Three back to back battles Part 1-2

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Vekar
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Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 1:03 am

Three back to back battles Part 1-2

Post by Vekar »

I figure no one will ever read this as this is a very, very, very dead game on a very, very, very dead forum but I really wanted to share this:

Decided to play SoW:G again and loaded up one of the old random maps I got from somewhere, probably garnier, while playing the Confederates (Only play them) and do a division vs. division battle. Figured since I had the time to play a couple of games and just see what would happen...

Parameters: balanced forces (heheheh) and 2 objectives, 20 mins each. Division vs division, LoS. Also, I dont look over the map first, I might take a cursory glance but I like to play it rough and just run with no intelligence of the terrain until I get there while in real time.

Game 1:
What a shambles. Terrible ground, TERRIBLE ground! My division (one of Jacksons, random) sat on a nice, long road that went in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Now, it was not ALL bad as there was a single road that ran directly towards the Union line. When I say "directly" I really, really mean it. Forest all across my front going... Straight up a STEEP hill into the union lines. Not one touch of land within miles for placing artillery of my own. Those two objectives... One sitting right smack to their rear and one not far off and on the high ground they control.

Start by sending a brigade forward in the hopes of at least seizing some ground and then try and turn a flank... Turns out there aint no ground worth taking on EITHER of their flanks. By the time this first brigade gets there the union has thrown out a brigade of their own along with... Every single battery they have behind the infantry on the only clear spot that looks down on everything.

New brigade was already on the move, tried to flank them on their left, checked immediately. Union is driving hard on my "center" and new brigades have to move up as the first brigade is utterly routed from sheer volume fire in the opening act. Second brigade that went in held lower, was overwhelmed by sheer numbers. As for the flank, they overwhelmed them and just kept coming down that forested ridge until I had lost 2/5 brigades with a third on its way out.

Decided to cut my losses and call it an "organized" retreat. It was a "little round top" battle from hell or maybe Verdun. The only way to win this one was to just leave the field of battle because to go around would take more than 20 minutes and then it would only be sorta level instead of up a steep incline. When all was said and done their casualties were amazingly low while my own were devastating.

Decided to play another map...

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Round 2. Same parameters.

This was one of those battles where total, maddening chaos reigned absolutely for a (real world time) three hour battle. It was on one hand sporadic but then in less than twenty minutes things would heat up so fast it makes the head spin as one flank is suddenly under extreme pressure.

Same problem as the first: one road leading straight into their lines... EXCEPT! The ground was... Fluid. Very fluid. Depending on where you stood half a brigade could hold high ground or cover but never both. At the dead center of this future cluster fuck was a poor, lonely wheat field which sat down in a cauldron with high ground on three sides. To make matters interesting it had a stone wall on two sides with a forest on the other... This field would cease to exist by the time it all ended if you think about what happened later. Forests pockmarked everything, both CSA and USA had a good road system BEHIND their lines to move rapidly in any direction they wanted at will and by GOD the AI took advantage of it which was interesting to say the least! Objectives were one extreme south and one extreme north. In short the center was seemingly unimportant to both sides but that was anything but true by the height of the battle.

South objective was in a forest, north open field. South however sat on a road that both sides had good access too, my own granted access from a low area, USA from somewhat of a height... This forest looked like a little bulge with open ground on three sides. Swinging back towards the middle was a long, narrow strip of open ground with about... 400 yards? Or so of open ground between forests, this ground was fluid, high in one spot, low in another much like the battlefield at large. Catch was this: no matter where you could put a cannon it could shoot crisscross the battlefield to almost anywhere else. At the extreme far side of the battlefield on the USA line was another small ridge, it was here they placed all their guns save 1 battery.

Opening act:
(A1) 1 brigade to south objective, set up in forest, stay back just a bit and out of sight till they get close.
(B1 B2)1 brigade to the center followed by a second to their left, idea: dont let them yanks down that road!
(C1) 1 brigade towards but not to the final objective, kinda sit aside just in case they try something on the right, want to see what they are doing first.
(D1) Final brigade is reserve.
All batteries moved forward and into a small clearing that sat on that good road.

