First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.
On the 12th and final day of Christmas War Gaming, my true love gave to me…
12 Union Strength Points Pursuing
The Great Campaigns of the American Civil War Series is a very venerable and well thought of set of operational-level wargames covering the American Civil War. The series was created by Joe Balkoski in 1992 and has garnered numerous awards and thrilled gamers with the most historically detailed series of Civil War game maps ever created. The GCACW Series includes 11 different campaigns with over 80 scenarios that range in play length from one hour to several days.
The most recent volume in the series was released earlier this summer and is called Thunder on the Mississippi: Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign, April-July, 1863 and covers the campaign to siege Vicksburg in Mississippi in an attempt to break the CSA’s back in the south and open up the area to further invasion and to bring the Confederacy to its knees. We recently played the “Inflict All the Punishment You Can” scenario which covers July 6–July 8, 1863 over 3 turns. Johnston finally moved close to the east side of the Big Black River in early July but never crossed it to break the siege of Vicksburg. Sherman meanwhile had built up an Army of Maneuver to not only block Johnston, but also to attack and destroy his army. Historically, Johnston withdrew to the east on July 6th, and Sherman slowly pursued him to Jackson. In this scenario, the Union player knows he must move aggressively to pin and attack some or all of Johnston’s army in the open field. Grant’s orders to Sherman were “I want you to drive Johnston out in your own way, and inflict on the enemy all the punishment you can.”
In this scenario, the Union outnumbers the CSA forces about 2/1 in Strength Points but the CSA is not ordered to stand and fight but to sprint as quickly as possible and move to safety taking their units off the board and setting up a defensive perimeter to the east. The CSA Cavalry are well positioned to offer screening operations for the retreating troops and the Union has to use their forces to stop and disorder those units to open up the roads for faster movement to pursue Johnston and force his hand in pitched battles. In the picture above, WS Smith’s XVI Corps has the 2nd most Strength Points for the Union with 12 and is positioned well to be able to quickly move across the Big Black River into Hinds County and bust up Whitfield’s Cavalry opening up an unobstructed path for Steel and Sherman to advance to give chase to Breckinridge who has a considerable head start.
In the system, the CSA gain a bonus of +1 on their Movement Point rolls, which sees each player roll 1D6 for their allotted Movement Points for this activation. Each time a formation activates, they must take a Fatigue, and if 4+ Fatigue are reached due to movement or combat, they must then stop and recover later in the round. In our play, we found that the Union must get out and quickly open up the roads to allow for better and faster movement to catch up and pin the retreating CSA formations to force them to fight. This was a fast and furious scenario that was a good introduction to the overall game. We have previously played Onto Richmond II and Alexander has also played Stonewall Jackson’s Way II. The system is growing on me but I have some real concerns about several aspects including the superfluous and decidedly antiquated feeling activation roll off.
Here is a link to our unboxing video to give you an idea about the components and those gorgeous maps:
If you want to know more, you can check out our video review at the following link:
Once again, it has been a blast thinking about what games and situations to include in this series and I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. In addition, I sincerely hope that each of you and your families have a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year!
You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:
2 Aircraft Bombing – General Orders: World War II from Osprey Games
6 Merry Men Assembling in the Forest – A Gest of Robin Hood from GMT Games
8 Suspect Markers Hiding – Phantom Fury 2nd Edition from Nuts! Publishing
10 Viet Cong Enemy Fighters Ambushing – Purple Haze from PHALANX
11 British Redoubts Daunting – Great Battles of the American Revolution: Savannah from GMT Games
-Grant
The Players' Aid 