VIII Corps muster for October

[PAT]

Gentlemen of the VIII Corps,

Please muster here and talk about your current and/or finished games...

[nsimms]

Battle of Pea Ridge (HPS Ozark 07b) – The Rebs have had their way so far but its early and the Union army has been released and is now approaching the front lines. We intend to make them pay for kicking and bragging their way through the woods. This battle appears to hinge upon who controls the main VP hex so I’ve got to either drive him backwards past it or trap and eliminate a bunch of Rebs.

Battle of Gettysburg (HPS Gettysburg 007) – He’s got 1 more turn till darkness of the first day. He’s done a good job by pushing me off Cemetery Hill, half of Cemetery Ridge, and clearing Baltimore Pike. I’m dropping back my right flank further from Baltimore Pike as darkness approaches so that his line is farther away from the Pike and mine is closer to the roads in my rear. I’ll take it back tomorrow. At present, he has about 4,700 points with 4,000 needed for a minor victory and I’ll try to change that tomorrow as well.

Siege of Nashville (HPS Chickamauga 105) – It is at turn 26 of 40 with a Union minor victory as he attacked from the west, south, and east but vacated his line across Murfreesboro Road to the southeast. Accordingly, we channeled him and stymied him as long as it worked to our advantage, and then when he got us toe to toe and the Rebs were outshooting the Yanks, we started a slow orderly withdrawal from Nashville to the Murfreesboro Road salient. Besides isolating and eliminating about 1,500 Rebs, this game is in the bag as a major victory because those exit hexes are gonna be awfully enriching for my 29,000 troops.

The Move North (HPS Gettysburg campaign variation of 154) – We’ve just gotten started and returns are a bit slow again. This is a logistical nightmare for the Union but promises fruit at the end of the rainbow. We must delay him crossing the Rappahannock so that we can gather our army and smash him back against it. The logistical nightmare is deciding who moves where and by what roads. As usual, I don’t agree at all with Union dispositions at the beginning of the scenario which causes numerous exchanges of units as well as a massive flow toward where I would guess that he will cross. Win or draw this one and the campaign ends in the Union’s favor. It wouldn’t surprise me if my opponent suddenly pulled out since he appears to be having a busy work schedule in his real life.

The High Tide Tournament is down to its final battle so it’s not eating up any time at all and it was also a slow month for Link Express changes. That was good on both counts since we experienced a death and funeral for an immediate family member in the last half of September.

[D.S. Walter]

I have been on vacation for two weeks in September and since then I have found it increasingly difficult to find time for gaming at all. It may become necessary to consider consequences. But what I recall of my current games is this:

1) From Out of the Valley (Gettysburg MP) with the old 2/VIII AotS against Ken Whitehead and his vile Rebs: night of day one, we're falling back to a more defensible line. Drex had to withdraw from the game so I have all of the cavalry now and am trying to make good my day one losses, so far with limited success.

2) AACW Campaign against Jim Pfluecke: Summer of 1864, I have sort of survived foreign intervention. The main effort is in the east. I have pushed him out of Richmond and am holding most of Va. Reb capital is in Atlanta though, and I have nothing to spare for the Deep South. In fact, even the West is a mess, with me recently losing most of Tennessee along with an entire army that simply starved somewhere west of Chattanooga. I am still struggling to keep my armies supplied (this is only my second AACW game). But national morale is 137 to the Rebs' 82 or something, so I think in the long run I'm winning.

3) Last turns of a Fair Oaks MP with Gary McClellan and Mike Cox against I really forgot which Rebs. We're losing.

4) AACW Campaign MP with Gene Renna and Joe Bukal against also Ken Whitehead and Jim Pfluecke plus some Fld. Lt. Summer of 1862. This is not going well for us, the West is basically wide open to marauding Reb armies, but I'll have Grant in charge in the East in a couple of turns, and after a end-run down the Potomac when the Rebs had unwisely concentrated in Manassas, we're only two regions short of Richmond, so it's not all that bad. NM-wise we're losing though.

