Battle of the Carron

On the banks of the river Carron, slightly north of Falkirk, the Union army under General Wilcox deploys along the river-line. Rebels are visible off in the distance.

However, the rebels under General Beauregard have spied out the position and are crossing a few miles up the stream, on the road by Grangemouth.

The union responds surprisingly rapidly, and rushes troops to face the enemy when the cavalry clashes with it's opposite number.

The rebels press on with half their force, hoping to beat Federal reinforcements to the front.
Union troops come rushing up at speed, but the rebel cavalry has potentially turned the flank of the Union line.
The firing breaks out, and each side loses about half it's force as the militias collapse into helpless disorder. Fighting for the rebels goes best nearest the river.
The rebels press on, turning to outflank the enemy line...
In the nick of time, Union reinforcement divisions arrive on the scene. The grey cavalry are scattered and the infantry sent reeling back on their own reinforcements.
The hesitating unionists are delayed by small skirmishing groups of Rebels while the remaining infantry form up.
The reformed battle-lines clash...
Taking losses, the union keeps it's line straight by giving ground to the screaming rebels.
Disaster for their morale as casualties mount, including the Northern General Wilcox.
The union line is as bent as a snake-rail fence, but can the last division out on the flank save the day?
With a crisis at all points on the line, the reinforcing division sends it's brigades in all directions to try and staunch the flow of troops rearward. It quickly descends into chaos.
Giving the rebel yell, the grey troops are only barely held back by artillery fire point-blank.
Once again the rebels turn the flank by the river, leaving the cannon dangerously exposed, and the disarrayed infantry are in no state to reform.
The exhausted Union troops flee to the rear, leaving the field to the exultant Confederates!

The Armies

The armies themselves can be put on the tabletop in either 2mm or 15mm form, but as I've just finished painting up two 15mm DBA-style armies, I'll probably be using them the most. The Strategic game 'A House Divided' rules uses counters to represent a significant body of troops, presumably about 10,000+ men per counter (no definition better than this is given, so we'll just play along.) They can be militia, regulars, or crack troops. At first, absolutely everyone is militia, so as we're all in the same boat no greater distinction is needed just yet! As the war progresses, training and combat-experience will steadily turn our volunteers into hard-bitten veterans!

First, the forces of Union! Using the DBA 1500+ expansion rules and army lists, I've assembled what will be my fundamental Union force:

The massive majority is Rifles (Rf), who are ten of the twelve bases. The remaining two are the Cannon (Cn), and the dragoon cavalry (Dr). I did this primarily because I wanted to have the Union to be pretty infantry-heavy, so the boys in blue wouldn't very often find themselves outnumbered other than locally. I had to have artillery of course, plus some cavalry force, however inadequate, for scouting work. The full list is: 10xRf, 1xCn, 1xDr.

Next up, the Rebs:

Defined mainly by the Union force, I found myself getting basically the same army for the south (the army lists are too flexible and you can form whatever force you like) and then adapting it to get the numbers of infantry down. 7 bases are the ubiquitous Rifles, plus a single Cannon again. I gave the army two cavalry bases so they could have an 'edge' tactically over their rivals (as was historically the case.) The final two were a troop type wholly absent in the Union army, light infantry classed as Jagers (Jg). These would represent lighter concentrations of troops that could support the friendly Rifle bases, and pin down enemy ones. Quite a good way to represent a smaller Rebel force confusing and distracting a more tactically clumsier Union rival, as was so regularly the case - especially in the earlier part of the war. Full list is: 7xRf, 2xJg, 2xDr, 1xCn.

So, let's prepare for some fighting! Here's a close-up of the Central Belt, which you can no doubt view on any internet map site. I've marked up the one below to show the situation.

The rebel forces are mainly around Stirling, with a smaller force in the west around Dumbarton. They're linked by the Forth valley, which runs between them and to the north of the large range of hills in the middle. These hills are the Campsies, and although they block any Union movement, the Rebel forces are too far apart from each other to be mutually supportive. In other words, if one gets attacked, it's on it's own and won't get any help from the other until it's all over!

Not that attack is particularly likely anytime soon. The Union forces are typically scattered, but for a massive concentration is located on the critical city of Glasgow. No real move north to Stirling is possible in strength until this city is 100% safe against a rapid descent by the rebel force at Dumbarton. Consequently, the opening Union moves in the war are decidedly meek. Work begins on fortifying Glasgow, to protect it's garrison. A small component of this force is sent north to Kilsyth, in order to secure North Lanarkshire and prepare the way for a stronger advance later (it keeps those 'On to Glenrothes!' boys in the newspapers happy...)

