquarters under three star generals as well as his own army headquarters and any attached divisions. Without getting into the weeds on this Leader counters have a star rank which affects how much they should and can command (sometimes with a penalty if they are acting up). Leaders also have a command span which affects the number of direct reports as well as initiative that needs to be rolled in order to attack in the first place. Robert E Lee has five stars after a certain time in the game and an initiative of 4 (so he rolls under 4 to attack) and then uses a command span of 5 to properly order up to 5 properly commanded other corps in his or an adjacent hex to move. How the leaders shake down to be represented on the tabletop is perhaps a topic for another post. For now I think the simple rule that an attacker can reinforce from an adjacent hex should be sufficient. 

There is not a facility for a defender to draw on support from an adjacent hex. I might tinker with that but having checked e.g. the timescales of first Manasses or Bull Run it is clear that Joe Johnson's troops were despatched a full six days before the battle itself on word of the union advance from Washington. With weekly turns its should be possible for the defenders to anticipate likely moves and make adjustments to their dispositions accordingly. In other words as the defender you will need to anticipate potential attacks and reinforce accordingly during a prior phase. Movement or an attack is never automatic in any event for attackers and depends on command span and initiative and so on. Large union forces in the early war can be sclerotic. As far as open intelligence from the map neither side had a professional intelligence service. The Union hired at time the Pinkerton detective agency. Information seemed to flow between the sides. Borders and front lines were porous and there were plenty of sympathises embedded in their enemies territories. I will try to account in my decision making for some fog of war. 

In this historic example the final rail movement to the battle was undertaken again before the battle itself commenced overnight followed by a final early morning march so that Joe Johnsons surprise addition of troops on the battlefield by the afternoon was pre-meditated by the confederacy and the direct result of a very clear broadcasting of intentions by the Army of Washington. Washington and Maryland themselves were also riddled with confederate spies at the outset of the war. Washington was a sieve for information and you could literally read about the union armies intended movements in the newspapers or ask someone at the bar of the Wiltons hotel. 

Given the example of premeditated reinforcement I am minded then not to allow reactive reinforcing movement from an adjacent hex by a defender. Perhaps I should turn the Volley and Bayonet/House Divided campaign rules to see what they say on the matter before making a final decision. Rules can always be bent and in essence I will be writing scenarios on the fly to represent the position in the boardgame. That has to be half the fun of it. It should be an epic "story" as much as a simulation.  A final point is whether a defender should be allowed to withdraw to an adjacent hex giving the ground/the hex before a battle takes place. Again from memory this is also dealt with in part by the V & B full war campaign rules which could be adapted. 

The first point to make is that ground scale is entirely abstracted as we have seen from the examination of the map around the Peninsula approaches to Richmond. Movement is between boxes with usually a road or railway connecting them and takes place on a monthly basis. Within the scope of a battle though reinforcing movement can take place from box to box. The campaign rules which appear here section 8 have a quite detailed battle generation system which one could co-opt in full taking into account some of the nuances from the War Between the States Rules. Broadly :-

In the preamble to Section 8:Battles there is a description of how cavalry superiority of 2:1 or more would allow an attacker to dictate that a battle should take place. A defender not suffering that cavalry advantage has a right to withdraw unmolested to an adjacent box and give the ground. This could of course result in the loss of an important supply City or so on.  With giant squares which cover much larger areas this must represent the early warning of approach and so on. I am not minded to allow this on the smaller map - I think the concept of manoeuvre and being caught or not when armies are in a proximity of possibly less than ten miles in adjacent hexes in the real world has been caught by the attacking leaders successful initiative roll. If e.g George Maclennen facing  Beauregard wished to attack but failed his initiative (he is required to throw a 1 !) then later in his movement phase the confederate player will have an opportunity to withdraw and avoid a battle with the lumbering force coming down on him.  The initiative rating of commanders provides for that movement and jockeying in the landscape and to force a battle. It also dictates the intensity of a battle that can follow and the potential losses (that I think we just leave to the execution on the tabletop).  So to allow perhaps a leader to simply slip away as a reaction within the attacker phase (even on a dice roll) negates perhaps the successful roll of initiative that has already taken place.  There is always the opportunity to conduct a withdrawal on the tabletop during a day's battle with certain disadvantages for all or part of an army or for a whole army at nightfall once sunset has been reached according to the time of year. It is built into the multi-day battle system. Holding the field is the main victory criteria to take a "box" and that should probably be the case for a 10 mile hex in our game. 

