A new campaign starts today (ACW) and the WWII Krosnogord campaign will shortly see its first major engagement (see link below).
My second campaign undertaking of the year is about to start - the ACW Graysville Campaign, which is a fictitious action between two divisions.
It is Morning, 18th June 1863. Confederate Major General Ewell has been ordered to the town of Graysville, which sits on a strategically important part of the road net. He holds 1st Brigade under Colonel Scott there in reserve, while his 2nd Brigade (Brigadier General Elzey) is dispersed further forwards and has been deployed beyond Mott’s Run to cover the two approach roads and associated bridges. 1st Cavalry Brigade is deployed to cover the small rise that overlooks Old Mine Road,
A Union division under Brigadier General Shields in approaching. His orders are to secure Graysville with all haste.
I have taken the inspiration for this campaign from Charles Grant’s book ‘Programmed Wargame Scenarios’. Accordingly I spent yesterday writing down orders for the two sides, but more importantly, similar to the mechanics proposed by Grant, for each confederate unit and currently held position on the map, I have recorded a dice driven response to any hostile action.
What this means is that, for example, as Dowdall Church is attacked, the 31st Virginia regiment located there will dice against a number of pre-determined response. So until that happens, we will not know how 31st will respond. Mostly the responses are weighted towards a certain decision, but who knows what the dice will give us.
Likewise, I have set up some variables for the Union attack. At the start of play, a D6 will determine how Shields will deploy and direct his division. So the first thing we must do is to determine that. Let’s work out Shield’s initial plan now!
Roll …… 2, the result says;
1st & 2nd Brigade, plus Battery H push down the Old Mine Road. 1st Brigade will clear Peavine Ridge and 2nd Brigade with the artillery will push on along the road to seize Duffy’s Mill.
3rd Brigade advance directly along Piney Turnpike to capture Rock Spring, while Colonel Brodhead will take his two cavalry regiments to secure Dowdall Church.
These manoeuvres are a pre-cursor to taking the bridges across Mott’s Run and advancing onto Greysville.
The next task will be to advance the union onto the map and see how the forward confederate elements respond to the ‘sea of blue’ before them! No doubt a relay of messages and orders will quickly follow and the campaign will start to take shape.
From here on in, all of the campaign narrative will be made solely at my Commanders site, under the Greysville Campaign tag (see link below).
I will be using my own rules and the Warlord Games Epic ACW figures.
LINK TO ACW CAMPAIGN - https://commanders.simdif.com/grayville_campaign_1863.html
LINK TO WWII CAMPAIGN - https://commanders.simdif.com/krosnogord_campaign_1944.html
As always, thanks for passing by. Norm.
