To Order Call: 661.587.9633Monday-Friday 9am-4pm (PST)
In October 1806, Napoleon’s Grande Armee is descending on western Saxony in multiple columns. The Saxons and their more powerful Prussian cousins are gathering to give battle. On 10 October, the advance guard of one French column crashes into the advance guard for one wing of the allied armies. A French victory will open the possibility of splitting the allies; an allied victory will threaten the flank of the other French columns. Time presses both. The forces are equal in strength; victory goes to the player who best understands the strengths and weaknesses of each side.
In August 1847, Winfield Scott’s US Army was at the gates of Mexico City after a string of victories over Santa Anna. However, Scott paused to negotiate. Both sides used the delay to regroup, but when Scott heard a rumor that the Mexicans were casting cannon (true) at Molino del Rey (false), he resolved to take the place. The Mexicans saw it coming and prepared their defenses. The result was a narrow but costly American win that left the city's defenses intact. A quicker victory might have pushed into the city and ended the war.
After the Confederate victory at Second Bull Run in August 1862, Stonewall Jackson led his wing of the Confederate army to get behind the retreating Federals and finish the job. Mud and fatigue slowed him just enough to allow some hastily-collected Federal units to get in position to stop him. The result was a confused battle near Chantilly. At stake was the survival of an entire Union army, or of Jackson's isolated Confederates.
As the battle of Chancellorsville raged, a Union corps was dispatched to hit the vulnerable Confederate army from behind. The flanking column was delayed by a single Confederate brigade at Salem Church. The battle grew as Confederate arrived first to firm up the front, then to turn the tables on the Federals. The flankers became flanked, then had to fight for their lives.
In early 1864, Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks led a small army up Louisiana's Red River. His objective, in conjunction with an overland campaign through Arkansas, was the Confederate Trans-Mississippi capital at Shreveport. Poor coordination of the two columns enabled the Confederates to concentrate their slender resources against each in turn. Banks was first, and in early April his spearhead was hit near the crossroads of Mansfield. Historically, the Union forces, strung out on the march, were routed piecemeal, but the battle could have gone the other way.