There is ample opportunity then for a defender to anticipate an advance and slip away, screen or slow an advance using a satellite formation in their commanders  zone and control or to conduct a tabletop withdrawal with part or all of their army during an encounter. Part of the joy of a campaign is the consideration of which territory can be given or must be held as well as the preservation of combat strength. The confederates can trade space for time to a certain degree but at times will need to dig in to defend a key supply hub or recruitment centre. Allowing a defender to slip away on most occasions where an attacker has managed to both advance in full view and then succeed in achieving the necessary initiative roll to conduct an attack does not seem right. There is greater complexity to the game rules including attacks from March during the movement phase itself but these can all wait for the "off".  As a result of this discussion with myself it does not seem right to allow a defender to simply slip away from the approaching guns as a matter of course. 

Above Civil War artillery train (All attributions for images at site footer)

At the micro level  even stacked forces within the same hex may arrive at different times from elsewhere within the hex dependent on the Road to Victory set up conditions and deployment options opted for (e.g. wings and flank marches, turning manoeuvres and so on). Different elements of the forces will arrive on the tabletop at different times based on a D6 die roll past sunrise (7 am in the Winter and 5 am in the Summer). I think the same or similar rule should apply to the adjacent hex forces commanded to be part of the attack. They are not reacting but are part of a planned move. Perhaps the primary attacking hex could be designated attacker and then the units from the other hex could simply roll with a + 1/+2/+3 modifier (perhaps based on some aspect of the commanders leader counter) so that they are more likely to appear somewhat later despite having received the orders the day before at a staff meeting. The worse that could then happen is that in the Winter a Corps from an adjacent hex tasked with arriving for the commencement of a battle at 8 am could arrive at 4 pm with just a turn to fight before sunset. They will obviously be there for a second day's fighting and indeed other units can arrive during the night phase. 

It gets more difficult for the defenders. I either adopt a rule that no defending units can support or allow a limited marching to the guns. I think the reinforcement rule in Volley and Bayonet campaign at 8.4 could be applied to defenders reinforcing by road during the course of battle. There are plenty of instances in the nineteenth century of defenders making a march to the guns of several miles. 

I think firstly the unit must be able to conduct the movement under command and with initiative or span as if it was an attacker. A unit that is out of regular command - an orphaned brigade or so forth, and certainly not garrisons or militia should not be capable of reacting in this way. We are dealing with citizen soldiers in the main and if they are regulars or veterans who can force march they should be under decent leadership - so organise the command structure if you want to mutually support. 

Secondly there must be a major road available ! I don't think a 10-15 mile march to the guns is possible across farmland. If the adjacent division is across farm fields or through woodland it isn't going to happen. 

Thirdly we have to apply an extra + 2 modify on top of the +1/+2/+3 modify that would be picked up on top of the D6.  That 3-5 hour delay.  A minimum of + 6 might deliver up a fantastic reinforcement onto the battlefield in the afternoon or more likely not. There is always the possibility of a multi-day battle. 

Finally I am going to allow for the possibility of a short supporting rail movement. All of the information I can find is that a troop train would move at ten miles an hourly at a maximum. On that basis (1) the rail points must be available (2) there must be a rail link directly to the battle hex and three the arrival modifier should be +1/+2/+3 for their local  commander plus + 2 for gathering at the railhead plus an additional hour for each hex travelled  travel + the normal D6 for when then start the whole process.  This should allow for arrival in the night turn of a multi day battle or possibly at the very end of the day in the Summer if lucky and well led. There should also be a Points limit to the troops that could arrive in this way. Possibly a single brigade for the first day arriving late, the rest of a division over night and a division at tops by noon +1-3 hours the following day once the ferrying option had really commenced ? This might all be too much detail. I can always just allow for a % chance roll if it seems possible that a force might be able to move by rail to support a major battle. 

