GB3-03btn_July3-JEB's Mission Possible, and Practicable (C-Div)
Carryover from: GB3-01btn_July3-The Pettigrew, Pickett, Trimble Attack (C-Corps)
Carryover to: GB3-04btn_July3-Fight for Cemetery Hill, Day 3, 4 PM (C-Corps)
Length of Play: 75 Minutes
Command: Major General James EB Stuart, Army of Northern Virginia Cavalry Division Commander
Date: July 3, 1863
Location: Southeast of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Ahistorical Situation (What If): What if Stuart's Division feints an extended engagement at East Cavalry Field in order to distract the enemy cavalry and then, after several brief engagements, General JEB Stuart moves his division, aided by two infantry brigades, to the vulnerable Federal rear.
Situation: We finally got some rest last night after a weeks long trek of constant riding and evading enemy troops while scooping up Yankee supply trains and other supplies necessary for our army. Now we confront the Army of the Potomac's cavalry, on their ground. As we invade their ground, we know they will attack soon, that's what Yankee cavalry does. Our only orders are, once we defeat them, and we're confident we will, that we don't pursue them. For we have a more important mission this day, the Union rear, but we must turn back this Yankee cavalry attack first.
Mission: Capture the first objective (Randol's Battery) and silence the enemy guns, then proceed to the 'Waypoint to Staging Areas' objective. Once activated, the two 'Staging Area' objectives will appear. Use the infantry brigades, guarding the 'Western Route' objective (no points awarded, indicator objective only), to help clear the roads for the cavalry that must be constantly moving to the staging area objectives.
Objectives: The first objective (Randol's Battery) awards 500 points. The 'Pennington's Battery' minor objective awards 100 points. For the first 65 minutes the two Staging Area objectives award no points. The last 10 minutes (3:50 PM) these two objectives award 900 points per minute (150 points per each 10 second interval), for a total of 9000 points. The 'Staging Area South' objective requires 500 troops to activate.
Forces Involved:
CSA - 8,840 Troops, 39 Guns
USA - 6,039 Troops, 10 Guns
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This scenario is historically based but involves many 'What If' situations. First, the CSA units are positioned so as to have brief encounters with Union cavalry and then proceed to staging areas behind Federal positions along Cemetery Ridge. Second, the artillery made available includes two more batteries that were unavailable during the historic fight at East Cavalry Field. Third, Colonel Gregg's cavalry brigade is positioned to block the western staging area route whereas historically it was sent closer to Culp's hill after the Brinkerhoff Ridge fight the day before. Fourth, two infantry brigades are added to help the CSA cavalry reach and clear the staging areas, otherwise this scenario would be an impossible mission, as proven by the historical result.
Historical accuracies include the number of cavalry troops involved in the East Cavalry Field fight, the positions of the Federal cavalry there, and the position of Neill's brigade of Sedgwick's corps, guarding the north staging area.
Due to the size of this scenario (thousands of troops are hidden for carryover purposes), a heads-up to avoid 'AI Freeze Up' (troops stop fighting),
keep most of your officers TC'd throughout. For the initial movements select the brigade commander (I recommend movements by brigade), then select 'Atcommoff', double click destination, select formation, then 'tcofficers'. Don't worry about officers overlapping enemy units because all officers are scripted as 'immortal' in this scenario series. Over the years I've found that the game plays much better with immortal officers plus it improves the enemy AI competition wise.
The fighting parts of this scenario are not too tough, however, getting your troops to the staging area within the time limits is quite a challenge. After getting this scenario set and then tweaking positions to make it not impossible, it still took me five more days of runs before I proved it possible to win, finally with two back to back Major Victories...this was the final, and most successful, MV.
- GB3_3btn JEB's Mission Possible.jpg (425.21 KiB) Viewed 324 times
Edit:
The above attachment was for the original one hour version, the following two attachments are for the revised 75 minutes version. Either version can be used for carryover purposes. However, the original version will no longer be available with the next update.
This new version took me two runs to get a decent result. The extra 15 minutes were necessary to adapt to the next carryover scenario which added enemy artillery close to the north staging area objective, as per historic Union positions.
One second left, got almost all my troops to the staging area, the added 15 minutes helps make this scenario a lot more possible for that purpose.
- GB3_3btn JEB's Mission Possible2.jpg (537.92 KiB) Viewed 324 times
Cost me more troops, but that was inevitable because the Union guns had to be silenced to make the staging area secure, at least for the time being; for Custer is hot on your heels, you haven't seen the last of him and the rest of the Federal cavalry you engaged with briefly at East Cavalry Field.
- GB3_3btn JEB's Mission Possible3.jpg (425.21 KiB) Viewed 324 times
At least one more scenario planned, depends on how well SR1 play holds up as more troops must be added to extend the fight for Cemetery Hill, GB Day 3, the ‘Grand What If’ challenge by the CSA.
