This is a 200yd/20min. simulation of the Civil War battle of Antietam. The command level is divisional; the unit size is demi-brigade, consisting of between one and three regiments per unit.
36 turns.
Casulty points will account for nearly half of your score, on average. (In other words it is possible to win most objectives and lose the battle should you suffer too disproportional casaulties.)
I HIGHLY recommend that you play this scenario with the switch "reactions+". [at your C:\RIFLES (or wherever you keep the game), type "rifles reactions+". Antietam, among other names, was called "Artillery Hell", and if you play the scenario reactions+ you will indeed hear the "continual savage thunder" of the big guns all day long. Play it any other way, and it's checkers, with blood.
Unless you are already familiar with this battle in detail I strongly recommend that you spend five minutes to read this introduction, as it is sure to significantly enhance your gaming experience. Grognards may wish to skip to "Errata" at the bottom, to find out everything I screwed up. ;->
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The date is Sept 17, 1862. Lee is retreating from his first invasion of western Maryland. As he prepares to cross with his army back into Virginia word arrives that Stonewall Jackson has captured Harper's Ferry in a siege.
The invasion of Maryland was, in part, intended to demonstrate the power of the Confederacy to European nations in hopes of winning diplomatic recognition for the Confederate states. This, along with Lee's desire to raise the spirits of his army before returning to Virginia, leads him to a decision...he will stand and fight before crossing the Potomac.
Lee chooses his ground. He aligns his troops in and around the town of Sharpsburg, several miles from the Potomac. The Antietam Creek, only fordable in a few places, offers a natural defensive barrier. He sends word to Jackson to rush to his aid.
Meanwhile, George McClellan's Union forces are heading hard towards Lee. A few days before, some infantrymen have discovered a lost communicΦ from Lee to one of his subordinates which detailed the position of his armies. McClellan, knowing Lee's forces are badly divided, for once charges forward, hoping to destroy the Rebels in detail.
On Sept. 15 McClellan arrives in force at Antietam. The day is late, however, and he chooses not to initiate an attack immediately. This was the first of an almost endless series of miscalculations McClellan would make over the next three days.
On Sept. 16, there is a light rain. McClellan spends the morning observing the ground through a spyglass, and waiting for more of his army to arrive. At this point he outnumbers Lee almost 4 to 1. Afternoon comes, and he decides, again, that the day is late. Again, he fails to attack.
He does, however, forge a plan. He decides the main brunt of the attack will come from the north, rather than the east, choosing to take advantage of an uncontested crossing upstream of Sharpsburg rather than fight his way across the bridges. Before nightfall he sends two Corps, Hooker's 1st and Mansfield's 12th, across the creek to prepare for a dawn assault.
As Hooker's three divisions move east towards the river they brush against the Confederate pickets, alerting Lee to McClellan's strategy. Like that, McClellan gives up whatever initiative he had remaining after 2 days of Hamlet-like brooding. Lee rearranges his line, shifting most of his forces to the north.
Through the night Jackson's reinforcements, exhausted from a hard march, begin arriving in Sharpsburg. Many will not have time to eat or sleep before they are called on to fight in the morning.
By the time McClellan launches his attack at dawn, he has allowed Lee to reassemble his scattered army. Still, he outnumbers the Rebs by 2 to 1, and if he can break through their lines, they will have nowhere to run, with the Potomac at their back. Their is hope on one side, and fear on the other, that this will be the final battle for the Army of Northern Virginia, and, with it, the Confederacy.
ABOUT THIS SCENARIO
Antietam 200 - Historical is the first in what will hopefully be a series of variants of this battle.
ANTIETAM 200 - HISTORICAL
In this scenario, troops will be released on a strict historical schedule. In other words, rather than acting as Lee and McClellan, you are actually acting as their subordinates, attempting to, within the framework of their orders, win the day. If it pleases you, you can imagine those two generals sitting in a chair across the room from you, barking out orders as you play.
The timing of divisional releases is set so that the troops WILL ENTER COMBAT at the historical time, rather than by exactly when they received their orders to move out. In some cases this is a bit earlier, in some cases it is later. If, as the Union, you find that you become frustrated by your inability to access badly needed troops, imagine how the Corps commanders felt with real lives at stake. McClellan, throwing boldness to the wind, as Stephen Sears succinctly put it, doles out his forces piecemeal, rather than launching a combined attack. In later variants we will see how the Union might have fared with a more coordinated attack, but for this one, you are stuck with McClellan's tentative idea of a battle plan.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
There are a number of famous, or infamous, brigades and regiments in action on the field today. If you keep your eyes open here's who you might, er, run into:
YANKS
---The Black Hat Brigade (soon to be The Iron Brigade). Possibly the toughest fighters of the war for the Union, Gibbons' Brigade, attached to Doubleday's Division of Hooker's I Corps, is assigned in the first wave. Can they take the heat?
