The whole Petersburg campaign (twice)

Well, those were two remarkable games! This is a long post but I'd like to think it's worthy of your attention.

I've been wrestling for months with trying to create a scenario for the siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War. I don't mean just the Battle of the Crater - I can't see much fun or edification to be had from that - but the whole dam' siege, all nine months or so of it. I'd done the reading, identified the major outlines, thought about how I'd tackle the particular scenario design challenges of a 9-month operation encompassing multiple actions of various sizes, drawn the map - just couldn't put fingertip to keyboard to turn my ideas into a tightly written scenario.

To force myself to crack it, I promised to host it as a game at my house. I set a date that gave me three weeks to knuckle down and write the thing. I drafted it, sent it out to my players, did a solo dry run, revised it and sent it out again.

The moment of truth arrived and so did old comrades Mark and Mike B plus a new recruit, Mike S. I was a bit apprehensive that Mike S's first game with us was this untested and radically unconventional scenario that might turn out to be a serious dud. I needn't have worried.

Let me expand on 'radically unconventional'. What struck me, having gamed the three major battles from the brief six weeks of Grant's intense and bloody Overland Campaign (the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor), was how much more cautious and measured he was around Petersburg. As he himself acknowledges in his memoirs, after Cold Harbor his army's morale was low and the Confederates' was high. The quality of the Army of the Potomac had been significantly diluted as well. Added to that, once Grant moved to face Petersburg, his line of communications ran through hostile territory and needed a lot of guarding. It is notable that the campaign mostly consisted of operations by just one or two corps, occasionally three; also notable that each US corps typically faced a Confederate division a third of its strength, yet often still came off worst.

I therefore introduced some limits on how many units the US can activate each turn and in the whole game. I also engineered the unit strengths and ratings to reproduce these results. 

I eliminated firing except at or by units assaulting or being assaulted.

I introduced logistics in the form of a US LOC line that is vulnerable to Confederate attack, constrains where US units can move, and gets extended at intervals.

I split it into three Phases with big operational lulls between them, in which fortifications get dug, LOC extended, reinforcements arrive and redeployments happen.

Once the attempt to take Petersburg by storm failed, it became a matter of the US trying to cut each of the major road or rail lines radiating from it in turn. I provided for immediate US victory if Petersburg fell, but of course the fortifications make this difficult. I gave the US victory points for cutting each of these lines by a certain turn and bonus VP for doing so earlier. Letting the Rebs cut the US LOC costs US VP.

This means there are two basic plans available to the US: swarming and storming the fortifications, or focusing on collecting VPs. Meanwhile the Confederates have incentive to launch judicious sorties against US LOC, as well as needing to manoeuvre to block those US line-cutting moves. When the Rebs do either of these things, they may open up opportunities for the US to respond to. Anyway, both sides have plenty of options and decisions.

And, yes, there's a special rule for The Crater!

As there isn't a huge number of units on either side and the number that can move each turn is limited, we were able to rock through the game twice in five hours and try both the possible US plans. There are some 20+ annotated photos below to talk you through the action, followed by reflections as usual. The Crater detonates in #7 ...

Let's start with the traditional plan view for orientation. The town of Petersburg is surrounded by fortifications, stylised as six individual forts. A quarter-circle of US entrenchments faces the east side of town. The wagon train running behind those is the US LOC. US units are limited to within 12" of their LOC in Phase I (which lasts 2-4 turns at US player's discretion). This is just enough to reach the Weldon railroad, marked with two white VP counters in the centre for reaching it by Turn 2 or Turn 4. Subsequent objectives are the Boydton Plank Road (two white counters left centre, T4-T6), White Oak Swamp Road (two white counters near left edge, T6-T8) and Southside Railroad (one white counter upper left, any turn).

Game will end after 9 turns, or total of 30 US corps activations, or fall of Petersburg - whichever comes first.

View from inside Petersburg at set-up. (I actually deleted two of those three CSA artillery units after my solo run.) Nice to have a rare chance to use all those wagons I painted when I was 17.

CSA units are divisions, each of 4 BBB 1"x1" bases. Some are Aggressive Veterans (2 flag bases), most are simple Trained (1 flag). The figures are ones I inherited from a friend who emigrated; I've never got round to rebasing them for BBB, hence the veteran cardboard sabots. Figures are Baccus 6mm. Forts are Peter Pig's 1/600 ACW Coastal Fort.

