MP Scenario1: The attack on Iuka (5th may)

The Attack on Iuka

A fictional multiplayer scenario for 9-12 players.
Scenario length: 150 minutes
HITS and courier gameplay as usual



Trailer: General Armstrongs cavalry has successfully intercepted many union supply trains and brought the union advance in the Mississippi area to a standstill. After some weeks the union command found out that Armstrong is operating from the small and otherwise unimportant town of Iuka. And so General Grant has given orders to attack Iuka!

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The available positions are:

CSA [5 players minimum]
1 CinC
1 Cavalry Commander
1 Division Commander
+ Brigade Commanders

USA [4 players minimum]
1 CinC
1 Cavalry Commander
2 Division Commanders
+ Brigade Commanders

• The CinC (Commander in Chief) will be tasked to develop a strategy and write battle orders some days before game launch.
  
• 1 week before the game: If there are roughly enough players, I will assign all committed players to teams, appoint the chief commanders, and then send the initial briefing to players by e-mail. CinC begin to write their orders and assign players of their team to available slots. Additional players may still join the game up to 3 days before the game start.
  
• 3 days before (=2nd may): Players receive their orders by their CinC. If there aren't enough players committed to meet the minimum requirements, the game will be cancelled.
  
• 30 minutes before game start: meeting in the K/S teamspeak lobby - strategy discussion and questions

Please follow this doodle link to register: http://www.doodle.com/ba4wa6ygztch3wuk

If you are not yet on the K/S MP E-Mail list, send me your E-Mail adress by the forum, please.

It looks like Saturday, 5th may, 1930 UK time will be the date for the next run of "The attack on Iuka". I will appoint the CinCs later this weekend.

There are still open slots if anyone wants to join...

Ok, the initial briefings have been sent to those players already registered.
Martin J. will lead the Confederates, while MTG is in command of the US attack force.

More players are very welcome to register: http://www.doodle.com/ba4wa6ygztch3wuk

Signed up for the cause

deleted

Right Khryses. That last post seems to eminently qualify you for command of the Confederate cavalry. I will be in touch (he says darkly).

Martin

I owe the reb cav a little payback myself , the commander was bent we lost his wagon load of "memories" last saturday.....

It looks like we have at least 10 players lined up for this - and that doesn't include Jack/Kerflummoxed who I'm sure will take a Reb infantry brigade again. But so far only 3 Union players are discussing the battle plan. Stefan, can you please send us 2 or 3 more officers so we can talk tactics? We could use a commander for Stanley's division plus a couple of infantry brigade commanders.

Yes indeed. The more prisoners the better

Martin wrote:

Yes indeed. The more prisoners the better

"Hope is woven of sunbeams, a shadow annihilates them."

Be prepared for a very cloudy day.

Actually... just a thought... using that logic, if Martin wants all the players to join our side, he can command the Rebs on his own

Mr. Digby wrote:Actually... just a thought... using that logic, if Martin wants all the players to join our side, he can command the Rebs on his own

What? Command 45,000 all on my own? Not likely, Diggers

Martin wrote:

What? Command 45,000 all on my own? Not likely, Diggers

Why not? If no one signed up for the Union side, I was fully prepared to handle my 63,000 men. Although I will admit, 20 batteries would have been a challenge.

Then luckily I joined him and took the other 56,000 and the tank division.

Starting in the south centre, I found three wagons heading north up through the Peach Orchard toward Codori Farm while my cavalry attempted to screen them. My original orders were to shadow and hold off the Federal Cavalry, and we also detached a regiment to lurk in a copse of trees, wait for the Union battleline to pass and then emerge to prey on their wagons and guns.

Not entirely sure what happened to that regiment - I never successfully made contact with them again, and as far as I am aware they never engaged the enemy. We hasn't north to screen the Peach Orchard crossroads as the wagons moved through, and saw whole brigades of infantry and cavalry heading towards us. It later transpired that the Union's orders for the west flank involved engaging and destroying my cavalry; I can well believe it! We managed to engage the lead units of the Federal push - forcing one regiment to break and surrender, then falling back as quickly as we could. One of our regiments didn't get away unengaged, being assailed by bluecoats from three sides - but apparently handled their first enemies roughly and made off to rejoin my command at speed upon seeing them off.

For the rest of the day we retired north and west, constantly pulling away from the enemy and reforming into a screen but always hit by another wave of infantry before we had time to recover any of our energy. From the Peach orchard we fell back northwards to the A. Plank farm, then nnw to the trees southeast of Pitzer farm. That was my last contact with the enemy cavalry; all good wishes notwithstanding, we couldn't get through the enemy infantry to trail their horse and were never in a position to hand over the Rebel right to infantry in this rapidly moving fight.