In the slim possibility of a three day multi-day battle we could apply a similar process - one further division at night and another by lunchtime the next day. If reinforcements are available by road more than a hex way they could force march to arrive on day 2 or 3 dicing their arrival  through the day however they would again require an independent command. I think with broad principles and some chance it might be possible to start a battle without knowing when a reinforcement might arrive and to keep the information hidden from myself. I could set up a number of boxes and ask a friend to roll the dice and populate the surprise packages to be opened on the designated turns. 

I will leave I think this discussion there. It has been good for me to make a start with codifying the issues if not the exact solutions to some  movement on the map relating to arrival on the tabletop. 

Scale and Basing Decisions

 

So the decision is made - A campaign recreating the whole of the Civil War both on the board and the tabletop it is. 

I got very bogged down for a quite a while recently by questions around scale and basing. These seem to take up a lot of time and cause and an amount of angst for us wargamers. It's easy when you know what ruleset you want to use all the time, its scale and you have opponents where the options are just all too obvious to all of you. If you want to play  the excelent AK47 you generally get the rules, buy some African Militia from Peter Pig in 15 mm and base them as suggested on 1 inch squares - job done.

Buy a copy of Pony Wars, the equally excellent system for a fun afternoon of cowboys and Indians by B-Troop games (available through Baccus) however and you first have some tough decisions on scale unless you simply want to throw in your lot with the 6 mm gang. But then a game like Pony Wars lends itself to having a few characters so I have always thought 10 mm and possibly 15 mm would be better ? But then one card can generate a marauding gang of 100 plains Indians - in 15 mm ? You get my point - and then what sized bases for gangs of Indians and how large should the table be ? There is a lot to be said for 6 mm again and again for fun games. 

I have painted a lot of 15 mm in my time. It's a decent scale but I was simply led to it by its dominance of DBX type ancient games. I will be honest and say that 28 mm for a big battle game leaves me a bit cold. I can see the attraction for a skirmish but for a recreation say of Shiloh and on what sized table ? Big battles at an epic scale need smaller figures. To get that massed effect, to say reimagine at some scale  a  Picket's charge with 15,000 rebel troops then 28 mm figures on even the biggest table just do not create that look. I'd love a sheriffs posse in  a Western Main Street in 28 mm with a perfectly modelled town but not a massed battle. You have to come down to 15 mm or 10 mm or 6 mm in my view to give a good showing for a massed battle. I understand the painting advantages of 28 mm for the button counters and lapel trackers. I think perhaps a small scale English Civil War battle or American Revolution clash of 2-3,000 men a side then are fine ? But Austerlitz - the assault at the Pratzen heights ? 

Let's come back to the project in hand. What I want to do is to be able to manoeuvre large armies - perhaps at times of 80,000 bayonet strength across half of the American continent and then to transpose each collision of forces onto the tabletop. Clearly the tabletop scale of rules is going to be brigade scale much of the time as the lowest manoeuvre unit - thats broadly 2-3,000 men. A regiment of  perhaps 300-1000 men would cause the tabletop and battlefield to have to cope with 100-200 manoeuvre units at times.  That points me towards games such as Volley & Bayonet or Fire and Fury in its second edition Brigade scale rather than it's Regimental scale format. 

Volley and Bayonet works on simple bases without any prescribed figure numbers - essentially you are free to set up figures within the base as you want. It is also somewhat agnostic in figure scale. As long as you work to the base template you can create a diarama of your brigade or Demi-battalion if you are looking a French Napoleonics.

The standard infantry base for Volley & Bayonet in the American Civil War is 3 inches square. The smaller 3 " x 1.5 " linear stand really only applies to skirmish infantry stands (possibly also dismounted cavalry or skirmish cavalry in this context). For Napoleonics I have been painting up pre-1806 Austrians so these tend to be on linear stands in the listings for units in Volley and Bayonet. All of the measurements in any event within the the game are in inches. Below is an example of small Austrian Battalion for Volley and Bayonet I painted up recently - a linear stand 1.5 inch 3 inch (or so) stand). 

