Scourge of War Boards

I'd like to start a discussion of the Federal Army Corps.

First, the Rebs have an advantage in infantry. They posses several very good brigades. The Union player has to start off by looking for advantage. This would be effective use of artillery, setting up on good defensive ground, and before attacking having good chances of success such as bringing overwhelming force to the part of the line attacking.

1st Corp has a lot of good regiments, but some weak ones too. After the day one OOB the whole corp is really weakened.

2nd Corp one of my favorites. Gibbons and Hay's divisions are good ones. The weak division is Caldwell and that is just because they are so small. I hate to use them in offense and try to only use them in defense. It doesn't take long and Caldwell's division is ineffective. When I command the 2nd corp in a game I fight defensively and in counter attacks.

3rd Corp. Is not a bad corp. They have two regiments of sharpshooters that are deadly (a little to deadly for my taste, and range too far) ,they can be employed against anybody. I like to use then against artillery. The rest of the corps regiments are ok. Brewster’s Brigade is an excellent brigade. Large and rated high. Like all the other corps they have a good amount of artillery.

5th Corp I like this one to. The 2 brigades with the US Regulars are rated very high. Penn Reserves regiments are rated high, some average. I think they should all be above average “skilled”. The other brigades are fare to. The 20th Main is rated well. The artillery is decent. This is a corps you can fight offensively with.

6th Corps. This is a very good corps with plenty of artillery. They artillery is almost all rated very well. The three divisions are ok with 2 real good brigades. The Vermont brigade which is rated high , but still is too low and Torbet’s New Jersey Brigade. They are rated high, but again I’d like to see some of the average regiments bumped up to skilled. With the proper use of artillery this corps can be used offensively.


11th Corp I've never liked this one. Historically they were always kicked around by the ANV. If anything, the game has them rated too high.


12th Corps. This corps is a little weak . Only two divisions without any impressive brigades except Ruger. The artillery is all rated good except one battery of napoleons. I have had bad luck in fighting aggressively with this corps. It does have some good commanders . You have to be careful in MP or you could get driven in.


I’d like to comment on the cavalry, but the cavalry really needs to be adjusted in this game. Cavalry was never a match against infantry in the civil war. In this game cavalry is a powerful force, very unrealistic. Their range is too long. I’d like to see their effective range at 120 yards and their hits lowered (among a few other things). I hope they get this (cavalry) fixed and playable. Cavalry would be an interesting tool in a good commanders hands.

The Confederates have some really good divisions. Ones that you can take offensively into battle. I’ll let someone else comment on them, but I will say the Texas Brigade is rated too low. The 5th Texas and 3rd Arkansas need to be increased.



Harmon

11th corps wasn't made up of bad regiments, they were just poorly handled by Howard and Seigel (both of whom, while brave, simply weren't up to corps command). They were also historically placed in unlucky positions. You can't really blame the soldiers for Howard forgetting to cover the flank at Chancellorsville, for example.

It was a unit that seems to have been a case of the parts being greater than the whole. Some quality units, some poor, atrocious commanding generals.

I think Son of an Irish Noble said it best. Sigel was horrible, and Howard was not much better, but Barlow really messed up at Gettysburg. Whenever you leave your support behind for a slight terrain advantage bad things usually follow. Anyways I think the XI Corps got a bad rap for July 1st. Coster's brigade was slaughtered at the Brickyard trying to stem the tide.
As my name suggests, I think the 20th Maine is overrated. Yes they fought well, but what about the 140th NY stabilizing the right on LRT? And what about the 16th MI, 44th NY, and 83rd PA? They were right alongside of the 20th Maine at Fredricksburg and on Little Round Top. Where was the 20th Maine when these three got chewed up at Gaines Mill Malvern Hill and the RR Cut at 2nd Manassas?

The whole brigade was a fine brigade. They have only given the 20th Maine high marks. The rest are just average.
Eleventh Corp had some really bad leaders, but still an argument can be made that the infantry did not live up to the fighting trim of the rest of the Army of the Potomac.