US units are Trained corps of 6 bases, which is only half their nominal strength, the rest assumed to be on rear area guard duty. Further Raw 6-base "LOC troops" units come into the line in Phases II and III.

 All units always operate In Depth in this scenario, no formation changes - another simplification to make way for more scenario-special complication.

The Union boys try assaulting a fort on Turn 1 just to see if they get lucky. They don't.

(White fluff = Disruption.)

Two US corps step out to the west from the end of their LOC (left of pic). Unfortunately one is a bit slow. The Rebs respond by sallying in force. One moves through a gap and parks on the end of the US LOC. All US units will be Passive while it's there, and they need to kick it off or lose a VP. A second Reb division has driven another US corps out of its entrenchments back behind the LOC. This attacker needs to be confronted as well. Furthermore, the unit forced to retire costs the US another activation against its total.

At this very early stage, the US players gave up on any hope of the left hook line-cutting option working and went all in on storming Petersburg. They quickly managed to take both forts in the first line on the east side (right edge and foreground). Bobby Lee is on his horse looking concerned behind the next fort to the left.

The corps that set out for the Weldon Railroad turned around to drive the Confederates off their LOC. As the CSA division in the foreground was outnumbered, outflanked, and had enemy in its rear, it was wiped out. The one behind it was driven back with loss. A weakened Rebel army was about to find it hard to defend the city against what were now even more superior numbers.

KABOOM! To take the second line fort, the US decided to blow The Crater. They got the best possible result, which helped them to maim another CSA division. Remarkably, this attack still ended up getting repulsed.

End of US Turn 2 (I think), with the Union firmly ensconced in both eastside forts and the defenders seriously depleted. 

A view from inside Petersburg after the CSA has rallied and reorganised its defenders. A lot of Union boys out there!

At this point the US had the option of calling the end of the Phase (in real world terms, a couple of months' lull) but understandably decided to press their advantage to the maximum before the Rebs could replace their losses.

On Turn 3, the US took a third fort on the south of town. Mike B felt he could not afford to let the US keep it. The Confederates sent two divisions in to counterattack, but got a calamitously bad result - both divisions lost a base and routed back through the town to rally in the top left corner of the photo. The door to Petersburg is open!

Grant therefore sends another two-corps attack against the rightmost attack, taking it this time, while a third feeds through the gap into the town - Petersburg has all but fallen! The Confederates must retake it in their half of the turn or lose the game immediately. One brave Rebel division charges, scorning superior numbers of bluebellies holed up in the cover of the buildings. Mike B's dice this time are as improbably good as his previous assault was disastrously bad - Petersburg is saved!

There were now two Confederate units in the town. The US had used a lot of activations in its repeated massed assaults on the fortifications. It had enough gas in the tank for just one attempt to expel both Rebel units, but failed. Grant's Petersburg campaign had come within an ace of victory but ran out of steam. So ended a close and exciting game that could hardly have been tighter.

OK, so US Plan A almost worked but didn't. Would Plan B go any better? We swapped sides, reset, and went at it again to find out.

Whereas Mark had only committed two corps to his left-hook effort in the first game, Mike and I thinned out our troops in the fortifications enough to free up a third. All three duly moved out to extend our line towards the Weldon Railroad objective. Two Confederate divisions responded by storming out against our corps at the hinge, covering the end of our LOC, but were repulsed - twice. So far so good.

A bit hard to see what's going on here (sun streams in at certain times of day to make photography rather difficult) but let me try to explain. The US got onto the Weldon Railroad by Turn 2 for the maximum 2 VP there. We therefore promptly called a new Phase so we could extend our LOC and reach for the next Objective, the Boydton Plank Road. At lower right edge you can just see the end of the extended Confederate fortifications. These didn't stop us beating and bypassing the CSA division beyond the end of that line, which you can see driven back to the upper left by our two corps now ensconced on the road, upper right. (Petersburg and everyone else out of shot to the right.) That's another 2 VP for us on Turn 4.

Audacious! As the Rebs stretched to keep us from the Boydton Plank Road, they left a gap in their line. We were able to launch a corps through it to raid across the Southside Railroad. That Confederate division top centre charged our corps and drove it back towards the Petersburg defences, causing heavy losses but unable to dislodge us from the railroad. Alarm and despondency in Richmond! And another VP to the US. (And then we pulled the raiding corps back in when the Phase ended.)

