May 7th Done

May 7th Done. The next movements will be as of 6:00 a.m. on May 8th, which I do not expect to start movements before Tuesday (2nd July). We will be in the night of May 7th until the movement starts.

May 6th - Using AI in an engagement

I have completed May 6th for infantry and cavalry divisions. I am preparing to leave Slovakia and head back to Pretoria. I reach South Africa Sunday morning. I have sent out all infantry and cavalry reports (anyone that has anything to report) for the 6th. I will send out Ordnance, Provost, Engineer and ADC reports when I get back to Pretoria.

There was an engagement on the late afternoon of May 6th somewhere in the campaign theatre. I used AI to a large extent to drive the pace of the engagement once the initial orders were given. I did force a regiment or two to retreat when it was obviously flanked, but other than that, AI performed well on both sides and gave what I believed to be a very realistic skirmish.

Expect staff reports and possibly May 7th by Monday at the latest.

Still on May 6th

I have been busy at a meeting that is running into the evenings. I have done a little correspondence and received some additional orders, but we are still at 6:00 a.m. on May 6th. I do not expect to be able to do further movements until Friday at the earliest.

- Scott

May 5th Over

May 5th is over. It was a relatively quiet day.

6:00 am May 5th

I have pushed all the way through May 4th and will take a break for a day or two to allow the armies to assess their situation. Movement will resume on Tuesday.

It is my hope to run about 1 week of in-game time for one week of real time. We will see how that goes. I am looking for natural breaks in the action where possible and I had reached one by the end of May 4th.

Rule Change - SCOUTS

I have adjusted the Military Intelligence rules slightly. Originally, scouts would not send any report via Telegraph. In the adjusted rules, if a scout arrives at a telegraph station, he will send a brief summary report indicating where there is an enemy presence or enemy movements. Details on the specific units will not be reported until arrival in headquarters.

4th May

Since I had some time on a Sunday morning, I have moved us up to 4th May 1864. Some additional reports going out. Those covering long distances and scouts still may take time to report.

Time Flies.... Reports Coming Out

Time flies.... the 1st and 2nd of May have passed and units are on the march. Selected reports are coming out on 2nd May. Not all units or staff members will issue - receive reports.

THE CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED....


The weather on the 2nd looked like this:

ADCs

We have ADCs in both armies. I still need know which ADC you will be in the game.

Calcuations

I have determined the weather for all of the climate zones during the first week in May. I then was working on my templates for each unit. I enter in the division modifier, enter in the base miles marched by unit type (cavalry, infantry, staff, etc) and then have been rolling dice for the daily modifier for each day up to 7th May. By the time units start moving, I will know how long it will take them to get to the initial destinations.

I have completed almost all of the Federal Divisions and can tell what day they will reach their objectives. I am getting ready to do the calculations for the Confederates. Once they are all done, I will start moving the clock and seeing whether there will be contact in the 1st week.

Things are going well, so movement may be under way by tomorrow. You may not get reports immediately, however. You are only sure to get a report sometime after a unit has reached its destination or when contact is made. You may also get a brief not if a unit moves through a town that already has an operating telegraph station. For units in the lead of the march, it will take a bit longer to get any reports, because the commanders will have to send couriers back to the nearest telegraph station before the report gets to Corps HQ and Army HQ.

Orders Coming In

The first orders are starting to flow in now. I am preparing my final templates for tracking the miles marched and movement progress for each unit. I hope to get units moving this weekend.

Getting Ready to Start...

I am preparing to leave for Slovakia this evening for 10 days of meetings. I hope to start the sim on Saturday (22nd June), although I have meetings on Saturday and Sunday as well, so progress may be limited. Please note:

1)  Orders can be submitted at any time. Orders to field units should be given through the Corps Commander.

2)       The Chief of Staff, Provost Marshall, Chief Ordnance Officer and Chief of Engineers can give orders or instructions to their subordinate (non-player) staff through me.

3)       ADCs can give instructions to me on where they want to go and what they want to do or see when they get there. A note of caution, you can scout for the army, but you run the risk of being killed if you encounter an enemy unit on the march. It may be safer to stay behind lines until the enemy is located.

4)       Army of Arkansas can issue orders to the Chief of Engineers (non-player). It does not need to micro-manage junior staff. Just inform the Chief of Engineers that you want a pontoon bridge at a given place or a map of troop positions in a given locality.

5)       JPG maps: If there are maps you want in JPG format, let me know by requesting the map through the Chief of Engineers.

It is not necessary for everyone to submit orders by Friday. You can have staff or subordinate staff wait and see how things develop before taking action and give orders at another time.

As a note, you can always find the current in-game date at the bottom of the blog.

