General T-800 at McPherson Ridge

[Tripoli]

SITREP 0907
Me: The 8th New York Cavalry has been driven from its position in the Herbst Woods along Willoughby Run.  The unit has suffered 9% casualties and has 398 effectives.  It is a relatively inexperienced unit, and does not appear to have significantly degraded the Confederates.  The Confederates have two regiments that are visible that are ready to cross Willoughby Run and enter Herbst Woods.
The 8th Illinois is retreating from the fence line along  Willoughby Run.  It is also an inexperienced unit, but managed to trade equivalent losses with a Confederate infantry regiment, which retreated 500 yards, and is likely out of action for 5 minutes.  The 12th Illinois has suffered very light losses and has 169 effectives.  It remains along the fence line overlooking  Willoughby Run.  It is now under artillery fire, but that artillery fire is not yet effective.   Only a single  Confederate infantry regiment is opposite the 12th Illinois, but it is 450 yards distant, out of range.  Of note, there were originally five Confederate regiments in this area, and now only four regiments visible (the two ready to enter Herbst Woods, the one regiment that  is opposite the 12th Illinois, and the one regiment that retreated 500 yards).  This indicates that one regiment has advanced into Herbst Woods, and is no longer visible.
North of Chambersburg Pike, the 3rd Indiana and 3rd West Virginia continue to hold the Fence Line along Willoughby Run.  However, the 3rd Indiana has suffered 50% casualties and is having difficulty withdrawing.  Due to Confederate fire, the 9th New York and 6th New York cavalry were unable to advance into effectively to provide support for the 3rd Indiana and 3rd West Virginia, and had withdrawn to the second fence line.  Neither of these units has suffered  loss, and their failure to advance to effectively support the 3rd Indiana is likely due to their lack of experience.  Confederate losses in this part of the battlefield are at least 120 soldiers.  Three Confederate regiments are visible in a two forward, one back formation.  The visible regiments appear to be combat effective.

The 17th Pennsylvania continues to keep Mummasburg Road under observation.  Thus far, no Confederate forces appear to be advancing down Mummasburg Road.   Four guns of Calef's battery are engaged in counterbattery on the Confederate guns on Herr Ridge.  There is no information on the effectiveness of this fire.

Situation 0907 South of Chambersburg Pike


Situation 0907 North of Chambersburg Pike



ChatGPT:

[Vox]

Fascinating Tripoli I'm enjoying this. Im also a SOWGB fan.  It seems to me after reading this that the  AI plans and moves along historic lines.  Does it make any novel decisions plans or approaches? If it does, it would be great to highlight those.

[Tripoli]

Fascinating Tripoli I'm enjoying this. Im also a SOWGB fan.  It seems to me after reading this that the  AI plans and moves along historic lines.  Does it make any novel decisions plans or approaches? If it does, it would be great to highlight those.

I'm glad you are enjoying this.  Thus far, I'm not sure the AI is doing anything novel.  It is a fairly simple scenario, so I'm not sure there is much in the way of novel thinking that the AI can do.  However, it is interesting to see modern planning templates being applied to a historical battle.  I'm thinking that this might be a good way to introduce to cadets and junior officers to some of these planning concepts.  If this experiment works out, I was thinking about doing the same for all the Union scenarios in SOWGB.  Would that be of interest to the Grogs here on the forum?


As an aside, I've temporarily put this AAR on hold because there is a bug in SOWGB Remastered that is preventing dismounted cavalry from shooting. https://steamcommunity.com/app/3142400/discussions/0/595147810175771427/ Naturally, having the Union cavalry shooting back was one of the AI's major planning assumptions , so it is a bit unfair to continue the AAR until they get the bug fixed.
 

[Vox]

That's a shame, but I'm sure Norb will fix it soon. I'm still using the non-Redux version with all the DLCs and a number of excellent additional scenarios. My focus isn't on professional-level instruction—I'm interested in amateur history and wargaming. Lately, I've been experimenting with combining board wargames and PC simulations into a hybrid gaming experience by leveraging AI. That's what led me to this post.

[W8taminute]

This is very interesting.  I do like this experiment and am interested in it. 

Quite frankly, to a simpleton like myself, the AI is impressive in how it's handling the battlefield situation. 

[Tripoli]

That's a shame, but I'm sure Norb will fix it soon. I'm still using the non-Redux version with all the DLCs and a number of excellent additional scenarios. My focus isn't on professional-level instruction—I'm interested in amateur history and wargaming. Lately, I've been experimenting with combining board wargames and PC simulations into a hybrid gaming experience by leveraging AI. That's what led me to this post.

It looks like Norb has fixed the cavalry problem, (https://steamcommunity.com/app/3142400/) so I'm going to resume the game at the 0907 time.  I probably should restart the game, but that might mess up the AI. 

[joram]

This is pretty awesome.  I'd love to see this on a variety of different types of wargames!