I remember nearly turning the movement around at the above trees, with my understrength bde dismounted and skirmishing from the walls on the edge of the clearing. Unfortunately the Federals built their strength faster than our supporting infantry was ready to move, and what could have been a vicious counter - destroying much of a brigade - became simply a reverse, with my horse and their foot heading ever north and westwards.

At the end of the battle the Confederacy had temporarily lost control of the centre of Hagerstown, but a brigade of infantry and my weary cavalry was driving the Union off the western end of our evacuation route and I feel that without the crash we could have recaptured said route.

...of course, I didn't realise how bad the wagon situation was at that point, and I never managed to get over to the east to see the fighting there...

Losses: Around 220 men
Enemy casualties: Around 480 men

Thoughts: The enemy seemed very away of where I was at the start, and that I had the wagons with me. Given their aggressive push into the Emmitsburg Road north of me - well backed up with cavalry and foot support there wasn't a great deal we could do to save our wagons (particularly when we couldn't order them to stop). We just didn't have the numbers to attack, and by cleverly occupying our main line of communication the Federals simultaneously broke up our detachments a bit more, denied my couriers access to our detached regiment, ensured that any bid to reunite would involve a LOT of cross-country movement and seized the operational tempo, provided they didn't give up the initiative.

And they didn't.

A lot of credit to my fellow commanders for fashioning organisation in the middle of a hectic, disruptive environment (I was constantly struggling not to fall victim to tunnel vision and forget the rest of the battle), but the day went to the Yankees and they earnt it.

...even with certain instances where Federal commanders near to my position shouted out taunting plaints; in the finest tradition of the military of course, and we gave as good as we got...

Extra credit to Stefan for designing and organising these. A lot of fun, encouraging us to think outside the box!

Yes it was an excellent game. Many thanks again to Stefan for designing it, and all credit to our Union opponents who ran out worthy winners.

Several of us had played the scenario before, but I was pleased to see that this iteration went very differently to the previous one. The Union left hook to the W of the Peach Orchard had the effect of stretching our line to the point where we could not properly cover the centre. My heart sank as I witnessed a hoard of Union infantry and cavalry flooding through the gap, but it had a certain magnificence all the same

My first thought was that would finish us, but we were able to rally and were at least still fighting at the end.

We experienced some stability issues for the first time for a few months, which we suspected was due to the number of players. At one stage there were a total of 12 - our largest ever game. We probably ought to check our game logs to try and discover what happened, but it may be that about 10 is the maximum we should be aiming at. I have seen refence to higher numbers involved in other MP games, but it may be that a HITS & couriers places more demands on connections? I do recall that Norb suggested 10 as a maximum guide in his response to my original game review.

Martin

Although the Union wasn't able to take Armstrongs men out of the battle, the massive push through the centre past our defenses and into Iuka was a decisive strike. I agree with Martin that the victory must go clearly to the Union side this time - at the moment the game crashed. I am pleased that the Confederates would still have had opportunities to turn the outcome until the end.

Congratulations Kevin, and thanks to all, especially Stefan, for another great scenario game.

It was very frustrating to miss out on most of the battle, but I'm glad you managed to fight on, and very glad the good guys won :-)

In the half-hour before my game froze, I had quite a struggle getting my division to go where I had been ordered. While Darr looked after his brigade I used the N map to order Fuller's brigade & Sear's battery to march to a certain point on the road off to the west and then told them to use roads, expecting them to march south then turn west. I start off westwards cross-country only to find that they had started marching north! Presumably they were following the shortest route but not the one I had envisaged. So, I had to stop them all and march cross-country until we got to our destination. All this time, I was aware that Darr was proceeding westwards, as ordered, and Fuller and Sears were being left further behind! I was very pleased to be able to get the division reunited on the Emmitsburg Road in time for General Rosecrans' order to 'push up the road and sack Iula'. I had Fuller's brigade form up and then my PC copped out.

Please keep the reports coming - I'm anxious to find out more about the battle I missed.

Thanks again for playing in yesterdays game. It was very intense and unpredictable.