Wait...

A1 gets there, nada. Of course not, they are one heck of a distance away from attacking, dont sit on the objective though as that is kind on the edge and in open ground.

B1-2 arrive to forests edge and whooooo boy there they are. Going... In the opposite darn direction! Okay then...

Time passes, US fans its guns out on the far ridge and starts lobbing rounds at me. B1 is advanced to a hidey hole behind a small little 150 yard wide forest, hide behind it and wait. Batteries now on the move to take the high ground just behind B1.

US now moves whole darn division towards A1, in go the reserves while C1 becomes the new reserve. I keep eyeing that darn field... Two stone walls... I can put some cannons just behind the lines to fire over them... Looking at map and plan forming.

US brigade SLAMS into A1, bayonets and all. Fierce battle, they drive off A1 but D1 shores up the line and drives them out of the forest while A1 rallies and later on rejoins the line. Casualties were about 200 or so, nothing horrific for their number because it was spread out but oh well. They did okay for giving but it was a 1:2 ratio. US suddenly just BACKS OFF from the objective and vanishes into the forest. Objective abandoned, D1 holds deeper in the forest, dont want to risk exposing them to the entire enemy division until A1 rallies. Being more cautious after battle #1, I want my offensive to hurt like hell.

Center: lines are pretty well drawn in my mind, I refused to advance B1-2 into sight of the union guns, my own batteries are throwing hot iron back at them and neither side is having any effect expect to waste ammo. Oh well, so be it. More batteries have been called up to reinforce my center so I can carry on with my plan. I figured: if they are all on my left I can force them to fight in that little wheat field, right? Ohhohoho that proved interesting.

I figure they might be going for the other objective now, so off goes the reserve into the great forest but I stop them at a halfway point because...

B1 is sent forward, I want to get that stone wall because I figure they are going to come along that road below their guns, if I can FORCE them to fight me in that field it will be to my advantage as I dont have to draw my line out for miles and instead concentrate my forces and firepower. Apparently, the AI had the exact, same, idea...

B1 reaches the wall, sets up just as the union pours out on their left, they decided to hell with the road, they were going to make a full advance towards what could be construed as my left center. B2 immediately sent forward, batteries that had been moved up to support B1 are now flinging canister wildly into the forest and over their heads.

US guns pounding back at B1 to support their infantry. In short, the guns have stopped firing on each other and are focused on how many poor foot slogging bastards they can kill with each round fired.

Full brigade US swarms out and crosses into wheat field, massive shootout results, lots of canister fired. Another marches out on B1's flank, checked by B2 and a battery in the open.

A1 rallies, marched to center and supports B2 as the yankees just keep pouring brigades out of the forest. One brigade peels off to face them, despite their earlier disgrace they really make up for it and as the massive shit flinging contest builds up between them and whoever they were shooting grew they held.

Now, during all of this was a problem, you see the guns had gotten there before B1 was in place and before B2 was on the move, as a result one of those US brigades found themselves in a position to really raise hell with my guns. As my batteries fell back leapfrogging each other while they advanced it was a constant hailstorm of cannister until B2 reached them. One gun was lost as they suddenly decided to redeploy while under attack... Oh well, shit happens.

Wheat field is a hornets nest of lead, infantry burning through their ammo so fast it is not even funny, ammo wagon running like crazy to support them, no relief in sight, more brigades pouring out, B1 falls back from part of the wall on their left but staunchly defends the right. Begin mixing regiments in with individual cannons from batteries as I decide "no more falling back" and to hold a set line so I can keep fighting them over that field. They are not interested in relenting.

Now, what about that lone brigade I held back? Well, they are on a new mission! To march all the way around the battlefield and come up from behind on the union guns and wipe them out. Guns are on a forward slope, CSA marches up the reverse slope.

D1 is hit again, long battle, inconclusive overall. Brigade they drove off reappeared later in the center and kept wailing away at my lines.

Wheat field now looks like a sheet of blue instead of wheat, pockmarked by craters. Pretty sure the stone wall is not entirely there anymore either considering they got a few good hits in themselves.

