First Bull Run Alex vs Mason Jar

[Mason Jar]

This is really my first full battle. I’ve struggled with the patches and PBEM problems but I finished a tiny 7 turn game and want to jump in the deep end. And you don't get much deeper than Alex from what I have seen and read.

This is a "what if" scenario Look to Your Left where each side gets all the goodies you could want, reinforcements and releases, and you are invited to try and accomplish what neither side was fully able to do. Attack the other sides left flank.

This scenario can turn into a giant pinwheel with both sides throwing right hooks at the opposing sides exposed left flank. The union gets to spank across Suddley Ford early and in good order. The Rebs get all they could ask for to strike through McLean Ford work their way through the woods and pop up in close range, (which is good because they all still have smoothbore muskets) on top of the blue bellies at Butler's farm north of Blackburn Ford. A Very bold and patient southern commander could maneuver to the rear of this position and attack from both sides late in the fight.

But what will Alex do? Well I think I got lucky by doing something that might really be stupid. I decided to fore go a "demonstration at the stone bridge. I hate attacking across bridges. Instead I decided to make my demonstration further south at Lewis ford and the unnamed ford I'll call Cabin Ford just south of there. I'll have a tough time working my units through the woods and I'll be on a line that is really a bit too long, but if I can get my arty there supported by infantry it might draw his attention away from Sudely Ford. If I’m lucky enough to draw an attack my better range should let me score some points before pulling back into the woods.

While moving Keyes' brigade into position I spotted Alex moving the force that was meant to attack through McLean's Ford North away from my left the HIS left. Contrary to "The Creoles Plan" he isn't going to attack my left but counter attack my attack on his left. All hail high ground! I just happened upon a little hill that had los on the very road junction that he was moving through.

Now my demonstration will have a much bigger audience than I first thought. I may just get a target rich environment for my arty; a whole corps in column. I'll also have to set up a defense in depth or my middle could be broken.

Meanwhile my plan at Suddley Ford is to forego the historical battle at the Stone House and Mathew and Buck Hill, but drive all the way to the unfinished railroad and put myself in Jackson's position during the second battle of Bull Run.

Meanwhile back at Butler's Farm I'm building breastworks and sending in reinforcements because I also saw that Alex was planning a demonstration of his own at Blackburn's Ford so I won't think he has abandoned that side of the battle.

I fell like I'm spreading myself out way to much, with three separate operations, but my concept is not to attack but invite attack. Use my range to my advantage and show up where he doesn't expect it.

I would love all you armchair generals to slice and dice this plan to pieces. I'll take all the feed back you can give me. Also I want to include snapshots but i have no idea ho to do that. little help?

Mason Jar

 

[arckon]

Hey Mason Jar,

You can use any program from paint to Gimp (I think is freeware) to paintshop pro, to photoshop, to capture and edit your screen shots.

I use imageshack as a free image hosting site, and I always (now) try and resize my screenshots to as small as possible before posting. I tend to use sizes of aprox 420width - 346height pixels or max 500w - 412h pixels. Imageshack actually has a radio button you can tick which resizes your images to a suitable size for forums and websites when you upload them but sometimes this makes them too small.

Don't quote me on this, the forum guru's would have to confirm, but I think 500kb is the max size image they allow.

Hope that helps.

Is this scenario from the BG series?

 

[Mason Jar]

Yes it is BG7. I got it for free when I bought the beautiful but deeply flawed Gettysburg game designed by Cat Daddy. They had a coupon you could send off to get BG Bull Run. It has both battles. Iv'e really enjoyed it but I am going to try HPS next.

Thanks for the tech help.

Mason Jar

 

[Mason Jar]

Well I made my move to Lewis Ford and got plastered by arty. I figured out that the cost of moving infantry through woods is the same in line or colum. Bracing for a hit a Blackburn's Ford and got two brigades tangled. I'm trying to set one brigade with a range of two at the bottom of the hill, and one with a range of 5 with arty on the crest. I'm taking a big chane on multiple routs aren't I? Things are looking ok at Sudley Ford I'll have lead elements into Goverton Woods next turn. I,m still planing to Throw a hudge hook through the woods down to Groverton and then EAST on the turnpike. I'm still trying to put snapshots in so check back. Mason Jar

 

[Mason Jar]

Well i'm in it now. The brigade atack towards "Cabin Ford" has run into two regiments of cocke's brigade and got a face full of lead for a welcome. I took 125 casulties and gave out 50. I thought maybe I could mele the small calvary unit on my left and isolate one of the regiments, but I have now learned that infantry in line can't mele mounted calvary. So now I know. even a tiny bit of calvary on your flank give you at least one turn to pull your head our of a meat grinder.