---9th New York Regiment. These guys are zouaves, and I'm not kidding. You can't miss them in their baggy red pants, fancy shirts, and fezzes. All they are lacking are bells on their toes, and they would be at home in the West Hollywood Halloween Parade. There are two other zouaves regiments on the field today: the 2nd Massachussetts Corps d'Afrique, and another regiment in I Corps who only have the nerve to wear the red pants beneath their traditional Yankee jerseys.
---The Irish Brigade. Meagher's Brigade, under Richardson's Division. 75% of these soldiers are Irishmen from New York City, most of them recent immigrants. They are extremely tough fighters.
REBS
---The Louisiana Tigers. Harry Hays Brigade (under Jackson/Ewell) is composed largely of Louisiana Cajuns. They are wild, untame, and uncouth (and the role model for the LSU football team, apparently). Fear them. Stonewall Jackson did, and they were his men.
---Hood's Texans. The 1st, 4th and 5th Texas regiments of Wofford's Brigade in Hood's Division are known as some of the most aggressive fighters in the Confederate army.
---A.P. Hill's Thrift Store Fashion Show. Arriving last on the battlefield after what must simply be considered one of the hardest, quickest marches ever successfully completed by an army, A.P. Hill's division is exhausted, but handsomely (and confusingly) attired largely in Union shirts salvaged from the Harper's Ferry arsenal. Better look twice before you end that turn.
---Jubal Early. (Jackson/Ewell). My great great great uncle or something. He wasn't good for much else, unless you count almost capturing Washington D.C. with only 8,000 men later in the war. ;-).
SOME LOSERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON:
UNION
---William Christian suffered an apparent nervous breakdown as he led his men toward the battlefield. He directed his brigade through a lenghty series of parade manuevers, while Rebel gunners tore his men apart. His ratings are abysmal.
---William H. Irwin, VI Corps, Smith's Division. Irwin was noticably drunk, and unfortunately brave. He ordered not one but two suicidal charges.
CONFEDERATES
---Roger Pryor, a political general. He took over Anderson's Division after Anderson was wounded, and proved completely inept. Try to keep Anderson healthy, if at all possible.
QUALITY OF FORCES
The Rebels are composed almost entirely of seasoned veterans. This battle occurs at the end of a campaign, when the feint of heart in the Confederate army have mostly straggled their way back home. This would be a mixed blessing for Lee: his men would fight harder than the Yanks, but every man he lost was one of his best soldiers, on a day when 10,000 Confederates were doomed to fall.
10% of the Yankee troops have never seen combat. Worse, they are almost entirely isolated in green regiments. Worse still, most of these regiments are grouped together into green brigades, often with a single veteran regiment. Worse yet, many of these brigades are lumped into the same Division (French's Division, for instance, is about 50% green). Can it possibly get any worse? Yes, it can. Even worse than all of that, by fate or ill-planning, most of these green brigades end up at the key hotspots of the battle, and are subjected to some of the most withering fire of the entire war. One observer reported an inexperienced regiment returning fire for the first time, with their eyes closed, shooting well over the heads of the Confederates. Now you put these poor souls under the command of an officer corps that is arguably in its worst shape of the entire war, an officer corps that seems as concerned with petty intercine bickering as defeating the enemy, and you have a problem. If you play the Union, you can share this problem, which is a lot of poorly rated officers leading a lot of inexperienced troops. Fortunately (or maybe not) you have a WHOLE lot of those inexperienced troops to sacrifice. Those 10% green Yankees, by the way, suffered 20% of the Union casulties.
THE MAP
This is a large, busy map. I provide the following narrative description in order help you look at it more clearly. The terrain plays a decisive factor in the outcome of the battle.
The area is dominated by a long ridge due east of Sharpsburg on the Union side of the Creek, where McClellan has positioned his big guns, 20 lb. "parrot" cannons. He has 20 of these up here, and they can hit most of the field. (Thus care should be taken in marching troops around).
There is a smaller ridge west of the creek which will somewhat shelter the Rebel center-right from this cannon fire.
