Rematch with Matt at Salem Church

After our fight on 30 September in which Sedgwick's (Matt) VI Corps crushed Rebel aspirations of keeping Sedgwick at bay and delivering a flanking blow to Lee at Chancellorsville (see Salem Church Game #2), Matt agreed to a rematch.  In the 07 October rematch, we would swap sides.  Matt would command the Confederate Army deployed in the woods around Salem Church astride the Orange Plan Road (OPR) and I would take command of Sedgwick's VI Corps.  Could I repeat Matt's earlier successful assault against Rebel positions?  Let's see.  

Armies arrayed for battle astride the Orange Plank Road.

Although Matt led Bartlett's Brigade on the Federal Left in an all-consuming, all-out attack in the first game, I did not believe I could repeat such an impressive performance.  Instead, the Federal attack begins on the Federal Right as Browne's Brigade of Newton's Division moves up across Golin Run to near the Perry Farm.

Already, Rebel guns begin harassing Federal troops!

How does Matt respond?  He orders Wofford to bring his brigade up through the woods to challenge Bartlett!  Surprise!  Wofford presents an overwhelming force with which Bartlett must deal.

Williams' Farm threatened!

Yankees are driven out of the woods as Wofford advances.

Could the Federal Left be turned so easily?

Browne reaches Perry Farm.  Semmes' Brigade is encountered.

McLaws orders his divisional artillery forward
deploying on both sides of Orange Plank Road.

Mahone crosses Golin Run as
Semmes moves up to contest Perry Farm.

Rebel guns begin to take their toll.

Thinking a breakthrough against the Rebel Left is possible,
Sedgwick orders Wheaton forward to support Browne.

Seizing the initiative Wofford presses forward against Bartlett.
Barlett is driven back as Kershaw moves forward in support.
The Federal Left is wavering under the pressure.

With the Federal Left in trouble,
Sedgwick orders an all-out assault! 

Wheaton urges his men to give everything in the attack.
Wheaton falls leading the assault.
His attack stalls when faced with Rebels lining the creek bank.
Browne's Brigade is wrecked in the fighting in the dense woods.

Against the Federal Left,
Kershaw brings his brigade into action at Williams' Farm.

An imposing sight as the Rebels come out of the woods!

As the Gray Wave breaks over Williams' Farm,
the tide sweeps Bartlett away.
Kershaw presses on but the 8SC is destroyed in the attack!

Kershaw falls back to gather more troops.

Kershaw's South Carolinians attack again.
Wofford presses on covering Kershaw's Right.

The Williams' Farm is cleared of the enemy.
Kershaw pushes forward!

Even the blacksmith's place along the OPR is under pressure!

The blacksmith is in Rebel hands!
Two Union batteries are lost!
Wofford's Brigade is wrecked in the fighting at the Mill's Farm.

Sedgwick's Left is crumbling fast!

With little threat from their front,
McLaws' artillery concentrates on Russell
 as he attacks Semmes in the center.

In the Federal assaults from both Russell and Browne,
Semmes' Brigade is wrecked!

With each army suffering two wrecked brigades, the next to see a brigade break will withdraw from battle.  If Wilcox' Brigade of the Rebel Army loses one more regiment, it breaks.  If Russell's Brigade of the Federal Army loses one more regiment, it breaks.  Who will that be?

Rebel artillery quickly decides the issue.
Russell loses one more regiment and his brigade is wrecked!

With the third brigade wrecked, Sedgwick has seen enough!  Since the road to the crossing of the Rappahannock has not been cut, Sedgwick withdraws north across the river to safety.  While Matt was able to reverse history in the first contest, I could do no better than see the historical result this time.

Well done, Matt, on a Confederate victory!  Again, I fall to Matt's mighty sword.  The rematch was a much closer tussle than seen in the first match-up as the Butcher's Bill below illustrates.  What does it take to beat Matt on my home field?  I may never know...

Butcher's Bill

Matt, thank you again, for another excellent and challenging game.  Game duration was six turns and about three-and-a-half hours.

Great fun!

Beaumont's Battle and an ACW Preview

One more WotR fighting unit musters out from the painting table.  These 47 figures make up Beaumont's Battle.  Figures are 28mm Perry Miniatures' plastics.  This body of infantry represents the eleventh such Battle to march out from the painting desk.  No banners yet but with luck, Pete's Flags will produce a set someday.

Of course, eleven such Battles is more than enough for a standard game, but I have the figures and now I have many options.  There is a body of pikemen at the painting desk but those fellows keeping getting pushed back in the queue as WSS French regiments keep cutting in line.  Four such French units are finished with a fifth in work.  Oh, a second order to Ebor is off for reinforcements.  

