Strategic Hex Game McClellan's Last Command (custom GCACW module) - community playthrough

Action on the 13th June:




Battle of Winchester
In the morning, McLaws advanced to just outside Winchester and attacked Mulligan's brigade, currently on the Berryville Pike. The attack caught Mulligan's forces by surprise and effectively routed them, forcing them north to Hopewell in disorder and with several hundred casualties.
McLaws followed this up with an assault on Winchester itself, and effectively forced the two brigades defending the town out in disorder and confusion. The defenders were not routed, and inflicted equal casualties on their attackers (around 500 each) but did not have time to destroy the supplies there which fell into Confederate hands.
 
The basic summary of the GCACW level is that for the most part here we'll be working with infantry divisions (though brigades can be detached) and cavalry brigades (though regiments can be detached).

Units move a random amount of distance per movement turn (which is increased if the corps is closed up enough to operate under their commander properly) and cavalry typically moves about twice as fast as infantry. Moving along roads in clear weather is always one hex per movement point, but going offroad (or bad weather) makes the cost much higher.

When fighting, you can either have one unit attack one enemy hex or launch an "assault" (with multiple units); assaults can fail to get properly organized. In an attack, all the things you'd expect (strength ratios, artillery, defensible terrain) affect the dice rolls; basically being able to threaten enemy flanks is good, while attacking a fortified enemy on the far side of a river is very bad. Simple enough to explain.

Units in good condition fight much more effectively than units which have been tired out by marching or in a fight. Basically a division (or smaller unit) that's been roughly handled or worked hard is going to need a day or two of rest in order to recover back to full potential (though casualties are permanent).

Unit strength is in multiples of 500 men.


The extent to which the gamesmaster (i.e. me) will be handling the back-end means that you don't really need to know the numbers, as such.
I think GCACW is the best Civil War game system ever devised, in my humble opinion!
 
Actions on the 15th June


Battle of White Hall

The somewhat tired 13th Pennsylvania cavalry moved into Frederick County VA to attempt to ascertain the strength of Confederate forces in the area, but were caught by surprise by an attack launched by Jenkins' cavalry. Riding through an area the 13th PA's commander thought to be covered by Mulligan's (also overtired) brigade, the Confederate cavalry smashed into the 13th PA and shattered them as an effective unit for negligible loss.



Attack on Apple Pie Ridge

McLaws' division attacked the brigades of Pierce and Elliot at the south end of Apple Pie Ridge. The Union defenders resisted stoutly and inflicted casualties on the Confederate lead brigade, aided by the elevated terrain of the ridge, but were forced back in some disorder though kept their formations. They retreated to the Pleasant Valley church some four miles away from the battle site.



Battle of Hopewell

Fearing a repeat of the cavalry charge just a mile or so away that had shattered the 13th PA, Mulligan's brigade was poorly oriented when Pender's division came marching up from the southeast. The Confederates did not even bother deploying into line, and effectively overran the Union brigade, destroying it for little loss of their own.*



Battle of Pleasant Valley Church

Driving McLaws' division hard, Longstreet pursued the retreating forces from Apple Pie Ridge. Jenkins and Pender closed in from the east as Elliott and Pierce attempted to rally their troops, and though tired and disorganized McLaws' men were able to smash into Elliott's line and effectively destroy the brigade (which was down to only about five hundred effectives). Pierce managed to lead the survivors of the force on an escape north over Greenspring Run and then through Bull's Gap, though the force was badly disrupted by the process.
The Union infantry brigades finally ended their flight south of Gerardstown.




* the Confederates had a +13 ratio bonus, a +2 flank bonus and a +2 tac bonus, so they went with a column of march attack. That means a -3 penalty, but it still meant that in the worst possible case (union rolls 6, Confederates roll 1) they'd smash Mulligan for no loss.
Not much you can do with a disrupted unit at 1 combat strength being hit by an entire intact division...
 
Actions on the 17th June:




Battle of Bunker Hill (Not That One)

During a pull back by forces of the Dept. of West Virginia and a field brigade from the garrison of Harpers Ferry, the rearguard brigade (Campbell) was caught in Bunker Hill VA by significant elements of Hill's 3rd Confederate Corps.
The overwhelming force of the attack, delivered from two directions, smashed the brigade and left almost the entirety of the 1,500 Union troops involved dead, wounded, or missing. There was no significant mass surrender, but with Union troops abandoning their weapons in their flight the brigade is unlikely to be an effective combat unit for weeks.