In the north, the Yankees will be fighting across the flattest area of the map, into a triangular clearing bordered on the left by the "West Woods", the right by the "East Woods" and the south by the "Dunker Church" (all marked). The Rebels have some excellent artillery positions themselves on this part of the battlefield, on Nicodermus' Hill and Hauser's Ridge, to the south (neither marked). Historically, the Rebels held on to all of these positions except for the East Woods. This small portion of the battlefield was the bloodiest spot of the entire civil war. Many officers remarked that they had trouble riding their horses by midday because the dead and wounded were carpetting the ground so thickly.
Southeast of the Dunker church the Confederates have setup along "The Sunken Road" (marked) where generations of horsecarts have worn the road down several feet below ground level, providing excellent defensive terrain. The Union ended the day in control of the Sunken Road.
South of the Sunken road, and just east of Sharpsburg, is "Cemetary Hill" (not marked, but an objective). Historically, the Rebel Center ended up in control of this hill at the end of the day.
South of Sharpsburg, the terrain becomes hilly again, making artillery fire and intelligence gathering more difficult.
There are three bridges. The Upper Bridge is firmly in Union hands. The Middle Bridge was taken by Union troops on the evening of the 16th, but has not been crossed. The Lower Bridge is still contested by the Rebels.
ERRATA
There are some liberties I took with history in order to facilitate the translation of this game to Age of Rifles. They are:
---Order of Battle: Some brigades have been detached from their division beyond those that were technically detached during the course of the battle. This is necessary for the AI, in order that these brigades could have unique objectives. They are: REB -- Toombs' Brigade; Early's Brigade; Ripley's/Colquitt's Brigade; Jones' Artillery. Also, two or three Rebel batteries have been assigned to ahistorical commands to help the AI with regards to moving the guns around, etc. UNION -- Crook's Brigade plus two regiments from Rodman's brigade are combined as "IX Corps Detachment." Hoffman's Brigade from Hooker/Doubleday is separated as the "I Corps Reserve."
---PLACEMENT: Starting placements are generally historical, for dawn, Sept., 17. However, some changes were made to avoid the AI getting caught in an irreparable traffic jam in an attempt to cross the Antietam. French's Division and Sedgwick's Division would actually still be east of the creek at dawn. They now begin in the position where they would emerge from the ford upon crossing. Their starting time has been adjusted accordingly, so they will still arrive on the scene historically. Also, the IX Corps starting positions are slightly more aggressive than historically was the case. The reasons for this are varied and obscure, and I'm not gonna tell you.
---ARTY: Most artillery units have between 15-30 rifles for defense in case of melee attack. I'm not sure what the historical precedent is for this, but I do know that the AI is particularly reckless with its arty and this will make taking them out just a wee bit more costly. One rebel artillery unit on Nicodermus hill has an entire small regiment attached, as Jackson sent them over to protect the position.
---SMALL ARMS: Every unit except one uses Single Shot Rifles. The exception is a regiment of Pennsylvania sharpshooters who had breechloading single shot rifles. Lacking any additional information, I chose to go with SS Rifles. If anyone has a more detailed order of battle that includes arms, please send it along and I'll make changes. I suspect that many troops were using muskets, but on the other hand, in terms of AOR play, I feel that the greater ranged firepower of the SS Rifles is more accurate to the descriptions of combat at Antietam I have read.
PLAY BALANCING
A general result seems to be "Debatable Confederate Victory" when the AI plays itself. This can vary greatly with variation in weather and activation turn. Since troops seem to activate randomly within three turns in either direction, this means any given Division may come or activate within a two hour time span. This can have a major effect on results in this close scenario, and will hopefully provide some variety and replay value. Since the AI naturally will play defense better one may assume that a human/human game would default somewhere in the vicinity of a Draw to a Debatable Union Victory.
THANKS TO:
Sean Jackson -- playtesting, and historical research
WilYaBlome@aol.com (Scott)-- more research, and I beat him in a PBEM of the SSI Antietam to inspire this carnage.
Kevin Klemme -- scenario design advice
Norm "God" Koger -- for keeping me patched, etc.
WRITE TO ME! at:
Radiospace@aol.com
I'd be interested to hear any opinions. I would especially like comments about the results you are getting at various levels, as far as the playbalancing goes. If you play by email I would be particularly interested in hearing about it.
Keep an eye open for some variants in the near future.
Thanks, have fun, don't shoot til you see their shoes under the smoke