On the gaming front, Vol joined me in a Saturday game to refight our earlier Battle of Salem Church.  Having tasted a narrow Federal defeat in our first game, Vol wanted to try again to see if the result was different.  Sounds similar to the definition of insanity.  Anyway, Vol has a BatRep up on his blog.  The outcome can be seen at 2nd Battle of Salem Church.   

Shaler's attack on Salem Church

Russell assaults Rebel gun line.

One more Salem Church iteration with Peter this week and then time to pack it all away and ponder what next.

Thoughts On Input/Output Uncertainty

With two games of Flower of Chivalry (FoC) under my belt and the sounds of battle still ringing in my ears after Richard’s latest practice game (see Flower of Chivalry Practice Game), I have been pondering the turn sequence.  Am I overthinking the rules’ design? Perhaps.  To the relief of some, there will be no machine learning techniques explained, probability distributions scrutinized, or simulation studies explored. Not this time, anyway.

Instead, I want to consider a simpler question.  Does the order in which we discover what our troops can do make a difference to the decisions we make?  More specifically, would a small change to the turn sequence give players a little more scope for planning without removing the uncertainty of command?

The turn sequence, as written, is:

1. Check command.
2. Resolve personal challenges.
3. Choose Aggression Levels.
4. Roll to determine accepted orders.
5. Draw one Action Card to determine the number of actions available.
6. Execute orders.

The player chooses an Aggression Level in step (3), but the results in steps (4) and (5) determine what that commitment actually allows.  First, will the desired order be accepted?  Second, will there be enough actions to carry it out?  That second question gave Ray and me something to consider during Richard’s game.  Choosing an aggressive posture is one thing.  Discovering afterward that orders are not obeyed and that the Battle lacks the actions needed to make much of it, anyway, is another.

Now, uncertainty is not necessarily a problem.  A commander should not expect everything to go according to plan.  The question is whether the uncertainty presents an interesting problem to solve or leaves too little opportunity to respond.  Does the second hurdle of the action-card draw add something useful, or does it simply compound the first hurdle of order acceptance?

A useful distinction here is between input and output uncertainty in game design.  The terminology is not as mysterious as it may sound.  Input uncertainty comes before a decision.  Discover resources available, assess the situation, and decide what to attempt.  Output uncertainty comes afterward.  Make the decision, then discover how events affect its execution.

In FoC, both the order roll and the action-card draw come after the choice of Aggression Level.  Having chosen an Aggression Level, the player receives a double dose of output uncertainty.  The intended order may not be accepted.  Even if it is, the number of actions available may leave the player unable to accomplish what was intended.  Output uncertainty is not inherently bad.  Deciding whether a plan is worth the risk can be an interesting command problem.  The existing sequence also rewards planning across several possible action-card draws.  There is a case for leaving things alone.

Still, I wonder whether both uncertainties need to follow the same commitment or single decision point.  On a poor turn, it can feel like stumbling twice on the way to the same destination.  My preference would be to reveal the action allowance before choosing Aggression Levels.  Let the player know the Battle’s capacity for the turn, then decide how ambitious to be.  A limited number of actions might suggest a limited effort.  A more generous number of actions might offer an opportunity to press forward.  Neither makes the decision automatic.  A good card need not make an attack wise, and a poor card may not make waiting sensible.  The enemy and the situation on the table still have something to say about that.

The proposed sequence would be:

1. Check command.
2. Resolve personal challenges.
3. Draw one Action Card to determine the number of actions available.
4. Choose Aggression Levels.
5. Roll to determine accepted orders.
6. Execute orders.

Move the action-card draw up in the sequence (from '5' to '3') ahead of choosing Aggression Level.  That is the extent of the change. The action-card distribution remains the same, as does the procedure for determining accepted orders.  Knowing the number of actions before choosing Aggression Level would not guarantee that the desired order is followed.

What changes is the problem facing the player.  Rather than choosing aggression and hoping sufficient actions appear, the player chooses aggression with the available actions in mind.  The focus shifts from anticipating capacity to adapting to it.  Would this make attacks easier to arrange?  Perhaps.  Would it encourage players to sit and wait for a better card?  Possibly.  Those are questions for another game, not conclusions to draw after two outings.

For now, I think it is worth a try.  Let the action-card draw define the problem the commander must solve.  Then let the order roll provide uncertainty over carrying out the solution.  To my mind, that retains enough command friction without asking both mechanisms to frustrate the same commitment.

Salem Church: A Battle of Attrition

Game #3 in the series of the Salem Church refights was on 26 September in a F2F game with my local opponent, Vol (A Miniatures Hobby Room).  After reading through the Battle Briefing, Vol gladly accepted the challenge of commanding Sedgwick and his VI Corps.

To refresh memories of the battlefield and initial army dispositions before diving into the battle account, study the following two maps to refamiliarize yourself with the battlefield.  

Salem Church battlefield

Army dispositions

From my earlier battle against Matt (see Salem Church Game #2), let's see if my Confederates can bounce back from my inglorious defeat at Matt's hands.