Battle of Darkesville
The remaining forces involved in the pull back were overtaken on the road around Darkesville, and McLaws' division launched a brief artillery barage over Bierly's Run before storming over the creek and smashing the Union formation - a destruction aided by the presence of Confederate cavalry, which helped cut off most of the escape routes.
One regiment of Pierce's brigade managed to escape the general chaos and fled over Opequon Creek to Leetown.


Snickers Gap

Sickles attempted to launch an assault against Confederate cavalry in Snicker's Gap. Hampton elected to hold position owing to having been recently reinforced by F. Lee's cavalry, and his nerve was rewarded when Sickles erred considerably in his organization of the assault and it hung fire.*




* Sickles rolled a 5 on his assault roll, which with his stats means that he failed to send in either division (lower numbers are better - if he'd got a 1-3 the whole of 3rd Corps would have gone in, 4 would mean one division going in, 5 and 6 mean nothing goes in. Longstreet rolling a five would have been able to send up to two divisions in).
 
Actions on the 18th:


Skirmish at Leetown

Pierce attempted to move his brigade nearer to the Potomac to preserve them as a fighting force, knowing of enemy troops in his vicinity, but his force straggled to destruction and fragmented. Few of the men were actually caught by Hill's men when they approached, but the sad remnants of the brigade are no longer combat capable.


Battle of Martinsburg
Longstreet had McLaws attack B Smith's brigade dug in at Martinsburg. The Union brigade was a more difficult target than others McLaws had overrun during the campaign so far, however, and in the rain he was repulsed with around five hundred casualties plus significant disruption (though the Union defenders are also disrupted significantly).
 
19 June


Surrender of Martinsburg
With a second Confederate division marching up from the south and indications of a third en route, B. F. Smith surrendered his brigade to avoid further loss of life. He made an attempt to destroy the stores at Martinsburg before the surrender, but was unable to do so to any significant degree.
The Confederates subsequently cut the Baltimore and Ohio railroad by destroying Martinsburg station instead.



(This brigade wasn't under the command of MG Andy Cardinal, so I rolled two dice to see if it would surrender - effectively using the Harpers Ferry surrender rules that already exist in the module. I got an 11 on two dice, which is several points higher than would be needed to make it surrender instantly.)
 
Battle of Snickers Gap (20 June)

Sickles attempted to launch 3rd Corps up into Snickers Gap and catch defending Confederate cavalry by surprise, but he bungled the execution of this manoeuvre - his divisions were not in position on time, and the marching required to get them formed up into assault columns consumed much of the morning. The surprise was spoiled, and Stuart (personally commanding the two cavalry brigades in the gap) made good use of the warning to effectively fortify his position.
When Sickles' attack actually took place, Birney's division went in first. His leading brigade was faced with a storm of heavy fire, suffering around a thousand casualties, and sent reeling down the mountain in such disarray that Sickles called off the entire assault - declaring that he had seen good divisions ruined at Fredericksburg and had no interest in the same happening to his own.
Stuart's cavalry were exhausted by the effort of rapid fortification, but proudly held their ground.



(this is Sickles first fluffing the assault entirely by rolling a six, which gave time for Stuart to dig in, but then he only sent one division in; the defenders then rolled so highly that even if he'd managed to send in both divisions earlier in the day it would have only resulted in more Union casualties! Very much a glass half full assesment, though, that...)
 
Actions 21-26 June


Battle of Paxton Gap (21 June)

McLaws' division, with A Jenkins' cavalry brigade in support from the area of Manor's Mill, attacked the brigade of Wilkinson over the bridge at the mouth of Back Creek. The assault saw Wilkinson forced back with several hundred casualties and compelled to retreat, but without sufficient space to retreat into he was forced to surrender the remains of his command.




Battle of Scotland (25 June)

Pender's division launched an attack on Knipe's PA militia regiment at Scotland rail station towards the afternoon, scattering and destroying the regiment despite their fortifications (and the rain) and suffering trifling casualties.



