Impromptu Games

General

I must protest.  My 3 brigades are Arkansas' finest!  You will not find better Union men this side of the Mississippi.

We only accepted the very best conscripts - those who were too slow to run away.   Their 3 days' intensive training has honed their skills, and I feel confident you have the troops to match your plan!

Gabriel Rains, Brig Gen CSA
HQ Widow Jenkin's House

I've been watching the replay Gral. Walker lost 3 wagons out of 8. So technically it was not a confederate victory. All accounts hold the division's quartermaster Capt. Robert Klausen responsible, he has been arrested waiting for trial.

I was focused on the north & north-west, should have paid more attention to the road network.I really was so surprised when the yankees came from the north-east that I tried to stop them and reposition my forces, I didn't pay attention that Capt. Klausen had orders to move through the road the blue guys had just cut. I didn't even realized they were "charging" the federal centre.

Great map and very interesting game, the most exhausting as a commader I have played so far. My dear Martin J, Let me say you are a little bit evil.

Glad you enjoyed it Pepe. I knew Kevin was to be CinC and I do like to surprise him.........and vice versa of course

I will post the Confederate briefing later, plus a short AAR if I have time.

Martin (J)

Could someone post the .rep file please?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27571911/NetServ-11092514%20172637.rep

Martin wrote:and vice versa of course

You should remember this part. Retribution will be swift and terrible.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27571911/NetServ-11092514%20172637.rep

Brett, that file is very big. Can you re-upload it zipped please? .rep files are just txt files but are huge when unpacked. They zip up into tiny files.

Cheers!

There's a zipped one in the AAR I posted earlier.

Martin (J)

Yesterday I had my baptism of fire as a CiC in a HITS game, and I liked it. Maybe because we were not overwhelmed and steadily pushed back our foes.
I was a very lucky corps commander, as I had with me the best troops and leaders of the Confederacy, the divisions of Hood (WSH Baylor), Johnson (MTG), Rhodes (Martin) and Anderson (myself).
In addition to a superb performance by all ranks, we managed to fight from higher ground most of the times so I think, these are the reasons for our victory.

My first act as CiC was to take the wrong road in a fork heading for Fox’s Gap.
It was not a bad decision though, as I got on high ground and could spot the vanguard division (Hood) and the high ground the corps was aiming for.

With the fight spreading to right and left, I was engaged with Anderson in our far left, and became left flank for the rest of the battle.
Even when my score was growing (with the KS mod I wouldn’t have a score), I was concern about the 2 divisions I could not see, I was getting reports of more enemy fresh troops coming in sight of their commanders, and I was every time more worried about the right flank getting in trouble, but that was not the case.
Little by little all 4 divisions pushed the federals to the north till the end of the battle.
I think one thing that was also important for the outcome, is that we kept our forces fairly concentrated (even with 2 divisions fighting facing west and the other 2 facing nort-east), and were able to give support to adjoining units at critical times and rotate some worn out regiments and brigades to keep them battleworthy.

To be CiC in HITS is an interesting exercise of decision making, communication skills and responsibility bearing, where you have got to delegate on your subordinates and lead them to teamwork in order to get your objectives, in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Sometimes I felt like “they are not obeying my orders”, “they are not helping me at all”. And then I reminded times as division commander when I was not very helpful to the commander, or didn’t give much information or was so busy handling my division or fighting that I could not execute orders straight away.

I also made some mistakes clicking messages from my generals without reading them and off course writing my messages, once I even wrote west when I meant east.

Gral. Ewell: Can you disengage?
Gral. Hood: Disengage what?
Gral. Ewell: Your troops from the enemy, sir.
Hood’s division pulled back into reserve for a little rest.

Watching the replay I was happily surprised for such a clear victory.
I am very grateful to my team mates.

Lt. Gral. Richard S. Ewell.
Army of Northern Virginia. CSA.

You did very well for the first time in command. You were not in a position to really observe the battle and coordinate the divisions. That is never easy. Sometimes you have to trust the judgement of your division commanders. They are often closer to the situation and sometimes need to modify your orders a little to fit the situation in front of them Then there is Martin James. Lucky for you, he wasn't present. He is always an extremely difficult subordinate.

But but but

If that's the case I will have to find out how to best motivate him.

Can I suggest bribery?

Peacock feathers work very well for motivating Martin.

Quick game on Friday? About 20:00 UK time? I'd like to try the Blenheim mod again in MP, we can do co-op vs the AI if not many turn up. Maybe on the Manassas Map?

I think I can be there.

Doubt if I can make it. Working nights Sat and Sun too.

Gonna try to make monday's game, though.

excellent idea - I am ready for action... need a link for the Blenheim mod though

is there a doodle sign up link?

where can I get the mod Blenheim for todays game.

Here is the NSD forum thread. The download links are in the 1st post: Blenheim Mod Thread

we found it thanks Kevin!

Towards the bottom of that post is a link to the extra sub-mod that puts grenadier companies into the infantry battalions. We should all try and grab that and install it too.

Be very aware in this mod that combat is slow and measured. There are only 2 infantry formations - march column and line, and for brigades the line formation is a single line, not a reinforced line. The idea is to have a second brigade as your second line, or even a second division. Melees can last a long time. Musketry duels too can go on for ages. Cavalry is really only useful against other cavalry, it will lose easily against infantry unless the infantry are already in a very bad way. The artillery is slow, cumbersome and not that effective. A battery can be easily driven off by the approach of infantry. A nice touch in the Allied army is the use of battalion guns at the ratio of about 2 per brigade. The implementation of these I think has been done very well.

Just to reiterate this mod has slow paced battles and one way to win is to get well around an enemy flank at the grand tactical level as head-to-head firefights are often inconclusive and/or mutually destructive.

mods installed (including the "grenadier" one) - tested in SP - seems to be running just fine!

That was a good time!