Meanwhile, mostly quiet around Petersburg itself, where the Confederates have seriously thinned out their defenders, while the US barely has enough men to guard the LOC, not enough to attempt a major assault.

The 5 VPs the US had garnered so far. The nominal target was 6 for a draw or 7 for a win. If we could keep our LOC intact, that would be one more. Victory had to be found on the White Oak Swamp Road!

So we called Phase III so that we could extend our LOC and redeploy in reach of the road Objective. Unfortunately, Confederate reinforcements arrived, including Wade Hampton's cavalry, and made sure to defend it in force (while still keeping Petersburg itself secure). Here's the Confederate view of the nut we had to crack: four whole divisions plus the cavalry ...

... and we didn't really have a big enough hammer to crack it with: three corps (one in centre of pic, two more top right) plus Sheridan's cavalry (bottom left. Still, if fortune favoured us, we had a chance.

All quiet on the eastern front - but we still have to guard that LOC.

No, fortune did not favour us. Our troops must have been exhausted (or unwilling to take any risks when they could see the war was nearly over) - our infantry pretty much failed to move, leaving Sheridan's cavalry to charge alone. They did drive the enemy back but not enough to matter. The cheeky Rebs even counterattacked to try to threaten our LOC! (But failed.)

One more turn's worth of activations left. We still have a chance, but these infantry assaults you see in the picture above will need to be outlandishly lucky - and will need the cavalry to be luckier still, whereas they failed even to rally. It doesn't happen. The US has fallen a bit short with its left hook, but an intact LOC should mean it still has a draw, unless ...

Just as virtually the last act of the campaign historically was Lee's abortive assault on Fort Stedman, so it was in our game, where we see a futile Confederate sortie in that exact spot.

LOC intact, 6 Objectives secured = a draw, but a tense and hard-fought one all the way.

Thus, in less than five hours of game time, we had fought this nine-month campaign to a finish twice. It produced two very different games, both very plausible, and both coming down to the wire.

Reflections

This was such a good day, I could enthuse and enthuse, but I'll discipline myself and just share three main thoughts.

Distilled Decisions. The relatively small number of units, the limit on how many the US could move, the dispensing with firing except in assaults: these all made for fast play as they forced us to focus on the few units that were actually important each move. This was helpful as it left brain room to attend to the scenario special rules and how those affected what was important. It all felt very clean and distilled. Hmm: maybe we should add pip dice for command points to BBB!

Tempo of Operations. In my reading, I was really struck by how the intensity of the six-week Overland Campaign was followed by this much lower-key period: lulls lasting weeks and months, punctuated by operations on limited scale for limited gains until the general advance at the end. I wanted the scenario to capture that. The constraints I put on the US seemed to have the desired effect. Giving the players some latitude over when to call an end to a Phase worked nicely too and it was easy to rationalise what a decision in game terms would have meant in real world terms. These two levels of tempo - constraints within turns, and constraints within Phases - meant we were conscious of it in a way that I don't often encounter in a game.

Resonating with History. Likewise, the elements of the scenario structure - both physical (troops and terrain) and regulatory (phases, LOCs, etc) - combined to produce player decisions and tabletop actions that really resonated with what I'd read. The Confederates sortied just as they did; significant actions happened in roughly the places and at roughly the intervals they did; the fortified lines and the action stretched out across the table as they did. I really couldn't have been happier with how it turned out.

This scenario is available in the files of the BBB io group (you have to join the group to get access).

Recommended reading: the scenario owes a lot to Noah Andre Trudeau's 'The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865'.

"Cedar Creek?" "Yes, I do!" (ACW)

(Sorry for the lame pun, but at least it got your attention, right?)

Hard to believe I first played this battle seven years ago (report here). Second time around was this week and I know a bit more about the American Civil War now than I did then. Specifically, I've been reading a lot lately about the operations around the siege of Petersburg, arguably the decisive final episode of the war. That provides important context for Cedar Creek. In an effort to distract Grant from Petersburg and Richmond, in July 1864 Lee sent Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Washington. Grant responded by putting the aggressive Phil Sheridan in charge of the newly-created Army of the Shenandoah to confront Early. The Shenandoah Campaign culminated in the battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864. The Confederates were defeated, Early and Sheridan both returned to their parent armies around Petersburg, and Abraham Lincoln was re-elected on the back of Sheridan's victory.

