Antietam

[bbmike]

[bob48]

I've watched a few of those; they really are very good.

...brought the game yet, Mike? 

[bbmike]

Ha! No, not yet. What I really need to do is finish The Scheldt Campaign in TTS so you can teach me how to play it. 

[bob48]

Excellent - let me know when you're ready. Its a really nice little game 

[bob48]

I've now had chance to sit down and play 'Antiatem', albeit so far, just Scenario One - The Morning Attack, in which Hooker's I Corps and Mansfield's XII Corps are thrown against the confederate line.

But first, a little information on the game would be in order;

Its a brigade level game, with each strength point being approximately 100 men or a section of 2 guns. Army, Corps and Division commanders are included and they provide a command radius and also a DRM when stacked with a unit that is required to make a moral check.

The ground scale is 250 yards per hex, and each turn represents a hour.

Its a very straight forwards game system, and easy to learn. As with most games, I had a couple of rules questions but I found the answer to most of these on the games BGG page, where the games designer is very active.

A second game in the series, 'Shiloh' is also available and it would seem that more games are planned, with the next instalment being 4 battles from the Yorktown Peninsular.

I'm very happy with the way the games flows and the way the combat system works, and it seems to recreate the ebb and flow of the battle very well indeed.

[Cyrano]

Just reading through this, I observe:

1.  Retirement is not close so y'all can bite me.

2.  I loved Antietam as a battlefield.  Not as much as a Napoleonic one, of course, but...

3.  Had I known y'all wanted to ACW so much, I'd have set up Antietam for "Altar of Freedom" sooner.  Voxel Blue Bellies FTW!

[bob48]

I have always found Antiatem to be one of the most interesting battles of the ACW - it, together with South Mountain, has such a big 'what if' factor.

[bbmike]

I'm in if Bob's in. 

[bob48]

Absolutely!

[besilarius]

One question about Antietam, what did Fitzjohn Porter think of his corps' daylong teseve?
He was loyal to Mac and V Corps' had been involved in heavy fighting, at Second Manassas, it was rolled over by Longstreet.
Still, he was a fighter and I cannot stop wondering how he took being sidelined.

[bob48]

Porter was soon restored to command of the corps by McClellan and led it through the Maryland Campaign, where the corps served in a reserve position during the Battle of Antietam. He is said to have told McClellan, "Remember, General, I command the last reserve of the last Army of the Republic." McClellan took his implied advice and failed to commit his reserves into a battle that might have been won if he had used his forces aggressively.

On November 25, 1862, Porter was arrested and court-martialed for his actions at Second Bull Run. By this time, McClellan had been relieved by President Abraham Lincoln and could not provide political cover for his protégé. Porter's association with the disgraced McClellan and his open criticism of Pope were significant reasons for his conviction at court-martial. Porter was found guilty on January 10, 1863, of disobedience and misconduct, and he was dismissed from the Army on January 21, 1863.

That was taken from his Wikipedia page.

[BanzaiCat]

Pope. I think someone described him as not knowing his headquarters from his hindquarters. 

[Cyrano]

From Honest Abe himself, whose sense of humor is never adequately appreciated:

“The trouble with Pope is that he’s got his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.”

After receiving a dispatch from Gen. John Pope addressed from “headquarters in the saddle.”

[bob48]

That, no doubt, would have been during the Valley Campaign?

[besilarius]

There was a comment by Pope in the History of the Civil War, sometime in the 1880s, I think.
Every surviving general was asked for commentary on their battles.
Even that much later, Pope seemed to feel it was not possible for Longstreet to have been on his flank.

It was really a shame that Thomas died when he did.  His comments on Buell, Rosecrans, Stones River, and Chickamauga could have been fascinating.