However, Rebel hopes of success will not be met by sitting passively back, especially when the chance of a bold stroke is there! The chance to establish an inferiority complex and upset the Union in their heartland is too good to pass up! Half of the Rebel force in Stirling is kept in place to prevent it being taken, while the other half strikes at the 2PP town of Falkirk, aiming to wreck the Union force in the area and cut one of the most direct links between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Union force moving forward at Kilsyth will be of no support, as to come to Falkirk's aid would mean moving away from supporting Glasgow. The meddling politicians in the Capital would never allow it! Looks like we have a straight one-to-one fight coming up, on the banks of the small river Carron, to open the war.

Campaign Map

My first task for the campaign was to make a map for the armies to fight over. As I’m using the rules of ‘A House Divided’ this meant it would be a straignt area-to-area map of boxes for key locations, linked by roads or railways or seaports. There was also the matter of production points. For this, I decided to make liberal use of Wikipedia and base things primarily on population. After only the briefest of checks, it was clear that info on Scotland’s population, industry and Railway networks of the 1860’s was not of use at all - I’d have to launch a major historical research project! I rapidly decided to use only present-day information, as this was readily available. This would mean certain ‘new towns’ only built after WW2 to ease overcrowding in Glasgow would anachronistically be created in 1861, but I overcame this problem simply enough – I just decided I didn’t care!

Production proved easy enough to work out. Scotland has a population of about 5.2million, so by taking 1 Production Point (PP) as representing about 100,000 people, I quickly managed to knock together a numerical value for each major city, up to a total of 52PP’s on the map. For the rural population, I took the total for each local council region (equivalent to U.S. States, I suppose) and applied it to whichever town was where the council offices were based – the administrative heart where any rural recruits would be assembled anyway.

The overall geography was pretty easy to map out. Scotland is (running south to north) first hilly border-country, then the narrow ‘waist’ of the country at the roughly 40-mile wide Central Belt where most of the population is based - principally in the two major cities of Glasgow in the west, end Edinburgh in the east. Edinburgh is the capital, but Glasgow the largest (and also has the massive shipbuilding industry of the time.) Slightly northwards, and on the east coast we have the small 15-20 mile-wide peninsula of Fife, running eastwards between the Tay and the Forth, and one of the more heavily-populated areas.

After this, the landscape generally builds up into the mountainous Highlands which forms ridges running mainly southwest-to-northeast, but with various isolated routes through them. The west coast is very rugged with lots of islands, but on the east coast you can generally get about 10-20 miles between the mountains and the coast, giving you a coastal corridor running up to Aberdeen. The biggest feature within the highlands is ‘The Great Glen’ which runs nearly ruler-straight from Fort William on the west coast, to Inverness in the Moray Firth. Since the 1745 rebellion by the Jacobites, this has had various forts along it – Ft William at one end, Ft Augustus in the middle, and Ft George outside Inverness at the other end. Pretty useful to control the route!

So, I picked the large cities and towns as ‘areas’ for the map, marking up a photocopied roadmap to sort it out, and drew out the roads & railways as they exist in the modern day (much easier in the Highlands, as the terain usually limits you to only one or two big roads out of each town. I assigned the PPs to each town and got a pretty decent spread. Glasgow was the largest with 6 PPs, but Edinburgh was close behind with 5PPs. Next was Aberdeen in the North, with 4PPS. Eerywhere else got 3PPs (occasional), 2PPs (slightly more common) and 1PP (the large majority). Most places were in the Central Belt, but notable exceptions were Invernes in the Highlands, and Glenrothes in Fife (3PPs each.)

I then spent a quite enjoyable amount of time randomly swapping ownership of various combinations between the Union and the Confederacy. I decided were going to split their initial PP resources 2:1 in favour of the Union, but with the majority of valueless areas going to the Rebels. I also wanted the two factions to be generally ‘coherent’ and connected-up, to prevent small pockets from being overwhelmed. The Rebels would have 17 PPs, and so I immediately ruled out ownership of Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen, the largest cities. Each of these would have carried between a quarter and a third of the whole rebellion on it’s back alone, so one unlucky battle could see the whole Confederacy collapse! This meant a Union-dominated Central Belt, with a Confederacy-controled Highlands, meaning the terms ‘North’ and ‘South’ for the two sides were rather unusable!

