End of the Series

THE WAR IN ARKANSAS command simulation series is long over. There was a command simulation called DYOD that followed it, but that was only a short, one-off simulation. It was followed by BALTIMORE AND OHIO WINTER, which is being superseded by THE WINTER WAR, which is still work in progress and has not yet started. THE WINTER WAR uses the same blog page that had been used for B&O WINTER. It should start in the fall of 2016.

More Testing... As Adams

I confirmed the fix on the Westminster Road as Haggerty, and easily held Hornberger Hill to finish that game. I then ran another test as Adams, starting near Soudersburg Town and with one division at Feeser and ordered to take Diller's Corner (which will be one of the objectives in the DYOD simulation). I formed in the woods south of Rice and then advanced to Musselman, finding the enemy already at Diller's Corner.

It was hard to see the enemy's position, because it was largely in the woods to the north and south of Manchester Road. Their lines appeared to be spread thin, so I attacked aggressively with Hawley's Division up the road and to the north of the road, and Rooney's Division into the woods south of the road. As it turned out, it was only Swain's Division at the junction.

I concentrated the III AOA artillery on the road, broke their center and drove a wedge into their line. Hawley's men quickly took Swain's right flank, captured Nixon's Georgia Battery in its entirety and took and held the junction at Diller's Corner as fighting moved south toward Orchard Junction.

In the test, I found some more minor errors in the order of battle (some flags) and found that Manchester Road appeared as Machester Road in the game.

Testing.... as Haggerty

I am still testing the map that will be used in the next "DYOD" simulation. I am running an "open play" game in TC2M using an order of battle immediately post-Ozarks Campaign. I am playing as Haggerty's III Corps, Department of the Eastern Frontier. The 1st Division of the Corps (formerly Haggerty's Division) has officially been given to Brig. Gen. Joseph Delaney (promoted to major general).

The entire army started in a position north of Soudersburg. My corps was the southernmost and was assigned to take the objective, the Hornberger Farm on Hornberger Hill. I believe the enemy may have been to the south, so I initially concentrated the III Corps south and southwest of town, with Delaney's Division (1st Division) at the school house and Almhouse, Smead's Division (2nd Division) at the Rudolph Farm and Crowell's 3rd Division as Jones.

As the divisions got into place, I moved to the Hornberger Farm to scout and could not see any enemy to the south. I then advanced Crowell to Hornberger, changed Delaney to have an eastward facing with his left on Cemetery Hill and right near Koontz, and I put Smead's Division as Koontz facing east.

Rooney's Division (2nd Division, III Corps Army of the Arkansas) eventually appeared coming on Westminster Road from the east and began to engaged through the Sykes Orchard. My position was elevated and supported by Coleman's and Nixon's Batteries and Rooney was repulsed. Enemy batteries deployed at Unger to fire on my position, as Hawley's Division (3rd Division, II Corps, AOA) assaulted from the same direction as Rooney.

As Rooney and Hawley's assaults were taking place, Ewing's cavalry division appeared to the south, coming towards Hornberger along the Soudersburg Pike. Crowell refused his right flank (Malone's Brigade) across the road supported by Wiley's Texas Battery as Ewing attack with Kraft's Brigade and attempted to move around the right flank and rear, blocked by elements of Crowell's reserve.  Hackett's cavalry division also arrived in support, as I called for more reserves from the rest of the army.

Hawley was also repulsed Adam's 1st Division, the USCT Division under Brig. Gen. Simon P. Henderson, finally appeared at Unger. The USCT Division deployed in a much more coordinated manner than the two lead division and has started engaging. Only one division of reserves were sent to my support, Maj. Gen. Carter Stevenson's 3rd Division, II Corps, DEF. Stevenson's Division is large and inexperienced and would be more than enough to completely stop III AOA in its tracks, but..

1.) My front line regiments are running out of ammunition and leaving the line.
2.) Bradley's Division (2nd Division, II Corps AOA) has just been sighted.

Bradley's Division is the largest division in the Army of the Arkansas. (The order of battle has II Corps AOA organized into two divisions, with Bradley's Division having 5 brigades.)

That is where I have stopped the test for the moment. I noticed that I had not properly set up Westminster Road. It is reading as New Windsor Road close to the town (visible in a screenshot in which Delaney is on the road.)  The test will continue another day. If Wingert's Division is close behind Bradley, it could become a close contest if more re-enforcements don't come down from the rest of the army's position to the north.

Break Time... Chickamauga and Soudersburg

The WIA Series is taking a break for a few months. A Chickamauga command simulation is running with the WIA players. Following Chickamauga, a small tactical simulation will run called Soudersburg. It uses a fictional town that has a very different feel from the WIA series. WIA will be back later in the year.

Soudersburg is still under construction, but looks a little like this:

(Another) Crooked Creek

As divisions that would eventually form Gowan's and Stanley's Corps were fighting in WIA2, there was a parallel tactical engagement at Crooked Creek involving Haggerty's, Crowell's, Piatt's (Wingert's) and Nagle's (Bradley's) Divisions.  The battle was inconclusive and the two sides broke off the engagement until the "Crooked Creek Divisions" met again in WIA3 and THE OZARKS CAMPAIGN.  In fact, the "Crooked Creek Divisions" engaged each other twice during THE OZARKS CAMPAIGN, at Tomahawk and Sylamore Bottom. (As a note, each army had three divisions in the WIA2 Crooked Creek, but one division each was broken up during re-organization for WIA3.)

 

Crooked Creek will appear in the revised WIA5 campaign theatre, but it is not the same Crooked Creek as the WIA2 battlefield, which was further south. Crooked Creek runs through Yellville and the town of Crooked Creek will appear in WIA5, west of Yellville. The former Crooked Creek township was located in what in now Boone County Arkansas, but was part of Carroll Country during the war.

 

 

Spring Campaign Draft Manual Released

The original WIA5 concept of a purely strategic level simulation did generate much interest. So.... WIA5 has been remodeled as THE SPRING CAMPAIGN. It has come strategic components, but re-enforces the WIA armies with two new divisions each and then squeezes them into a smaller campaign theatre. With some rule changes, there is sure to be a lot of tough engagements.

Here is the draft version of the manual so far: SPRING CAMPAIGN draft manual v. Feb-11-15

Rolling Prairie in Progress

WIA5 is re-taking shape as THE SPRING CAMPAIGN. The campaign will have a little less realism on the campaigning, but should generate more fighting while maintaining some strategic options. The campaign theatre in its most current form would have 11 towns.

Maps are being created for the campaign. The maps will be highly fictionalized versions of the locations, rather than attempting to recreate local topography. Maps from the previous campaign will be adapted (much simpler than making completely fresh maps based on topographic maps).

Rolling Prairie in southwestern Marion County will be one of the towns in the fictionalized campaign theatre. I am still working on the vegetation. The wheat is a little high for spring and I will attempt to make it shorter, perhaps the corn as well. The tobacco may also be a little over-developed for spring, but there is not much I can do for that without altering the sprite, which I don't know how to do. This is what it looks like in a test run, before trying to make the above adjustments: