There is a common theme to many of the battles of the latter part of the American Civil War. By 1864, much like the German armies of 1944, the generally outnumbered Confederate armies had become adept at withdrawing from one defensive position and digging in at another. The battles typically involved massed Union assaults on the Confederate earthworks, ending in bloody repulses, but with the Confederates subsequently obliged to withdraw as the Union forces outflanked or sidestepped them. This means that conventional wargames of these battles risk being dull frontal assaults.
Last month's Resaca game was an example of such a battle. To help to make that interesting, both sides had a pre-game decision about how many troops to commit to the off-table action at Lay's Ferry, whose results would only be revealed at game end. That succeeded in producing a tough and entertaining fight.
For the sequel to Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, I took a different tack. The historical background is that in the month leading up to the battle, Johnston's Confederates briefly occupied several different lines and there were more or less significant preliminary actions at New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill, Dallas, Latimer's Farm and Kolb's Farm. Sherman had initially cut loose from the railroad that was his vital supply line, conducting another big right hook to bypass the strong Confederate position at Allatoona, only to find Johnston had shifted sideways to intercept him. After a few days of clashes, the weather broke and a fortnight of rain forced the Union army to rejoin the railroad, while Johnston fell back. When the rain stopped, the Union advance resumed, culminating in the actual battle - a typical bloody Union repulse by well dug-in Rebels on high ground.
I saw this as an opportunity for another of the zoomed-out ACW games that have proved so successful and illuminating where Night Intervals are used for strategic redeployment. These knit together the grand tactical and operational levels, producing major changes of situation during the game, hence generating many interesting decisions for the players. With a little geographical jiggery-pokery I managed to fit all the action into a 10x15-mile battlefield on a 6'x4' table and a 9-turn game (with up to four Night Intervals). Four of us - including a new recruit, Francis, who'd never played BBB before but picked it up very quickly - fought it to a conclusion in four hours. Those four hours have to rank this among the most consistently tense and exciting games I've played (and I've played a lot). Here's the story in pictures, with some Reflections at the end.
Looking east from the Union initial positions. The initial actions were fought around New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill and Dallas (which should all be about 18" further right, but it works). After the rains, Johnston fell back to the Mountain Line (Burnt, Pine and Lost Mountains), then gave up Lost Mountain but kept Gilgal Church, then gave that up to fall back behind Mud Creek, and finally shortened his line onto Kennesaw Mountain.
The four red stars are Objectives: (L to R) Kennesaw Mountain, Little Kennesaw Mountain, Pigeon Hill (all Level 2 hilltops); and Cheatham Hill (as it was defended by Cheatham's division). The white stars are Potential Objectives. If there is a US unit on them at game end, each can count as an Objective on a roll of 4+ on D6, representing how serious a flank threat Johnston considers them.
The Union has 11 units, each of 8,000-12,000 men (2,000 per base), representing either a couple of divisions or an entire corps. The Confederates are outnumbered 2:1, having only six units of 8,000-10,000 men - not enough to cover the whole front - but three of these are rated Veteran, as against only one US Veteran unit. To represent the initial strategic surprise, Confederates deploy after the first US movement phase and may oblige US units to assault. The three Confederate corps's historical positions are shown on the photo but players have some latitude over where to place them. We switched Polk and Hardee around.
The US can win either by taking Objectives or by rendering Confederate units Spent or Destroyed. For a draw, the US needs 2 Objectives or 3 units Spent/Destroyed; to win, 3+ Objectives or 4+ units Spent/Destroyed.
Initial collisions, seen from the Confederate point of view. Malcolm and Anton advanced boldly, so three of their units were ambushed. I commanded the Rebel left, advising our new man Francis on our right. Figures are
Baccus 6mm, left to me by Nick when he emigrated, recently rebased by my. Terrain is mine.
Turn 2, from Union POV. After the initial surprise, the Union starts to bring its full weight to bear on our outnumbered Rebs. Left of pic, Hood has enough to hold them off. Centre of pic, the black smoke markers show that Hardee's ambush and ensuing counterattack has rendered two US units Spent already. However, Hardee has left his rifle pits and exposed his lead division to envelopment. Meanwhile, the Union hammer really falls right of pic, where two corps from the Army of the Tennessee hit our weakest unit: part of Polk's corps recently cobbled together from garrison troops and rated Fragile.
The result of that now viewed from behind the Confederate left. Polk's Fragiles have been pushed back but survive for now (bottom left). Hardee's division right of New Hope Church has been flanked by the US Veterans (represented as zouaves), while part of Howard's IV Corps slips through the gap that has opened up between Polk and Hardee (centre of pic).
At the end of Turn 2, we need 4+ on D6 for the rains to arrive, which would be most helpful as our line is fragmenting and we risk losing precious units. But no, the weather stays fine and the Union attack stays relentless.
Top centre, Hardee has pulled back his enveloped division, but not without grievous loss (black smoke = Spent). In the foreground, Howard's lead division overruns Polk's artillery, takes Lost Mountain, and chases off Johnston himself. It has also got behind Polk's Fragiles (left edge), whose days are now numbered unless the rain saves them ...
... but it does not! Turn 4, we fight on. Our left wing is in tatters. The Fragiles are wiped out and a second US unit is pushing through to Lost Mountain. That sad 2-base item upper left is the remnant of Polk's veteran division, bayoneted out of its rifle pits. Further right, Hardee is hanging on, anchored on his entrenched guns at Pickett's Mill; similar story for Hood, who has made two US units Spent, but has lost his Trained division wiped out entirely. Surely the rain will come now??
