Invasion Maryland - Turn 46

Here is the situation at first light (visibility just 4 hexes). We can now see what we are up against - a slightly more coherent line than we would have liked, but we have hit it hard and caused a lot of enemy casualties before they could properly react and return fire.

Confederate brigades shown. The red highlighted hex marks where the 44th Georgia
 just captured a 10 gun Federal battery and turned it on it's owners !

The Rebs have just deployed dozens of guns right up on the front line which will be able to open fire next turn - Union artillery is conspicuously absent. If this gamble is going to pay off we need to make headway very quickly and rack up a lot of VPs. Come full daylight and every Union battery within a mile is going to zero in on us.

Invasion Maryland - Turn 44

Both armies settled down at sunset yesterday, and any movement now is not visible to the enemy but it does incur high fatigue penalties. I know from bitter experience that when the Army of the Potomac is given time and space to marshal it's overwhelming resources against a static enemy it can be hard to beat.

The divisions were moved into place before midnight and have been
 recovering from their night-move fatigue ever since - it is now 3:00am on Sept 13th.

So I need to be a bit unpredictable and keep McClellan off balance. In the early hours of the night I pushed Anderson's division and most of McLaws division back out to Tilghmanton - a position they abandoned earlier in the day. It looked to me as if the Union left flank was up in the air and I might be able to take advantage of that. I have nervously made a deployment to assault the location where the extreme enemy flank was observed to be in daylight. Two things could go horribly wrong with this plan ...........

Is the Union flank still where it was, between the Emmet and Maddox houses just north of the town ?
I will have to wait for dawn to find out if my plan is crazy or not !

McClellan may may shifted or refused that flank in the darkness leaving me poised to attack .... nothing ! Or he may have massively reinforced it and I will be committed to assault against unfavourable odds. But if he has just left it as it was in the afternoon then I may be in with a chance of dealing him a hammerblow and taking the initiative away from him. My instinct is that his attention (and the weight of his army) is focussed on the opposite flank, nearer Williamsport.

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http://roadtoappomattox.blogspot.co.uk/

Invasion Maryland - Turn 32

Strategic situation - 6:20pm - Turn 32

D.H.Hill has finally completely cleared the Yankee cavalry out of Williamsport, and established himself on the East bank of the Potomac. It has been a slow process though, and I would have preferred him to be in a better position to threaten either Hagerstown or McClellan's flank before nightfall. Regardless of that, I am still willing to bet that he is making the Union commander nervous!

Yankee troopers driven off, Hill consolidates his perimeter as dusk approaches.

Lee is patiently assembling his battle lines. It will be limited visibility from 7pm to 8pm then nightfall, after which any kind of movement carries a high cost in fatigue. The Confederates cannot compete with massed long-range Federal artillery so much of my deployment is an attempt to avoid those fields of fire.

The Rebel Left

The Rebel Centre

The Rebel Right

A tactic I have developed in previous games is to spread the rebel artillery thinly around the entire front line, stacking it with entrenched infantry to beef up their firepower in defence. This has proven to be a better use of it than getting into a large scale counter-battery combat that I can only lose. The artillery should mostly be in position before dark.

Overview of the Confederate lines.

Jones' division of Jackson's command is still moving up through Downsville, having been delayed by unusually audacious Union cavalry ! The left flank will not be fully secure until it is in place. Longstreet also has a division under a different General Jones which is being deployed as a reserve just north of Mount Moriah.

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