From: "David S. Bieksza" <bieksza@APLCOMM.JHUAPL.EDU>
Subject:      Horse Soldiers - Tupelo

(For Turn Continuation Table aficionados ...)

I just completed another solo playing, and the Confederates lost even
worse than last time.  They got off to a promising start -- whereas last
time they rolled a "Finished" right after their first brigade entered the
map, this time they got a double move out of all their brigades entering
on the first turn.  But afterwards the primitive form of this early TCT
bit them badly.  On no less than five turns the Confederates had *zero*
Actions.

The Confederates chose to spend what Actions they could get on a thrust
in the south, Roddey's Division vs. the big USCT regiments.  The Union
cavalry brigade had moved to backstop this brigade, so the Confederates
couldn't surround it.  In a frontal attack they routed two regiments and
the last ran out of ammo.  Unfortunately, the latter was the regiment
protecting the battery and the battery was on the VP hex, so the Rebs
took plenty of casualties.  Then the Union cavalry charged the Rebs!  (I
think this was the first time I ever resolved a charge in a GBACW-TCT
game.)  Both Confederate brigades ended up BCE.

By the time the South got its two divisions on the main front to a line
of departure, there was so little time left that a general advance was
pointless.  Instead, the Actions were spent on the infantry "brigade"
attacking the Union right, where a VP hex was closest to the front.  It
moved up for a series of melees, but for a change the Rebs had mediocre
morale and not one unit succeeded in entering an enemy-occupied hex.
Worse, the commander (Lyon) was killed.  The replacement rallied
everybody and they tried again.  The second wave was stopped cold again
... and the replacement was wounded!  The Confederates decided there was
too much bad karma to continue.

Both of my playings have seen such bizarre behavior by the old TCT that I
expect to try one more time in a few months in hopes of experiencing a
game where the Confederates get some breaks in their favor.

-------
Dave Bieksza                 bieksza@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu
-------
"Comet Hale-Bopp" is an anagram for "HTML be poop, Ace."
-------