Some notes from the point of view of General Greene (CSA):

I started on cemetery hill as ordered by Gen Price. As the whole 3rd Union division was spotted fighting with Armstrong in the southwest, Hebert shifted to the west and Little ordered me to support him so we could match this threat. There we faced one union brigade (I think it was Father General) with some artillery in direct support. Hebert and I discussed if an attack would be advisable, and I think it would have been possible (Heberts and Greenes brigades plus Armstrongs cavalry). But the price seemed too high as we would take heavy casualities and the Union could very easily call for reinforcements. I saw Hebert withdrawing to the north alongside with Armstrong and I increased the distance to the enemy to minimize casualities by artillery fire. At this point there was still only one Union division visible to us. Then I suddenly saw fast moving union flags in the east, coming up Emmitsburg road. Gen Little recognized this as the main Union attack and I hurried there, passing some of our artillery in the fields west of Bliss farm, where they just arrived and suddenly were in danger of being captured by union cavalry. I pushed back one single cavalry regiment and charged some union guns myself, forcing one of them to surrender. Then I pursuied and engaged the union infantry up to the outskirts of Iuka (Wittmann and MTG-controlled Fuller). Gen Martin also descended from cemetery hill to attack the enemy in the SE and E of Iuka.

Then the game crashed (bad frame in packet). This happened in the past when we played in windowed mode. I strongly demand that no one plays the game in windowed mode

Gen. Rosecrans will make his official report available at a later time. In the meantime, I would like to thank Stefan for a very enjoyable scenario. Having such different objectives for each side made this a very unpredictable and challenging battle. Unfortunately, Jeff crashed out of the game just as things were going to get interesting for his division. He would probably have done a better job managing it than I did.

The final freeze and crash as a result of a bad random number synchronization from Khryses computer. I don't know what causes that, but we had a similar crash a few weeks ago. If everyone still has their sowmp_log_o5_05_12... file, email it to me and I'll send them off to Norb for analysis.

Uncle Billy wrote:Unfortunately, Jeff crashed out of the game just as things were going to get interesting for his division. He would probably have done a better job managing it than I did.

Very kind, Kevin, but I doubt it. Not after the struggle I had just getting my division there!

Uncle Billy wrote:If everyone still has their sowmp_log_o5_05_12... file, email it to me and I'll send them off to Norb for analysis.

I have mine but imagine it's no use as I 'left' the game before the definitive freeze. Let me know if you do need it.

I'm looking forward to the official report.

Camp Near Iuka, Miss.

May 5, 1862

Maj. General U.S. Grant

General: About the part taken by the corps under my command in its operations from April 27 to May 5, I beg leave to report as follows:

I deem it unnecessary to speak of the marches we executed previous to our arrival on the battlefield of May 5, as my corps marched along without any separate action. I will only say that all orders were executed by officers and men with promptness and alacrity, and that the men marched better, were in higher spirits, and endured the fatigues and hardships of the march by night and day more cheerfully than ever before. I have never known my command to be in a more excellent condition.

My corps arrived 2 miles south of Iuka near the Baltimore Pike at noon on the 5th, apparently without detection by the enemy. My information was such that proceeding any farther along this route was deemed imprudent as good defensive positions were readily available to the rebels. It was decided to take a minor road west to the Emmitsburg Rd. and to proceed north by that conveyance to the town. Our order of march had Col. Minzer's cavalry at the head of the column, followed by Brig. General Hamilton's division, the reserve artillery and Brig. General Stanley's division.

Near the road intersection at the Wentz's farm, the rebel cavalry belonging to Armstrong was spotted by one of Col. Minzer's regiments. These raiders behaved in a most aggressive manner which although unexpected, was most fortuitous as our first priority was the destruction of this force. In addition, several confederate supply wagons were seen heading north towards the town. Col. Minzer deployed to pin the enemy and capture the wagons while Gen. Hamilton brought his force up rapidly to add his weight to the battle. Soon, an enemy brigade arrived to aid their outnumbered cavalry. I believe it was during this portion of the battle that Col. Jenks and his regiment were captured.

With Gen Hamilton's division now fully present, he and his men began to steadily press upon the enemy, forcing him away from the road and to the west. During this time the reserve artillery was up and deployed to good effect. Gen Stanley's division had also arrived and took a blocking position across the Emmitsburg Rd. A second rebel brigade was seen in the vicinity of the Pitzer farm heading towards the battle. Gen. Hamilton assured me that his division was quite able to hold the two brigades and remaining cavalry as he was steadily pushing them back.

With the enemy being so widely separated, I decided to recall Col. Minzer's tired but still functioning cavalry and ordered him north towards Iuka. At this time I also ordered Gen. Stanley's division to proceed up the road to town and capture and destroy anything of military value. He was ordered to avoid any fight south of the town if possible, as I felt denying the enemy of his succor would cause him a more lasting harm.

