20th October - Shiloh: Bloody April

Mr. Digby wrote:11:00 am is the start time.

Cheers Diggers.

Ideally when we mean 'Start Time', we mean just that - so if people can show up from 10 that gives us a better shot at getting through the engagement and hopefully having time for a lunch break.

We're looking at 9 at the moment - I know we often have a last minute surge, but we're three short of 12, which would allow us to have an ideal 6 players and 6 umpires. Anyone know of someone considering coming that could be persuaded with a little arm-twisting?  

Also, initial options are now sent out to Gen'ls A.S. Johnston and U.S. Grant - good luck sirs!  

He's alive!

Re-emerging from the shadows to remind the good folk of the Armies of Tennessee and Mississippi that they are due to meet on fair Shiloh field this Sunday 20 October!

At present we're looking at 11 players, so if anyone is in the area or thinks they might be interested please let me know and I will be very happy to involve you!

In terms of timing, the sudden and inevitable 'surprise attack' is due to kick off at 11 am with the first turn briefing. As various units will be drawn into the fighting over time, there is some scope for automation in the early turns - nevertheless it would be fantastic if generals could do their best to arrive by 11 instead of at 11, if it's at all possible.

See you on Sunday, patriots!

Excellent game today and many thanks to Justin and the umpire team for running it.

I think there will some more detailed comments in due course (together with some photos of the developing situation on the umpire map from Ollie).

But in brief, it was a hard and sanguinary engagement. The Union probably had the harder task, as they were initially constrained by historical command confusion, and the attacking Rebs had the choice of where to fight.

AS Johnston did his bit for the Confederacy by dying heroically part way through the battle, which allowed the able Beauregard to assume command of the army and drive the blue-bellies before him in splendid style.

By the end of the battle, most troops on both sides were as exhausted as their forebears in 1862.

Martin (J)

Hi all,

I'm glad to hear the Shiloh game went well. I'd like to set up a similar game here is the USA. What map did you use? Could you point me toward a digital version of it?

Thanks,
Aaron

I really enjoyed my first Kriegsspiel, and well done Justin on such a great job organising it!  I look forward to the next!

I managed to get a picture for each turn (1 hour game time), missing only a few, and here they are.

















And the final meeting where players saw the final mess!



From L to R: Niall, Martin, Margaret, Paul, David (partially obscured), Steve, Justin, Samantha (almost totally obscured).  Off camera: Ollie and Graham.

That's awesome!

I'm hoping to play my first real Kriegsspiel very soon. I have a set arriving in the mail within the next week, and next month when I feel rich, I am buying a metal set from across the pond.

Excellent look to the map and these maps can be obtained via the American Library of Congress. I think there is a link elsewhere on our site to these resources.

I will post some of these images onto the Web Site at some stage if that is OK.

A very close-fought fight!

There were several cases where either side could have seized the initiative, and as I'm sure my fellow umpires will agree it very much came down to a matter of perception.

The command chaos at the start with the absence of a Union commander on the field (entirely scenario-driven, as Grant was not to arrive until later in the day) gave the Federal players (Sherman, McClernand and Lew Wallace/later Grant) a steep uphill climb. The advent of a Confederate surprise attack of indeterminate strength was hardly calculated to boost their confidence, and ironically the very piecemeal nature of the offensive (Corps straggling into the offensive between 5 and 11 am) kept the Union guessing and in the end divided into two distinct fights, each with a very spotty impression of what was going on on the other front.

That said, the players definitely rose to the occasion and kept the Confederate army at bay while two full fresh divisions of Yankee reinforcements reached the field. If McClernand's left had held just 20 minutes longer, Nelson's division would have landed at (and secured) Pittsburg Landing before Bragg's Cavalry (or Breckinridge's van) could arrive to contest it - with his forces doubled, McClernand could surely have held off both Corps arrayed against him until sundown (just four hours after we called it on the day).

To the west, the story of the day was definitely Beauregard's reckless aggression. Under orders from Johnston to attack with full force and attract the attention of as many Federal divisions as possible before Johnston's hammerblow up the riverbank, the superior numbers of Federals (13 brigades to his 7) he faced became convinced that he was surely present in far greater numbers than in fact were there. After all, only a crazy person would leave his flanks as wide open as that!  

In the end his divisional offensive (Clark's Division of Polk's Corps), backed by the massed artillery of I and III Corps (firing themselves dry in the process) drove through the Union centre and sent them reeling back into Bragg's thrust from the other direction.