Battle of Cato Hill (26 June)

Brisbane's brigade of Pennsylvania Militia fell back from Shippensburg upon being threatened by a large force of Confederate infantry and cavalry. He retired to the gap between Cato Hill and Scott's Hill over the course of the day, but in the afternoon discovered that Jenkins' confederate cavalry had worked around his rear through Hendricks Gap and that Anderson's division was making preparations for an assault.
The attack when it came was well executed despite the difficulty of attacking up the mountain slope, and Brisbane lost over a thousand casualties before his brigade broke and ran. Jenkins collected up the remains of the formation, resulting in a total of 1,000 KIA/WIA and 1,500 captured.
 
So we know how the historical Gettysburg campaign took place in a period usually known as "summer"?

You wouldn't know it from this campaign. So far from June 6-27 inclusive (22 days) it's rained on ten of them.

You'd normally expect about - I would estimate - five days of rain in the June portion of the campaign, and then four in the whole of July. So we've had more rain in three weeks than the normal two month average.

The Potomac has so far been fordable on:

June 10
June 13
June 22
June 23
And that's it.
 
Battle of Carlisle (June 29)
Two divisions of Hill's corps, supported by A Jenkins, marched up to Carlisle in the afternoon, whereupon Hill discovered the town defended by 7,500 militia in fortifications.
Determining that the enemy were fortifying rapidly and that additional militia under Franklin was apparently approaching, Hill ordered an assault that same day. Jenkins moved to Carlisle Water Works to threaten the militiamen's flank, and while Pender launched a demonstration along the pike road Anderson struck.
The initial effects of the attack were devastating, completely destroying Frick's brigade (1,500 militia) and sending the remaining troops reeling back to the north and west over the Conodoguinet.
Anderson's division occupied Carlisle after the fighting, having suffered trifling casualties.
 
Battles of July 1


Skirmish outside Greencastle
12th Corps assisted by the 1st Cavalry Division was delayed in its move to Greencastle by the need to confront Jones' confederate cavalry. Jones waited until an opportune moment to withdraw, but was slightly late and as a consequence his command lost 500 cavalrymen.


Battle of Waynesboro
Aided by WH Lee, Hood launched an attack on Caldwell's division of Hancock's corps which had pressed too close to the town. Caldwell's division was accompanied by part of the Union artillery reserve, but pressure from WH Lee's cavalry to the rear prevented the establishment of an artillery line effective enough to stymie Hood.
Caldwell was forced into a rout to the south with 1,000 casualties, the division ultimately rallying near Leitersburg, though none of the artillery was lost; owing to the already parlous state of the division's supplies and concommitant exhaustion, however, around 1,000 additional men were lost due to straggling. These men are not actual campaign casualties but still diminish the force.
 
Battle information, July 2


Battle of Greencastle (2 July)

In the morning, Pickett's division marched to Greencastle from the east, and prepared to launch an attack on the brigades of Devin and Davis to the south of the town. The cavalry was forced to withdraw, fighting a delaying action and pulling back to the PA/MD state border.
At the same time, Stuart led Hampton's brigade of cavalry in an attack on Whiting's Union cavalry brigade north of Greencastle. His attack forced Whiting to rout to the northeast, though casualties were not initially severe on either side.

Towards the afternoon, however, Stuart pursued Whiting and enveloped his command with Hampton's brigade and that of Jones. Whiting was trapped in a cul-de-sac formed by Cocheague Creek and eliminated, losing his entire brigade of 1,000 men to surrender.
Hampton's cavalry then moved south to assist in an attack by McLaws against Geary's division. The attack was significantly botched, however, and despite every advantage McLaws suffered more casualties than he took (though Geary was forced to retreat in disorder).
Pickett followed up on the attack and had considerably more success, first pushing Wyndham's cavalry out of the way and then launching an attack on Geary which forced the stressed division into a rout - costing 1,000 men in casualties and sending them reeling back to Cunningham's Crossroads.


Battle of Waynesboro (2 July)
Hood launched an attack on Birney's division, south of Waynesboro, with flanking support from the cavalry of both junior Lees. His attack was made with an abundance of aggression and failed to take full advantage of the broken terrain's impact on artillery, and resulted in roughly equal casualties to both sides (about 500), though Birney was forced to fall back to Ringgold.
During the engagement WH Lee was wounded. His brigade was turned over to Chambliss.


Battle of Emmitsburg (2 July)

Heth's and Rodes' divisions combined in a pincer movement against 5th Corps in Emmitsburg, enveloping Ayres' and Barnes' divisions in camp towards the afternoon.
The 5th Corps units were waiting for their supplies to arrive and were dealing with reorganizing around their new corps commander Sykes and were caught almost completely by surprise, suffering 2,000 casualties in the battle itself and another 2,000 on the pell-mell rout which terminated near Mechanicstown.