Not only that, but it provided a brilliant exciting game! Or rather, half of an abortive one-sided affair, then another rather better game after we abandoned the first one early to re-set and go again.

Game 1: Dave T and I were the Confederates, while Mark and Dave W donned the blue. I was suffering from battle fatigue - too many late nights and early mornings lately - so I made two bad errors at the start. Fixating on destroying the exposed US advance guard corps, I persuaded Dave T to send one of his divisions against its rear, when they should all have been racing up the road on our right to get behind the US left and seize objectives asap. I compounded that by unnecessarily exposing a small division of my own to distant but still dangerous fire from its rear, and lucky dice soon killed it. (Actually, make that three errors - I deployed my artillery too soon and therefore too far back. It could have helped more in the centre.)

We eventually took the first objective, but some unkind dice meant this took a turn longer than it might have. We pressed on to threaten the two more objectives we needed for victory. However, my errors plus the unfortunate delay meant our right flank was vulnerable to envelopment once the US reserves came into play. Mark made no mistake and took due advantage. As we were clearly going to be overwhelmed and the night was young, we agreed to bin that game, swap sides, and try it again. We also made a mid-session tweak to delay the release of the furthest US reserves by a turn.

Just a few pics of this initial brief fiasco to orient you before we tell you about Game 2.

US cavalry dismounted in their camps, guarding a Cedar Creek crossing.

Baccus 6mm figures and terrain from Crispin's collection.

Overview of the whole US position.

Advance guard in the foreground is Crook's fragile divisions from the Army of West Virginia.

Half of Early's Confederate force is about to enter along the table edge visible to the left. The rest, under Gordon, will march on behind Crook via the road that arrives in pic upper right. I made Dave T divert one of Gordon's divs along the road that arrives lower right.

The three white counters are objectives. There should be a fourth at the road junction on the ridge (top centre); follow that road off the top of pic and it takes you to the fifth objective, Middletown. Confederates need to take any three of these five to win, or two to draw.

It took us several turns to dispose of Crook. Here we are eventually approaching a second objective (the bridge at top centre of pic) but we have lost Wharton's entire division and the US has had time to respond.

Turn 4: Sheridan has arrived on the field (tip of the ridge, top right) to see his men have vacated their camps swiftly and efficiently. Can't blame them - typical shyster government suppliers, providing flimsy paper tents rather than sturdy canvas. Lower left of this pic, the cavalry advance against the Confederate left, threatening to overrun our artillery and retake the bridge objectives. US cavalry are very dangerous, being armed with repeating carbines.

Gordon's men try valiantly to drive the bluebellies back and take the Belle Grove objective (centre of pic). Beware that US column on the ridge, about to descend on Gordon's right flank. It duly did, wiping out Pegram's division, at which point we Confederates threw in the towel.

Game 2 was much better, much closer, much more exciting. Follow the action in these seven annotated photos, and/or read my reflections at the end.

View of the echeloned initial US deployment from the Union side. Yellow counters denote that these units start Disrupted; the black counter indicates that this unit and all those behind it are not released until Turn 3.

Turn 3 has arrived, and so have Gordon's three Confederate divisions at top of pic - in column of march, dashing to seize Middletown (off pic top left corner), the road junction on the ridge, and Belle Grove. Our two forward divisions (XIX Corps) are about to be caught in an enfilading crossfire as Early advances against their right and one of Gordon's units against their left.

Some of our newly released divisions react by advancing against the foe, but not all. Keifer's division (foreground) stubbornly refused to quit its tents until Turn 7.

A jubilant Jubal Early applauds as Kershaw's division takes the bridge objective and loots Crook's camp.

Whereas in Game 1 Mark sent the US cavalry against the Confederate left, of necessity I had to send them to help my infantry counter Gordon on the opposite side of the battlefield. Dave's largest division, upper right, has now been rendered Spent by the Confederate crossfire.

A Union success! My counterattack goes in and retakes the ridge objective, then keeps it secure until game end. Retaking Middletown as well would have been nice but it was just too far away.

This is the situation at the end of Turn 7, before a truly mad final Turn 8. Normally our BBB battles end with two or three objectives in play. This time there was really only one - but it was in play from multiple directions.

