In the first issue of THE ZOUAVE I presented my basic ideas on adding some uncertainty to current rules sets or pre-drawn scenarios. I further stated that our club uses "Johnny Reb" as our choice for rules. The article brought a fair number of letters from members who also use: Johnny Reb, most asking for a way to add some measure of command control into the picture. I have to agree with those garners who feel that a major flaw in the rules is the lack of command, with regiments pretty much doing as they please.
In my readings of the battles of the Civil War, this was simply not the case. Many battles were lost or won because a corps, divisional, or brigade conunander was slow to follow orders. "Johnny Reb" seeks, whether intentionally or not, to make all generals equal unless they are leading a regiment.....not a very accurate portrayal of history. The problem facing me then was to find some way of rating the effectiveness of generals on the table. While some letters asked me to rate the actual performance of Civil War leaders, this would prove to be a cumbersome task due to the fact that there were over 1000 generals.
For the purposes of this article, I will merely attempt to give garners a basic foundation for using leadership skills, or lack thereof, in their randomly generated games as per my article in the last issue of THE ZOUAVE. For more advanced garners who have a lot of reference material, and who wish to employ the system in historical scenarios, the tables provided herein can be used once you have determined for yourself what rating a general should be given. Perhaps in the future, I will attempt to rate all of the generals, but the system must, for accuracy's sake, be carefully thought out. If command control is of great importance to you, I would refer you to STARS 'N BARS by Scotty Bowden. That set of rules has a truly incredible way of handling the problem, leaving garners faced with the best and the worst situations which would have been seen by real generals.
Of course, any random generation system that involves too many factors is likely to take away from the ease and joy of using any rules set. Having already added a fair number of minutes to initial set-up times in my last article, I would like to keep any additional time for such to a minimum. To this end, the tables contained in this article are geared for those who would like to engage in non-historical battles or campaigns, where each side mirrors historical trends, but is not bound by pre-determined faults. Everyone in this type of engagement has a chance to be a Stonewall Jackson type of leader, or (heaven forbid') a Gideon Pillow, based on both the luck of the dice and the percentage chance for quality leadership for the particular army, period of the war, and theatre.
Assumptions
It is important for me to start with certain assumptions. One is. that the Rebel armies had better leaders than the Federals at the outbreak of the war. The Confederacy had a decided edge in the East, but began, during the middle of the war, to lose commanders such as Jackson. The Union fielded inferior generals in the beginning of the war, but began to find better leaders as the war dragged on. The western theatre was, perhaps, better balanced in the quality (or lack ~f same) than the East. Even there, attrition tore into the ranks of the better Southern generals, starting with the death of Albert Sidney Johnston, and culminating with the loss of Patrick Cleburne at the battle of Franklin.
In the meantime, Lincoln was looking for fighting generals. 1861 and 1862 saw politics deciding who would lead the northern forces. As the debacles mounted, Lincoln began sifting through his leaders, finding the likes of Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Wilson, and Hancock. As southern arms were faltering for lack of manpower and supplies, the Union was finding men who could exhibit a desire to light a relentless war of attrition. These facts are represented in the random tables.
For a randomly generated game, I decided to incorporate the effects that army, corps, division, and brigade leaders would have had on their troops, keeping simplicity in mind. To get closer to specifics, I added the time periods (1861-63 and 1864-65) and theatres (Western or Eastern). The final step before making the tables was to do a subjective analysis of the generals in the various departments and come to some conclusions regarding command ability percentages for each sub-group.
The following ratings, and their definitions will be found in the tables:
- Exceptional If an army or corps commander, he has a genius for developing and carrying through grand tactical movements. If a division or brigade leader, he is precise, highly dependable, and has a genius for tactical combat. Examples in history would be Lee, Sherman, Forrest, or Jackson.
Excellent Denotes an army or corps commander who is prudent, but aggressive when an opportunity arises, sometimes showing genius in his abilities. If a division or brigade leader, he is very dependable and is likely to exploit any openings provided for him my an enemy's mistakes. Examples would be Grant, A.P. Hill, Thomas, and Sheridan.
Good This is a general who, more often than not, can be depended to carry the fight to the enemy, but who may not be able to organize his command well enough to turn a battle into a complete rout of the enemy. Examples are Rosecrans at Stones River or Bragg at Chickamauga.
Average The bulk of generals who showed no real initiative, but were able to carry out orders if circumstances were right.
Poor These were often political generals or leaders who were given more troops to command than their talent dictated. Examples would be Hood as commander of the Army of Tennessee or McClellan as head of the Army of the Potomac. This classification would also refer to the less capable division or brigade leaders such as Gideon Pillow.
Refer to Table 1 in this article and roll 2 regular dice to see what command capability each of your army, corps, division, or brigade leaders has. If you are using Johnny Reb rules, Exceptional and Excellent generals would give a 43 to any unit they were personally directing, Good generals would give a s2, and Average generals would give a 41. Poor generals have no effect on troops that they personally lead.
