Petersburg Campaign II: KABOOM!

We played Chris Pringle’s evolving draft scenario for the Petersburg campaign again. Andrew (his first shot at this scenario) played Grant and I Robert E. Lee again, struggling to keep my great-great-great grandma in chattel slavery. I upgraded the Confederate forts with some Sculpey works, might make some more before the next game. Otherwise, resin earthworks by the now defunct Musket Miniatures (RIP) are used for entrenchments and rifle pits. This scenario allows you to play 8 months in around two hours.

 

The previous game saw Petersburg taken by storm. In part, this was due to crossed wires about zones of control (ZOC) rules for this scenario. In regular BBB, assaulting a unit negates the ZOC, so other units can move past. In this scenario, units in any kind of works retain their ZOC so no deep penetrations of works are easy. This change would make the previous game’s storm unlikely. That’s why testing is good. 

Andrew deployed with most of his troops facing my forts. He’s pretty aggressive, so I deployed everyone facing him. Mahone (all CSA units in italics after this and in photos) was prepared to move out against the expected thrust west towards the Weldon & Petersburg RR.

Andrew, perhaps influenced by the result in the previous game, made his main effort during the first strategic phase in frontal attacks on the Petersburg forts. Some attacks were stalled by defensive fire. Others closed but couldn’t overcome the -3 modifier for attacking forts. The one close call against Bushrod Johnson’s Division, supported by artillery, failed due to Johnson’s aggressive factor. He used up about half of his allowed 30 activations. A couple attacks on the 3^rd turn were defeated with loss, retreating far enough to expose his Line of Communications (LOC) to Confederate scouts and raiders. You don’t have to actually move units onto the LOC, just have the ability to do so not blocked by enemy units or ZOC. Teamsters and mules can be stopped by small parties of armed men. This put his count of objectives at minus two. He declared an end to the first phase. Done after the second turn, his objective count would have been zero. 

I extended my rifle pits westward, as did he.

 

On the 2^nd strategic phase, he deployed three units on his left flank, Hancock and two raw LOC units. He left the other 4 seasoned corps in the entrenchments facing Petersburg. I put Mahone and Grimes aggressive divisions on my right. Lee stayed around Petersburg, for longer than I should have. A furious fight broke out on my right. The weight of numbers began to tell, but Andrew was burning through activations as I held on for dear life.

He had a unit that might have made it into Petersburg unopposed, but Hoke rallied after defeating some LOC troops and moved to place the threatening unit into his ZOC and squashed that. With only 2 activations left, Andrew stopped an explored his options. Given the redeployment between strategic phases, I would obviously put a garrison into empty Petersburg. It would all come down to a coup de main. I forget what he did with his 29^th activation, but the 30^th, on the 9^th and last possible turn was to throw Warren’s V Corp against the fort held by Heth, preceded by the mine explosion, hoping for a big enough win to exploit into ungarrisoned Petersburg.

 

KABOOM! We got to use one of the explosion markers that the late Tom Loback made.

Perhaps one of the division commanders sought solace in the bottle (the dice were unkind). The sole result: the attacking force was disrupted before the assault continued. Warren’s troops tumbled back into their entrenchments without heavy losses, but the game ended with Union objectives taken at minus one, a Confederate victory. He had picked up one on turn 4 by cutting the Weldon RR. He needed 5 for a win, 4 for a tie.

 

As in many BBB scenarios, the win means I did better than Lee. A real strategic win would see Grant’s army destroyed or seriously crippled, highly (insert your adjective of choice) unlikely. But I could claim a win, keeping my ancestor under lock and key a while longer.

 

Sunday afternoon quarterbacking: I think Andrew burned up too many activations in his first strategic phase, and his 2^nd strategic phase offensive had too many of his raw units while the old hands watched the enemy forts. I kept Lee watching them for too long when he was needed at the right flank, where the fur was flying. Oh yes, not having a garrison in Petersburg nearly did me in. Andrew was not pleased seeing that +1 aggressive trait show up again and again. My three aggressive divisions saw a lot of combat; one being eventually destroyed in the second strategic phase.

 

 

I am hoping to run this again on October 11. I will be playing on the Union side. Guaranteed. I owe it to G-G-G grandma.

Edit: I should specify that the game took just about two hours, start to finish. And the scenario is great.