Stationary Troop terrain bonus?

[BOSTON]

Greg

Now your in trouble, I just ordered the book on fortifications.

Hoistingman4

[norb]

You guys need to write some of this up for the front page! This would be great content for the site.

[BOSTON]

Norb

Greg and I are on the same train of thought, but with slightly divergent way of getting there to round out an idea. If Greg wants to do an article, it would be fine by me. I feel there is more work to be done (I'm a little anal), thus, an incomplete subject matter. Historically, what I've been finding in my research is the abundance of fortifications during the war, especially in the final "Overland Campaign" to end the CW. I'd like to be clear on GB fortifing and not to confuse it with other aspects of the War. Come up with a formula that would be fun to use in a game, as well as historically correct.

Hoistingman4

[Jim]

The fortifications on Culps Hill were extensive and took hours to construct. First corps units started on the evening of July 1 and continued their efforts for a significant part of July 2. The 12th corps units saw these as they marched into positions and dug in with a will as soon as they were positioned. The works were a combination of trees, trenches, and rocks, depending on local conditions. They were well constructed and provided a major defensive bonus. Where they were adequately manned, the CS had no chance of taking these.

The other significant fortifications were the hasty fortifications built on LRT. These were built in no more than 1/2 hour although they were added too in lulls in the fighting. These were rock dry walls/piles laid between the larger boulders to make a more continuous sheltered line.

-Jim

[BOSTON]

There is two aspects of the fortifing issue that have to be resolved first. Hopefully backed by documentation.

One: What was the actual time it took for regiments to fortify?

Two: What percentage value from fortifing would be added to defense?

Start with a regiment (300 men) with high morale and rested in some kind of terrain, let's say heavy woods (If they need to be officered is questionable at this point). This regiment was given the command by the owner to fortify, [step 1] How long would it take 300 men to gather up all the loose material in those woods to fortify? [step 2] Next, would be cutting brush, timber to size that can be used in fortifing on top of loose material up to breast high. [step 3] timber is in place, now let's throw dirt in front of it, along with any rocks you can find till you feel safe. [step 4] fine tune the forification with rifle ports and other access views to the enemy. Sounds like alot of work, ya know I think it could all be done quicker than you would expect. How much time would each step take? Also what would be the value of the defences at the completion of each step? These questions is what I am looking for the answers to. Gotta go for now.

Hoistingman4

[norb]

hoistingman4 wrote:

Norb

Greg and I are on the same train of thought, but with slightly divergent way of getting there to round out an idea. If Greg wants to do an article, it would be fine by me. I feel there is more work to be done (I'm a little anal), thus, an incomplete subject matter. Historically, what I've been finding in my research is the abundance of fortifications during the war, especially in the final "Overland Campaign" to end the CW. I'd like to be clear on GB fortifing and not to confuse it with other aspects of the War. Come up with a formula that would be fun to use in a game, as well as historically correct.

Hoistingman4

This site is not just about the game, but about that time period and really it concerns that type of warfare. So if anyone wanted to have a post submitted as an article or just wanted to write an article for the front page, I'd be grateful. I like having new content. Brett wrote those great book reviews and I hope that we get more. But some of these posts would also make great articles and although we don't have the hits that we'll have after the release, this stuff will be here forever and it provides a great library of information for newcomers to the site. So if someone is willing to do some of this stuff as an article, you just have to let me know.

[BOSTON]

Jim wrote:

The fortifications on Culps Hill were extensive and took hours to construct. First corps units started on the evening of July 1 and continued their efforts for a significant part of July 2. The 12th corps units saw these as they marched into positions and dug in with a will as soon as they were positioned. The works were a combination of trees, trenches, and rocks, depending on local conditions. They were well constructed and provided a major defensive bonus. Where they were adequately manned, the CS had no chance of taking these.

The other significant fortifications were the hasty fortifications built on LRT. These were built in no more than 1/2 hour although they were added too in lulls in the fighting. These were rock dry walls/piles laid between the larger boulders to make a more continuous sheltered line.

-Jim

Just looking at the SSs it appeared to be a bitch to fortify Culp's Hill, compared to flat or rolling terrain. Took an educated guess as to how LRT was fortified, which matched somewhat to what you stated. Don't have a GB book yet that could give a me an idea as to what-else was fortified OR, What could have been fortified? Like the "Angle" before Picket's Charge. How strong were their fortifications? Anyhow, Thanks for the info.

Hoistingman4

[GShock]

Ability to build entrenchments, fortifications and stonewalls, would be great strategywise for players, in the defense and the offense.

Perhaps a similar doctrine as the one of supply carts could be used...signifying u send troops in carts to gather wood stone etc... and they come back and u begin to build

[BOSTON]

GShock wrote:

Ability to build entrenchments, fortifications and stonewalls, would be great strategywise for players, in the defense and the offense.

Perhaps a similar doctrine as the one of supply carts could be used...signifying u send troops in carts to gather wood stone etc... and they come back and u begin to build

My thought on what you have to say is that field fortifications were constructed primarily from the regiments' surroundings. I'm sure at times building materials were transported to different map locations that didn't have what was needed. Keep in mind that the battlefield is very fluent, meaning that one side or the other was not going to invest transported building resources to very temporey positions for a matter of minutes or hours IMO.

Hoistingman4

[Hancock the Superb]

Very little in the way of fortifications were built during the battle. On day 1, neither side built anything. During that night, troops built lunettes on Cemetary Hill. Morning of Day 2 - continued work on lunettes, fortifications on Culps and mid-Cemetary Ridge. Nothing in the south of the battlefield, with the exception of Chamberlain. Day 3 - no fortifications.