It was at this moment when Gen. Stanley was felled from a bullet issued by some cowardly sniper operating in the vicinity of Spangler's woodlot. As I judged Col. Fuller, the most senior officer in the division to be inadequate for the responsibility, I took personal command of the division and moved north. Col. Minzer's division moved parallel and west of us to screen the column from any enemy interference from that quarter. Northeast of the Codori farm we saw another enemy formation supported by a battery, deployed in a warren of stone walled paddocks. Given their defenses, I made the difficult decision to bypass this force and move cross country out of musket range to our true objective. As we past the Meyers farm I noticed another enemy brigade to the west rapidly moving north in an attempt to intercept us. I do not know if this was the brigade first seen near the Pitzer farm, or a fourth brigade.

At this time, Col. Mower rode up and I directed him to ignore that force and to proceed as rapidly as possible to Iuka. This he did with his men moving at the double quick. I then ordered Lt. Sears to unlimber his guns and fire at this approaching force. He did so, but I believe this fire was ineffective. His men were slow to limber up and I regret to report one gun lost to the enemy. With Col. Mower fully in control of the town, Col Minzer's cavalry deployed on its' western edge across the Hagerstown Pike while Col. Fuller and the artillery deployed in the southern section. As darkness was descending, Col. Mower found the enemy wagons in the northern quadrant of Iuka. He reported they were in such poor condition that they were of no value to us so he set fire to the lot. Apparently, the enemy brigade we found in the stone paddocks had moved east of town to contest our capture of their supplies. But darkness had descended over battlefield and hostilities ended.

The results of the days engagement were as follows: Although we greatly damaged Armstrong's cavalry, we were unable to completely destroy it. We did capture and destroy a large quantity of the enemy's supplies. Iuka is firmly in our hands and can no longer be used as a base for enemy forays. I have been in contact with General Sherman, who is of the opinion that firing the town would have the greatest effect upon the sympathizers in the region. If you so order, Col. Mower's men have proven their abilities with a torch.

I wish to commend Col. Minzer and his men for their efforts. He battled the enemy cavalry, captured supply wagons, broke off the engagement to escort Stanley's division to the town. I am requesting that my requisition to the quartermaster for refitting Col. Minzer's division be expedited.

I also wish to commend Gen. Hamilton and his division for their relentless attack on the combined forces of the enemy cavalry and infantry. In particular Col. Sullivan's brigade suffered substantial casualties during his engagement with the rebel cavalry and will require a number of replacements.

I am, general, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.S. Rosecrans

Major-General, Commanding Iuka Expeditionary Corps.

The following AAR has been slightly muddied in terms of Confederate objectives, to assist re-playability. For the same reason, the OOB screen-print has been redacted in places.

Here is the official report of Major General ‘Pap’ Price (currently on extended leave at the Sunnydale Care Home, Shreveport, Louisiana). Readers will excuse the lack of military formality, but General Price has been suffering form nervous exhaustion recently. Nothing serious. Ok he talks to grapefruit now........but hey, doesn’t everybody from time to time?

Our task was to defend Iuka whilst our supply train prepared to evacuate, and then to conduct the wagons safely out of town SW along the Hagerstown Road. I knew the enemy would be aware of our wagon train, and of the time pressure, and expected them to push forward hard, either straight towards Iuka, or NW to get astride the evacuation route. I also thought they might use their cavalry independently to reach our rear, in conjunction with either approach.

We knew we were outnumbered, so the plan was to find a good defensive position which would force their infantry to either attack it, or spend time moving around one of our flanks. Two main possibilities suggested themselves to me:

1. Against a direct thrust on Iuka - a line anchored on Cemetery Hill and either side of it.

2. Against a NW thrust against the Hagerstown Road - a line from Bliss Farm SW to Spangler Farm (A. Plank Farm on some abolitionist maps), parallel to the Emmetsburg Road.

We obviously needed to identify their main thrust before making any final dispositions, so the intention was to scout forwards from the outset. Our cavalry’s role was to initially push eastward in the southern part of the map to aid our scouting efforts. They were to shadow the enemy cavalry if the latter attempted to push past them, rather than engage superior numbers.

At 10 am I received a report that Brig Gen Armstrong, our cavalry commander, had been found intoxicated. He was immediately relieved. Luckily Colonel Slemmons was on hand to take over. We have since discovered that Armstrong was later found by Union troops giving a loud rendition of Dixie to the good ladies of Iuka, which I suppose avoids a court-martial.

