General observations:
-This line from the AACWiki is simply not true for CW2 (or is the wrong way to explain what actually does happen):
It is important to note that a lone army HQ stack will never initiate combat by itself.
Grant marches into Humboldt in O/O posture and initiates combat every single time.
-MTSG does NOT happen on the first round of combat. MTSGers begin showing up on the second and later rounds.
-In the cases where Grant retreated he often took 35-50 pursuit hits. When the CSA retreated they took closer to 20, even though the CSA has 11 vs 15 cav for the Union. I can think of possible explanations, (Forrest is in ASJ’s stack while Grant does not have a Cavalryman for one) but Pursuit was not the focus of this testing.
-The second and later rounds usually resulted in ~50 hits for either side depending on who fought, etc. The first round was more variable. In scenario 1 it was 60-100. In scenarios 2 and 3 the main defensive stack had three divisions and first round damage was often well over 100, twice that of the later rounds, and would have been more if the range were longer (Humboldt = Woods).
Scenario 1 Results:
It is a close run thing for the CSA, and they take heavy casualties, but usually end victorious. Humboldt is Woods and in most battles two Divisions on the CSA side and two-and-a-half on the Union side were causing each other heavy casualties. I ran over a dozen iterations, but picked out these five for illustration (one was duplicated on accident).
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On the first round ASJ’s 2 Div Army does 75-100 damage to Grant, but takes 30-50 hits in each division. On the second round when Breckinridge and/or Bragg arrive ASJ’s divisions are weak and damaged, while the MTSGers are not. Grant targets them with his fresh divisions and there is an even combat depending on who MTSGs.
ASJ’s stack is often not participating at all on round two since Grant’s stack is targeting the fresh MTSG divisions; and if/when ASJ returns in later rounds he no longer has the entrenchment icons on his Divisions and it is mainly his artillery that participate (based on the lack of cohesion hits his divisions take though the icons are lit.) This behavior could to be a combination of his Divisions’ reduced size/injured status (lack of combat element engagement) and Army combat behavior (stack participation in “support” of friendly elements).
It is important to note that not being entrenched does not disadvantage ASJ much: only the artillery are engaging, and then only in fire phase (Grant’s Divisions are assaulting other divisions) so entrenchments don’t matter. In fact, it may be that the reason the entrenched icons do not show up is because none of his participating elements used entrenchment (they are all artillery in fire phase) that round.
Still, his participation in the battle after rd 1 is minimal, meaning that
the attacking divisions ARE turning to fight with the MTSGers after the first round, as
moni kerr indicated. I think that if all the stacks were Corps, however the effect would be the same- the fresh divisions will tend to engage on rd 2, and if they are MTSGers, they will not have entrenchments. This needs to be explicitly tested in the future.
If no one MTSGs to support him on rd 2, ASJ withdraws southeast toward Bragg (he will withdraw before combat when set to B/O posture; I set him to B/R so there would be a battle). On the third round, all CSA stacks are equally damaged, and ASJ’s stack sometimes returns to battle. This continues, Grant trading hitswith the MTSGers with Grant usually withdrawing between rounds 4 and 6.
The worst losses for the CSA come on rounds when Bragg arrives alone and Grant targets him. ASJ’s stack does not participate (not targeted by Grant) leaving Bragg with one Division facing Grant’s 2 ish that fit in the frontage.
MTSGers also had a habit of targeting loose cavalry units, destroying them but wasting hits that could have gone to a Division instead. (Partway through I realized I needed to remove Corps command from Wallace so he would not MTSG in support of Grant with his disorganized stack, losing his wagons and cannon when the covering cav were targeted and killed).
Coming soon, analysis of two region defense methods.
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