Nevertheless, as you can see from the map below, I generally sorted things out along these lines. The Union has the Borders and the Central Belt, while just northwards of the bottleneck ‘waist’ we have the Rebellious States, with their centres of power in Fife (the ‘Virginia’ of the Rebellion) and in far-off Inverness (like New Orleans, a major city far in the rear, but vulnerable to Naval attack.) The city of Aberdeen has held for the Union, but sits in splendid strategic isolation (like Fortress Monroe just down the coast from Richmond in Virginia) and is kept in supply by the Union’s uncontested seapower.

Next, the armies themselves!

My New Campaign

Good grief, a month nearly past with only one post! Never fear, as there’s been plenty of activity. Time for an update! A few things have come together over the last few weeks and formed into the notion of a campaign I could try out, and – because if I delay I’ll get all distracted from the original idea and get bogged down in details – I thought I’d just throw myself straight at it and see what happens. After all, even if I end up relating a step-by-step guide of how not to do things, there’ll always be someone out there who benefits!

First, I’ve got a set of 15mm ACW figures a month or so back, which I have been painting up to completion. They are modest sized armies, which I was intending to use in a DBA-esque sort of game. This was inspired by the blog MrFarrow2U (listed on ‘my blog list’ to the side) which is made up of photo-reports of DBA battles from an extension that runs up from 1500 to ~1900. I bought and painted a set for each, intending a DBA-style campaign.

Next, there came a search for other rules which I could possibly use. I discovered the 2x2ACW rules at freewargamesrules.com as a further option for small-scale battles, and also considered my old (and excellent) boardgame ‘A House Divided’ by Phalanx Games. Well worth a look! The link below is for boardgamegeek’s description:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/701

So, there were plenty of low-complexity rules for tactical and strategic campaigns, but I was a little vague about how I would link them. Next, there was some straight-out googling of ACW campaigns to see if any other clubs had helpfully posted details of how they did it. There were indeed, and I as particularly caught by this one:

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/acw/acw.htm

These gamers had even (like myself) based it all on A House Divided, but had the excellent method of drawing up extremely large 12ft x 12ft maps for each box on the strategic board (the ones you actually fought in at any rate, to save you drawing a continent!) So, it looked like that was that.

However, as all this continued slowly, some other ideas which I thought were totally separate continued to bubble away. First was a hunt for an out-of-context campaign, which was inspired by a comment in some old book I remembered. I think it may have been in the Osprey Campaign Series book for The Ardennes 1944, but basically it pointed out that if you set up a campaign with Americans in a forested region in winter, a player would instantly think ‘it’s the battle of the Bulge’ and fight defensively, but if you set it in 1941 with Germans advancing on Moscow through woods in winter, they would have the attitude of the Allied generals that they were moving in to finish off a defeated enemy. Their reaction would then be all the more authentically confused when they were hit by an unexpected armoured counter-offensive.

I think it’s called a ‘disguised scenario.’ I do solo gaming, so it was only really of use to generate ideas from mixing up different times and situations (my best one was an Alexandrian Successor Campaign but transplanted into the 19^th Century, when Napoleon was unexpectedly assassinated in 1810 and his marshals fought it out to hold his empire together.)

Anyway, this idea came in when I stumbled across a link (sadly lost, as I didn’t bookmark it and now can’t re-find it! Aargh!) to a report somebody had written on an ACW campaign but in Ireland. Yes, Ireland. They were fighting a conventional battle between the Blue and the Grey, but the map just happened to be of Ireland rather than some fictional back-water state. I liked the idea, and it grew on me. The final eureka-moment came from this:

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2009/09/rudi-geudens-universal-general.html

And this led to this:

http://www.tsoa.be/html/titelblad_to_arms.html

So, after Wargaming Miscellany once more fixed me up with some good signposting, I was reading about somebody running a fictional campaign in their own country. An interesting idea, appealing, and with a touch of quirkiness to make it fascinating. So, finally it all came together and I thought ‘what if I did the ACW campaign and set it on a map of Scotland?’ There are at least a few similarities for the strategic situation:

a) Large population and industrial concentrations in one area (the ‘North’)

b) Geographically large hinterland with small rural towns (the ‘South’)

c) Very large and complex coastline to be blockaded (the Anaconda Plan)

d) Large regions for irregular warfare (‘Kansas and the frontier’)

e) Close-proximity critical cities where fighting could focus (‘Northern Virginia between Washington & Richmond’)

So, I’m currently drawing up maps everywhere, and mainly on MSPaint (the most infuriating drawing package in the entire universe) so I can post updates for people to follow the whole strange experiment. I’ll keep battering away at it and hopefully the map should follow soon, along with a full explanation of how I devised it. Wish me luck, and thanks to all the disparate/desperate people above who helped in whatever way to give encouragement!

