"type of engagement" Topic

Hi,

I'm trying to set up an ACW campaign and need some help with the type of engagements.

I can generate the forces involved and the terrain, but am stuck on whether the battles should be Attack/defend, meeting engagement or flank attack etc.

any help gratefully appreciated

I would suggest that if one force has been in the battle location for a day or more then it would be defending in an attack/defend scenario. If neither side can claim this then it would be a meeting engagement. I assume by "flank attack" you mean a strategic flanking movement? This would be determined by the intelligence of the whereabouts of the opposing force. If one side expects the enemy to come from one direction and instead they are attacked in the flank then you have a strategic flank attack.

Hope that helps.

There werer certainly delaying/rearguard actions. You could also have actions where a larger force attempts to storm a defile/river crossing/etc, before reinforcements arrive.

There were several battles where one side was encamped and surprised by the other. Wilson's Creek, Shiloh, and Cedar Creek spring to mind.

In large and small battles of the ACW you can find almost any kind of engagement, attacks on supply convoys, coup de main storms of fortified places, etc.

I think it depends – as this is a campaign, I would suggest that the battles reflect the situation in the campaign. We have run a couple of ACW campaigns and, while the meeting engagement is one near and dear to the hearts of gamers everywhere, relatively few of our battles have been meeting engagements – mostly, they have had one side defending, the other side attacking with as noted the occasional meeting engagement when one side blundered into the other and the even rarer flank attack when one side managed (usually by shear dumb luck or incredible persistence) to attack an enemy force in the flank

I'll ditto Frederick. We've tried table to table campaigns and map campaigns. Often meeting engagements turn into defend or rearguard when you find your division has encountered an entire enemy corps. Be sure and build cav recon into your campaign. Some of our greatest fun was in hoodwinking the enemy or uncovering his nefarious maneuvers.

I've played in a couple of ACW campaigns. One was box to box movement, one was on a huge hex map, and we ran one in a series of rooms at the local college, where each room was one location of the campaign.

Your battle will depend on timing, who gets where the fastest.