With an idea to tackle the January doldrums, I talked my friend Brad into a game of No Better Place to Die. Ah, how the legends breathe from the very counters, etc. etc. The reason for the flamboyant introduction is that Brad is unfamiliar with the Civil War. He is a tank-head, and I had to jazz up the battle to get him to play. So, we got together one lazy (actually freezin' cold) Sunday afternoon and got to it.

Brad Strachan-Confederates
vs.
Jean Tessier-Union
January, 1995
Total play time: 20 hours
Scenario 6.5--The Full Battle

I decided to take the fight to him and make an early attack towards Wayne's Hill, attempting to do one of two things. If he did not defend the ford or hill properly, I would have a good vantage point from which to harass his troops with cannon. If he did defend, perhaps I could make enough show to draw some of those troops toward my stronger Left Wing.

As things turned out, he defended quite heavily and I found out why soon enough. Van Cleve took a thorough pounding and Morton's Pioneers made a good showing of themselves, yet the attack halted in the face of Breckenridge's tough boys across the Stones River. Over the next hour, while Breckenridge was cleaning up those (un)lucky enough to get across the river, McCook finally accepted his order and entered the map. It seemed to happen just in time, as Cleburne was on the move towards my left.

I immediately sent attack orders to McCook to keep Brad off balance. It was a grandiose plan (for McCook that is) to smash through any Rebs along Gresham Lane, swing east, move up to Burgess house and attack elements of Polk's corps still in the vicinity of Burgess house. Miraculously, McCook thought this a good idea and accepted this order after only one turn's delay.

Meanwhile, a furious fight erupted on the Union left. Cleburne, supported by the Confederate cavalry, crossed the river and assaulted Crittenden's Left Wing. Things looked dire since Cleburne was unrelenting. All he needed was Breckenridge's support and my left would have collapsed. Unfortunately, Brad was dealing out orders on a divisional goal level and Breckenridge was on the east side of Stones River, gathering stragglers and reading over Bragg's orders in a state of D6. (Note: We were using the NBS Acceptance Table as well as a handful of chrome rules published in Operations.) Finally, with Cleburne's four brigades (and seven of mine) wrecked, he failed his Stoppage check and retreated across the river.

With a slight breathing spell, it was time to get aggressive. McCook had smashed through McCown's Division still hanging on to the Confederate extreme left. He moved up the Franklin road to Burgess house as per orders, with nary a Confederate in sight. Brad had moved Polk's corps forward, almost nose to nose with Thomas. The only thing between the two forces was some trees. I hastily wrote a couple of orders: the first to McCook, to rush forward and fall upon Polk's corps from the rear, the second to the now-reinforced Thomas to move forward and pin down the enemy. Early in the afternoon Thomas moved out according to plan; unfortunately, McCook took so long trying to figure out Rosecrans's handwriting that the orders ended up getting thrown out. Brad managed to evade the trap and retreat his disgruntled Rebs eastward. Rosecrans was a touch perturbed I'm sure. Hoping not to lose the initiative, he rushed off to have a discussion with McCook and get off one more attack before nightfall.

This attack went east again to fall upon the Confederates near Lytle Creek. While Rosecrans stared from beneath the brim of his hat and pointed his finger against the setting sun, McCook acted speedily enough. In position around 4:00, the attack began sluggishly. Both sides took a sound beating. (Low Ammo counters flowed in ample quantity.) Yet at 5:00 p.m., an opportunity presented itself and Sheridan jumped into action, succeeding with an initiative roll and rushing to capture the Stones River bridges. Polk did an Emergency Corps Retreat and retired towards the Murfree and Bell farms to bivouac for the night.

As the sun set, the Confederates ran a fairly solid line from McFadden's Ford to hex 31.35 east of the Bell farm. All fords were covered. The Union Left was in defensive positions around Round forest. Thomas' Wing was still relatively fresh and in position in the forest south of Wilkerson pike, while McCook's weary troops were on the other side of Stones River around Lytle Creek.

Next Morning

The next morning started off with an attack by Thomas, with Sheridan attached, toward what I thought was the weak Confederate center at Cowan's ford. Oops, that was not McCown's shattered division holding that bank but Cheatham's relatively fresh division. Looks like Brad managed the old switcheroo during the night. There was much bloodshed, but with Sheridan in the van and some fortuitous Blood Lusting, my attack kept going. Alas, my Center wing decided it was time for a breather and failed its Attack Stoppage roll just as Cheatham was about to fold. However, I realized it was still my best chance at a victory and so did Thomas; he made his Initiative roll the following turn to resume the attack.

By this time it was approaching high noon on our battlefield and Brad's troops accepted a couple of orders and began a controlled withdrawal northward (!?) when we decided to call it quits. Brad admitted that given the situation he would retreat off the map and save the army to fight another day. However, it was a point draw in the Confederates' favor as I picked a 1 VP option and my cavalry got wrecked on the first day.

Total losses at the end of the battle were Confederates- 108; Union-114. Losses were evenly distributed in both armies. McCown's for the Rebs and Van Cleve's for the Federals took the worst of it. Notably, Breckenridge's division was still very strong yet was unable to get into any of the fighting after the first early morning skirmish.

All in all, it was a good game. I had the advantage of knowing the orders system better. This helped me keep Brad off balance because he sent specific orders (almost divisional goals really). However, it is quite a commendation to the design of the system that someone like Brad, never having seen the system before, can learn and play a game and make a good showing of himself. He was able to use intelligence, common sense, and strategy to play a game- not extraordinary memory, patience, and understanding for rules.

In the end, instead of finagling over "that extra movement point," coming to grasp "that darn +2 modifier rule," or endless rulebook page-turning, our discussions during and after the game went something like:

Brad, "Gee, I never would have imagined cavalry to be so relatively weak."

Me: "Well, during the Civil War cavalry was far more important off the battlefield than on ......

Brad: "With hindsight, I guess the battle was pretty much decided when Breckenridge failed to support Cleburne's attack."

Me: (sinister cartoon laugh) "Ha, ha, ha!!"