GCACW World Series - Spain vs. Japan (April 4th, 2020)

The first GCACW World Series - Spain vs. Japan was held on April 4th, 2020. We played a 3-turns basic game scenario "Bag the Whole Crowd" from "Stonewall Jackson's Way II" with the Spanish team as the Union, the Japanese team as the Confederates.

All three players of the Japanese team talked about assignments and strategies before the game started. As a result, Toshikazu plays rolls of Lee & Stuart, Motoi plays Jackson, and I (Takumi) play Longstreet. The Confederates' initial strategies may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. F. Lee shall burn Burke's Station on Turn 1, then Vienna Station on Turn 2.
2. Stuart shall preserve his cavalry to earn a flank bonus in future battles rather than performing a cavalry retreat that causes disorganization.
3. To pass through Thoroughfare Gap as soon as possible, Lee shall designate Longstreet as an active leader when the Confederates win the initiative. He shall march on Bull Run Mountains if the Union has already blocked the gap.
4. Jackson shall adjust his action to the opponents' behavior and intend to fight at road networks on the outskirts of Groveton. Pay attention to avoid fighting in the actual town hex.

During the Turn
For this game the only limitation on sending communications is that they may not be sent while a side has the initiative. Once the other side gains the initiative messages may be sent until the side wins the initiative or the other side passes.
At the beginning of the Turn
At the beginning of each turn during the leader transfer phase the game will take a ten minute break to allow players to stretch their legs, etc. During this break commander will be free to communication via private chat relative to plans for the coming day / turn.

The above is the core rules of the command and control in this multi-player game. I will mention the details later; the limited communication between the friendly leaders brought by these rules made the game more exciting and thrilling.

The game has started at 5:00 p.m. JST.
Firstly, Longstreet marched on the mountains due to the gap has already occupied by Ricketts, McDowell's subordinate. Making a detour was as planned, but it was unexpected that his march roll was only 1. I rolled 6 on the almost same situation in a rehearsal that the Japanese players held in advance so that I might have spent my luck then. Anyway, Longstreet took some initiatives to put Anderson in his command range and go over the mountains. McDowell called his boys back from the gap after he saw that the Rebels had down there. And the main force of the North and the South made a frontline from Bull Run Mountains to Hay Market and Gainesville (both are victory condition hex).

At this point, I thought that I might not have to take any more action. That's because all of my units are exhausted, and they must take the risk of an extended march with an unfavorable dice roll modifier. Army leader Lee, however, had been giving an initiative to Longstreet for several times. I tried to understand my boss's intention. Now I think it was too passive thinking to fight a 3-turns scenario, but these were tough (and enjoyable, of course) decisions for me at that time. Where does he want me to move or attack? Does he have any other ideas? Does he expect me to have them? I was not sure, so remembered my motto, "If in doubt, attack!"... So I declared to initiate an assault to the Union left wing. Unfortunately, my command roll was not much good. Only one unit participated in it. "Just a moment," Lee said immediately, "I will initiate a grand assault." I still don't know whether he wanted to attack or not; the grand assault was successful in any case. Longstreet was able to push Ricketts out and to approach Hay Market.
F. Lee burned Burke's Station then headed to Vienna. Jackson gathered his dispersed subordinates around Groveton. He gave priority to resting on Turn 1 for performing strong reactions to Porter and Banks or for attacking Gainesville tomorrow.

I'm sorry for the lack of information other than related to Longstreet and his units. My head was full of my precious subordinates during the whole game. But I'm sure the commanders in history have had similar feelings. :-)

It seemed that the Confederates were going well during an early stage of Turn 2. Although I made a mistake on the movement of Wilcox so that he suffered loss by the Union's enveloping attack, Longstreet was able to shrink the enemy's left flank. Jackson succeeded in assaulting on Gainesville. And Pope, the Union army leader, was surrounded by them.

"Aren't we going to win?" - All three commanders of the Confederates must have thought so. The situation, however, had started to change since Porter marched north. Jackson and Stuart prepared for the Union counterattack with together. Banks crossed Broad Run then marched north too. Jackson didn't lose the opportunity to make an effective attack (+5 DRM!) on him, but the combat rolls were 5 for the Union and 1 for the Confederates.

There is Banks standing like a stonewall!

At several action cycles of Turn 3 were done, the game had become very tough for the Confederates. The Union seized both Gainesville and Groveton. During the break time, I proposed a gamble that Lee, Longstreet, and D.R. Jones to make a flank march to recapture Groveton. Lee suggested they take Evans with them for using him as a 'taxi' to go back to Hay Market. Stuart promised to move on next to Groveton to earn a flank bonus.

Though, the Union's technical moves partly collapsed these plans. There was no free path to Groveton so that Stuart changed the course of his march. I faced an issue of understanding my boss's intention again. Which hex does he want me to attack first? Groveton or adjacent it? I decided to attack the former first, and it was successful.

But the Confederates' last gamble was over. The Union almost completely surrounded D.R. Jones at Groveton. The only thing left to do was to make the final grand assault and finish him. We agreed to end the game at this point. The outcome was Union Substantive Victory.

Congratulations to the Spanish team! For about six hours, I was so excited the whole time. I can't thank you enough for all gamers who participated in this event (producer, commenter, players, observers, and so on). I do hope we could play GCACW together again.

MUCHÍSIMAS GRACIAS!

== Cast and Staff of GCACW World Series ==

Confederate Generals
Lee, Stuart: Toshikazu Takasawa (@gameape)
Jackson: Motoi Sano (@motoi_sano)
Longstreet: Takumi Fujitsuka (@taku9113)

Union Generals
Pope: Jose Galdon
Sigel, Cavalry: Arkaiz Martin (@kalinote1)
Banks: Jose Ramon Gonzalez Soto (@Kobedad)
McDowell: Jose Maria Vitaller
Reno, Summer: Roi Espino (@Celacanto77)
Heintzelman: Manuel Carlos Sanchez (@SanchoMateos)
Porter: Juan Diego Fito (@RGrease)
Franklin: Xavier Franco (@xanfrasbd)

Producer: Alberto Romero (@SuerteCanalla)
Commenter on YouTube: David Arribas (@davidarribas)