Praise the Lord! The rain arrives after Turn 5 (I think) and gives us a chance to regroup our battered army. In this Night Interval (NI), all Confederate units must redeploy >36" from Allatoona Station (away above top right corner of pic), >6" from enemy - roughly the line indicated by the measuring sticks - but we get to dig new rifle pits and roll to recover lost bases. This we really need, as two of our units are wiped out and another 3 reduced to just 2 bases. We elect to hold the line with just two units and some guns (one top centre of pic; the other between the railroad and the large hill right of pic). The other two we put in column on Cheatham Hill and Little Kennesaw Mountain, with Johnston there to help rally them. This maximised their chances of recovering bases.
Meanwhile, the Union was forced to redeploy all its troops to within 24" of the railroad and >6" west or north of the nearest Confederate unit. Because our line was so threadbare, the US was able to mass two or three units in front of each of our frontline divisions, with a couple more to work around our right flank, and the Spent ones queued up along the railroad to rally back lost bases and/or move to occupy the Potential Objective hill (just visible right front edge of pic). The rains may have ceased but a fresh storm was gathering ...
I think I then took no photos for a turn because of intense action. Briefly, the US massed assault bounced off our lefthand outpost but forced the righthand one back. We immediately called another NI, doing a Johnston to pull the righthand outpost all the way back to Kennesaw Mountain, the lefthand one back to Mud Creek, and give ourselves another chance to recover bases.
(Turn 6 or 7, not sure.) Here they come, boys! Two Union corps slam into our division behind Mud Creek, while another comes round the left. The good news is that our division on Cheatham Hill has recovered a base.
So have our two divisions on Kennesaw Mountain and Little Kennesaw Mountain. Crucially, the one that was Spent is now all better. This is important, not only to fend off the impending assaults, but because it takes our losses below the 3 units Spent/Destroyed that the US needs for a Draw.
Still, the immediate problem is these multi-corps assaults.
Although Little Kennesaw Mountain holds, Kennesaw Mountain itself - the rightmost peak - falls! Hood's veterans are driven off! (That Confederate red Objective counter is about to flip to a blue Union-held one.) Everyone is wreathed in the white smoke of Disruption.
More bad news, as Blair crosses Olley's Creek to take the white Potential Objective counter, so may present an outflanking threat on our left -
- and Howard leads a small column to offer a similar threat on our right.
We call another NI, but not before Hood's men have counterattacked and ejected one Union corps from Kennesaw Mountain on our right. That's not enough to reclaim the Objective, but they dig in there. On our left, we pull back our outpost from Mud Creek onto Cheatham Hill. That frees up a division to go into reserve next to Marietta (bottom of pic) with a view to counterattacking to retake Kennesaw Mountain. The Union corps mass for a climactic triple assault.
It all goes wrong for the Union! Three corps are not enough to kick Hood off Kennesaw Mountain - the bluebellies reel back and yield the Objective! (Actually, one thing goes right for them: the Union assault on Little Kennesaw Mountain, out of shot further left, succeeds and drives the defenders back to Pigeon Hill.)
To add injury to more injury, our reserve division counterattacks and wipes out one of the newly repelled corps.
Final Union assaults on Turn 9 against Cheatham Hill, Pigeon Hill and Kennesaw Mountain. All of these are repelled. The last act was a Confederate counterattack from Pigeon Hill to try to retake Little Kennesaw Mountain. We drove back one Union corps but couldn't get the Exploit we needed to storm the Objective.
This shows the situation at game end: Confederates still holding the line in their ring of earthworks above Marietta, while the Union army is running out of steam. Confederate losses (2 units destroyed) are not enough for the US to claim a draw. The US only needs 2 Objectives for a draw or 3 for a win, but only holds 1 (the blue counter on Little Kennesaw Mountain, centre of pic). However, it does hold both the white Potential Objectives to our far left and right. That means all three results are still possible! Malcolm and Anton rolled a D6 each - and, of course, they got one, making the game a draw!
Reflections
Praying for Rain. As the early turns went by, Union numbers inevitably started to get through and around our thin grey line and threatened to swamp us, so Francis and I greeted the weather dice with increasingly desperate prayers for rain and immense relief when it finally arrived. It was an effective scenario mechanic that both reflected the history and built tension and excitement into the game.
Building the Tension. The tension didn't stop when the rain started. The three dimensions of troops, time and territory were all in play to keep it tense for both sides. On the Confederate side, we were hoping we could survive each Union assault, then use the night withdrawals and trade territory to regain troops. On the Union side, Malcolm and Anton were up against the clock and every turn mattered. The assaults on the final turns, with Kennesaw mountain itself changing hands twice, were tense and exciting. With everything coming down to the final two dice for the Potential Objectives, it could not have been better.
Reflecting the History. I was really happy with how the rules just naturally generated historical player behaviour and historical episodes within the game. There were combats on table that were recognisably equivalent to the historical actions at New Hope Church, Kolb's Farm, etc; the Confederate shortening of the line was much as per the history; the climactic assaults on the Kennesaw Mountain objectives were just what the script required.
Grand Tactical meets Operational. Using Night Intervals for strategic redeployment has established itself as such an effective mechanism. A conventional wargame of Kennesaw Mountain would have been just another boring frontal assault. Instead, we were able to draw the frame of the game wider in terms of both time and space, allowing/obliging both sides to manoeuvre and, accordingly, to make lots of important decisions along the way.
Endgame Jeopardy. In the Resaca game, the fact that the variable objectives off-table at Lay's Ferry were not resolved until the end of the game kept the outcome in doubt until then. In this Kennesaw Mountain game, the two Potential Objectives performed the same function. I used something similar but different (political impact) in my Balaclava scenario. In its way, I suppose this in-built uncertainty about whether taking some particular location(s) will be enough for victory is more realistic than the usual formula where everything is clearly cut and dried. I may use it more in designing future scenarios.
