Jason Pipes - Feb 6, 2009 6:31 pm (#26600 Total: 26752) As far as I'm concerned, you'd have to be a ghoul to play this thing... David Moody and I played a great game of New Mexico Campaign from S&T last night. I really enjoy this S&T game as it has a razor thin margin for the Confederate player and the tension level is very high. In this playing I opted to bypass basically everything and head straight for Fort Union. Taking Fort union is an instant victory condition, but it's also a long shot. Since the Confederate player starts with only 2 mobile supply wagons they have to be very careful with how they commit themselves in battle. Fighting in battle without the use of a supply wagon and without being 6 hexes from a supply depot puts you at a serious disadvantage in combat. Also when moving if you don't have a supply wagon with your forces you also have to roll for attrition which can be very brutal. Thus I opened my campaign by pushing straight for Fort Union with the hope of avoiding all combat and using my two supply wagons to establish a permanent supply depot in Las Vegas thus making my force in supply for as long as Las Vegas was in my hands. With a blocking force at Glorietta Pass I could stage my attacks on Fort Union for as long as I want and remain in supply. So that was my plan. On my first turn I used my one time free 9 point movement allowance to move basically my entire army with Sibley in command past Fort Craig and further on up the river valley. Having an idea of what I was up to David used his force march phase to send out his militia as a blocking force and put up a string of units in front of me. The option for combat was still mine and I decided to take the bait assuming I could brush the militia aside easily. I was wrong. They held me with no losses inflicting an SP loss on me! The militia were doing their job! They were blocking my route nicely and sniping at me along the way. Considering most of the rest of David's army was reluctant to move (you have to roll for movement in this game) it was great he got his militia to move in the first place. More so since they disappear around the 2nd turn of the game. The next chance I had to move I dodged the pesky Union Militia and continued up the river valley, moving through and securing numerous Union cities along the way. With my focus on Fort Union though and not wanting to dilute my force I didn't leave any forces behind as garrisons. They would have likely attrited away due to supply anyway so I figured it wasn't worth my effort to do so. By the 4th turn I had made it through the Glorietta Pass and had secured both Las Vegas and Fort Butler. The Union segment of turn 4 is when the major Union reinforcements arrive at Fort Union making a quick victory impossible, but sadly I wasn't established around his lines yet. I was there but I had to use my supply phase to build my supply depot, and that was after the combat phase. With my forces concentrated and clearly itching for a major scrap they ended my segment of turn 4 in Las Vegas, fully supplied, and ready to attack Fort Union. In the Union segment of turn 4 David's strong reinforcements arrived at Fort Union. David also had sent out a small spoiling force from Fort Craig towards Fort Thorn with the idea of taking my weakly held towns in the south, and a larger force under Canby to come up on my rear around Las Vegas while I was engaged in the lines at Fort Union. The force at Fort Thorn engaged in a few turns of desultory fighting until I moved south to get an additional force to bear, not realizing in so doing I gave up Fort Thorn in the process! David walked in and took it, but he also began to feel the effects of lack of supply eventually loosing 4 SP to attrition! Meanwhile Canby was moving closer to Albuquerque until David shifted him out of the valley west to link up with forces sent from Fort Wingate, though Canby's scouts got lost and he sat at the confluence of the Rio San Jose and Rio Puercao for sometime! All the while his forces were suffering in the heat and due to lack of water. At last his men got word the supply wagons sent from Fort Wingate were located and they managed to join forces and get moving again. Back at Fort Union the fighting had been nominal at best with exchanges of a few strength points at most. Slowly the Union forces behind the walls of Fort Union were whittled down, but not fast enough! Sibely began to see the peril in his plan. With the California Column likely to enter New Mexico Territory far to the south in the coming weeks and thus break his perilous supply link to Fort Bliss and Texas, there simply wasn't time to endlessly trade blows. Further more with Canby now on the move from Fort Craig and supplied to avoid attrition on the way, Santa Fe was likely to fall. Sibely would be fighting two separate by equally strong Union forces, one in Fort Union and one fast approaching from the southwest. Refusing to give up when victory was near, Sibely continued to bash his forces against the walls of Fort Union. Receiving word from scouts that Canby was very near a blocking force was sent to Glorietta Pass to prevent him from reaching Las Vegas, and it worked. Canby arrived on scene and quickly reoccupied Santa Fe but the force in the pass prevented him from moving any further. With no supply link to Fort Craig and a single supply wagon as his only supply David had to make a tough choice about what to do. If he fought my forces in the pass he would be at severe disadvantage unless he consumed his supply wagon. In so doing though he would then be out of supply until he reached Fort Union. With Sibely still strong even if he was heavily engaged it was a chance David didn't want to take. Rather than advance on the pass Canby sat. In a cruel twist of fate though Canby was under the impression Santa Fe would be safe while he sat in front of Glorietta Pass. He would be proven very wrong in the last few days of the campaign. With the endgame quickly approaching Sibley saw that taking Fort Union was impossible. No matter how hard his men tried they couldn't cause enough losses to make a victory possible. Not wanting to give up even with Fort Union still in Union hands, Sibley pulled back and established a strong defensive position to hold Las Vegas and Fort Butler. Another force moved forward to relieve the forces at Glorietta Pass while those force holding the pass moved forward to exploit what their scouts informed them was an unsecured Santa Fe. Much to the amazement of Canby he suddenly realized the Union Flag was no longer flying to his northwest! Stunned, Canby attacked the city but was unable to retake it, his men tired from sitting for so long in the open desert. With the game at a close Sibely hadn't managed to take Fort Union or Fort Craig insuring they could not claim a victory. But with Union victory points at 19 and Confederate victory points at 40, Sibely still a viable threat in Las Vegas and Glorietta Pass still held firmly, and Fort Thorn back in Confederate hands well north of their supply base at Fort Bliss, Union forces could also not claim a victory. Thus this playing for New Mexico Campaign came to a close as a draw. It was by far the hardest fought and most tense playing yet of this wonderful S&T game. David R. Moody - Feb 6, 2009 6:38 pm (#26601 Total: 26752) BookmarkEmail to Friend Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind? . . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm. Great AAR, Jason! Too busy today to do one myself. >David walked in and took it, but he also began to feel the effects of lack of supply eventually loosing a few SP to attrition. More than a few--I sent 7 SP under Kit Carson down to Fort Thorn, and lost four of them on the first attrition roll. Ouch. Then Canby got lost in the friggin' desert trying to link up with the supply train from Fort Wingate . . . the dice were not kind to me. The New Mexico militia did very well, until they suddenly forgot how to march when it was my turn. Rather than advance on the pass Canby sat. Big mistake on my part. I should have sat in Santa Fe. It was a lot closer than the VP would indicate--I sent the Fighting Parson out from Fort Union on the last turn to attack Fort Butler. Another big mistake. Still great fun--awesome game. Very fluid, almost chess-like. We played a Down in Flames dogfight afterwards, to show Jason the system (he is contemplating acquiring his own set). I usually start new players off with Spitfire Mk.I vs. Bf-109E, so that's what we did. I started my two Spits up high; Jason's Jerry planes started at Very Low. I spent the first two turns diving down to Low, then Jason climbed up to meet me, getting Advantaged over my leader and doing minor damage. I was able to turn the tables on him, maneuvering first my wingman then my leader to get on the Germans' tail. I shot down the 109 leader to no loss to my side. A fun quick dogfight. Jason wants to try a campaign next. Our venue last night was Gamescape San Rafael (Thursday is their Boardgame Night). Mostly Euros being played, though we did see a couple people attempting the Long Island scenario from Hold the Line. They liked it.