Having determined your leader capability factors, you are ready for' the battle. Using regular Johnny Reb rules, the tables included in this article will tell you whether or not you are able to have troops receive orders based on your factor rolls.
Table 2 is used to see whether or not your leader can activate the orders issued by or to him (Sorry Scotty Bowden. I looked for some other term than activate and couldn't find one that would work). This is the essence of a Civil War battle. The best laid plans could go awry because someone in the chain of command did not issue orders or did not follow them. Using the basic Johnny Reb orders, you must roll 2 regular dice to activate your initial orders, and must roll any time those orders are changed. Once orders are activated, troops will try to carry them out to the best of their ability. Familiarize yourself with the tables before reading any further.
Table 1
| LEADER COMMAND ABILITY | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1861-1863 | ||||
| Ability | Eastern Theatre | Western Theatre | ||
| Union Roll | Conf. Roll | Union Roll | Conf. Roll | |
| Exceptional | None | 11,12 | None | None |
| Excellent | 11,12 | 9,10 | 11,12 | 10,11,12 |
| Good | 9,10 | 7,8 | 8,9,10 | 7,8,9 |
| Average | 5,6,7,8 | 4,5,6 | 4,5,6,7 | 3,4,5,6 |
| Poor | 2,3,4 | 2,3 | 2,3 | 2 |
| 1864-1865 | ||||
| Exceptional | 11,12 | 11,12 | None | None |
| Excellent | 9,10 | 9,10 | 10,11,12 | 11,12 |
| Good | 7,8 | 6,7,8 | 7,8,9 | 9,10 |
| Average | 4,5,6 | 3,4,5 | 4,5,6 | 5,6,7,8 |
| Poor | 2,3 | 2 | 2,3 | 2,3,4 |
Table 2: ACTIVATION OF ORDERS
- Poor = 9-12
Average = 7-12
Good = 6- 12
Excellent = 4-12
Exceptional = Automatic Activation
Having read through the above tables, it is time to understand how this system will work with Johnny Reb rules. Orders are given at the beginning of the random Fog of War engagement, and all commanders are assumed to have received orders prior to the first turn. If you are playing a game using all of the random. factors listed in Issue #1 (my article on the Fog of War) and are adding this -section on command control, you will not be rolling for each regiment or battery to enter the table. Instead, roll for each BRIGADE, moving all elements of the brigade onto the table at once if the die roll succeeds. However, to move forward ~ you must now roll to see if the order for that brigade has been activated. You -will add or subtract from each brigade order activation roll based on the following system (to simulate division, corps, or army commander effect). What you add or subtract will depend on the size of your total force.
If you are playing with more than one division per side, there will be a corps leader. If you are playing with more than one corps per side, there will also be an army commander in addition to the corps leaders. These will have a cumulative effect by adding the total positive or negative numbers to the brigade. leader activation roll.
Army, corps, and divisional leaders will have the following effects:
- Poor: -2
Average: -1
Good 0
Excellent: +1
Exceptional: +2
By adding the cumulative numbers of superiors to the Brigade leader roll, you are simulating the effect of leadership in the chain of command. This may seem confusing at first, but is actually quite simple. Let's say that you are playing with one corps per side. The chain of command would include both a division and the corps leaders, so their net effect would be included in the Brigade roll. EXAMPLE: The Brigade leader is Average, the Division Leader is Good, and the Corps leader is Good. The Division and Corps leaders each add a +1 to the Brigade activation roll, for a net effect of a +2. Since the Brigade leader would need a "7" or better to activate orders, you need only to roll a "5" or' better with the added plusses. Remember that you may also have a negative net effect if the Division or Corps leaders are Poor!
Remember that you will no longer roll for each unit to enter the table at the beginning of the game. Instead, you will roll to activate an order to enter the table at a certain point (which should be specifically designated in the orders). This would simulate historical trends in that better generals managed to get their men to move faster. A quick reading of Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign will give you an idea of how important this can be.
Being able to move onto the table edge represents, in my system, marching to the field of battle. It is unlikely that all brigades will arrive at the same time, causing a commander to make decisions based on what troops are currently available to him. However, making it to the table is merely a prelude to the battle. Having arrived, orders must be given as per the Johnny Reb rules, and you must roll to see whether or not such orders are activated. Until an order in the initial part of the game is activated, the brigade involved is assumed to have "told" orders. Once an order is activated, it stays in effect until a new order is issued and activated, or until units are forced into other conditions by battle events.
By using command control, gamers are mirroring history. It will no longer be a sure thing that all brigades in a division will attack when told to, leaving the possibility that some of your units will "go in unsupported'. When using more than one division, the result can play havoc with the best laid plans.....a true reproduction of the typical Civil War battle. I hope that you find this added "fog of war" as interesting as we have. It has helped us from becoming bored and has taught us to make the same Kind of decisions real commanders had to make. When you have inferior generals, even if you have a superior force, it may be wise to go on the defensive!
More Fog:
Back to The Zouave Vol I No. 2 Table of Contents
Back to The Zouave List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1987 The American Civil War Society
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com