I have problem though - I love Johnny Reb III and I would love to also set up and play a game of Fire and Fury for a colleague up the club. My copy of Johnny Reb III is worn but in fairness barely used in anger.  I have played a couple of games of Fire and Fury and I find it an excellent set. Those rulesets don't work on a large base and roster system like Volley and Bayonet where strength points (each of 500 men) are taken away. In Johny Reb III 4 individual bases are used of varying size with each figure representing 30 men. Each individual 4 man base is supposed to be around 7/8 ths of an inch in width x 3/4 inch deep to give an average frontage of 175 yards for a 480 men regiment in a battle line (2 ranks deep).  The size of bases and numbers of figures can vary to create four base regiments representing different bayonet strengths. Essentially a 360 man regiment has four smaller bases of equal size with 3 figures instead. 

Another set I would love to use, Altar of Freedom models brigades at a smaller 60 mm x 30 mm size - I think to use a ground scale that can fit even bigger battles onto a smaller table and to use a lower figure density. which makes it easier to get a game on the table.  Having said that Altar of Freedom tends to be played at 6 mm scale. 

Fire and Fury uses multiple bases as well - sometimes up to a dozen for a brigade which are removed individually as losses. To square the circle it became very clear to me that I would need to come up with a system of movement trays sized for bases that work for Volley and Bayonet or Altar of Freedom and that fit individual bases that could sensibly be used for Johnny Reb or Fire and Fury - Black Powder as well for what it's worth. 

Getting to grips with the pre-made mdf bases and movement trays at the excellent Warbases company I did various bits of mdf tray and insert maths once I had settled on a scale and bought some test figures. This was a whole other wrestling match in my head. Perhaps I over think things but this is a big decision given the amount of figures I am planning to buy and paint. I like 15 mm figures but in my heart of hearts I knew I wanted to go just a little smaller for that mass effect. 15 mm figures are more like 18 mm these days - take AB e.g. which is a gold mark for ACW figures. I like the detail you can get on a 15 mm figure but coming down in scale I find the detail on a 6 mm figure a little lacking. I settled on compromise at 10 mm. I am really pleased with the 10 mm ACW figures from Pendraken. You can get a lot of detail on the figure but they are small enough to create a decent massed effect. The sculpts are great and there are lots of options. 

My initial decision was to try for the standard Johnny Reb fraction of inch sized bases but this then caused a problem with movement trays which would have to be in all sorts of odd sizes with their inserts when converting to use for Volley and Bayonet. For starters there is a 5 mm lip around the insert on an mdf tray. I didn't want to be pegged into non-standard sizes which leads to individual discussions with the Warbases people over custom builds. One idea of standard 3/4 inch square bases (four of which would create a regiment or 16 of which would come together for a roughly 3 1/2 inch total square base for Volley and Bayonet) just didn't work. 4 Pendraken 10 mm ACW figures were a bit of a squeeze on a 3/4 inch wide base. I have a lot of 3/4 inch bases I will need to repurpose. Equally ending up with fully 64 figures on each volley and bayonet base didn't seem viable in terms of time. I would be happy to pay the figure cost but it was a huge mark up in painting time. 

So lots of questions - what was the final solution ? 20 mm square bases and a slight denting of my standard Volley and Bayonet base to a size of around 3 inches x 2 inches when the tray lip is taken into effect. This doesn't affect the frontage. In effect 6 x 20 mm square bases can make up a Volley and Bayonet brigade base. 3 x 20 mm square bases work perfectly for Altar of Freedom. For Regiment sized games I can spring out the bases to make up 4 base Johnny Reb Regiments (again in trays for ease of movement or dispersed for skirmish lines etc or when they take casualties). Fire and Fury with its larger collection of bases both at the Brigade and Regiment format can also be catered for. I think the results look good. 

If I had one gripe it might be that for the Volley and Bayonet base I might have wanted to throw out some brigade level skirmishers within the base. I have seen this achieved at 6 mm in a small diorama. At 10 mm perhaps I would need to make the tray three rows deep but then insert a 60 mm x 20 flocked blank in the middle row and have full four man bases in the rear row  of three bases and then make  three 1-2 man bases for the front row to represent a skirmish line. There are a multitude of options once you start to tonic on it. A four base arrangement with the colour party out front and two blanks in the front corners reducing a brigade stand to having four bases.  For now my 480 man Johnny Reb 3 regiment is on the left above and my Volley and Bayonet 1,500-3,000 man brigade is on the right consisting of 24 figures (So between 3 and 6, five hundred man strength points at a figure scale with this set up of perhaps 80-100 men on average per figure. I also keep coming back to Brigade level Fire and Fury ? It needs more bases and is perhaps very material hungry at a level above that of a single Corps. It is a great set of rules though and very intuitive.  I can delay the final decision while I am painting as you have seen as a 20 mm square base works perfectly well for Fire and Fury. 