The current state of the Army of the Potomac is PANIC, with their demoralization coming from:

2 for Ayres being demoralize-2
2 for Barnes being demoralize-2
1 for Geary being demoralize-1
1 for a 5th Corps unit being routed
1 for a 12th Corps unit being routed
2 from the recent destruction of a Union cavalry brigade
and 2 from the Army of the Potomac having suffered 8,500 combat casualties in the campaign.
This totals 11.
8-10 is Disorder, 11-13 is Panic and 14 is Flight. Flight means the Army of the Potomac's morale has collapsed after too much punishment in too short a period of time.

The Confederates have a similar scale, though this turn they are at only 1 (3,000 campaign casualties)




Also on this day, Hooker is replaced by Meade. It's a coincidence, I'm sure.
 
Battle information, July 3



Battle of Mt St Mary
Custer charged down from Mt St Mary against Imboden's cavalry near Emmitsburg, but his attack saw significant tactical errors. Imboden's artillery was ready for him, and his "Wolverines" discovered to their dismay that their Spencer rifles - while effective in a short range firefight - were not able to suppress well placed enemy artillery.
Custer attempted a charge against the artillery line, but was repulsed and then countercharged, ultimately losing half his brigade (1,000 men all told) in killed, wounded and missing and retreating to his position atop Mt St Mary in disarray.


Battle of Monterey
Johnson's division launched a heavy attack against the rearguard of the Union 6th Corps, taking advantage of the rest of the corps departing the position. Newton was forced into a retreat which quickly turned into a rout, a state further promoted by the discovery that their retreat route through Monterey Pass to the west was covered by Confederate cavalry.
Over half the starting strength of the division was killed, wounded or captured (2,500 men in total) and Newton's division ended the retreat on the far slope of South Mountain on the road to Baersville.

Early and Rodes' divisions closed in to envelop the remainder of 6th Corps over the course of the day, and despite Custer's best efforts to prevent this by the middle of the afternoon the whole of Ewell's corps was in position to assault. Meade attempted to pre-empt the coming assault by a breakout to the northeast, but was unsuccessful in doing so before the main Confederate attack took place.
Early's division lost 500 men in the fighting, but the 6th Corps suffered 1,500 casualties in the fighting itself before breaking and routing over McKee's Hill to the northeast. Imboden's cavalry harrassed the retreating Federals but was unable to fully prevent the breakout, with the result that out of 8,000 men involved in the fighting around 3,500 evaded the immediate pursuit, ending two miles northeast of Emmitsburg.

Following this engagement, Lee directed Rodes' division west to pursue Newton's division, and had Heth, Early and Johnson follow up on the rest of 6th Corps.
Early and Johnson caught up with the retreating 6th Corps just as the sun was sinking behind South Mountain to the west, approaching from both directions at once, and Johnson led off with a heavy artillery bombardment down the Emmitsburg Pike before his main attack. The bombardment and attack itself were hastily organized owing to the rapidly dimming light, but 6th Corps was in no shape to organize counter-battery fire; a further 1,000 casualties were inflicted and the integrity of the remainder of the corps badly compromised.

The final fighting for Wright and Howe's sadly depleted formations came by the light of a full moon, as Heth's division of Hill's corps slammed into the bivouac area of the two divisions. Caught by surprise and at the end of their tether, the 2,500 men left between the two divisions surrendered, though Sedgwick was discovered not to be among the prisoners and General Meade was spotted departing by moonlight.


Rodes caught up with Newton's division towards 6:30 PM, and launched a swift attack which captured half the remaining infantry in the division. Now down to the strength of a small brigade, the remaining members of Newton's division (and indeed of 6th Corps by midnight) fled into Franklin County.



Skirmish at the Stone Bridge

After manoeuvering, Robertson attacked Farnsworth's cavalry near Henry House Hill. The attack was partially successful, forcing Farnsworth into a retreat to Manassas Junction, but no significant casualties were suffered on either side.




The state of the Army of the Potomac has led to an automatic Confederate victory.