On the plus side I got a brace of cannon deployed by Lewis Ford well supported by infantry and should manage to get two more batteries in place next turn. If that dosen't slow down his drive toward the stone house and Henry Hill I'll be suprised. I don't expect to hold the position if he atacks, but things are devleoping nicely in Groverton Woods. Im two more turns i shuld be ensconced along the Unfinished railroad and ready to counter atack. I should probably give him some kind of target on Mathew Hill to focus on or he may smell a rat.

If i can just survive long enough on my left and center. :nervous:

There have been over 400 viewings of this thread? Really? And only one coment.
I'm working on the maps. right now the thing i have looks like your looking at the map with compound eyes. But surly some one has an opinion. I have think hide so if I'm being stupid tell me. I usually have to be told these things more than once before they shink in anyway.

 

[Mason Jar]

Turns out the rebs i raninto at "cabin ford" were fixed. This should be an oportunity because the rest of the brigade is not comming to their rescue. But one of my regiments is low on ammo and another routed. So I seriously considered pulling back. Decided to hell with it, hung around to slug it out. No real damabge done to eithr side on that front. Im going to send another brigade through the woods toward them to either pug the hole or exploit the gap. There is a sweet spost to drop more arty that could act like a anvil if my atack from Groverton succeeds.

Turns out he only sent PART of hisassualt troops on my left to shore up his left. Luckily I did leave a picket east of butler's farm and I spotted them. Tangled up my troops again to meet the new threat. It looks like he's goingto manuver through the woods to negate my range advantage. The big problem is my cannons are all limbered up. If he comes straight at me nest turn I'm hosed.

 

[Mason Jar]

Well he didn’t come straight at me. Infect he is taking a trail to the east of Butler's farm and is trying to pop up in my rear. I have on regiment and 4 cannon at the trail head to meet him and I'm shifting Davies brigade father left to meet him if he decides to pop out of the woods. I have two small "picket" units that have been keeping a good eye on him so far but he's in column and I'm in line so they have out paced me so he has a line twice as long as mine and I don't know were he is and won't until he appears in range.

There are two other problems. One I have spotted his arty coming straight up the road from Blackburn's Ford So I can't dare shift more then one battery to meet the new attack. He's smart so he'll not reveal them until he can move and unlimber.

Second I left one regiment on the right of my left, (get that?) in the woods just in case he tried that approach. Well he did. I got the better of that fight, but now Butler's farm is being attacked on three sides, infantry on the left and right and arty up the middle. I tried to pull the defending regiment back into line but they were disrupted and they could only move backward one hex. My choice was to either leave them out front exposed or pull the rest of the line up to support them. I decided that was the better course. They'll have to walk into me that way and that seems to give a big advantage. I should be clear of his arty up the middle if it pops ups. I can withdraw the rest of the way next turn.

All this leads to a third problem at Butlers. I have one regiment and eight cannon in the middle, then gaps to both side and brigades on the right and left. Too, many gaps!

I have another brigade coming in from the west to help out but I'm worried because the only way I could get them within a turn or so of Butler's was to cross a bridge which means they are all in column. They are spotted by some Reb Calvary on a hill. If Alex has those troops that were probing the woods on that side turn and can get to them next turn they will be cut too pieces and rout.

On Alex's left I have Hunter’s and Heintzelman’s divisions mostly in line and marching in a line from just east of the "dump" to the woods north of Mathew's Hill. No sign of resistance yet. There is a ridge just south of the Groveton Woods that I’m working my way out of that has los on Mathews Hill and Dogan Ridge. My plan is to use that arty to get Burnside onto Mathews hill then leap frog the arty to Dogan Ridge, then Buck Hill. High ground trumped a long march through Groveton to attack from the rear. The extra time I took to swing into Groveton woods should make it less of a frontal assault than what happened historically.