Left with A1 and B2 is a total cluster fuck of activity as no sooner does one of either my own or their regiments fall off the line than another replaces it while the previous rallies. Advance, fall back. Advance, fall back. Advance, fall back. Most batteries are back into their old positions and are mauling the union infantry as they cross the open field to attack, three are focused entirely on the wheat field and the rest are "plowing new fields with canister."

Several bayonet battles take place during all of this, at the stone wall and open field, sporadic, violent, brief... Bloody. A1 is a disheveled force but hanging on. B2 on the other hand had a real coup de tat: a regiment of yankees got cut off from the main body and being almost surrounded by cannon firing canister into them they ran in the wrong darn direction... Right into the waiting hands of a CSA regiment that ran out to block their path and captured the lot.

C1 finally arrives after more than an hours march and fans out in skirmish formation behind the union guns, begin marching up the reverse slope... What proceeded was both bloody but hilarious to watch as one CSA regiment after another poured out of a small forest and overwhelmed their guns. 3/4 of all union guns located there were wiped off the map at the cost of 1 regiment because of however the game mechanics work on capturing guns. One gun was blown up by a blast of canister from a US cannon before it to fell, sad but oh well.

Union diverts brigade from center to stop my advance, too little too late. The end is approaching but they are not interested in giving up just yet! I begin wheeling the captured guns away and towards a new line I have in mind which will help take pressure off the center. They follow. As the boys of C1 and their new guns slowly roll away from battle a brigade chases them down and a running gun battle takes place as the cannons "retreat by recoil" to safety. Its one massive leapfrog battle all across the side of that ridge as they advance into a hailstorm of canister and ball, light each other up and then fall back. They refuse to relent. I lose 4 captured guns in the hailstorm of activity but not before inflicting... More than 500 casualties. My losses? About 150 not counting what it took to take the guns.

A reserve battery joins C1 on the side of the ridge along with my ammo wagon with re-arms the captured guns with plenty of canister. Yankees make one last "huzzah" at the line and I can only imagine that the ridge disappeared for a while from the sheer volume of smoke and dust from all the guns firing.

B1 is having it rough, B2 replaces them as they somehow, dont know how, suffered almost no casualties by comparison. B1 moves to safety while B2 replaces them, union attacks are now sporadic and not as intense.


Over the next 30 minutes to 1 hour before it ends:
D1 is attacked again, full on brigade has a go at them, intense little shootout and that last union battery that I never could find? Yep, brought them along to. It was a bloody little shootout until I decided to say "to hell with it" and send in the shaky and battered A1 to back them up. Flanked, guns fled immediately, brigades fell away and that ended in, objective now firmly mine for good.

During this time I began to capture couriers and it cemented what had been going on, the AI was making probing attacks followed by all out assaults at key points. However, now that their forces had become scattered it was only a matter of time.

Fighting began to pitter out, I advanced from the bloody, corpse strewn wheat field and shored up new lines, fended off a couple probes along with 1 "serious" attack with what they had left, bayoneted them from the field on one side and when my ticker racked up the points needed to win it was over.

I discovered when it was over I had been up against a much larger force, larger by 1500. Of their massive 6500+ force sent into battle... Less than a quarter remained. Rest were dead, captured or routes from extreme losses. My own? 3500+ still standing or thereabouts. Looking over the map again only now in earnest to see what had happened the terrain was littered with bodies, two of my guns that had suffered direct hits and were destroyed, craters far and yon, a wheat field that was blue and red instead of yellow, open fields where I swear to god at some points you could walk 300 yards without ever having to touch the ground and batteries that had racked up more kills than entire brigades.

Of my casualties however, they were suffered almost entirely within three forces:
A1, B1 and the battery that the captured guns had all been assigned to. D1 was perfectly okay despite the hell they had gone through, relatively speaking, B2 was good to go and C1 had lost 1 regiment (capturing guns) and still had the numbers to take on anything thrown at them.


It was a bloody day, but the third battle was the most horrific but also entirely one sided.
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