How To Organize Your Armies
I always start the organization of my war-game armies by focusing in on a specific campaign or theatre of the war that I will be gaming. For example, if I were to start a pair of armies for the American Civil War, my thought process would be as follows:
1. Which geographic theatre of the war - East or West? (choose "Western Theatre")
2. Which campaign of the Western Theatre of the ACW? (choose the "Stones River Campaign of 1862")
3. What level of the army do I want to depict on the game table (army, corps, division, brigade, etc)? (choose Confederate Army of the Tennesse, Hardee's 2nd Corps, Breckinridge's 1st Division consisting of four brigades: Adams, Palmer, Preston and Hanson).
Choose Union Army of the Cumberland, McCook's Right Wing, General Jefferson Davis' 1st Division consisting of three brigades: Post, Carlin and Woodruff.
4. Which brigade in each army? (In the Army of the Tennessee, choose Hanson's Kentucky Orphan Brigade and in the Army of the Cumberland, choose Post's 1st Brigade).
5. The next step is to search for an order of battle for the two sides in the Battle of Stones River. I use a book called, "Battle of Stones River" by Alexander Stevenson, 1983, Morningside Press because it breaks down the forces down to the regimental level, which is important because I want my basic wargame unit to be a regiment. The Stones River OB will give me all of the information that I need with respect to the number of regiments in each brigade and the estimated total number of men in the brigade and in each regiment.
My Union Army = 1st Brigade - Colonel Post (59th Illinois, 22nd Indiana, 74th Illinois, 75th Illinois, and Capt. Finney's 5th Wisconsin Battery. Total complement of men: 1,418 officers and men.
My Confederate Army = 4th Brigade - Brigadier R.W. Hanson (41st Alabama, 2nd Kentucky, 4th Kentucky, 5th Kentucky and 9th Kentucky and Capt. Cobb's Battery. Total complement of men: 1,893 officers and men.
6. Now I need to choose the figure to man ratio that I will use, i.e. "how many men does a single war-game figure represent? In this example, I will choose to use a 1 to 20 ratio, so for Post's brigade, 1,418 men divided by 20 equals about 70 figures. For Hanson's brigade, I will need 1,893 divided by 20 equals about 94 figures.
7. Allocate the 70 Union figures and the 94 Confederate figures among the individual regiments in each brigade.
Post has four regiments and a battery of artillery and one could either distribute the 70 figures evenly over those units, or divide them proportionally across the brigade. I will allocate 10 of these figures to Finney's artillery battery, leaving me 60 figures for the four infantry regiments. That would give me 15 figures per regiment of infantry.
(To be continued)
I always start the organization of my war-game armies by focusing in on a specific campaign or theatre of the war that I will be gaming. For example, if I were to start a pair of armies for the American Civil War, my thought process would be as follows:
1. Which geographic theatre of the war - East or West? (choose "Western Theatre")
2. Which campaign of the Western Theatre of the ACW? (choose the "Stones River Campaign of 1862")
3. What level of the army do I want to depict on the game table (army, corps, division, brigade, etc)? (choose Confederate Army of the Tennesse, Hardee's 2nd Corps, Breckinridge's 1st Division consisting of four brigades: Adams, Palmer, Preston and Hanson).
Choose Union Army of the Cumberland, McCook's Right Wing, General Jefferson Davis' 1st Division consisting of three brigades: Post, Carlin and Woodruff.
4. Which brigade in each army? (In the Army of the Tennessee, choose Hanson's Kentucky Orphan Brigade and in the Army of the Cumberland, choose Post's 1st Brigade).
5. The next step is to search for an order of battle for the two sides in the Battle of Stones River. I use a book called, "Battle of Stones River" by Alexander Stevenson, 1983, Morningside Press because it breaks down the forces down to the regimental level, which is important because I want my basic wargame unit to be a regiment. The Stones River OB will give me all of the information that I need with respect to the number of regiments in each brigade and the estimated total number of men in the brigade and in each regiment.
My Union Army = 1st Brigade - Colonel Post (59th Illinois, 22nd Indiana, 74th Illinois, 75th Illinois, and Capt. Finney's 5th Wisconsin Battery. Total complement of men: 1,418 officers and men.
My Confederate Army = 4th Brigade - Brigadier R.W. Hanson (41st Alabama, 2nd Kentucky, 4th Kentucky, 5th Kentucky and 9th Kentucky and Capt. Cobb's Battery. Total complement of men: 1,893 officers and men.
6. Now I need to choose the figure to man ratio that I will use, i.e. "how many men does a single war-game figure represent? In this example, I will choose to use a 1 to 20 ratio, so for Post's brigade, 1,418 men divided by 20 equals about 70 figures. For Hanson's brigade, I will need 1,893 divided by 20 equals about 94 figures.
7. Allocate the 70 Union figures and the 94 Confederate figures among the individual regiments in each brigade.
Post has four regiments and a battery of artillery and one could either distribute the 70 figures evenly over those units, or divide them proportionally across the brigade. I will allocate 10 of these figures to Finney's artillery battery, leaving me 60 figures for the four infantry regiments. That would give me 15 figures per regiment of infantry.
(To be continued)