Both players have now received their orders of battle, based on historical orders of battle for the period of January 1862, with some minor variations where information was conflicting or missing. As much as possible, historical strengths, types of small arms and commanders have been used.
Each player has also received a message from his chief of staff outlining the positions of each unit in his command. These positions are not exact to the historical January 1st, 1862, but represent the general situation faced by each commander during the period around New Year's.
The simulation rules are still being finalized and the players will continue to receive information from their staff in a piecemeal fashion until the simulation begins. The objective points (scores) will not change, so players can begin to ruminate on an appropriate strategy for a relatively long winter campaign. Historically, both Jackson and Lander were anxious to fight a winter campaign in January and February 1862. Lander, however, was tempered by his commander, Major General George B. McClellan, who was less enthusiastic about Lander's plans to take the fight to Jackson.
Unlike previous simulations, players will not see the unit quality and commander attributes for each unit and commander that will used in the TC2M game components. Let's face it, if commander's had that kind of information, it would have made unit and commander placements a lot easier. They only truly get a sense of those things over time and combat experience. That said, players can guess at approximate unit qualities:The best units in the field will be the Stonewall Brigade and Federal units that were engaged in multiple battles in the 1861 West Virginia campaign. This will be followed by the Army of the Northwest with combat experience in West Virginia, and then units with no combat experience. The highest unit quality rating at the start of the simulation will be "good."
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