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.
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