Meanwhile in the center, I’m biding my time. I’ll be in position in three turns to try and force “Cabin Ford” but I have seen a lot of arty head that way and think that could be a big mistake. If I wait until my attack on Dogan Ridge and Buck Hill starts he might be temptd to pull some troops from that area. I can wait. I will also have 20-pounder Parrott in place by then and I will be happy to let it do it’s thing for a few turns before I atack.

I just hope my left holds up. I am glad I didn’t get too carried away when I thought he was marching all of his assault troops to his left to counter my attack. Right now he has me moving on the left. Why won’t he just charge my guns!

 

[Mason Jar]

Well I kep Moving back and forth trying to figure which of the three sides he would pop up on and he poped up on all three sides. I had moved my reserves over to butler farm, but put then on the east side where my line was the longest instead of the west side where it was the shortest. Alex had sent a blocking force over to meet them to protect his rear and I thought that was the whole force. I was very very VERY wrong! He called it a Chancelorville style atack. Which means that he hit me from behind. The routs were on.

I felt bad using my routed units to soak up the auto defensive fire, I didn't want them to run through my units either. I should have imeadiatly pulled back my arty but I thought I had a chance to at least slow down the onslaught. All that did was leave them open to melee atack and a ZOC kill. I have a position to fall back to, but it looks like he has taken his whole amry this wayand I have a couple of beat up brigades. If this was a real battle I would pull them off the map as soon as I could and run. The rest of my army is on the other side of Bull Run. The road to Washington is wide open.

Interesting enough the road to Richmond is allso open. On his left he has abandoned the stone house and Henry Hill I could take tamost four division down the Warington Turnpike.

I told Alex that this senerio could tun into a giant pinwheel and it has. The only differnce is I'm going to lose a division before he turns around to face my main body. He'll be coming from the north east and I'll be coming from the south west. The exact opposite of our starting positons. I'll probably have to attack across the stone bridge that I didn't want to fight my way across.

I should probably swing Tylers division back to thier openning positions, (but pointing the other way). However, he will probably get to those positons before me, and he may have somthing waiting for me south of Henry Hill. Besides I'll have my forces concentrated. If I don't get them concentrated and keep them that way Alex is cagy enough to destroy me in detail.

He did a very good job of scouting my position out with his officers. He was iin the woods watching me run back and forth and just waited till he had a shot at my back, poped his arty up in range and let me have it. I really thought that whn he did that I would have a turn to chew him up and disrupt him. but he didn't atack utill he had me way out of postion. That's why he's at the top of the ladder.

By the way the Union's Tyler and two Reb division comanders are fixed and just waiting to be captured.

I need to spend some time with the optional rules to get a better feel of what a good firing position is. I've been surprised at some of the results. Some in my favor by the way.

Even getting my butt kicked I love this! It so beats playing the AI.

 

[Mason Jar]

I have swept the enemy from the Stone House and Henry Hill! Only problem; there was no enemy there. He made no attempt to meet my flanking thrust at all. I’ll have the objectives at the Stone Bridge and the Portici farm and he’ll have a division of mine in chains.

My right side at Butler’s farm is completely surrounded. (I tried to arrange surrender, but there is no way in game terms to do so without cheating Alex out of victory points.) So, five whole brigades are going to be wiped out. I'm in the negative on points. I focused on objectives he focused on killing/capturing soldiers.

We are on opposite sides of Bull Run now. What do I do? All Alex has to do is run out the clock and he'll win for sure. He won't do that I think. Too boring. How best to come to grips with him though? Should I try and recross Bull Run or set up a defensive position and hope he attacks it?

Well the second question was answered at Blackburn's Ford. He will only attack a position when he knows where I am and he has an advantage. I had a chance to tie into him early at Butler’s but backed off. I thought he would come back at me but he waited until my back was literally turned to attack. This time I'm going to get my hits in when I can while I can. I had better not show him my arty early either. I’ll save it on the back sides of hills until he is committed.

I'm going to guess that he won't march down Warrington turnpike and try and cross the stone bridge, but cross again at Blackburn's Mitchell or Island Ford and try and get at me on my southern flank. I have sent out calvary to try and find him in the south and poor General Tyler is still fixed guarding the approaches to the Stone Bridge. I wish there was a way to send out pickets.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "It's more fun losing to a person who makes it interesting than a machine that that is predictable."