Treffenwasser post-mortem

First, a big apology to all for the long delay in a post: I had it in mind to wait until I had another battle report ready to give, and then publish all the 'intervening' stuff in a big rush! I decided against this however, and shall just post as I go. So, here's the analysis as promised for the last post - the battle of Treffenwasser! I don't know how others' tastes run, but I always like these sort of things in history books and it's a good way of examining how a game went and making yourself rethink things.

Good grief, but Napoleon was having an ‘off-day’: in a nine-turn game, the first seven turns saw the allies take the initiative! Despite this lack of ‘double-moves’ by either side, the game still proved massively back-and-forth. I’ll just quickly round up my thoughts on how each sides’ strategy unfolded, and the review of the rules set – which I’ve used for the first time on a big scale.

The allies called the tune for most of the battle, so we’ll look at them first. The flanking swing, reaching right to the far side of the board, worked nicely – or would have done, if the allied right wing hadn’t been annihilated by the French attack! Similarly, the allied grand-battery in the centre didn’t do anything like the job it was meant to – the fight took place further south from it, and didn’t really develop around the Grosshugel at all. The allies, if anything, swung too wide! A smaller turn would’ve kept the French fighting close in under the hostile guns and would’ve also enabled the two wings of the army to provide a bit more mutual support.

What of the French? Well, the attack on the left went well, after the jager-infested woods were finally cleared. Sadly by that point, the troops weren’t able to roll up the allied line but rather had to go rushing back to stop the French from being swept away! Mind you, the French had some lucky rolls, particularly in their first attack that collapsed the allied right and in their last-turn counter-attack which took handfuls of units off the table. The allies’ continual winning of the initiative proved something of a blessing in the end, as it meant the French counterblow was made at the very tail-end of the game, when each side had virtually no reserves left and the blow proved mortal.

The French also handled their reserve Guard well. Each side had guard troops, but the allies never brought theirs into play until it was too late while the French made energetic use of their Guard to hold up their right flank and finally threaten to take the Grosshugel. I was always told units in reserve are powerful because they can ‘potentially’ be committed anywhere and so influence several sectors, but they do ultimately have to be committed somewhere to avoid just being well-dressed spectators! The French timed the commitment well and ultimately made the transition to ‘actual’ commitment and scored crucial kills in the sectors that mattered.

So, a valid strategic lesson? I think so, anyway. The rules proved good, and provided a colourful back-and-forth effect to the battles. Terrain like woods and hills were fought over and over by each side, changing hands several times. It was fast-moving and a lot of fun, so I’d recommend them! As to our (literally) little Napoleon, what did the victory mean? Size-wise and casualties-wise, it was on a par with massive battles like Bautzen, which the allies recovered from. Plus, the French lost all ther cavalry and the allies kept all theirs largely intact, so no pursuit for our rotund Corsican. Looks like the battle of Treffenwasser will be just another entry in Napoleon's list of glorious but futile victories in the run-up to Leipzig!

Battle of Treffenwasser

Right, time for a battle posting! First out the traps are my 2mm Napoleonics, as the fate of Central Europe gets decided between France and it’s Confederation allies, versus the Sixth Coalition of Russia, Prussia and Austria. For this, I’m giving my first full-scale trial for the ‘Table Top Battles’ rules set, by Mike & Joyce Smith. Here's the battlefield:

Ah, such bucolic bliss! The French will be entering from the south, and they plan to mass their strength on hte left and centre, using the more broken hilly & wooded ground for their attack, reducing their lack of decent cavalry (this is 1813, after all!) Forcing ahead, the notion is to protect their right flank, while their left and centre chop through the allied lines.

Allied plans however focus on the open ground, where they plan to have their line swing on the pivot of the large hill in their centre, where they'll mass their artillery. With their superior numbers they should catch the French in a salient right under the allied grand batteries, where they can be cracked like a nut.

The allied lines

Allied GHQ (mounted on a penny, almost as high as the Grosshugel!)

Napoleon on his white horse, inspecting the Imperial Guard

(those with red tops to their black bearskins)

Turn 1 - a general French advance, while the allies move only on their left. The allies throw out some skirmishers to the Jagerwald on the extreme west of the battlefield, while the French similarly move all their cavalry to the Osthugel, hoping to distract the allied advance.

French cavalry on the Osthugel have a less-than-encouraging view of the oncoming allied masses!

