GTC #3: Aftermath
Victory Point Summary
| Reason | GTC #3 Result | Historical Result |
| Control of Caroline County | +9 | +12 |
| Control of Staunton | +0 | +0 |
| Control of Hanover County | +10 | +0 |
| Control of New Kent County | +3 | +6 |
| Control of Port Walthal Junction | +24 | +9 |
| Control of Petersburg | +10 | +0 |
| Depot destruction | +0 | +15 |
| Union Divisions near Richmond | +0 | +30 |
| Confederate on-map losses | +78 | +192 |
| Confederate off-map losses | +6 | +24 |
| Union on-map losses | -160 | -194 |
| Union off-map losses | -18 | -24 |
| Total | -38 | +70 |
Random Events Summary
| Event | Frequency |
| Rain (total days) | 8 |
| Confederate Command Paralysis | 2 |
| Union Command Paralysis | 9 |
| Union Night March | 6 |
| No Effect | 8 |
Combat Die Roll Results
| Differential | Union Wins | Confederate Wins |
| 1 | 19 | 13 |
| 2 | 7 | 6 |
| 3 | 6 | 5 |
| 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Total Wins | 35 | 30 |
| Total Ties | 9 | |
| Total Pips | 63 | 64 |
Starting with the first turn, the Union was behind the historical advancement schedule and was never able to catch up. The early end to the May 4th turn prevented the AoP from crossing the Rapidan. The rainstorms that followed the poor Union opening didn't help.
In the Wilderness, Chris effectively deployed the Confederate forces, defending the key cross roads and entrenching. He made a particular effort to keep the Confederate divisions at 11 Manpower. This minimized Reb losses throughout the game since you need a +2 result or better to inflict losses on an 11 factor defense force. When the Union was bottled up in the Wilderness, I felt I had little choice but to attack headlong into the Rebel breastworks. In the first cycle, this was not effective but on the May 8th turn, the Union broke the Rebel line, routing two of Ewell's divisions. However, a Rain +2 storm hit on May 10th and rather than continuing to attack, I should have waited out the storm. By the end of the first two strategic cycles, the loss differential was 47 to 10 in favor of the Confederates. This gave the Union very little margin for error and really minimized their ability to make frontal attacks. Fortunately, by this point, the Union had passed through the Wilderness choke points and had more room to maneuver. For the Union to win, they need to get out of the Wilderness with equal losses (VP-wise) and it was thus an uphill battle from the get go.
It was clear at this point that the only chance for a Union win was to capture Richmond. Chris only needed to execute an effective fighting withdrawal from Spotsylvania County to Richmond and run out the clock and he did so with ease and was able to keep Grant from getting within 10 hexes of Richmond.
In terms of the impact of luck, you would have to call combat even. The Rebs won some big rolls which inflicted a lot of Union losses, but the overall pip count was equal. The early end to May 4th and rain on May 5th really hurt the Union, but this was offset somewhat by rolls of 6 for first two replacement allotments.
In the end, we both had fun despite the lopsided result. After each gaming session we would unwind with Chris' other hobby--race cars. Here we are at the tracks in his garage (Chris is on the left, Jay is on the right).
