Stones River 1862 - ACW rules revisited

 I was having a vague hankering to do something with my ACW stuff as I've spent an awful lot of time on Ancients, WW2 and Napeolonics in the last couple of years. I had toyed with doing a complete rewrite of my Neil Thomas based ACW rules based on my latest Napoleonic set, but after a few abortive attempts I thought I'd just tweak the original set, primarily with switching to units pointing at hex vertices and simplifying the movement system to be more in line with the Napoleonic set.

 I also fiddled around with unit activation to make dithering more likely in some circumstances after playing Chancellorsville and finding the Union Army 'telepathic' command a bit much. I also introduced fixed Portable Wargame style army breakpoints as the old system based on unit destruction just wasn't working - it is almost impossible to completely destroy infantry units in the NT rules due to the generosity of the rallying system and the likelihood of retreats. 

I set up my old Stones River scenario, which we'd played online a couple of years ago. It is based on the Volley and Bayonet one. Briefly, following the Battle of Shiloh, Rosencrans Union Army of the Cumberland had driven Braggs CSA forces out of Kentucky (Nash vile is to the to the northwest) but became very strung out in the pursuit due to poor weather. Bragg stood and fought west of Murfreesboro in Tennessee, hoping to beat the Union in detail.

So, the Union are lined up to the northwest and the CSA to the southeast.

Braggs experienced cavalry outscouted the Union and he weighted his left for a surprise flank attack. Braggs left is here massed across the river. Pointing units at the hex vertices instead of the sides actually works well for the oblique deployment in the battle, but of course it opens up much wider flanks (four hexes instead of three) and restricts forward arcs of fire.

The CSA right is very lightly held by two large CSA divisions including Breckenridges veterans (who I've done as Zouaves so I can identify them) .  Braggs army is pretty much just lined up for a frontal attack.

Straggling up from the rear are few more units of Rosencrans army, two infantry divisions and a (green) cavalry division. The cavalry arrive at 12 pm but the infantry don't turn up until 4pm.

Braggs army has breakpoint of 11 and Rosencrans 14, both 50% of their starting infantry strength. The Union are outnumbered at first but their reinforcements boost their overall resilience.

These BP are reduced for each infantry base lost, even if they subsequently rally (I figure each base lost involves some actual casualties). To win, each side needs to exhaust the other before nightfall, so the CSA need to make the most of their local superiority. Each side also has a rout point at 66% losses.

At dawn the CSA move into close contact on the left while the units on the right engage in long range shelling and skirmishing. The first issue with the new more liberal movement system is that the CSA left cavalry just ride around the Union flank and dismount in their left rear (in that little wood  at the end of the river n the baseline). Mmmm.

Union fire scatters some hits around, but no bases lost yet.

At 7am the Union right is forced back having lost two bases to massed CSA fire. That also leaves the next unit along rather hanging in the air. Rosencrans rides over to help it rally next turn and moves his reserve division up to counter the threat to the Union right - it only gets as far as the track crossing the river. Over in the far right the CSA cavalry push along the table edge, threatening the Nashville turnpike. 

Rosencrans drives back the CSA cavalry in the south with a brief charge, but reorients this entire half of his army to face the threat from the south. He is forced to strip away one of his centre divisions to deal with the cavalry in the north. This isn't going well for the Union. I'm not massively convinced by all these units running around, but the more open flanks due to the facing changes make it tactically necessary. 

Up in the north the desultory firefight continues but the bigger CSA units are definitely gaining the upper hand. The CSA cavalry is over the river, so the Union infantry reinforcement has arrived in the nick of time.

I've skipped ahead a bit. Both sides are standing and firing now, and attrition is catching up with whole bases lost (the little white crosses). These force morale checks which even for seasoned troops as most of these are, need a 5+ to pass, so various units fall back and need to decide whether to attempt to rally or re-engage. I prefer to leave the bases on the units and mark them rather than  take them off. It makes it easier to sort the troops out at the end and looks neater. NT asserts that most of these 'losses' are stragglers anyway, which is why it is so easy to rally.

Eagle eyed readers will notice that in the north the CSA are attacking!

Everyone is looking a bit ragged now. It is a bit  hard to make out but the 'pinning' CSA force has just conducted a charge and driven right into the middle of the northern Union troops. Each base lost takes one off the army breakpoint and thus chips are going down fast now.

Back in the south the Rebs come in for another go as they are inflicting disproportionate losses. They move to close range as it is so much more decisive.

In the north the Union have been forced back beyond the Nashville Turnpike and the road is blocked by the CSA cavalry. Attrition is mounting on the CSA forces here though and they are both forced back by losses. All the forces in the north have been hampered by the absence of their Generals, and various units have dithered instead of moving.

The CSA are suddenly running out of men. Only three chips left!

The fighting in the south continues unabated. The Union are down to four morale chips now, but are in a worse tactical position. Both sides are now concentrating on inflicting as much damage as possible through careful target selection. You can see a CSA unit with no less than  three bases lost, Bragg is trying to rally it. 

I've loosened up the target priority rules, and coupled with more liberal rallying (I'm letting units rally as long as they aren't adjacent to the enemy, they dont need to be out of range any more), the game is rather more ferocious. 

The Union infantry desperately try and clear the road north so the reinforcements can enter. The CSA cavalry are very tenacious though. It doesn't matter now that they keep failing to activate for movement as they are in a good position.

The CSA make one more big push and finally put the Union over their breakpoint (the red marker). I had originally thought about splitting breaks into an exhaustion level and a break level, but it doesn't really add anything except more maths.

The CSA are by now also one point off their exhaustion level, so I decide to adjudicate exhaustion at the end of the turn. The Union however fail to kill another base so Bragg has exhausted Rosencrans and the CSA win the day before the Union reinforcements can arrive.

That was a very useful process as although some of the changes worked well, many others didn't. I'll keep the changes to activation, fire priority and rallying, but the new facing mechanism didn't work well and coupled with the more liberal movement led to some silly situations. I'll revert to the old facing and movement system which worked OK. 

The main thing I didn't get right was the army breakpoint, the Union broke far too quickly, with the CSA not far behind. NT said in his designers notes for the game that it was deliberately very bloody to represent straggling, but it just meant the morale chips evaporated too fast. I'll set the breakpoint at 66%, which will prolong the game to a more sensible duration, but avoid some of the previous tedious slugfests as units endlessly lose bases but then rally them back again. I'm very glad I tested those changes before inflicting them on my long suffering players. Of course now I'll have to test the changes to the changes....