Anybody got advice????

 

[Mason Jar]

Well I should have been clearer. Alex didn't understand that I didn't want to surrender after all but he had already called off his troops so I got mine back in column and am marching them back to Washington to sit in garrison until they can be exchanged.

Question: Will the loss of points by Alex be offset by his ability to march off directly to the next battle? He had plenty of points to begin with and it wouldn't have taken him that long to finish me off so maybe the question is moot.

I have found him! In column! He is at Island Ford. It must be reinforcements coming to the battle because there is a supply wagon with them. He will probably try and swing around to the south like I thought, recross Blackburn's Ford ect... There is a good killing ground south of the Smith farm along the Manassas Suddley Road, no trees for him to pop his arty out of on top of me. Meanwhile I think I saw troops crossing at what I call Cabin Ford. Those replays go by fast. So I better clear those woods or my guys at Island Ford might get attacked from the rear.

 

[Mason Jar]

Well it's official; I Suck.

I lined up for defense and tried to sneak a brigade past his pickets to pick up an objective or two.

Messed up both. I didn't hide my arty so as soon as he realized what a strong position I was in he declined to march into the muzzle of my guns. Then I must have cut it too close and marched through a hex he had spotted so he now has those objective bottled up.

So I decided to try and attack him at the southern edge of the map along the road to Manassas. I very carefully lined myself up to try and peel his left flank, popping my arty up right on top of him like he did to me. Meanwhile my flank was well covered with a brigade behind breastworks and a creek butted up against a river.

The plan was to threaten his center and then march in an oblique to support my attack on his left. He was hidden in a creek bed waiting for me and I knew if I didn't flank him it would be the Sunken Road all over again.

What happened? I got impatient decided I might be able to do a frontal assault on an entrenched position in cover. Those hexes look so empty until two divisions pop out.

I knew he was there I had spotted his troops marching into that creek bed but I couldn't stop myself from marching my men to slaughter. I'll play one maybe two more turns to see if my attack on his left might have worked then call the game.

 

[Alex Krolikowsk]

Okey, game finished so I can read it now Very interesting AAR, well done Mason Jar! I made a couple of satellite photos :laugh: so let me know if you wish them to be put here.

The biggest problem in this scenario is that CSA top generals - Pierre&Jo are constantly fixed:blab: It mean that their brigadiers are constantly on 'detached' status... so problems with keeping men in order.

 

[Alex Krolikowsk]

My plan for this battle was a risky one... but it succeded

Army of the Potomac (Beauregard) was send across Blackburn’s Ford with mission to prepare for a fight there. In the meantime, three brigades from Army of the Shennandoah (Johnston) were ordered to my far left with main mission to help Cooke’s and Evans' brigades get out of there in some tolerable shape. Then, they all were to join my right wing via Island Ford or to fall back directly to the east if Island Ford road was blocked. I didn’t care much for any stationary VP's.

Something bad was with Cooke’s brigade as it couldn’t unfix until 9 or 10 turn! Anyway, Yankees left Island Ford road unguarded and whole Confederate force managed to concentrate against few thousands bluecoats posted near Butler house, north of the Bull Run. These Feds were quickly isolated, but as it was Mason Jar’s first serious PBEM game I agreed on his request for a parole and over 4.000 Feds were allowed to leave the map.
Then CSA brigades crossed Bull Run again and set a trap for cautiously advancing federal right wing (see last attachment).

My cavalry – which I call The Desperadoes:laugh: - did a good job in this game.
They served, accordingly to Phil Sheridan’s credo, as an eyes and the mounted arm of my striking force :horse:

 

[Alex Krolikowsk]

And rest of the pics:

 

[Mason Jar]

Alex had about quadruple the number of points he needed for a major victory. Literally! He should get Major Victory with Extreme Prejudice, Gold Oak Leaf Cluster,and Sprinkles on Top!

 

[Lord_Valentai]

What were the losses in this battle, including the 4000 paroled?

 

[Alex Krolikowsk]

I don't remember exact number of fallen soldiers, but these paroled fellas were not counted.
They were simply allowed to march off the map to tell Abe Lincoln that he will never suppress the South