At the moment of this pic, that bridge is still Union-held, as the Confederates have taken the righthand end of it but not the left. To claim it, either that 2-base cavalry unit has to dash across it from right to left, or the 5-base infantry line needs to storm past it and drive those Union guns out of their fortification.

Mark got the rolls he needed for both those moves, as well as being able to launch his 3-base cavalry column (top centre) in a charge to distract my dangerous cavalry unit in the wood and prevent it hurting his infantry assault. That sacrificed some of his own cavalry, but he did carry the fortification and seize the bridge.

It still wasn't over - the US had the last move. If my cavalry could charge his repulsed 3-base cavalry unit in turn, rout it, then go on to beat the 2-base one that had crossed the bridge, we could retake it and salvage a draw. We did charge, we did wipe out the first unit, but couldn't exploit onto the second

End result therefore a Confederate victory, but a hard-fought one, by God!

Reflections:

When Should You Abandon a Game? One of the virtues of a game system like BBB that uses dice to inject unpredictability into movement and combat, allowing a small percentage chance of combat results that go significantly against the apparent odds, is that game situations that seem disastrous can often be salvaged or even turned around. We had an example of that just last week, at Medina de Rio Seco, where Crispin was ready to give up but managed to not only hang on for a draw but almost sneak a win. That's one good reason not to quit early. Another is offered by Professor Nicholas Murray, formerly of the US Naval War College. He advocates fighting games through to the end, even when one side has made some obviously crass error early on - in fact, especially then, because he says having to suffer the full consequences of that error, with all the pain and embarrassment of the resulting defeat, is important for driving home the relevant lessons. So, were we wrong to quit our first game early this time? I'd say not, given that our major objective was to playtest the scenario. Playing the game 1.5 times, with different plans on both sides, was a better use of our time on this occasion. (And mitigated my pain and embarrassment. I've had a proper night's sleep now, thanks for asking.)

Target Fixation vs 'The Bigger Picture'. I didn't do a proper appreciation of the situation at the start. I did up to a point, in that I at least knew our Confederates had to take two objectives to draw or three for a win, and I did propose a method that could have beaten enough US units to enable us to do so. But I overlooked the potential value of getting a strong right hook into the US rear early on, and instead let myself be distracted by the easy prey of Crook's corps in front of me.

What a Finish! After my self-inflicted travails and frustrations on the Confederate side, there was no shortage of scenario-imposed travails and frustrations for me on the Union side (passive units failing to move, etc). But all those were more than made up for by those glorious, climactic last couple of turns. The focus on that last bridge objective; the tension as both sides tried desperately to bring every available unit to bear, either to take or defend the bridge or to thwart some enemy move to that end; the way each move by each of the half-dozen units involved became critical; the way we hung on those last few combat dice rolls - it was fantastically exciting. Great game!

Unrevised draft scenario is in the BBB io group files here. For our amended game, we added a fifth objective on the ridge between Belle Grove and Middletown; delayed release of US cav and two VI Cps divs until T3; changed Sheridan's command radius back to the regular 6".

ACW: Cold Harbor - more than just a frontal assault

My previous post reported on our game of the 1862 battle of Seven Pines / Fair Oaks. That took place just across the Chickahominy from the battlefield that is the subject of this post: Cold Harbor (1864).

The background to the Cold Harbor battle is this. At the end of May 1864, Grant's Overland Campaign was stalled in front of Lee's formidable defences behind the North Anna river. After some inconclusive skirmishes dignified with the name of the Battle of North Anna, Grant decided to sidestep with a big left hook. Lee was expecting this, but Grant achieved some surprise by crossing the Pamunkey river further east than he anticipated. Nevertheless, Lee reacted quickly and established a defensive line around the Totopotomoy creek. Over several days, Grant and Meade attempted an alternating succession of frontal assaults and left or right outflanking moves, while Lee scrambled to plug gaps and either dig in or counterattack. The final Union assault at Cold Harbor was an assault too many and was bloodily repulsed. Nine days later, Grant upped sticks, marched away across the James River, and moved his strategic point of attack to Petersburg.

Unlike Seven Pines, Cold Harbor doesn't seem to be wargamed often. (Honorable exception being Greg Wagman, who's done it with his Altar of Freedom ruleset here.) Could that be because it is perceived as a grim, one-sided, misguided, failed frontal assault that cost the Union 4,000+ casualties in half an hour? Last year I devoted one of my "Reflections on Wargaming" essays to the question of whether frontally assaulting redoubts can make a good game. The answer was a qualified 'yes', but it needs some thoughtful scenario design to give both sides enough interesting things to do.

