GCACW Tactics: Flank Attacks
One reason for the success of the GCACW system is the tactical flavor that overlays its operational modeling of Civil War campaigns. Not only does the system do a good job modeling how the armies maneuvered into battle, it also demonstrates some of the basic tactics of combat during the era, the most prominent of which are flank attacks.
In the GCACW system, units do not have a "facing," thus the unit's flank or rear is not directly simulated. To simulate flank attacks, if a unit is surrounded or partially surrounded by enemy units, it is assumed that a flank is exposed and the attacker obtains a favorable modifier. The rules for determining flank attacks have evolved over the course of the series, although the basic principles have not. In the original rules (SJW, HCR), the flank attack rules did not handle situations near the map-edge or impassable hexsides (like rivers or mountains). The Standard Series Rules however now incorporate a set of rules that effectively handles any unique situation that can arise. The remainder of this article discusses the Standard Series rules and provides examples of unusual flank attack situations. Finally, I discuss some of the tactical nuances of using flank attacks within the fluid GCACW system.
Summary of the Flank Bonus Rules
Below is a brief discussion on the flank rules. A lot of the details of the rules are omitted (otherwise it would be a repeat of the rules). Players should read the rules carefully but until you've played a few games, the flank bonus rules are a little confusing. Here is how I simplify the process in order to remember it.
A two-step process is used to determine the Flank Bonus.
- Determine "Covered" Hexes: In order to get a Flank Bonus, the attacker must "cover" 5 or 6 of the hexes adjacent to the defender. Covering 5 hexes gives a base Flank Bonus of +2; 6 hexes gives +4. There are basically two ways in which a hex is covered:
- Attacking Player's Units/ZOCs: If a unit of the attacking player occupies or projects a ZOC into a hex adjacent to the defender it is covered.
- Impassable hexes: If a hex is impassable (e.g., river without a ford/bridge, mountain without a road) to the defender then it is covered.
- Determine "Un-Covered" Hexes: The second step is to determine which of the covered hexes, is "un-covered" by the defender. Un-covered hexes are subtracted from the basic bonus to give the final bonus. There are basically three ways in which a hex is uncovered:
- Defending Player's Units: If the defender has a unit in one of the covered hexes, that hex is uncovered.
- Non-Road Woods hexside: If the hex is covered by a ZOC and that ZOC crosses a woods hexside that does not contain a road, then the hex is uncovered.
- Impassable hexes: The hexes that were considered covered because they are impassable to the defender are now uncovered.
New players are often confused why impassable hexes are considered covered and then subtracted out during the uncovering step. The reason is that sometimes impassable hexes will enable the attacker to cover 5 or 6 hexes even though they will ultimately reduce the bonus (possibly eliminating it). For example, the maximum reduction to the basic flank bonus is -3. Thus if six hexes are covered, the bonus will be at least +1, even if four of the six hexes are "uncovered." In the original rules, impassable hexes could never be covered (no ZOC could be projected into them) and units that logically would be trapped by impassable terrain and at a disadvantage were not negatively impacted. In the Standard Series rules, impassable hexes can result in a flank modifier. In most cases the flank modifier is appropriate because the defender is probably boxed in and still attacked from two non-adjacent hexes. On the next page you will find examples of how to apply the Flank Bonus rules.