Let me know if you need anything.

-          Scott

Player Assignments

Here are the assignment by player. ADC's from both armies should let me know which persona they will be using.

Army of the Arkansas

Colonel Kooch: Major General Sidney Burbank, Army Commander

Scottishsoldier: Brigadier General G. R. McCann, Chief of Staff

CivilWar803: Aide de Camp (Captain Charles H. Post or Capt. Henry W. Terry)

Semperpietas: Brigadier General Jacob H. Moyer, Provost Marshall

Joe Hooker: Colonel Edwin H. Goodwin, Chief Ordnance Officer

 

Department of the Eastern Frontier

122ndOhio: Lieutenant General Albert G. Blanchard, Army Commander

Gfran64: Brigadier General Hiram S. Weaver, Chief of Staff

Bballguy1217: Aide De Camp (Captain Renard C. Lewis or Captain John H. Rowe)

Lieut. General Jake: Colonel Richard Sharpe, Chief of Engineers

Nord-D: Brigadier General Richard D. Wheeler, Provost Marshall

2ndKentucky: Colonel Warren Cooper, Chief Ordnance Officer

Campaign Progress - 30th April 1864

Almost there...

DEF has submitted there winter camps and staff assignments. I have sent out intelligence reports and ordnance reports to both armies, as well as the returns for 30th April. So now come time for planning and working on initial orders.

Initial orders will need to be in by 21st June. I travel to Europe next week (Slovakia of all places), but will be taking my dice and hope to be able to start running the game over the weekend of the 22nd.

You have all of the information on the campaign that you are going to have until it gets started. If you have any questions about the rules or logistics of the sim, please feel free to write me.

Staff Assignments and Winter Camps

The Army of the Arkansas (AOA) has assigned their winter camps by division, which will be their starting positions when the campaign starts. AOA has also assigned their staff positions and received their initial ordnance and intelligence reports.

The Department of the Eastern Frontier (DEF) is still assigning their staff positions, which should be finalized tonight. Once DEF assigns winter camps, I will have additional intelligence reports out to each army.

ORDNANCE AND MANUAL REVISION

Additional documentation on ordnance has been added to the document links. Because their is no quartermaster function in the Spring Campaign, supply lines and distribution are only concerned with ammunition. The ordnance documentation gives additional explanation on ammunition as well as small arms.

The Chief Ordnance Officer will be able to order small arms as part of the monthly ordnance shipment. Rifles or rifled muskets will take the place of ammunition in the ordnance train and ordering small arms will result in less ammunition delivered. It will be possible to order sharps rifles.

There is a revised manual dated 12th June 2013. The only revision is a change from breach loading rifles not being available in the Spring Campaign to the ability to order sharps rifles.

Additional details on MILITARY INTELLIGENCE have been added to the document list.

Confederate Order of Battle Adjustment

I have been working on the orders of battle that I will be providing as part of the intelligence briefing prior to the start of the simulation. I finished the Federal order of battle (as it will be given to the Confederates) and was working on the Confederate order of battle (as will be given to the Federals). I noticed something in the Confederate OOB and went back and checked and found that my OOBs were out of balance and that I hadn't made two minor changes I had wanted to make on the CS OOB.

I will be adjusting Department of the Eastern Frontier Order of Battle and resending to the Army Commander by this weekend. The adjustments are only in strength in some cavalry regiments and a swap of strength and grade between two infantry regiments.  The objective is to ensure the opening balance. The Army of the Arkansas OOB will not be effected.

Recruitment Brief Out

During the Spring Campaign, it will be possible for armies to recruit new regiments in certain towns. This is outlined in THE WAR IN ARKANSAS: RECRUITMENT which has been added to the document links.

Sign Up Starting

THE WAR IN ARKANSAS command will be starting with a trial campaign designated The Spring Campaign. Sign-up for the simulation will be through the Madminute Games forum. Army Commanders have been assigned as follows:

US (Army of the Arkansas): Colonel Kooch

CS (Department of the Eastern Frontier): 122nd Ohio

Players may sign up for the army headquarters they wish to join. The Army Commanders will assign staff roles to players.

Several additional documents will be added in the coming week, including final instructions on recruitment, military intelligence and supplies.

Please read the sections of the manual on the sim concept and principles before signing up. THE WAR IN ARKANSAS is significantly different from previous simulations we have done.

The tentative schedule is as follows:

• 1st  - 7th: June: Sign up
• 8th - 14th June: Army Commanders assign staff roles and provide winter camp assignments for divisions
• 17th June: Pre-game Intelligence Reports and April Returns Out
• 21st June: Initial Orders Due
• 22nd June: The Spring Campaign Starts