2 divisions destroyed THIS TURN, +6
1 cavalry brigade destroyed LAST TURN, +1
Routed divisions:
Newton (D2), +2
in 6th Corps +1
Ayres, Barnes (D1) +2
In 5th Corps +1
42 casualties to AoP (21,000 men), +5

Total 18
Union FLIGHT (14+) = automatic victory

In addition, the Confederates are currently on 248 victory points. If the game continued and the Union army recovered down to not being in DISORDER they would lose 25 of those victory points, bringing them down to 223; 230 is the requirement for a decisive victory by victory points.


It's up to both sides if they want to continue to see what happens now, but if not here's my write-up:



The Pennsylvania Campaign

Lee's invasion of the north began when his army marched west from positions along the Rappahannock on June 3. Hooker followed him towards and into the Shenandoah, and the following two-three weeks saw wet, miserable weather as the armies manoeuvred for position in the Shenandoah Valley area and Lee's forces systematically destroyed most of the Union garrison forces in the area.

The Confederate army began crossing the Potomac around the 22nd June, marching up the Cumberland Valley and aided in their movements by another series of freshets preventing the crossing of the Potomac at the fords. Hooker ultimately had his 5th, 6th and 3rd Corps cross the Potomac in the area of Berlin Ferry, his 1st and 2nd Corps at Harpers Ferry and his 11th and 12th Corps cross near Williamsport, with almost the entirety of his cavalry (and the 3rd Corps) joining 1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th in the Cumberland Valley area.

Lee employed his own cavalry more judiciously, splitting it between the two sides of South Mountain, and made good use of the Chambersburg Pike to cross most of two of his corps (Hill's and Ewell's) into York County at a time when only two Union corps were east of South Mountain; at the same time, Anderson raised havoc in Cumberland County before marching rapidly south to join in.
Lee's Old War-Horse Longstreet managed the three divisions left available to him, along with around two thirds of the army's cavalry, to keep no fewer than five Union corps and nearly every cavalryman in the army occupied and off balance.

Hooker meanwhile was suffering from intense pressure from Washington to produce some kind of victory - any victory - and pushed his forces hard enough that widespread supply problems broke out in his army. This was enough that the pressures against him finally became insurmountable.

At the beginning of July, Hooker was replaced by Meade. The attendant command confusion of this switch was exactly what Lee was waiting for, however, and he pounced with a sequence of attacks on July 2-3 ultimately involving five divisions east of South Mountain - first knocking back 5th Corps with a devastating two-pronged attack, then surrounding and effectively destroying the Union 6th Corps. Estimates are that this two-day period knocked a total of 19,000 men off the Army of the Potomac's order of battle.


The morale impact of this on the Union was extreme, as the "Battle of Westminster Pike" (or Battle of Monterey) could not be presented as anything other than an unambiguous Confederate victory on northern soil.




In this case, there were three key Union errors which I think contributed significantly to the outcome. Two of them are "strategic", and the other is "tactical".

The first strategic error was to concentrate 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 11th and 12th and most of the cavalry into the Cumberland Valley. This led to a situation where there were about 55,000 or so men west of South Mountain and only about 25,000 men east of it, at a time when Lee had control of the passes leading through South Mountain, while the Union had insufficient scouting assets checking on Lee's force distribution.

The second strategic error was in pushing the Union army so hard that most of the force ran out of supply. This led to a situation where most of the army was weakened (from being out of supply) and static (to forage).

The third, more tactical error was in putting 6th Corps into the Monterey area and 5th Corps into Emmitsburg, rather than having the two of them more mutually supporting in open country (and closer together). It meant it was easy to trap them and deal with them in succession.
 
Thanks Saph! Could you maybe post a pic of the last turns? If not no problem at all. Had a great time... these games are so much fun.
Thanks for your time and effort!

When is the next one? Haha
 
I'll see about putting together some maps when I get the time.

As for the next one, at the moment I think there are the following choices:

- McClellan's Last Campaign
An alternate history campaign in which McClellan continues in command (and of course is directed by the Union player). This one would last one in game calendar month, with victory determined by the situation at the end of that month.

- Stonewall Jackson's Way/Approaches to Washington
This is either the historical Northern Virginia campaign or an alternate history one where McClellan's entire army was captured in the Peninsular Campaign. In the case of AtW it would last from July 15 to no later than Aug 31 (so up to 48 days)

- Stonewall In the Valley
The Valley campaign of 1862. Long but with plenty of pauses.

- On to Richmond
The Peninsular Campaign. Again, long but with plenty of pauses.
 
Back
Top