"sabine
crossroads can't be won"
and man was not meant to travel
in the air
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The second summer Sparring Game has just
finished, in which the Mason Dixon Line Team (MDL)
had been assigned to play the CSA at Sabine. And
won. When game assignments were announced, a
virtual groan could be heard from MDL members
around the globe. Rumor was that the South never
has, and never will, win that scenario. When
Team Captain Steve Mathena asked for a volunteer
tactical commander, I was the last member to
step back from our parade-dress review line, and
the honor fell at my feet. This scenario had two
victory conditions (VC): 1) holding the JS on
Turn 6,
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or 2) inflicting twice as many casualties
on the enemy as had been inflicted on oneself.
I selected the first condition, going for the JS,
because that is what I had seen in my prior CWOL
military career (EOC and the first Spar this
summer) and I did not think the South could
inflict such heavy casualties on the North. I
prepared a nine color, three page strategic plan
(as much as 6 turns can be strategic) involving
sweeping cavalry actions (shotguns and all),
feints in and out of woods, and massive forced
night marches. Team members outside of the US
began disparaging US football game plays and
everyone |
made fun of my use of pink. The team gently
advised me that large Yankee reinforcements late
in the game would guarantee that the JS could
not be successfully approached, let alone held.
Anticipating a molasses defense in the West and
South, I thought we could slide around it to the
East and called the campaign "No
Time Fo’ No Mo’
Molasses". Several rounds of analysis and
discussion later I understood that the Molasses
would be just too sticky to slip past. The No
Time Fo’ No Mo’ Molasses plan is shown below,
and the original balloon photograph is
laminated, framed in brushed bronze, and hanging
in my Mom’s kitchen. |
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Discredited
"No
Time Fo’ No Mo’ Molasses" Battle Plan for
Sabine Crossroads {{map 1 } |
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I began meditating on VC #2, the 2:1 casualty
ratio. The highlights of the Union position we
saw are: 1) column 15 - 16 being a stack some 12
rows high that formed their Western front, 2)
row 12 manned by regiments in columns 18-21, 3)
woods and one sentinel cavalry unit in lower
rows from columns 23 - 30, and nothing visible
in the East other than hills, some woods, and
the JS at 6-30. The vast majority of our forces
were in the far West, with a few infantry,
artillery and cavalry regiments South of the
central woods. Thus was born campaign
"Pick ‘n’
Save" - several turns of penetration, blending
into several turns of annihilation of isolated
Union units, closing with careful retreats
(a.k.a. |
SYA) to reduce our own losses. We would try to
penetrate two irregularities in the Union line
in the West while pushing through the central
woods to isolate the enemy forces in their West
and Southwest. Graeme Cook would go head to head
with cavalry (swinging his shotguns), Mark
Lawyer would engage the main Yank infantry, two
Jims (Chafield and Voege)
would force their way into tiny cracks (that’s
why we needed 2 slim Jims) in the Yank
Southwest, Ian Caine would push the crack to the
West of the woods, Uncle Buck (yours truly) and
Poppin’ Rhett Butler would flush the woods, and
Steven Mathena would "be
ready". This would be
assisted by an Eagle |
threatening a large attack toward the JS in the
East to draw off some of the units from the West
and to distract the incoming reinforcements. The
central attack would also be part rouse, as we
would act as if we were heading Northeast toward
the JS until we cleared out the enemy expected
in the central southern woods, and then swing
Northwest to form part of the back door on the
Yankee units we were isolating. All hands would
then be issued new brooms to sweep clean the
debris of the shattered and scattered Union
forces. A photograph of the battlefield from a
hot air balloon, upon which I marked the initial
phase of the proposed plan follows. Right. |
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Prior to turn 1 (Map 2) |
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In actuality, this plan worked, and it almost
worked as we had envisioned it! By Turn 5, 7
Union regiments had been suckered over to the
far East chasing the wild Eagle, several |
regiments had been eliminated or
surrendered due to fatigue in the West, and 5
other regiments were complete-ly
surrounded by Hollerin’ Rebels. A balloon
photograph of the |
battlefield after Turn 5 follows. We
actually were doing so well that we did not need
to implement (let alone think up) the Save Our
Asses phase of the campaign. The final casualty
ratio was almost 2.5:1. |
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"Pick ‘n’ Save"
Plan for Turn 6 at Sabine Crossroads { map 3 } |
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How was this accomp-lished?
On the ground there were a few particularly
fortuitous events: 1) several turns of excellent
artillery fire early on, 2) several regiments of
Yanks in the South central woods walking into
our forces heading into the same woods, and 3)
an egregious loss of command suffered by many
Yankee units on Turn 3. Not all was rosy, of
course. Two repeated frustrations were lack of
artillery access to targets |
late in the game and insufficient attention paid
to infantry regiment weapons, so that
smoothbores often blocked rifles from target
access. That first problem fell like a lead ball
on a new graduate, Rocket Rick Wollmaker, who we
added to the Team at the end of the most recent
EOC. On a higher level, this victory was
possible because of the camaraderie and
communications within the MDL Team. We are a
mixture of novices and |
veterans, all of whom took part in plan and move
review and discussion. This allowed us to have
well thought out and well executed moves, which
were our real key to victory. As a novice tac/com
I particularly benefited from the attitude, now
adopted in the UPP platform, of giving everyone
a chance to participate fully.
Submitted by
David Aronow |
bravenet.com