[njmurphy]

Nothing major to report for the month, my multiplayer games, as previously reported, continue without major incident, and one old game (at Chancellorsville) has restarted.
I have finished one and started another UMA training game.

[mperrenod]

Dierk's already mentioned the Out of the Valley match. We're reorganizing on the fly to split up Drex's command, are actually ending up with something more rational (left, right, center).

We've gotten to the point of initial combat in our Getting to Know You maneuver. Reorganizing there as well, as both Drex and John Corbin were part of our team. Now it's just the old men (Murphy, Dean & myself). Again, won't get into detail, because The Enemy is Listening. (Anyone visited the Churchill bunker in London? It's pretty cool.)

Moved along quite a bit at Ripley in my Corinth Campaign w/ Terry Dancer. Just past noon & I've backed him up some. He chewed up my right (left a division exposed), but I've ground down his left and center. My slight numerical advantage has grown. If I can back him up another half mile, he's toast.

Moving along at Rocky Face against Paul Kenney. Again got my right chewed (again left a force exposed), and this one may be harder to come back from. He's adopted the plan of abandoning Dalton and defending the ridge against my attacks from the north and east. Very good position.

[nsimms]

Matt, I had an opponent once at Rocky Face that met me head on at the top of the ridge and drove me off of it. To my surprise, he stayed there and circled the wagons. To abide him, I moved forces around him to the north and the south until he found himself isolated. At that point, I attacked from all sides until he surrendered. Maybe your opponent will be just as obliging. It's pretty tough for those Rebs to put up good resistance in any terrain when they are fighting at one quarter strength. At the very least, he will have to reduce his forces on top of the ridge in order to protect against your envelopment and alternately his forces on top on the ridge will reduce his forces fighting where you choose to fight (and they'll have a slow time of it trying to come down off of it).

[mperrenod]

Ned, I was thinking of something the same - trying to stretch him out with a flanking maneuver south from Dalton, while pushing him off the north portion of the ridge. Schofield got a bit chewed up, though, so it's pretty much up to the AotC to get it done.

[dalelast4]

Currently fighting a BG 2nd Bull Run. Porter's V Corps taking a beating near Stuart's Hill but might finally be wearing the Rebs down, who have lost Hood in that area.

Also in the early stages of an HPS Shiloh battle. McClernand's division getting mauled by the Reb swine over near Bloody Pond and the Peach Orchard.

Lt. General Dale Lastowicka
4/3/VIII Corps

[RTHodge]

Not sure where to muster, so I've come crawling back to the gallant old VIII Corps in the hope that I'll be recognized by a few familiar faces...

The Campaign that I began with General Vannada is already over. We played Atlanta, and I suffered a MD. I chose the option of having XIV Corps enter east of Rocky Face Ridge, and while I was gathering XIV for a strike at the enemy rear, General Vannada beat the life out of the Army of the Ohio, and quickly turned around, and held off Thomas. Although, in the real world, I would have been between him and Atlanta, he would have been between Thomas and the rest of the AoT. That beating ended the campaign.

I continue in the campaign vs General Isgro on the Peninsula. We are currently approaching daylight of the last day at Malvern Hill. He has an mv over me at the time, as he was able to beat up my cavalry and rear guard pretty good on the trip past Glendale. My position at Malvern is too strong to be attacked I think, and Tim is a pretty good historian, so my guess is that he will swing east toward Evelynton Hts. and see if he can't do some damage there and press toward Harrison's.

The 3 on 3 MP game with Generals Thompson and Denney is progressing well. After beating back a feint on General Denney's front, and General Thompson's masterful defense of the main bad guy effort on our left, we have an mv. General Thompson is counterattacking, and going on as long as they continue to retreat. We have reinforcements coming forward, and are hoping to have them in a pinch in the morning.

I think that that is about it. Thank you all for mustering. The obd points will be updated tomorrow for September. I am unable to update the website, so if any of you are HTML friendly, please step forward.

Lt. Gen. Hodgkiss
AotS

[mperrenod]

Yep, Rusty, seems like the Rebs are learning to go after the AotO at Rocky Face if the AooT approaches from the north.