Turn 2 - the French advance further, and minor clashes break out - those skirmishers in the Jagerwald hold up the French attack on the extreme left, while the allied advance on the French right has occupied the large Grandwald woods.

Turn 3 - the allies' advance has battered the French cavalry on the Osthugel, as the fire of the infantry and superior quality of the Allied horse quickly tell. The French, seeing the doomed horsemen are too isolated, refuse their flank in front of the Sudwald to present a solid obstacle to the allies. Infuriatingly, French infantry on the left prove unwilling to charge headlong into the Jagerwald to clear out the allied skirmishers, as the fire of the light infantry keeps on forcing the superior French columns back before they can close.

Turn 4 - just as the allies wheel their attacking left-wing to face directly westwards, the French attack explodes forward! With two bases pinned down at (and yet again failing to take) the Jagerwald, three infantry plough forward, hit the allied line and smash it! The attack can be seen below, immediately before impact, just to the west of the Grosshugel.

the allied nutcracker is swinging into place though, and the allied monarchs watch as Russian infantry descends from the Grosshugel and Austrian/Prussian troops come west out of the Grandwald. The French line is bent at right angles, but still fighting on!

Close-up of the French attack - the Austrian cavalry recoiled from their fire, but the Austrian infantry was destroyed! On the left, the still-defiant Jagerwald can be seen, and the right shows the hotly-disputed Nordwald.

Blucher watches from the Grandwald.

Turn 5 - I've added a yellow line to denote the front-line, now it's less apparent! The French try and flank the grand batteries on the Grosshugel, and move up the Guard to finish the job. The allies' left wing finally descends and engages the French right - just as well, as the French centre held up to the initial allied assault.

Jagerwald finally begins to give way, as the Imperial Guard pass the wood and satisfyingly prove their worth - their fire onto the wood causes half of the allied skirmishers to recoil and flee.

The allied left wing, facing off with the French right, between Sudwald and Grandwald.

Turn 6 - The allied grand-battery swings round to face the French attack, which has made little headway into a storm of defensive fire. Elsewhere, the Allied assault now hits with piledriver force - the French centre has been forced back into Sudwald, where it takes heavy losses. Similarly, the French extreme-right has been turned as the allies bring cavalry and infantry to bear at once, collapsing the French resistance.

French Imperial Guard (in the middle of the picture) were heading obliquely to attack the Grosshugel, but can they storm the Allied bulwark before the rest of the line collapses?

Turn 7 - For one heart-stopping moment, it seems the answer is... No! Allied troops burst through the shattered French left, with Austrians now flanking the defenders of the Sudwald and one unit of Prussian infantry even thrusting daringly into the French rear! Napoleon himself, at his headquarters near Treffenwasser, gets a shock as his infantry need to rush to his protection! Luckily, a single base of Guardsmen is able to destroy the rash Prussian spearhead.

Turn 7 - An overview. The Jagerwald has been finally cleared and the defenders compelled to fall back, but the front-line now rages on the western slopes of the Grosshugel. Imperial Guardsmen and line infantry storm some batteries but can't get onto the hilltop. Russian infantry take the Nordwald and advance in the centre, while the disarrayed remains of the French left try to cling on in the Sudwald while Napoleon batters a new line together around Treffenwasser itself. Each side has virtually no reserves left - surely the end must come soon!

Turn 8 - Napoleon rushes the single base of his Guard in the south to try and hold his extreme right, and orders an all-out counterattack elsewhere. The Guard press on again at the Grosshugel and Nordwald, while the reformed French line advances back to the Sudwald.

The Guard hold the French extreme-right flank, even against the masses of Allied cavalry. What spectacular soldiery! Both Blucher and Marshal Ney look on approvingly.

Turn 9 - Sensing the allies are off-balance, the French press on their last desperate assault. The Imperial Guard drive off and destroy the allied guns, but can't get on to the Grosshugel. Tirailleurs retake the Nordwald and rout the allied infantry, while the French under Ney re-occupy the Sudwald and the exhausted allied infantry before them cracks and flees.

End positions - with almost all their infantry gone, the allies are spent and casualties are rapidly mounting as the day goes on.

Allied HQ cancedes defeat, and rapidly withdraws behind the Russian Guards' protection.

French rejoicing at Napoleon's headquarters - Vive l'Empereur!

What a tightly-run affair! A french victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, and each side looked like it was going to storm to victory several times. I'll put in my conclusion & roundup shortly, but for now it's champagne all round!