For Cold Harbor, my approach was not to limit the game to the climactic couple of days of frontal assaults, but to exploit BBB's elastic scale and stretch it to include all six days of action between the Pamunkey and the Chickahominy leading up to the final assaults. Rather than have five Night Intervals, I allowed just two to represent major strategic redeployment phases during the operation. I made the victory conditions revolve around the Union commanding crossings over the Chickahominy on the way to Richmond, while keeping its own line-of-communications bridges over the Pamunkey secure.

I took a ton of photos this time. I've selected and annotated about 20 below. If you don't have time or inclination to admire all of these, you might want to skip to the end to read some reflections prompted by the game.

First, some eternal military wisdom, presumably from Sun Tzu:

OK, back to more serious noodle-free matters, starting with a plan view of the whole battlefield to get you oriented:

This depicts a 26x18km stretch of country between the Pamunkey (top edge) and the Chickahominy (bottom edge). It's a bit hard to see the woods for the trees ... basically the irregular green-chalked shapes are open farmland, with a lot of woods in between, cris-crossed by a network of roads. Buildings are landmarks but not significant built-up areas. Because of the large ground scale and close country, I limited rifle range to 3" and artillery to 6".

The Union masses are the dark bases in the NW corner. They have the option to cross further east, but with some risk of delay. Mark and Matt as the Union commanders declined that and opted instead for the guaranteed, concentrated bludgeon, leaving just a couple of cavalry units to threaten the Confederate right flank.

The Confederates are in their historical starting positions, grouped in a rough central triangle where Lee held them until he could divine where the true threat was. Crispin and I commanded the Confederates. (Crispin also created the terrain, provided the armies - 6mm Baccus figures - and hosted the game.)

How long can the Confederate cavalry screen in front of Littlepage Bridge hold up the Federals?

Lee's men scramble to respond to the massive threat to their left. The cavalry have managed to fall back and throw up breastworks. They're already backed up by some of Hill's corps doing likewise. (The scenario allows troops to dig in.) Unfortunately, Early is going to be late ...

A different story on the right. Hardly any Union at all - just some cavalry at the Dabney Ferry on the Pamunkey (top left) and at top right on the road from Old Church to Cold Harbor. Unfortunately this is enough to distract most of Anderson's corps to guard New Cold Harbor (right centre) and screen the Pamunkey.

The main battle develops on the left. The Confederate cavalry survives a massed Union assault and falls back on its friends. Union columns probe left and right as the blue horde seeks to spread out into a battle line. Determined rebs await behind their hasty fortifications. (Away on the right wing, minor fencing continues.)

As we approach the first Night Interval (end of Turn 4), combat becomes intense. In battering at the front of the Confederate left wing, a Union division has exposed its flank to Confederate counterattack (the 'L' of CSA troops left of pic). This will go badly for the bluebellies. However, right of pic, a Union threat is developing against the thinly guarded rebel centre. (Again, the relatively quiet rebel right wing is not shown here.)

Situation at first Night Interval. Both sides have received reinforcements. 'Baldy' Smith's XVIII Cps has landed at Dabney Ferry to extend the Union left (top right of pic), while the Confederates have scraped together miscellaneous units from Richmond and beyond to shore up their own left. Just out of shot to the right, that one Union cavalry division is still loitering, threatening to seize either Old or New Cold Harbor and drawing off Confederate units to protect them. Apart from that - it's a Thin Grey Line facing an awful lot of Yankees.

Part 2 starts with a bang. The Union weights its right to pound the rebel defences in front of Winston's Bridge, only to be repelled and then counterattacked in flank ...

... while something very similar happens against the Confederate centre left, east of McKenzie's Corner. The Union hammers away against the Confederate left wing for three turns with little reward.

However, war has broken out in earnest on the Confederate right. Two Union divisions smash through in the centre and then assault a desperate blocking attempt by Confederate cavalry (lower left) covering Mechanicsville (out of shot beyond lower left corner) . The first of several more Union divisions are emerging from the woods along the top edge and will drive back the few Confederate defenders in that sector and advance towards Cold Harbor (lower right). And those Union cavalry are still hanging around out east.

