GB2-25_July2-Caldwell's Division, The Wheatfield (U-Div)
Command: Brigadier General John C. Caldwell's First Division
Situation: As ordered, you've just entered the wheat field, and all hell's breaking out. Colonel Trobriand's depleted brigade is on the verge of collapse as Rebel forces invade the wheat field from the south and west. Your obligations are clear, relieve Trobriand and drive out the invaders.
Forces Available: Brigadier General John C. Caldwell, commanding the First Division, II Corps, Army of the Potomac, under Brigadier General John Gibbon
First Brigade, Colonel Edward E Cross
5th New Hampshire Regiment, Lt Colonel Charles E. Hapgood
61st New York Regiment, Lt Colonel K. Oscar Broady
81st Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel H. Boyd McKeen
148th Pennsylvania Regiment, Lt Colonel Robert McFarlane
Irish Brigade, Colonel Patrick Kelly
28th Massachusetts Regiment, Colonel R. Byrnes
63rd New York Regiment, Lt Colonel Richard C. Bentley
Third Brigade, Brig Gen Samuel K Zook
57th New York Regiment, Lt Colonel Alford B. Chapman
66th New York Regiment, Colonel Orlando H. Morris
140th Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Richard P. Roberts
Fourth Brigade, Colonel John R Brooke
27th Connecticut Regiment, Lt Colonel Henry C. Merwin
2nd Delaware Regiment, Colonel William P. Baily
64th New York Regiment, Colonel Daniel G. Bingham
53rd Pennsylvania Regiment, Lt Colonel Richards McMichael
145th Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Hiram L. Brown
Division strength: 3222 troops and officers
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To Arms Yanks, with this scenario you finally get "the largest Union assault of the three-day battle".
For historic and play-ability purposes, all Rebel forces, sans Semme's brigade, have been reduced 15 per cent to reflect battle casualties sustained up to this point. Historically accurate attrition rates between battle phases are impossible to acquire so consider this an unqualified guess, and, the reductions make the scenario winnable. Before these reductions I tested this scenario several times and found it impossible to win, given the odds.
Enter the Grognard Variant: Before said reductions, the original scenario.csv file has been saved in this scenario's folder as 'scenarioGROG.csv'. To play this GROG variant, first rename the original scenario.csv, then rename scenarioGROG.csv to scenario.csv. Feel free to post success with this variant, any kind of win with this Grognard Variant would indeed tout one's 'Generaling Skills'.
An important gameplay tip...
With all the extra units that SR1 play provides, unit pathing can be problematic, especially with officer movements. Many times officers will take erratically long paths when ordered to destinations. If formations are ordered immediately troops will follow their officer's erratic path and cause all kinds of obvious problems.
The solution is to wait til the officer arrives at his destination before giving formations. It's faster to guide the officer through congestion or hold down the 'Ctrl' key and double-click waypoints. Either way, it requires micromanagement, but with much faster results than waiting for an officer to take an extremely wide route to a destination . Once the officer is in position, initiate the formation. In most cases units will then move directly to the officer and their formation position.
The objectives, Cross, Kelly, Zook and Brooke, represent the historic 'High Tide' position each 'same named' brigade reached during Caldwell's attack. Although not necessary, for historical immersion guide the brigades to their respective objectives. I pretty much followed the historical routes, although I did enlist Cross's brigade to help gain and hold Brooke's salient.
One second left...Actually had a good defense set up and was steadily gaining points since my troops were receiving the 'Woods' terrain bonus, while much of the enemy were engaged in the 'Open', with no terrain bonus.
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This score was a pleasant surprise, but well fought by my Yanks, believe me. Prior to this MV, all my previous plays were winless. So, with this play I was intensely immersed towards getting a win, of any kind. I was so immersed I didn't even look at the score until there was 15 minutes remaining as I was rallying Brooke to go after his objective. And then the big surprise, the score was just over 3500, without the final objective points (750). Still, had to go for that objective for obvious reasons, and the gamble paid off with this final result, despite my previous large edge in engagement points being sacrificed for objective points.
Finally got around to presenting a 'battle appropriate' picture for the Union END SCREEN. Only Major Victories will receive the color (colour for the Brits) versions.
- Caldwell2.jpg (485.58 KiB) Viewed 1574 times
At Gettysburg:
Caldwell's bloodiest combat experience was at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Since May 22, he had commanded the 1st Division of the II Corps, now under Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock. He and his division arrived on the battlefield the morning of July 2 and took up a reserve position on Cemetery Ridge. That afternoon, as the powerful Confederate assault from the corps of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet struck the Union III Corps, Hancock ordered Caldwell's division to reinforce the III Corps in the Wheatfield. Caldwell got his division moving quickly and conducted the largest Union assault of the three-day battle.
