Hammering Reserved

The Rejects reassembled online with Jonathan of Palouse Wargaming Journal to take a second go at fighting Hood's assault of Little Round Top.  The first encounter ended in a well deserved confederate victory.  Those reports can be found here and here.

Problems and Possible Solutions

My conclusions from the first game were:

1. The Confederates controlled the battle and fought it entirely on their terms.  Something was needed for the Union to grab the initiative and make the rebels not just have their own way.

2. The Confederates were immediately pushing at Houck's Ridge and Little Round Top and something was needed to limit their opportunities.

3. The Union forces had no space to trade for time or exploit. 

4. The Union could not afford to leave dense targets at which the Confederates had the flexibility to either charge or shoot.

5. Stony Hill is of minimal consequence and resources should be happily redeployed towards defending Houck's Ridge.

The solution that Ray and I devised was quite carefully crafted, but essentially it was to start the battle with every possible unit on reserve orders.  This meant that we could interrupt the Confederate moves, charges and firing as necessary to address the issues mentioned above.  

If we are honest, we still expected to lose and we knew that after turn two the Union forces would need the reinforcements to arrive quickly. So, for us victory was measured in how much we could frustrate and wrestle the initiative from the Confederates.

Can the Union forces (me and Ray) do better second time round?  We shall see!

The Battle

Starting positions.  Almost all of the Union troops are on reserve orders.

The rebels, holding the initiative, made a charge for Devil's Den and across the Saddle towards Little Round Top.  With the 124NY coming off reserve, they supported the sharpshooters in Devil's Den but after a bloody combat the 124th were scattered and the sharpshooters withdrawn onto Houck's Ridge.

On the Saddle, use of reserves again bolstered the defence and threw the attack back.  Likewise, the sharpshooters were tenacious in defence near Big Round Top and repulsed the confederates.  These sharpshooters were to prove to be very resilient and a thorn in the Confederate side.

As the Confederates moved Benning, more Union reserves were sent to block their path and win valuable forward space west of Devil's Den.

Realising that this was now a different contest, the rebels started enacting their own plan.  This was to concentrate their attack between Stony Hill on the left and Houck's Ridge with a view to move over the ridge.  Last time the concentration was up Plum Run.

Confederate forces are poised along Rose Run.

Despite Confederate efforts to assault the southern end of Houck's Ridge and across the Saddle all are repulsed.  However, they are beginning to make progress in Rose Wood.  Nonetheless, the close combats are hard fought and bloody.  The Confederates may be pushing the feds back, but it is costing them.

With little success on the Round Tops, the rebels shift their troops west but make some progress up Plum Run, albeit slow.

However, they slowly but surely push onto the wheat field and gain a foothold on Stony hill.  Union reserves continue to bolster the front where possible, but apart from Little Round Top the federal troops are increasingly engaged.  Plus, the reinforcements are delayed!

The rebels keep the pressure up on the western flank, and gain a foothold on the southern tip of Houck's Ridge.

At last! Union reinforcements appear.

The Confederates keep up the pressure in the west.  However, their exertions are starting to tell with brigades becoming broken.  Each charge they win whittles away at their staying power.

The Confederates break Tropbriand's and Ward's brigades, gaining control of most of Houck's Ridge.  However, the Round Tops are cleared of rebels, and Benning's and Robertson's brigades are broken.

With Weed's brigade in the north and the unshackled and virtually undamaged Vincent's brigade in the east, the Confederates will have a mighty struggle to capture Little Round Top.

After four hours of intense gaming, it was for Jonathan to call the result.  With two unbroken Confederate brigades, they could have pressed the attack.  However, with Law's brigade now close to breaking whilst the Union had two undamaged brigades, the rebels conceded that the task was now beyond them.  With a great deal of generosity, Surjit and Lee conceded defeat and praised the defence.

Conclusion
A Union victory.  This was a very different game from the first.  A much closer fought game where the Confederates were rewarded for their aggression and the Union for their use of reserves.  It was a contest of two competing tactics.

Using the reserve orders worked well: it won the Union space that it could trade for time; it disrupted the Confederate advance just enough to slow it down; it presented opportunities to inflict casualties without crippling the Union defence.

The dice rolls on both sides were good (though mine was no better than average).  Ray's rolls were exceptional and delivered at critical moments.

Knowing that Stony Hill was not important to hold enabled the means for a better Union defence of Houck's Ridge.

The Confederates were aggressive again.  However, quite a number of the melees were bloody and close fought with a number of them going to continuing rounds of combat.  So even when the rebels eventually won, their losses mounted as their attacking capacity diminished.

The Confederates played an excellent game with a change of tactics that was close to succeeding but just ran out of steam.

A splendid game where all involved played well and rose to the tactical challenges posed throughout.

Lastly, Jonathan deserves high praise for a challenging and entertaining scenario that was superbly umpired.

For a much better report go to Jonathan's blog when he publishes it.