What does this actually mean in terms of numbers of figures ? What would be a good initial target to aim for in terms of numbers of bases/brigades ? I can start to look ahead to the initial deployments in the Summer of 1861. Early on in the War the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley  under Joe Johnson managed to slip away  from their Union "markers" by rail to join Beauregard's forces at Manassas Junction or Bull Run as the Union termed the subsequent battle. Irvin Macdowell's force of roughly 20,000 men was approaching from Washington hounded into an early battle by President Lincoln. "You are Green but they are Green also" is the famous admonishment to Macdowell to get moving on to Richmond.  The historic result was a victory for the South. One aim of this blog will be to look at some history as we go along in parallel with the real events of the Civil War as well as to look at the strategic options presented by the set up and development of results.  I do not expect that the Union or Confederate side will try a hugely different strategy. Stacking limits, supply, political considerations and in particular the defence of two capitals, Richmond and Washington are just 100 miles apart dictated a lot of the early strategy. It took the Union army several days to march to Bull Run but just a single night for the "Great Skedaddle" to see the disorganised union army streaming back along the Washington boulevards to the consternation of President Lincoln. 

It is likely from the deployments in the Volley and Bayonet campaign game along the Potomac and the counter deployments on the map in my Boardgame of War Between the States that a re-run of Bull Run is likely to be on the cards within the first  game month. I have copied the Orders of Battle from the free Volley and Bayonet scenario at their website here . 

The confederate forces comprise of the 6 brigades of the Army of Potomac under Beauregard and a further 5 brigades from the Army of the Shenandoah (one of these a small cavalry regiment under Stuart). In total then 10 of my new Volley Bayonet trays which fully filled would hold 60 bases or 240 or so infantry figures. 45 strength points of infantry total about 22,500 men. The sides were then fairly evenly matched at First Bull Run. The artillery is modelled in the game as "Dedicated Guns" which are not modelled separately but considered to be included within the combat dice. Later on with the formation of artillery reserves within divisions separate Batteries and Battalions of artillery will be modelled on bases. The good news is that I have so far painted 25 confederate infantry bases - I am almost half way there with another package from Pendraken on the way. 

The order of battle for the Union side is a little more complicated. Rather than two armies we have a single Washington Army broken into 3 divisions. The union artillery needs to be modelled separately but there is no cavalry to contend with. There are 8 brigade bases of infantry and and 3 batteries (single strength point) artillery stands (two R-F or Rifled Field and one Rifled Heavy). Thats 192 infantry and I will some guns and crewman. There is a little more work to do on the union side and I will need to order some appropriate guns. 

That's it for the union army at home- a single test base that I knocked out today. The conveyor belt is just about to be set up ! Unless there is a significant concentration of troops early on I do not believe that I will need to get more than 10-15 brigade stands on either side during my first "half year" comprising 1861. I may need a lot of scenery, some cavalry (with dismounted figures and householders), artillery and I may need a fort or two ! The "production spiral" (more to follow) for the Campaign game will have a built in delay for realism. You cannot press a button and squirt out a marching infantry division. So while new brigades, divisions and corps will appear they will neither materialise that quickly nor should they all be capable of concentrating in one place for some time to give me a painting headache. Reinforcements should be spread between departments evenly in any rules I have seen. The union will need to send troops both East and West across a thousand mile front. The huge 80-100,000 strong armies of 1862/1863 that require 1,000 figures or 250 bases a side should not appear for a good year if I play the game in parallel real time.

Production spirals, drafts and call-ups. All of this to come as I start to address the rules. Or do I look at bolting Fire and Fury to the brigade rules ? I think in the end this may be too complicated. 

See you in Hell Johnny Reb. See you in hell Billy Yank.