Although honourable mention for sheer hilarity has to go to one set of orders I overheard from A. S. Johnston to my lady wife for the 7am turn. "I ride down that road, stopping to ask everyone I see; have they seen some soldiers in the area? How many were there? What colour uniforms were they wearing? Which way did they go?"

Fog of War at its finest!  

On the day after the battle (6 April 1862 in this universe as Johnston's approach march managed to save a day):

Polk's Corps - 60% strength (recovering on the field)
Bragg's Corps - 85% strength (recovering on the field)
Hardee's Corps - 45% strength (recovering on the field)
Breckinridge's Corps - 70% strength (recovering on the field)

McClernand's Division - 60% strength (no heavy equipment, swam Owl Creek to escape)
W.H.L. Wallace's Division - 25% strength (no heavy equipment, retreating independently to the SE)
Lew Wallace's Division - 45% strength (no heavy equipment, swam Owl Creek to escape)
Hurlbut's Division - 40% strength (no heavy equipment, swam Owl Creek to escape)
Sherman's Division - 95% strength (no heavy equipment, swam Owl Creek to escape)
Prentiss' Division - 90% strength (no heavy equipment, retreating independently to the SE)

Army of the Ohio - 100% strength, Crump's Landing

With the Army of the Tennessee divided and generally unfit for battle (no supplies on them and their Army-level dump appropriated by the Army of the Mississippi), we ruled the Army of the Ohio wouldn't be enough to fight Beauregard's army on their lonesome.

Pope still seizes Island Number 10 and Farragut New Orleans, but Beauregard is able to retake New Orleans while leaving Bragg's Corps under siege at Corinth. In the end Corinth doesn't fall until months later, and the Confederacy maintains a stronger field army in the west (along with an increasingly fortified New Orleans!).

Perhaps most importantly, Grant's career is ruined - as, I suspect, Dave would feel was entirely appropriate!  

Anyway, thank you all for bearing with me on my first running of a scenario of this ilk - very different style to how I game in Oz, and a pleasure (if a stressful one!) to run.

Now on to the other Civil War...

Being Beauregard, I think my Confederates must have captured the Union Whiskey before they reached the front line.

I could have done with a large one myself.

This was only my second Kriegsspiel which I found to be absolutely fascinating. I would advise anyone to give it a go.

Can I ask why Shiloh was chosen?

A few factors; initially when coming over I was planning on running Gettysburg, but after my first few games here I considered that the sheer scale of the engagement (in manpower and in time period it covered) would be problematic. More conclusively, the fact remains that 'everyone' - or at least anyone with a cursory knowledge of the ACW - knows the 'good ground' at Gettysburg, so an entertaining refight would either have to twist the map in some way (say, 90 degrees to the right? Imagine if the fishhook didn't cover the road to Washington?) or randomise the arrivals more than I was comfortable with.

In looking for a battlefield that less players would be familiar with, I decided to avoid the Eastern Theatre altogether and look at the West or Trans-Mississippi. Looking for fairly even fights that could go either way, I reduced the list to Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga or Chattanooga. The final factor was simply the availability of historical maps!

I had found a few beautiful historical maps of Shiloh in the past and failed completely to find period maps of the Murfreesboro area - when I didn't find any Chickamauga or Chattanooga maps after a cursory search it became very easy to decide on Shiloh.

Particularly as I had run a historicalish Battle of Shiloh in the past (although in different format)!  

Just looking at my next few weekends, I appear to be doing rather well;

Tomorrow I am fighting out (part of) the Battle of Britain;

3 November I have two games with Chestnut Lodge in South London; one a committee game in 1939 Britain, one a trial for a later Megagame of 1015 across the British Isles and Scandinavia.

9 November Paul and I are attending a First Triumvirate megagame in South London.

10 November I have a... less historical trial for a later megagame with Chestnut Lodge in South London, dealing with alien abductions and the response various nations take to this (inspired by X-COM).

17 November we have Martin's excellent ECW game in Little Gaddesden.

W/e of the 21-23 November my lady wife has decreed that I am not gaming, and we're going for a short break to Bath.  

Anyway the ulterior motive behind that last little list is that if anyone is interested, I'm fairly sure they all have free spots still open. And with the exception of the Megagame (and any usual payments for the LG hall) I believe they are free to play as well...

Let me know if you're in the area and interested on one of these dates - and no, you can't come to Bath with us  

I had a request for a caption on Ollie's final photo.  So I have now done that, and folks can put names to faces.  I hope none of the participants minds  .

Martin (J)

EEk! Niall is so much older than I imagined! Also isn't that Ollie on the far right?