Close-up of that Union assault on Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry. They survived! But had to quit the position.

The second Night Interval has been and gone. No reinforcements this time, just some frantic shuffling of units to reinforce success or fill holes. Turn 8 now, and it's the same story as before as the Union right keeps bashing its head against a grey wall.

On the opposite wing, Lee has found one of his best divisions from somewhere to smash into that dangerous Union incursion in the centre (left of pic). That will prove enough to thwart it. But look at that lone artillery unit guarding New Cold Harbor (lower right edge) and the Union cavalry above it.

The Union cavalrymen decide it's now or never. Sabres flashing, they charge the Confederate guns! Will this be their moment? Will they capture that white Objective marker? No - the gunners hold their nerve; the cavalry is repulsed.

"Here they come agin, boys!" The last couple of turns see more waves of general assault against the Confederate left, mostly with the same lack of result. However, watch the unit in the centre with the red counter (half-strength artillery unit) and the black counter (infantry low on ammo) along with Bobby Lee's command stand (the cavalry base behind it). More about that soon.

Close-up of some of those massed assaults. Ever felt outnumbered?

See Lee flee! That unit with the low ammo? On the last turn, it cracked under the pressure, abandoned its earthworks, lost its guns, and retreated across the Chickahominy, taking General Lee with it. Too little too late for the Union, though, as there wasn't time to follow up and capture the bridge.

Let's finish with a couple of shots from the Union point of view:

The Confederate right is looking very ragged and threadbare. Baldy Smith's men have breached it thoroughly (from the lower right of pic) and are advancing into undefended open country, but too late to reach the objectives near the Chickahominy. Top left, the Union cavalry makes one last charge and expires.

The Confederate left isn't in great shape either, that line looking seriously dented and buckled in places. However, it has held for just long enough to claim victory.

The butcher's bill: at 2,000 men per base, that's a lot of Union casualties. (The Confederate pile was much smaller.) Of course, most of these 36,000 aren't dead or wounded - a lot of them are just seriously demotivated - but it's sanguinary enough to do justice to the historical losses of around 13,000.

Reflections:

Don't Try to be Too Clever, Part I: Victory Conditions. Usually, BBB scenarios feature half a dozen or so objective locations, mostly spread across the middle of the table (typically representing the extent to which an attacker has or hasn't breached, broken or outflanked a defender's line) with maybe a couple near one or both sides' baselines to represent lines of communications. This time I opted simply for river crossings or locations commanding them: four along the Chickahominy (the Confederate edge) and two on the Pamunkey (the Union edge). This didn't really work as there was little prospect of the rebs threatening the Union edge, while the Union got no reward for getting close. The guys rightly recommended I revert to a more normal format with intermediate objectives. Second draft will do this and stick to what we know works.

Don't Try to be Too Clever, Part II: Union Entry Points. I tried to recreate the doubt in Lee's mind by recreating Grant's options of where to cross. However, the way I did this just made crossing upriver a much better idea than the historical crossings further down (and I don't think this was really because we're smarter than Grant). I'm going to redraft it so that most of the Union forces must arrive via one of the two main historical crossings, while giving the US players free choice over just one corps. That should be limited enough to keep it simple for the players, while still allowing some flexibility for cunning plans.

The Bludgeon and the Rapier. While those major strategic questions need tweaking, the lower-level stuff felt good: the balance of forces, the troop ratings, the terrain, the limited LOS. It produced the right tactical feel, with the two sides having to play it differently. The Union, with over 50% numerical advantage but needing to advance, was constantly trying to pummel and envelop; the Confederates, with a quality advantage but barely enough units to hold the line, had to choose judiciously when and where to counterattack. It also produced a well balanced game overall (VPs aside) and was close enough to the historical result in terms of casualties inflicted and ground taken.

Wargame or Boardgame? People occasionally say that once a tabletop game gets to this ground and troop scale, you might as well play a boardgame with counters. I disagree. I think the format of this scenario (and others at a similar scale - thinking here of Chancellorsville or Spotsylvania, and hoping to repeat it for the Seven Days Battles and for Petersburg) lets it straddle the line between tactical and operational level. The Night Intervals, with a scenario rule for strategic redeployment, brings in those large operational decisions; but then the regular turns in between are normal tactical tabletop wargaming. It works for us, anyway.