Respectfully,

Harmon

The XI Corps had some good commanders amongst it, such as Ames and Kryzinohahak (hate his name). The 20th Maine has to be rated high or else they can't hold the flank well also it should be noted that the 2nd Maine was merged with the 20th Maine, so the 20th got a good bunch of veterans. The I and II Corps were always the top units of the army. Even after Gettysburg when the I Corps was merged with the V Corps. The II Corps lost a bit of its elite reputation due in part to merging of the III Corps; at the Wilderness, many of the III Corps units became a hassle. The V Corps was always a pretty good fighting unit with the Regulars and PA Reserves. They had good commanders like Griffin, Chamberlain, and Warren was pretty good but could not survive the anger of Sheridan.

I think I'm just spitting out whatever is on top of my head so I'll stop now. :laugh:

83pvi wrote:

I think Son of an Irish Noble said it best. Sigel was horrible, and Howard was not much better, but Barlow really messed up at Gettysburg. Whenever you leave your support behind for a slight terrain advantage bad things usually follow. Anyways I think the XI Corps got a bad rap for July 1st. Coster's brigade was slaughtered at the Brickyard trying to stem the tide.
As my name suggests, I think the 20th Maine is overrated. Yes they fought well, but what about the 140th NY stabilizing the right on LRT? And what about the 16th MI, 44th NY, and 83rd PA? They were right alongside of the 20th Maine at Fredricksburg and on Little Round Top. Where was the 20th Maine when these three got chewed up at Gaines Mill Malvern Hill and the RR Cut at 2nd Manassas?

I agree with you completely. Living in Maine and being interested in the Civil War, the 20th Maine almost always pops up into conversation. They didn't do that much. Without the rest of Vincent's brigade there, the 20th wouldn't have been able to do anything. I don't even think Chamberlain deserved the Medal of Honor; I think he was very courageous and a great man, but he did what he was expected to do. I don't even think he ordered the bayonet charge as the story goes. I think it just kinda happened when the color party moved forward to help the wounded. I don't understand how Chamberlain got his MoH for what happened on LRT, but it took Alonzo Cushing this long to even be considered for one and he clearly went above the call of duty.

As for where were they at Gaines Mill and 2nd Manassas, they didn't exist yet.

Armchair General wrote:

As for where were they at Gaines Mill and 2nd Manassas, they didn't exist yet.

I believe that time was when the old saying was originally conceived:

"The 20th Maine was just a twinkle in Col. Adelbert Ames eyes."

1st corps are awsome! they have the legendery iron brigade under the command of the legendery major genral "george meade". how ever. how can i know a regiment's strength in the game? it only shows the numbers of men. and thier weapons.

Off topic because this has nothing to do with the real-life units, but I was playing a pbm game of Battleground Gettysburg some years ago, and noticed some odd movements on the Rebel side. Units were leaving the road well before they needed to go into line. I had already moved some scouts into position west of G'burg and adjusted them a little to see what was going on.

The scouts saw that the Rebs were sending a sizeable force south screened by McPherson's Ridge. It appeared that my opponent intended to form a line and attack west to hit the units that were in road column moving north. I still had the cavalry in line and I Corps followed by XI Corps were the units in road column. I turned I Corps into line to face the Rebs, and sent XI Corps into line to start moving NW to flank the Rebs. XI Corps came out of the woods on the Rebs flank and began to roll up the rebel line. That game used ZOC and I was able to capture many Reb units, removing them from the battle. Meanwhile the cavalry was shredding the few Reb units who attempted the historical attack. After that unusual opening was crushed, I Corps was still close to the road and went into road column and ended up north of town to handle that threat and XI Corps, because they were farther away from the road, just continued moving north, clearing the woods and ended up in I Corps' historical postion, continuing to perform well, probably because 2/3 of Heth's Division was being escorted to the Union rear.

XI Corps had a good general (me ) that day. I Corps did well north of town and my opponent clearly had no chance to reach Gettysburg, much less assault Cemetery Hill on Day One. He quit about 1:00PM of Day One and I didn't get to finish the battle.