[Consim-l] At all Hazards

[Markus Stumptner]

A couple of weeks ago I obtained a copy of Ivy Street Games' At all 
Hazards, a very low level operational game on the Cold Harbor campaign: 
half a mile per hex, four turns per day plus one night turn, units are 
divisions, supply, fatigue, and stragglers are tracked explicitly and 
supply is replenished from supply units following the army (that are then 
used up). Sequence of play is using chitpulls (a chit per corps, plus a 
chit for the supply wagons on each side, leading to nice traffic jams).

Overall, this looks to try something similar to what Clash of Arms' Armee 
du Nord/Iena system or Kevin Zucker's "Days" system does for Napoleonic 
times.  I would argue that this system works better than Zucker's although 
the conditions in the ACW were of course different. Can't tell since so 
far my only exposure to Armee du Nord is through John Best's comments here 
although I have read Ed Wimble's ideas on why he designed the games the 
way he did and that was interesting enough to probably make me buy them 
eventually.

Well, I liked what I read in the At all Hazards rules enough to set up a 
game of the introductory scenario, Haw's Shop, and played it through. It 
starts with both sides' cavalry units in contact and infantry marching up 
in support.  The victory conditions essentially revolve around losses and 
(in this scenario) pushing the other side back. In the campaign and larger 
scenarios of course, how close the Union gets to Richmond is a significant 
factor.

6:30: The Confederate cavalry moves first and attacks Sheridan's cavalry 
at Haw's Shop in a short an indecisive battle. F.Lee's cavalry takes a 
step loss, everybody else is disorganised and suffers some stragglers. The 
Union cavalry starts digging in.

10:00: Both side's cavalry is busy digging trenches; the Union finishes 
first, while the infantry corps are marching towards the battle. The 
Confederates have the longer way due to their cavalry's initial advance 
towards Haw's Shop and must conduct a forced march. They arrive rather 
winded but cannot yet quite take over the battle line. Now all depends on 
whether the confederate cavalry can finish their entrenchments before the 
Union II Corps arrives.

13:30: Hancock moves first and the II Corps marches with two divisions 
against the right of the Confederate line before their defenses are 
entirely ready. Hampton realises that resisting the attack would mean 
being smashed and retires. His cavalry flees through the lines of Rodes' 
advancing infantry, stopping to regroup behind the Enon church. However, 
the other cavalry brigades finish their trench preparations. The Union 
cavalry opposite them could have interfered but with their lines already 
resting on Haw's Shop the risk of becoming vulnerable by a failed attack 
seemed to high. I realised a bit belatedly that Hancock could have sent 
Birney with the 3rd Division around to do the same thing on the right 
flank. Rodes, warned of the presence of the Union infantry to his front, 
digs in, while Ramseur and Gordon advance from the march to cover his 
flanks.

17:00 The Confederates begin to dig in on the wings, but Hancock's attack 
comes first. He sends Birney around Ramseur's flank in a forced march and 
a 3:1 attack goes in on the Confederate right flank. Ramseur pulls back 
after some skirmishing. At this point both sides' troops are almost 
exhausted and the attackers are disorganised after their advance. In the 
meantime Sheridan's cavalry has resupplied ammunition.

At night, both sides rest, though Ramseur's men do spend part of the night 
feverishly digging trenches since they expect an assault in the morning. 
Also, the resting means that both sides will be required to have most 
units spend a turn resupplying the next day.

6:30: Ramseur finishes his trenches and Gordon's division falls in on his 
side to protect his flank. The Confederate main line now runs E-W in front 
of Enon's church. When it's Hancock's turn, he has two options. Send 
Birney around to the other flank to attack the cavalry (but his men are 
still not quite recovered), do a full assault along a line that's now 2/3 
entrenched, or send Birney alone against Gordon's unentrenched troops. He 
chooses another alternative and sends Birney on a force march through the 
woods behind his line, all the way to Pudney's church. That completely 
changes the complexion of the battle - now the Confederates are 
outflanked. Of course, Birney's troops are again tired and he is now far 
from Hancock's supply train.

10:00 As it turns out, Birney's flank march has decided the outcome. At 
this point, the final result would be a draw. Birney gets the first draw 
and has a headstart in digging in. (Time of the second photo.) The 
Confederates would dearly like to dislodge him, but to do so would risk 
losing Enon Church and turn the battle into a Union defeat. As long as 
they hold their position, Hancock's other two divisions will be too weak 
to overcome Early's smaller corps. Conversely, although only one cavalry 
brigade is between him and the Enon Church, Birney cannot leave Polly 
Hundley's Corner or Hampton's brigade will simply reoccupy it. The rest of 
the day ends in a standoff waiting for the arrival of the main armies.

Very enjoyable system. Some people might find the record tracks fiddly, 
but at division level, there are not that many units to keep track of.

I really liked the interplay between fatigue, stragglers, and supply. You 
are constantly on the lookout what you can expect your troops to perform 
and this enforces a very historical pace of actions as you realise you 
have to let them rest, or replenish, or reorganise depending on what you 
have done with them and how you have driven them during the day and the 
previous days, and if you're unlucky, all three. Frontal assaults, 
especially of course against entrenched troops, are appropriately bloody, 
but if you manage to turn a flank you can still lever a strong force out 
of a good position.  There are some draft command rules that look good but 
are not openly available. The only disadvantage is that the system, at 
this point, has no fog of war, but it would be easy to introduce some sort 
of hidden force markers that replace a corps or any unit when it is out of 
line of sight.

Actually, the real disadvantage is that the game is out of print and at 
this point it seems as if Hampton Newsome won't do any further games. 
Which is really a shame; he is a real asset to the hobby with a unique and 
clever vision.  His brigade level games (there were four or five I think) 
had a rather elegant order system although I think the orders were not 
prescriptive enough to really make a difference.  Will have to dig these 
out again and try them at some point.

Markus

Last 3 games played: Gunslinger, ASLSK #1, At all Hazards
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