[Consim-l] At All Hazards Bethesda Church scenario - final part

[Markus Stumptner]

The previous instalment ended just before the last ditch Union assault, 
with the Union lines (Hancock's Corps) about a mile away from Bethesda 
Church, which they have to take to have a chance at a draw... Burnside is 
actually assaulting the Confederates in the center but that's essentially 
a diversionary attack, only a massive Confederate blunder would see him 
breaking through to Walnut Grove Church.

13:30 Burnside, with Advance orders, just moves his troops closer to the 
front line (but in doing so almost ensures they will be tired if he 
attacks next turn). Wright's corps moves in between Burnside's and 
Hancock's position. Hancock unleashes his assault on Gordon's division, on 
Early's left flank, the center being held by Rodes. Gordon's men have not 
finished their entrenchments and are swept backwards by a combined assault 
of Gibbon's and Barlow's divisions (16 SP versus 4). Gordon's division is 
smashed and runs almost all the way back to the entrenchments in front of 
Walnut Grove Church. Both attacking divisions are Disorganised and Tired, 
but there is now a big hole on the left of Rodes' position that is not 
covered by the entrenchments.

Later in the turn, Gordon manages to rally his division, but Field's 
continues to retreat to the rear.

17:00 I guess the Union will stick with being on the attack - Burnside, 
Wright, Hancock. Warren has Griffin's fresh division available but that is 
more useful as a threat to Ramseur's right flank than a direct, rather 
hopeless, attack.  A one-two punch by Wright and Burnside could see I 
Corps (Pickett's and Kershaw's divisions) pushed out of the way, and open 
a chance for some flank attacks.

Unfortunately, Wright, disastrously, chooses to not get moving, leaving 
Burnside in the drink. Burnside's chit comes first, and he gamely gets 
moving even though there will be no followup attack this turn. 
Crittenden's division, now Tired, gets into Pickett's flank. The assault 
goes off at 1:1, Pickett barely holds on to the hex (outcome for CET is 
Stay with a +1 modifier in favour of the attackers). The Union is lucky on 
the CET and there are few stragglers. However, there's pretty much no 
chance to reach Walnut Grove Church, Wright's dilatoriness has doomed the 
chance for a Union victory. So the final outcome (Union Defeat or Union 
total defeat) depends on whether they get Bethesda Church back. However, 
first comes Early's activation, and Gordon manages to rally his division. 
He doesn't quite make it back to the II Corps line, but he will make it 
harder for a flank assault. However, that flank assault is not happening 
this turn anyway, since Barlow's disorganised brigade doesn't have enough 
MPs to even attack. As a result, Gibbon (also disorganised) and Birney 
have to go in for a frontal assault on Rodes' trenches. The assault 
narrowly fails (same as above with a Stay, +1 for attacker). Both sides 
suffer some stragglers, Birney is not even Disorganised, but Birney and 
Gibbon's divisions are completely exhausted.  At this point it's clear 
that the Union will go for a night assault with those divisions that are 
not completely blown for the day.

Night, 2nd day. Last chance for the Union is if Hancock comes in before 
Early, that will give Barlow a chance for a flank attack on Rodes. (Next 
time I should try the Initiative rules.) And this happens. Barlow's 
attack, which has to go in at both Rodes' and Gordon's divisions. However 
these are both very much weakened. The attack ends up at 1:1 odds, and by 
the narrowest margin possible, he misses forcing a retreat (since the 
actual Church hex is unoccupied - it lies between Rodes' and Gordon's 
divisions- he would have been able to advance). However, Rodes rolls a 1 
on the CET, reduced to 0, and the assault ends up destroying his division! 
Gordon rolls a 3 and the straggler losses smash his division again. Now it 
all comes down to the order of the draw; there is a small chance that the 
van division of Wright's corps could chase Gordon out of the way and barge 
into the empty hex. However, Anderson's I Corps activates first, and 
Field's division, on its last step, manages to reoccupy Rodes' trenches, 
blocking the way for any additional offensive. The game ends with 7VP - 
Automatic Confederate Victory. It would have been 27, almost a draw, if 
the Union had taken the Church back.

(A note on the victory conditions. Union VPs are added, Confederate VPs 
subtracted.  The starting point is 30 VPs, anything less is a Confederate 
victory (minor, major, automatic). 31-40 is a draw, 41+ is a Union minor 
victory.  This makes things easier for the Confederates if the Union takes 
a lot more losses, but in terms of victory objectives, most are in the 
vicinity of 10 or 15 points' worth, so it's actually rather easy for the 
Union to get into victory territory - if they don't lose a key objective 
in the first couple of turns and are unable to get it back.  :-)

Some of the Union corps are clearly inferior in quality (V, IX) but the 
numbers overwhelmingly favour the Union.  The +/-1 DRM for quality can be 
easily compensated for by a flank attack or good odds against an exposed 
Confederate division.  However, it does not do any good to just pile up 
units in frontal attacks, due to the way combat effects are allocated. 
There is one combat roll depending on odds and modifiers, but the result 
is only the stay/retreat outcome and another dieroll modifer for the loss 
table ("Combat Effects Table", or CET). As a result, a side that has done 
very badly can see multiple divisions suffering losses, and differing 
degrees of fatigue, supply, stragglers and disorganization.  A very clever 
way to make losses more probably as the size of the combat increases 
(something that is rather difficult to achieve with an odds-based CRT).

The key strategy lessons, therefore?  More urgency, and put the weight 
where the victory point locations are. Next time, really have to get 
Wright and Hancock into the game very quickly.  Especially Wright's 
lingering around at critical points in the game cost the Union dearly. 
If Hancock had gotten moving earlier, his counterattack might have been 
decisive.  However, the Confederates also could have done some things 
better.  I didn't really make use of III Corps at all.

Of course, there's also the actual Cold Harbor scenario (taking place one 
or two days after this one), and the campaign game...

Markus

Last 3 games played: Air & Armor, At All Hazards, Gates of Richmond
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