A Newbie's AAR Introduction to HPS ACW Campaign series

[mntineer]

The Promenade.
(Pre-game commentary)

In HPS games, especially with CW Campaign series and Squad Battles, you need to be very aware of victory points to be successful. Although it's nice to hit VP objectives on the map, that's not necessarily what wins the games. As a matter of fact, capturing on-map objectives often seems to be the icing on the cake. The meat and potatoes of your VPs come from inflicting damage on your opponent's forces. You've got to be aware of your unit VP costs, and plan your strategy accordingly. Capturing the on-map objectives, retaining your own objective areas, inflicting casualities on your opponent with as few casualities as possible are your goals. Sounds simpler than it really is. One game I played recently was teetering on the edge of a victory for my side, I was inflicting damage on my opponent and had an objective in my grasp. Then I got too brave with some of my artillery, and left it exposed and within attack distance of my opponent. He swept in, captured it, was able to hang on to the on-map objective I was trying to capture and pulled out a Minor Victory in the end. I came to quickly realize that artillery wasn't equal to infantry in point value, and it cost me the game.

Before moving any units, I scan the map first making note of terrain (high ground especially), identify all objectives and their VP value and then inventory my forces. Also, a quick glance at the bottom of the window tells me that it's clear and visibility is 70 hexes, much more than the range of artillery and great for long distance observation from the high ground. On this map, you've got to look hard for the high ground - it's not easy to see at a casual glance.



The scenario on-map objectives for "Probing Westward" are few. The Union player maintains initial control of one Confederate entrance/exit worth 1000 VPs on the northeastern edge of the map. Additionally, Sharpsburg, a town located in the central portion of the map, is a Union objective worth 500 VPs, and another Confederate held exit point worth 1000 VPs is on the north central edge. The Confederates must hold the town and Union exit point and/or recapture any Union-held exit points. Needless to say, victory points (VPs) are also awarded with inflicing casualties on the opponent's forces. The one thing I didn't realize until the first engagement was the weight of VPs between CS infantry vs. US cavalry, but more on that later.

As the Union player, I have many unit types at my disposal. In my last game with Bluto, I was very lax at inventorying my forces. Not knowing what units I had on hand impeded any good decision making on my part. As a result, I had never seen so many of my units rout and scatter! This time, I'm taking the time to note unit quality, movement and range and preparing my strategy accordingly.

My initial force inventory includes cavalry and artillery. Infantry and more artillery are scheduled to come in on the following turns. In this scenario, the cavalry and artillery are first on the map.



As a general note, cavalry has great movement (24 hexes), but their combat range is limited (3 hexes), unit size is generally smaller than infantry units (often company or battalion strength), and are worth 2 VPs for every man. You do not want to tangle with any sizable infantry formation.



The artillery is what you need to keep your eye on. In this scenario, there are two types of artillery; light and horse. Light has a movement factor of 12 hexes, but your horse artillery has a movement factor of 24 - enough to keep up with your cavalry. Or more importantly, enough movement to grab some dominant real estate and set up in the same turn. Both have the outstanding range of 21 hexes. I'm making it a point to keep like artillery together. This was one of many mistakes in my Atlanta games, where I was lumping 21 and 13 hex range artillery together with horrible results. As far as VPs are concerned, any capture or destruction of your artillery en masse can be a game-killer, but the same goes for your opponent.

Now for my first move...