On to battle!

Holding the initiative, Sedgwick orders a general advance across his front toward the forest-lined Rebel dispositions.  McLaws orders his guns forward into the trees both north and south of Salem Church.  With Brooks' divisional artillery leading the way with a preparatory bombardment, Wilcox sees one of his regiments take a pounding in support of his guns to the north of Salem Church.

With hand on table in contemplation, Vol studies his prospects on seeing a successful frontal assault against these formidable Rebel dispositions.

Attacking across open ground with defenders ensconced in the trees may be a difficult task.  Sedgwick says that his boys are up for the challenge!  Forward the Yankees come.

The hand of God points the way forward for Bartlett as he attacks into the woods.  Will Bartlett see the level of success that Matt saw in Game #2?

Bartlett's attacks must wait as Sedwick launches a coordinated assault into the Confederate positions north of the Orange Plank Road (OPR).  Russell and Brown from Brooks' Division attack into the waiting mouths of Rebels guns!

The Rebel guns, supported by infantry, hold!  Brooks' attack is repulsed with heavy casualties.

From behind the Confederate lines, confidence grows as the first attacks are driven off with heavy loss.  Hoorah!

Victory is never quite so easy.  Brooks orders his brigades forward again.  Second effort pays off.  The defenders of Salem Church are ejected but at high cost.  The Federals attacking the guns are scattered.

Encouraged by taking the church and undaunted by the failure against the guns in the trees, the Federals strike again.

This time, success!  The guns positioned north of the church are overrun as one of the supporting Alabama regiments is destroyed.  The Rebel Center begins to waver under Federal pressure.

Seeing his center in jeopardy, McLaws orders Kershaw forward into action against the defenders of Williams' Farm.  In the background, Sedgwick orders Newton's Division forward and into action.  There is heavy fighting in the woods along Golin Run and over control of the Perry Farm.  Losses mount on both sides.  Semmes' Brigade is wrecked in defense of the farmhouse.  Mahone is ordered forward to plug the gap.  Perhaps an attack here will divert Sedgwick's attention from his unrelenting frontal assault up the OPR? 

Nope!  Kershaw's attack is bloodily repulsed with the 3 SC Battalion lost in the fruitless effort.

With Newton bogging down toward a stalemate near Perry Farm, Sedgwick brings Newton's guns into action as they unlimber on the OPR.  Kershaw will have a very tough job making headway against the Federal Left now.

Still, Kershaw comes on with Wofford in support on his right.  Fighting is intense against Bartlett in the dense woods.  Losses climb quickly.  Outnumbered, Bartlett finds himself in a tight spot with Rebels infiltrating his lines through the smoke and dense woods.  Bartlett's Brigade is wrecked in this fighting, but Kershaw has no time to celebrate.  Kershaw's Brigade is, likewise, broken in no small part to the pounding his brigade is taking from the Federal guns to his flank and front.

Maintaining a tenuous hold on the church and the woods immediately to the north, the Federals are holding crucial ground.  The problem for the Yankees is that their reserves are depleted and casualties continue to climb.  Semmes' Brigade, already wrecked, offers some resistance but Wilcox needs to bring up his reserves quickly at the church.  Semmes could use some help from Mahone too.

Mahone sees the danger that Semmes faces and acts.  Charging out of the woods, Mahone leads an attack against Browne's Brigade of Newton's Division.

Semmes joins in the attack but musters limited support to Mahone.  These extra men are just enough to drive the Federals back.  Browne's Brigade breaks!

With Browne (from Newton's Division) broken, each army has two brigades broken.  The next army to see a third brigade wrecked will be compelled to retire from the field.  With Brown (from Brooks' Division) still facing Rebel guns and the 10 GA, Brown is facing an unenviable situation.  With his brigade already wavering, he needs to withdraw from combat quickly to prevent the destruction of his brigade and ultimately Sedgwick's Corps.  His realization is too late!  Rebel artillery and musketry open up against Brown.  The regiment he is leading is cut down where they stand.  Brown's Brigade breaks and Sedgwick must withdraw from the field.  Luckily for Sedgwick, the route north across the Rappahannock is still open.  He can make good his escape.  The Rebels hold the field and the vital Orange Plank Road.  Victory is theirs!

Butcher's Bill

The Rebels are victorious in a really tight, hard-fought battle.  As the Butcher's Bill illustrates, losses were high in both armies.  Had Brown not broken on Turn 5, I suspect that Wilcox's Rebel Brigade would have broken on Turn 6.  This result was close.  Very close.  This was no cakewalk like we saw in my game against Matt.

Thanks, Vol, for a very exciting game.  The game took about five hours including a lunch break at a nearby Indian restaurant which Vol kindly picked up the tab.

Good stuff and great fun.