Reports soon came in that the enemy were moving in strength west across the Emmetsburg Road at the Peach Orchard, with their 3rd Infantry Division and cavalry. Our own cavalry was in action in this sector, and I started moving infantry and artillery under my 2iC (Brig General Little) SW towards the Spangler Woods in support. But we didn’t know if the enemy move was a thrust to get astride the evacuation route, or a feint to draw us away from Iuka, so I was initially hesitant to throw all our troops W of the Emmetsburg Road. Specifically, I was worried that we hadn’t yet identified the Union 2nd Infantry Division. It was a very nice dilemma, as I was concerned that our troops near Spangler Woods might be overwhelmed, or outflanked to the west, if I took too long in bringing our remaining troops over to support them. Also, if we allowed the superior Union force onto the Hagerstown Road, I thought it would be tough to push them off it.

While pondering this from the S end of Cemetery Hill, I spotted the commander of the missing Union division well to the west of the Peach Orchard. Quite wrongly, I concluded from this that his troops had been sent west too. I couldn’t see any of his troops, but assumed his division had crossed the road to the S of the Peach Orchard and out of sight. So I ordered the rest of our troops off Cemetery Hill towards the Spangler Farm position. As it happened, this movement had barely commenced when the missing division appeared near Peach Orchard, together with their cavalry, and the Union made their thrust up the Emmetsburg Road.

[I see from one of Jeff’s posts that his Union division’s march had been delayed. As it happened this worked to reinforce my delusion, as I had assumed they would have been pushing towards Iuka by now if that was their intention. I presume that Jeff had ridden west for a conference or just to see what was going on, but no doubt he will shed some light on that.]



That move up the Emmetsburg Road split our force in two, and cut our communications. For a while I thought the consequences would be even more severe. I had earlier moved the bulk of our guns in support of our troops W of of the road, and they were now totally out of position, and soon threatened by enemy cavalry to their flank and rear. We were able to get them back safely to Cemetery Hill however, but they had played little part in the battle so far.

The half of our force to the west was now effectively out of command, and I had no communication with Brig General Little thereafter. I understand that many couriers were intercepted by the enemy. The other half of our army briefly regrouped near Cemetery Hill and then pursued the Union troops who had by this time entered Iuka.

[It was at this point that the game froze.]

Initial reports suggested that our boys were having some success in Iuka, although it seems unlikely that the supply wagons themselves could have been saved. Had the game continued, my plan was to press on with our attack into Iuka, to rescue what wagons we could, and hopefully defeat the Union troops there. I also intended to set up a gun-line on Cemetery Hill, facing west, upon which the other half of the army under Brig General Little could retire. I then planned to ride SW down the Hagerstown Road to find Little, as it had become obvious that our couriers were not getting through. After recombining the army, and resting a while, we would then have attempted to push down the Hagerstown Road with any surviving wagons. Could we have reversed the tide? I don’t know, although our boys had certainly fought well and inflicted more casualties than they received. In particular, our cavalry under Colonel Slemmons had done us proud.



That said, the Union had certainly prevented us from achieving our key objective, so any success would have had to be seen in that context.

Looking back, I think the die was cast when I first sent troops to Spangler Woods. We did not have the men to both defend the town and the evacuation route, and those troops were then too far away to recall if the enemy were to appear on the Emmetsburg Road. Perhaps I should have waited? But could we then have stopped them cutting our evacuation route, if that was their plan? A dilemma indeed, but a very interesting one, and thanks again to Stefan for creating it for me.

Martin

Thanks for these brilliant and witty AARs, generals. I've just got a couple of clarifications - I hope they don't reduce the fog of war.

Martin wrote:I knew the enemy would be aware of our wagon train, and of the time pressure, and expected them to push forward hard, either straight towards Iuka, or NW to get astride the evacuation route.

I believe Kevin (Gen. Rosecrans) didn't take part in the previous iterations of this scenario and was therefore not aware specifically of the wagon train or the time pressure. Those of us who had played the scenario before managed not to reveal this in the run-up to the battle. Though we may have been unable to avoid letting our prior knowledge influence our 'suggestions' a tad, Kevin stuck to his guns and we followed his excellent orders.

Martin wrote:At 10 am I received a report that Brig Gen Armstrong, our cavalry commander, had been found intoxicated. He was immediately relieved. Luckily Colonel Slemmons was on hand to take over. We have since discovered that Armstrong was later found by Union troops giving a loud rendition of Dixie to the good ladies of Iuka, which I suppose avoids a court-martial.

Before I crashed I was tempted to try and get some of my boys to pick him off as he was bravely scouting very near my troops. The drink would explain it ...

Martin wrote:I spotted the commander of the missing Union division well to the west of the Peach Orchard. Quite wrongly, I concluded from this that his troops had been sent west too.

Not me - I never got further west than the environs of Trostle Farm. This will remain a mystery ...

Jeff