GCACW Tactics: Tricks of the Trade
8. Be Careful with low tactical units
Beware of low tactical infantry units being anywhere near an enemy corps that can get any kind of surround. Having low tactical infantry units significantly limits what you can do with them. For example, the USA’s Stoneman in the Gaines Mill scenario (SK1), with a tactical value of only 1, is just asking for trouble, maybe even elimination, if he stays out in the open in front of Jackson (with a tactical of 4 and several units under his command available to get flank benefits). Why should Jackson bother to bypass him to potentially gain a few VPs from objective hexes down the road when he can gain 3 VPs just by eliminating the 3-manpower Stoneman, without even going much out of his way? When I see low tactical enemy units off on their own, I think combat losses and VPs.
9. Retreat locations matter
When retreating after combat, pick the unit’s new location very carefully. Believe it or not, given how offensive-minded the above techniques tend to be, retreats are often what I spend the most time on. I have the opportunity to potentially choose the next place of battle, or a location from which I can counterattack next turn. It is especially useful if I can move from one defensive position to another good position (see number 5 above). Sometimes I’ll want to voluntarily retreat to get to a better position. If my defending unit is at F4 before the attack, the attack enables me to essentially move again and possibly improve my position. (Thus, I hate attacking F4 units unless I can gain combat/retreat losses or it is otherwise necessary to gain substantial benefits.) However, if my unit is forced to retreat into a precarious position, perhaps all alone and susceptible to flanks, I try to put the retreating unit at a crossroads so that future flank attacks yield fewer retreat losses. Ideally, I find a nice mountain hex in a crossroads, or across a river hex, which can be very difficult to surround.
And the retreat rules allow units to “loop around” at some point, essentially staying the same distance away from the attacking unit. That gives a lot of flexibility in choosing a concluding hex, especially since a unit retreats 2-4 hexes in normal retreat (I often use those extra 2 hexes if it helps), and the retreat is 4-6 hexes in a rout.
10. Use Low Odds attacks
Use the classic defensive, low-odds attack technique as necessary, inflicting fatigues on the opposing force to keep them from inflicting nastier results in return. This technique will in all likelihood put my attacking unit at F4, and I will probably take combat losses without inflicting any, but it is often worth it. This is a variant on the need to conserve fatigues and available units (see number 7 above). Thus, send the enemy units to F4 along with my unit, rather than let my opponent do more damage in the turn. (I don’t normally try that tactic against units that are F0, because they just go to F3 at the most in the attack.) In the Mac’s Opp scenario, my CSA forces were heavily outnumbered by manpower of the USA, which were significantly threatening to push back me back in order to reach the key Sharpsburg objective hex. In the last turn, I kept a count of how much remaining USA manpower was still active, and used low-odds attacks as necessary to take out as much USA force as possible, and hoped that USA attacks on my forces would take the rest of their units out of action before they could reach the objective. These low-odds attacks are especially useful if the opponent stacks up a couple of units in a hex because I want a twofer: inflicting fatigues on two units instead of just one with a low-odds attack (although two units makes the low-odds attack probably even lower.)
Conclusion.
I drew often from the above list of techniques to try to improve my chances of success in the tournament, but the list is very incomplete. Other things include building a good defensive line, using terrain to one’s advantage, blocking enemy units with units of your own, fully using the combat chart to one’s advantage, conducting fighting withdrawals, entrenching and employing flanks refused markers, force marching to reach key positions, choosing whether to march to exhaustion or not, choosing whether to initiate a corps assault as opposed to just marching and attacking, and choosing whether to make several lower odds assaults or combining them into one big grand assault. A list of ways to improve our chances of success is seemingly endless. If things don’t go my way early on, eventually one of those game-changing opportunities may present itself. At one point the outright game-changing play may require, say, 3 initiatives in a row, which is so unlikely that I won’t try it and risk putting my forces out of position. But that play may still exist a few initiatives later when it is easier to achieve. Even if a game-changer isn’t available, there always seem to be opportunities to gain VPs up until the very last fatigue is burned. If all else fails, there’s always the hope for the old 6-1 combat die roll to fall back on (with your side rolling the ‘6’, of course), which can do wonders for your side. I just keep waiting for opportunities to use the above techniques and rolling those dice.