GTC #2 Replay

May 16th

Rain continues for the third straight day. Both armies continue marching south through the mud gaining little ground. Stuart presses on from Fredericksburg to the Orange and Alexandria rail line. Sheridan pulls out of line and heads towards the Wilderness to cut-off the Rebel cavalry.

Positions of the cavalry at the end of the 16th. Stuart presses into the Wilderness.

The danger of an overland supply line is another opportunity for Stuart to ride around the Union army in a raid. The Union still has several manpower garrisoning Culpeper county (to defend against Mosby's raiders) and these forces are spread out guarding the rail stations there.

May 17th & 18th

Stuart converges on Gordonsville

May 17th ends very early on a double-1 initiative. Johnson’s Confederate brigade withdraws from Bumpass Turnout to Beaver Dam Station and is joined by a 2 MP substitute arriving by rail from Hanover Junction. On the 18th, Johnson attaches the substitute and destroys Beaver Dam Station. Hancock’s corps pursues Johnson but is unable to attack. Mott’s division captures the Bumpass Turnout depot. Meanwhile, Stuart’s cavalry wins the race to the Orange and Alexandria rail line easily and damages Madison Run Station as he begins to withdraw towards Louisa County. Sheridan pursues, sending Wilson’s division and one of Tolbert’s Brigades to Culpeper County while securing the RR station at Orange County Court House. Lee’s forces converge on Hanover Junction and begin to set-up a defensive line to the west. The Union II and V corps press south into Louisa County.

Stuart’s raid pays off. Unless the Union gets a Strong Logistics Strategic Event, the depot in Louisa County will not be completed in the upcoming Strategic Cycle. This means that it will not be able to project supply into Hanover County which limits the Union ability to advance to Louisa County. While pushing south will force the Confederates to react accordingly, the Union needs to eventually be able to project supply into Henrico County. To do so, requires a depot in Hanover or New Kent Counties. Thus, Stuart’s raid delays the Union ability to secure a rail line into Hanover County.

Positions at the end of May 18th. At the time, my gaming space was limited to a closet that forced me to lay the maps side-by-side. The black counters are markers to help bridge the north and south maps.

May 19th

Sheridan moves south to engage Stuart at Gordonsville. Stuart contemplates burning Gordonsville Station and making a fight of it but decides the better of it and heads south.

The AoP presses deeper into Louisa County and Mott’s division (the van guard) crosses the South Anna River at Bowel's Bridge. Lee sends Ewell followed by Early’s corps to meet the threat. Heth’s division destroys Chester Depot RR station. Burnsides IX corps is currently in Spotsylvania County ready to move south via Louisa County or directly towards Hanover Junction as the situation dictates. Stevens division is sent back to Culpeper County to garrison the supply line and Ferrero's division is guarding the depot at Trevillian Station and Louisa Court House (to control Louisa County).

Positions at the end of May 19th.

Stuart's troopers are exhausted and disorganized. In Orange County (Gordonsville), they will not be supplied during the upcoming strategic cycle. Thus, Stuart withdraws to Louisa County to be in supply and to be able to meet Sheridan's threat next turn. Since the Union can repair three damaged RR stations in a cycle, the only benefit to damaging more than one station on a rail line is if you can get 4. However, to repair a station, it has to be in Union control, so Stuart could have fought for Gordonsville and if he held it, then the Union would not be able to repair it. Grant is committed to his Trevillian Station depot, so he presses south even though most of the AoP will be out of supply this cycle unless a strong logistics event occurs.

May 19th Strategic Cycle

Hill remains sick. The Strategic Event dr=12, Mosby’s Raiders. The Union depot at Brandy Station is downgraded to Build and the Build depot at Trevillian station is eliminated. The 11 Union replacements (and 1 cavalry replacement) go to Stevens division which current occupies Culpeper County. The Confederates receive 3 replacements, one going to the Valley and two to Ewell’s corps. The horse artillery, one artillery reserve and the IX reserve artillery (all in Culpeper County) are removed.

The only random event with dire consequences for the Union was Mosby's Raiders and it happened! Not only is the AoP infantry out of supply, but the cavalry is cut-off as well since the Brandy Station depot no longer projects supply into Orange County. The Union could have upgraded this depot to complete status but doing so would have delayed getting supply further south for one additional cycle.

In the side-show theaters, Sigel is passive (with a command point in the bank). Breckinridge holds fast at Staunton and Dearing’s cavalry is sent from Burkeville to Lynchburg. In the Bermuda Hundred, Butler is passive and the Rebs hold fast (and dig).

The Union builds a depot at Port Royal in Caroline County. The Depot in Culpeper County is dismantled. All Union divisions except for Stevens are out of supply. All of Sheridan's cavalry in Orange and Louisa are out of supply (which is to say all brigades except for McIntosh's which is currently just north of the Rapidan in Culpeper County). All Confederate units are supplied.

Grant has to abandon his rail supply line and rely on supply by sea instead. By the next strategic segment, the depot in Caroline County will be completed and project supply into Hanover County. To project supply into Hanover County via the rail-line would take three additional strategic cycles (one to repair the damaged RR station and two to build the depot). Note that the damaged RR station in Orange County could not be repaired because the units in Orange County were out of supply and thus don't control Orange County. The only danger with switching the Union supply base is that the ANV is between the AoP and the supply depot.

Historically, Grant deemed an overland supply by rail to be inadequate for the AoP. Not only would raiders potentially disrupt the flow of supply, the Union would have needed a large garrison, reducing the number of fighting men on the front line. GTC models this very well and the problems with the rail supply line are exemplified in this game.

Another unintended consequence of the Union supply problems is the inability to receive the replacements near the front line. Burnside's divisions in southern Spotsylvania County would have been in supply had Mosby not raided. Here is the Q&A that covers this unusual situation:

Q: On Page 27 (right column) it says that units chosen to receive replacement points must be in supply. What if they are currently in supply but are about to drop out of supply later in the Strategic Cycle? Or what if they will only be in supply if a player builds or upgrades a depot during the intervening Depot Segment?
A:Union units chosen to receive replacement points must be units that will be judged to be in supply in the upcoming Supply Status Segment based on depots that currently exist on the map (i.e. depots that are on the map during the Reinforcement Segment). Units that are about to drop out of supply can not receive replacements. In addition, units that will only be in supply after the construction of new depots can not receive replacements.

At the end of the cycle, the off-map situation is as follows:

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